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U.S. Daily COVID-19 Count Nears 100K as Election Looms; British PM Considers New Lockdown Measures; U.S. Presidential Candidates Focus on Battleground States in Final Push; Trump versus Biden on Foreign Policy, U.S. Economy; Death Toll Climbs as Earthquake Jolts Turkey, Greece; China Returns to Some Normalcy. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired October 31, 2020 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hi, welcome to CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow.
Governments across Europe are racing to implement new measures. The European Union's health commissioners warning member nations that they should be ready to impose restrictions on everyday life in order to quote "break the chain of transmission."
While that's a reality in the U.K. as well, the British newspaper "The Times" reports the prime minister is considering a new national lockdown and could make a call on it early next week.
Meanwhile Italy set another daily record of more than 30,000 new infections on Friday and the country's health minister says the pandemic is at a very serious level and poses a critical risk.
And Belgium is set to begin a strict lockdown on Sunday night. Skyrocketing cases there are pushing the country's ICU capacity to the brink.
Well, let's go straight to Melissa Bell live in Paris with more on all of that.
Hi, Melissa.
What can you tell us?
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it has been a week of record rises in a number of different countries, in the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Italy, four days in a row of record rises in Germany.
It gives you an idea of how difficult this second wave is, how fast it is rising, how fast the virus is spreading here in Europe. And the fact that these lockdowns are being brought in. So Germany, France, Belgium, bringing in lockdowns, either already over the course of the weekend.
And even as these new cases continue to surge. And that really is causing a lot of concerns in those hospitals that you mentioned, the ICUs already overburdened in so many of the countries we're talking about here on the European continent.
They're telling us, that look, these kinds of measures, these kinds of lockdowns, governments resisted over the course of last two weeks, looking for every solution but because of the economic difficulty but because of social pushback on, it really didn't go far enough and lockdowns are inevitable.
And they'll take 10 days to two weeks to have any kind of effect on the number of new cases and, in the meantime, more hospitalizations, more people likely to enter ICUs, many people from within that, those medical establishments, are telling us that this is simply too late.
CURNOW: Has there been a lot of resistance to all of these new measures?
BELL: That's right. What we've seen over the course of the last few weeks is really resistance, stiffening to any of those restrictions placed in a number of European countries. They've been contested in the courts, opposition leaders in several countries have made them their battle lines and you've seen resistance from the streets again in Spain and Italy, because people have had enough on the curtailing restrictions on their liberty.
But of course, it will continue to get worse. And I think Ursula van der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, explained it best when she said, with the second wave, what European governments are battling, are two enemies, the virus on one hand but also what she describes as coronavirus fatigue, the fact that people let their guard down, people forget how dangerous this virus is, people worry about the kinds of restrictions and damage to their livelihoods and affect their freedoms.
And of course, this is something that they've had to take into account. I think it's telling that a number of the new lockdowns both in France and Germany are one month lockdowns and in Belgium just over a month until the 13th of December, the idea is they are trying to do short shocks to the system precisely because of resistance in order to get the numbers under control, a circuit breaker lockdowns.
In the spring they were open ended and this time they're not. And they're still clearly worried. The legislative frameworks go for longer than that. So sharp, short lockdowns. In France, the senate here has approved the idea that the state of emergency will last now until the 31st of January.
In Spain, that state of emergency is due to last to May. It gives you the idea of the fears of how long it could take to bring the second wave under control.
CURNOW: OK, Melissa Bell there, in Paris, thank you very much. Thanks so much for joining us.
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CURNOW: Welcome to all of our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Robyn Curnow.
We know Americans have just three more days until the election. And the event coinciding with an explosive number of new COVID infections. Nearly 100,000 Americans tested positive for COVID just in the past 24 hours. And that's the highest number ever recorded in a single day by one country.
Now take a look at this map, the one-day record pushed the U.S. infection total well past 9 million people. Only Oklahoma, Louisiana and Hawaii have improved in the past week.
And the country has also broken daily records all week, each new high far outpaced the worst of last July, with 77,000 cases in one day.
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CURNOW: Total numbers aside, health experts say the real measure of the threat is in hospitals; 14 states and one U.S. territory are reporting their highest numbers yet of COVID patients, more than 46,000 people nationwide.
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DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It means we are seeing escalating spread. At the moment, today, we now have one person being diagnosed with coronavirus every second. We have one American dying of coronavirus every two minutes. And the number is increasing.
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CURNOW: Well, President Trump continues to insist that the pandemic is on the decline.
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TRUMP: We will deliver a safe vaccine to the American people in just a number of weeks. And by the way, you know, without it, we're still rounding the corner. We have it. But without it, we're rounding the corner.
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CURNOW: This is the final weekend of campaign before next week's election and both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are trying to make every single second count. We'll get the latest now from Jim Acosta.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With his fight for reelection hinges on his handling of the coronavirus, President Trump is attempting to pull his supporters into a state of pandemic denialism, falsely claiming that the rising number of COVID- 19 cases are due to increased testing.
TRUMP: You turn on the news, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID. And cases are up? Why are cases up? Because we test more than anybody in history.
ACOSTA: But that's not true. And neither is the president's other jaw- dropping conspiracy theory, that doctors in the U.S. are manufacturing a high death toll, so they can make more money.
TRUMP: Our doctors get more money if somebody dies from COVID. You know that, right? I mean, our doctors are very smart people.
ACOSTA: The president warns, Democrat Joe Biden will shut down the country, even national holidays, if he's elected.
TRUMP: There will be no school, no graduations, no weddings, no Thanksgivings, no Christmas, no Fourth of July.
ACOSTA: Biden says the president is just making it all up.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm not going to shut down the economy. I'm going to shut down the virus.
ACOSTA: The president is back to mocking masks, poking fun at FOX News personality Laura Ingraham for wearing one.
TRUMP: Are you wearing a mask? I have never seen her in a mask. She's being very politically correct. Whoa. Whoa!
ACOSTA: By contrast, Biden is making masks an essential part of his pandemic battle plan.
BIDEN: This isn't a political statement. Its patriotic duty, for God's sake. But, still, Donald Trump refuses to listen to science.
ACOSTA: Another part of Mr. Trump's divisive closing message, attacking female politicians, from Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar...
TRUMP: She doesn't love our country. That, I can tell you.
The Biden plan will turn Michigan into a refugee camp.
ACOSTA: -- to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
TRUMP: I don't think she likes me too much. What do you think? You think she likes me?
ACOSTA: Both the president and Biden spent the day barnstorming the Midwest, sweeping through states that were crucial to Mr. Trump's upset win four years ago. Biden defended his decision to stop in Minnesota, a traditionally Democratic state.
BIDEN: No, I'm not concerned. We're going to be in Iowa. We're going to be in Iowa, so I thought I would stop in Minnesota. I don't take anything for granted. We're going to work for every single vote up to the last minute.
ACOSTA: Officials in Minnesota are attempting to force the president to adhere to public health guidelines in order to hold a rally in the state, complete with seating set up for social distancing.
TRUMP: And they say you can only have 250 people. So they thought I'd cancel. But I'm not canceling.
ACOSTA: The president's eldest son, Don Jr., is also complaining about the pandemic's impact on the race with his own lies about the number of cases and deaths in the U.S.
DONALD TRUMP JR., SON OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: Why aren't they talking about deaths? Oh, oh, because the number is almost nothing, because we have gotten control of this thing. We understand how it works.
ACOSTA: That's nowhere near true, as there were nearly 1,000 deaths Thursday and the number of cases in the U.S. hit a record high.
But clinging to COVID-19 exaggeration appears to run in the family, as the president is claiming the treatment he received for his own bout with the virus was akin to being touched by God.
TRUMP: And they gave me something called Regeneron. The next morning, Sister, I woke up and it was like God touched my shoulder, right?
I said, let me at them.
ACOSTA: And the president found a way around the social distancing measures put in place for this rally in Minnesota after he arrived. He addressed an overflow crowd outside the venue, where supporters were not following social distancing guidelines, another example of the president flouting his own administration's guidelines for protecting people from the coronavirus -- Jim Acosta, CNN, traveling with the president in Rochester, Minnesota.
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CURNOW: Oksana Pyzik is a global health expert at University College London and she joins us now.
Great to have you with us. The scale of the infection in the U.S. is absolutely terrifying. It took two weeks to go from 8 million infections to 9 million infections and I just want to also say, those stats, that means there is one person being infected every second.
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CURNOW: And one person dying every two minutes, in the U.S.
What do you make of this?
OKSANA PYZIK, GLOBAL HEALTH EXPERT, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: This is an exponential growth. And it means that we are heading towards, particularly in the U.S., the worst part of the pandemic. We are going to see an incredibly steep rise. This will continue.
And the problem with that is, is once you start to get into this rate of growth, at this speed, it means that the restrictions that need to come in have to be harder. It gives you less flexibility in the types of interventions you might have to use.
And geographically, what we saw back in March, was that there were some hot zones in areas where -- that were the epicenters of the outbreak in the U.S. But what we're seeing now is that it's reached nearly every part of the U.S.
And so although it doesn't match what was going on at the beginning, if we just take New York, as an example, that's the direction it's going to head en masse if we aren't able to reverse the current rate of growth.
CURNOW: And then also you heard in that piece, the president saying that doctors and hospitals are actually inflating the COVID numbers for financial gain.
What do you think, when you hear that?
PYZIK: I think it's incredibly, first of all, inaccurate and also disrespectful to the role that our health care workers, especially those that have died in the line of duty, at the beginning of the outbreak, when there wasn't sufficient PPE, to put it as though this was some kind of financial gain, when they are taking enormous risks every day, that it's entirely misleading.
And that has, I suppose, a political underpinning reason. But equally, it's misinformation. And this has been one of the most difficult aspects of the entire pandemic, because that type of information is that what sticks.
It helps to propagate conspiracy theories and resistance, against public health measures, that every single scientific body, including the WHO, the CDC, are backing and all of the top experts. Again, it's capitalizing on some fringe views and trying to push them into the mainstream.
CURNOW: In the U.K., infections are not doing so well there. They surpassed the government's worst case scenarios.
And hearing these reports of a possible national lockdown coming next week, do you think that's too little, too late?
PYZIK: Well, Europe is once again become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic and what we're seeing here in the U.K. is that the areas that are able to slow some of the spread have had circuit breakers and other types of interventions.
But in some ways, we do see that it is going to be, without that September 21st recommendation, for a larger number of areas to go into the circuit breaker, that we're now heading into about 17 to 20 days, hospitals at the current rate of doubling.
We will see the same hospitalization rate, as we did in the peak, in April. So that's very concerning.
And it means that we are again pushing ourselves into a boundary where we have to take more severe measures for a longer period of time. And that has more consequences, not just on health but having to do it for longer and instead of two weeks.
It might be something like in France, where we're seeing it for a month or longer period. So really, the key to action here is to ensure that we are on top of the current rate. The R value is estimated to be between 1.2 to 1.6 right now. We need to get it down to 5,000 cases per day to really be able to operate with more flexibility.
And again, in the U.K., we have a test and trace system that is -- urgently needs to be reformed and that again means that we can't have a more targeted or sophisticated approach. We're going to have to have more blunt, blanket restrictions, as you say, too little, too late.
CURNOW: Global health expert there in London, Oksana Pyzik, thank you very much for joining us.
PYZIK: Thank you.
CURNOW: So steadily rising coronavirus numbers in the U.K. have authorities really considering a lockdown. So according to a British paper, the prime minister Boris Johnson is debating the move and could make the call next week.
Downing Street confirms a news conference on Monday but says the report is speculation. But British scientists are warning that numbers are headed in the complete wrong direction as you just heard said. And there are fears that the hospital system could be completely overwhelmed.
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CURNOW: Here is Salma Abdelaziz with all of that from London.
Give us a sense on this reporting that there could be this national lockdown.
What do you make of that?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: Let's start with the numbers that you just mentioned. According to the BBC and, again, these are local media reports, we don't have them confirmed, the government is looking at projections of 4,000 deaths a day if nothing is done about the rising coronavirus cases.
So they are looking at some really stark, terrible figures. And prime minister Boris Johnson is making a decision right now and a decision that he says that he absolutely would not want to make and that is a nationwide lockdown.
He is becoming increasingly isolated in his strategy, which is a regional approach, a tiered regional approach, carving the country up geographically, with one of three levels and based on the rate of infection and the number of coronavirus cases, each part of the country has had a different level of restriction.
And he has faced an absolute uprising over this strategy, from regional leaders, for example, the city of Manchester. For 10 days, the mayor refused to put these stricter measures in place. And he's faced opposition from the scientific advisers, who have, for weeks said that a short, sharp but complete nationwide shutdown is needed.
And he's faced opposition from business leaders who said that a nationwide lockdown provides more financial support and better certainty for businesses.
And he faces opposition from the Labour Party, the opposition Labour Party. And prime minister Boris Johnson has been this entire time steadfast in his approach. He has been resolute that a nationwide lockdown is not needed.
So the question will be, why now?
If this takes place, he will need to explain it to the country.
CURNOW: And what does the country think about all of this?
What do folks say?
ABDELAZIZ: Well, he is going to face a great deal of frustration, to be honest because, for weeks, people have been asking questions and these tiered restrictions really get people into the minutiae. And essentially pubs and bars have to shut down if they don't serve substantial meals. So that's been part of the questioning and part of the consideration.
So what is a substantial meal?
Can I keep my business open if I serve a sandwich or is it a sandwich and crisps?
And while they've been in this minutiae, the number of coronavirus cases has risen. The infection rate has risen. You have had this outburst from regional leaders who don't want to impose these restrictions and, of course, we have to think here about the death rate.
This means that the NHS could potentially be overwhelmed. So for these medical workers to face this nightmare, once more, potentially even worse than the first time and coming up on Christmas, that's a very difficult pill to swallow. And he will need to explain it.
CURNOW: Salma Abdelaziz in London, thank you very much.
So the U.S. election is three days away but millions and millions of Americans have already voted. After the break, the latest on early turnout and efforts to ensure absentee ballots are delivered on time.
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(MUSIC PLAYING) CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow. It is 21 minutes past the hour.
Nearly 87 million Americans have already cast their ballots in the upcoming election. Now that's information according to CNN, Edison Research and data company Catalist. Now in Texas, more than 9 million people have voted early in Texas and that is the higher than the state's total turnout in 2016.
A federal judge has certified the need for extraordinary measures for the U.S. Postal Service to make sure absentee ballots are delivered in time. The Postal Service has faced scrutiny since the postmaster general, with close ties to the president, imposed policy changes that slowed down mail delivery.
The U.S. election is actually 50 state elections with the winner decided by some simple arithmetic, while battleground states are the ones that could certainly tip the outcome either direction. Phil Mattingly now explains.
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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is now the final weekend of the 2020 election and if you want to know what the map looks like, well frankly, why don't you check back in with 2016?
Because what's made Donald Trump president in 2016 and the lessons that Joe Biden is trying to learn from Hillary Clinton in 2016, dictates, dominates where the candidates are going. They are focused between Friday, Saturday and Sunday, on the Midwest, out into Pennsylvania as well, in other words, the former blue wall that President Trump just blew apart back in 2016.
Now let's kind of take you on a journey here about why this part of the country, the upper Midwest, Pennsylvania matters so much. Let's start here with where states are solid. Solid red. This is where Republicans control. Solid blue, this is where Democrats control. You can kind of go through here and give a few states to each side, right?
Kamala Harris might have been in Texas on Friday, Republicans feel they're going to end up in a good place in Texas. Same with Democrats in Nevada. You can even give Democrats for sure, Colorado, they're very comfortable there. And probably New Hampshire as well, they feel pretty good up there.
For the sake of argument, why don't you give Trump all the southeastern states that he won back in 2016?
You can even give him the state of Florida, state of Georgia -- make it actually red -- state of Georgia, state of North Carolina as well. And where he has won pretty handily back in 2016, in the Midwest. The state of Ohio, give him the state of Iowa.
Now what are you left with?
Democrats feel quite good about the state of Arizona, they're not there yet but they feel comfortable with it.
And where does that leave things?
Well, it leaves Pennsylvania and the upper Midwest. That is why you've seen a focus on both at this point in time.
Now how does this map actually play out?
Well, there is a reason where you're going to see both candidates focused heavily on Saturday and Sunday. Donald Trump on Saturday, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Sunday, on the state of Pennsylvania. Let's say you give the state of Pennsylvania to Joe Biden.
All Joe Biden has to do, pick up and get Michigan. And then one of two -- Minnesota or Wisconsin -- both of the states the Democrats feel comfortable with, Minnesota in particular they feel comfortable with, even though President Trump was there on Friday.
Now you give Pennsylvania to Donald Trump. Now all Donald Trump has to do with this map currently is win any one of these three states.
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MATTINGLY: Again, Democrats feel very comfortable about the state of Minnesota even though President Trump went there. Won in 2016 but they feel OK about.
But if Donald Trump were to win Pennsylvania with these southeastern states as well, win Michigan, actually win Michigan, he's there. Or say they hold Michigan and Donald Trump wins the state of Wisconsin, he's over 270. The upper Midwest mattered in 2016; it matters now. Pennsylvania mattered in 2016, Pennsylvania matters more than ever now.
That is why you see the candidates where they are at this moment. There is no more valuable commodity to any presidential campaign than the time of their candidate the, time of their running mate, the time of their spouses. All of them, all of those individuals, will be in the state of Pennsylvania over the course of this coming weekend.
Most of them have been in all of these states over the course of the last several days. Watch where they are going. That tells you the story of the end of this campaign.
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CURNOW: Thanks to Phil Mattingly.
Up next on CNN, Donald Trump and Joe Biden are political polar opposites. We'll look at the candidates' drastically different plans to tackle some of America's biggest challenges from health care to immigration. That's next.
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CURNOW: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world, thanks for joining us, I'm Robyn Curnow, you're watching CNN, it is just about 30 minutes past the hour.
So the U.S. has just posted the highest number of coronavirus cases ever recorded in a single day anywhere in the world. We know that over 999 Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the U.S. infection total well past 9 million, with the vast majority of states moving in the wrong direction.
[04:30:00]
CURNOW: Experts say the real impact of the virus is hospitalizations. And as you can see, those are rising, too; 14 states and one U.S. territory are reporting their highest numbers yet of COVID patients.
In an election year, where a deadly virus is surging across the U.S., health care, of course, is a critical campaign issue. But it is one of many, including foreign policy, the economy and immigration. So let's take a look now at where the candidates stand on five key issues.
We have a series of reports, starting with CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen on health care. Elizabeth?
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TRUMP: I think we have enough of an interview here.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After President Trump walked out of his interview with "60 Minutes," his press secretary handed Lesley Stahl a binder.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Lesley, the President wanted me to deliver his healthcare plan, it's a little heavy.
LESLEY STAHL, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, my God, this is his health care plan.
MCENANY: Yes.
STAHL: OK, Kayleigh, thank you.
COHEN: CBS says the President's so called healthcare plan actually was just a collection of executive orders and Congressional initiatives, but no comprehensive plan.
TRUMP: ObamaCare is a total disaster.
COHEN: On the 2016 campaign trail, President Trump promised to get rid of ObamaCare and he's still making that pledge four years later.
TRUMP: I would like to terminate ObamaCare, come up with a brand new beautiful health care. COHEN: President Trump has been promising to release a detailed plan for months.
TRUMP: We're signing a health care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health care plan.
STAHL: Why didn't you develop a health plan?
TRUMP: It is developed, it is fully developed. It's going to be announced very soon.
STAHL: When?
TRUMP: When we see what happens with ObamaCare.
COHEN: If ObamaCare is invalidated, protections for people with pre- existing conditions would be eliminated. Last month President Trump signed a new executive order promising to keep pre-existing conditions protected.
TRUMP: This is affirmed, signed and done, so we can put that to rest.
COHEN: But his order doesn't have any practical force. Another Trump promise of many years, to address surprise medical bills. So far, he hasn't but he says he will.
He's also promised to cut drug prices by allowing imports from Canada or by forcing prices in the U.S. to be more in line with what they are in other countries. But so far, nothing.
President Trump has issued regulations expanding short term health insurance plans. He's also issued regulations requiring hospitals to disclose the prices they negotiate with insurance companies, which is set to go into effect in January.
BIDEN: I will build on the Affordable Care Act.
COHEN: For middle income families, Biden has said he would offer more subsidies to purchase insurance.
BIDEN: What I'm going to do is pass ObamaCare with a public option. Become Biden-care.
COHEN: And that means some low income people would be able to get insurance at no cost.
BIDEN: And keep your private insurance if that's what you choose to do. Or you can choose a Medicare-like option if you're poor.
COHEN: Biden's plan also aims to curb prescription drug prices including allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with drug makers. Very different views from very different candidates about how to fix health care in America -- Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, reporting.
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TRUMP: America first.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a rallying cry from President Trump that fires up his base and has transformed the way that the United States is seen and treated by the rest of the world.
BIDEN: America first has made America alone.
MARQUARDT: While Joe Biden is now largely hoping to pick up where President Obama left off. But the world has changed. And has left with the two candidates on opposite ends of most major issues.
On North Korea, Trump has repeatedly boasted about his beautiful letters and friendship with dictator Kim Jong-un.
TRUMP: We have a very good relationship. And there's no war.
MARQUARDT: But North Korea's nuclear program continues. Biden says, Trump gave Kim exactly what he wanted. An in-person meeting with a U.S. president.
BIDEN: What in God's name is that all about? He gave him legitimacy.
MARQUARDT: Trump has improved the relationship with Israel which was deeply strained in the Obama/Biden administration. He moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem which Obama wouldn't. And coordinated normalization agreements between Israel and three Arab countries.
It's the rivalry with China that will define much of U.S. foreign policy for decades to come. Trump started a fierce trade war. Repeatedly blasted China for the coronavirus. Painting himself as the one to confront them.
TRUMP: We had this horrible plague that came from China. And we're not going to forget that it came from China.
MARQUARDT: Biden has called Trump's approach erratic and promised more consistency with other allies. Alliances themselves are in the balance.
TRUMP: In NATO, I said you got to pay. We have got $130 billion a year or more from me. They didn't do it for 15 years, it went down.
[04:35:00]
MARQUARDT: Trump routinely goes after NATO and its members and succeeded in getting them to increase their defense spending. Biden believes alliances are a pillar of the global order.
BIDEN: We've find ourselves in the position where we're more isolated in the world than we've ever been.
MARQUARDT: The Paris Climate Accord is one of the international agreements that Biden wants to get back into. It was tossed out by Trump.
TRUMP: Look, you know about Paris? The Paris Climate Accord, one of the great disasters of all-time. Just call up France, how's Paris doing?
MARQUARDT: One Trump relationship that Biden is hoping to up end is with Vladimir Putin. The President claimed no one's been tougher on Russia and sanctions have been severe. But the President has never publicly criticized Putin for putting bounties on the heads of U.S. troops.
TRUMP: If they were true, I would be very angry about it.
MARQUARDT: Or for attacking both the last and the current U.S. elections.
BIDEN: I made it clear that any country, no matter who it is, that interferes in American elections will pay a price. They will pay a price.
MARQUARDT (on camera): Another critical question is U.S. troops overseas in Afghanistan, the former vice president says that he wants to bring the vast majority home. But he doesn't say how many or by when. The White House says that President Trump wants to draw down to 2,500 troops by next spring.
In Iraq and Syria, both Biden and Trump, are much more vague. And both candidates, both say they want to end the so-called forever wars. But that is of course far easier said than done -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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TRUMP: Seven days from now, we're going to win Nebraska.
COHEN (voice-over): As President Trump --
BIDEN: Folks, it's go time.
COHEN (voice-over): and former Vice President Joe Biden make their closing arguments in the final week of the 2020 election campaign, more than 227,000 people in the U.S. have died from coronavirus.
DENEEN BARR, DAUGHTER OF COVID-19 VICTIM: For my daddy to just die by himself, it just hurts my heart.
COHEN: And in more than 40 states, cases are on the rise.
Despite this, Tuesday night, the White House listed ending the coronavirus pandemic on a list of the Trump administration's accomplishments. The campaign's press secretary Wednesday refusing to admit that this just isn't true.
HOGAN GIDLEY, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY: I'm not going to quibble over semantics. The fact is, we're moving in the right direction.
COHEN: Biden Wednesday saying the White House announcement shocked him.
BIDEN: We will let science drive our decisions.
COHEN: The two candidates have two very different approaches for handling the pandemic.
TRUMP: I took rapid action to ban travel from China and from Europe.
COHEN: It wasn't a ban, but the president says aggressive action early on saved many lives.
And he invoked the Defense Production Act to produce more ventilators.
TRUMP: We're now making ventilators all over the world.
COHEN: But he left states to fight each other for those lifesaving machines. Trump didn't use the Defense Production Act to produce more tests for the virus. Nine months into the outbreak, testing across the United States varies in availability and turnaround time for results.
Biden has focused on that.
BIDEN: Imagine where we would be with a comprehensive system of testing and tracing.
COHEN: And says the U.S. should be spending billions of dollars to determine how to get more rapid testing.
And on masks?
TRUMP: I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don't know. Somehow, I don't see it for myself.
COHEN: For months, the president has downplayed them. But Biden said he'd asked local lawmakers to mandate masks.
BIDEN: We have to have this national mandate. We must do it.
COHEN: And on COVID-19 vaccines, President Trump has said vaccine is going to be announced within weeks.
But safety and efficacy testing hasn't been completed and a positive outcome is not guaranteed -- Elizabeth Cohen, CNN reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I was looking at some of those big, once incredible, job producing factories. And my wife, Melania, said, what happened?
I said those jobs have left Ohio. They're all coming back. They're all coming back.
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN POLITICS AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2016, Trump ran on an America first platform to revitalize U.S. manufacturing and bring back jobs.
Today, in the battleground state of Ohio where the unemployment rate is higher than the national average, job growth in manufacturing has been anemic and the pandemic has wiped out even those small gains.
Now, voters are weighing whether Trump --
TRUMP: Our economy is booming. Wages are soaring.
ALESCI: Or former Vice President Joe Biden.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Those at the top were seeing things go up and those in the middle and below were seeing things go down.
ALESCI: Will create jobs in all sectors.
[04:40:00]
ALESCI: An issue that's even more pressing because the country still hasn't recovered almost 11 million jobs that were lost as the pandemic slammed the economy.
Trump has promised two things, spending a trillion dollars on infrastructure.
TRUMP: Which means better roads, bridges, tunnels and highways.
ALESCI: And keeping his tax cuts that largely favor the wealthy and corporations.
LARRY KUDLOW, TRUMP ECONOMIC ADVISER: Now, looking ahead, more regulatory rollback will be in store, payroll tax cuts for high wages, income tax cuts for the middle class.
ALESCI: The president's tax cuts will also cost an estimated $1.9 trillion over a decade and even more if he makes them permanent, as promised.
MARK ZANDI, MOODY'S ANALYTICS ECONOMIC: Under President Trump, the benefits will go to corporations and higher income, well-to-do households.
ALESCI: Biden wants to raise taxes on those making over $400,000 a year.
BIDEN: Time and again, working families are paying the price for this administration's incompetence.
ALESCI: The former vice president is also proposing $7.3 trillion in spending, including on infrastructure, which calls for creating 10 million clean energy jobs as well as education, health care and housing.
ZANDI: President Biden, benefits go right to lower and middle-income households and minority groups.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daddy!
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The cries of children separated from their parents at the border, one of the haunting hallmarks of the Trump era immigration agenda. The zero tolerance policy that tore kids from their children as they cross into the U.S. has ended, but the effects remained.
Lawyers leading their reunification efforts revealed this month, parents of 545 children still have not been found.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pledging to step in on day one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Joe Biden will issue an executive order creating a federal task force to reunite these children with their parents.
BIDEN: Those kids are alone. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to go. It's criminal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: White House senior adviser Stephen Miller has made clear if Trump wins a second term, the immigration crackdown will continue.
STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: The Trump administration ended the abuse of the asylum system, ended catch and release and therefore dealt a devastating blow to human traffickers, child smugglers and coyotes and criminal cartels.
SCHNEIDER: Miller has been the architect of every part of Trump's immigration agenda.
The president signed a proclamation this week capping admission to the United States at 15,000 for 2021. It would be an historic low and barring refugees from Syria, Yemen and Somalia, citing terrorism concerns.
Joe Biden says he will set a target of 125,000 refugee admissions, with a goal of no less than 95,000. Biden also backs eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants and has pledged to make sure DACA, the program for children brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents is not undone.
BIDEN: Within 100 days, I'm going to send to the United States Congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people and all of those so-called Dreamers, those DACA kids, they are going to be immediately certified again to be able to stay in this country and put on a path of citizenship.
SCHNEIDER: President Trump has tried to end DACA, though he's been halted by the Supreme Court for now.
Then there's the future of the border wall.
TRUMP: Under my leadership, we achieved the most secure border in U.S. history and we built over 400 miles of new wall.
SCHNEIDER: The administration has also moved to seize private property with more than 70 lawsuits pending to acquire more land for the wall and Trump still hasn't made Mexico pay for the wall, despite his promises.
TRUMP: Mexico will be paying for the wall.
SCHNEIDER: Biden says he will take a different approach along the border.
BIDEN: There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration. We are out. We are not going to confiscate the land. I'm going to make sure that we have border protection but it's going to be based on making sure that we use high-tech capacity to deal with it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Thanks to all of our reporters there across the U.S. We'll continue to monitor this election, of course, until the crucial day on Tuesday.
So rescuers are using huge machines and even their hands to finds survivors after a deadly earthquake rocked communities on the Aegean Sea. Next, we will go live to search operations in Turkey.
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CURNOW: Welcome back.
Thousands of rescuers in western Turkey are taking part in a desperate search for survivors of yesterday's deadly earthquake. The magnitude 7 tremor struck just off the country's Aegean seacoast line on Friday near Samos. At least 25 people are dead. More than 800 people are injured.
Two teenagers in the area have been killed and some buildings flattened. And a small tsunami was triggered. Let's go straight to Turkey. Arwa Damon is standing by.
And I know you're at a location where they are trying to dig folks out of a building behind you.
What is happening right now, Arwa?
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The effort has really only intensified. They brought in even more heavy machinery and this building that they're working on right now, this was once an eight story building. It had both offices as well as residential apartments.
Now overnight, there was a woman who was pulled out from this building. She had been going to the dentist. Somehow someone managed to get in cell phone contact with her. That's how they were able to better pinpoint her position.
And then in another area, they did, in the early hours of the morning, manage to pull out an elderly woman from underneath the rubble of that building.
But when you look at just how the floors here have collapsed on top of one another, at this stage, it would be quite miraculous to be able to find anyone. But there is always that hope.
The crews have been digging through, filling those garbage cans, filling buckets with rubble, moving it along, trying to clear it out. Every once in a while, the crowd will gather around, to remain completely and totally silent.
We have spoken to a woman, who was out here waiting for news of her loved one, her husband, actually, who was inside the building. And she believes, when it collapsed, he was working out of his mother-in-law's home, because of course, everyone's working from home and it is still COVID-19. And he wanted to go to a quieter place to be able to get his work done.
[04:50:00]
DAMON: There are search and rescue teams, of course, and thousands of numbers of them, not at just this site but a number of other sites inside the city. And it this is the hardest hit area in Turkey.
And Turkey is a country that was able to respond very, very quickly to this earthquake. They have teams at the ready. They are very well equipped, given that Turkey does lie on a number of fairly active fault lines, to respond to this kind of a disaster. But nothing really prepares the population for this kind of trauma and fear.
CURNOW: Looking at the scenes behind you, brave rescuers as well. Arwa Damon, good to see you. Thanks for that information as well. Thank you from Turkey.
While much of the world is facing a worsening pandemic, the country where it all started is showing signs that the crisis is over. A report from Shanghai is just ahead. Stick with us. You're watching CNN.
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CURNOW: They're caught in the thick of this coronavirus pandemic and they're subject to restrictions and new lockdowns and desperate to get back their normal lives.
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CURNOW: But as CNN's David Culver tells us, it is a much different story in Shanghai. Here is David.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in China, we're noticing a dramatic difference in the lifestyle compared with U.S., Europe and the rest of the world, where COVID-19 cases are surging. And you can notice that, first and foremost, individual aspect, face mask.
Look around me here. This is a popular tourist destination spot, the Bund here in Shanghai. I can only count maybe a handful of people who are actually wearing face masks and that's because of a lot of the city policies had been eased dramatically.
And they've said that, essentially, you don't have to wear them in outdoor places. And even some indoor places aren't enforcing it. It's an indication that people are buying into the state media portrayal that life here has returned back to near normal.
People feel safer. And you compare it with what we saw in Beijing, say, just over the summer. I took you for a walk then. Everyone around me, with the exception of maybe a handful, had face masks on them.
It has dramatically changed and it's an indication more and more that people here are willing to leave their homes and leave behind the face masks -- David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.
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CURNOW: You're watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow. "NEW DAY" is up right after this break. Thanks for joining us. Have a wonderful day.
