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U.S. Cases Reach Record Daily High At Nearly 90,000; Trump Revives Law And Order Pitch Ahead Of Election Day; GOP Senator Perdue Backs Out Of Final Debate With Democratic Rival. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired October 30, 2020 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[12:30:44]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Yet another sad milestone for the United States just ahead, 9 million coronavirus infections is in our very near future. Let's take a look at some of the trends right now and the numbers and they are all pretty bleak. Starting with this one, 43 states, 43 states just look at the map all that red, all that orange, that means more new infections now compared to the data one week ago, 43 states trending in the wrong direction.

You see the deep red, three in New England, Alabama, Michigan, Oregon. That means 50 percent more new COVID-19 infections now compared to the data a week ago. Orange just means you have at least 10 percent higher infections up to 40 percent higher infections. It's just a bleak map when you look across five states holding steady, two Oklahoma and Louisiana reporting fewer new infections now than a week ago. But that is a bleak trajectory.

And this just reinforces it, nine states, nine states hitting new records for new infections yesterday. You see Maine, North Carolina Midwest and the prairie states hit the hardest nine states with new records just yesterday. The top five case days, the top five case days, these cases go back to June. There was one back in the summer peak, July 16th, 77,000 cases plus. But look, the other four have come in the past week. The other four in the top five case, case throughout this entire pandemic, four of the top five days have been this week, including 88,521 yesterday, a case record that will be broken in the days ahead without a doubt.

And here is why, here is why. You have more cases today and there will be more cases tomorrow because so many states have a high positivity rate, people go out and get a COVID test, comes back positive. Look at some of these numbers, 26 percent here in Alabama, 13 percent in Pennsylvania, double digits is bad. But look at these double digits, 31 Iowa, 28 Kansas, 24 Nebraska, 46 South Dakota, 32 Wyoming, 23 Nevada, 34 Idaho, stunningly high positivity which again means more cases today and more people with the likelihood of spreading infections so you get more cases tomorrow.

And let's start there and bring in our CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, you look at the map every day and you're thinking OK, give me something positive. Let me find something that tells me this is going to take a turn for the better. The President says we're around the final turn. And you look at this positivity map, we're heading into a crash.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. John, unfortunately, I think that's true. You know, I mean, when you look at the positivity rate, I think that that may be one of the most important things, one of the important measures here because we see the case rates, we know that they're going up, we know that they've surpassed following the July 4th weekend, there was a significant surge in cases at that point. But then it sort of peaked a few weeks after July 4th. People were outside. They had that to sort of buffer against the significant rise.

Now we're still very much on the upward turn and can't be outside as much. And then there's that positivity, which is just as you said, John, it took 46 percent in South Dakota, what does that mean? That means 100 people are tested, 46 come back positive. It should be closer to five come back positive. That gives you a sense you're testing enough. When you're up to 46 percent which is one of the highest positivity rates we've seen, it means as you again said that there's a lot of people out there who haven't been tested. They're carrying the virus. They don't know it. And they're continuing to spread.

So that's the crystal ball, if you will, are those positivity rates more than anything else in terms of where the cases are going to continue to surge, obviously, then lagged a couple of weeks after that by hospitalizations, John.

KING: And as these numbers have gone up for the past couple of weeks, they're spiking right now obviously. There's been no change in the administration's posture. Members the Deborah Birx of the Coronavirus Task Force is traveling the country begging states to try to do more to stop this, but we hear nothing from the President. The Vice President doesn't share the calls with the governors anymore because he's out campaigning.

I want you to listen to a governor, Republican governor from the state of Ohio, who has been proactive, trying to fight this from the beginning, Mike DeWine, talking about the trouble he finds himself in right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R), OHIO: This is by far the highest number of cases we've ever seen during the entire pandemic. In fact, it's about 700 cases more than our previous high which was just a few days ago. Virus is raging throughout the state of Ohio. There's no place to hide.

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[12:35:04]

KING: No place to hide, Dr. Gupta. I want to follow that up by bringing up hospitalizations because no place to hide the governor is trying to lay out a stark case here. And we see hospitalizations 46,000 plus yesterday. It was 60,000 at the first peak, 60,000 again in the summer surge. We're heading back up here. And this impacts not just COVID patient, Sanjay, but are we getting back in some states to the point where if you need elective surgery, if you have other health issues that require treatment, that you're essentially discouraged go away, we can't handle you right now.

GUPTA: Yes, absolutely, John. And, you know, I experienced that firsthand as well. Here in Georgia, you know, we had a period of time where the hospitals were all essentially COVID hospitals. And every night, there would be a committee meeting, basically trying to decide for the next day, what operations needed to be done and what operations would be considered more elective. And, you know, it was challenging, because you'd have operations that had been planned weeks, if not months in advance, and we had to start canceling a lot of operations to make room.

So, you know, that is a situation starting, that had is happening, I should say, in many parts of the country right now. And as you point out, it's not related to COVID. Those are patients who need, you know, operations on totally unrelated things that are going to have to wait and get that care. John, the hospitalizations, I think is going to be key in terms of the policies that are set within these various communities. People keep saying, look, we're not we're not going to shut down, fine. But that's sort of you know, that's under the pretense that it's going to be your decision.

At some point I don't think its any human beings decision anymore. The virus is making that decision. And what I mean is that if hospitals are becoming overwhelmed, they're going to say, hey, look, we've got no place to put new patients. We're sending them out of the region already. That's happening in Texas, Utah is saying this is an unprecedented situation, you got field hospitals as you've seen in Wisconsin. I mean, John, I don't know how many more clues people need as to how bad this is getting.

KING: We'll try to give them every day. And again this in the final days of a campaign, this should be separated from the campaign in terms of personal behavior if people want to vote based on the President's reaction, that's their call. But in terms of what you should do right now, you should follow the numbers. Dr. Gupta, grateful for the insights as always.

Up next for us, we get back to that campaign in a live update from our correspondents scattered around the battleground states with just four days to go.

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[12:42:22]

KING: A simply massive early voting numbers, well they just keep pouring in. Florida now reporting 7.8 million ballots have been cast so far. Registered republicans now leading Democrats in the early vote but there are still several wildcards including a significant number of ballots from voters who do not have a party affiliation. CNN has correspondents fanned out across all of the key battleground states in the campaign's final days. Let's begin this hour with Drew Griffin in Tallahassee, Florida. Drew?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And to be fair, John, early in person voting is trending towards Republicans. They are closing the gap on those Democratic numbers. But the big number is what everybody is talking about, 400,000 people in Florida voted just yesterday. And they are continuing to vote in a very steady pace here in Tallahassee today. Two more days of early voting, they will vote on Saturday and Sunday and it is all about getting out the base. It's why both candidates were in Florida yesterday. It's why Jill Biden will come to Florida to Tallahassee on Sunday. Eric Trump will be across the state as well, all about getting out the base those final crucial votes. Let's go to Kyung Lah who's watching all the voting going on in Arizona. Kyung?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Drew, here in Arizona, we're seeing the convergence of the pandemic and the election. Take a look over here. This is an early voting site. Nothing unusual about it, we've seen a trickle of people coming in and out too early vote here. But now swing over this way and take a look this white tent that you're seeing that is a COVID testing site. So in this one location, you parked your car, you could get tested for COVID and both in person.

Now technically, today is the last day of early voting. So this place should close except this year, there's going to be something different because of a decision decided last month by the Board of Supervisors. This will be one of 100 emergency voting sites that will remain open on Saturday. I want you to take a look at what we saw over at the Elections Department in Maricopa County and what we saw were them loading items like ballot boxes PPE onto these trucks to head out to these emergency voting centers. And this is all in response to COVID that these emergency ability centers are going to be allowed to stay open this weekend.

Meanwhile, all the ballot counting is continuing, 2.25 million early votes counted. That's about 53 percent of registered voters who have already voted. And again 100 emergency centers, voting centers will remain open tomorrow. Now over to Dianne in North Carolina.

[12:45:00]

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I'm in Raleigh. And you can probably see behind me we have a bit of a line forming at this early in person voting center. This is the final full day of early voting in North Carolina. Tomorrow is the last day it ends at 3:00 p.m. Look, more than 50 percent of all of the registered voters in North Carolina have already cast their ballot.

To put that into perspective, we're looking at about 85 percent of the total votes that were cast in 2016. Well, they've already been banked in this state. And again, they still have until tomorrow to vote in person. Plus those mail-in ballots that are coming in as well. At this point, the state board, John, says that we're looking at roughly 80 percent of those that have already people who requested them. They've already voted. North Carolina at this point says its feeling good about breaking records for turnout come Election Day.

KING: We count them on Tuesday. It is remarkable to see all this interest in voting and it's great. Keep it up, folks. Keep it up, get out there and go vote. Dianne Gallagher in North Carolina, thanks to all of our correspondents spread across these battleground states in the final days.

Up next for us, the President helps law and order support from law enforcement will help make the difference in the final days.

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[12:50:51]

KING: The coronavirus obviously the number one issue in the country but in these final days before Election Day, the President leaning in to his law and order messaging and appealing for the law enforcement vote. Listen to this. This is his Tampa rally yesterday, Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We believe in law and order. And I've been endorsed by every law enforcement group, all law enforcement all over Florida. And I asked Sleepy Joe at the debate I said Joe named one law enforcement agency, just one in the whole country that endorsed you. He couldn't do it, remember --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining me now a leader of one of those organizations Rob Pride. He's the national trustees chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police. Rob, thank you for your time today. Tell me why, is it because of policy difference that President Trump is for this and Joe Biden is not that you are for President Trump or is it more that the President is so vocal every day in his spoken support for law enforcement? What's the biggest reason?

ROB PRIDE, NATIONAL TRUSTEES CHAIRMAN, FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE: Well, good morning, John. And I'll tell you the biggest reason really is the President unwavering support of law enforcement. You know, I can't speak for other organizations. But I can tell you the National Fraternal Order of Police has been involved constantly with the President and White House staff with executive orders surrounding law enforcement, police reform, we were at the table for the first step, executive order on prison reform. He engages us. He engages law enforcement in those important decisions. And he has clearly and continually voiced his support for police officers even during these turbulent times.

KING: And so how has the union in your case dealt with internal disagreements as there always will be, look, it's a big country. You're a big union. It's a presidential campaign and things get a little testy and feisty in campaign years, as you well know. This is Rochelle Bilal. She's a member of your union in Philadelphia. We are members of these unions, and they don't take into consideration our feelings about Donald J. Trump, then they don't care about us, they don't care about our dues.

There are a number of African American offices predominantly who have said, look, we don't like the way this President talks about race. And we don't want our unions behind him. How do you deal with that?

PRIDE: Well, I think it's important to know, John, that, you know, I've heard from African American members in our organization and officers from all over the country, on this topic. And I think it's important to note that there are many African American officers that are happy with our endorsement of President Trump. But for those that are not in this particular situation, this is what I would say, the FOP has the most Democratic process for our endorsement of President.

We on the National Executive Board, we don't tell our members who we're going to endorse, they tell us. And we have a process in which we send a questionnaire to the candidates, they send it back, we distribute that questionnaire to our local lodges, and to all our members. And all of our members have an opportunity to go to those lodge meetings, and have the discussion and have their vote. And so I don't know, you know, we're absolutely open to talking about how we can make that process better if there are those of our members that feel that their voices haven't been heard.

But that's the way this goes, as our members tell us who we're going to endorse. And of course, you know, as you said, John, we can't, I'm not going to tell you all 356,000 of our members are going to agree. But overwhelmingly they voted to endorse Donald Trump and they told us who that was going to be. We didn't tell them.

KING: Yes. My dad was active in labor unions when I was growing up. So I've been privy to some of these conversations, as you will.

PRIDE: Sure.

KING: That's democracy. We let people, we let people talk it out. It's all good. Rob, I'm grateful for your time today. More importantly, I'm grateful for what you and your brothers and sisters do every single day to keep us safe. We appreciate it.

PRIDE: Thank you, John.

KING: Thank you.

PRIDE: I appreciate that. Thank you.

[12:54:40]

KING: Up next to Georgia Republican Senator David Perdue, supposed to be on a debate stage instead he backs out. He wants go to a rally with the President.

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KING: Incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue of Georgia backing out of the final debate with his Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff. That debate set for Sunday. Senator Perdue says instead he'll go to a campaign rally with President Trump. Ossoff responding to Purdue canceling the debate by writing on Twitter, shame on you, Senator. Here's how tight the race is between these two candidates, Ossoff leading by just a few percentage points. CNN's Manu Raju joins us now from Capitol Hill. Look, the Senator just deciding nevermind, I don't want to debate, what's up here?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this came after a very contentious debate from early in the week in which David Perdue and Jon Ossoff going into heated back and forth. Ossoff accuses -- telling Purdue that he's a quote, crook. And that's because of stock transactions, well timed stock transactions that occurred at the beginning of the pandemic. Democrats have been hammering David Perdue for months saying that he profited off of this crisis.

David Perdue has pushed back. In fact he is on T.V. right now with campaign ads. In the final days here, saying he did nothing wrong. He's been cleared. He said those transactions were managed by an outside advisor and that independent, investigative bodies did not charge him with anything. So when I was down in Georgia, just this week, I asked Jon Ossoff about the fact that David Perdue has been cleared.

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RAJU: Wasn't you exonerated by bodies that investigated the stock transactions?

JON OSSOFF (D), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: Whether or not or not Senator Perdue was indicted, what he did was deeply unethical and he should be held to account for by the people.

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RAJU: Clearly, David Perdue did not want to get involved in that back and forth at the debate on Sunday, which is why he is not appearing and instead showing up with Donald Trump to rally conservative voters in northwest Georgia. And John that, of course is just one of two Senate races that are critical in Georgia. Republicans hold both seats are both at risk of flipping but we may not know the winner on Tuesday because Georgia requires the winner to get more than 50 percent of the vote. If not they'll go into a runoff, that runoff will be decided in January. So John, we may not know the winner of the Senate majority for weeks to come. John?

KING: A lot of counting after Tuesday. Manu Raju we may continue to count for quite some time. Manu appreciate those two races in Georgia. This is going to be a map changing year, will those will help tell us.

[13:00:02]

Thanks for your time today. Brianna Keilar picks up after a very quick break. I'm sorry, she picks up our coverage right now. Have a great day.