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Some Key Battleground States Still Counting Votes; Trump Supporters Parrot Baseless Claims About Election Fraud. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 09, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: This is from Clark County, 6,095 for Biden just in, for the President 4,215. So Joe Biden gets 56 percent plus of this. I won't round up. The point being we're still counting votes, even though we've called the election. Trump campaign says, you know, we shouldn't have called it that was premature. This is what we're seeing consistently, consistently. Joe Biden has a lead, and is getting more votes as they continue to count these mail-in ballots, those is from Clark County.

We also had some votes just come in from Washoe County that's in the northwest corner of the state. And again, this -- look, sorry, this way, 87 votes for Biden, 64 votes, just a few votes there. But that is 53 percent, even with small number of votes. The issue is we're not doing this -- we're doing this to show you they're still counting votes, but they're not changing the results as the President tries to consider what he needs to do here. So you flip this back out. You come out here. Here's where we stand.

Yes, we have not yet officially called Georgia because there might be a recount. We're waiting for them to finish in Arizona and Nevada. Joe Biden has put back the blue wall in Democratic hands, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Joe Biden will be the president-elect even as we continue to count the votes here. It was a complicated election. Remember, some states like Ohio and Texas, they were blue for a long time, because they were counting mail-in votes first. Other states were red for a long time, like Pennsylvania, and then it went blue because they did it in reverse order. The Election Day votes were counted first. And then the mail-in votes were counted. It was interesting to say the least.

And here at CNN, we're lucky because we had some great help, down the hall for me, this has never happened before. A double magic wall live moments on television is the great Phil Mattingly. And as you went through this all, Phil, and as we continue to go through it, that was one of the hardest parts explaining to people, some states were doing it one way some states were doing it another way. Everybody needed to just wait and be calm no matter who you are rooting for.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. And I think the best example of it was, you know, you could superimpose what happened with Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania with what happened in Ohio. I remember watching you, vividly remember watching you, go through my home state at the start of the night. And you went through Ohio and it was blue, it was blue everywhere. And it was blue where Democrats said they needed it to be for them to have a chance in the state.

And then by the end of the night, you realized it wasn't actually close at all. And I think that's also kind of what I think was most interesting about the night now that we have a pretty good sense of where things are, nights plural, was kind of Pennsylvania on the whole. And you noted the votes are still coming in, Joe Biden's lead has actually increased over the course of the last 24 hours in this state. And what was most interesting was not about Joe Biden's ability to flip a bunch of counties. He flipped to and he flipped to the Democrats knew they needed to. He flipped Erie. And he flipped Northampton down here.

Instead, it was that Joe Biden's theory of the case or theory of the race, if you will, since he got into the race in the state of Pennsylvania, was that he could increase Democratic margins in areas that Hillary Clinton had lost some ground, and he could narrow republican margins and strongholds for President Trump. So take Luzerne County, for example. This was a county that President Obama won back in 2012. President Trump flipped it in a major way back in 2016. You look at that margin, 58.3 percent to 38.9 percent.

Well, what did Joe Biden do? He lost Donald Trump still won this county handily. But look at the margin. Joe Biden shaved about two points off, shaved about two points off. They did that on Republican counties all over the state. Well, at the same time going into Democratic counties like Lackawanna, which was very narrow back in 2016 and growing the margin by three or four points. Joe Biden's theory of the race that he started out with, particularly about the blue wall, and this is the same case in Michigan and Wisconsin wasn't who's going to flip a bunch of states back, it was that he was going to grow Democratic margins and narrow Trump's margins. And John, that's exactly what he did.

KING: It is exactly what he did. So one of the things you're looking for always as you go through, you use the maps as a tool, right? Use it as a tool to tell you what is America saying. So one of the things I was doing, you know, at the during the race, you come into it, you're saying OK, these are the states here that made, you know, Donald Trump president, right? What about this? Not since 1992 has that been blue. Not since 1996 has that been blue. So that's what you want to look at. What can Joe Biden make a case now?

He can make a case, look, I set out saying I would rebuild the blue wall. And I did. I set out saying I could win in places that are more liberal candidate couldn't. Well, you could argue in Georgia and in Arizona. He is making that case. One of the other things I do, Phil, is I always have places, right? There are places you look at like, well, this place is going to tell me something. Well, we had a streak end. We had a streak and right here Vigo County, Indiana had voted for the winner in presidential elections since 1956, 1956.

Vigo streak is over. It's one of the quirky things I do on the map every year. This has been a bellwether, so all night long you might be in Arizona, you might be in Pennsylvania. I'm sneaking a peek to see what the people in Vigo county Indiana are doing. Their streak is over and they might be grateful for that it means they get less attention from map geeks like me. Another place I wanted to look at in 2020 I shouldn't have Vigo up there in 2020, I'll just prove the point to you, I forgot I was in 2016, see what happens. But there you go.

Vigo County red and 2016, red again in 2020, that's why the streak is over. Another place I wanted to watch is because I've been watching it for many, many years. And this one actually surprised me a little bit, but Donald Trump holding on in Macomb County, Michigan Democrats theory of the case as you put it earlier was, if we're going to get Michigan back, yes, we have to turn out African Americans in Wayne County. But it would be nice to win back the so called Reagan Democrats up in Macomb County. And the President held on to that that was one of my quirks. What are yours?

[12:35:19]

MATTINGLY: Well, I think the one thing that I was completely blown away with, and this is actually probably, this would be considered a positive story for President Trump, no question about it. You know, as you noted we have all of these tools that we can utilize and try and figure out. We've got demographic layers, try and see where things went, how things went a specific way. And one of the best tools we had over the course of the night was where has President Trump or Joe Biden over performed? What are the counties?

So what I just did is I flipped it into full county mode. So you're seeing every single county. And every single county that you see highlighted right now is a place where Donald Trump over performed his 2016 margin by 5 percent or more. And look at this. You know, when Democrats talked about Texas, when Democrats said Texas might be in play, that Texas was a real potential option for them particularly you saw the surge of the early voting come in from places like Harris County and Dallas County, everybody acknowledged that for Texas to be in play, Democrats needed to run down here. They needed to run on the border. They knew they had voters down there. That was where they needed to blow up turn out to a degree that they'd never seen before.

Not only did that not happen, not only did that not happen, Donald Trump over performed everywhere, everywhere down there. You think about what happened in Miami Dade, you can transpose it a little bit over into Texas too, you talked about Hispanic, Donald Trump's power or strength with Hispanic voters, it was very real, and they're not monolithic. And I think that was proven more than anything else on election night. But if you look down in the border towns -- border counties in Texas right now, Democrats should be very concerned because what the Trump campaign said was going to happen did at least in Texas and in Miami.

KING: And that -- we'll close on that because Phil makes a very excellent point that campaigns now do their autopsy where did Republicans do well, where did Democrats do well, where did they do poorly? Whereas in Texas is still just noted, where did they underperform where they thought they could over perform. And so they will look at this map the red and the blue states. But to Phil's point, they also will look at this map when you break it down by county across America. You see a lot of red here but the Democrats still win. Now come the autopsies.

Phil Mattingly, grateful for your help here. He's pretty good, isn't he? I think so. I think he is, I think he is. And as we go to break I just want to show you this map up here, it is something else. We learn a lot from this. Phil and I and our great -- the great team behind us we should thank them again. The great team will help us with this on election nights. Phil selling his for Christmas if anybody wants one.

Up next have disinformation online is falsely convinced some Trump supporters, the election was stolen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:42:00]

KING: President Trump is not alone in spreading baseless claims of widespread voter fraud buoyed by misinformation, plenty of it on social media, Trump supporters are convinced the election was stolen. That of course is a claim not supported by any documented proof. With me now CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, who recently went to a stop the steal protest, that in and of itself speaks volumes. There are such things as stop the steal protest, Donie.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Yes, that's right, John. We were in Pennsylvania over the weekend with Trump supporters, Pennsylvania, of course, the states that allowed us to project Joe Biden, President-elect of the United States. And these Trump supporters were not happy. As you saying they believe that this election is being stolen. But to use -- to in support of that argument, they are using evidence, which is based on misinformation online. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's legal for them to count votes in Pennsylvania, two days after the election on November 3rd?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're wrong. Go. I don't even want to talk to you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've seen too much pieces of different evidence so far that shows that at this point, I would be OK with a revote.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are all the Trump ballots that were mailed in? Why are we finding them laying around in different places?

O'SULLIVAN: But Trump was telling everybody not to mail it in, right? That's why there's so much more mail-in Democratic, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP) O'SULLIVAN: And, John, you know, as I was speaking to people there, I was asking him what is the evidence you have? And many of them were citing viral social media posts, some of them shared by the President and his family, which have been debunked, which have been fact checked and found to be false. For instance, a false video that purports to show ballots that were for Trump being set on fire, it's totally false election officials in Virginia, the state heard these ballots purported to be from, totally false.

You know, but it's just incredible, really how online misinformation is leading people to really try and challenge the fundamentals of American democracy. John?

KING: Which is why it would be nice if their President the person they listened to would say we've looked at this, we scrubbed it hard. We don't have any widespread proof time to move on. It would be nice if they have proof documented, if not, say so. Donie O'Sullivan, grateful for that important reporting.

[12:44:18]

And still ahead for us, Joe Biden will be the president-elect. He is the president-elect. Will he have a divided government or will Democrats control the House and the Senate? Well, two runoffs in Georgia will settle the senate question.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Senators returning to Capitol Hill today to begin the lame duck session. But all eyes on the state of Georgia. The balance in power in Washington hinges on to run off Senate races set now for January. Republicans hope to keep to incumbency Senator Kelly Loeffler, David Perdue. Well Democrats are vying now to flip both. One of the Democratic challengers charts the path ahead. So in order to win, Democrats need to copy, replicate the giant turnout of last Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON OSSOFF (D-GA), SENATE CANDIDATE: We're talking about very fine margins here. This was the most competitive Senate race in the country. And now it's all about getting people out to the polls for this January 5th runoff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining us now is Rachael Bade congressional reporter for The Washington Post. So people who might be tired and want the election to be over, uh-uh. This, you know, you might think oh, it's just two races in Georgia control of the Senate is at stake here. This is going to become a national boom.

[12:50:06]

RACHAEL BADE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that's exactly right. I mean, John, you cannot sort of overstate how consequential these two Senate races are. I mean, this is going to make the difference between whether we have two years of gridlock in Washington or whether we see a full Democratic takeover where, you know, President-elect Joe Biden is able to pass a Democratic agenda through Congress.

Basically, Democrats need to not just win one of these seats, they need to win both. And this is -- remember, this is Georgia, it's traditionally a very conservative state. Obviously, the demographics are starting to change. Biden is slightly ahead in Georgia in terms of vote counts right now. But look, Republicans we have talked to at "The Post", say they're very confident that in special elections, they can turn out their base and say, look, if unless you want Joe Biden to pass a radical leftist agenda, which is what Republicans are going to say on T.V., you need to keep these Republican senators and send them back to Washington.

So again, Georgia will very much be determining what we see here in D.C. for the next two years. Is it going to be Democrats controlling everything? Or is it going to be a bunch of infighting with Mitch McConnell still in the Senate and putting a stop to the Biden agenda?

KING: Right. And that's the fascinating test. So let's just put up the slice of the two the two sets a team here, the two sets of candidates here. You have, you know, the Reverend Raphael Warnock running against Senator Loeffler, she was appointed. Jon Ossoff running against Senator David Perdue, he's an incumbent Republican. They're both at the same time control of the Senate is at stake. Democrats have never won a runoff in Georgia statewide. But they think this time, Rachael, that they might have a better chance number one, the energy coming off the presidential election. Number two, they say Ossoff has appeal to young voters. Reverend Warnock has appeal obviously from Ebenezer Baptist Church, to the African American stitchery, that maybe each of their stronger basis, if you will, if they come up together can get them there. Is that a viable theory?

BADE: Yes, I mean, look, Biden is ahead right now in Georgia, this is traditionally Republican state, anything is possible. I do think another thing at play, another factor at play here is both of those Republican candidates have had controversies surrounding them. Kelly Loeffler was out there campaigning with QAnon candidates, people who are sort of espousing conspiracy theories. And that really is going to hurt her in terms of this runoff with Raphael Warnock, who is again, inspiring a lot of people to come out would be the first black senator from Georgia to come out and vote.

And, you know, David Perdue, obviously got a lot of flack when he made fun of Senator Kamala Harris and, you know, knocked her name and sort of had a little dog whistle problem there. So could that hurt him, very much? It's going to be an interesting race to watch.

KING: And it's possible we'll get both Biden and Trump back on the campaign trail in those runoffs. We'll watch just that one place that as well. Rachael Bade appreciate the reporting and the insights, this selections not over yet, not over yet. Two important ones still left.

Up next for us, global leaders reacting to Joe Biden's victory and one world leader, notably keeping quiet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:57:33]

KING: Leaders around the world now congratulating Joe Biden on his presidential election victory. These kind words include statements and tweets by leaders in the United Kingdom, Australia, Israel, France, Germany, and more but not China. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry tells CNN it is too soon, quote, we understand that the outcome of the general election will be determined in accordance with the laws and procedures of the United States. We're also not hearing much from Russia, our global correspondents now with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matthew Chance in Moscow. And the silence from the Kremlin on the U.S. presidential election speaks volumes still no official message to President-elect Biden just a short statement, saying the Kremlin deems it correct to wait for the official U.S. election results before Vladimir Putin congratulates the winner. Moscow giving President Trump who has made unfounded claims of election fraud, the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

Russian state media is reiterating that with one of its main news anchors describing what he calls the sloppy way in which the U.S. election has been conducted adding that all hope is lost for an honest expression of the people's will. Moscow is bracing of course for a much tougher tone from Washington under President-elect Biden, who's called Russia the main threat to U.S. national security.

For many Russians, President Trump remains popular widely seen as wanting to improve ties with Moscow and of course as deferential to the Russian leader.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Some breaking news just in to CNN. I'm reading the President's Twitter feed live here, excuse me for this, but the President of the United States, we have been expecting perhaps some post-election recriminations or personnel moves. He tweets this morning that he has just fired the Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Again, I'm going to read it to you here I'm pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center will be Acting Secretary of Defense effective immediately. Chris will do a great job. Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.

Remember in the run up to the election, many of the military officials were upset. They thought they had been led into that political rally by the President leaving the White House going over to the church across in the White House. Protesters were gassed and like Esper had made clear he did not want the Pentagon or any military officials involved in the election in any way. The President now firing just moments ago on Twitter, yet again, firing someone on Twitter the Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, this is a dynamic. We will continue to watch, there's been a lot of talk that the President will use his anger invented with personnel moves in these days, important days after the presidential election.

[13:00:08]

Appreciate your time today.