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Erin Burnett Outfront
Obama: Trump "Hasn't Shown Any Interest In Doing The Work Or Helping Anybody But Himself And His Friends"; Trump Holding Rally In Key Swing State Of NC After Obama Rips Trump In Blistering Speech On His Presidency; Trump On What He'd Do Differently On COVID Response: "Not Much"; Feds: Iran And Russia Have Interfered With Presidential Election. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired October 21, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next breaking news, the closer. President Obama making his passionate case for his former VP taking President Trump head on point on point.
Plus Trump about to rally supporters in North Carolina, a must-win state for him. Will he respond to Obama?
And new CNN polls tonight on two crucial states and how they impact that all important raise to 270. We're live at the magic wall. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, Obama's blistering takedown of Trump. For more than 30 minutes, the former president delivering a scathing speech tearing into President Trump and it got personal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we do these next 13 days will matter for decades to come. Now, last time I was in Philadelphia, I was at the Constitution Center. And I was delivering a speech for the Democratic National Convention this year.
And I said during that speech, I've sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president and they are very different people. I explained that I never thought Donald Trump would embrace my vision or continue my policies, but I did hope for the sake of the country that he might show some interest in taking the job seriously.
But it hasn't happened. He hasn't shown any interest in doing the work or helping anybody but himself and his friends or treating the presidency like a reality show that he can use to get attention. And by the way, even then his TV ratings are down, so you know that upsets him. But the thing is, this is not a reality show, this is reality. And the rest of us have had to live with the consequences of him proving himself incapable of taking the job seriously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And you hear the horns, the people in the audience there responding by beeping. The former president then attacking Trump's policy record. And from economy, health care and the coronavirus outbreak that has killed nearly 222,000 Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: 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. 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 use it to, I don't know, prop up a wobbly table somewhere. We don't know where that playbook went. Eight months ago 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.
Just last night, he complained up in Erie that the pandemic made him go back to work, I'm quoting here. He was he was upset that the pandemics made him go back to work. If he'd actually been working the whole time, it never would have gotten this bad. This idea that somehow this White House has done anything but completely screw this up is just not true.
I'll 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 a 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 loss, 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:05:00]
BURNETT: As you could see, the strongest and most passionately we have seen him speak of all this also, then bringing up Trump's finances and the New York Times report that President Trump has a Chinese bank account. Here's President Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: As it turns out, this was just reported in the last 48 hours. We know that he continues to do business with China, because he's got a secret Chinese bank account. How is that possible? How is that possible? A secret Chinese bank account.
Listen, can you imagine if I had a secret Chinese bank account when I was running for reelection? You think Fox News might have been a little concerned about that? They would have called me Beijing Berry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, the former president then turning to the importance of this election and its effect on America's democracy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: 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 and we just become numb to it. We 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 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 and we can. But to do it, we've got a turn out like never before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Jeff Zeleny is OUTFRONT live in Philadelphia where the President just spoke. Jeff, that was the toughest assessment of Trump yet from Obama and you could see it building. When he's talking about coronavirus, you could really feel the anger and the passion.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORREPONDENT: Erin, there is no question that was the most at once blistering and at once mocking assessment that President Obama has ever delivered on his successor. This is something that really was building as a crescendo throughout the course of the speech here tonight, but it has been building as a crescendo for the last four years.
For the first year or so, Barack Obama didn't say much. During the midterm elections, he said a little bit more. But this year, certainly this summer, he has raised his voice and this certainly now is as forceful and as loud as he has ever spoken.
Erin, this was not a speech to sell the strength of Joe Biden. This was a speech designed specifically to say that Donald Trump is not fit for the presidency here in the United States or around the world. This was targeting Democrats, particularly.
This was not trying to necessarily reach someone in the middle. This was saying that Democrats need to not be complacent. He went back to this point four years ago, saying, look, Hillary Clinton was leading in the polls as well, but some Democrats got lazy. So he was also showing some tough medicine to Democrats here to come out and vote for Joe Biden and for Kamala Harris. And he certainly gave a litany of reasons why.
Erin, I'm told this is the first of several speeches that the former President is going to give. He's going to be targeted in these battleground states going where people are already voting like here in Pennsylvania. He's going to be looking at Florida and other key states. There's so much on the line here, but no mistake why he started in Philadelphia.
Before he arrived here, he spoke with some black community leaders, also making the case why it is important to vote. So going after young voters, black voters in particular and Latino voters, that is his overall message. But today, this was a broader message.
I'm told the former president wrote many of these words himself earlier today as he flew here, was sort of weighing how tough he was going to be. Erin, he decided to go all-in for this.
BURNETT: Yes.
ZELENY: Again, we've ever heard him this tough. The question is what effect will it have. But again, so much more about why Donald Trump shouldn't be elected and why Joe Biden should, Erin.
BURNETT: Yes, yes, that was absolutely it. He was also clearly proud of his Beijing Berry line, which he delivered there.
ZELENY: He certainly was.
BURNETT: As you say, mocking - yes, he was. All right. Thank you very much.
I want to go now to Michael Smerconish, Host of CNN's SMERCONISH, Nia- Malika Henderson, our Senior Political Reporter and John Harwood, White House Correspondent who also covered the Obama-Biden administration.
[19:10:02]
Michael, we wanted to play each of those segments there just to give everyone a flavor for how passionate this speech was how detailed it was, how personal it was. And I think Jeff Zeleny summarized it so well. It was at once blistering and mocking. How important is speech like this in the middle of early voting for turnout?
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST: So a comment first about style before substance, I thought it was remarkably well-staged. I pay attention to these sort of things, because I once had the privilege of doing advanced work for George Herbert Walker Bush, not easy to pull off a live event that is socially distant and incorporate as you referenced, Erin, the honking of the horns.
BURNETT: Right, no applause but horn honking.
SMERCONISH: And he was also at the top of his game - exactly, right, old drive-in days. And he also was very polished as he always is in his delivery. As a Pennsylvanian, I took something else away beyond the clips that you've played. And it's this, he began with instructions as to how you vote by mail in Pennsylvania.
See, we've never had absentee voting without cause before and if the so called secret envelope isn't inside the exterior envelope, your vote doesn't count. And there's a great deal of concern in Pennsylvania that folks on this first time around in a presidential race won't get it right and will have their ballot discounted.
So I thought it really significant that he wanted to be first in explaining how you vote in the Commonwealth by mail.
BURNETT: Right. To the point that Jeff is making, he's going to go to these crucial states, Pennsylvania, Florida and he was targeting it, specifically at those voters. He knew, obviously, there's a national audience for this definitionally, but he did have that specific point as well.
Nia, what about there were just a few points in there that the whole mocking tone of certain parts of it is going to get under the skin of the President for sure. The whole the anecdote about Erie where the President said I didn't need to come back here until coronavirus blew everything up and that's the only reason I'm back and we picked up on that.
He called him out on his TV ratings. It was designed to get to the President.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: I think that's right. At a time when the President is about to have a huge audience tomorrow with this debate, you can imagine that this President watched President Obama. He watched him, I'm sure, because he has not liked this president for years and years and years and launched his candidacy for the presidency on a racist lie about Obama.
And so I think in that way, it was perfectly timed. It was mocking, it was trash talking, but it was very elegantly delivered, I thought. He was incredibly loose on stage. It looks like he looks very tan and very fit. And we know that President Trump himself is sort of superficial in that way where he thinks about and cares about the way people look.
And so there was Obama with that thousand watt smile really trash talking this president. I thought it was also interesting, too. He did some work for Biden even though much of it was about tearing down Donald Trump. He said something to the audience in Pennsylvania, but obviously the broader audience.
He said about Joe Biden, you know him and he knows you. It's a familiar line. If you remember, Jim Clyburn used a similar line in South Carolina in those closing days leading up to the South Carolina pointers.
BURNETT: Yes.
HENDERSON: So I thought that was a really nice touch in this speech. I think this was one of the best speeches that Barack Obama has ever delivered in his career. There are a few in the top five or so in Philadelphia, in this crucial state for Joe Biden.
BURNETT: And John Harwood, he did make a very specific decision. Most of it was about not just things to get under Trump's skin, although he did that, and he had the funny parts as well with Beijing Berry, but that was, of course, laced in a very serious comment about this president's bank, the bank account story.
But he did also get into policy. But it really was about Trump. It was a case against Trump more than anything and that was purposeful.
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think it was purposeful. And as Nia-Malika just said, by getting under Trump's skin that is especially valuable, first of all, to see how the President reacts tonight at his rally in North Carolina, how he reacts on the debate stage tomorrow night. Because one of the problems for President Trump is that he's shown no interest in sustaining a message to the American people about what he's going to do for them.
He's been venting his grievances at all the people he thinks have been unfair to him, whether it's Anthony Fauci or Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes or the media or Bill Barr and members of his cabinet who haven't done enough to protect him. All of that stuff is not about what the American people want to hear in terms of the President's agenda and that has prevented the President from making any sort of comeback.
[19:15:03]
I do think there was a second message from President Obama which was very significant and that is the argument to many of these marginal voters, people who might not think it's worth it to say, no, everything is not going to change or be solved overnight, but we can make it better.
We all remember four years ago, that there was a drop off in voters of color, especially younger voters of color, especially men who did not turn out for Hillary Clinton. And that made a difference in places like Philadelphia and Milwaukee and Detroit and other places where Donald Trump narrowly defeated her.
So trying to sustain that motivation for a group of people who might either not vote or some of them might be tempted to vote for President Trump. I think that was part of the President's strategy as well.
BURNETT: So Michael, I just want to play a little bit more of what President Obama had to say. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Joe and I actually protected your policies to make sure people with pre-existing conditions could get health insurance and have coverage. We did it through something called the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. And Republicans tried to repeal or undermine it more than 60 times.
And when they've been asked about 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.
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 is running the world or that Navy SEALs didn't actually kill bin Laden. Think about that. The President of the United States retweeted that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Michael, there was a lot of detail and detail about stuff Trump cares about. I played, obviously, detail on the Affordable Care Act, that was the policy, the substance. But specifically mentioning things like the QAnon reference and the Osama bin Laden conspiracy theory, also very specific, very purposeful.
SMERCONISH: I think it's important to remember and the comment I'm about to make doesn't apply to those of us right now having this conversation nor, frankly, a lot of your audience, Erin. But many Americans just haven't paid attention until now, right? Those lower information voters, we tend to be the junkies, we pay attention to all of this stuff. We hang on every word of it.
And what I thought President Obama was successful in doing was bringing into the loop someone who may not have been paying attention to all the trials and tribulations of the last four years and now is playing catch up just as they are getting ready to go cast their vote.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you all very much.
So literally, as President Obama wraps that detail, passionate, blistering and yet mocking speech, the President of the United States is about to take the stage in North Carolina for a campaign rally where he just has a moment to go again in Gastonia. We're gonna see how he responds to that scathing takedown by President Obama.
North Carolina is where the President is because he must win that state to win. And by the way, he did win it in 2016 by nearly four percentage points. It was an easy win for him at that time. Trump, though, is spending time here now with only 13 days to go because polls show North Carolina a dead heat between Biden and Trump.
And just to show how important that state is, Joe Biden's running mate Kamala Harris is actually there as well right now, there she is in Charlotte. Ryan Nobles is OUTFRONT. He's at the Trump rally.
So Ryan, there were so many things in President Obama's speech that were designed for the audience of one in some senses, the references to ratings, do you expect Trump to respond to him at all? RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, if past practices any
indication of what will happen in the future would be a big surprise if President Trump didn't respond to President Obama's scathing commentary of the Trump presidency. The President certainly has had enough time to digest it. There are plenty of televisions on Air Force One and he's often watching those televisions as he makes his way to these rallies.
[19:20:02]
And you just have to look at who President Trump has focused on over the past two weeks, everyone that he perceives to be his enemy. He continues to hammer the press. He's now put Dr. Anthony Fauci in his crosshairs. He continues to attack Joe Biden, Kamala Harris even brings up Hillary Clinton.
So the idea that he wouldn't go after Barack Obama, after Barack Obama so harshly criticized him tonight would be a surprise. Now, the President just started his speech. It's just underway here in North Carolina. You mentioned this is a crucial swing state for the President. So far, he's largely stayed on script but as we know, Erin, these speeches often go in directions that no one including his campaign aides can predict.
So the President is here with a captive audience that loves him and audience that probably is not a very big fan of President Obama, it is very likely that President Obama's name will come up at some point tonight, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Ryan. And let's go now to Bakari Sellers. He was a Democratic member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and joining me as well, Scott Jennings, who was Special Assistant to President George W. Bush.
So Scott, so if you're advising President Trump tonight is going after President Obama a smart thing to do to shore up support in a, for him, must win state?
SCOTT JENNINGS, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, I think to the extent that he was attacked on certain issues that they feel are germane to winning the race. Sure, you'd want to rebut something from someone as famous and well known and as powerful as speaker as Barack Obama. At this point in the campaign, though, I think if I were the Trump people, persuasion is not really a thing at this point.
I mean, you've got virtually nobody is persuadable. If you're still persuadable or if you're undecided, let me just welcome you to Earth from Zalaxon 9 (ph) or wherever you just landed from. There's no ambivalence in the electorate out there.
What the Trump campaign though could do is persuade some people to vote who didn't vote in 2016, who maybe they just registered, maybe they've never voted before, but they fit the demo that low info flow voter not engaged in politics, not following it that closely, but maybe they fit a demo like male, non-college degree that is going to break for the President. So I would expect and advise the President to talk to an audience that might actually respond to that, because at this point, a persuasion game probably ain't going to cut it.
BURNETT: So Bakari, earlier today on Twitter, President Trump was focusing on the economy, which people like Scott have been telling him to do, focus on that, not any of these pejorative takedowns of people like Fauci. In part he tweets, "Remember, Biden is going to raise your taxes at a level never seen before. This will not only be very costly for you, it will destroy our economy, which is coming back very rapidly."
He then tweeted, "Your 401ks will crash with Biden. Massive Biden tax and Regulation increases will destroy all that you have built." Do messages like that, Bakari, resonate in crucial must win states for this president, his path to 270, it includes North Carolina, does that help there?
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it does help. I mean, I think that Scott and Rick Santorum and all my friends who are further right than I have been coming on this TV screen with me for the past two months, telling the President to hammer home that message. That's probably the only message that works for him.
But just as the President does, Kellyanne Conway or Kayleigh McEnany or Mark Meadows or the list goes on, and on and on. He doesn't listen to them like he doesn't listen to Santorum and he doesn't listen to Scott Jennings either and so he's in the bad state that he is today.
Look, the message on the economy is probably the only message he has that will resonate, but we are not in a try to woo voters to your side stage anymore in the campaign. We are strictly in 1920 [00:03:47], which means that you have to get your voters to the polls.
And because we're going to get out the vote, it's a little late to be trying to convince people. Look, Scott is right, if you're undecided right now, then you ain't paying attention. And I don't know too many undecided voters, he has to be speaking to people to get them to the polls. And Fauci, Stahl, CNN, those things, they're not getting people to the polls, the economy may work better.
BURNETT: So Scott, one person not at the rally tonight is the first lady. She has actually not set foot on the campaign trail once this year. That's a historic break of precedent and in fact she was supposed to join him last night in Pennsylvania, that was on the plan. She backed out because of a lingering cough from coronavirus. Her not being there though is a reminder of the thing Trump does not want to talk about the most, coronavirus. He doesn't want to talk about that.
JENNINGS: Of course, I mean, his job approval on it is bad and it's costing him support among a lot of voter cohorts, most importantly senior citizens. It's unfortunate that the First Lady can't campaign. I hope she feels better and her health fully recovers.
BURNETT: Sure.
JENNINGS: Because first ladies in the last few elections have really helped the incumbent presidents.
[19:25:00]
Michelle Obama was a great help to Barack Obama, Laura Bush was a great help to George W. Bush. So, first ladies can often soften the edges around a candidate who's out there feeling rather under attack. And so it's unfortunate for President Trump that she can't be out there, but hopefully her health gets better and she can make an appearance or two before the end of the election.
BURNETT: All right. So I want to play this and our producer, Jason here, this is a really amazing thing that we have. Are you ready for this? OK. The names may have changed from where we were four years ago today, four years ago today, but the story is the same. OK. So here is President Trump last night after and four years ago on the exact same day, here you go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hillary Clinton is the most corrupt and dishonest person ever to seek the office of the presidency.
Joe Biden is a corrupt politician.
He's going to raise your taxes.
He will massively raise your taxes.
Mexico will pay for the wall.
And Mexico is paying for the wall.
You're going to look back at this election and say this is by far the most important vote that I've ever cast for anyone at any time.
This is the most important election in the history of our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OK. So nothing's changed. I mean, a hell of a lot has changed and yet here we are with the same message, Scott.
JENNINGS: Yes. Look, he's trying to run the same race that he ran before. The structural problem in the polling on this race is the voters just don't hate Joe Biden as much as they hated Hillary Clinton. And so trying to run the same playbook against a dramatically different kind of opponent doesn't often work. He got to figure something else out.
The correct framing of this race for him would have been to have a choice election my policies versus yours. In the last campaign, he could afford to run that kind of race because Hillary's numbers and her personal image were so bad that people were willing to buy into that sort of theory. This time around, it doesn't look like it's working which means a
choice on policy would have been better. Instead, right now what we're getting is a referendum on Trump's job approval, especially on coronavirus and that's not working for him, but it is of course working for Joe Biden.
BURNETT: It is pretty stunning, though, to hear that Bakari. I mean, it's word for word and frankly what are extemporaneous ad libbed environments?
SELLERS: I mean, I don't know how surprising it is, it's Donald Trump, right? He has one sheet of music. He is a blunt force object. You don't really change the trajectory of blunt force objects. What I'm about to say is more so to my proverbial bedwetting Democrats than anybody else. But 2020 is not 2016 and people want to analyze them as the same thing.
And I think that Scott was correct in saying that in 2016 you had the candidates running for president with the two highest unapproval ratings in the history of this country. You don't have that today. You had a third party candidate, Jill Stein, who did not cost Hillary Clinton the election, but she definitely didn't help Hillary Clinton by any stretch. She gave those left leaning voters a place to go. You had Comey 11 days out with his investigation into the Anthony Weiner laptop.
So the things have changed drastically and I think that you saw tonight a president who was well-liked and Barack Obama in the colloquialism he had time today, I felt like Barack Obama was probably listening to Hit 'Em Up by 2Pac on the way to the venue tonight. I mean, he was focused, he was ready to go.
BURNETT: All right.
SELLERS: And you just now see all of this fire aimed at Donald Trump and he cannot get out of his own way.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you both very much.
And next, 24 hours until the final presidential debate. We're going to go inside the campaign strategies and a new CNN poll shows Joe Biden with a 10-point lead in Pennsylvania. Now, what does the poll really say and what does that mean for the race to 270? Live tonight at the magic wall.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:32:40]
BURNETT: Tonight, President Trump getting a stunning answer to a simple question during an interview with "America This Week" on Sinclair Television.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INTERVIEWER: With COVID, is there anything that you think you could have done differently, if you had a mulligan or do-over on one aspect the way you handled it, what would it be?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Not much. Look, it's all over the world. You have a lot of great leaders. There's a lot of smart people. It's all over the world.
It came out of China. China should have stopped it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETTT: Right now, not a single state in the country is seeing downward trends. 42 states seeing hospitalizations increase by 5 percent in the past two weeks. Hospitalization at record levels in some states, and more than 221,000 Americans have died.
Just today, the president's own surgeon general tweeting this about the strategy that Trump has embraced and he says, you know, not much to do differently, herd immunity.
So far, there's no example of a large-scale, successful, intentional, infection-based herd immunity strategy, warning such a strategy would overwhelm our health care system and lead to many deaths. That's the surgeon general of the United States.
It is not just Trump's own surgeon general, making it clear that Trump's ideas about the coronavirus do not add up. Here are other members of his coronavirus task force, contradicting Trump on crucial issues and policy decisions he made that have cost American lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You don't get a pandemic that kills a million people, and it isn't even over yet with influenza.
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: For the people who want to attend rallies and want to participate in the political scene, wear a mask and socially distance, and protect those who are beside.
ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: Face masks, these face masks are the most important powerful public health tool we have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Things the president could have done differently.
Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT from the White House for us tonight.
Kaitlan, 80 percent of voters in the recent poll said the coronavirus is very important or important to their vote. Eighty percent, and yet the president obviously still trying to minimize this. Given the very simple anything you could do differently, from a friendly interviewer? Not much.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Erin, and it's a sentiment that he's repeated several times, what's striking about a poll that CNN did pretty similar to that Kaiser foundation one is they actually broke it down and ask if you are a likely Biden voter or a likely Trump voter, how do you prioritize the pandemic?
And the gap was wide. It was about 60 percent at least of Biden -- likely Biden voters who said he was number two priority for them. But when you asked likely Trump voters, they ranked it much lower.
[19:35:03]
Only 22 percent said it was a very important issue in their vote.
And so, you see how the presidents own voters, are viewing this pandemic differently, then many other people are, and it comes as, of course, the president is saying there is nothing he would have done differently when it came to the pandemic, where he said not much else, and didn't elaborate on anything that we would have done differently.
As we are continuing, you know, several months into this pandemic, here it is October, and we're still seeing mixed messages come out of the White House, mixed messages that members of the task force are being pressed on, like the health and human services secretary, Alex Azar, who was insisting today there isn't one of those mixed messages.
But we can see it play out with what the president is doing tonight, at this rally in North Carolina, a state that is seeing record number of new cases in just the last week, and yet, the president is holding a large rally, where you see people, well, they are not wearing masks. They are obviously closer together. It's probably one of the largest events in the United States in recent weeks.
And so, it just goes to show that there are actually contradictions, in several months in, and it continues to see a play out between the president and his own health officials. Of course, the president and the federal government's own policies, when it comes to COVID-19.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kaitlan.
I want to bring in now Kate Bedingfield, deputy campaign manager and communications director for the Biden campaign, coming into this final campaign.
And, Kate, of course, coronavirus is something that the vice president has put front and center in his campaign, he said he would listen to the scientists and, you know, basically do everything bit different from the president, right? Specifically on things like masks.
But here we are at this point, we can't do what has been done. What would Vice President Biden do differently, on coronavirus right now?
KATE BEDINGFIELD, BIDEN CAMPAIGN DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER AND COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, first and foremost, he would lead.
I think President Trump has politicized this virus. You were just talking about polling showing that people take the virus seriously depending on which side of the aisle they're on. I think, you know, Vice President Biden thinks that that's a travesty.
He would lead. He would lead by example, which I think he has done from the start of this crisis.
He would encourage mask-wearing. He would put in place a plan to ensure that small businesses have the resources that they need to protect themselves, to put up the material that they need to make sure they're safe. He has a plan to get kids back in school safely again, to provide the resources, to make sure that kids and teachers are safe.
He would take meaningful action in this moment. He would treat this incredibly differently than the way Donald Trump has. Donald Trump has failed to lead. He has lied to the American people and Joe Biden would tell the truth, and he would lead.
BURNETT: So, President Trump is trying to make it into, he wants to get back to school and work and reopen, and that Biden is going to shut things down and lock things down if he's elected, right? Canceling Christmas.
And here he is moments ago at his rally in North Carolina making just this case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's between a Trump boom or a Biden lockdown. He wants to lock you down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: How do you respond?
BEDINGFIELD: That's absolutely not true. Joe Biden is not looking down the country, and, in fact, the only reason that we're in this situation like this is because Donald Trump has failed to lead. He has failed to keep us safe.
The first duty of an American president is to keep the American people safe. He's failed to do that.
And as a result, we have over 220,000 Americans dead from this virus. We have kids unable to go to school. We have tens of millions of people out of work. We have small businesses, as I've said, all over the country that are closed.
So, you know, I think this is a completely false argument from Donald Trump, and what he is doing is not taking ownership. He's not taking responsibility for the fact that we're now eight, nine months into this crisis.
He doesn't have a plan. He doesn't have a plan to get the economy open, and moving again. And so -- and so, we are hearing him trying to attack Joe Biden.
That's not what people are looking for. They want a plan from him. They want to hear what the president's going to do to get these businesses open, to get their kids back in schools.
He doesn't have a plan. Joe Biden does.
BURNETT: So the president has been lashing out on the debate commission rule on muting microphones at the debate. He said, I think the mute is very unfair, I think is very bad that they are not talking about foreign affairs. He's been upset about the topic as well.
What's your take on a mute button?
You know, Paul Begala -- you know, a Democratic strategist obviously for many years -- he said that the mute button could be bad for Joe Biden, because he may hear President Trump speaking, but we all won't, so it would make it hard for him to focus and finish his thought, but the viewer won't know why, that the mute button might actually be bad for Biden, not for Trump.
How do you see it? Or are you okay with this whole mute button issue?
BEDINGFIELD: Well, look, I mean, I think we're all hoping and I would imagine that the viewers at home are hoping that the back and forth is a little more civilized and managed in this debate than it was in Cleveland.
But, you know, ultimately, this isn't about the mute button and about how they go back and forth.
[19:40:04]
It's really about the fact that debates are a test of presidential temperament. And so, the question is, you know, is Donald Trump going to be -- going to show up to actually defend his record and make a case for his reelection? Or is he going to be there lobbing personal attacks, and interrupting, and trying to create chaos? I think -- I think that's the question.
Either way Joe Biden is going to be the ready. He's going to be ready to talk about his plans, he's going to be ready to talk directly to the American people about his belief that we can get through this crisis.
But I think the other important thing I would say, Erin, is, you know, whichever version of Donald Trump shows up, which will see whatever is in that is, you know, that doesn't change the kind of president he's been for the last four years. That doesn't change the chaotic, erratic impact that he's had on people's lives.
BURNETT: OK.
BEDINGFIELD: And so, whatever transpires on the debate stage tomorrow night, people know who Donald Trump is, and they know who Joe Biden is.
BURNETT: Kate, thank you, I appreciate your time.
And, of course, that debate tomorrow night. And next how long will Americans have to wait, before getting a clear answer on who actually won the election. A few key clues, and states that you should be watching closely at what time on election night, live in the magic wall.
And breaking news, the FBI holding a last-minute press conference, tonight and what they call election security issues.
Our Evan Perez is standing by with what he's learning, right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:45:18]
BURNETT: Tonight, new CNN polls from two battleground states. They could decide the election. In Pennsylvania, Vice President Joe Biden with a double-digit lead. Fifty-three percent of likely voters say they backed Biden, 43 percent for President Trump.
And in Florida, Biden and Trump mathematically tied -- 50 percent support Biden, 46 support Trump, that is within the margin of error.
Phil Mattingly is at the magic wall for us tonight.
Phil, look, these are -- these are crucial states, and it could make all the difference on election night. So, what are these polls, you know, combined with other information we are getting come out of polls in these states tell us about the race to 270?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I want to start with Florida, and shocking, Florida is closed. But Florida is one state that the president cannot lose. I want to demonstrate why.
This is the race ratings where things stand right now based on CNN race ratings. If you look, dark blue, light blue, means either comfortably for Joe Biden or leaning towards Joe Biden, he's already over the 270 electoral votes that he needs.
But say you give President Trump every single toss-up state every, gold state except for Florida, you give him Georgia, you give him North Carolina, you give him Ohio, you give him Iowa, you give him Maine as well, and why not just give him Arizona? Which is currently leaning towards Joe Biden as well because that's traditionally a Republican state.
But you give Joe Biden the state of Florida. You could then give President Trump, Pennsylvania where Joe Biden currently has a lead, according to polling. You could even given Wisconsin as well. Joe Biden is still 270 electoral votes.
I think why this matter is a couple of things. One, while this will always be a razor-thin margin in the state of Florida, if the Biden campaign can win Florida, there is a pretty decent chance you are going to have a sign that this race could be over on election night.
Florida knows how to do mail in balloting, I know there's plenty of stories over the course of the last couple of years, decades maybe, where Florida has gone haywire on the voting, but they have dealt with mail-in voting for a long period of time, and the expectation is we are going to start seeing results from mail in balloting pretty early in the night once the poll start to close.
So, Florida is crucial. The Biden campaign can close out Florida. They will know that they are on path.
The other thing the polls show and I think it's important to note is you look at this part of the country, if you look at North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, all razor thin margins. If you look at the Midwest, places where Donald Trump punctured the blue wall back in 2016, the Biden campaign is showing strength, maybe not reverting to the normal Democratic mean, but showing some strength. The Biden campaign can sweep Pennsylvania, can sweep Wisconsin, can sweep Michigan, also pretty good shape up there as well, Erin.
BURNETT: Phil, you know, you are going through Pennsylvania, right, and a poll with double digit spread right now. We know Ohio obviously is right next door when you look at parts of counties, they're very much similar tail. No Republican president has ever won the White House without Ohio, right? We all know this, you got to win Ohio.
So, what do you see there?
MATTINGLY: Look, if the Trump campaign is having problems in Ohio, they are not going to win on November 3rd. I think that's just a reality, and the reality is for a couple of reasons. One, if you look at the margin back in 2016, Donald Trump won by 446,000 votes. It was a blowout for all intents and purposes from Ohio.
What changed is a couple of things. One, the expectations of Democratic strongholds both and some of the urban areas, particularly in Cleveland, a little bit in Toledo area as well, the voter turnout was way down. African-American turnout was down, but also in the northeast part of the state. The Youngstown where he may have won the city, he may have own Mahoning County, but he did win up in that area.
And you talk about the bleed over from Pennsylvania, where was President Trump last night? President Trump was in Erie, Pennsylvania, right around here, Erie, right on the border of the northeastern part of the state. Those were traditional Democratic strongholds. Those were union strongholds.
There's not a necessary sign right now, Erin, that those are all flowing back into the Democratic column. However, when you talk to Democrats on the ground, spoke to Sherrod Brown a couple months ago, in the hallways of Congress, he walked up to me, said is President Trump going to win Ohio? He said, no, not a chance. And I started laughing, and he said, don't laugh, I think this is serious.
He started talking about the places where Democrats feel like they have an advantage. They think it's in play if it's even close to in play, Erin, Donald Trump has a problem.
BURNETT: Yeah, when you talk about the margin, for 400,000-plus votes last time.
All right. Phil Mattingly, thank you very much.
So, I want to go to two people who know these states the best -- John Kasich, former Republican governor of Ohio, and the former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, rick Santorum. Both of you also, of course, have run for the White House.
So, Senator Santorum, I just want to talk about that poll that we have now in Pennsylvania. Double digit, now, that's just one poll, but that's the latest poll. Do you think the spread could be that wide?
RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Now, I don't. Now, I don't. If you look at the average, it's 5, 4.9, I think. That's probably more realistic, and I've always said that looking at the public polls, if we could be within 3 points, you've got a shot.
[19:50:05] And -- because if you look at the ground game, it's pretty clear we've -- it's been outrageously Democrats, only 725,000 more Democrats than Republicans, when I last ran, it was 1.2 million.
So, a lot of demographic changes have occurred in Pennsylvania that are pro-Trump, but I think this race is going to be a lot closer than 10 points.
BURNETT: Governor Kasich, what do you see in Ohio? Do you believe -- the margin last time was -- it was a blowout win?
JOHN KASICH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I don't. No.
Ohio is a hockey stick when you think about it. It's -- you know, on the western part of the state, it's going to be very strong for Trump, the bottom of the state will be strong for Trump. But the middle of the state, everything else that's left is, right now, going well for Biden.
I'm a little surprised. I thought it would be just easy for Trump to win Ohio, but I'm not so sure now, and part of it is turnout, who's going to turn out, it's the African American turnout? I think it'll be bigger, not just an Ohio, but all across the country.
And, you know, it's interesting, as Rick talked about Pennsylvania --
BURNETT: Yeah.
KASICH: -- the reason why Barack Obama was out today, where was he? He was in Philadelphia, trying to drive that turnout.
The other thing happening in the state of Ohio, is yet to look at suburban voters, and now exurban, people who are farther away from the suburbs, and they are not Trump people like they were. In addition to that, working men have been moving away from Trump.
So, you know, it's going to be a lot about turnout, but I'd have to say right now, it's extremely close. My gut tells me Trump still wins, but I will not be shocked at all if Biden wins Ohio. BURNETT: OK, which again, with the 400,000 plus margin last time, was
it really significant thing to say, right? I mean, if you think about Ohio and across the country.
So, I just want to ask you something, each of you but let me ask you first governor, there's about Ohio, you have now the highest number of new cases since the pandemic began, and that is not just testing, right? That is a real surging threat across the Midwest in this country, right, hospitalizations are surging as well. Deaths are going up.
In the near -- "Axios" poll, 40 percent of Americans said the president's diagnosis with COVID made them less likely to trust him about the virus. Now, obviously, that is -- you've got Democrats who feel passionate that way, much more so than Republicans.
But does the coronavirus, situation in Ohio matter to the outcome? I mean, were 13 days away from the election and you're --
(CROSSTALK)
KASICH: Yeah, sure does, and look, look, you know, I'm not on here to try to promote Biden or whatever. You're asking me questions I'm giving my honest analysis of this.
What the coronavirus has done is two things -- one is it's taken Trump off of his message of jobs and the economy. That matters always the most of any election.
And secondly, it's really greatly concerned our seniors. We're going to have a debate tomorrow night, one of things they had to be done in the last debate was for Joe Biden to convince seniors that he was capable of doing the job. I think he passed that test. It'd be another test tomorrow night.
But seniors are particular nervous because they're particularly vulnerable. And they don't like what he's done, but you're right there are partisan divisions and how they see this virus, but I think it is not help the president in the least, it's hurt him for sure.
BURNETT: So, Senator, I want to ask you about something you raised, which is this issue of registration and voter registration that we have seen in Florida, North Carolina.
You mentioned Pennsylvania, right? We have seen this spike in Republican voter registration.
How much do you read into that?
SANTORUM: Well, I mean, I just saw a report out of the Erie town hall -- excuse me, Erie rally, that 21 percent of the people at that rally who did not vote in the 2016 election. Many of them are not registered.
So Trump is at a strategy, because I think the campaign knew that John Trump wasn't going to change his stripes. They had to get more people that like Donald Trump who didn't vote to vote and get them out to the polls. And I think that's what he's doing. They've done a very good job in western Pennsylvania, you know, which is very similar to eastern Ohio, there are really two sides of the same coin, they've done a great job of getting those voters out.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you both very much.
KASICH: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: And breaking news now, last-minute news conference just happening, the president's director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, announcing that both Iran and Russia, have interfered in this presidential election, including, quote, specific actions to influence public opinion. They are hosting this press conference in primetime, also the director the FBI, mentioning specifically Iran being behind the series of threatening emails to Democratic voters this week, that claim to be the from the far-right Proud Boys group.
[19:55:04]
Senior justice correspondent Evan Perez is OUTFRONT.
Evan, we didn't know about this press conference coming up. They did it in primetime, the director of the DNI, the chief of the DNI, and the director of the FBI.
What else can you tell us?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, I think this is an indication of how worried the officials are about the next couple of weeks, and the fact that they were expecting interference from not only Iran and Russia, but other countries as well.
And so, what we heard from John Ratcliffe is that Iran is the country behind these series of emails, thousands of them that have been received in states around the country, threatening Democratic voters, saying that it's coming from a group come called the Proud Boys, who are, of course, are associated -- supporters of President Trump, and threatening them, the Democratic voters, saying that we know how you're going to vote, and we will watch to see how you vote, and if you don't were to come after you. That is the sense of the threat that's been sent to voters around the country.
And so, according to Ratcliffe and according to the FBI, none of that is true. The Iranians were able to get into election system, registration systems. They were able to get some data, but they can't threaten to -- they can't do anything about your vote, they can't change a vote.
I think that is the reason why they held this press conference, to try to reassure voters, that even though they clearly did -- were able to get into the systems, both Iran and Russia, they are trying to reassure voters that your vote will not be interfered with, Erin.
BURNETT: All right, you know, Evan, stay with me here.
I want to bring in Carrie Cordero, and also bring in Steve Hall, who, of course, was the former CIA bureau chief for the CIA.
Carrie Cordero, let me start with you here. What is the significance of this, and I guess I want to start with why you chose to do this joint press conference. They chose to do it in primetime, the come out with this announcement, right? They obviously felt like this merited by something unusual, right? More significant than they would already do.
CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely, and I think that what is interesting about it, Erin, what a change this is from 2016. There have been a lot of lessons learned the intelligence community, in terms of information that held back, that was concerned about revealing publicly.
And this year, especially as these days and weeks leading up the election, the intelligence community chiefs are working collaboratively, first of all. So, I think it's really important that there are several of them, appearing jointly, because they give each other credibility, that this isn't just one actor. For example, DNI Ratcliffe has come under a lot of scrutiny, for allegations that he's acting politically.
But the fact that the other leaders were there, the FBI director, the assistant director was there from DHS, and assistant attorney general, these joint statements together show that they are working collaboratively, and after trying to warn the American people in real time about foreign interference in the election. And that is a real significant change, in the transparency from the election community versus the last major election.
BURNETT: It's a really amazing point.
And, Steve Hall, you know, also, you have, you know, this campaign, right, threatening voters, basically change your voter registration or else, from the Proud Boys. The group that came up at the last debate, most Americans had never heard the Proud Boys, right, the far-right internationalists group until then, right? Trump supporters, they had not heard of that group.
So this would appear that this was scrambled together pretty quickly.
Does that mean, when you think about it Steve, that you think wow, I think they could've done better than that? I don't or do you think this is the tip of the iceberg?
STEVE HALL, FORMER CIA CHIEF OF RUSSIA OPERATIONS (via telephone): No, I think this is part of a much larger, certainly the Russians and the Iranians are also involved in. And what really strikes me about this, Erin, the amazingness of how down in the weeds both the Russians and the Iranians understand the society that we're living in right now.
Because when the one thing I want to make clear that that I alluded to, is that in 2016 has been that before the Russians, and the Iranians, of course, were involved in much smaller science. Now it's gotten bigger, this cooperation between those two. But in 2016, the Russians had to establish these accounts that they've then had to backstop, and they make look realistic.
Now they understand or amplifying so much of this ourselves, whether it's the Proud Boys, whether it's Black Lives Matter. Doesn't matter what side of the political traction, the Russians and the Iranians will jump on to that, knowing that all they need is a quick fix, and then we ourselves will do a heck of a job amplifying that.
So, if that initial insertion of stuff like that I think is really concerning to the DNI and to the intelligence community because there's so much less effort that have to be done for it to be very efficient this time around. And that's going to be a very big problem.
BURNETT: All right. Well, I appreciate both of your time very much, Steve and Carrie, jumping on this very quickly, as that press conference just happened.
And again, the significance, right, of DNI Ratcliffe who has been accused of acting politically, joining with the head of the FBI, Christopher Wray, and doing that together.
Thanks for joining us.
Anderson starts now.
