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Interview with Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D-GA), Atlanta; Two Georgia Senate Races Could Wind Up in a Runoff; 81 Plus Million Ballots Cast, More Than a Third of Registered Voters; U.S. Reports Third Highest Single Day of New Cases. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired October 29, 2020 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Both President Trump and former Vice President Biden zeroing in on that battleground with dueling rallies today. Joe Biden has another event in Florida this hour. He is predicting that, if he wins the Sunshine State, the election is over.

We're breaking down Florida's clout in the all-important fight for 270 electoral votes.

And we're also following the exploding turnout in early voting here in the United States. Over 80 million ballots have been cast so far, more than a third of all registered voters.

Also, tonight, most of the country is in the red zone, as new coronavirus cases trend up in 41 states. Not a single state is heading in the right direction, as the U.S. death toll climbs above 228,000. The total case count is now close to hitting nine million.

First, let's go to our White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins.

Kaitlan, you're in North Carolina. The president was supposed to have a rally there later tonight, but that's not happening tonight.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, Wolf, that rally got postponed until Monday because, as you can see, it's a little windy here. We're getting the remnants of the hurricane here in North Carolina.

So, instead, the president is inside Fort Bragg right now. Then he is going to go back to Washington, D.C. But, of course, Wolf, this comes after the president spent the day alongside Joe Biden in Florida, which, of course, is always at the center of presidential politics, but even more so because it's one of those states you mentioned that is in the red zone for when it comes to coronavirus cases, as the president is seeing the last few days of this 2020 race be defined by the one thing he didn't want it to be, the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): President Trump and Joe Biden crossing paths in Tampa, Florida, today with dueling rallies. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Five days from now, we

are going to win Florida. We are going to win four more years in the White House.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The heart and soul of this country is at stake right here in Florida. It's up to you. You hold the key. If Florida goes blue, it's over.

COLLINS: With cases rising, the closing days of the 2020 race are being defined by the pandemic and two wildly different closing messages from the candidates.

TRUMP: We're making the turn.

BIDEN: Thank you for wearing your mask, and thank you for social distancing.

COLLINS: Trump has been eager to point out the differences, bragging about his mostly maskless crowds, as he flouts coronavirus guidelines, while Biden adheres to them.

TRUMP: Now they try and say it's because of COVID. They say the fact that he has nobody at all show up is because of COVID. No, it's because nobody shows up.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I think that's the ultimate poll.

COLLINS: Today, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was pressed by CBS News on why the administration isn't following its own guidelines on the pandemic, and instead talked about Purell.

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I can tell you that I'm following the guidelines, and a number of us are following the guidelines.

QUESTION: A number of you.

MEADOWS: As you look, for all of you that are watching this morning is, if you can carry a little container of Purell. Probably have used more Purell than any American here in the United States over the last seven or eight months.

COLLINS: Dr. Scott Atlas is now the president's go-to adviser on coronavirus, and new CNN reporting goes inside his push to mainly test only symptomatic people, even as other medical experts warn about the dangers of asymptomatic spread.

Dr. Atlas shared those views with governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis, and during a stop in the state in August said this:

DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISER: And so when you start introducing closure of schools because people have positive asymptomatic tests, that's sort of not the purpose of testing.

COLLINS: The rise of Atlas within the task force has coincided with what friends describe as the self-exile of Dr. Deborah Birx, who, instead of being by the president's side, now spends her days on the road advising state officials on transmission rates.

Today, the president focused less on new COVID-19 cases and instead on the third-quarter economic growth number he has been waiting to tout for weeks.

TRUMP: And wait until you see that number on GDP. I don't know what it is. The feds said it may be a 35 percent increase in GDP.

COLLINS: The economy grew a record 7.4 percent from July to September, which means, at an annualized rate, the growth was 33 percent, the sharpest improvement on record, but far from where it was pre- pandemic.

TRUMP: You see the number today, 33.1 GDP?

COLLINS: Meanwhile, the White House press secretary once again blurred the lines between government and politics today by appearing on FOX News not as a taxpayer-funded government official, but with this new title.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's bring in Kayleigh McEnany. She is a Trump 2020 campaign adviser.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: And, Wolf, back to that rift that we're seeing emerge between Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Scott Atlas, we're told that she emerged from a meeting late this summer at the White House and decided she had a resolution that she wasn't going to sit there and listen to him talk about misleading information, she believed, about the pandemic.

[18:05:05]

So that's why we have seen her on the road so much in Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana, the places she has been this week, nearly 40 states, where she goes and meets with these local officials, because he was getting more time with the president, and, Wolf, she was getting less.

BLITZER: Yes. That's very sad, indeed.

All right, Kaitlan Collins reporting for us, thank you very much.

Let's get some more on the Biden campaign's fight for Florida. This hour, the former vice president is holding an event in Tampa.

CNN's political correspondent, Arlette Saenz, is on the scene for us.

So, Arlette, so who are the voters Biden is trying to reach in this key battleground state?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Wolf, Joe Biden will be here in Tampa in just a short while.

This is part of the I-4 Corridor area, which is home to a booming population that includes a wide swathe of voters, with Biden trying to appeal to older voters, young voters, Latinos, as he is trying to make greater inroads in this state.

Now, earlier in the day, Biden started his campaigning in Broward County, a Democratic stronghold in the state. The idea there is trying to drive up some of that Democratic turnout heading into Election Day.

And Biden talked about just how important Florida is in this election, telling supporters and reporters here that, if he were to win, that would mean the election is over. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: This election is the most important one you have ever voted in, whether it's your first or 10th. Ladies and gentlemen, the heart and soul of this country is at stake right here in Florida. It's up to you. You hold the key. If Florida goes blue, it's over. It's over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, one of Biden's goals today is also appealing to the Latino community, a critical voting bloc here in the state that Biden is trying to improve his standing within the coming days.

At that event, you heard him specifically make appeals to Cuban and Venezuelan voters, talking about how there needs to be a new policy regarding Cuba, and also stating that he is someone who would stand up for democracy across the board.

Now, here in Tampa, Biden's event is taking place just around 10 miles away from where President Trump was earlier in the day. But it's completely different pictures of what these events look like.

The president is holding a not-socially-distanced rally. Here, this will be another one of those drive-in style events that Biden is known for, with people sitting in their cars as they listen to the former vice president speak.

It's just that main contrast that Biden has really tried to present in these closing weeks at the election with the president when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic and the safety at his own rallies -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, two very different types of rallies.

All right, Arlette, thank you very much.

Let's bring in our chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, and our CNN political correspondent, Abby Phillip.

And, Dana, only five days to go, both candidates spending some time in Florida today, in an effort to win those 29 electoral votes.

Tell our viewers why Florida is so critical right now. DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as we know,

Florida is always critical.

But the way the map is shaping up right now with all of the battleground states, Florida is the most important for Joe Biden. And what he said today wasn't spin. It wasn't just trying to get the crowd roused.

It was the reality of the way both parties look at the map. And that is, if Joe Biden, early in the night, or at any point, wins Florida, then it is very, very hard, not impossible, but almost impossible, for President Trump to find the 270 electoral votes, given where the battleground states are.

So that is really the key. Now, the flip side of that, though, if Donald Trump wins Florida, as he did four years ago, it is still possible for Joe Biden to get enough electoral votes in other battleground states to add up to 270.

So, it could be lights out for Donald Trump if Joe Biden wins Florida, but not the other way around. .

BLITZER: I want to show, Abby, our viewers some video of the very difficult rallies we saw in Florida earlier today. The president spoke to a largely maskless crowd, no social distancing, while Biden addressed a very socially distant drive-in rally.

These events say almost everything about how these candidates are campaigning and what they think about the coronavirus.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is the crux of the campaign at this stage.

And this is exactly the way that the Trump campaign in particular wants it. It was notable that you heard in Kaitlan's piece Joe Biden saying to the crowd, thank you for wearing your masks, thank you for social distancing.

But a few minutes after he said that, on social media, one of the Trump campaign advisers mocked him for making that statement, saying that Biden was scaring voters.

So, you could not have more divergent views of what the central issues in this campaign are. And you can only see the strategy here from the Trump side, which is that they must believe that the only way to get his voters out, to motivate his supporters to come out in large numbers to the polls is to run against the virus, run against public health guidance and a strategy that involves mask-wearing and social distancing.

[18:10:23]

The president is actively running against those things. Joe Biden is doing the exact opposite. The question is, will that strategy be enough, especially considering that we do know that, based on the polling, most voters do not approve of the president's handling of this virus?

And they have given Joe Biden far higher marks on that issue. And that is really the central issue that is driving the president's challenges in this race going into Election Day.

BLITZER: And, as you know, Dana, the most recent polling does have Biden slightly ahead in Florida. But the Biden campaign surely knows that, when a race is as close as it is in Florida, it has historically gone to the Republicans, to the Republicans' favor.

So, how should that shape the -- Biden's campaign strategy in the Sunshine State during these final five days?

BASH: Well, I think you just have to see what they're doing there.

And I think I may have misspoken before. Florida is a must-win for Donald Trump. And it's not necessarily so for Joe Biden.

But, to answer your question, the whole idea, if you're the Biden campaign is to boost support in the Democratic strongholds. It's not that different from the Trump campaign. But, also, Joe Biden has more territory that he can really mine from, like the suburbs, where Donald Trump, generally speaking, across the country, and Florida included, is not doing as well as he did four years ago with voters who tend to live in the suburbs.

So, those are two examples.

One thing that I thought was interesting, when you look at the early vote, because Florida has been voting, and already has gone more than halfway past where it was in total votes in 2016, that, over the past week or so, according to our research team, the Republicans have ticked up a little bit.

The gap between how many Democrats are voting and how many Republicans are voting is shrinking. Now, we're not sure what that means, because this is such an unusual year and so many people are early-voting, but it is noteworthy given the fact that Republicans are traditionally more apt to vote on Election Day.

BLITZER: You know, Abby, the U.S. Supreme Court is allowing an extension for mail-in ballots in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, two key states.

What exactly is the court allowing? And how significant are these rulings, potentially?

PHILLIP: Well, in the case of Pennsylvania and North Carolina, the court is basically saying, it is too close to the election to weigh in on these issues. So they are allowing in both cases for ballots to be received for now after Election Day.

So, in Pennsylvania, we're talking about a period of three days after Election Day. But, in North Carolina, it's a much longer period. It's a nine-day post-election period where ballots can be received. This is all, I think, critically important, particularly in

Pennsylvania, because this is what the Democrats really need, which is that those mail-in ballots, they believe, might slightly or even greatly benefit them by -- because most of their voters are using mail-in ballots. They want as many as possible to count.

But I do think there is a sense here that the litigation could potentially continue. The court basically said, we're not going to deal with this so close to the election but did not close the door on revisiting some of these issues after the election.

So, what form that takes will be an open question. But it could be a major, major decision for two key battlegrounds, but particularly for Pennsylvania, which is so key to both Donald Trump and to Joe Biden's path to 270.

It's also one of the states we're expecting might take a few days to count their results, and even longer if these deadlines a few days after the election hold.

BLITZER: Yes, it takes Pennsylvania quite a while to count the ballots. Florida, they do it very, very quickly.

Abby and Dana, guys, thank you very much.

Just ahead, we will dig deeper into Florida's crucial role into the fight for 270 electoral votes. Will the state decide the presidential race?

And there is a new warning just out from Dr. Anthony Fauci on the pain ahead, as the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic gets worse.

We will be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:18:53]

BLITZER: We're following all the breaking news on the presidential race with only five days until the election.

The Trump and Biden campaigns both focusing in today on Florida, a battleground with a history of deciding who wins the White House.

Our political director, David Chalian, is over at the Magic Wall for us.

So, David, you and I have said it before, Florida, Florida, Florida. It's still very true tonight.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: It is, because it's such a big prize, 29 electoral votes.

Again, let me just show you why Donald Trump needs Florida in his corner so badly on this map to 270. The yellow states are the toss-up states. Let's give Donald Trump all of them. Let's give him Florida and

Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, and this congressional district up here in Maine, OK? And what you see is, he is still short. So he needs to try to keep Arizona back in his camp. And then he would need one of these states in the Midwest, let's say Pennsylvania, and that would do it.

But, Wolf, what if Joe Biden won Florida, OK? And then let me show you the poll of polls in Florida right now, an average all of the polls, 49 percent Biden, 46 percent Trump. It is a toss-up state. There's no doubt about it.

If Biden wins Florida, Trump goes back down to 250. Then where does he go?

[18:20:03]

He actually at that point would need both Michigan and Wisconsin to get him over the top. And, right now, he is behind in all three of those states, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, he's -- at least according to the polls, he is behind big time in those states.

What are you watching, David, as far as the battle for control of the Senate is concerned?

CHALIAN: Well, it's a fascinating contest for control of the Senate.

And let me just show you what the Democrats think their best path is to a Senate majority, OK? In Arizona, they see an opportunity to defeat incumbent Martha McSally with the astronaut Mark Kelly. That will give them one that they need. They need to get to 51. In Iowa, they are hoping -- -- this is a dead heat race -- that Theresa Greenfield can defeat incumbent Joni Ernst.

In Maine, Democrats are hoping that Sara Gideon, the House speaker there, can overtake incumbent Senator Susan Collins. Now it's at 50. Where do they go for that next one? North Carolina, a dead heat race right now, Wolf. Democrats are hoping Cal Cunningham can pull it out.

That would do it.

Now, what happens, though, let's say, if Joni Ernst hangs on, OK? They're back at 50. And what happens if indeed Thom Tillis hangs on in North Carolina? Look at Georgia.

I want to show you this Senate race in Georgia. There are two of them. But this Senate race between David Perdue and Jon Ossoff. It is a margin of error race. And just tonight, Wolf, we have learned that David Perdue, the incumbent, has pulled out of the final debate scheduled for Sunday.

He says he would rather show up with Donald Trump and welcome him to Georgia at Donald Trump's planned campaign rally on Sunday in Georgia in the final 48 hours of this campaign. That's where David Perdue would rather be than on the debate stage with Jon Ossoff.

This is a race where this incumbent is really trying to hug the president now to get every last Trump-supporting, Republican- supporting vote possible, because he is in a real race for his job.

BLITZER: Yes, the battle for the U.S. Senate is going to be really, really critical.

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

Coming up: Do Democrats believe they can turn Georgia blue? I will speak to the mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, about the presidential battle in her state.

And COVID-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled in one hot spot in the past month. There are new pandemic warning signs all across the United States.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:27:01]

BLITZER: Tonight, with just five days until the election, the presidential candidates are pouring their time and resources into the battleground states that will determine who wins.

President Trump and former Vice President Biden targeting Florida today. We did see Biden in Georgia on Tuesday.

Let's discuss what's going on with the mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms.

Mayor Bottoms, thank you so much for joining us.

And, as you know, Biden campaigned in Georgia this week. Our CNN poll of polls now shows him at 49 percent in Georgia, compared to President Trump's 46 percent.

What needs to happen in these final days for Biden to do what no Democrat has done in Georgia since 1992, win that state? That's when Bill Clinton carried Georgia, beat the incumbent president, George H.W. Bush.

MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D-GA), ATLANTA: Well, Wolf, the fact that I'm sitting here talking about Georgia being in play is exciting in and of itself.

But now this is our opportunity truly to make a difference with this electoral map. It's about turnout at this point. We have seen a record number of people turning out to vote. It's not quite even. The last I checked Democrats were a bit up just in terms of turnout.

But we know that Republicans often have a surge on Election Day. And we are just encouraging people and reminding people that their vote counts, literally. There's one more opportunity to early-vote on tomorrow, and then, of course, there is Election Day.

We're used to close elections in Georgia, my race for mayor, 832-vote difference out of almost 97,000 cast. So, I have been reminding people that it really does matter. Everybody has to turn out. And I think that, if that happens on the Democratic side, then we can take Georgia.

BLITZER: That would be pretty amazing if that happens. We will see if that does happen.

The Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court, Mayor, has ruled that both Pennsylvania and North Carolina can count mailed-in ballots that arrive within a certain period after next Tuesday, Election Day.

So what does that say to you? What does it say that Republicans were opposed, for example, to those extensions?

BOTTOMS: What it says to me is that this is yet another opportunity for this election to be interfered with.

But I'm glad to see that those ballots can be counted, and we are telling people in Georgia, if you have not mailed in your ballot yet, don't put it in the mailbox. Find an official drop box, or safely early-vote by wearing a mask.

We had some challenges across the state today with the power outages as a result of the storm. So, hopefully, people will still be able to go out tomorrow. But we're telling people, don't leave it up to chance. There is too much that changes on a daily basis.

We don't want to leave it up to the courts to have to decide. We just want to make sure that people have their ballots in, in time, and that they are able to cast their votes safely and securely.

[18:30:05]

BLITZER: Georgia also has two, a very heated Senate races this year thanks to a special election. There's a chance both of those contests could end up in a runoff. We've just learned the incumbent, Senator David Perdue, has pulled out of his last debate to instead, he says, welcome President Trump to a rally in Georgia. Clearly, things are very close. How crucial is your state potentially in the fight for control of the U.S. Senate?

BOTTOMS: This is the first time in my lifetime, and I don't know that it's ever happened in history that we've had an opportunity in our state to cast a ballot for two senators and an opportunity to cast a ballot for president at the same time. This is truly a historic election in Georgia. It can make the difference in the balance of power in the Senate. And we know that my candidate, Joe Biden, will need a strong Senate to support him.

So it's our hope that people are going to cast their ballot for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but also remembering that we truly have an opportunity to make a difference in the Senate. We just saw this very close vote with the confirmation of the Supreme Court justice. So it makes a difference. And people often don't think about those races that are down ballot, but especially in the Warnock race there over, I believe 20 names on that ballot.

So we are encouraging people to search to the bottom, vote for Warnock, vote for Ossoff, because we want both of them to have an opportunity to win without a runoff, because in runoffs, Republicans often outvote Democrats in our state.

BLITZER: Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, she was asked a series of questions about President Trump and his record in dealing with women. I want to play this exchange she had with some reporters. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: And you're still not disagreeing with that particular -- with that particular thing that President Trump said? You're still not disagreeing with that?

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): Sorry, what are you referring to?

REPORTER: You're still not disagreeing with President Trump's statements about personally sexually assaulted women?

LOEFFLER: I'm not familiar with that.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Access Hollywood tape. He was referring to the Access Hollywood tape.

LOEFFLER: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: She said she wasn't familiar with the Access Hollywood tape. Well, what do you make of that?

BOTTOMS: I don't believe that. Kelly Loeffler is -- has not had her head in the sand. I don't believe that she's not familiar with those tapes. I think it was just an unwillingness to publicly speak against Donald Trump. And if this has been disappointing for so many of us across the state, but I don't believe that she's not familiar with those tapes and to the extent that she is not familiar with those tapes, that's concerning as well.

BLITZER: Very quickly on the coronavirus pandemic, what's the latest, not just in Atlanta, but in Georgia? Are you seeing an expanding community spread unfold as is the case in so many other parts of the country?

BOTTOMS: We are seeing our numbers go up in Georgia. We have seen a downward trend. Our numbers are not as high as they were several months ago, thankfully. We'll hope that it continues that way. But like the rest of the country, we are seeing an uptick. And, again, just encouraging people and reminding people that we are still in the midst of a pandemic and there are very simple things you can do in terms of wearing a mask and continuing to social distance. But it is troubling that the numbers are going up across our state and equally troubling that it's going up across the nation.

BLITZER: Very troubling indeed. All right Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, thank you so much for joining us.

BOTTOMS: Thank you.

BLITZER: Just ahead we have breaking news on the spread of the coronavirus at President Trump's packed rallies, and we'll also have the latest on the U.S. Supreme Court allowing extensions for mail-in ballots to be counted in two key battleground states. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:35:00]

BLITZER: We're back with breaking news on the coronavirus pandemic as much of the country is trending in the wrong direction right now.

Let's go to CNN's Nick Watt. Nick, there has been a lot of concern about the virus spreading at President Trump's crowded rallies. What are you learning?

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we have just heard from officials in North Carolina that two people who were at his MAGA rally in the state middle of last week have now tested positive. So everybody who was at that rally is being advised to monitor their symptoms and get tested if necessary.

Now, there was supposed to be another MAGA rally in North Carolina tonight. President Trump spreading his message and maybe the virus, but that has been canceled, not because of COVID-19 but because apparently it is too windy.

Meanwhile, the experts are just lining up to tell us that the worst could still be to come.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: There is going to be a whole lot of pain in this country with regard to additional cases and hospitalizations and deaths. We are on a very difficult trajectory. We are going in the wrong direction.

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: This is the hardest point in this pandemic right now, the next two months.

[18:40:00]

We'll cross 100,000 infections at some point in the next couple of weeks, probably. We might do it this week.

WATT: He's talking 100,000 new infections a day. Here's the graph, spring surge, summer surge, now this, the country averaging well over 70,000 new cases every day right now, record territory and climbing even higher.

DR. CRAIG SPENCER, DIR. GLOBAL HEALTH IN E.R. MEDICINE, N.Y.- PRESBYTERIAN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: It's true that testing has gone up since October 1st by 14 percent, which is great. But new cases have gone up by over 60 percent. So it's not just testing. It's a lot more virus, and this virus is everywhere.

WATT: We continue to see unrelenting broad community spread in the Midwest, upper Midwest, and west says the White House coronavirus task force's latest report.

Kansas and South Dakota just logged record daily case counts, and four days in a row Wisconsin has broken its record for most COVID patients in the hospital, now forced to use overflow facilities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hospitalizations have more than doubled in the last month. We've got this situation that is clearly out of control right now in the state of Wisconsin.

WATT: And many places getting hit hard right now don't have the hospital infrastructure of, say, New York, but the president still not taking this seriously.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: You have to eat through the mask. It's a --

WATT: Dr. Fauci now wants a nationwide mask mandate.

FAUCI: Yes. If that work, let's do it. I don't think it's going to happen nationally, because it might -- it may not come from the White House to do it. And if it doesn't, then I think that the mayors and the governors should do it.

WATT: Right now, not a single state in the nation has fewer new cases this week than last, not even one is headed in the right direction.

DR. ALI KHAN, DEAN, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER'S COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH: This is the greatest political failure since the Vietnam War probably, and we've killed five times as many people. The virus -- I mean, it's unbelievable. The virus is no longer the enemy. We are the enemy, our friends, our neighbors, our politicians.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: Now, right now, Ohio is pretty much a microcosm of the nation. About a month ago, Ohio was doing okay. Today, a record number of new cases, and the governor said this. The virus is raging throughout state of Ohio. There is no place to hide. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Nick Watt reporting for us from Los Angeles, thank you.

Let's get some analysis from Dr. Ashish Jha, the Dean of Brown University School of Public Health. Dr. Jha, thank you so much for joining us. As you know, we've been through surges before, but now we soon could be seeing, hope it doesn't happen, what 100,000 new cases a day. We had almost 80,000 just yesterday. Put that number into perspective for us.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, good evening, Wolf, thank you for having me on. That is unprecedented. We've never had anything like this.

And if we have to remember that as opposed to the spring surge, which was primarily in a few areas of the country or the summer surge that was in other parts of the country, this one is everywhere. And so we can't have doctors and nurses flying from somewhere else to, New York or Arizona to help out. Everybody is in trouble. This is really going to be a very difficult few weeks and even few months ahead.

BLITZER: When you say everyone is in trouble, is every state at risk right now, even the places that were hit hard in the spring and summer but managed to do better? But are they at serious risk again?

JHA: Well, New York and California remain in reasonably good shape. They are seeing increase in cases and so, they have to be very, very careful. But places -- other places that were hit hard, like Massachusetts seeing real increases in infections and hospitalizations, so I don't think anybody is going to be protected fully from this wave.

Unfortunately, I think every state has the potential to get into trouble.

BLITZER: If the pandemic is growing everywhere, Dr. Jha, there is no nationwide plan to fight the virus, and there isn't right now, not even a mask mandate. So where does that leave us? How are we supposed to get this thing under control without coordinated leadership?

JHA: It's so much harder, right, because we are the United States. We are one country. We don't have borders across states. But that said, I do think governors and mayors can do a lot to try to keep this under control. It will be much, much harder than if we actually had a federal government that was willing to engage and be helpful to states in controlling the virus.

BLITZER: You probably heard the reporting we've been doing. CNN has learned that Dr. Deborah Birx of the coronavirus task force, she's actually refusing to attend coronavirus task force meetings with Dr. Scott Atlas because he lacks any expertise in epidemiology. He is a radiologist. How concerning is his influence over the president because he clearly has the president's ear right now?

JHA: You know, he does seem to have the president's ear.

[18:45:00]

Dr. Atlas knows nothing about this virus. It seems -- certainly his proclamations on Twitter and elsewhere seems to suggest that he is deeply ignorant of infectious diseases, of this virus specifically.

I can imagine that experts like Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx would have a very hard time sitting through a meeting with someone who is so lacking in the basic knowledge around this pandemic and around this virus.

BLITZER: Yes, we played a clip from him earlier. In the summer, he was down in Florida with the governor there, and he said, don't worry about young kids who get coronavirus. If they're asymptomatic, it's not a big deal.

He doesn't seem to know that asymptomatic young people can pass on this virus to their parents or their grandparents or anyone else. He makes it sound as if it's no big deal.

JHA: Yes, you know, and he is ignoring the data on this, which is so clear that yes, often infections begin with young people. But they don't stay with young people. And weeks later, you see middle age and older people get infected because we don't all live on islands. We live with each other and we have family and friends. And that has happened over and other again.

And Dr. Atlas and his sort of herd immunity crowd have been arguing that somehow infections can stay within individual groups, and we know that's not how it works.

BLITZER: Yes, it doesn't work like that at all.

Dr. Jha, as usual, thank you so much for joining us.

JHA: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Just ahead, we're going to get reports from some of the key battleground states that will decide the presidential race, only five days left until the election.

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[18:51:11]

BLITZER: With more than 81 million votes already cast and just five days to go until the election, CNN is on the ground in the key battleground states that will decide the winner of the presidential race.

Let's start in North Carolina, where a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling could have a big impact on the race there.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in Raleigh for us.

Dianne, tell us more.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the U.S. Supreme Court is allowing North Carolina to receive ballots that are postmarked by Election Day, up until November 12th at 5:00 p.m.

Now, this was a settlement that was agreed upon after a lawsuit by the state board of elections here in North Carolina. Republicans, including the Trump campaign, had wanted the court to roll that deadline back to November 6. That was what was agreed upon by the state legislature as the ballot receipt deadline. Now, look, all absentee by mail ballots have to be postmarked by

Election Day, that's not changing. And there's just a record number of votes coming in, more than 850,000 mailed ballots have been returned. In in-person vote, 3 million.

At this point, North Carolina, Wolf, has over 80 percent of the votes cast in 2016 already in the bank. More than 3.8 people in North Carolinians have already cast their ballots. Early voting ends on October 31st -- Wolf.

BLITZER: That is so, so impressive. Dianne Gallagher in Raleigh, thank you.

Let's go to the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania, where another U.S. Supreme Court ruling is impacting the race.

CNN's Sara Murray is in Philadelphia for us.

So, Sara, what's the latest?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I'm here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the state of Pennsylvania, nearly 2 million people have already voted, casting those ballots early and by mail.

Here's the thing, as long as your ballot is received by November 6th, it's still going to count in the state of Pennsylvania. But if your ballot is received between November 3rd and November 6th, state officials are going to segregate that. That is why we hear officials saying in a state over and over again, if you have a mail-in ballot, do not wait, do not sit on it, turn it in right now.

And again, they just keep reiterating, it's going to take a while to count up all these ballots. It could be days. It could be a week. Don't panic. They're going to get through it.

Meanwhile, this is a critical battle ground state. Ivanka Trump is going to be here today, Karen Pence is here today all stumping on behalf of President Trump, trying to close the deal.

Back to you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Sara, thank you.

In Texas, a federal appeals court issued a ruling on mask wearing at the ballot box.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in El Paso for us.

What are you learning, Ed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the politics of mask wearing has entered the voting booth here in Texas. Recently, Republican Governor Gregg Abbott issued a rule saying that voters and poll workers would not be required to wear masks at polling locations across the state. Some liberal groups sued to make mask-wearing mandatory. But the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have sided with the governor.

So, the bottom line is that voters and poll workers will not be required to wear a mask at the voting booth. This comes as we have seen and continue to see a staggering number of Texans turning out to vote. So far, 8.4 million votes have been cast. That's about 94 percent of the overall turnout we saw back in 2016.

And one key statistic to remember going ahead as we look to see how many people are going to turn out on Election Day, since 2016, nearly 2 million new voters have been registered to vote here in the state of Texas -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Ed, thank you.

And we'll have more news just ahead.

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[18:59:16]

BLITZER: A disturbing milestone in the coronavirus pandemic. The United States has just recorded the third highest single day of cases as we pay tribute to some of the victims of the virus.

Noe Martinez Dominguez of Tennessee was 63 years old. Originally from Mexico, he worked as a dishwasher and waiter to make ends meet here in the United States. Noe had a thirst for knowledge, becoming a self- caught electrician and mechanic. This year, he and his three children gathered together in person for the first time in 22 years.

Santos Gomez of Arizona was 65. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather, with a big heart. His daughter Sonia says he taught his children to be independent and kind to others, and that his love was endless.

May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.

Thanks for watching.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.