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Biden And Trump Blitz Battlegrounds On Final Day Of Campaign; More Than 95 Million Pre-Election Ballots Cast; Trump And Biden Make Closing Campaign Pitches. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 02, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody, I'm John King in Washington. Thank you so much for sharing your day with us.

One more day of campaigning. Tomorrow America picks its president. The consequences here are both enormous and quite obvious. A choice between two fundamentally different men. Different roots, different world views, very different takes on a pandemic that right now is surging just about everywhere.

The Monday map is lit up with candidate stops in very important battleground state states. You see it right there. Joe Biden in Ohio and then Pennsylvania. President Trump checking off four states today, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Both vice presidential nominees also busy with a final day focus on Pennsylvania.

The former President Barack Obama helping the Democrats turnout votes. He makes stops in Georgia, and in Florida. The early vote number is enormous. Take a look at that, ballots cast so far, 95 plus million. It's important to remember that those record numbers are not just votes for president but for Senate, for Congress, for state houses, for judges, for ballot initiatives.

Look at the polls and two things are crystal clear on this Monday. Joe Biden has the chance, a chance for a statement election one that would carry him to the White House and likely also imperil the Republican grip on the Senate. Two, the president sits today in a worse position and on that final Monday back in 2016. But another Trump surprise is not out of the question.

The coronavirus tops the election issues list and that is a giant drag on the incumbent whose take on COVID frankly has been wrong in defiance of fact and science from the very beginning. A record- breaking Sunday yesterday, it's a sad record. 81,000 new cases added yesterday.

The daily number of infections now averaging over 80,000 per day. That number nearly doubling over the last month as the president tells the American people we have turned the corner. The president stopped doing his day job on the virus a long time ago, experts are exasperated because new infections are exploding. So exasperated, Dr. Anthony Fauci complimented Joe Biden's approach over the weekend. A Florida rally crowd last night calling on the president to fire Dr. Fauci and the president, well, not exactly saying no.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD CHANTING: Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci!

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Don't tell anybody but let me wait until a little bit after the election. I appreciate the advice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So, let's use the final day 2016 map to talk about the final day here in 2020. This is how it turned out four years ago. Let's walk through. Let's walk through some of the stakes in this election.

Joe Biden can be the next president of the United States if he holds his lead in Pennsylvania, holds his lead in Michigan, and holds his lead in Wisconsin. That's all he needs. Rebuild the Democratic blue wall right there. Trump can carry the rest of the Trump states, Joe Biden would be president of the United States.

However, Democrats do see an opportunity. Joe Biden ahead in Arizona, ahead or close in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. Democrats see the possibility here of a statement election. If, if all those states break late. But what if, what if like in 2016 it is the president who closes. It is the Republicans who turnout in massive numbers on Election Day?

Well, then let's look at it from a different perspective. If the president holds Florida, and holds Georgia, and holds North Carolina and holds Arizona, Democrats I know out there saying we're going to win those states. We'll play it out tomorrow as we get the counts.

But as the president holds all those and holds Ohio, then look what you have here. No matter where there's a congressional district in Nebraska and one in Maine, they wouldn't matter in this scenario because it would all come down to this.

If President Trump could win Pennsylvania, he would win reelection. If Joe Biden held Pennsylvania, he would be the next president of the United States. That is one of the scenarios people look at right now. But on this final day, Joe Biden is trying to stretch the map.

We have CNN reporters deployed across key battleground states right now across the campaign trail. And let's get straight out to the road. We have CNN's Jeff Zeleny who is with Joe Biden on this morning in Cleveland. Suzanne Malveaux in North Carolina where President Trump will be.

And Jeff, I want to start with you. And as I do, I just want to pop up Ohio on the map. This was not close four years ago, 52 to 44 if you round them up. And yet, Joe Biden coming here to Cuyahoga County, Cleveland to try to turnout voters on Election Day. Tell us why.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, and you know what kind of voters are in Cuyahoga County, Democratic voters. This was of course a strong suit for Hillary Clinton four years ago. She carried this county by 30 percentage points.

Joe Biden is coming here to try and essentially seize on what's happening across the country, the suburban vote. There have been, you know, certainly suburban women here in Cleveland, in Columbus, in Cincinnati, in other cities across Ohio who have turned against this president.

[11:05:07]

They saw it in 2018. African-American voters as well key to any Democrat in Ohio. They are coming here to try and seize on what could be an advantage to them. But then he's getting directly back to Pennsylvania, not that far away of course as the crow flies. And Pennsylvania is where everything is at for Joe Biden. They know that they need to hold Pennsylvania, those 20 electoral votes so important.

And also, is a place where he announced his presidential candidacy. It's a place where he is going to end it tonight in Pittsburgh. But he, you know, believes that he speaks to Pennsylvania voters. We will see if he does or not.

But John, it's so important as we think back to four years ago, how slim the margins were in Pennsylvania, in Michigan, in Wisconsin. And this is something the Biden campaign believes they have an edge here among voters, a, who didn't come out four years ago, and, b, who were turned off by this president.

But we should point out. There is enthusiasm on the Trump side as well. You can feel it here in Ohio. So, it would take a bit of a lift for Joe Biden to win Ohio, everyone realizes that. But he's not leaving anything on the table.

But we should point out, John, this is only the second time he's been in Ohio since the general election campaign. I've covered six presidential races. I can't recall a time when a Democrat is visiting only for the second time on the eve of Election Day. John?

KING: It's an excellent point but it's a statement to go there and some will say it's a risk to go there unless you can prove that you can get it across the finish line. Jeff Zeleny there.

Let's go to Suzanne Malveaux. And Suzanne, as I do, I'm just going to flip the map here and come to where you are, in North Carolina and you see the president. Let's bring up Fayetteville, Cumberland County itself carried by Hillary Clinton four years ago but around it a number of those, what I call Trump counties, where he could not only turnout votes to win but turn them out in big numbers.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, you're absolutely right. If you look at places like Fayetteville, but also Gastonia, Greenville, Hickory, those are the kinds of places that he's come back over and over, time and time again. Those are the places that he has got to win and drum up the voters to come out tomorrow and support him to get us out to the polls. It was back in 2016, it was just days before the election the polls show that Hillary Clinton was winning by three percentage points while Trump turned it around and he won by 173,000 votes. This was also the state however that gave Barack Obama his big win -- not so big win, slight win, the 14,000 votes that he needed to top that.

This could go either way. The poll showing Biden perhaps a little bit of a lead. But the Trump campaign knows they've got to get those voters out. So, we're not just talking about here in North Carolina but a full day of travel. He's going to be traveling Fayetteville, North Carolina to Scranton, Pennsylvania, onto Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kenosha, Grand Rapids, Michigan before he returns to the White House.

One of the things that he has got to make sure is that he does get the rural vote. Those people to come out. He is suffering when it comes to the polls from women from the high-tech business when you look at a place like North Carolina, it really is kind of a cross-section and symbolic of what is happening in this country, you have voter of the population increasing dramatically with young voters, with Hispanics, with Asians, those who are in the college communities, the high-tech areas.

The president is bleeding support when it comes to suburban women, so he needs to make sure, as he did in 2016, that he trounces Biden with the rural voters. John?

KING: Suzanne Malveaux on the ground for us in Fayetteville. A little Saturday night playing on a Monday morning. A lot of excitement on the trail in the final days. Suzanne, grateful for the live report there. Interesting to hear how the day plays out.

Let's continue the conversation. Joining me our CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash. And Dana, one of the things you do notice is candidates run a campaign and they like to end. Listen here. Essentially where they began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Together we are taking back our country. We are returning power to you, the American people. With your help, your devotion and your drive, we are going to keep on working. We are going to keep on fighting. And we are going to keep on winning, winning, winning.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We learned a long time ago every generation has to fight to keep the Democracy. I never believed we'd have to fight this hard, though. I never believed it would be this much in jeopardy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The interesting part there is Joe Biden consistently, this is about character, this is about the soul of the nation, this is about decency in government. Donald Trump there trying to sound like 2016 Donald Trump at the end of 2020 but he's been the incumbent for four years, the question is can he pull it off? DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That is the question. One of so many questions. You know we've both covered campaigns where the candidates' messages aren't that consistent, generally those candidates don't win.

[11:10:06]

But this is a case where the closing messages of both candidates mirror what they said for Joe Biden when he decided to get into the race, saying that it is in his words for the soul of the country. And you can even go back to the president, then private citizen, Donald Trump coming down the escalator in Trump Tower, the message back then is almost identical to what it is now.

And that also mirrors the stability of the race. You know, despite all of the chaos in this country over the past, you know, 18 months, particularly since the general election started in the earnest. It has been pretty stable when you look at the support among people who talk to the pollsters. The question now as it always is, is who's going to turnout. Which is why you're seeing all of these sprints across these key battleground states.

KING: Who's going to turnout? And the question is, we know issue number one, issue number two, issue number three, is the coronavirus pandemic and all the related leadership questions and economic questions that flow from the pandemic. Both candidates in the end talking about it, but so, so differently. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to have a safe vaccine that ends the pandemic. Without it, it's rounding the -- I say, it drives them crazy, it's rounding the turn. Because all they want to do, you turn on the news, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID.

BIDEN: We're going to beat this virus. We're going to get it under control. But the truth is, the truth is, to beat the virus, we first got to beat Donald Trump. He's the virus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He always talk about election choices being clear. On this one, it's crystal clear. The president frankly saying things that aren't true, we are not rounding the turn. 80,000 new infections a day is not rounding the turn but that's his hope to tell people all is well, tough it out.

BASH: And we really can't underestimate how much people who love Donald Trump believe what he says. I witnessed it when I went out to talk to a lot of his supporters in western Pennsylvania last month. Talked to people who had not voted before even in 2016 for him and are registering to vote for the first time, one man at age 65, because they believe everything he says. I've been texting somebody I met there, who is on text parroting what he is saying about fraud in mail- in voting and things that aren't factually correct. But that's the world in which we're living. And you know, more broadly if you talk about the coronavirus, this is the pandemic election. If you look at the screen, 95 million people voting. I mean, that is because of where we are, because of people having to make choices to vote early but also because of the energy based on not just Donald Trump but the very difficult world that Americans are living in.

KING: And yet, help me capture this, and yet Democrats look at the numbers and they can't believe their eyes because they do have the opportunity. The opportunity is right in front of them to make a statement election. It's not just the polling, 60 percent of the American people think the country is going on the wrong track, incumbents don't win in that environment. The president's approval rating is 45 percent, incumbents don't win in that environments. Yet Democrats see all the opportunity, they remember 2016, and they have I'll call it jitters and in some cases it's worse than that.

BASH: Yes. It's PTS, there's no question about it. Every Democrat I talk to will admit that. I'm sure your conversations go about the same way. And it's because we have not seen a politician like Donald Trump in our lifetime. He is the incumbent president and he is running like the outsider. He's running like the disrupter. He's running like he did in 2016.

It's in part because, and his advisers will tell you this and have told me this in the last couple days, that's all he knows how to do. He's not the kind of guy who feels comfortable frankly even talking about the accomplishments which the Republicans are banging their heads against the wall wishing he would talk about, from trade issues, to foreign policy. He's just running as somebody who's trying to gin up the anger, the frustration and the fear among many Americans. It worked in 2016 and the answer we don't know yet and we won't know for maybe a couple days, hopefully tomorrow, is whether it's going to work again.

KING: If we're going to know tomorrow, it'll be because of Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and maybe Arizona. If we have to wait, it's because the president won those states and we're waiting on Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

BASH: And if we have to wait. That's OK. It's based on the laws in the states on how they count the votes. That's one to keep in mind.

KING: We stockpile water and coffee. Recommend you do that at home as well. It's OK. It's perfectly fine despite what the president says it's perfectly fine. If it takes time, we'll count the votes. Dana Bash, grateful for the reporting and insights.

Coming up for us, the campaigns making the final sprint through the battleground states. A live update from the trail, next. First though, a flash back. A little bit eerie here. The final Monday four years ago.

[11:15:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KING: Anderson, just think about it this time tomorrow we'll be filling in the map, the red and blue, we'll be counting the votes, can Donald Trump win without Pennsylvania? Yes. Is it conceivable? Not really which is why Pennsylvania is getting so much attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: It's the final day of the presidential campaign and that means headlines like this, "Down to the Wire," this is the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette. That's true. That's true in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The campaign final day also means furious activity in those battleground states, visits from candidates, and some top surrogates. And an overwhelming focus now on checking voter lists.

Working to turnout those who did not vote early. Sure, the big states help the most when you try to cobble together 270 electoral votes but in a close race, 10 year, four there can make a huge difference.

[11:20:07]

CNN has correspondents across the battleground states. Let's visit three right now and let's start with Adrienne Broaddus in Minneapolis.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, across the state, nearly 1.7 million Minnesotans have already voted. Minnesota is important. The prize here, 10 electoral votes. The Democrats are trying to defend their turf but President Trump wants to turn this state red.

Many of the people in line to vote behind me say they didn't want to risk sending in an absentee ballot, especially after the late ruling last week by a federal appeals court saying all ballots must be received by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. That lawsuit, which was initiated by Republicans upset some young activists, but those activists tell us that lawsuit was an example of how much weight their vote carries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON HARRIS, CHAIRMAN DNC MIDWEST CAUCUS: I think because they start to see, man, they'll go all the way through the courts, four days before the polls close to change when we can turn in our ballots, this is serious. If we sleep on this and lose the election, it's possible that our ability and rights to vote will be impacted by that as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: Secretary of state filing a motion at the state level to challenge that decision. Refusing to go the Supreme Court route. Now, let's send it over to my colleague Martin Savidge in Iowa.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Iowa, here in Des Moines, they are still early voting. in fact, in this polling place here when the doors opened there were hundreds of people already waiting in line. And since that time the line has grown longer. Estimated wait here, about an hour and a half.

Like a lot of states, Iowa setting records when it comes to early voting. Possible by the end of the day today, close to a million Iowans will have already cast their ballot. That's important to note because the secretary of state is expecting about 1.5 million in total to vote.

Also, over the weekend, they could begin opening the mail-in ballots. Today they could begin tabulating all of the early votes, which means when the polls close, 9:00 p.m. Central, 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time, tomorrow night, state will already be ahead of the game when it comes to tabulating its votes. Six electoral votes at state. Now Polo Sandoval, New Hampshire.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Martin. Here in New Hampshire, it feels like it's the day before the day a morning long here in Londonderry New Hampshire. We've watched poll workers actually coming together here and do what's the partial preprocessing of all those absentee ballots, it's a process that entails opening up the exterior envelope and then inspecting the inner affidavit envelope that will be opened obviously counted come tomorrow.

That's what actually contains the ballot itself. The benefits here, not only does it give them a sort of head start in processing all of the ballots that have been received by state officials but also it allows these folks to look at each individual envelope to make sure the affidavit envelope is actually signed and it was properly submitted.

So far this morning only about 30 of those envelopes have been flagged as having potential issues and potentially being rejected. What happens next, the officials reach out to those individual voters and give them an opportunity to actually rectify that issue. They obviously know that every single vote counts here in New Hampshire, John, with 4 electoral votes up for grabs. And obviously in 2016, Hillary Clinton winning by less than 1 percent, it remains a competitive state and tomorrow as well.

KING: Polo Sandoval, all our correspondents, my gratitude for the live reporting. And the scene behind Polo very important. A lot of dedicated people, volunteers, all across the country doing the right work. Checking the ballots carefully doing this right. Don't listen to people who tell you we can't have the count.

This is Fayetteville, North Carolina. The president prepared to have a rally there. Battleground North Carolina absolutely critical here.

Up next, we'll breakdown another critical state. The stay of play in battleground Florida.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:28:52]

KING: Welcome back. In just a moment we'll have a conversation with the Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida. Let's just say he knows a thing or three about winning very close races in battleground Florida. But it's the final day of the 2020 campaign. So when we can, we want to take you live out to the campaign trail. We're going to take you right now battleground Pennsylvania, Luzerne County. Key county carried by Obama then carried by Trump. The Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee, Senator Kamala Harris.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Joe understands the significance and responsibility of our government in one of its core functions which is to concern itself with the public health and wellbeing of the American people. And that's why he and President Obama pushed for the Affordable Care Act.

And what is Joe committed to doing? Going forward, he's going to expand the Affordable Care Act, build on its success, expand on it, bring down premium costs, bring down drug prices - prescription drug prices. Joe knows.

When we're talking about health care, look, the body doesn't start from the neck down it includes the neck up, that's called mental healthcare.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

And Joe is deeply committed to doing that work, because he knows that it is just as simple as what should be necessary if we value the point that access to health care should be a right.