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Democrats May Retake Control of Senate; Scott Atlas Apologizes for Russia Today Appearance; Italy Announces Tightened COVID-19 Restrictions. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 02, 2020 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: On Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania -- tightly packed, few masks despite the campaign saying we hand out masks, you know, but they're not mandating it.

When you look at the numbers -- 50,000 Americans in the hospital this morning with COVID -- and you look at these images where you are from. If the president wins a second term and does not do an about-face on large gatherings and masks, where will we be headed with COVID?

AMESH ADALJA, INFECTIOUS DISEASES EXPERT: We're going to be headed to a very, very dark place. Now, I live about -- my parents live a quarter mile from where that rally occurred, and I could hear the roar outside from stepping out my parents' door. So this is something we're really worried about.

There's a small community hospital in that area, and they're already getting more and more cases, so we're worried, what's going to happen to my hometown in the next 10 or 14 days, and I think this was a really irresponsible rally and I think it was something that I didn't want to see in my own hometown, so it's really -- that one has kind of hit me personally because I know some of these people, some of my friends are going to get infected and going to get sick from this rally.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

HARLOW: Wow.

SCIUTTO: Regardless of the outcome tomorrow, the pandemic is going to stay with us, that's a fact. If you had five minutes with either the new president or the re-elected President Trump, what recommendations would you make, and say this has to be done now -- to save lives?

ADALJA: The first thing that needs to be done is the CDC needs to be restored to the driver seat. They need to be running this public health response, they need to be speaking to the American public every day, and they need to not be handcuffed by any kind of unreality that the president is living in.

So we have to get the president to actually face the facts and realize that he cannot wish them away -- whether it's President Trump or President Biden -- and that we have to do the tried and true public health practices: testing, tracing, isolating.

We need to be able to test much more, we need to be able to get people to be contact traced, and we have to get people to start taking these common-sense precautions we mentioned earlier, wearing masks. And we have to cease all attacks on expertise so that these deplorable comments about Dr. Fauci just really -- they're kind of beyond the pale.

HARLOW: We appreciate you, Dr. Adalja, being here very much. And I'm just very sad to hear that you think because of that rally, you know, relatives and friends in your hometown are going to contract COVID. I just -- I wish there was much broader mask-wearing at these events and less people packed in so tight. Thank you for being with us this morning.

ADALJA: Thank you.

HARLOW: Well, the final push in the final hours. Who is going where and will it be enough to secure the White House? We'll talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:36:51]

SCIUTTO: Well of course, much of our focus is on the presidential race, but don't forget the Senate race. Some crucial Senate races would determine the balance of power.

HARLOW: Harry Enten is back with us. Good to have you back, Harry. Right now, where does the Senate look like it's headed?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Yes, I mean, at this point, it does look like Democrats are likely to gain control of the Senate. Of course they have 47 seats at this point. And if we're looking at the forecast, it looks like they'll get up to 51.

But I cannot emphasize this enough, this race remains within the margin of error. It would not be surprising to me if Republicans maintain control of the Senate, out (ph) of the House, the Senate and the presidency, the Senate is the one that's most up for grabs at this hour.

SCIUTTO: OK, walk us through the best chances, then, for pick-ups for each party in the Senate.

ENTEN: Sure. So essentially, the Democrats' path to get to the 50 seats that they need, obviously, if Joe Biden wins the presidency and Harris breaks the tie, is the following states. Essentially, it looks like that the Democrats are going to win in Arizona, that's where they have a lead right now of six points in the average polls. Colorado, nine; Maine, five; North Carolina, three.

And it looks like the Republicans will pick up Alabama; it doesn't look like Michigan. If the Republicans pick up Alabama, then Democrats probably will need to sweep all four of those -- although there's other potentials -- but North Carolina is the most important seat at this hour with the Democrats holding onto a slight but still a lead at three points, Cal (ph) Cunningham (ph).

HARLOW: What do your numbers, your odds tell you about Democrats' chances of picking up more than a bare majority?

ENTEN: Yes, I think that this is the rather key -- and why the forecast at this point is for them to get up to 51 seats. There is a slew of seats out there where Democrats are either tied or close. It starts in Iowa, where they're tying the polls right now, Joni Ernst and Theresa Greenfield.

And then also Georgia, look at that, the special -- it looks like that's going to a runoff in January, and the regular Jon Ossoff and Dave Perdue, obviously that race has been making a lot of news. That's tied at this hour. And then Montana, Kansas, and then sort of South Carolina at the very edge.

But basically, there's this long tail where Democrats could potentially pick up many more seats than the 50, but at this point it looks like Democrats will barely get to the majority but there is the potential for a lot more for them.

HARLOW: OK, Harry, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Let's talk about all of this and all that lies ahead in the next 24, 48, 72 hours. Jeff Mason is here, White House correspondent for Reuters and Yahoo News national politics reporter Brittany Shepherd. Good morning to you guys. An exciting week, a consequential week.

Let's start with something that I think is really interesting, Jeff, and that is that RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, not just in charge of trying to help get the president re-elected, but you know, for Republicans to hang onto the Senate. Here is what she said about voter turnout. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS ANCHOR: If your voters are so excited about President Trump, why haven't they shown up yet?

RONNA MCDANIEL, CHAIRWOMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Because they really want to vote in person. And I will say --

(CROSSTALK)

[10:40:00]

BRENNAN: Why?

MCDANIEL: -- it's been interesting, Margaret, this year as we've surveyed our voters, a vast majority of them want to vote in person. They want to make sure that their vote counts. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: She also, Jeff, told "The Wall Street Journal" in that profile of her over the weekend, "We know suburban women who were with the president in 2016 may have faded away. We call them 'wavering voters' and we know they're the easiest to bring back."

Those seem like two big gambles, that everyone -- you know, many people are waiting to vote until Election Day, and that it's easy to get those suburban women back.

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: Yes indeed. But I do think that they're seeing some data or some evidence that that's what they're going to see. You do also hear the president, at his rallies, sort of flagging that as well, saying, how many of you have voted already? Oh, I know you well enough, you're all going to show up on Election Day. So that's either an expectation or an encouragement on his part for people to do that.

They are certainly counting on that, and hoping, in these final states, particularly Pennsylvania, Florida, the ones that are close that he really needs, that they're going to have a really big turnout.

SCIUTTO: Well, one lesson of course is never listen to partisans for their hot takes, you know, going into Election Day, because it's always seeded with some self-interest, and that goes for both parties.

Brittany Shepherd, you know, watching this tally on the right side of the screen just go up -- I mean, 95.5 million Americans have already voted, 70 percent of the total turnout in 2016 -- it's Monday, right? I mean, Election Day is tomorrow, right? So you've got two full days, in effect, almost, of people still to vote. What is the biggest takeaway from that? You know, in terms of interest but also party advantage.

BRITTANY SHEPHERD, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, YAHOO NEWS: Well, I think anecdotally, what I'm hearing is that a lot of Democrats have been pushing early voting from the beginning. As we know, voting has become so politicized, and many Democrats -- young Democrats -- have been enraged and moved to action from the social unrest that happened over the summer and of course, the coronavirus pandemic.

I mean, you look at these numbers, they're already eclipsing or meeting 2016 totals and we're not even at Election Day yet, right? It's kind of crazy to imagine.

And when I talked to voters on the road over the weekend, a lot of them just feel like they had too much to lose -- even the apathetic voters or the voters who thought maybe last time it just wasn't worth going to the polls, that you know, Democrats have a slight edge in these early voting tallies.

Of course, I mean, a lot can change in 24 hours, but it's basically what Joe Biden and his campaign is banking on, that they see enough of a wave to rebuild the blue wall (ph) that Donald Trump kind of barricaded through last time. And they think -- they're counting on a lot of that votes to come from suburban counties, of folks who are just fed up with Trump.

HARLOW: Brittany, you've spent the last few days traveling with and covering the Biden campaign, so I want your take specifically on what Bloomberg reported over the weekend, that there is internal fighting within the campaign because there's increasing worries among some in the campaign about black and Latino turnout come Election Day.

And then listen to this, when Senator Harris was asked yesterday if the campaign has done enough to reach black voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think that we always can do more, there's no question about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We can always do more, no question. Is that a concern within the camp right now?

SHEPHERD: Absolutely, especially with Latino voters. I was with the campaign a few weeks ago in Florida too, and the turnout there was definitely not the turnout that I saw in the Midwestern states, in the Rust Belt states for Biden, which is, you know, a bit shocking for them.

Honestly, Democrats for a long time have taken those two groups for granted. I think you have to look at black voters a little bit more specifically, black women overwhelmingly vote Democrat. I think the margin is 90-plus percent, so they're less worried about that.

It's the black men, old and young, who have been unreliable Democratic voters, and only in the last month or so has the Biden campaign and Democrats funded (ph) a lot of money in that arena. I think the question is, is that enough? Do those people feel like they've been spoken to?

And we're seeing at least some anecdotal polling that the Trump campaign's messaging about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris being a socialist, is resonating especially with those Southern Latino groups. You know, the Biden campaign says -- when they were asked about this, you know, they have so much money, they can only invest in certain places and at reliable voters. But you wonder at what cost.

Of course, you know, you -- we have to take -- turnout is obviously, you know, the most important thing here. So if that Biden -- if the black voting percent just goes up one or two percent, I mean, it might just all be moot.

SCIUTTO: Jeff Mason, we have a big issue on Election Day -- that hasn't started on Election Day, and that is the president, a concerted attack on valid mail-in ballots, right? Allowed by law, no evidence of widespread fraud, but the president has been messaging about this for months, and now is setting up legal challenges in a whole host of battleground states. You know, the courts actually have pushed back -- a lot of losses for

Republicans in the courts on trying to challenge some of these things. What happens if the president pursues this on Election Day, will Republicans stand in the way of, for instance, him calling the election early in his favor or claiming to call it early? Who's going to stand in the way of him doing that?

[10:45:20]

MASON: Well, that's a great question, Jim, and I don't think we know the answer. I mean, if you look back at the history of Republican support for this president over the last three and a half years, they've largely stood by him for lots of different things and institutions that he has -- to use Brittany's word, "barricaded through." So whether he does that again on this particular issue is -- we're just going to have to wait and see on Election Night.

To go back to sort of part of the earlier discussion, Republicans, whether you can take this seriously or not, they are indeed partisan as are Democrats, who are forecasting their chances -- are confident that he can still pull this off. But if he doesn't, you know, based on everything that he has flagged for months or longer now, that he will fight it.

And that -- I think the question that you asked in terms of how his party will stand by him will depend largely on how close the race is and largely how legitimate the concerns that he and his campaign officials raise turnout to be.

SCIUTTO: We'll be watching closely. Jeff Mason, Brittany Shepherd, thanks to both of you.

Well, our special election coverage -- special Election Night coverage -- starts at 4:00 Eastern time tomorrow, only here on CNN.

Italy is now joining several European nations in tightening their COVID restrictions as a result of spiking new infections there. We're going to have a live update, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:51:35]

HARLOW: Welcome back. So White House Coronavirus Task Force advisor Dr. Scott Atlas is apologizing this morning. Why? Because he did an interview on the Russian propaganda state broadcaster RT just days before the election.

SCIUTTO: Just to be clear, U.S. intelligence, national security agencies view RT as a source of Russian propaganda, disinformation backed by the Kremlin, the source of that kind of disinformation in this country.

TEXT: Scott W. Atlas: I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent. I regret doing the interview and apologize for allowing myself to be taken advantage of. I especially apologize to the national security community who is working hard to defend us.

SCIUTTO: In a tweet, Dr. Atlas now says he regrets the interview and was unaware that RT was a registered foreign agent. CNN's Matthew Chance is in Moscow. I imagine Russia saw that interview as something of a victory -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I imagine they did. Because one of the main reasons that "Russia Today" exists, that media arm, if you like, of the Kremlin according to U.S. intelligence agencies, that is used to spread propaganda around the world and disseminate this information, in fact, about COVID-19.

One of the things it likes to do is to, you know, highlight differences, you know, highlight the chaos in other parts of the world specifically in the United States. And you're right, Dr. Atlas has apologized for this. He said he wasn't aware that RT, "Russia Today," was registered as a foreign agent.

But he did get 27 minutes of unchallenged international airtime in which he was able to make various claims like, you know, the lockdown in America is killing Americans, like the health leadership in the United States have failed in their responsibilities. He dismissed the assessments, the future projections of what the death toll could be if no further action is taken, you know, against the coronavirus.

I mean, there's too many to list because 27 minutes, as you can imagine, is a long time to make claim after claim, many of which -- most of which, if not all of them -- have not been accepted by the mainstream medical community in the United States.

Now, for me, watching it here, the irony is that actually while they were allowing Dr. Atlas on Russian television in this way, back in Russia, actually, Russia is taking some pretty strong measures like they're instituting a national face mask mandate that Dr. Atlas and people like him are firmly against -- Poppy and Jim.

HARLOW: Matthew, I remember when you took us inside of that Russian lab to show us their vaccine trial, and then their own approval of a vaccine. I just wonder, where does that stand now? I mean, are people broadly taking the vaccine across Russia now? And if they are, is it working?

CHANCE: That's a good question, because I think there have been some production problems in the vaccine, the Sputnik V vaccine, which was the first of the Russian vaccines to get official approval. But what the authorities say is that by the end of the year, they hope to have mass vaccinations up and running.

But remember, there are two other vaccines that Russia has in the pipeline, one of which has already been approved for use. And so, you know, Russia isn't exactly sitting on its laurels when it comes to fighting the pandemic.

SCIUTTO: In some ways, taking it more seriously, at least from a government perspective. Matthew Chance, thanks very much.

Let's go to CNN correspondent Melissa Bell for the latest on what is a sad but rapid surge of new COVID-19 infections across Europe.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, the very latest is that Italy is now announcing fresh restrictions, a tightening of restrictions in those parts of the country hardest hit, limits on travel within the country.

[10:55:04]

And remember that this is a country that's already seen protests against the existing restrictions, really a reminder that this time around, in the words of the European Commission president, we aren't just battling the virus, but also corona fatigue. People really resisting the sorts of semi-lockdowns that we now have in place here in France, but also in Germany and in Belgium, with governments having resisted, Jim, until the last minute, bringing in those drastic moves.

And yet you need only look at the figures. Here in France, a positivity rate of 20 percent, a thousand people a week entering an ICU. In Belgium, the number of people now in hospital, more than those who are in there for the first wave. And in Germany, the number of people in ICU with COVID-19 has tripled in just two weeks, really a reminder that the virus is now circulating more quickly and more widely here in Europe than it did the first time around -- Jim.

HARLOW: Melissa Bell, thank you for being there. It is sad news, we appreciate you bringing it to us though. Thanks very much.

And thank you for joining us this Monday morning. We're going to maybe take a nap, and we'll be back with you at 2:00 a.m. tonight. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: I'm Jim Sciutto. Folks, you've got another day to vote. Take advantage.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: NEWSROOM with John King starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]