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U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 227,000, 8.8 Million Cases As Infections Are On The Rise In Nearly The Entire Country; White House Claims Victory Over COVID-19 Pandemic; With Six Days Until Election, Trump Campaigning In States He Won In 2016, Including Arizona And Wisconsin; Hurricane Zeta Makes Landfall In Louisiana. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired October 28, 2020 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:22]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

We're following breaking news with just six days to go until Election Day.

This hour, President Trump is rallying supporters in the battleground state of Arizona, a key state for his reelection chances, and now a coronavirus hot spot. The president won Arizona back in 2016 and is desperately campaigning to keep it in his column.

Joe Biden is in his home state of Delaware tonight, but he's not taking a break from attacking the president's record on the coronavirus, including the White House's claim that Mr. Trump ended the pandemic. Biden called that an insult to every American who lost a loved one to the virus.

As we close in on November 3, we're tracking the crucial path to 270 electoral votes. More than 74 million Americans have already voted. That's more than half the total vote in 2016. Despite the surge in early voting, we still might not necessarily have all the final results this time next week.

All of this as the coronavirus rages out of control across much of the country. The death toll in the U.S. now stands at more than 227,000. New cases, hospitalizations are also on the way up, positivity rate also surging.

Let's begin our coverage with our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.

Jim, you're on the road with the president in Arizona, a state he won in 2016. Now it has emerged as a real battleground.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. He's really on defense here. But the president just took the stage here in the Phoenix area a few moments ago. And, as we have seen time and again at these rallies, many supporters are not wearing masks. They are not social distancing. And even as this pandemic gets worse by the day, the president is mocking the use of masks tonight, Wolf, the very public health practice that could get us out of this pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): Down in the polls and fighting to hang on to Arizona, a traditional GOP stronghold he won four years ago, President Trump is sounding more desperate, escalating his attacks on wearing masks.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And, in California, you have a special mask. You cannot, under any circumstances, take it off. You have to eat through the mask. It's a -- right?

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Right, Charlie? It's a very complex mechanism. And they don't realize, those germs, they go through it like nothing.

ACOSTA: He's found a new conspiracy theory to ride to Election Day, that the media are somehow going to stop covering the coronavirus after November 3.

TRUMP: On November 4, you won't be hearing as much about this. It's going to be -- right now, it's COVID, COVID, COVID.

ACOSTA: Part of an ugly closing message that Mr. Trump has adopted on the trail that includes raising doubts about the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

TRUMP: I mean, we will have to see if it's a problem, right? People are entitled to say maybe it was a problem, maybe it wasn't.

ACOSTA: But the distractions aren't working, as there are daily reminders of the administration's bungled response to the coronavirus, including this press release from the White House Office Science and Technology that cited ending the COVID-19 pandemic as one of Mr. Trump's achievements.

ALYSSA FARAH, WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: No, absolutely not. I think that was poorly worded. The intent was to say that it is our goal to end the virus.

ACOSTA: The administration's top health experts are contradicting the president, like his false claim that new cases are soaring because of an increase in testing. Mr. Trump's testing czar said that's not true.

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: We do believe and the data show that the cases are going up. It's not just a function of testing. Yes, we're getting more cases identified, but the cases are actually going up. And we know that, too, because hospitalizations are going up.

ACOSTA: And Dr. Anthony Fauci is knocking down the president's bogus claim that the U.S. is turning the corner in the pandemic.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: I think it will be easily by the end of 2021 and perhaps even into the next year before we start having some semblances of normality.

ACOSTA: Besides the potential for a super-spreader at his rallies, Mr. Trump had one other major health concern to deal with, when hundreds of his supporters were stranded in the cold after his rally in Nebraska, with some needing medical attention.

Democrat Joe Biden seized on that.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The American people deserve so much better than this. Just look at what happened last night in Omaha. Hundreds of people, including older Americans and children, were stranded in subzero freezing temperatures for hours.

ACOSTA: Still, the president is complaining about being rained on at his rallies.

TRUMP: 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. I wouldn't be out here.

(LAUGHTER)

ACOSTA: Six days until the election, and there are still October surprises shaking up the race.

[18:05:01]

The latest bombshell, Miles Taylor, an ex-top aide at the Department of Homeland Security, has revealed himself as Anonymous, the same former administration official who mysteriously penned an op-ed in "The New York Times" more than two years ago, stating that he was among a group of aides attempting to act as a check on President Trump.

At the time, he wrote: "We believe our first duty is to this country. And the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic."

Earlier this year the president claimed he already knew the identity of Anonymous.

TRUMP: It's not so much a search. I -- I know who it is. I can't tell you that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And as this pandemic gets worse, Wall Street investors are getting very nervous tonight, Wolf.

The Dow Jones dropped some 943 points earlier today. Part of what is driving those jitters on Wall Street, fears that this nation could be heading into more lockdowns across the country. The president was just saying a few moments ago here in the Phoenix

area that Joe Biden is the candidate of lockdowns. But it is the prospect of lockdowns that is making people on -- nervous -- making people on Wall Street very nervous tonight, Wolf.

BLITZER: Because coronavirus is getting worse in the United States, not getting better. They're nervous, and there's no deal for an economic stimulus package, no compromise between the White House and the Congress. As a result, the market keeps going down, down, down.

All right, Jim Acosta, thank you very much.

Let's go to CNN's M.J. Lee. She's tracking the Biden campaign for us.

M.J., the former vice president remained in his home state of Delaware today. He's launching a new attack on President Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis. So, what's the Biden campaign's strategy?

M.J. LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Joe Biden's strategy has been remarkably consistent, and that is to go all in on the coronavirus pandemic.

You're right. He didn't leave his home state of Delaware today, but he did meet again with public health officials here in Wilmington. And what these experts told him, Wolf, is that the country is in real trouble, that we are currently in the middle of another wave, that cases are spiking across the country, and things are not looking good when it comes to this virus.

And Biden seizing on sort of political ammunition that he has been getting from President Trump over the last couple of days. He has been referring to, as you know, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows saying over the weekend that the U.S. is not going to control this virus. He has been pointing to these campaign rallies that Jim is at, where we are seeing no social distancing, very few people wearing masks, and then this new memo from the White House Science Office saying that ending the pandemic is one of its top accomplishments.

Biden coming out and saying today this is simply an offensive thing for that office to say, given how many people across the country have died. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The White House science office -- and this stunned me -- put out a statement listing ending the COVID-19 pandemic as a top accomplishment of President Trump's first term, a top accomplishment of Trump's first term, at the very moment when infection rates are going up in almost every state in our union.

The refusal of the Trump administration to recognize the reality we're living through, at a time when almost 1,000 Americans a day are dying every single day, is an insult to everyone suffering from COVID-19 and every family who's lost a loved one.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEE: Biden also said that, if he wins next week, he is going to listen to scientists starting on day one.

But he also acknowledged that, even if he were president, it is going to be very difficult for him to try to turn things around, that this is not going to happen overnight. Obviously, this is a very different tone from what we have heard from President Trump -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Very different indeed. All right, M.J., thank you very much. M.j. Lee reporting.

Let's get some analysis from our political experts.

Let me start with Gloria Borger.

We're six days from Election Day. Already, more than 74 million Americans have voted, Gloria. So, what's the state of the race right now?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, first of all, Wolf, that's more than a third of registered voters who have already been out there and who have voted.

And the state of the race right now is that I think you would have to say, if you look at all the polling, and you look at all the state polling, and you look at the lines, you would have to say that Joe Biden has a wider path toward 270 -- and that's what it's all about -- it's all about getting those electoral votes -- than Donald Trump.

But the overhang to all of this, Wolf -- and that's just what you were talking about with M.J. and with Jim -- is COVID. This is something the president wanted to go away. He predicted that it would go away in 15 days. He wanted everybody to go back to church at Easter. He couldn't get out from under it.

He didn't listen to the science. It became a complete albatross for him. His chief of staff said, well, we have stopped fighting it, we're now into the therapeutics and the vaccines. And

[18:10:08]

And all of this has boomeranged for him, as the country sees spikes throughout the country, and people are still in economic despair.

All of that put together is a tent, a soggy tent, for Donald Trump that he cannot get out from under. He's got to figure out a way to do that. And watching him on the campaign trail, Wolf, it doesn't seem to me like he has, because his campaign appearances are full of grievance, even about COVID, but full of grievance.

He says to people, I wouldn't be out here if I didn't need to win this state.

So, you look at his campaign, you think about what he has to do to give the country some hope, and he's not doing it.

BLITZER: Yes, that's an important point as well.

David Axelrod, if you were advising the Biden campaign right now, what would your priority be over these next six days? And if you were on team Trump, what would you say needs to happen in these remaining few days?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think -- well, let me start with Trump.

I think it's very tough. There are two things you look at if you're a strategist. Are the numbers moving in the right direction in the places you need them to move and are the overall atmospherics moving in your direction? Are you closing well?

Neither is true for him. And he is contributing to it. He survived COVID, but it's killing him politically because of the way he is handling it.

And we saw it in the summer, Wolf, when the virus was -- when the virus was resurgent and it was peaking, and he was in denial. His numbers spread out then.

But now we're six days from an election. And, as Gloria said, he is on the road full of resentment and grievance, but instead of speaking to the grievances of the people he is fighting to represent, he's really disgorging his own grievances. And that's what's different between now and 2016.

As for Biden, I'd say steady as she goes. He was very smart today to jump out with a very strong statement on the virus. He's moving around. And he's trying to expand the map, which is, I think, smart, looking at the numbers right now.

He has an opportunity to break through in several places where the president won before, not just the big three up north, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, but elsewhere. He was in Georgia yesterday.

So, I mean, I would do what he is doing. He is closing well. And the numbers are moving his way.

BLITZER: You know, Abby, as the president holds these rallies all over the country, in Arizona right now, a state he's fighting to win again, Biden spent the day, actually, in his home state, solidly blue Delaware, voting, holding a coronavirus briefing.

Is it a mistake for the former vice president not to be more visible, out there traveling to these battleground states with only six days left?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm reminded of over the summer, when people were saying very similar things about what the Trump campaign disparagingly calls the basement strategy.

And the Biden campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, was basically like, this is what we're doing. This is our -- we're going to follow a pretty disciplined strategy.

I think it's hard to criticize the Biden campaign for the tactics that they are taking up until this point, because it has led them to a point where they're going into this final stretch in a really strong position.

Should Biden be hitting the ground running as much as conceivably possible? Probably yes. But, at the same time, there is a balance to be struck here. And one of the aspects of this is the sort of imagery of these rallies that the president is holding, which I know Democrats believe is hurting the president.

They are seeing data that says these rallies the president is holding is hurting him, because people want to know that the candidates are taking health and safety seriously.

So, part of the imagery of Biden doing a briefing, doing fewer events, doing them socially distanced in these drive-through fashions, are about signaling to the public how he is going to approach this crisis. So they're trying to do both things at the same time, but, importantly, recognizing that they have got to be out there, because the president is out there every single day talking all day long.

And if Biden doesn't have his own message out there, he could lose the moment.

BORGER: But Biden's message is clear and consistent.

When this campaign is over, I think people are going to look back at it and say, it's remarkable how we didn't go after the bright shiny object every day. He just kind of stuck with what he was going to talk about, which was COVID, the economy, and race relations. He stuck to it.

The more you see Donald Trump out on the campaign trail with his grievances about everything, mostly himself, the more people see that, the more they scratch their heads and wonder, why isn't he talking about me and what he's going to do for the country for the next four years?

[18:15:12]

That is what they have not heard from this incumbent president. And I believe that, in a way, these rallies could really be working against him too.

BLITZER: Yes, whatever Biden's strategy is, it seems to be working...

BORGER: It's consistent.

BLITZER: ... because, if you look at the polls in the battleground states and the national polls, he's doing very well.

AXELROD: Yes. Yes.

BLITZER: All right, Gloria, David, Abby, guys, thank you very much. Just ahead: the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci

now says life here in the United States might not -- repeat -- not return to normal until the end of next year and possibly even later.

Plus, yet another dangerous hurricane is lashing the Gulf Coast right now. We will have the latest forecast, as the storm is slamming Louisiana right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:12]

BLITZER: More breaking news tonight on the coronavirus pandemic.

New cases here in the United States are now averaging 70,000 per day. That's the highest level yet.

CNN's Brian Todd is working the story for us.

Brian, the experts have been warning about a fall surge for months. Now it's here.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It has arrived with a vengeance, Wolf.

The White House Coronavirus Task Force has just warned that it's seeing what it calls an unrelenting broad community spread in the Midwest, the Upper Midwest and the Western states.

The task force says it's going to take aggressive mitigation to control the spread.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): In front of the Milwaukee city courthouse, hundreds of empty chairs placed in solemn rows, a memorial set up by local leaders to represent coronavirus victims who won't be there for their families' holiday celebrations this year.

REV. GREG LEWIS, CORONAVIRUS SURVIVOR: Look at those chairs. That's how serious it is. People, stop taking this virus lightly.

TODD: With his state surpassing 200,000 cases and hospitals in crisis, Wisconsin's governor couldn't have been more dire in warning residents to take precautions.

GOV. TONY EVERS (D-WI): There's no way to sugarcoat it. We are facing an urgent crisis. And there is an imminent risk to you, your family members, your friends, your neighbors.

TODD: And one expert says some areas of the country may soon have to ration hospital care for COVID patients and be forced to make excruciating decisions.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL: When you have a massive surge of critically ill patients, it will very quickly overwhelm the system and require us to make those really difficult decisions about who gets an intensive care unit bed, who gets a ventilator, and who, unfortunately, will have to die.

TODD: In New Jersey, the governor says he's trying to avoid a wider shutdown of businesses and schools. But he says many of his state's outbreaks can be traced to private gatherings in homes, where the rules are tougher to enforce.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): It's serious. There's no question about it. And it's really migrated from hot spots in particular communities or in higher education. Now it's pretty much up and down the state.

TODD: The U.S. is now averaging over 70,000 new cases per day, even worse than the surges in the spring and summer. Forty states are trending worse in the reporting of new cases. Only one is trending better.

White House Coronavirus Task Force member Admiral Brett Giroir urgently appealed for Americans to comply with safety guidelines, warning, more draconian rules will be put in place if they don't. But he also struck a hopeful tone.

GIROIR: As we did in the Sunbelt, 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, avoid crowds like those indoors crowded spaces, wash your hands.

TODD: At a University of Melbourne panel, the top voice on the pandemic addressed a question on so many Americans' minds. When can the country get back to normal?

FAUCI: If we get a vaccination campaign and, by the second or third quarter of 2021, we have vaccinated a substantial proportion of the people, I think it will be easily by the end of 2021 and perhaps even into the next year before we start having some semblances of normality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Dr. Anthony Fauci says one of the reasons that getting back to normal will take longer, one of the reasons for the current surge in cases is because, when he and other members of the task force set up safety guidelines for the country to reopen, too many states just went off on their own and crossed their red lines for safety.

They jumped the gun to reopen bars and restaurants. They didn't do enough to clamp down on big crowds, and they didn't do enough to enforce mask wearing -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Brian, thank you, Brian Todd recording.

Let's bring in our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, despite this grim picture, the White House listed ending the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the president's accomplishments, and then said that claim was, what, poorly worded.

Is there any way to back up that claim, when the country added more than half-a-million confirmed new coronavirus cases in the past week alone?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, absolutely not, Wolf.

I mean, poorly worded is being generous, because we're going in absolutely the wrong direction here, Wolf. The numbers are increasing, but the pace at which the numbers are increasing is also going up, so, as you mentioned, half-a-million cases in a week, Wolf. We are going into a really tough season here.

And we also know that the basic things that should be getting done to try and curb some of these numbers is also not happening. I mean, there's still not enough testing. Testing does not lead to more cases. It leads, hopefully, to finding cases and decrease in the numbers. But we're still not doing enough.

[18:25:00]

Masks are still not being worn by enough people. The president took his mask off as soon as he got out of the hospital. That sent a certain message.

People are still gathering in large numbers. We're seeing that at the rallies. And Vice President Pence should be quarantined. I mean, that's one thing that we learned months ago. If you have been exposed to someone with COVID, you should quarantine, because you could pass the virus on to others.

So, no, Wolf, this is not -- we're not through this by any means. We're still going in the wrong direction. And, sadly, we're not doing the things that we should be doing to prevent that from happening, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, 985 Americans died just yesterday, just yesterday from coronavirus.

Sanjay, I understand you're learning about some new findings about the -- one of the treatments that the president actually used from Regeneron. What more can you tell us about this?

GUPTA: Well, so, this is a -- these are these monoclonal antibodies.

And there's a couple of them that you have heard of now. Regeneron basically uses two different monoclonal antibodies. Eli Lilly has another treatment like this using one monoclonal antibody.

What we're learning is it seems to be a treatment that is best used in patients who have more mild to moderate disease. It doesn't seem to work as well in someone who's already been hospitalized.

Sort of think of it like this. When you give a vaccine, the goal is to basically teach your body to make antibodies. These are these proteins that help fight the virus. The vaccine would be great. We don't have that yet.

In the interim, giving someone the antibodies directly, giving them these proteins could sort of accomplish the same thing, but for a shorter term.

What have we learned? Two primary things. They seem to decrease the amount of virus that you're carrying in your nose and your mouth. So, even with somebody who has mild symptoms, that may make them less contagious. The other thing that they found -- and it was a significant reduction there, about a tenfold reduction overall by day five.

They also found that it decreased the likelihood that they would need to be hospitalized and decreased the duration of their overall symptoms.

So, Wolf, it's encouraging. It's early. This is still early data. This is the medicine, as you point out, that President Trump received. There isn't a huge amount of data yet around this. But, you know, I think it's been promising, and it sort of makes sense, again, Wolf, to provide these antibodies in a safe way to help people from keep -- to keep them from getting as sick from this disease.

BLITZER: And what's good is, this monoclonal antibody from Regeneron, you can take it at home. You don't have to wait until you get to the hospital, right?

GUPTA: Right. That's right. So, you could take this at home.

And, in fact, this is one of those things that they think, earlier in the course of illness, for milder disease, could be given. It is an injection, but it's something you could take at home.

BLITZER: Yes, remdesivir, the other treatment, you have got to get at a hospital, because that's an infusion.

GUPTA: That's right.

BLITZER: All right, Dr. Gupta, as usual, thank you very much for all of that.

GUPTA: You got it.

BLITZER: Sanjay Gupta helping us better appreciate what's going on.

Just ahead, we're going to lay out the path to 270 electoral votes, the crucial majority President Trump and Joe Biden are fighting to secure in these, the closing days of the campaign.

And, later, we will have an update on the very dangerous hurricane slamming the U.S. Gulf Coast right now. Stand by. We have a new forecast.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

BLITZER: With just six days until the election, we're tracking the path to 270 electoral votes, the crucial number needed to secure the White House. Our Political Director, David Chalian, is working through all the various scenarios for us.

David, take us inside the state of the race with only six days left.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Wolf, you remember election night 2016. This is what the map looked like at the end of the night. Today, the center of the political universe was in Arizona. Donald Trump had two events there. Kamala Harris, the vice presidential nominee on the Democratic side, had two events there. I want to remind you in Arizona in 2016, Donald Trump won that state by 3.5 percentage points. It was close but it remained in Republican hands.

Now, why were they both campaigning there tonight? Well, first of all, the state of the race in Arizona right now in our poll of polls, Wolf, Joe Biden 49 percent, Donald Trump 45 percent. That's why we have the state leaning toward Joe Biden in our -- let's -- in our Electoral College map.

And I want to show you on the path to 270 electoral votes why Arizona can be so very important. Remember, blue states leaning towards Biden, red states leaning towards Trump, yellow states, tossup. I'm going to give all the tossups, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, this congressional district up here in Maine. I'm going to give that all to Donald Trump for the purpose of this exercise. I get him to 248.

You know that he needs to win one of these critical great lake states that we talk about will be determinative one way or the other in this election. Let's give him Pennsylvania, the most electoral-rich state of the three of them. That still only gets him to 268.

This is why flipping -- keeping Arizona in his column is so important. Because if he can keep that state, that for 70 years has gone Republican, except in 1996 when Bill Clinton won it, in Republican hands, he only needs one of those great lake states, Pennsylvania or Michigan, to actually get over the top, Wolf.

BLITZER: A lot of focus also, David, on Georgia, who would have thought, this late in the race.

[18:35:02]

And there's good reason why all of a sudden Georgia seems to be a battleground state.

CHALIAN: Well, take a look at our poll of polls in Georgia. This is an average of some of the most recent polls in Georgia. Look at this, Joe Biden at 49 percent, Donald Trump at 46 percent. Democrat hasn't won Georgia since 1992 in a presidential election.

Let me show you again why it's so important. Again, if I give Donald Trump Florida, let's say he does indeed hang on to Arizona, if I give him North Carolina, if I give him Ohio, if I give him Iowa, if I give him this congressional district up here in Maine, okay, he is at 243 without Georgia. The thing here is if I give him Pennsylvania and Michigan, then he can get over 270 without Georgia. But what Georgia does if Joe Biden can win it, Wolf, is it blocks Donald Trump from recreating the map with only one of those great lake states. He would actually need two of them. And remember, all three, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, trending away from him. That's why Georgia is a bit of an insurance policy for Joe Biden.

BLITZER: Yes, it's one of the reasons why Biden was in Georgia yesterday. Who would have thought this late in the race he would go spend a day in Georgia.

All right, David Chalian, thank you very, very much.

Just ahead I'll speak with the mayor of Houston, Texas, Sylvester Turner, about the COVID-19 hospital crisis ravaging his state. There you see him. He is standing by live.

And later, a very dangerous hurricane is lashing Louisiana tonight. We'll have the latest forecast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're following the worsening second wave of the coronavirus. More than half a million Americans have tested positive in just the last week as nearly every state is now seeing numbers trend in the wrong direction, including Texas.

Let's discuss with the mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner. Mayor Turner, thank you so much for joining us.

I'm sad to report you're seeing an uptick in coronavirus cases in your city. Give us a sense of what you're seeing on the ground. You have the tools you need to slow the spread of this deadly virus.

MAYOR SYLVESTER TURNER (D), HOUSTON, TX: Wolf, just like we're seeing in other parts of the country, we're seeing a resurgence of this virus in Texas, especially right now in West Texas. El Paso, for example, is getting hit hard. And we're certainly sending our best to the people down in El Paso and West Texas.

Even in the city of Houston, we are noticing a modest increase. And, look, we are alerting people and waving the flag and encouraging people to put their masks on, engage in social distancing so we can prevent another surge occurring right here in Houston, Harris County.

BLITZER: As you point out, in El Paso, it's so sad, hospitals are overflowing with coronavirus patients right now. Do you have confidence, Mayor, in your governor, the governor of Texas, to keep this outbreak from overrunning the state or do you fear Houston, I hope it doesn't happen, could be next?

TURNER: Well, look, we saw what happened in May when things opened up, when the governor did open things up, And June, July, and August were devastating months for Houston. What we are saying to people in our city, what I'm saying to people in the city of Houston, look, we've seen this before. We've seen how this played out before. And so let's not assume that the resurgence has taken place in other parts of the country, taken place in West Texas, cannot come here.

What we have noticed, and I made the announcement a couple of days ago, the positivity rate in the city of Houston has ticked up again. We were down to 5 percent. It's now up to 6.5 percent. I'm looking at the daily reports from the hospitals. We're seeing a few more people now COVID-related in our hospitals. There's still plenty of room but we're noticing a slight increase.

And so before it gets too bad and before it gets out of hand, we certainly are encouraging people to be mindful that this virus has not disappeared and that our behavior cannot change such that we can -- things can get worse.

Now, the governor has opened things up, for example, restaurants now in the city of Houston at 75 percent. Bars can open up depending on the county judge. Fortunately, in this area, the county judge in Houston, Harris County, has not opened bars up. But in the surrounding counties, the bars are now open. So people are starting to come back together again, re-socializing.

And so we simply want to make sure that we are letting people know that we have to be diligent, we have to be mindful, that the virus has not left the scene. And that our greatest vaccine happens to be these masks. That's what's important.

BLITZER: So it's simple. If people just wore masks, thousands and thousands of lives would be saved over the next weeks and months. Let me turn while I have you, Mayor, to the 2016 election.

TURNER: Sure.

BLITZER: Senator Kamala Harris there will visit your city as part of a three-stop tour through Texas on Friday. Are Democrats finding a foothold in Texas right now in this upcoming presidential election six days from now?

TURNER: Wolf, for the first time in a long time Texas is in play. I mean, people are excited. People are fired up. I will tell you in Harris County there are 2.4 million registered voters. As of today, over a 50 -- a little over 50 percent of those registered voters have already voted.

And tonight, for example, tonight, which is Wednesday, Thursday, the polls are open until 10:00 P.M. and tomorrow, Thursday, for example, the polls will be open 24 hours, or, really, 36 hours.

[18:45:01]

So if you get off at midnight from your job, you can vote at 1:00 a.m. in the morning on Thursday.

So people are fired up. People are excited. Texas is in play. It is a competitive state.

And so, I know you've talked a lot about Georgia. Keep your eyes on Texas.

BLITZER: The 2020 election is going to be so, so critical. We'll see if Texas really does become a battleground as they say. We'll see what happens over the next six days.

The Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court I should say, just ruled in favor of Governor Abbott's order to limit mail-in ballot drop-off locations to one site per county irrespective of how big that county might be.

You say this is a direct attempt at voter suppression. So what's your advice to voters?

TURNER: To vote.

Look, Harris County is roughly 1,700 square miles. To only have one drop-off location for people who want to vote by mail is crazy. And I've said it before, I'll say it again, that I view that as voter suppression, clear and simple.

But what has happened is that people have responded in an amazing fashion. We have 122 different locations in Harris County where people can vote. There's drive-thru voting where people can take place. You can vote up until 10:00 p.m. tonight, for example, and again all night on Thursday night.

And so, even though that was an attempt to just restrict it to one drop-off location for people who are going to vote by mail, people have responded in the opposite way. They've come to the poll. They're excited. They are fired up. They are determined not to allow anyone or any person to stop them from voting. And that's from the youngest to the oldest.

In this election cycle in Harris County, the number of young people voting has doubled what existed in 2016. So, the students in our colleges and our universities, high school students that are 18, that young generation, they are the ones who are saying not this time around.

And so, they are actively engaged in this election process. So what we have found, when people have tried to stop or suppress the vote, people are saying this election is too consequential to allow anyone to put a stop in preventing people from going to the polls. Wolf, they are more determined to vote now than they have ever been. And I'm excited about that.

BLITZER: All right. We'll see if Texas is in play. We'll know very, very soon.

Mayor Sylvester Turner, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.

TURNER: Thanks, Wolf. Stay safe.

BLITZER: You too, my friend.

We're going to get an update on the powerful very dangerous hurricane now hitting the Gulf Coast and the threat it poses to New Orleans.

We'll be right back.

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[18:52:26]

BLITZER: Breaking news, we're following Hurricane Zeta right now as it makes landfall in southeastern Louisiana. It's a powerful storm with 110-mile-an-hour sustained winds.

CNN's Amara Walker is in New Orleans for us, which is expected to some very strong winds as well.

So, what are you experiencing, Amara, right now?

AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, right now, we just got hit with a powerful wind gust. Right now, we're actually going through the worst of Hurricane Zeta.

As you can -- as you can see behind me, just a few moments ago, it sounded like a freight train was rolling through here, but officials have been saying this is going to be a quick and brutal storm. I can confirm the brutal part for sure.

There have not been any mandatory evacuations in the city of New Orleans. So for the most part, people are hunkered down in their homes, in their hotel rooms riding out this storm.

Now, the biggest concern with officials is complacency. This is the fifth named storm to hit Louisiana just this season. And many people I talked to on the streets have been telling me they're just so sick and tired of having to prepare for storm after storm. In fact, there are about 3,500 evacuees from Laura and Hurricanes delta who are still displaced and scattered around hotel rooms here in New Orleans.

And, yes, they are once again dealing with yet another hurricane riding out this storm. Power outages are the biggest concern. We are getting reports from Entergy, which is the state's largest utility company, that more than 240,000 people are currently without power.

Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: All right. Amara, just be careful out there. We'll stay in close touch.

I want to bring in our meteorologist Tom Sater with the latest forecast. Schools are closed all the way to Atlanta. I understand the storm is going to be moving.

Tell us about the threat to the Southeast.

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I tell you, she mentioned, we're well into the Greek alphabet now with Zeta. And this is something, a record-breaking year continues, Wolf. This is now the strongest hurricane in modern recorded history this

late in the season. Satellite imagery showing you where it may make landfall, Central Time at 4:00 p.m., Southeast Louisiana.

And again, now, she talked about how blinding the winds are in New Orleans, they're now, and I'll show the radar in the moment, the northern eye, but they have been storm weary now, as you mentioned, five storms, an all-time record for the state of Louisiana. It actually ties Florida in 2005.

But this is unusual. Notice the color of blue here. You can see the warnings in red. But tropical storm warnings extend into the Carolinas. This is going to be moving over 600 miles still with tropical storm winds.

[18:55:03]

When you look at the storm surge, obviously, the threat, of course, not only in the parishes of Louisiana, Lake Pontchartrain, four to six, in the coastal areas of Mississippi, seven to 11 feet. We have 50-foot storms off the coast in the open waters, but New Orleans now in that northern eye, Wolf, this will be clearing out later. But I fear millions of power outages across eight states by tomorrow afternoon.

BLITZER: Yeah, such an awful situation. Our best hopes for all the folks there.

Tom Sater, thanks very much.

And we'll have more news just ahead.

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BLITZER: (AUDIO GAP) 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.