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Vote Counting Continues in Close Battleground States; Biden Makes Veterans Day Stop in Philadelphia; President Trump Observes Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery. Aired 11-11:30a ET
Aired November 11, 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 this very special day with us.
It is Veterans Day, the federal holiday to honor all of those who served in the U.S. Armed Forces, all who have served to protect our Democracy. It is tradition, of course, for the commander in chief to pay respects by laying a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery. President Trump is on his way there right now to do so even as he had actively attacks and undermines the Democratic institutions our veterans, past and present, risked and risk their lives to protect.
President-elect Joe Biden also honoring the sacrifice today saying quote, "To all of our proud veterans, know that I will be a commander in chief who respects your sacrifice, understands your service, and who will never betray the values you fought so bravely to defend. I will never treat you or your families with anything less than the honor you deserve."
Now we haven't seen President Trump much in the eight days since Election Day, but his tweets and his team claim the election was a fraud and that he won. The vote counts and the facts backed up by election officials of both parties across America tell us there is zero evidence of major fraud and that the president lost.
Joe Biden is the president-elect and in exactly 10 weeks and one hour he will take the oath of office. The soon to be 46th president of the United States will inherit a divided nation and a spiraling pandemic.
Look here, the United States breaking more records both for total daily new infections and for hospitalizations. 45 states report new infections right now on the rise. The pandemic is a life-and-death example of why a smooth transition of power is essential, but the president and his team are defiant. Again, despite zero evidence of any wide scale fraud. Team Trump is suing Michigan, where the president lost by nearly 150,000 votes.
Today it rushed out a statement alleging four dead people voted in Georgia. Four. The president trails Biden in Georgia by more than 14,000 votes. President Trump's post-election spike includes a management shake-up at the highest levels of the Pentagon and he's getting support from Republicans who fear him or who want to stay in his good graces because of their own future political ambitions. That list includes the secretary of state, America's spokesman to the world now looking on with shock. The president-elect says he's going to ignore this Trumpian folly e. And he thinks you should too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: There will be a smooth transition to the Trump administration.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't see a need for legal action quite frankly. So far, there's no evidence of any assertions made by the president or Secretary of State Pompeo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: So, this is the map and remains the map despite what you hear from team Trump eight days after Election Day. And they say there's fraud everywhere to be found. We have reporters, other major news organizations have reporters checking in on all of this and it's simply not the case.
Let's just go through some of the states. President Trump has made up some ground on Joe Biden in Arizona. Joe Biden's lead now 12,813. It was above 14,000. They're still counting legally cast ballots. They're counting the votes and tabulations. Joe Biden still ahead though but it's come down a little bit in Arizona.
Let's come to the east, Pennsylvania, biggest of the battleground states that were decided late. This is the one that put Joe Biden over the top. 47,591 votes he's ahead. This lead has been growing modestly. They report a couple hundred votes here, dozen votes there, couple hundred there. Sometimes the president goes up a tiny bit but mostly and including out of Philadelphia today, Joe Biden goes up.
As I noted at the top, this is not in play anymore, but team Trump somehow says it's going to overturn the results in Michigan with a suit alleging fraud, 148,645 votes. Let's say they find 10 ballots here, 12 ballots there, maybe 100 or 200, 148,645 votes.
Then you come down to the state of Georgia. Again, this is history, a Democrat hasn't carried Georgia since Bill Clinton back in the 1990s. Joe Biden views this win here as a statement, 14,112 votes ahead right now. That lead has been growing just a little at a time as they continue to count legally cast ballots.
Now the Team Trump, the state's Republican senators are all mad at the secretary of state, all mad at the secretary of state, who said a short time ago, I'm doing my job. We are going to have a recount because it's so close, 49.5 percent to 49.2 percent. The secretary of state says yes, we're going to have a hand - we're going to hand count all of those ballots. Double-check, that's what happens in a Democracy. But he says he still sees no evidence of fraud and if you have seen it, please, bring it to his attention.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: My office will continue to investigate each and every instance of illegal voting. Double voting, felon voting, people voting out of state, if you report it, we will investigate it. Every legal vote will count.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[11:05:00]
KING: Let's begin the hour with our chief political correspondent Dana Bash. I may have to interrupt, Dana, when we see the president at Arlington National Cemetery. Just want to give you a heads-up there.
That's the secretary of state, the Republican secretary of state in Georgia saying we're going to keep going. Yes, we're going to do a recount because it's very close. He says he hasn't seen anything.
Our reporters are doing just what "The New York Times" did. I just want to hold up "The New York Times" so everybody can see it. Contacting election officials in all 50 states. Texas refused to respond but Trump's winning Texas anyway. You have Democrats in this article, Republicans in this article, election officials all across America saying no widespread fraud but team Trump thinks we're going to press on. Help me with their math, because I've done this a while, and it doesn't exist.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It doesn't exist. I also want to say for people who are not familiar with the protocols of newspapers, what you just held up wasn't just a big story, it was a banner headline, which doesn't happen for people who are not used to modern-day newspapers, reading it online, it doesn't happen very much and it only happens when media organizations see something really big and that is really big and important.
There is no widespread fraud, full stop. There isn't even medium spread fraud. It isn't existing. There is no math to answer your question. Republicans on Capitol Hill know it. Republicans in the governors' mansions across the country know it and state legislatures. They're not saying it in public. They know it.
And what they're trying to do still is allow the president to work through the process. Their hope is the answer will come from judges in some of these places where the Trump campaign and RNC are suing to try to get answers. If not, they will come in the form of states certifying their results. Pennsylvania, for example, that is a week from Monday, November 23rd. And so, that is why they think they have some time, but it's certainly allowing for a big, big vacuum that is making some people extremely worried.
KING: Right. And among the people extremely worried are Democrats who just don't trust this president and frankly see what he's doing in his post-election series of grievances in spite turning things over, Trump people mumbling about he's going to set up an alternative White House at Mar-a-Lago and things like that. But Joe Biden himself has been pretty chill about all of this. He's essentially saying you know this will pass, let the president do his little Trumpian folly. It will pass. He also says, listen here, he thinks in the end, even the Republicans standing up saying the president is right, keep counting votes. We'll come around. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: How do you expect to work with Republicans if they won't even acknowledge you as president-elect?
BIDEN: They will. They will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Is that calm real? Is it behind the scenes? Does it extend behind the scenes he's so calm about this, or are they just nervous the president will try to find some lever to steal something?
BASH: First of all, if you ever met a Democrat, you know there's always nerves --
KING: I have met a few.
BASH: It's in the DNA of Democrats, as you know. But even having said that, my understanding is it's real, that the former vice president, now president-elect, has been around the block. This is one of the benefits of experience. He knows. He's been there. He knows how this is done. He knows what needs to get done and he knows about the timeline.
And so, in talking to sources involved with the transition, I'm told that for now they think it's OK that they're not getting the money from the GSA. For now, they think it's OK he's not getting the president's daily brief which is customary to do for a president- elect. And I say for now because they feel that there is time.
Now, I was told come back to me in a couple of weeks and if things haven't changed, if the president hasn't accepted the reality in front of him, perhaps they will be more aggressive. But the goal right now from people inside the Biden transition and, frankly, Republicans who are privately urging the president to knock it off is the island the president is on will get smaller and smaller and smaller. That may be a big assumption given the history of Donald Trump. He doesn't give up easily, as we know.
KING: And he has an echo chamber on another news network and all over the network of his friends and allies saying this is fraud, fraud Armageddon happening in the election. Again, this is the local newspaper in Pennsylvania, postal worker who did a recording with a conservative group saying there was fraud recanted that when he's put under oath. It's an interesting thing when you get put under oath and have to put your job at risk or have to go into a court of law.
A lot of Trump people saying this is just like 2000. This is just like Bush v. Gore, it may go to the Supreme Court, except it's not. Number one, I want to read this from Andy Card, George W. Bush's chief of staff, John Podesta, know that Democrat by the conservatives understand him because they've maligned him on the Internet. a lot of people understand him because they maligned him on the Internet -- while this is an op-ed they wrote together.
While the president is fully within his rights to pursue legal action or demand recounts for the good of our country and the rest of the world watching, America needs to come together and start a smooth and peaceful transition of power.
[11:10:04]
We fought bitterly over the recount in 2000. This election is not like 2000. And given the realities of the pandemic, delaying the launch of the transition could have real costs. The transition process should begin now.
A couple quick points here, it is not like 2000 because it's not one state. It is not one state. I went through the math last night. The president needs to flip three states. Three states. He has to find fraud of 45,000 or more in Pennsylvania, 12,000 in Georgia, maybe 12,000 in Arizona or if he says Michigan is my big win, OK, reverse 150,000 votes in Michigan and flipping one of those states wouldn't do it, flipping two of those states wouldn't do it. It's ludicrous.
BASH: Yes. And by the way for context, flipping 150,000 votes in Michigan where Donald Trump's victory was 10,074 votes and Hillary Clinton didn't fight it. I mean that kind of tells you everything you need to know about where they are or where they are not in this claim that the president says that he has. As much as I'm told by people in the Biden transition that they're calm right now --
KING: Dana, I will just interrupt one second. This is President-elect Joe Biden. He's at a Veterans Day event in Philadelphia, not far from his home in Delaware. Let's just listen for a minute.
JUDGE PATRICK DUGAN, CHIEF JUDGE, PHILADELPHIA VETERANS COURT: I'm Judge Patrick Dugan. I'm on the board of the Korean Memorial. I want to ask the 82nd airborne association honor guard to post the colors.
KING: Split-screen moment here on this important day, federal holiday, Veterans Day, president-elect of the United States, on the left of your screen. He's at a Korean Memorial in Philadelphia. The president of the United States, President Trump, is at Arlington National Cemetery. That is on the right of your screen for the traditional wreath laying ceremony.
Remarkable as the election is over. President Trump declining to concede that point at the moment, but this day should be about veterans. And so, you have the president-elect of the United States on the left, president of the United States can't quite see him, but he's on the right side of the screen here, as we mark this holiday at a very, very contentious time honoring veterans who risked their lives, risked past tense, risk present tense for American veterans today at a time when their commander in chief, forgive me, but it's true, actively undermining the institution of Democracy they put on the uniform to protect. Let's listen a little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will now ask head veteran corps mentor, marine corps veteran sergeant Tim Gwynn to lead us in "The Pledge of Allegiance." Will everybody join in.
ALL: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to welcome our mayor, our President-elect and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If anyone understands what veterans go through, it's their family. Their son, think about it, joined the military. Who does that now, except you veterans and this family here?
[11:15:07]
It's my honor, I'm going to be presenting this first wreath.
KING: This is Arlington National Cemetery. Again, you just saw pictures of the President-elect Joe Biden at a Veterans Day event in Philadelphia. This is Arlington Cemetery, just across the Potomac River, not far from the White House. Some of America's most hallowed ground there obviously. The president and first lady there for the traditional wreath laying. It is a rainy November day here in the Washington area.
While we wait for the president in this wreath laying, I want to bring in our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, and forgive me if I have to interrupt once the wreath-laying begins. This is sad to say, my dad served at the end of the Korean War. He was deployed in Germany and this is a special day in our family and it just feels weird for me to be talking politics at all on this day. But here we are. Shake-up in the Pentagon leadership right before Veterans Day by a president, Barbara, who refuses to acknowledge the results of an election eight days ago.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: And has installed his own political loyalist here's at the top levels for the Pentagon. Politics is something the military wants to stay out of every day of the year. Let's remember, Veterans Day is always a good day to talk about this, from the most junior enlisted soldier to the four-star general, Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs.
American forces take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution in this country. They serve the people. The president, of course, is the commander in chief but this is a nation, they're in civilian control of the military but the oath of the service is to the Constitution, to be remembered every single day.
And President Trump has made a choice over the years to speak of his generals, his military. I think it is fair to say on this day, it is very much worth remembering, they do not belong to him by any stretch. They belong to the country. All of those laid to rest there at Arlington, all of those who are being remembered by the president- elect in Philadelphia today, all of these people have taken that oath of service to the nation, to the people of this nation. Little ironic that the president is attending this on a rainy day in Washington at Arlington, because, of course, troops stand duty, fight and fall and battle in any weather and you will recall the president took some criticism for not attending a memorial service at a military cemetery in France because it was raining that day. His view was the Secret Service would not allow him to travel in the rain. Whatever you want to make of it, other dignitaries were able, world leaders were able to attend that cemetery on a rainy day. The president now scheduled to appear momentarily in Arlington on this day. You see both in Philadelphia and in Arlington, U.S. veterans, U.S. military standing tall even on a rainy day, John.
KING: And we salute them. Ang again, let's listen in at Arlington.
Waiting for the president of the United States. I thought he was coming out sooner. Apologies to our viewers. These events are live and especially with the weather conditions they can be a bit unpredictable. So, we're watching the president-elect in Philadelphia moments ago and playing the president of the United States and the first lady are here at Arlington National Cemetery.
Our Barbara Starr is with us at the Pentagon. Dan Lamothe of "The Washington Post," national security correspondents are also with us as well. And again, Dan, as I was saying to Barbara, I feel almost the need to apologize to our veterans because their day -- their day, a very special day and a day they deserve more than words can describe, is now caught up in the middle of this remarkable moment in American history in which we have a clear winner of a presidential election, that would be the President-elect Joe Biden on the left of your screen.
On the right of the screen you're about to see the president of the United States who will be president 10 more weeks exactly, 10 more weeks exactly but at this moment not only refusing to acknowledge the results of the election but we are seeing his anger in the personnel shifts that Barbara was just detailing.
[11:20:00]
And I know you had some great reporting on this as well at the Pentagon that have unnerved a lot of people who worry in his final days the president is going to want to do some personal business, if you will, whether or not it's the right thing to do a, a time of transition, or b, national security.
DAN LAMOTHE, NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Yes, John. I think there are concerns on a couple levels. One is that as this continues to play out with the election, if unrest continues to perhaps rise again, you raise the concern that we go back to June where the president was interested in invoking the insurrection act, putting active duty troops on America's streets, that was something Secretary Esper was against. That was something that a number of other Pentagon officials were against, and now you have new leadership at the top.
KING: And Barbara, what is the mood in the building? Look, sometimes at the end of an administration you promote loyalists, so that they have titles that help them move on later in life to bigger and better jobs and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's tradition in politics. It could be that. Or it could be as Dan just noted and I know you're reporting tells you as well, some people are afraid these people have agendas they view as counterproductive and they were not able to advance them in the full days of the administration, if that's the right term, because the bureaucracy would not allow those ideas to advance. And in the final days perhaps you can some things through that otherwise might not fly. Is that the word?
STARR: I think it's very tough to tell because right now the word you hear around here is uncertainty. And uncertainty is something that the U.S. military does not like. They want to know what's going on. They will follow legal orders. They want to know what the president is thinking. They want to know why all of these changes have taken place. Uncertainty does not lead in their view to sound stable military decision making.
The president still not explaining what he has in mind here. One of the things you do continue to hear is he's talked about wanting to bring troops home. He's talked about wanting to bring forces home from Afghanistan by Christmas. That is not the military advise he's getting. The top military commanders think there's still plenty that needs to be done in Afghanistan and the U.S. can't walk away from it yet.
So, what is speculation, I want to state that, but there is speculation in Pentagon hallways, could that be what Mr. Trump is thinking to make some big announcement that he's bringing the troops home before he leaves office, and basically closing the door for Joe Biden the president-elect, to have a military strategy in places like be Afghanistan?
Where might Mr. Trump close the door on military options that the president-elect might still wish to carry out? It's one of the theories but, again, right now uncertainty. We don't even know if the chairman of the joint chiefs has recently spoken to the president. We don't know if Christopher Miller, the new acting defense secretary, has recently spoken to the president.
Mark Esper was fired by tweet and it was only the chief of staff Mark Meadows at the White House that was available to give him essentially a five-minute heads up that this was coming. So, this has been a week of -- there's no way around it -- political turmoil at the Pentagon. When they come back from Veterans Day, I think everybody wants to see it calm down but that essentially is going to be up to the president whether he wants to continue these current atmospherics.
KING: And Dan, that's one of the great moments of uncertainty. We have one president at a time. That is the stated policy. On any big national security question for the next 10 weeks, that is President Donald Trump's decision.
But on this bigger question, and you see the president and the first lady arriving now. On the bigger question, troop withdrawals, troop deployments, big decisions to be made by the NATO alliance, if there are any, normally at this point, the outgoing team would be in contact with the incoming team comparing notes, comparing notes. Just to make sure that the outgoing team doesn't do anything that's 180 degrees different for the incoming team. Let's just watch a little bit here, Dan, I will pick up the conversation in just a moment.
[11:25:00]
(PRESIDENT TRUMP OBSERVES VETERANS DAY AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY)
