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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Holds Rally With Few Masks, No Distancing as His Task Force Warns of "Unrelenting" Community Spread; Trump Holds Crowded Rally in State With Rising Cases, WH Touts "Ending" Pandemic Despite One American Dying Every 90 Seconds; Record 74+ Million Early Ballots Cast 6 Days Before Election, More Than Half of All 2016 Votes; Trump Complains That if not for Coronavirus He Wouldn't Need to Campaign in States He Won in 2016; Trump, Biden to Campaign in Florida Tomorrow, Trump Says He's "Doing Fantastically" in State as Polls Show Dead Heat; Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is Interviewed About the Biden Campaign; Hurricane Zeta Hits New Orleans as Category 2 Storm. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired October 28, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: ... go to cnn.com/vote and we'll connect you to important election deadlines and local voter resources in your state. Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.
Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, the President's own task force warning of a 'unrelenting and broad spread of coronavirus tonight'. Dr. Anthony Fauci says we won't even be close to back to normal until the end of 2021 at the earliest. Yet with six days until Election Day, the President denies it.
Plus, the road to 270. Biden with the edge tonight, but Democrats still so nervous, why?
And Pulitzer Prize winning historian Jon Meacham, he's covered presidents his entire career. But this is the first time he has made an endorsement, how come? He's my guest. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, the October surprise that isn't a surprise, coronavirus is raging. We are now six days away from Election Day and team Trump is betting on the message that the virus is vanquished. Even as Trump's own Coronavirus Task Force today warns of a 'unrelenting and broad spread of the virus'. Even as Dr. Anthony Fauci says, the U.S. will not get back to some semblance of normality until the end of 2021, maybe even later.
Well, you can see the denial. I don't have to tell you can see the denial at Trump's rally right now. It is his second of the day in Arizona, few masks, no social distancing, even as Arizona is facing a near 60 percent increase in the seven-day average of hospitalizations. You can see it at Vice President Mike Pence's rallies today. Pence
breaking his quarantine again. This is Wisconsin earlier today, which recorded a record number of deaths yesterday. And Mike Pence now just landing in Michigan for another rally, which is facing its highest seven-day average for new cases and hospitalization levels not seen since mid-May.
This is on a day that American voters have been given the starkest choice yet, maskless rallies violating quarantines, images of a virus vanquished. Trump even putting out a news release highlighting the administration's achievements over the past four years and it declares this victory for Trump 'ending the COVID-19 pandemic'.
That's one choice. The other is this, Joe Biden briefed by public health experts and talking about only one thing today, the virus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not running a false promise of being able to end this pandemic by flipping a switch. But what I can promise you is this, we will start on day one doing the right things. We'll let science drive our decisions. We will deal honestly the American people and we'll never ever, ever quit. That's how we'll shut down this virus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Americans have a stark choice to make indeed. And when it comes to the facts on the virus right now, the facts are not on Trump's side. The President proclaiming that he has ended the COVID-19 pandemic in that press release on the same day that one American died every 90 seconds from COVID. Those are the statistics in the past 24 hours, one American dying every 90 seconds.
And if that does not put the concept of ended to rest, you might want to think about it this way. Up to 20,000 more Americans projected to die in the next two and a half weeks of coronavirus. Those are facts and you don't have to take them from me. Here today are the President's former FDA Chief, Trump's former FDA chief and Trump's current top infectious disease expert.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FMR. FDA COMMISSIONER: I think we're entering the most difficult phase of the pandemic right now.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We're not in a good place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: The President is not listening to them. In fact, he has never wanted to and you don't have to listen to me. Listen to this newly obtained audio of Trump's son in law Jared Kushner talking to Bob Woodward back in April.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JARED KUSHNER, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S SON-IN-LAW: Trump's now back in charge. It's not the doctors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Yes. Trump was back in charge, not the doctors and therefore he owns America's response to this virus. And not only has Trump not accomplished 'ending the pandemic', but it did not have to be this bad six days before his presidential reelection bid. If the President had made different choices up to 210,000 American lives could have been saved, according to the latest Columbia University study, specifically, by things the President could have made happen, wearing masks and social distancing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAUCI: I feel quite confident that if we had uniformly done the things that I was talking about just a moment ago, that certainly considerable number of lives could have been saved.
DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Two hundred thousand of our fellow Americans have died in the last seven months. If we had done what a large number of other countries have done, take the virus seriously, implement public health measures, 80 percent, 90 percent of those people would be alive today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:05:08]
BURNETT: So while President Trump today declares victory over the virus and his chief of staff says that they can't 'control' the pandemic, the President's own testing czar are now breaking with him saying this is all wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: I do want to emphasize that as we did in the Sun Belt, as we did in the Deep South, we can control the virus. We know how to do that smart policies, very critical to wear a mask when you can't physically distance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: We have both campaigns covered tonight, as American voters face this stark choice on the coronavirus. Kaitlan Collins is at the White House covering President Trump and Jessica Dean is covering Joe Biden.
Let me start with you, Kaitlan. The President continuing today to defy what his doctors are telling us. We're hearing Jared Kushner make it obvious that was what they wanted to do. Trump was in charge, not the doctors. And the press release today, they're claiming credit for ending the pandemic. KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And Erin, when
Jared Kushner made those comments, only 40,000 Americans had died. And we've seen where we've come now just a short time later.
But you're right. The President is not only defying what his own administration guidelines say by holding these rallies, but he's ignoring what his own doctors are saying as well, because something he's repeatedly insisted and has never been accurate is that there are more cases because there is more testing, he keeps saying.
And his testing coordinator today said that is not the case. It's because there are actually more cases and that was in addition to disputing what the Chief of Staff said about being able to control the pandemic and then, of course, it really culminated with that statement, that press release from the White House touting, ending the pandemic as one of the President's accomplishments in his first term in office.
And the comm shop did later acknowledged that was a poorly worded statement. But Erin, it wasn't just poorly worded, it was completely inaccurate. If you look at the numbers and see that half a million Americans nearly had contracted coronavirus in just the last seven days alone. But even though these mixed messages are still coming out of the administration, 10 months into this pandemic, what's not avoidable is the actual pandemic itself and it is - you can see that as the President is holding these rallies trying to close out the final days of this phrase that they can try to ignore the pandemic or spin it in a certain way, but of course the reality is still there. The numbers are still there. And of course, the pandemic is still here as well.
BURNETT: Kaitlan, thank you.
Jessica Dean is OUTFRONT covering the Biden campaign tonight. Jessica, Biden getting all-in on coronavirus with the exact opposite message of President Trump.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's striking how differently these two men are handling this in the closing days of this election, Erin. Today, this is the conversation that Joe Biden and the Biden campaign want to be having. They want this to be a referendum on President Trump and his administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
And to that end, he spent today in his home State of Delaware where he early voted but he also took time for a briefing with his officials, his health officials and scientists, doctors, it was all done remotely. But he was briefed on the current trends in the coronavirus pandemic and then gave remarks. You aired some of them just a few moments ago where he slammed the President's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and offered another way, another choice which he says if he's elected He has a plan he will put into place on day one.
And you heard him say there, he says it's not going to be the flip of the switch. He's acknowledging it's going to be hard, but he says he is ready to take action. At one point, Erin, he said 'enough, it's time for a change'. And the Biden campaign is hoping, is betting that Americans feel the same way that they want someone else to lead them through this.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Jessica.
OUTFRONT now John Avlon, our Senior Political Analyst, Nia Malika Henderson, our Senior Political Reporter and Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at GW who advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush.
Nia, the contrast between the two candidates on this virus couldn't be more stark and you certainly see it tonight. Six days until the election, Biden focus solely on the virus. Trump saying he should have credit for ending it.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: I think that's right and this has echoes I think of the RNC convention when they talked about the coronavirus pandemic as if it was in the past. So you have the administration echoing that, again. They are treating this with indifference as if it is in the past and is if they have great success in over 200,000 Americans dead. And you have Biden are treating it with great urgency laying out a plan for what he would do differently, including urging governors and state and local officials to implement mask mandates and ratcheting up the testing as well.
All things that we know that Donald Trump and his administration has not wanted to do and so they continue with the super spreader events all across the country in pretending that there isn't this terrible economic and health crisis that Americans are going through every single day.
[19:10:03]
BURNETT: And John, the White House claiming in the list of accomplishments ending the COVID-19 pandemic, that's on the list. It's one of the highlights. How can anyone think that is an OK claim to make in a press release when you have deaths and hospitalizations at record levels in some states and your own task force person after person after person saying it is unrelenting and broad?
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It speaks to the unbelievable gravitational pull of tone coming from the top and this presidency, that somebody write down the press office wanted to write down what they thought the President would want them to say, which is an outright lie, taking credit for the end of something that is growing and expanding on their watch. And it just speaks to a culture of deceit and self-deception that has been created by this president, while simultaneously trying to give themselves self-congratulation while people are suffering.
BURNETT: Dr. Reiner, we have that new audio that just came out of President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, boasting to Bob Woodward in mid-April about how the President had successfully cut out the doctors and scientists who are advising on the pandemic at the time. I wanted to, again, play the bottom line of what Kushner told Woodward. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KUSHNER: Trump's now back in charge. It's not the doctors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So at that time, 40,000 Americans had died from the virus as Kaitlan pointed out and Kushner here admits the President owns going against the doctors. HE was proud about it. The death toll now would mean 190,000 deaths that happened between when Jared Kushner said that, Trump's back in charge. It's not the doctors. And the President was not doing what they wanted, 190,000 additional people have died since then.
Should voters hold President Trump accountable for those deaths? The ones that happened once he was 'back in charge'?
JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. He's the President of the United States. He's running the show. He'd be the first person to tell you that he's running the show.
Look, back then in middle of April when Jared Kushner did that interview, there were 700,000 cases in the United States. So since that time, 8 million more people have tested positive.
We wondered whether or how much of this horrible performance was incompetence versus malfeasance. And now we know that it was both. The President intentionally sidelined the professionals who are running this. And think about what - when that April time point was. That was just after the CDC issued its guidelines for how to safely open states.
And then the President sidelined that and encourage states to open as quickly as possible. He sidelined the doctors, he took control, states open quickly and here we are now.
BURNETT: So John, now you have this issue where they're putting that as one of their highlights and to the extent that they're talking about coronavirus, it's to say COVID, COVID, COVID, fake news, let's go to states with record deaths and hospitalizations and have our crowds and not have it be an issue.
But other than that, the team is trying to change the conversation. So any positive they try to change it, Senior Adviser Stephen Miller went so far as today on a call to make this claim about Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN MILLER, TRUMP SENIOR ADVISER: His policies would incentivize child smuggling and child trafficking on an epic global scale.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That is the stuff of conspiracy theories to be clear, John.
AVLON: Yes, it is. That dog whistle to QAnon from a senior advisor to the President who's been known to traffic in white supremacist websites, who followed it on with a lie saying they reunited families when they have a legacy of separating them. But to play to that kind of a conspiracy theory tune on base while being on the taxpayers' dime speaks to the moral degradation that's occupied this administration. It's just the latest sign, but we shouldn't lose sight of how ugly it is just because it happens down the stretch before the election.
BURNETT: And Nia, this is shocking in a sense that you would see the President's team and I know John points out but there's been this dabbling, but to answer this openly on a call, bring up a QAnon conspiracy, then they're claiming the pandemic has ended, they're doing this on a call, Nia, not by accident. They now believe this is their best shot, their best path to turnout and victory next week.
HENDERSON: That's right. I mean, it isn't all about the base strategy. That has been what this President has done for the last many years of his presidency. It's clear that he's coming up short, at least in the poll so far and you see some of his key voters drifting away from him in choosing Biden instead, again, at least according to some of the polls that we've seen from this election so far. We'll see what happens down the stretch.
[19:15:00]
But listen, this isn't a dog whistle, this is a billboard. This is a bullhorn talking about child trafficking and pedophilia. This is right in the wheelhouse of QAnon. We saw the President embrace them or at least refuse to rebuke them many, many times before.
These are his people, because they lionize him and they are wacky, crazy, anti-semitic conspiracy theorists, and they're a dangerous element of American society at this point and you see Stephen Miller, we pay his salary of giving them aid, comfort and support is a very, very dark thing that happened on that call and the President obviously has echoed the same sentiments.
BURNETT: All right. I appreciate all of your time. And thank you.
And next, it is down to the wire as President Trump is griping about having to be out there campaigning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'd love to just drive the hell out of here. Just get the hell out of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Plus, a renowned presidential historian not only taking sides in this election, endorsing a candidate for the first time in his long career. He'll tell you why. Jon Meacham is OUTFRONT.
And breaking news this hour, Hurricanes Zeta just making landfall. Dangerous storm lashing the Gulf Coast. We are live in New Orleans tonight where they just got the worst of it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:05]
BURNETT: Tonight, a record. More than 74 million voters have already cast their ballots, more than half of the total votes cast in 2016. And nearly half of those ballots are coming from voters affiliated with the Democratic Party, Democrats tending to vote early.
Phil Mattingly is OUTFRONT of the magic wall. So Phil, look, it can kind of be confusing and how to interpret that because you got a lot of days left and you've got Election Day, new polls out showing Biden leading in key states. So where are we on the race to 270?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, don't draw too many conclusions by the early vote. Obviously, pay attention to it, but draw some conclusions by the polling right now and that is mostly the 2020 is not 2016. Now, this was the 2016 map.
Donald Trump and his campaign are hoping to replicate that to the extent that they can, at least to get 270 electoral votes. But if you want to see why things are different, start with the national polling at 6.6 days out back in 2016, Donald Trump was trailing Hillary Clinton by five points. That narrowed to three as it got closer to Election Day.
Right now, where do things stand on the CNN poll polls? Donald Trump is trailing Joe Biden by 10 points, but again, you know this well, Erin. It's not all about national polls. In fact, it's all about state polls.
So let's zone in on the State of Wisconsin. This was a crucial state to Donald Trump's blowing a part of the blue wall back in 2016 and he did it ever so narrowly, 22,000 votes. Take a look at where Wisconsin polling stands today, based on the poll of polls that are currently out.
Joe Biden holding a rather handy nine-point lead. That is emblematic to a number of different things, but mostly it's strength the Midwest. And why does this strength in the Midwest actually matter?
Well, we talked about that blue wall. Here's the reality of where things stand. Joe Biden right now already above in the CNN racetracker 270 electoral votes, good reason why, strength in the Midwest. Now, say you give Donald Trump every single toss up out, that includes Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa and why not just go ahead and give him the state of Arizona as well and the State of Nevada, two states where Joe Biden is right now leaning ahead.
If Donald Trump does not puncture that Midwest blue wall, he can win all of those states. And Joe Biden is still over 270 electoral votes. So while Donald Trump may be in Arizona today, while they might be focusing somewhat on the Sunbelt, it will all come back to the Midwest, Erin.
BURNETT: Which is so crucial. OK. So now when you go through this now, there's so many things you need to know about state by state. You can vote early, can your vote be counted if received after Election Day, which obviously now it cannot in Wisconsin, are they able to start counting those mail-in ballots before election day, all of the answers to these questions, in addition to the margins becomes so crucial to the answer to this question, will we know who is president by this time next week.
MATTINGLY: I don't have the answer to that question. But here's the important point, that's OK, right?
BURNETT: Yes.
MATTINGLY: And if you don't have the answer to that question by this point seven days from now, that doesn't mean something is wrong or something has gone amiss. You make a crucial point here. It actually lines up with the map. If the Midwest is so important, if this will all come down to the Midwest, states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, they don't get to count their absentee ballots until Election Day.
So when you have a flood of absentee, when you have a flood of vote by mail and they can't start until Election Day that will likely slow the process down. A lot of thought right now is that Pennsylvania could take multiple days, but we don't know, we've never had a coronavirus selection before.
However, if this comes down to Joe Biden winning, say, a state like Florida or a state like North Carolina or a state like Arizona, they count before Election Day, they have infrastructure in place that has dealt with mail-in ballots more than perhaps some of the Midwest states, so you may have an answer.
The reality is we don't know, Erin, if we are still going through this by this point next week. The good news is we both have young children. We're not used to sleeping anyway. But we just don't know at this point.
BURNETT: This is all true. This is all true. Phil, thank you very much.
And I want to go to Bakari Sellers, former Democratic Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and Scott Jennings, former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush.
And wow like Phil and myself, you both are used to young children and not getting much sleep, so there we are. All right. Bakari, so Biden is holding his lead in many of the battleground states as Phil was zoning in, taking aside the national polling, now it goes state by state. Why are Democrats though still so nervous?
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Because we have PTSD from 2016, that's why we're so nervous. Everyone thought that they would be partying until the morning hours with a madam president Hillary Clinton. And I think that we were all pretty much hammered by about 10 o'clock after Donald Trump won Florida and the night was over. We realized our dreams would be shattered. And every since then we've had this anxiety that we simply can't
shake. I will say that the fundamentals of this race are vastly different than 2016. For all my Democrats out there watching who cannot sleep because of their angst, there's no green party candidate who's credible where left leaning voters will flock to. And also there's no Comey letter. Comey letters dropped 11 days before the election and that changed the trajectory of the race.
[19:25:03]
This is a more normal race. And the last thing is just quickly you had the two most unpopular candidates in the history of the country running against each other in 2016. You don't have that fundamental in this race.
BURNETT: So Scott, President Trump is - he is busting, OK. He is going across the country doing multiple rallies in states and he's playing defense in some states he won in 2016, but he's putting it all on the table. But he is not happy about it. He is complaining about the fallout of coronavirus and saying that this has forced him to go out the campaign trail for multiple rallies a day. Here he is over the past couple of days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: What the hell do you think I'm doing here in a freezing night with 45-degree wind.
I'd love to just drive the hell out of here. Let's get the hell out of this.
I probably wouldn't be standing out here in the freezing rain with you. I'd be home in the White House doing whatever the hell I was doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So Scott, he's trying to be funny there. But is that what his voters want to hear in the final stretch of the election, sort of I shouldn't be here but I have to be.
SCOTT JENNINGS, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes. I mean, look, I think it's part of his schtick to try to crack jokes. But obviously he's frustrated because before coronavirus, I think he thought he was on glide path for reelection. He had a great economy.
Even today in the Gallup poll recently, 56 percent of Americans say they're better off today than they were four years ago. He really thought this was going to be a reelection campaign about the economy and about the state of families' finances but the race has turned into something much different, which is largely about the coronavirus and, of course, we have spiking cases around the country, propelling this to the top of the news at a very bad time. So I assume and understand why he would be frustrated. Traditionally, if you're closing out a campaign as Bakari knows having
run for office before, you'd want to be projecting a more policy- driven message. I tell candidates all the time, you're not a pundit, you're a politician and your job is not what my job is or what Bakari's job is. Your job is to talk to people about your vision for the future, so that'd be my advice.
BURNETT: Bakari, the Trump campaign today was responding to some Fallout because we had this rally in Omaha last night and I saw this sort of going down and on Twitter, hundreds of people were stranded for hours. It was freezing, freezing temperatures. They were waiting for buses to take them back to their cars.
So there they all are, it's freezing. Jeff Zeleny saw medics helping people. The Trump campaign said it was local road closures to blame. But still when Scott talks about coronavirus dominating, you now having a local market the story like that, older people dealing with the cold, not able to get home in a must win state.
SELLERS: Yes. I don't know how much effect it's going to have. I think what we realize about Donald Trump voters is that they're going to always be Donald Trump voters. I mean, they will run through anything to vote for him. I mean, if you're out in 30 degree weather during the middle of a pandemic, all likelihood not wearing a mask to hear Donald Trump speak, I don't think that being stranded is going to change your vote.
But I do think it's analogous and indicative of how poor this campaign is. I mean, Scott Jennings runs campaigns all the time and if you're going to have shuttles there has to be shuttles there to pick people up. I mean, that's just common sense.
BURNETT: Well, I can tell you, Scott's busses would have been on time and known about road closures.
SELLERS: Well, they would have at least had a way for people to get home, but this is analogous to - and I think Joe Biden said this earlier - this is the way Donald Trump has treated this country, which has just left us stranded, left us stranded so it's a fend for ourselves. And unfortunately, those individuals have to feel the brunt of it.
BURNETT: So Scott, you have though Biden jumping on that Omaha situation, trying to capitalize on it. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: It's an image that captures President Trump's whole approach to this crisis. He takes a lot of big pronouncements, he makes a lot of big pronouncements, but they don't hold up. He gets his photo op and then he gets out. He leaves everyone else to suffer the consequences of his failure to make a responsible plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. Seizing on those images to make that point, what do you say, Scott?
JENNINGS: Yes. Look, I mean, anytime you have a presidential event, a campaign event, you want the message of the event to be whatever the candidate said and what you want people to remember. You don't want them to remember that they were stranded in the freezing cold. And so this is a situation where the logistics trump the message.
I will say in Nebraska, by the way, I look at the race in the map from the standpoint of subtraction. Trump starts with the number he got last time. I think it's unlikely he wins any other states. So you start to say what can I absorb in terms of subtraction.
There's an electoral vote in Nebraska, the Nebraska two because they split their electoral votes, that it's in play and this kind of thing wouldn't be good for that particular congressional district. So I would just say that all around not a great thing for the Nebraska situation that they're in today.
BURNETT: No. No. And he's in a situation, I actually really liked the way you put that. He needs to keep every one of those Electoral College votes that he can.
[19:30:04]
Thank you both very much.
And next, Trump and Biden both in the state of Florida tomorrow. And election officials spell out when they will count the ballots there and how. Now, this is crucial information for all of us. So what does that tell us about when we will know who the next president is?
Plus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian publicly endorsing a presidential candidate for the first time in his life. Why? Jon Meacham is OUFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: New tonight, Trump and Biden in the same crucial state tomorrow, both candidates in Florida. Polls showing the state remains a dead heat.
Trump, though, claiming he's not worried about the state flipping to Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're really up in almost all of the states that we're talking about, most of the states. We're up even or very close, and doing fantastically in Florida, doing fantastically in North Carolina. I'm calling it a great red wave, and I think you're going to see something that's going to be amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:35:01]
BURNETT: Drew Griffin is OUTFRONT tonight in Tallahassee.
And, Drew, you have spent the day talking to voters. What have they told you?
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: They are so eager to cast their vote that nearly half of registered voters in the state of Florida already have, Erin -- 6.9 million voters either in person or by mail have cast their ballots.
And this is what a few of them said they were not shy about voting and who they voted for.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to tell you exactly who I vote for. I think President Trump is the best for the time being, because the others, you know, some (ph) liars and it's unbelievable what they're doing. They're taking the money from the government, from me, from you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was really easy, because I did the mail-in vote, but I wanted to make sure I got it in on time. So I decided to drop it off into the ballot box. And I voted for Biden and I'm very happy about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: We heard that from a lot of voters, Erin, that they wanted to bring their mail-in ballots to make sure they were counted. Some even deciding to take their mail-in ballots and basically rip them up and get a new one to make sure their vote counted. Very eager to vote, and that's why I see so many of these people voting early. It's going very smooth so far -- Erin.
BURNETT: OK. So this is the question. Very smooth so far. You know, who wins Florida could decide all of this and could determine whether this is something we know right away or it takes days.
You talked to a county election supervisor. How soon does he expect to have the numbers out for who wins Florida?
GRIFFIN: Well, this is what is different about some of these other states. Florida secretary -- department of elections in these various counties have been able to start counting those mail-in votes. We watched them being counted today. They actually started this process in Leon County in Tallahassee on October 7th.
So all of those mail-in ballots, 4.1 million to date, essentially have been opened, screened, verified and counted. So the supervisor of elections here says within minutes of the closing of the polls on Tuesday, I'll be able to tell you all of those ballots. And by law, I have to tell you, by 7:30 that night.
So, potentially, we could have a huge chunk of counties reporting all those votes here in Florida right away, Erin. The one caveat is those mail-in ballots that come in on the day of the election. Those probably will not get counted until Wednesday. So if it's a squeaker, like Florida often is, we could still be waiting to see who won.
BURNETT: Wow. But pretty incredible that we may know earlier, depending on how this map plays out. You could know it early and it could take days, giving us that wide range.
All right. Drew, thank you.
I want to go now to the Democratic senator from Minnesota, former presidential candidate, Amy Klobuchar.
Good to talk to you, Senator.
So, you have just returned from campaigning --
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Great, Erin. Thanks.
BURNETT: -- for Joe Biden in Florida.
KLOBUCHAR: Uh-huh.
BURNETT: So what Drew is seeing I'm sure is much of what you saw, as well.
Who do you really think has the edge right now? The state is marked a full toss-up.
KLOBUCHAR: You see Joe Biden surging ahead in a number of polls. And I was in Tampa, I was in Sarasota, and I was in Ft. Myers. And people were pretty excited.
And I was smiling as I listened to your correspondent talk about the people voting. They're voting in droves. Seventy-five million people have already voted across the nation, Erin. They are excited.
And I think that bodes very well for Joe Biden, because Donald Trump, you know, he's coming back to my state again. And Joe Biden is leading by double digits. We take nothing for granted.
But the excitement in the Midwest right now is palpable, 1.5 million people having voted in Wisconsin. People who voted for Trump before or stayed at home in the Midwest are suddenly saying, wow, I can't even see my mom at Thanksgiving, because she's got to keep herself safe and isolated.
I've got to teach my first grader how to run the mute button to go to school. People realize that he has mismanaged this crisis and they want someone who's got competence and compassion in the White House.
BURNETT: So, earlier this week, both President Trump and Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh suggested it is improper, Senator, to allow mail-in ballots received after Election Day. So, as part of a majority decision to block Wisconsin from extending its deadline for mail-in ballots, right, so that if they were mailed before election but receive after, they could count them. They're not allowed to do that now. Kavanaugh wrote in his ruling there, quote: States want to avoid the chaos and suspicion of impropriety that can ensue if thousands of absentee ballots flow in after Election Day and potentially flip the results of an election.
President Trump then, Senator, took this concept of impropriety further and more specifically.
[19:40:00]
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Now they say we'd like to get the ballots and maybe get them within a few days of the election, and we'll take ten days to count them up. Oh, good, let's let the whole world wait while you count the ballots. You know what happens while they're counting them? They're dumping more ballots in there, OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: What's your response to that? He's saying they would be dumping more ballots in to flip results.
KLOBUCHAR: I guess he needs to talk to the people in Utah and the people in Kansas. There's a number of redder states, although we're going to win that Senate race in Kansas, that actually do the same thing.
Twenty-one states, Erin, 21 states count the ballots after the -- their due date is Election Day. It has to be postmarked by Election Day, so they're counting them afterwards.
Our military, so many of their ballots are postmarked by Election Day, and they're counted afterward. So I have no idea why he would say this.
And most I would say, Bernie and I did a statement together on this because we found it so chilling that Justice Kavanaugh, in his own opinion, his dissent, would actually -- or opinion that he joined in, in the concurrence with the Wisconsin case, would actually say the same thing, when he knows very well from being a lawyer in the Bush v. Gore case that, in fact, votes must be counted.
You can't flip a result when you don't know a result. A result comes when all ballots are counted.
BURNETT: So, let me ask you about Amy Coney Barrett, the justice, because, you know, the Supreme Court tonight said it would leave in place the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision. That decision would allow ballots received up to three days after the election to be counted, even if there is no legible postmark. This was a victory for Democrats.
The justices are deadlocked 4-4 in the case, OK? So, the way that could have been broken would have been Justice Amy Coney Barrett. But she did not participate in it --
KLOBUCHAR: Exactly.
BURNETT: -- because of the need for a, quote, prompt resolution, said she didn't have the time to fully review the fillings.
I know that you and other Democrats have been calling her out, trying to have her to recuse on election-related cases, she has refused to do so thus far. But isn't that what she basically just did, and she just do what you want?
KLOBUCHAR: No, no, she wanted to recuse, she would actually say she was recusing. And in this case, I suppose we still leave it open. But she basically said she didn't have time to review it. That makes it sound like if she had time she would have weighed in.
So, of course, that's concerning to me, because she wouldn't answer my basic questions, even about a statue on the books on voter intimidation.
I do want to make one thing clear, though, Erin, and that is that there are local officials all over this country, Democrat and Republican, that are simply doing their jobs, processing these ballots, very clear that as your earlier guest said, some states we're not going to know the result on election night. And that's okay.
We don't want to feed into this Trump hysteria on that point. But many states we may know, and if the polls hold up and if people vote like I think they're doing, we may well know the results on election night. But I don't think people should be concerned if local officials are still counting. Twenty-one of them, they have to count afterward.
BURNETT: OK. Thank you very much, Senator Klobuchar. I appreciate your time tonight.
KLOBUCHAR: It's great to be on, Erin. Thank you.
BURNETT: All right. And next, something's going on in this election that's made a Pulitzer Prize winning historian take sides for the first time ever in his career publicly. Jon Meacham is here.
And polls show that red state Arizona could possibly swing Biden's way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is still shocking for me to get those words out of my mouth, yeah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:33]
BURNETT: Tonight, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham, whose life work has been chronicling American presidents, or covering them as the editor-in-chief in "Newsweek Magazine", has publicly endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON MEACHAM, PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING HISTORIAN: This is a grave moment in America. A deadly virus is ravaging us. Our jobs are evaporating. Our faith in things that bind us together is fraying. For our democracy is under assault for an incumbent more interested in himself than he is the rest of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Jon Meacham is OUTFRONT. He has a new HBO documentary called "The Soul of America" which premiered last night and is available now on HBO and HBO Max.
Jon, I hope everyone will watch it as they read everything you write, as well.
So I want to ask you about that documentary in a moment. First, though, just to make this point, all these years I watched you, I've been with you on sets, you are an historian, you are not a partisan, you have voted for presidents of both parties. You've never before though done what you've done now, gone public with an endorsement for Joe Biden.
Why did you feel, Jon, you had to speak out now?
MEACHAM: I think it's an existential election. I have, in fact, I counted up the other day, voted for more Republicans than I have for Democrats along the way, which surprises some folks.
I think decency and democratic values and a respect for fact and science and reason are all on the ballot. And that's not a talking point. I believe that is deeply as I believe anything.
You know, in this country for about 80 years, we had a kind of figurative conversation between FDR on this end and Ronald Reagan on this end. And presidents governed. Eras were defined between those two poles.
This is not a sequential chapter to that. The incumbent president is not on a consensus continuum. And that doesn't mean the consensus and the continuum always produces the result we want, but at least it was a recognizable political universe.
And my fundamental argument about American history is that we are always stronger the more widely we open our arms and the more generously we interpret what Thomas Jefferson wrote when he said that we are all created equal.
So, fundamentally, do you want to be John Lewis or do you want to be Bull Connor?
[19:50:00] And I wasn't born in time for the civil rights movement, so I don't want -- I hate to say it, but to be honest, I don't know where I would have been if I'd been born 30 years before on those issues in my native South.
BURNETT: Yeah.
MEACHAM: But this is fundamental and at least I know where I stand now.
BURNETT: So, "The New Yorker Magazine" put together a fascinating video. They were asking basically foreign correspondents who are based here, Jon, to describe how they view our reporting in our country after reporting from Washington over these past several years and covering the Trump administration.
Here are two of them from BBC and the Swiss News Service.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If what is happening here was happening in any part of the world, the way foreign correspondents would be describing it would just be shocking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump makes it hard on us because some of the things he does makes me wonder whether I am covering an election in the United States, the -- one of the oldest democracies in the world, or I am actually reporting from almost a failed state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You hear that, Jon, and Larry Sabato, you know, of course, the very respected pollster from University of Virginia, told John Harwood the other day, Trump is the worst president ever. I can't imagine historians will spend more than ten minutes debating that.
So, you're looking at kind of -- you know, the modern chroniclers of history, the journalists, commenting there. And what Larry Sabato had to say.
You are the historian, what do you say?
MEACHAM: I think that we shifted and Trump is exacerbated a shift from disagreeing however deeply that can be to delegitimize. We don't disagree with each other, find a consensus for a momentum, solve a problem, achieve temporary dominion, which is what politics is, and then move on. That's the ordinary realm of politics -- a clash of interests, where you come -- at a certain point you have to make a decision, you have to write a policy, you have to decide whether you tax people or what you are going to do.
This is different. And the incumbent president has led this effort to undermine the institutions that has set us apart throughout the centuries of free press, a reasoned debate, and this is not to say that every policy position held by the Republican Party is somehow wrong. What it is to say that we are supposed to use our reason and
deliberations to decide big questions and public policies. And the president has encouraged an atmosphere of reflexive partisanship as opposed to reflective partisanship.
BURNETT: It's beautifully said. So, you know, in your documentary, "The Soul of America", HBO and HBO Max, again, I just want people to know where they can get it, you are looking at actually the past, right, when people say you say this is an existential moment so obviously you're not minimizing it.
But, you know, to give people a perspective of what happened before, struggles with hatred and divisions, right, that have so consumed this country in the past.
Here's a clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEACHAM: So often, people in American history have felt that they were on a precipice, so they lash out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Build the wall!
MEACHAM: You saw with White Southerners after Reconstruction. You saw it in the Second Klan in immigration in the shifting economy. You saw it in the 1930s, these incredibly powerful political motion, and the great political leaders are the ones who don't cater to it, who tamp it down instead of flame.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And yet so many thought, even as he took office, President Trump would rise to the occasion, yet in your view clearly, he has failed.
MEACHAM: He has not risen to the occasion. There has not been an evolution in the office what you see is what you get. And I think that -- I think as Michelle Obama said, if somebody, quoting someone -- if someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
We have four years of evidence here, and so, I don't think there is a lot of mystery left.
BURNETT: Jon, I really appreciate your time. So glad to see you, even though it is remotely and not in person. I hope everyone will watch -- will watch your great documentary. Thank you.
MEACHAM: Thanks, Erin.
BURNETT: And breaking news out of New Orleans tonight, at this hour, 110 mile an hour sustained winds, it is a powerful storm nearing category 3, with a life-threatening storm surge, warned waves up to 50 feet, 50 feet observe just off the coast.
I want go now to Amara Walker. She is in New Orleans, and how are conditions where you are?
AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, conditions have changed quite quickly. Just a few minutes ago, before we got on the air, it was very calm. We were in the eye of the storm the skies were clear -- look, beautiful out here, in fact. The producers were out taking photos of just how beautiful the sky was.
[19:55:01]
And then just like that, things change. We're now more than halfway through the storm and we are on the back side of the storm and the gusts were picking up. They were quite brutal.
But during the calm the eye of the storm, a lot of people came out to the streets, which is a bad idea because, like I said, the storm, the conditions can change really quickly. Again, the gusts just continue right now.
There were no mandatory evacuations in the city of New Orleans, because this was expected to be more of a wind event. There is nor rain right now. But overall, I can tell, you talking people on the streets, they have been telling me that they are storm wary. They are fatigued by this season.
This is the fifth named storm to hit the state of Louisiana. It is a record for the state the awful thing is there are more than 3,500 evacuees from Hurricane Laura that hit in August and Hurricane Delta that hit in October, 13 miles apart, just 16 weeks apart from each other.
They are still displaced and they have been scattered throughout hotels all around New Orleans and you just have to walk around you will find an evacuee on the street, and they will tell you that these back-to-back storms have been traumatizing and really have taken an emotional toll.
Erin, back to you.
BURNETT: With everything else this year. All right. The horror of that.
Amara, thank you very much. And, of, course we will watch that, 50- foot waves off the coast, President Trump, meantime, is in Arizona. Two rallies there today, four rallies there in the past 9 days.
Now, he won the state in 2016. Our poll of polls, though, shows Biden leading their currently by four percentage points.
Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just leave them over here, sweetheart.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An election for the ages. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you put sneakers on these?
LAH: All ages for this Phoenix, Arizona family volunteering to flip the state blue.
ELIO, DEMOCRAT, RELOCATED FAMILY TO ARIZONA: There's going to be people who are pissed off, that had been -- you know, it used to be a really red state.
LAH: But change has arrived say Elio and his wife Kat. Like many Arizonans, they are younger, college-educated, and voting Democratic, hoping to turn their state into a battleground.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's definitely been a shift, a very noticeable shift. Arizona is growing very rapidly. It is no longer just a place for retirees, and it's going to change because there's more families like us.
LAH: Families like theirs are part of Maricopa County's population boom. About 200 new residents relocated to Phoenix's most populous and politically powerful county, every single day.
(on camera): They used to look like that?
KURT ADAMS: Yes, it used to be cowboys out here.
LAH (voice-over): Now?
ADAMS: It's upper middle income. It's professionals. It is highly educated. It is having a political effect. There is no doubt about it.
LAH: Kurt Adams (ph) should know. A decade ago, he was one of the top elected officials in the state. Arizona has voted for Republican presidential candidates since 1952, with the exception of Bill Clinton in 1996.
And this year?
ADAMS: It's advantage Joe Biden.
LAH (on camera): Is that hard -- like is that shocking for you to say still?
ADAMS: It still is so shocking for me to get those words and my mouth.
Donald Trump is like gasoline on that fire. He was the accelerant that has produced short of the position, the political position that we find the state in today.
AD ANNOUNCER: Because Joe Biden knows this moment is not about him.
LAH: The Biden campaign and his allies are spending about 6.7 million on TV ads in Arizona the week before the election.
AD ANNOUNCER: He will continue to fight for you. LAH: About 3 million more than the Trump campaign and Republican
troops, according to data from an ad tracking firm, Kanter Media.
Both President Trump and Joe Biden have made Arizona a top priority, increasing their presence and ground game as Election Day approaches.
Adding to the changing demographics, about one third of Maricopa County is now Latino. Maggie Acosta believes new Latino voters and new residents could help Democrats take the state.
(on camera): Do you feel it's different this year?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it is. If more Latinos are getting out there to vote.
LAH: A once reliable red state now home to opposing views.
(on camera): If Arizona stays, red will discourage you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
ELIO: Yes. I, mean she'll say no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keep working.
ELIO: Yeah, we'll keep working.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: Now, early voting is underway here in Arizona at this Scottsdale, Arizona, site. You can see a few people gathering outside as they cast their votes.
In Maricopa County, the recorder says 1.26 million ballots have been cast. Those are signature verified ballots. That is a record when it comes to early ballots, as compared to 2016. That's more than all of early ballots for 2016.
The same story, Erin, in Pima County, that includes Tucson. So, when it comes to those early ballots, it is being smashed when it comes to records -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kyung.
Even here in New York, a state that, you know, everyone assumes how it'll go, today, day four of early voting, they said three hours of wait and it was the shortest it had been thus far.
Thanks for joining us.
Anderson starts now.
