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Biden and Trump Fight for Votes in Final Hours before Election Day; Trump Hosting Rally in Wisconsin Today, Hours before Election Day; Trump Suggests He May Fire Fauci Post-Election, But Federal Law Says He Doesn't Have the Power. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 02, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: Well, a very good morning to you. It is a day to Election Day. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: We are almost there, folks. I'm Poppy Harlow. Glad you're here.

A high-stakes final push with just hours to go until Election Day. Both campaigns hitting key battleground states, both set to head to Pennsylvania, of course, today, to make their final pitches and for good reason. This state could be the game changer tomorrow.

SCIUTTO: Here is the other big story of this. You can see the numbers there. Early and mail-in voting records have already been shattered as the nation grapples in the midst of all this with a growing pandemic. More than 95 million Americans have already cast their ballots before Election Day, that is 70 percent of the total number of Americans who voted in 2016, just remarkable.

We're live across the country as only CNN can be this morning. Let's begin though with CNN's Jeff Zeleny. He is in Cleveland, Ohio, where Joe Biden starts his day, another battleground state, a state the president won handily in 2016.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jim and Poppy.

It's not a presidential election if you're not in battleground Ohio right before the end of the race here. But this is an unusual stop for Joe Biden. He is focusing on Pennsylvania. That is where all of the marbles are in terms of his match with the president, no question about it.

But he decided to take a last minute detour here to Ohio, to Cleveland, Ohio, to try and drum up the Democratic vote here in Cuyahoga County. This is a place where Hillary Clinton defeated President Trump in 2016 by some 30 percentage points, but it's a place there are a lot of Democratic votes. So I am told by a top Ohio Democrat that it's too close not to try. That is why they're coming to Ohio, the former vice president, to make his case to voters. We talk a lot about the people who have already voted. There are tens of millions of Americans who have not yet voted. Early voting is still open in many states across the country and voting tomorrow as well. So, at this point of the campaign, the Biden campaign is focusing on those who have not voted. They are chasing absentee ballots. They are trying to get people to the polls tomorrow. So that is why Joe Biden is visiting here in Cuyahoga County, just a little bit west of Pennsylvania. But it is entirely focused on Pennsylvania, that is where we are going to see the bulk of the activity.

Of course, the president is campaigning in Joe Biden's hometown, but Joe Biden will be hitting all four corners of the state ending with a rally tonight in Pittsburgh. Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: Okay. Jeff, thank you.

Let's go to our colleague, Suzanne Malveaux. She is Fayetteville, North Carolina. Good morning, Suzanne.

The president beginning his four-state tour there today.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is where he is kicking it off. Of course, he wants to make sure that he can gin up his base, the stops that he's been making here in North Carolina, Fayetteville being one of them, Gastonia, Greenville and hickory, all of them really trying to emphasize to the rural communities, the rural areas, Christian conservatives, evangelicals, those who are squarely in his corner to come out and vote tomorrow and during the election.

The early turnout has been absolutely extraordinary, just shattering all previous records. There is some sense perhaps that benefits Joe Biden and the Democrats. But just to give you a sense of the numbers there, we're talking about 4.5 million who voted early. That's 62 percent of all those registered voters in North Carolina, 95 percent of those who voted back in 2016. And so those -- that's the kind of enthusiasm that is here in North Carolina.

You may recall it was back in 2016, Trump won the state by 173,000 votes, but this was also the state that gave Barack Obama his victory in 2008 by 14,000 votes. So, still the polls showing this is going to be a very, very close, tight race here in North Carolina. Poppy, Jim?

HARLOW: Thank you for being there for us. We appreciate it.

Well, Michigan's secretary of state tells CNN that absentee ballots there will be counted starting tomorrow morning around 7:00 in the morning, and there are expected to be 3 million of those, which means it could not be done tomorrow there. It could take days.

SCIUTTO: And this is important to watch because some states begin counting the ballots the morning of Election Day, some wait until later. It's why you're going to have a whole host of different timelines on when you get a final count of all ballots.

Battleground Pennsylvania could also see a lengthy process of counting. The governor, Tom Wolf, is releasing a new ad urging patience with those results.

Let's go to CNN's Kristen Holmes. Kristen, the president has been very focused on Pennsylvania, but in particular attacking what are valid ballots, those that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive up to three days after.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, attacking ballots, the process itself, saying that we need to have results on election night. We need to point out here that what he said last night is not entirely true. When you talk about President Trump saying that his campaign is going to send lawyers in to challenge the expediency of the vote count in Pennsylvania, well, the reason it's going to take longer is because these Pennsylvanians are following the law.

[10:05:10]

So we need to keep that in focus here. The reason there might be a delay is because there have been more than 2.2 million absentee ballots cast in the state of Pennsylvania, a state in which the Republican legislature ruled no one could process, count, do anything with those ballots until 7:00 A.M. on Election Day. So that is likely what's going to cause some sort of delay.

And we should note that the Pennsylvania secretary of state did talk about those ballots that are arriving after election day, from 8:00 P.M. on Election Day through November 6th at 5:00 P.M. She says to counties, go ahead and count them. We know the Supreme Court said you can count them but you need to segregate them. Well, her decision to say to counties to count them now drawing fire from the campaign, which is setting up what legal experts are telling us is likely going to be a lot of litigation post-election.

HARLOW: We're preparing for that. I think there is no question that's going to come.

Before you go, can you explain what happened over the weekend with Minnesota? Because the secretary of state there is now explaining why he did not challenge, did not take up to the Supreme Court, the appeals court decision over the weekend, basically saying you thought you had seven more days for ballots to get in and be counted after Election Day, in Minnesota, no longer do you have that window. Why did they not take it to the Supreme Court?

HOLMES: Well, according to the secretary of state of Minnesota, they weighed their options, they looked at this makeup of this Supreme Court and thought that it wasn't worth it. Essentially saying that they would rather put the state's efforts into fighting a post- election battle should these ballots come into question if they are needed to give results of the electorate, to get results of the electorate.

Now, this is his reasoning for not wanting to go up to the Supreme Court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STEVE SIMON, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR MINNESOTA: We had to ask ourselves, is there any downside risk to doing so, a risk beyond just losing. Could we end up worse than we were, worse than simply losing? And let me just say, looking at the makeup of the court, we concluded that, yes, there was a downside risk, better to live to fight another day after the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, looking at the makeup of the Supreme Court, as we know, newly installed Justice Amy Coney Barrett likely to see more of these cases skewing to the conservative side, which is not the side of the voter advocacy groups, not the side that would encourage these kinds of deadlines.

HARLOW: Okay, understood. Kristen thank you for the reporting on both of those fronts.

Let's go to North Carolina now where the state's election board said 97 percent of votes will be counted by election night. North Carolina's attorney general, Josh Stein, joins me. Good morning, Mr. Attorney General, thank you for being here.

And I should note, you're on the ballot, you're up for re-election as well.

JOSH STEIN, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NORTH CAROLINA: I am. I am as well, yes.

HARLOW: Okay. So we're going to get to what happened in Graham, North Carolina, over the weekend in just a minute, because it's very important. But just the fact that you're going to know a lot by the end of election night in your state, how important is that given the divisiveness, given the environment particularly around this election?

STEIN: Well, it depends on how close the elections are, even among those 97 percent. If we remember in 2016, our governor's race was within a tenth of a percentage point on election night. And we waited. We counted all the provisional ballots, the mail-in ballots that came in after Election Day, and after about 10, 12 days, we finalized the count, Governor Cooper won the election, and that's how democracy works.

So, sometimes if the race is a point or two points on election night, we know who wins, because those extra ballots are not enough to tip the balance. But if it is exceptionally close on election night, we exhibit patience. We have experience doing that in North Carolina. And all Americans need to know we may know who the winner is on election night but we may not and we just need to be patient and let all the votes count.

HARLOW: As my mother told me, patience is a virtue. We're all going to need a lot of that come tomorrow night.

Let's talk about Graham, North Carolina. For people who didn't see it over the weekend, here is video of the protests on Saturday and confrontation with police. This was notably the last day of early voting in the state and police officer used pepper spray to break up the march to a polling place. Here is how they defended this after saying a police officer was assaulted. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. DANIEL SISK, GRAHAM, NORTH CAROLINA POLICE: At that point, that's when we deemed it was an unsafe event and deemed that it was unlawful and we went ahead and dispersed the crowd. The dispersement measures we used was using pepper fogger that was never directed at any person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That's what he says, but look at this video. Our viewers should watch this. This is video of at least one man right there being sprayed in the face.

[10:10:00]

The organizer of the protest, Reverend Drumwright, here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. GREG DRUMWRIGHT, I AM CHANGE MARCH ORGANIZER: There are people that did not vote today because the police released tear gas and pepper spray.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: His point is he says, Mr. Attorney General, this stopped some people from voting. The North Carolina board of election said they don't have any evidence that it did stop people from voting. What do you know? Did this stop some people from voting Saturday?

STEIN: Well, I will say that, obviously what happened in Graham was troubling. I mean, the images -- I've talked to many of the people who have been involved frankly both from the organizer perspective and from law enforcement.

The key is, in North Carolina, it is against the law to obstruct, harass or intimidate any voter. And so if anybody was denied their right to vote, they need to let the state board of elections know that and we will get to the bottom of what happened in Graham.

What I really want the voters of North Carolina to know going into Tuesday, where we expect another 300,000, 400,000, 500,000 North Carolinians to vote, if you go to the polls and someone gets in your way, harasses you, intimidates you, tries to obstruct your participation, immediately let the local precinct official know so that that person can be held legally accountable.

HARLOW: Listen to this from Vice Presidential Candidate Senator Kamala Harris in Goldsboro, North Carolina, just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Here in North Carolina, you know more than most that there have been active people trying to suppress the vote. I don't have to tell you what the court appeal here in North Carolina said, which is that that one law was written with, quote, surgical precision to make it difficult to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: There is an ongoing fight over voter I.D. It's been going on for years in your state. I just wonder if we could end on this, your message to anyone watching who may be confused about the North Carolina Court of Appeals decision in September and what they need or do not need to cast their vote tomorrow.

STEIN: Yes. One does not need a voter I.D. in order to cast their vote. You don't need a photo I.D., excuse me. Here is the thing. There is so much noise, so much confusion, so much intentional misinformation to try to deprive you of your power, to take your power away from you, the voters of North Carolina, the voters of America. You have the power. You will determine who our next president is. No politician will make that decision. It's going to be the people's decision.

HARLOW: Attorney General Josh Stein, thank you for your time this morning. I know it's an incredibly busy few weeks for you. We appreciate it.

STEIN: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: Of course.

Well, a fierce battle in Pennsylvania, we're going to take you there next.

SCIUTTO: And coronavirus infections are surging across the country. But now the president is suggesting he could fire the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Though we should note, he does not have the power to do that.

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[10:15:00]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. It is, of course, election eve. And the candidates, as you expect, are acting like it, both campaigns hitting key battleground states today.

HARLOW: Ryan Young joins us from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Good morning, Ryan. What are you hearing?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. There's a blistering pace being kept up all across this election zone. People want this battleground state. In fact, president is coming back again today to Kenosha. He was here Friday as well, and so was Joe Biden. But then the firstlady was here Saturday and Sunday, Ivanka Trump was here as well. And you've got to remember that President Trump won the state by less than 1 percent in 2016. So when you turn on the television, when you listen to the radio, it's all political ads. But both of you guys know this. This has to be framed around the coronavirus when people are talking about what happens next in the state of Wisconsin.

We're here at a testing site. Mondays are particularly difficult. You can see the lines behind us as people are showing up to get tested. On Friday alone, over 5,000 positive tests, on Sunday over 3,000 positive tests. This area is being hit hard.

And as we talked to voters over the weekend, that was one of the number one subjects they talked about, education, the coronavirus, who is going to lead folks for it.

Now, there is an expectation for people to get out, to turn out the vote, this is one of those states that already 60 percent of the voters have already voted in person. But think about this, more than 2 million people have already voted in person. This is going to be interesting to see how this ties up in the last coming moments with all these folks energized about this election. Jim and Poppy?

SCIUTTO: That is a big story this election, millions of Americans clearly energized. Just follow those numbers on the right hand of our screen. Ryan Young, thanks very much.

Now, let's go to CNN National Correspondent Ed Lavandera. He's in Harris County, Texas, really the center of many of these vote battles around going on around the country. A major hearing challenging the validity of some 127,000 ballots already cast, by the way, via drive- through. That decision set to take place. Ed, what more do we know about when we'll hear?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jim. Well, in a little bit more than an hour, there will be an emergency court hearing inside the federal courthouse here in downtown Houston where the judge will hear the arguments coming from the Republican group that is trying to essentially invalidate about 127,000 votes that were cast during the three-week early voting here in Houston.

Over my shoulder, you can see a number of protesters that are out here trying to urge this judge to count every vote.

[10:20:05]

Harris County election officials say that the push to invalidate these votes is preposterous, the votes were cast in a legal, safe and secure way. But this Republican group, which has already been shot down twice in the Texas Supreme Court. The Texas Supreme Court ruled yesterday all Republicans, by the way, that this election drive-through voting, they would not listen to the petition from this Republican group.

But now this judge here in Harris County will be listening to it in a little more than an hour. So, at some point today, we expect some sort of decision on what's going to happen with those votes. Jim and Poppy?

HARLOW: Yes, more than 120,000 of them. It's really consequential. Ed, thanks so much for being there.

It is all about, largely about, a lot about the state of Pennsylvania this time around. Alexandra Field joins us in Pittsburgh with more. Good morning, Alex.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Poppy. It could be tight in Pittsburgh, and it may come down to turnouts. So you're seeing both campaigns making a major push to people with mail- in ballots to get their ballots in. That's what they're doing just behind me here in Pittsburgh. Everyone who didn't apply for a mail-in ballot, well, they are encouraging them to get to the polls tomorrow. You can see the level of commitment to the state of Pennsylvania from both campaigns.

President Trump holding a series of rallies in the Keystone State over the weekend. He is on a multi-state tour today with a stop in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Vice President Mike Pence also campaigning in Pennsylvania. And former Vice President Joe Biden will be in Pittsburgh today accompanied by Lady Gaga. Senator Kamala Harris will be over in Philadelphia with John Legend. Democrats obviously hoping that some star power will add some attention to their campaign right now.

They've honed in on a singular message that they hope will appeal to a wide swath of voters, including the voters who went for Trump in 2016, Biden's message that he is the better leader to get the country and the commonwealth through COVID times. Don't forget, this is a state that Trump won by just 44,000 votes back in 2016. It is a high-stakes prize with 20 electoral votes, both campaigns want it.

But the truth is, Jim and Poppy, it might take a few days before we know who wins it all. That's because there's some 3 million mail-in ballots that have been applied for. Some counties are saying they won't start to count those ballots until the day after the election. It doesn't mean anything has gone wrong, it just means we all need to wait this one out.

SCIUTTO: It's a good point. Don't listen to what you hear from some corners, right. By law, those votes are valid if they arrive up to three days after Election Day, and that's been backed by the courts. Alexandra Field, good to have you there.

Well, after the crowd chanted, fire Fauci, at a trump campaign rally, President Trump suggested he may just do that after the election. Here is the thing, and facts matter, the president doesn't actually have the power to do that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

HARLOW: We know this from all of the polling that Dr. Anthony Fauci is the most trusted voice in this country on the COVID pandemic. So why would the president say this as cases are surging? Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Don't tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election, please. I appreciate the advice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Fact is he does not have the power to do that. Regardless, Dr. Fauci was unusually unrestrained this weekend over the U.S. response to the virus, saying, you could not possibly be positioned more poorly. Just remarkable.

Joining us is infectious diseases expert Dr. Amesh Adalja. He's a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. Dr. Adalja, good to have you this morning.

I guess, we should grow used to now that the president attacking the experts, particularly in the midst of a pandemic here. So let's focus on the facts, if we can. We had Dr. Reiner on last hour and he said in terms of what can people like you and me and our communities do to respond to what are the facts here, which is a growing pandemic. He said masks, that if we all wear masks enough, we can avoid the more draconian shutdowns. Is that true, in your view?

DR. AMESH ADALJA, INFECTIOUS DISEASES EXPERT: I do think it's true. This is a simple common sense measure that allows people to kind of freely move about without the fear of this virus. It's something that we've developed a lot of data over the pandemic showing that there are people out there who don't have symptoms or don't have symptoms yet and can yet spread it to other individuals.

And a face covering does it prevents you from infecting others and it probably also protects you. Because if you do get infected, you get infected with less virus and less severe cases. So this is one way to avoid what's happening all over Europe. And I think we just have to embrace it. I think this is the way to save our economy and to move through this pandemic.

HARLOW: Look at these shots, if we could. I bring them up to you because it's where you're from. These are images of the crowd at the president's rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, tightly packed, few masks, despite the campaign saying, we hand out masks.