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The Situation Room
President Obama Delivers Campaign Address In Pennsylvania; Obama Campaigns At Drive-In Rally For Biden; Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D- NY) Is Interviewed About Obama Campaigning For Biden; CDC Redefines Close Contact With COVID-19 Patient To Include Multiple, Brief Exposures. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired October 21, 2020 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Listen, can you imagine if I had had a secret Chinese bank account when I was running for reelection?
[18:00:05]
You think FOX News might have been a little concerned about that? They would've called me Beijing Barry. It is not a great idea to have a president who owes a bunch of money to people overseas. That's not a good idea.
I mean, of the taxes Donald Trump pays, he may be sending more to foreign governments than he pays in the United States. His first year in the White House, he only paid $750 in federal income tax.
Listen, my first job was at a Baskin-Robbins when I was 15 years old. I think I'm might have paid more taxes that year working at a -- dispensing ice cream. How is that possible? How many people here paid less than that?
It's possible, just possible now that, if you are living high on the hog, and you only pay $750 in taxes that maybe, just maybe, he might not know what working people are going through here in Pennsylvania.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: We cannot afford four more years of this, Philadelphia. But the good news is, right now, you can choose change. Right now, you can vote for my friend Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, as the next president and vice president of the United States of America!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Now, Joe's no stranger to here. He's a native son, scrappy kid from Scranton. You know him, and he knows you.
But let me -- let me tell you how I came to know him and how I came to love him. Twelve years ago, when I chose Joe Biden as vice president -- as my vice presidential running mate, I didn't know Joe all that well. We had served in the Senate together, but we weren't super close. He and I came from different places. We came from different generations. But I came to admire Joe as a man who has learned early on to treat
everybody he meets with dignity and respect, living by the words his parents taught him: "No one's better than you, Joe, but you're better than nobody."
And that empathy, that decency, that belief that everybody counts, that's who Joe is. That's who he'll be. And I can tell you, the presidency doesn't change who you are; it reveals who you are.
And Joe has shown himself to be a friend of working people.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room when I faced a big decision. He made me a better president, and he's got the character and experience to make us a better country.
And he and Kamala are going to be in the fight, not for themselves, but for every single one of us.
Look, I get that this president wants full credit for the economy he inherited and zero blame for the pandemic that he ignored. But you know what? The job doesn't work that way. Tweeting at the television doesn't fix things. Making stuff up doesn't make people's lives better.
You've got to have a plan. You've got to put in the work. And along with the experience to get things done, Joe Biden has concrete plans and policies that will turn our vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into a reality.
We literally left this White House a pandemic playbook that would have shown them how to respond before the virus reached our shores. They probably used it to, I don't know, prop up a wobbly table somewhere. We don't know where that playbook went.
Eight months into this pandemic, cases are rising again across this country. Donald Trump isn't suddenly going to protect all of us. He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself.
[18:05:10]
Just last night, he complained up in Erie that the pandemic made him go back to work. I'm quoting him. He was upset that the pandemic's made him go back to work. If he'd actually been working the whole time, it never would've gotten this bad.
So, look, here's the truth. I want to be honest here. This pandemic would have been challenging for any president. But this idea that somehow this White House has done anything, but completely screw this up, is just not true.
I will give you a very specific example. Korea identified its first case at the same time that the United States did, at the same time. Their per capita death toll is just 1.3 percent of what ours is. In Canada, it's just 39 percent of what ours is. Other countries are
still struggling with the pandemic, but they're not doing as bad as we are, because they've got a government that's actually been paying attention.
And that means lives lost. And that means an economy that doesn't work. And, just yesterday, when asked if he'd do anything differently, Trump said, "Not much."
Really? Not much? Nothing you can think of that could have helped some people keep their loved ones alive?
So, Joe's not going to screw up testing. He's not going to call scientists idiots. He's not going to host a super-spreader event at the White House. Joe will get this pandemic under control with a plan to make testing free and widely available, to get a vaccine to every American cost-free, and to make sure our front-line heroes never ask other countries for their equipment they need.
His plan will guarantee paid sick leave for workers and parents affected by the pandemic and make sure that the small businesses that hold our communities together and employ millions of Americans can reopen safely.
You know, Donald Trump likes to claim he built this economy, but America created 1.5 million more jobs in the last three years of the Obama/Biden administration than in the first three years of the Trump/Pence administration. How you figure that?
And that was before he could blame the pandemic. Now, he did inherit the longest streak of job growth in American history, but just like everything else he inherited, he messed it up.
The economic damage he inflicted by botching the pandemic response means he will be the first president since Herbert Hoover to actually lose jobs. Joe's got a plan to create 10 million good clean energy jobs as part of a historic $2 trillion investment to fight climate change, to secure environmental justice.
And he'll pay -- he'll pay for it by rolling back that tax cut for billionaires.
And Joe sees this moment not just as a chance to get back to where we were, but to finally make long overdue changes, so that our economy actually makes life a little easier for everybody, the waitress trying to raise her kid on her own, the student trying to figure out how to pay for next semester's classes, the shift worker who's always on the edge of getting laid off, the cancer survivor who's worried about her preexisting conditions protections being taken away.
Let me tell you something, Pennsylvania. This, I know to be true. Joe and Kamala will protect your health care and expand Medicare and make insurance more affordable for everybody.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: You know, Republicans love to say right before an election that they'll protect your preexisting conditions.
Now, Joe and I actually protected your policies to make sure people with preexisting conditions could get health insurance and have coverage. We did it through something called the Affordable Care Act, AKA, Obamacare.
[18:10:06]
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: And Republicans tried to repeal or undermine it more than 60 times.
And when they've been asked about that, they keep on promising, we're going to have a great replacement. They said, it's coming.
It's been coming in two weeks for the last 10 years. Where is it? Where is this great plan to replace Obamacare? They've had 10 years to do it. There is no plan. They've never had one.
Instead, they've attacked the Affordable Care Act at every turn, driving up costs, driving up the uninsured. Now they're trying to dismantle your care in the Supreme court as we speak as quickly as they can in the middle of a pandemic, with nothing but empty promises to take its place.
It's shameful. The idea that you would take health care away from people at the very moment where people need it most, what is the logic of that? There is no logic.
Joe knows that a first -- the first job of a president is to keep us safe from all threats, foreign, domestic or microscopic. When the daily intelligence briefings flash warning signs about a virus, a president can't ignore them. He can't be AWOL.
Just like when Russia puts bounties on the heads of our soldiers in Afghanistan, the commander in chief can't be missing in action.
I can tell you this. Joe Biden would never call the men and women of our military suckers or losers. Who does that? He knows these -- these heroes are somebody's children, somebody's spouse, somebody's dad or mom. He understands that.
And he's going to restore our standing in the world, because he knows that America's true strength comes from setting an example that the world wants to follow, a nation that stands with democracy, not dictators, a nation that can mobilize and inspire others to overcome threats like climate change and terrorism and poverty and disease.
And with Joe and Kamala at the helm, you're not going to have to think about the crazy things they said every day. And that's worth a lot. You're not going to have to argue about them every day.
It just won't be so exhausting. You might be able to have a Thanksgiving dinner without having an argument. You'll be able to go about your lives knowing that the president is not going to retweet conspiracy theories about secret cabals running the world or that Navy SEALs didn't actually kill bin Laden.
Think about that. The president of the United States retweeted that. Imagine.
What? What?
We're not going to have a president that goes out of his way to insult anybody who doesn't support him or threaten them with jail. That's not normal presidential behavior. We wouldn't tolerate it from a high school principal. We wouldn't tolerate it from a coach. We wouldn't tolerate it from a co-worker.
We wouldn't tolerate it in our own family, except for maybe a crazy uncle somewhere. You know, he's -- I mean, why would we expect and accept this from the president of the United States? And how -- why are folks making excuses for that? Oh, well, that's just -- that's just him.
No, it's -- no, there are consequences to these actions. They embolden other people to be cruel and divisive and racist. And it frays the fabric of our society, and it affects how our children see things.
And it affects the ways that our families get along. It affects how the world looks at America. That behavior matters. Character matters.
(APPLAUSE)
[18:15:12]
OBAMA: And, by the way, while he's doing all that, it distracts all of us from the truly destructive actions that his appointees are doing all across the government, actions that affect your lives.
You know, the Environmental Protection Agency, that's supposed to protect our air and our water, is right now run by an energy lobbyist that gives polluters free rein to dump unlimited poison into our air and water.
The Labor Department, that's supposed to protect workers and their rights. Right now, it's run by a corporate lobbyist who's declared war on workers, guts protections to keep essential folks safe during a pandemic, makes it easier for big corporations to shortchange them on their wages.
The Interior Department, that's supposed to protect our public lands and wild spaces, our wildlife and our wilderness. And, right now, that's run by an oil lobbyist who's determined to sell them to the highest bidder.
You've got the Education Department that's supposed to give every kid a chance, and that's run by a billionaire who guts rules designed to protect students from getting ripped off by for-profit colleges and stiff-arms students looking for loan relief in the middle of an economic collapse.
I mean, the person who runs Medicaid right now is doing their best to kick people off of Medicaid, instead of sign them up for Medicaid. Come on.
When Joe and Kamala are in charge, they're not going to surround themselves with hacks and lobbyists, but they're going to appoint qualified public servants who actually care about looking out for you, for your job, for your family, for your health, for your security, for your planet.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: And that, more than anything, is what separates them from their opponents. They actually care about every American, including the ones that don't agree with them.
And they're going to fight for you every day. They care about you, and they care about this democracy. They believe in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred, and that we shouldn't be making people wait in line for 10 hours to cast their ballot.
We should be making it easier for everybody to vote.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: They believe that no one, especially the president, is above the law. They understand that protest on behalf of social justice isn't un-American. That's the most American thing there is.
That's how this country was founded, protesting injustice.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: They understand we don't threaten our political opponents, threatening to throw them in jail, just because we disagree with them.
They understand that our ability to work together to solve big problems like a pandemic depends more than on just photo-ops. It depends on actually learning the facts and following the science, and not just making stuff up whenever it's convenient.
We -- we -- our democracy is not going to work if the people who are supposed to be our leaders lie every day and just make things up.
I mean, and we've just become numb to it. We've just become immune to it, every single day. Fact-checkers can't keep up.
And, look, this notion of truthfulness and democracy and citizenship and being responsible, these aren't Republican or democratic principles. They're American principles. They're what we're -- they're what we -- most of us grew up learning from our parents and our grandparents.
They're not white or black or Latino or Asian values. They're American values, human values. And we need to reclaim them. We have to get those values back at the center of our public life.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
[18:20:09]
OBAMA: And we can. But, to do it, we've got to turn out like never before. We cannot leave any doubt in this election, because you know the president's already said, if this is even close, I'm going to just make stuff up.
He's already started to do it.
So, we can't have any doubt. We can't be complacent. I don't care about the polls. There were a whole bunch of polls last time. Didn't work out, because a whole bunch of folks stayed at home and got lazy and complacent.
Not this time. Not in this election. Not this time.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Listen, listen, I understand why a lot of Americans can get frustrated by government and can feel like it doesn't make a difference.
Even supporters of mine, during my eight years, there were times where stuff we wanted to get done didn't get done, and people said, well, gosh, if Obama didn't get it done, then maybe it's just not going to happen.
Look, government is not going to solve every problem. It's true. Every elected official is going to make some mistakes. This is a big, complicated country, and the system's designed so that change happens slowly. It doesn't happen overnight.
And, believe me, I've got firsthand experience with the way Republicans in Congress abuse the rules to make it easy for special interest to stop progress.
But we can make things better, and we sure shouldn't be making things worse. A president by himself can't solve every challenge in a global economy, but if we've got Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the White House and a House and Senate that are focused on working people, it can make a difference and get millions of people the help they need!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: A president by himself can't eliminate all racial bias in our criminal justice system, but if we've got district attorneys and state's attorneys and sheriffs and police chiefs focused on equality and justice, it can make things better.
In Pennsylvania, you've just got to flip nine seats in your state House, just five seats in your state Senate to give Democrats control and new life for policies that'll make a real difference to working families right now. It can make things better.
And, in the end, Pennsylvania, that's what voting's about, making things better, not making things perfect, but putting us on track so that, a generation from now, we can look back and say, things got better starting now. And that's what voting's about.
Voting's about using the power we have and pooling it together to get a government that's more concerned and more responsive and more focused on you and your lives and your children and your grandchildren and future generations.
And the fact that we don't get 100 percent of what we want right away is not a good reason not to vote. It means we've got to vote, and then get some change, and then vote some more, and then get some more change, and then keep on voting, until we get it right.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: And we will never come close to seeing what it would be like if everybody voted.
When I hear people say, why, I don't know, you're voting. It doesn't make a difference. We don't know, because, usually, no more than half the people who could be voting vote.
We get 50, 55 percent of people voting, and then people say, well, look, not enough change happened.
Well, imagine what would happen if 60 percent voted? What about 70 percent?
Imagine January 20, when we swear in a president and a vice president who have a plan to get us out of this mess, who believe in science, and they have a plan to protect this planet for our kids, and who care about working Americans, and they have a plan to help you start getting ahead, and who believe in racial equality and gender equality, and believe in not discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation, and are willing to bring us closer to an America where, no matter what we look like and where we come from, who we love and what our last name is, if we go out there and we work, we can make it, and we're part of an American family.
[18:25:20]
All of that is possible. All of that is within our reach, if we vote, because let me tell you something, Pennsylvania. Some -- people ask me sometimes, they say, man, how have you been able to take it these last four years, just watching all this? How do you keep your spirits up?
And I tell them, I say, look, for all the times these last four years that we've seen our worst impulses revealed, we've also seen what our country can be at its best. We've seen folks of every age and background who've packed city centers and airports in town squares, just so families wouldn't be separated, so another classroom wouldn't get shot up, so our kids wouldn't grow up on an uninhabitable planet.
We've seen Americans of all races joining together to declare, in the face of injustice, that black lives matter, no more, but no less, so that no child in this country feels the continuing sting of racism.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) OBAMA: We've seen folks, our essential workers, our health care workers risking their lives day in, day out to save somebody else's loved ones.
We've seen people volunteer and contribute to help those who are having an especially difficult time that -- right now. That's true in Pennsylvania. That's true all across the country. America is a good and decent place. But we've just seen so much noise and nonsense, that, sometimes, it's hard for us to remember.
Philadelphia, I'm asking you to remember what this country can be, what it's like when we treat each other with respect and dignity, what it's like when our elected officials actually behave responsibly.
I'm asking you to believe in Joe's ability, in Kamala's ability to lead this country out of these dark times, and help us build it back better, because we can't abandon those who are hurting right now. We can't abandon the children who aren't getting the education they need right now.
We can't abandon those protesters who inspired us. We've got to channel their activism into action. We can't just imagine a better future. We've got to fight for it. We've got to outhustle the other side. We got to outwork the other side.
We've got to vote like never before and leave no doubt.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: So, make a plan right now for how you're going to get involved and vote. Do it as early as you can. Tell your family, tell your friends how they can vote. Don't stop with Joe and Kamala. Make sure you vote all the way down the ticket.
And if we pour all our efforts into these 13 days, if we vote up and down the ticket like never before, then we will not only elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We will also leave no doubt about what this country that we love stands for. We will not leave any doubt about who we are as a people, and the values and ideals that we embrace.
What Lincoln called the better angels of our nature, those are still in us. We see them operating every single day. We see them in neighborhoods. We see them in churches and synagogues and mosques and temples.
We see them in people helping out a neighbor. We see them inside our own families. We -- we see that what is best in us is still there.
But we've got to give it voice, and we've got to do it now.
So, let's get to work people. Let's bring this home.
I love you, Philadelphia. Honk if you're fired up. Honk if you're ready to go. Are you fired up?
(HONKING) OBAMA: Are you ready to go? Are you fired up? Are you ready to go?
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Let's go make it happen.
I love you, Philadelphia. Thank you. I love you.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: The former President of the United States Barack Obama clearly still has it, speaking for a little bit more than a half-an-hour.
[18:30:02]
He made it clear, abundantly clear why he believes this, in his word, is the most important election of our lifetime, speaking in Philadelphia with a drive-in crowd, almost like a drive-in theater there, socially distant folks. He spoke passionately, made the case, a powerful case why Joe Biden should be the next president of the United States.
And he included a very, very damning, very brutal attack on the current president of the United States, a point-by-point takedown on so many issues, lies every day, he said, he makes things up.
Dana Bash, let me get your thoughts on what we just heard, clearly a very, very strong statement from the former president.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean, we thought what the former president did during the convention was pretty intense. And this was even more so. I think it sort of bears repeating or it's important to note before we talk about this that just as many, many things that Donald Trump does is not normal, it is not normal for a former president to go out and say the things that this did -- this former president did about President Trump. And it is certainly not something that he relishes.
But he felt that he needed to, to talk about all the things that President Trump has done to, from his perspective, hurt the American people across the board, from health care to, more broadly, coronavirus, to taxes, to just even the morality and the lack of a moral compass is how Barack Obama described Donald Trump over and over and over again.
But peppered through there was a more practical message from the beginning to the end, which is you've got to go vote, which is that you know, four years ago, we were all fired up but Democrats got complacent and, in his words, got lazy and it can't happen this time around, incredibly strong.
And it's going to get under Donald Trump's skin, Wolf. I mean, one of the reasons why Donald Trump got into politics was because of President Obama. He started off by talking about the conspiracy theory, the birther conspiracy theory. And he has continued to rail against Obama even now, four years after he left office.
BLITZER: Very strong statement indeed. David Axelrod, you worked for President Obama. You helped him get elected president of the United States on two separate major elections. What stood out to you?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he had a lot on his mind, Wolf. This is something he's been thinking about and he's been I think waiting for this moment to make this case.
Dana is quite right. I remember discussions with him when he was president, saying that the two Bushes had taught him a lesson in how to be a former president by receding from the spotlight and allowing their successors to do the job. But he always reserved the right to speak out if he thought fundamental principles of our democracy were being violated.
And he has seen that again and again in his view during the Trump years. And this was -- you heard all of it today. And he did -- I must say, he did relish throwing a little shade at Trump as well, noting that the president said last night that he was -- you know, had to come back to Philly, he was bemoaning the fact that he had to come back to Pennsylvania -- I'm sorry, to Erie, because the virus had made this a competitive race. And the president said I love coming back, President Obama, I love coming back.
And then the second piece was when he said his T.V. ratings are down so you know that upsets him. But the critique was lacerating. It was -- he said that he is a president who wants to take full credit for the economy he inherited and no responsibility for the pandemic he ignored.
And then at the end of the speech he went to higher ground about character and about unity and about appealing to the better angels of our nature, and he called into the argument Joe Biden's qualities. And this is the closing argument for the Biden campaign, the indictment on the fundamental issues of the pandemic but also the larger issue of whether we're going to be divided as a country or whether we're going to have a president who calls us together and tries to find common ground.
And so, you know, he -- this was the full measure of the argument against Donald Trump. And as Dana points out, he knew why he was there. It was cathartic for him, I'm sure. But he also knows that his fundamental -- his fundamental mission is to try and encourage a turnout, and particularly among those voters who didn't turn out in great numbers for Hillary Clinton, younger voters, people of color, people with whom he has a particularly galvanizing connection.
[18:35:15]
And so I think you're going to see more of this in the coming weeks. And it's going to be important for Joe Biden, particularly in these states that are battleground states, closely contested, where turnout is going to mean something.
BLITZER: Less than two weeks to go until November 3rd, 13 days exactly, so not a whole lot of time right now.
Van Jones, you were listening to every word. What did you think?
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Superman is back in the building. Superman is back in the building. He put the cape on and he whooped them. It was just a complete, utter takedown. It was a clinic. And he was -- he looked good and he was relaxed, an easy kind of a flow to it. But he also took care of some business, which you may have missed.
I've gotten to work with a lot of people on the ground, as Axelrod knows, in Pennsylvania. And there is a problem he was trying to solve in a part of that speech. You have two elements in our base, the nihilism, just kind of giving up, there's nothing's ever going to work, and that you've got an ultra leftism that says nothing is good enough, you know, we didn't get Bernie, we don't believe in stuff anymore.
And he spoke to that very well. It was subtle. He talked about it's not going to be perfect but you can make it better. It's not going to be perfect but you can make it better. He was speaking directly to a challenge that we've got in our base. And I thought he spoke to it beautifully. I thought he spoke to it powerfully.
And then he talked about, you can't abandon all of these people. That was directly going toward -- as Wolf just said, he's galvanizing those people who they kind of gave up on hope and change a few years ago. He's bringing them back in. He's giving them a grittier mission. He's giving them a more realistic sense of politics. You can't get it done just by voting but you've got to vote. You can't abandon people.
So not only was he taking the bark off of Donald Trump in a way that was just extraordinary, he was also putting some medicine in some of the wounds at the base of our party and getting people ready to go and fight these last 13 days.
BLITZER: Jim Acosta, our Chief White House Correspondent, was listening very carefully as well. You know the president is going to be very, very angry at the former president of the United States. Clearly, Barack Obama must have gotten under his skin.
At one point, I just took some notes over here, he suggested, referring to that lengthy story in The New York Times this week that suggested that the current president has a bank account in communist China and may have actually paid more income tax to the communist Chinese than he has paid income tax here in the United States. You know that's going to get under the skin of President Trump.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And I think that was one of the highlights of Barack Obama's speech, when he said can you imagine if I had a secret Chinese bank account, they would call me Beijing Barry. I mean, there is no person on the face of the earth who gets under Donald Trump's skin like Barack Obama.
And that is why you've seen President Trump over the last four years try to undo just about anything that had President Obama's name on it, namely Obamacare, which Barack Obama talked about in that speech, saying that Donald Trump has had four years, he hasn't come up with a replacement for Obamacare.
But Wolf, I think just to echo what Van Jones was saying, there was also I think a base strategy in some of what Barack Obama was talking about there, when he was saying, don't believe these polls, these polls weren't right the last time around, we saw the polls, it looked like things were going to work out for Hillary Clinton and then Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.
And, by the way, that echoes what the Biden campaign has been saying. They have been saying don't believe the polls. Obviously, we believe the polls in our industry. But, obviously, both campaigns don't want to take anything for granted.
And I think one other thing we should point out, Wolf, I've talked to people inside the Trump campaign, people inside the White House. Barack Obama is obviously the one surrogate they don't want to see very much of out on the campaign trail. He just has a way of getting under President Trump's skin like nobody else, and I imagine at this event that the president will be at later on this evening, we'll see a reflection of that, Wolf.
BLITZER: You know, it's also interesting, Jim. I'm sure he got under President Trump's skin when he said, this is not a reality show, this is reality. And then he mentioned something that certainly would get under President Trump's skin, that the president's ratings are not very good.
ACOSTA: That's right. And that was a comment aimed at those town halls that took place last week when Joe Biden's town hall rated better than Donald Trump's town hall. And, you know, that cuts right to the heart of what matters to President Trump. President Trump seems to matter -- seems to care more about how the ratings are doing than how he's doing in the polls and tends to believe what happens in the ratings when the ratings come out than what happens in the polls.
I was talking to a Trump campaign adviser before both of those town halls went down, and they were predicting that President Trump was going to blow the doors off of Joe Biden in the ratings. Obviously, that didn't happen.
[18:40:00]
That was another moment where I think the president wasn't feeling too good about the way the campaign was going last week.
And you just get a sense, Wolf, day after day after day as we're getting closer to Election Day, the president of the United States is sounding angrier and more bitter. He's lashing out at Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's lashing out at debate moderators. He's lashing out at the media. And now Barack Obama is going to be one more thing getting under the president's skin at this critical stage of the campaign, Wolf. BLITZER: You know, and it's clear, Dana, that the former president believes, like so many Democrats right now, health care is such an important issue, pre-existing conditions, making sure the American public is well protected. And he's suggesting -- President Obama's suggesting President Trump simply doesn't even have a health care plan at all. He keeps promising he's going to release one but it's been almost four years, no health care plan.
BASH: Yes. He's suggesting it because it's true. We haven't seen a health care plan despite exactly how the former president said -- Trump and his allies, so particularly Trump says we'll give it to you in two weeks and we haven't seen it.
And he delivered the message about health care and Obamacare in a way that frankly only he can, not just because it's his namesake but because this is his gift. And that is saying that the notion of taking people's health care away during a pandemic is something that is mind- blowing.
And even before the pandemic, looking back at last election, the midterms, 2018, health care was the reason that the Democrats took control of the House. It's the reason Democrats did so well in that election. And despite all of the sort of to-ing and fro-ing and all of the noise, the Biden campaign and Democrats down ballot believe that that is their weapon again because it is something that very much affects people.
One other thing I wanted to mention is watching President Obama, I was thinking back to four years ago when he was just as if not maybe more aggressive out on the campaign trail in the final days, saying that it is personal to him, vote for Hillary Clinton, it means something to me, it is about me, do this for me.
And it wasn't enough. And here he is once again trying to do the same thing for his partner, for the person who he picked and who worked with him side by side for eight years. And obviously, they are very different candidates, separate and apart from President Obama, but I'm going to be curious to see if this kind of similar pitch has the same impact.
BLITZER: When he walked up to the stage.
AXELROD: Well, Dana --
BLITZER: Well, David, hold on one second. When he walk up to the stage, had a face mask that said Vote. As soon as he was done, he put that mask back on. That's something we don't see from the current president of the United States.
David, go ahead, make your point.
AXELROD: I thought it was noteworthy that he didn't say do this for me. He said do this for you. Do this for the country. It was a different kind of argument than we heard four years ago.
I'd also note the timing of this, just 12 days before the election, and I think it's strategically smart. Because what you didn't want to do was create the impression you that were sending Barack Obama out there to somehow buoy Biden, save Biden. Biden has established himself as a solid favorite in this race, and now the president is coming out in support of him.
And I think the timing is very, very smart. Come out late, work on turnout, particularly with those constituencies that didn't turn out last time. But don't turn it into a long surrogate war between Obama and Trump.
BASH: So this is lesson learned from 2016?
AXELROD: Yes. I think so.
BLITZER: You know, Van, his main message, though, and I think it went throughout that 35-minute speech or so, is telling people you've got to vote, don't be lazy. Get out there. Don't be complacent. The stakes he said are simply too enormous right now. Just go out and vote and don't pay any attention to these polls.
JONES: Amen and hallelujah. I agree 100 percent. Because, you know, anything can happen on Election Day or even these days going up. But he also was making a very subtle point as well. He said we've got to win beyond doubt. We've got to win beyond doubt. What's he talking about? Why does he keep saying that? Because there is a fear that if it's close, Trump won't accept the election, that it's going to get tied up in court forever, it might wind up in Congress.
There's a whole -- there's, I mean, massive anxiety on the part of Democrats that if he gets within cheating distance, as Mayor Pete says, Trump is going to try to do something extraordinary to stay in power.
And so you see -- I mean, listen, Obama is masterful at giving you the big picture, the takeaway lines, and some stuff that sounds spontaneous. He says he can't protect you from the virus, he can't protect himself. I mean, that stuff is going to be great. But he's also dealing with the business of the politics of our party. Giving people more and more reason, reason upon reason to go out and vote.
[18:45:02]
Don't abandon people. Don't give up. You can make it better.
But also, it's got to be a landslide. You've got to beat this guy all the way down.
Listen, that 35 minutes was worth the wait. I agree with Axelrod, if he had come out too early it would have eclipsed everything. But he waited until the perfect moment. It was worth the wait.
That is the kind of role that only Barack Obama can play, and he was handling his business tonight.
BLITZER: Yeah, and as I said, he clearly underscored, he clearly demonstrated that he still has it, and he reminded a lot of folks, I'm sure, in the course of those minutes why he was twice elected president of the United States by the American people.
Everybody, stand by.
I want to bring in the chairman of the House Democratic caucus, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries right now.
Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.
From almost the minute, President Obama got up on that stage in Philadelphia. He went after President Trump big-time, even knocking as I said his TV ratings, and we know all of that.
What stood out to you as you were listening to the former president?
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Well, it was great to see Barack Obama back out in the public square making the case as only he can, with intellect and charisma and a personality that reminded us all as to why the country fell in love with his candidacy and why he was such a tremendous president of the United States.
I thought that the line that for me summed it all up was that Donald Trump wants all the credit for an economy that he inherited, of course, from Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and zero blame for the fallout connected to a pandemic that he ignored. And that's the reality of the situation.
It's on Donald Trump's watch that more than 215,000 Americans have died. Over 100,000 small businesses have permanently closed. Approximately 8 million Americans have been infected by the coronavirus. And tens of millions have been unemployed with hunger and joblessness and homelessness on the rise.
That's the reality of Donald Trump's record. And Barack Obama delivered that message sharply in a way that I believe it will be felt.
BLITZER: You think it will have an impact in terms of making sure that folks who simply stayed at home four years ago didn't vote, they voted eight years ago for President Obama to be re-elected and they didn't bother voting four years ago.
Are they going to get out there and vote over these next 13 days?
JEFFRIES: Without question, this is an all hands on deck moment for the country. And we've seen record turnout and excitement in many parts of America already. I think that's an indication of what's to come. But we can't let our foot off the gas pedal.
And so I agree with all of your distinguished panelists who indicate this timing seems perfect to ratchet up the intensity and the energy over these final two days. There's really only two ways to run, run hard or run unopposed.
Of course, Joe Biden is going to run hard. And all of us recognize the need for everyone to do their part. It was great to see the president back out on the campaign trail. BLITZER: What's your biggest fear, Congressman, right now as you await
these next few days?
JEFFRIES: Well, complacency I think is the biggest concern because at a similar point in 2016, it was assumed that Hillary Clinton was going to prevail and there was no way that someone so clearly unqualified for office who was peddling hatred in a variety of different ways could be elected.
Well, he's been elected and we've been living a nightmare ever since. And so, I think the concern of all of us is that people feel comfortable based on the public polling that they've seen that Joe Biden is going to win and Donald Trump is going to lose. We've seen that movie play out before, and it didn't end well.
And so, I think President Obama also spoke to that reality in a way that was compelling and all of us need to continue to drive home that point.
BLITZER: Very quickly, Congressman, before I let you go, is there going to be another economic stimulus package that the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate can agree on?
There are so many millions of Americans who simply are suffering right now. They can't pay their rent, can't pay their bills, are even having trouble putting food on the table.
Do you believe there will be a deal?
JEFFRIES: Certainly, we're working toward one. Speaker Pelosi is working around the clock. She's demonstrated extraordinary leadership. We know there's no better negotiator than her.
The caucus fully supports the approach that has been taken, which is any agreement has to be meaningful. It has to crush the virus. It has to provide direct relief to the American people.
[18:50:02]
It has to revive the economy.
And we think that we're closer now than we've ever been. I think Speaker Pelosi has publicly articulated that.
Hopefully, we can get this done over the next few days, if the Republicans are serious about providing relief to the American people.
BLITZER: Well, let's hope -- let's hope it happens, because as you know, in your district and all over the country, people are suffering right now. They need that help from the federal government.
Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, thanks so much for joining us.
JEFFRIES: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Just ahead, there's more breaking news we're following. The CDC redefining right now what it means to be in close contact with someone with COVID-19, putting them at risk of infection. New information from the CDC.
We'll be right back.
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[18:55:03]
BLITZER: We're following breaking news on the coronavirus crisis. The CDC has just issued new guidance redefining close contact with an infected person to include multiple brief exposures that add up to 15 minutes, instead of only continuous contact with that amount of time.
Let's discuss with Dr. Hotez, professor and dean of tropical medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine.
So what's your reaction when you hear about this new guidance, Dr. Hotez?
DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: So this is a report, Wolf, that came out in the MMWR, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, that came out about a 20-year-old correctional officer working in the Vermont correction system who came down with COVID-19. And he did not have the classic type of exposure, meaning at least 15 minutes with someone less than six feet apart. Instead, they were able to use cameras in the correctional facility to show that this officer actually had multiple short-term contacts over I think it was an eight-hour period.
And based on that, they want to shift their recommendations to say rather than being with someone in close contact for 15 straight minutes, it's basically the same if someone, say, in your house or your place of work if they have COVID-19, and without adequate masks, then you could have multiple short-term contacts over a 24-hour period and still get COVID-19.
And it's helpful information in terms of how to do contact tracing, because in the past, you might have missed inquiring about those types of individual. So it does make things a little more complicated, but it's helpful information.
BLITZER: Very helpful, but what's the practical impact for the folks who are watching right now, what should they come away with in terms of making sure they try to prevent themselves from getting COVID-19?
HOTEZ: Well, it also means you can't be too careless how you wear masks. Even if you have brief encounters with individuals, if you're without a mask and they're without a mask, there's still risk of exposure and you have to keep that in mind. It's a reminder that we don't have a lot of tools in our armament to fight this virus until vaccines come along next year.
And for now, it's still masks and washing your hands frequently and social distancing. And just because you've been in contact briefly with somebody doesn't mean you can't get COVID-19, especially if it's multiple contacts over a period of time.
And it's just another reminder of how easy this virus is to transmit and it's -- if you let your guard down unfortunately, you can get caught and get COVID-19.
BLITZER: So dangerous.
Take a look at that nationwide trend map of average new cases, Dr. Hotez. On average, not a single state right now is heading in the right direction compared to last week.
So, how dire is the situation as it's unfolding in the U.S. right now?
HOTEZ: Yeah. I'm very worried. We're looking at a big massive fall/winter surge. It's already starting up in Wisconsin, Minnesota is bad. The northern Midwest, Illinois, I predict Chicago could get hit pretty hard. And then it's going to spread across the Northern states and eventually the whole nation, possibly the Northern part will get hit worse than the southern part.
But we're in for a very tough fall and winter. Things will get better next year after vaccines become available. But for now, the next four and five months are looking pretty dire. And I'm really worried about both the number of new cases and deaths and long-haul permanent injuries really going up. So now is the time you need to think about how you're going to protect yourself and your family and identify your social distancing unit.
BLITZER: And so many of the top medical experts, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Francis Collins of NIH have been saying as painful and as difficult as it is, maybe not having a Thanksgiving dinner, for example, celebrating the upcoming holidays together with your family. It's awful. None of us like this, but it may save lives.
Dr. Hotez, thanks as usual for joining us. We're always grateful for you.
HOTEZ: Thank you so much, Wolf.
BLITZER: Finally tonight, we remember some of the victims of the coronavirus pandemic.
Danielle Christine Arre of New York, she was just 36 years old. She was a lawyer who touched so many people with her kindness, from friends and family to her clients. Her best friend says she radiated goodness, and always knew the right thing to say.
Guadeloupe Vargas of California was 78 years old. He loved to repair and fix cars. He was a talented baseball coach, and he was a mentor. His son says he was a very hard worker, but always found time for his wife of 55 years, Virginia, their three children, and four grandchildren.
May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.
I'm Wolf Blitzer. Thanks very much for watching. You can always follow me on Titter and Instagram @WolfBlitzer. You can tweet the show @CNNSitRoom.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
