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Erin Burnett Outfront

Trump Holds WI Rally, Complains About COVID Coverage; Obama: Trump Is Jealous Of COVID's Media Coverage; Trump Holds WI Rally As Governor Says State Is Facing "Urgent" Coronavirus Crisis, An "Imminent Risk" To Residents; Biden Heads To Georgia, Iowa In Last Days Of Campaign; Trump Visits State He Won In 2016; First Lady Melania Trump Makes First Solo Campaign Appearance For President Trump; Gov. Jay Inslee (D) Of Washington Is Interviewed About Preparing For Possible Election Unrest. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 27, 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, seven days until the election. The President holding a large rally in the state of Wisconsin where the Governor tonight making a desperate plea to residents warning of an imminent risk to their health from coronavirus as President Obama slams Trump on his handling of the pandemic.

And John King at the magic wall tonight for us with the race to 270 where he is seeing momentum tonight. And will we know a week from now who the President of the United States will be?

Plus, Trump promises women voters 'we're getting your husbands back to work'. We did think it was 2020 not 1950. Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, slamming Trump. One week until Election Day, the Biden campaign unleashing its most powerful weapon, Barack Obama against Trump on the one issue Trump wants to avoid. In Trump's own words, that issue is COVID, COVID, COVID, cases surging, hospitalizations and deaths up and President Trump is blaming the media for COVID moments ago at a rally in a state with record hospitalizations and deaths tonight. He chanted his new mantra.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, it's COVID, you turn on the news, COVID, COVID, you know when they're going to stop talking about it so much? November 4th, you're right. November 4th. No, it's a whole crazy thing.

All they want to talk about is COVID, but the good news on the 4th, they'll stop talking ...

(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Trump's words in Wisconsin repeating his tweets earlier

today, here's one of them. You can see them. One, "All the fake news media wants to talk about is COVID, COVID, COVID. On November 4th, you won't be hearing so much about it anymore. We are rounding the turn."

Eleven states tonight with record high hospitalizations, peak in the average of new cases of 20 percent in a week. This is not fake. People are sick and more people are dying and that is why we are talking about it. And team Biden is making its closing case that this is all because of Trump's leadership.

Here's President Obama in Florida today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What's his closing argument? That people are too focused on COVID. He said this at one of his rallies COVID, COVID, COVID, he's complaining. He's jealous of COVID's media coverage. If he had been focused on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn't be reaching new record highs across the country this week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And here's Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He said, "It is what it is." Well, it is what it is because he is who he is. In the spring, the President declared in his voice as commander in chief, says commander in chief is going to wage war on the virus. Instead, he shrugged. He swaggered and he surrendered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now, the President tweeted that this is about November 4th, Election Day, but this isn't about a date in the political calendar. Although if President Trump does want to talk about dates, there are some he should worry about, like November 14th when the CDC as of tonight projects up to 247,000 Americans will be dead from this virus, which is another 20,000 Americans dead in the next two and a half weeks.

This won't be over on November 4th, because death and dying aren't fake news. Now, one person who knows this isn't fake tonight, the Wisconsin Governor, Tony Evers, who had a dire warning for people in his state this evening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TONY EVERS (D), WISONSIN: There's no way to sugarcoat it. We are facing an urgent crisis and there is an imminent risk to you, your family members, your friends, your neighbors and the people you care about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: President Trump is in Tony Evers' state right now. There he is. You see people behind him, a state where the virus is running rampant. Yet at the rally in West Salem where the President is as I speak, it's the usual no social distancing, very few, if any, masks.

Well, we have both campaigns covered tonight. Ryan Nobles is OUTFRONT in West Salem, Wisconsin where President Trump is right now. Jessica Dean is in Warm Springs, Georgia where Joe Biden rallied supporters today.

I want to begin with you, Ryan. And it is pretty stunning to see the juxtaposition between the Governor of that state with a mask on pleading with residents and the President at a largely maskless rally trying to say COVID is a product of fake media.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erin, it's really stunning in many ways. The President of the United States really mocking the Governor of Wisconsin's response to the coronavirus.

[19:05:02]

Acting as if it's not that big of a deal where you don't have to travel too far from where we are at this racetrack in West Salem, Wisconsin to find hospitals that are literally bursting at the seams because of the crush of coronavirus patients. The President telling this crowd here tonight to envision the coronavirus like a racetrack and say that they're turning the corner into the last turn of the pandemic, where the numbers tell us exactly the opposite, that they're skyrocketing and they're particularly skyrocketing in a state like Wisconsin.

And the other thing we should point out, Erin, is that the President is trying to make the case that in many ways the Coronavirus is just a creation of the media and his political opponents saying that after the election on November 4th, all of these precautions that are put in place to stop the spread of the disease are just going to go away, that schools are going to open back up, that all the restrictions will be lifted, restaurants, masks, all those things that we've been doing to try and stop the spread will all go away.

That just defies reality at this point. This is a pandemic that is just really starting to rage, particularly in a state like Wisconsin and yet here at this rally here tonight for more than five hours, thousands of people have been packed into this location, shoulder to shoulder, very few masks. And they came here to listen to a president essentially mock the response of the governor here. A governor who told, pleaded with his people that this is an imminent threat.

And one more point I'll make about that, Erin, the President also saying here tonight almost complaining that he wanted to hold this rally at a nearby airport and that Gov. Evers prevented him from doing that if he was annoyed by that. Again, Erin, this just goes to show the greater response that the President has to the pandemic just a week away from Election Day, Erin. BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Ryan. And I want to go now to

Jessica Dean. She is in Warm Springs, Georgia, where Joe Biden had a rally. So Jessica, Biden obviously sending a completely different message. I mean, the polar opposite on coronavirus.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Right. Yes, absolutely very, very different from the way everybody was spaced out here, social distancing in place, masks on, but also and this is most important in terms of reaching all of the voters out there watching the message that we heard from Vice President Joe Biden today.

This is really a closing argument from him as we close in on the final days of this election and he went back to themes that we had heard him talk about from the very beginning, actually, about the soul of the nation, about unity, about coming together and he wove within that the coronavirus pandemic and how together he will lead the nation to overcome the pandemic.

You heard him there just a little bit ago in your show talking about how he believes President Trump and his administration have simply waved the white flag, that they don't have a plan, that this is spiraling out of control because of the President's lack of response.

Joe Biden with a sharply contrasting message today looking right into the camera and saying, "I'm ready to lead on day one." I know what to do. I want to lead with science and with facts, Erin. Again, such a different message between President Trump and Vice President Biden in these closing days of the campaign as it relates to this pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: All right. Jessica, thank you very much.

And I want to go now to David Axelrod, former Senior Adviser to President Obama, our Chief Political Correspondent, Dana Bash and Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at GW who advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush.

So Dr. Reiner, President Trump in Wisconsin, we could see those images right now. It is quite jarring. A record hospitalizations, record deaths in that state, yet a rally largely maskless, no social distancing, as the Governor of the State, Gov. Evers is pleading for people to heed these warnings. The President's strategy, though, is COVID, COVID, COVID, fake news.

JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Right. Now, the President is gaslighting the country and he's putting his supporters and the rest of the country at great peril when he does that. Imagine of Winston Churchill or FDR during the war saying war, war, war, war, why do they always ask me about the war? Because it's the predominant, pre eminent challenge that we're facing right now is COVID.

It's 73,000 new cases today. Over the last week, we've averaged now 71,000 new cases every day. We've had 500,000, half a million new cases in the last week. You can close your eyes to it, but this is not going away. Hospitalizations are at the highest level since the middle of August.

If you have a rapidly growing cancer, you can say that it's not there but it's going to get to a point where it's going to kill you. This president is ignoring a rapidly growing problem in the United States. It is not going away. And governors, like the Governor of Wisconsin, are pleading with the public to listen.

BURNETT: So David, I want to play something else that President Obama said today. He was talking about the outbreak of the White House, which we know that was the outbreak around the President and now there is the Vice President's office and here is part of what President Obama said in Florida.

[19:10:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I lived in the White House for a while. It's a controlled environment, you can take some preventive measures in the White House to avoid getting sick, except this guy can't seem to do it. He's turned the White House into a hot zone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So David, President Trump, of course, tested positive. There was that Amy Coney Barrett event and his First Lady was positive and obviously many others, including Chris Christie, who spent seven days in the ICU. You worked inside that White House. How difficult was it for President Trump to have these outbreaks to turn it into as Obama said, for that crowd, a hot zone?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, if you disregard your own administration's guidance, if you disregard public health guidance, it's not hard at all to create a mini pandemic in the White House, because it's a very small area. It's closely contained. You're working up against each other all the time. You're passing in narrow hallways.

But if the President of the United States said everyone is to wear a mask, if he said everyone is to be tested on a very regular basis. If he said, we're not going to have any super spreader events here, then those things wouldn't have happened and very likely you wouldn't have what you we have seen.

But that is a microcosm of what he's done in the nation. Look at what he's doing right now with these rallies, he has decided that he can impose his will, his needs over the reality of the virus and the virus, frankly, has given him and the nation the back of its hand.

BURNETT: I mean, Dana, this is the thing. The President knows that what he's doing in Wisconsin is that jarring and stark contrast to Gov. Evers, right?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BURNETT: And he embraces that, he tweeted COVID, COVID fake news twice. He's exclaiming it at that rally. He has made his bet that that message will work?

BASH: Absolutely. I mean, he clearly believes it or at least most importantly for his purposes, believes that it is the most winning message that he can send right now, politically speaking. Never mind the message that should be sent from any President of the United States during a pandemic, which is one that is to mitigate the virus as much as possible. But he won't do it.

He won't do it because of some of the protests that we've seen across the country in places like in some of the Midwest places or even the Northwest places that were the cities and states have put mask ordinances in and there have been protests. Those are the people that the President clearly thinks he needs to reach. Maybe some of them didn't vote in 2016, can go out and vote in 2020.

He is trying to find every single last person in the Trump base to vote. That is his strategy and it's really unclear whether or not that is going to be enough to overcome all of the other people who listen to him saying COVID, COVID, COVID and say that doesn't match what's happening in my life because in my life I'm really worried about getting it and I don't want my parents to get it and I don't want my friends to get it.

BURNETT: So David, there's a new poll out today, Axios. It shows 62 percent of Americans say the federal government is making the country's recovery from the coronavirus worse. Now, that's a big number, but I want to emphasize it's basically the same as it was at the end of August, before the surge, before the President tested positive. It was 60 percent that said the same thing.

So essentially unchanged and, of course, it's a number that is driven by Democrats. So is the Coronavirus surge right now do you think, David, when you look at a place like Wisconsin, a must-win state that the President is doing everything he can to win, is it moving votes right now?

AXELROD: Well, first of all it's not just Democrats. If it's 62 percent, there are Independents in there and some Republicans as well. This is not just a Democratic opinion. He is about where he is, though. You're quite right. Forty percent of America disapproves of the way he's been handling it, 60 percent disapprove and that number hasn't changed that much.

But on an issue that is consuming the country, those aren't very good numbers. And he's betting, as Dana, suggests that his base will come out in disproportionate numbers in defiance of all these guidances and restrictions related to the virus and that somehow he can ride that to victory. I think when you look around the state of Wisconsin and what they're dealing with tonight, I don't see how this is going to get them where he wants to go.

[19:15:00]

BURNETT: And Dr. Reiner, look, he says rounding the turn. I find it so frustrating, because there's different ways to look at things and we are seven months in, maybe a vaccine is going to come in a few months and that will help. But there's rounding the turn in terms of deaths, which we are seeing continue to go up and we're seeing it record levels and a lot of this could still be prevented.

Dr. Fauci told me Friday, he supports a mask mandate. Trump's own former FDA Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb today says he does as well. That is what would be rounding the turn, stopping the deaths.

But today Trump had two rallies with basically no masks, the Vice President with a virus outbreak in his own office, which according to the CDC would mean he should be quarantined because of, attended to rallies, no social distancing, few masks. This is what we see. There is no effort being put in terms of the basic things we know from this White House to stop the surge in deaths we're seeing.

REINER: That's right. Look, let me say something optimistic tonight, which is we will have a vaccine.

BURNETT: Right.

REINER: And hopefully it's sooner than later, but it's going to be many months before large portions of this country are vaccinated and we need to get there. And the way to get there is to socially distance, avoid social gatherings. They're unsafe at any size and to wear masks.

If we continue our current behavior by the time we start to go down the other side of the curve, a half a million people will be dead. That's what's at stake.

BURNETT: All right. Very sobering. We'll leave it there. Thank you all.

And next, John King is going to look at which candidate has been gaining ground in these must-win states, Wisconsin one of them. So we're going to go to the magic wall. Will we know who the next president is a week from tonight?

Plus, Melania Trump's first solo campaign appearance for her husband this year, it was today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Joe Biden's policy and socialist agenda will only serve to destroy America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Can she move the needle?

And more from Barack Obama who has something to say about the economy, the thing Trump likes to boast about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:20:59]

BURNETT: Tonight, Joe Biden striking a confident tone in a state that Democrats have not won since 1992.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: There aren't a lot of pundits who would have guessed four years ago that a Democratic candidate for President 2020 would be campaigning in Georgia on the final week of the election or that we'd have such competitive Senate races in Georgia, but we do because something's happening here in Georgia and across America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: This comes as new polls show Biden with an edge in several swing states. So let's go to the magic wall and the one and only John King. So John, these polls show Biden with steady leads in crucial states; Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada. So what does that mean when you look at the paths to 270?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It means, Erin, it is possible when we fill this in starting one week from tonight, fill this in beginning then it's possible we get a new map. It's not definite yet, but let's go back to the 2016 map first and then we'll do the 270 calculations.

Right now, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, that was the Trump victory, that was cracking the blue wall. That was the surprise. Right now, they were red four years ago, we lean them all blue. You just noted that Joe Biden is in Georgia today. Georgia, I was with then Gov. Bill Clinton quite a bit back in 1992 in this campaign.

He won Georgia, thanks largely to Ross Perot too with 43 percent of the vote, a very narrow win, 28 years ago since that has happened is Joe Biden on the verge of remaking the map? Well, let's switch and take a look and look at it from this perspective. It is possible, you have to finish, that's the big challenge for the Democrats finishing because right now we have him at 290. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, red for Trump four years ago, leaning blue now.

So look at Nevada, it came out just today, new numbers. What are you looking for in the final campaign? We've talked about this before. You're looking for evidence things are closing? That's what happened in 2016. The national polls closed. We didn't see it in some of the state polls, but we did see it nationally and then Trump surged in the end.

Well, look at this in Nevada, Joe Biden's lead was four in September, eight in October - I mean, six in October and still six now, stability in the race. And you find this a lot in a lot of the state battleground poll.

So if you look at the map right now, you have to say still advantage Biden. We keep looking for it. And one more quick flashback, if you go back to 2016. We have not seen this in any state polls yet and we have not seen it in the national polls. In the national polls, Erin, we did see the tightening.

Hillary Clinton came into the final week up four, it went up to five and then it started to go down. Trump had the momentum going into Election Day and he had that Election Day surge. People say, oh, this is wrong. This wasn't wrong. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by two points in 2016.

So the national polls caught the surge at the end. The question is, is there any evidence of it now, when you look closely, you just can't find it?

BURNETT: So now the big question is, of course, where it's going to be tight, where a lot of these mail-in and these kind of wait and see battles are going to matter. The Supreme Court ruled against extending the deadline for mail-in voting in Wisconsin. So that now means that in Wisconsin, if you mail your ballot in, it will only count if they receive it by Election Day. They had had a grace period. So now you got to 1920 [00:04:04] doesn't count.

So this is just one data point, which leads me to the question everyone wants to know the answer to, John, which is will we know a week from today or in the wee hours of tomorrow morning who the President is?

KING: We may not know definitively. We may not. Let's go through the deadlines you're just talking about as we have this conversation. Number one, the states where it has to be received, 28 states require the ballots by mail to be received on or before election day. And as you noted, the Supreme Court keeps Wisconsin in that column.

Michigan as well, Florida is a battleground, Georgia is a battleground, Arizona is a battleground, several other states, Colorado, potentially. So you see in a lot of these states that matter, you better follow the rules. People in their states needs to be paying attention. So will we know on election night? Let's bring up this other one just so you can see it here.

There's other states here we postmarked on or before, these are 22 states in D.C. just has to be postmarked on or before. They can count them after, they can get there after, they include Pennsylvania, they include Ohio, they include Texas.

[19:25:00]

So we might be asked this a while, will we know an election night? I don't know. If you have this so called red mirage, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania haven't counted all the mail-in ballots yet but the President leads on election day, we might have to wait. There will be indicators though. Florida counts pretty well, North Carolina counts pretty well. It's possible.

Let's say Joe Biden wins Florida, even if we haven't, even if we don't know who won Wisconsin, we don't know who won Michigan, we don't know who won Pennsylvania. If Joe Biden wins Florida, we'll have a pretty clear sense of the trend. So the key words is we don't know and if you're in a state and you're uncertain, check now, make a plan, vote.

BURNETT: Right, right. Because then you may have to go in person, of course, that raises all kinds of questions, different rules in different states on what that means.

Now, we are seeing though campaigning in these couple of states that split their electoral college votes. President Trump in Omaha, Nebraska, Joe Biden campaigning in Maine and both of those states split their electoral votes. Now, everyone's talking again about that main two, what does this tell us about each campaign sort of its feeling right now?

KING: It tells us Joe Biden is being safe and it tells us Donald Trump is looking everywhere he can. Let me switch maps one more time and go back to the race to 270, just to play out a scenario for you. So Nebraska too we lean it Biden right now, Maine too we have as a toss up.

So let's just play out a scenario. Normally, it's just one electoral vote, why would it matter? It's not going to be that close, is it? Well, let's just imagine in our toss ups, right now we have Joe Biden at 290, Trump at 163. Let's say the President carries Iowa, that's quite conceivably, he won it four years ago. Let's give the President Ohio, Republican-leaning state, he won it four years ago.

Now, Joe Biden is competitive in all these states, any Democrats watching, they're getting mad at me now. This is just a hypothetical. Let's say Donald Trump also carries Georgia. Let's just say he carries Florida as well. Well, that gets him in play, but he's still losing. What if there is a big Trump comeback, Erin, in Pennsylvania?

Now, 270-267, the main congressional district then suddenly could come into play. If Joe Biden can win it, he's at 271. What if Donald Trump wins this, 268? Well, then, this little district over here could matter a lot. Donald Trump wins that you get 269, 269. This is a very unlikely scenario. We play it out every now and then for kicks more than anything.

But in a close race, the point I'm trying to make is in a close race, one electoral vote could matter. In a blowout, it doesn't. Donald Trump needs to look anywhere to get votes because he's behind right now. Joe Biden knows if he can keep this one blue. It just makes the President's math harder.

BURNETT: Even harder. All right. Thank you very much, John, as always.

And next, part of President Trump's appeal to suburban women today was actually not about them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm also getting your husbands - they want to get back to work, right? They want to get back to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: More women buying it. And no letup tonight, early voters casting ballots in record numbers, already nearly half the total turnout in 2016, could this be history in the making?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:31:52]

BURNETT: New tonight, First Lady Melania Trump making her first solo campaign appearance of the year for President Trump. She went to the key swing state of Pennsylvania, trying to help her husband win over female voters while slamming Joe Biden and claiming Democrats ignored coronavirus to impeach Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: The Democrats have chosen to put their own agendas ahead of the American people's well- being. Instead, they attempt to create a divide.

Let's not forget what the Democrats chose to focus on when COVID-19 first came into our country. While the president was taking decisive action to keep the American people safe, the Democrats were wasting American taxpayer dollars in a sham impeachment.

Joe Biden's policy and socialist agenda will only serve to destroy America and all that has been built in the past four years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: All right. OUTFRONT now, our political correspondent Abby Phillip and Republican pollster and strategist Ed Goeas. Also with us, senior political analyst, Kirsten Powers.

OK. All of you, thank you.

So, Abby, you know, the first lady did talk personally, right? She's been a patient of coronavirus, her husband had it, her son had it. She attacked Joe Biden about it.

Now you look at the context here, her favorability ratings are higher than her husband's. So will her words sway any voters?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you listen to what she's saying, she's not saying anything a whole lot different than what the president is saying when it comes to the coronavirus and also the central message about the Biden campaign sort of trying to paint them as socialists or closet socialists.

So, I think this is a departure from what you typically see first ladies doing on the trail. They are supposed to be in some ways the softer edge, trying to humanize their husbands, connecting with women voters in different ways and particularly with President Trump, that would be a really strong contrast from Melania Trump to make.

But instead, she's -- she's just reading a speech that seems to have written by the West Wing, parroting those same talking points, and not doing what I thought she did effectively, when she was diagnosed with COVID, which was being honest about what that experience was like and perhaps what she learned from it, identifying with Americans who have had contracted this virus or who have lost loved ones. That probably to me would have been a more powerful use of the first lady on the campaign trail, especially at this space.

BURNETT: So, Kirsten, she did try to reach out to these crucial women, women voters, suburban voters that the president is trying to focus on. She said, quote, as an independent woman, I'm grateful for a president who has championed not only women but working mothers.

Now, this was a line that we heard from Trump today in Michigan while trying to appeal to those same women suburban voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know what else? I'm also getting your husbands -- they want to get back to work, right? We're getting your husbands back to work. And everybody wants it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So, Kirsten, I just want to start by saying here, working mothers in September dropped out of the workforce at a rate eight times greater than men, 617,000 of them, right?

[19:35:08]

The coronavirus depression here has been crushing women who work more than anyone else. So, there's just the facts.

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

BURNETT: Then there's what the president said and how he said it. What do you make of that?

POWERS: I mean, it's like he lives in the past. It's something that you might say in the 1950s, right? It's not something that is current that most families out of need have, you know, both people working. And so, you know, and the statistics you just cited. It's offensive, I think, you know, that he would say something like that and act like the main goal is to get the men back to work when women are carrying just as much of the burden if not more often times.

BURNETT: So, Ed, the president, you know, knows he has had a problem with women voters, right? He knows that. He's been focused on it.

He recently asked suburban women, you know, he was being facetious. Will you please like me? You know, trying to be funny at a rally.

But when you listen to Trump in his own words, he has basically said that being a suburban woman is the equivalent of being a housewife, his words. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: If you say suburban housewife, you're in deep trouble. So what you do is you say suburban women.

I think that the suburban woman, and I used to say suburban housewife, I used to take heat, but I said, does anybody care? Do you care if I say suburban housewife? No, they're all going no.

I used to call them suburban housewives, I got killed all the time. I said, I better go politically correct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Ed, do you see any evidence that the first lady will help Trump with suburban women?

ED GOEAS, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER AND STRATEGIST: No. I mean, first of all, the point about her using socialism the way she did does not particularly help. It is a point too far that certainly she has not developed a relationship with the voters that most first ladies have, and she's acting like she does have that relationship.

I think in terms of what Kirsten said, you know, the way he framed it was almost chauvinist chauvinistic. But I think the more important point here is those suburban women left the Republican Party and specifically left Donald Trump in 2018. They left because of his character. They left because of the way he talks, the way he acts, not because of his policies.

There is a point in 2018 that yes, they were upside down on his favorability but still gave him a 60 percent, 58 percent rating on the economy. They now are upside down even on that measurement. The only thing he had to get at those -- at those women, and he's using it in a way, it sounds like he's not talking about them. He's talking about their husbands.

BURNETT: Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, we talk about the economy again, just one of the most basic and fundamental things about this coronavirus, you know, economic crisis has been the disproportionate impact it has had on working women.

Abby, on the economy, you know, as Ed gave those numbers, Joe Biden was in Georgia today trying to basically expand the map, win Georgia for the first time sense 1992. It was President Obama that he sent to the traditional swing state of Florida where he talked about the economy and tried to turn that around in favor of Biden.

Here's President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: Donald Trump likes to claim he built this economy. But I just want to remind you that America created 1.5 million more jobs in the last three years of the Obama/Biden administration than in the first three years of the Trump/Pence administration. That's a fact. Look it up.

And that was before Trump could blame the pandemic. He, in fact, inherited the longest streak of job growth in American history. But just like everything else he inherited, he screwed it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Now, Abby, I know you got President Obama being the one they sent to Florida, right, and he's obviously able to give a speech as if he has a huge audience when he doesn't because of the social distancing and all the things they're observing. What does it say that the Biden campaign sends Obama to Florida?

PHILLIP: Well, he's the most important surrogate that they've got in their roster. And the Biden campaign needs to -- they need to improve their standing with a couple of demographics in Florida specifically. They need to make sure they bring out minority voters, black voters, Haitian -- people of Haitian descent, who are in South Florida, Hispanic voters, particularly non-Cuban Hispanic voters.

[19:40:05]

These are people Obama can reach, especially the younger ones.

So Obama has some cache there. He was the last Democrat to win the state of Florida. So I do think it is a good use of Obama to sort of speak out knowing that the audience is bigger than just the folks in their cars honking their horns, but watching on television, and really watching to hear what Obama has to say in this election cycle.

I think the economic message is -- I don't know how this is going to work for Obama, but it's interesting, the attempt being made here, because obviously, the economy is where Trump is strongest.

BURNETT: For sure.

PHILLIP: It's where Biden has really struggled, and reminding voters of something that Obama didn't tout as much when he was president is an interesting strategy and might be one that can work that Hillary Clinton didn't really have the luxury of doing four years ago when she ran.

BURNETT: Ed, final word, what do you see in Florida right now?

GOEAS: Well, first of all, I have to say the real test in the pudding was the fact that Donald Trump got on Twitter today and attacked Fox News for covering the Obama speech live. I think that is the real test on how much impact it really had, because it got all the way to the White House.

And I think Florida is in play. It's iffy both ways. I think they're having a hard time kind of figuring out the very high turnout, early turnout on what the real impact of that is, up against the Republican Party that has had an advantage in terms of registering new voters.

And it's going to be interesting to see how those two dynamics come into play in a race that's very, very close.

BURNETT: Very, very close. And amazing with all this early voting that raises questions and it doesn't provide answers.

Thank you all three very much.

Next, the Washington National Guard getting ready to handle possible civil unrest related to the election. Governor Jay Inslee is OUTFRONT.

And Trump's pledge to build the wall, drain the swamp, renegotiate NAFTA. He had four years to deliver. So, where is he on his promises?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:09]

BURNETT: Tonight, one week until Election Day, and it is a stunning thing that more than 68 million Americans have already voted. So that, if you just look at these first few days, right, and we're a week out, 50 percent of the turnout from 2016, already done, already in the can. I mean, it's incredible.

Pamela Brown is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As of tonight, for many voters it's too late to use the post office to return absentee ballots. The postal service says today was the last day where you could send them and have them guaranteed to arrive on Election Day.

For those states with strict deadlines, it's now better to use a ballot box or bring the ballot to an election office.

VIRGINIA KASE, CEO, LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF THE UNITED STATES: We are keeping an especially close watch on state where is ballots can not be counted until election day.

BROWN: While many states allow ballots to be counted days after the election, some states have stricter deadlines. In Wisconsin, a crucial swing state, mail-in ballots must be received by Election Day to count. The Supreme Court rejected a Democratic attempt to allow mail- in votes postmarked by Election Day to be counted up to six days after the election there.

But it's an opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh getting attention. It says states, quote, want to avoid the chaos and suspicions of impropriety that can ensue if thousands of ballots flow in after Election Day and potentially flip the results of an election. The language mirrors President Trump's rhetoric about calling a winner on election night.

TRUMP: I want to see the results of the election on November 3rd.

BROWN: While Trump's own administration officials say it's okay for the results to take more time.

CHRIS KREBS, DIRECTOR OF THE CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY: On November 3rd, we might not know the outcome of our election, and that's okay.

BROWN: The president is taking to Twitter to cast doubt on that, saying in a tweet that's been labeled as misleading, must have final total on November 3rd.

So far, millions of mail-in votes give Democrats significant leads over Republicans in key states. But Republicans made up ground in in- person early voting in battleground Florida, Nevada, and North Carolina.

Still, Republicans must place their bets on a blockbuster Election Day turnout.

AMY CONEY BARRETT, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: I, Amy Coney Barrett --

BROWN: On the first day on the job, the newly appointed Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett, already facing pressure. A Pennsylvania county asked Barrett to recuse herself from a request from state Republicans to block mail-in ballots from being counted up to three days after the election. It's one of several challenges to voting rules in key states being considered by the high court.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And I spoke to one Pennsylvania election official who said that voters in the commonwealth should not bank on having those extra three days in case the Supreme Court steps in and changes things. If you haven't already put it in the mail, take it to an election office. And in Michigan, a judge struck down an open carry of guns in polling places.

So we're seeing a changing of the rules with less than a week to go.

BURNETT: All right. Pamela, thank you.

And I want to go now to Governor Jay Inslee of Washington.

So, Governor Inslee, you're one of those states who know how to do this. You've been doing statewide mail-in voting since 2011. And your ballots are valid if they're postmarked by Election Day, right? So you've got time after that for them to be received and counted. So then the president says, you know, if we don't find out who won on November 3rd, you know, he's saying the election could be fraudulent.

What do you say to that?

GOV. JAY INSLEE (D-WA): I say that we're going to call him out on it and not allow that un-American activity to prevail. Look, he's trying to set up an excuse for getting beat fair and square.

[19:50:03]

And he's already looking for an excuse. He knows what he is coming and he's looking for a reason to not take responsibility for his loss just like he fails to take responsibility for the horrendous lack of response against COVID.

But there is a danger here, which is there is a danger that he could try to convince Republican legislators themselves to stop counting the vote. And that's a legitimate concern. We cannot allow that. And the way to prevent that is for us to vote in droves, like we are

doing. When you see those people lined up, waiting five, six hours to vote.

BURNETT: Yeah.

INSLESE: Those are the people who understand how Donald Trump has abused his office and failed to protect us from COVID.

BURNETT: So, when you look at the numbers, though, you know, just -- you know, just kind of back of the envelope in your mind, is it a big number of ballots that come in after Election Day? Or is it usually basically de minimis?

INSLEE: Oh, no, it's a significant number. And we have been able to run our state, which has had the best economy and the most beautiful state and the cutest kids for a long time by counting the votes. And you count 'em for a few days after the election and you declare a winner.

And it's pretty simple, it's math, and you just count the votes. And there's nothing magic about having the results at midnight on election day. What's magic is to count every single vote.

And we know unfortunately, there has been a sorted effort by the Republican Party to suppress voting to begin with, limit the number of ballot drop boxes as far as possible so that people, particularly people of color can't vote without standing in line forever. We have seen it in Ohio. It certainly didn't happen when Governor Strickland was in charge of Ohio, but it is now.

And now, to add insults to injury, to refuse to count those votes even after voters make sure that their vote gets submitted.

So, we need to speak loudly against Donald Trump's searching for an excuse or his effort to steal the election or both.

BURNETT: So, Governor, I -- "Seattle Times" is reporting that at least 300 members of the Washington National Guards are being trained to handle possible civil unrest that can result from the election. You got exercises on handling possible post-election violence.

From where you sit right now, the briefings you're getting, do you see President Trump's supporters or Vice President Biden's supporters being angrier about the results if their candidate doesn't win?

INSLEE: Oh, I think when your candidate doesn't win, whenever you come from, there's disappointment. I see no reason that we should have any outrages or violent behavior. That is not acceptable for any point of the compass.

The problem, though, is if we count the votes and we total the votes up and we declare a winner, that's going to be a good result for America. And that's what we should do. And we should not allow Donald Trump and the Republicans to shutdown county votes.

BURNETT: All right. Governor Inslee, I appreciate your time. Thank you, sir.

INSLEE: Thank you. Good luck.

BURNETT: All right.

And OUTFRONT next, Trump has made promise after promise for four years now. So, it's an election, how is he going on those promises? Next, the reality check.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:56:42]

BURNETT: You are looking at live pictures in Omaha, Nebraska, where President Trump will soon take the stage. The president appearing in a series of rallies today in Midwest states he's trying to hold onto, telling voters on one key promise, saying, quote, the wall is almost finished. Is it?

Tom Foreman is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: But I didn't back down from my promises and I kept every single one.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Really? Let's look. Promise one.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I will build a great, great wall on our southern border and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.

FOREMAN: Under Trump, as of mid-September, 331 miles of wall have been constructed on the nearly 2,000-mile border, almost all of it replacing existing sections. There are only nine miles of new wall and no evidence Mexico paid for a foot.

Promise two.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We're going to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something much better. Much better.

FOREMAN: A Republican effort to overturn the law in 2017 failed, but Trump and his congressional allies did kill the requirement for people to have the insurance, the individual mandate and they hope the Supreme Court will strike the whole program down this fall.

But a replacement plan? Still no sign of it.

Speaking of the courts -- promise three.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Here's what's going to happen. I'm willing to put -- I am pro-life. The judges will be pro-life.

FOREMAN: None of Trump's three Supreme Court nominees has openly said they intend to overturn Roe v. Wade. But critics fear their resumes suggest their willingness to restrict abortion rights. Same goes for Trump's record number conservative of judges placed in lower courts.

Promise four.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We are going to re-negotiate the disaster known as NAFTA. We're going to renegotiate.

FOREMAN: He did replace the North American Free Trade Agreement with a similar deal to generally high marks.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: With an incredible, new U.S./Mexico/Canada agreement called USMCA.

FOREMAN: On the other hand, his tariffs on China had been criticized for costing American consumers.

His promise to go after D.C. corruption?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We're going to drain the swamp of Washington.

FOREMAN: Other than repeatedly calling for his political foes to be investigated, there is little evidence he's drained anything. And more than half a dozen of Trump's associates have been charged with crimes.

And about his attacks on President Obama's golfing trips.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I'm not going to have time to play golf, and believe me.

FOREMAN: Trump has teed up more than twice as often as Obama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: Of course, Trump gets teed whenever someone points out a promise he hasn't kept, but in that sense, he is becoming what he pledged to be, another politician -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Tom, thank you very much.

And it is just one week away from tonight. We are going to be following all the key races across this country like you can only see on CNN. And we hope that you will be with us everyday for our special live coverage of all the results right here on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3rd.

Thanks for joining us. Don't forget. You can watch OUTFRONT anytime, anywhere on CNN Go.

"AC360" with Anderson starts right now.