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Key Battleground States Still Counting Votes; Trump Administration Refuses to Begin Presidential Transition; Right-Wing Media Enabling Trump & GOP's Election Denialism; Pompeo: Smooth Transition to Second Trump Administration. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired November 10, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:34:12]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: As President Trump and his circle make baseless claims about voter fraud, the electoral map remains remarkably consistent, even one week after Election Day.
We are still awaiting the final vote tally from some battleground states like Georgia and Arizona.
I want to bring in CNN political director, David Chalian, to talk about this.
There you are, still at the wall, David. Give us a closer look.
(LAUGHTER)
KEILAR: When will it stop? Give us a closer look at the numbers.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Take a look, Brianna. There are four states we haven't projected winners in, state elections officials haven't reported out a winner, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Alaska.
When you fill in the leads, which can as lead, you see Donald Trump is leading into them.
So in Georgia, Joe Biden is leading is now at 12,293 votes, 49.5 percent to 49.3 percent. That .2 percent difference is within the .5 percent limit for a candidate to request a recount.
[13:35:14]
Trump campaign clearly indicated they will, once the state certifies the vote totals there. So there clearly seems to be a recount coming in Georgia.
But Joe Biden continues to build his lead as the final votes keep coming in and getting counted. A different story in Arizona, Brianna. Take a look. Joe Biden's lead
is still there, but now down to 14,746.
It is Donald Trump who has been making up ground in this state as the vote keeps coming in and being counted. You see 98 percent of the vote reporting.
State officials think there's still some 60,000 to 65,000 ballots left to be counted in Arizona.
Joe Biden, his campaign is confident they're going to hang onto the lead. But you see 14,746, that lead is smaller than it was last week as the election returns were coming in -- Brianna?
KEILAR: And you know, David, when we focus on some of these states and see how things are close in some states, it leads a lot of folks to say that was such a close election.
But actually, we're seeing record-breaking numbers in the election overall, in the popular vote and turnout.
CHALIAN: No doubt about that.
Again, in the Electoral College as well. Just take a look. It was - sorry, wrong button to push.
If, indeed, Joe Biden wins Arizona and Georgia, as he is leading now, he will be up to 306 electoral votes. That's what Donald Trump had four years ago.
You're right to note national popular vote. Look at this. Joe Biden has 76 million voters, Donald Trump, 71.5 million. Joe Biden now has a lead of 4.6 million votes ahead of Donald Trump nationally.
We don't elect our presidents a on national popular vote.
But look at four years ago at the numbers. Joe Biden is 10 million more votes than Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump has more than eight million more votes than he got four years ago.
It was a totally engaged electorate. Turnout was high on both sides.
But Joe Biden's lead over Donald Trump nationally is more substantial than Hillary Clinton had four years ago in the national popular vote. And votes are still coming in.
We've still have a ways to go, especially in places like California and New York -- Brianna?
KEILAR: We'll be watching. Who knows when we'll stop coming to you at the wall, David Chalian?
(LAUGHTER)
KEILAR: Thank you so much. What happens if the president continues to refuse a peaceful
transition of power? We're going to talk about real-life national security impact.
Plus, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is in charge of representing the U.S. to the world, just said out loud there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration. The danger of that comment ahead.
[13:42:45]
KEILAR: The outgoing Trump administration's refusal to begin the transition with the Biden campaign is already having impact. From lack of intel briefings, to diplomatic chaos, to a top government official doubling down on her refusal to cooperate.
Our CNN correspondents are covering all the angles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I'm Alex Marquardt in Washington. One of the critical parts of any transition being held up is the full, highly classified intelligence briefings that presidents-elect are supposed to receive, known as the president's daily brief.
So far, that is not happening for President-Elect Joe Biden.
The office of Director of National Intelligence, which coordinates briefings, says they won't be engaging with the Biden team until the race has been officially ascertained.
But it is up to President Donald Trump to decide whether President- Elect Biden receives these critical national security briefings. So far, that is not happening.
They are essential to national security, so the incoming administration is up to speed on the issues and ready to go on day one.
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I am Kylie Atwood at the State Department. As President Trump contests the election victory of President-Elect Joe Biden, American diplomats don't know what to tell foreign counterparts about election results. They don't know if they can call Joe Biden the president-elect.
And that's because the State Department has given them no guidance on how to discuss the election results.
Now, that is not normal. Traditionally, the secretary of state sends a congratulatory message to the president-elect and launches the transition period at the State Department, formally with a State Department-wide memo.
These diplomats at State are also fearful how this could impact their work going forward. President Trump challenging the election, based on no evidence, is
exactly what they have warned foreign leaders against. Now they're fearful of how seriously they'll be taken.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kristen Holmes in Washington, D.C. We are days after the election. The Head of the General Services Administration, a Trump political appointee, has yet to ascertain that Joe Biden won the election.
Now, this is a critical step. It allows the Biden team to formally begin their transition. It also gives them access to government funds for that transition.
[13:45:00]
Now, according to the agency, they say the administrator will continue to abide by the law.
And they cite the Clinton/Bush transition in 2000 as reference, as a precedent for why they have not yet signed.
Now, the Biden team has not formally ruled out legal action should this continue much longer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Thank you so much to all of our correspondents.
Soon, we're going to hear from President-Elect Joe Biden who is expected to make remarks on Obamacare as the Supreme Court hears arguments on the future of the ACA. We'll bring those to you live.
Plus, as Republicans enable the president's denial of his election loss, FOX is the engine. We're going to talk about that.
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[13:50:05]
KEILAR: You can count on one hand how many Republicans lawmakers have publicly acknowledged Joe Biden is president-elect. Senators Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, Mitt Romney, of Utah, Susan Collins, of Maine, and Ben Sasse, of Nebraska.
The rest are silent, emboldening the president as he refuses to concede. But why?
CNN senior media reporter, Oliver Darcy, is here to shed some light on this subject.
Tell us really what is in the calculus of GOP Senators according to your reporting, Oliver.
OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: Brianna, if you watch right- wing media, you would think the election was stolen by corrupt Deep State Democrats. I you watch FOX News, that's the message. If you listen to talk radio,
that's the message. And if you read far-right Web sites the president is promoting, that is the message.
This matters because Republican politicians, they know that the real power players in their Republican Party, those people are Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh. Those are the people who control the Republican Party.
So by them coming out and telling audiences this election was probably stolen, Trump should maybe be president-elect again, that desensitizes Republican politicians, who need to come out and tell the president what you're pushing is not true and it's disinformation.
It desensitizes these people from coming out speaking against the president. If they do that, they know they'll end up on Hannity's monologue, Rush Limbaugh's radio show, being attacked.
In the reverse, it actually incentivizes dishonest Republican politicians, people like Ted Cruz, to go on FOX News and continue to feed the narrative, to play into the president's games.
That's why I've been saying for some time now that Rupert Murdoch really has a key role to play. Rupert Murdoch who is the owner of FOX News.
He could come out and tell his hosts like Hannity, knock it off, Hannity. If you want to give your opinions on the election, fine. But play with the facts. Be grounded in reality.
Instead, it seems that's not happening, because folks like Hannity and Tucker Carlson are continuing to feed this dishonest narrative. And it shows no indication of stopping.
KEILAR: You mentioned the primetime posts. But we're actually seeing -- we saw something interesting yesterday. Something maybe out of character, if you were to look at FOX, writ large, Oliver.
They actually cut away from a White House press conference led by Kayleigh McEnany when she began spewing lies about voter fraud.
And FOX's primetime talent later criticized the move. Is there a growing divide there?
DARCY: I wouldn't read too much in the network cutting away.
Actually, it's not really the network that cut away. It's Neil Cavuto, who has been a little more outspoken about the president's lies, who probably made that unilateral decision he was going to cut away.
But what he cut away from, he said, we can't air this in good conscious.
The primetime lineup, the propagandists, like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, they are the ones who were later on saying -- making those exact same arguments Kayleigh McEnany was making. So I wouldn't read too much into Neil Cavuto doing this. This was a
30-second moment in 24 hours of programing.
Overall, the main message from right-wing media, from FOX News is that the election was possibly stolen by corrupt Democrats, who are just power hungry and want Biden in office of at all costs.
KEILAR: Oliver, thank you so much. We really appreciate you digging into that for us.
[13:53:35]
Next, we'll hear Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's dangerous comments about the election as he pushes baseless fraud claims as America's top diplomat. Stand by for that.
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[13:59:25]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
KEILAR: It is the top of the hour. I'm Brianna Keilar.
And Joe Biden is speaking moments from now.
But we begin with dangerous new comments from America's top diplomat. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo peddling baseless claims of election fraud and suggesting the president didn't lose to Joe Biden.
Keep in mind that he is the secretary of state, who is tasked with selling democracy to other nations. Telling them why they should run free and fair elections.
Take a listen to this exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[14:00:00]
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is the State Department currently preparing to engage with the Biden transition team? And if not, at what point does a delay hamper a smooth transition or pose a risk to national security?
