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CNN Live Event/Special

COVID-19 Spikes In Final Days Of 2020 Campaign; Obama Campaigns With Biden In Michigan; Trump Holding Four Campaign Rallies In Pennsylvania Today, A State He Won In 2016; England To Go Into Second National Lockdown; Dr. David Shulkin, Former VA Secretary, Discusses Record High Cases In U.S. On Friday, Trump Claiming Doctors Profiting From Inflating COVID Cases, Deaths; A Record 90 Million Voters Have Already Cast Ballots. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired October 31, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar and I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

[16:00:03]

President versus president today on the campaign trail, three days until America votes, and the Democrats' closing weekend strategy is to get the band back together. Joe Biden and Barack Obama making two stops in Michigan today.

The first was in Flint. It featured an often-personal, often barb wire sharp speech from the former president, outlining why the current occupant of the Oval Office does not deserve the chance at another four years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's still worrying about his inauguration crowd being smaller than mine. It really bugs him. He talked about -- he's still talking about that.

Does he have nothing better to worry about? Did no one come to his birthday party when he was a kid? Was he traumatized?

Our country's going through a pandemic. That's not what you're supposed to be worrying about. And that's the difference between Joe Biden and Trump, right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Crowd size versus coronavirus. Pettiness versus empathy. Not normal versus normal. Lies versus the truth. That is how the Biden campaign is framing the choice heading into Election Day.

Now, the president is in Pennsylvania for four rally stops. He has a far different closing argument, a super recovery versus a lockdown. The president says that the United States is rounding the corner, rounding the turn on coronavirus.

It is a lie every time that he says it. The numbers prove it. Forty- seven states are failing to push down their coronavirus curve. Only three, as you can see there, are actually trending in the positive direction, in the right direction, reducing numbers of cases.

The Friday case number was 99,000 new infections, which is a single- day high in the U.S., and globally, the virus is surging everywhere that you look. There are still millions of Americans without jobs. The only way out, President Obama says, is to vote for Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: What's his closing argument? Here we are, the worst week this week. I mean, we've been going through this now for months. The federal government has had an opportunity to respond for months. And his closing argument this week is that the press and people are too focused on COVID.

You may remember when Republicans were saying, let Detroit go bankrupt? You remember that? Now they might as well be saying, let America get COVID because that's how they're asking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right, let's listen in to President Obama at an -- a previously unannounced stop in Michigan.

OBAMA: If we care deeply about restoring a sense of decency to our federal government, a government that's going to look out for ordinary people, that is going to take this pandemic seriously and get on top of it so we can not only save lives but also make our economy healthy again. If we want a nation that is living up to its values and its ideals, so that we set an example for the world, if we care about climate change and making sure that our criminal justice system is free of racial bias, then we're going to have to work for it, and we just got a few more days to make that happen.

And the good news is, because of all of you, your willingness to get out there, you know, it's -- I live a little further South now, so it's good to feel what autumn's really all about. For all of you to be willing to do this, it makes me hopeful, and it makes me inspired.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

And the other person who makes me hopeful is somebody who I served with for eight years who was in the room before I made any big decision, a person of character, a person of decency, a person of kindness, a person who understands the solemn responsibilities you take on when you become president of the United States, somebody who's going to put you first. My friend, I could not be prouder to support him and I could not be prouder, I hope, in a few days, to be able to call him Mr. President-elect -- Joe Biden.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Thank you, Mr. President.

OBAMA: Joe Biden. BIDEN: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You know, one of the great privileges that I have had wasn't just serving with President Obama, was, as we -- we used to have lunch every Tuesday. We'd have lunch alone. And one day, we looked at each other and oh -- just that little area off the Oval Office, and he said, you know, what I didn't expect would be to become such good friends.

And we did. Our families are friends. Michelle and Jill, my granddaughter -- I have two granddaughters with me today.

[16:05:05]

One of them is the president's -- come here, Maisy -- is the president's number two daughter's best friend. Am I exaggerating that?

OBAMA: You know what? We love She was also the star of our rec league basketball team, the Vipers, who were champs. Sasha was power forward. Maisy was LeBron James.

BIDEN: That's right.

And, by the way, she made all state in two other sports, too. They went to the same school together for years, both in soccer and lacrosse.

Anyway, the point is, though, that our families became friends, and we remain friends, and it was one of the great honors of my life serving with a man with an enormous (ph) integrity.

But do you know what else, Mr. President, what a great honors? Is the governor out here volunteering. This guy right here.

OBAMA: Oh, I didn't --

BIDEN: I didn't -- I could tell, man, without the mask, I knew it. I knew it.

How are you? God love you, both of you. You need this like you need a hole in your head.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need you.

OBAMA: We need Joe Biden.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: You know, one of the things that the president and I have talked about is -- in the past is when you run for president, win, lose, or draw, you end up making friends for a lifetime. And you end up making friends for a lifetime, and that's the case with us.

And all of you, I can't tell you, the president is absolutely, positively correct. It makes a gigantic difference, your volunteering. That's how you win campaigns. Every campaign that I have ever been in that I have won has been the

folks who have been doing everything from making the phone calls, to sending out the petitions, to knocking on doors, to making -- I mean, you make a gigantic difference, and the idea you are here today and it's cold in this parking lot, and you're still doing it. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

I'm not going to keep you much longer, except to say, you know, again, the thing the president and I talked about. You know, this is a pretty dark time for the country.

But the point is, the irony of all ironies is, I think what's happened with these quadruple problems we have from the pandemic to what's going on relative to the racial unease, the unemployment, the recession, as well as our situation internationally, it's taken the blinders off the American people.

You know, there's two ways you get inspired in politics. I'll end with this. One, you get inspired -- I'm not being solicitous -- by a man like Barack Obama. He's an inspirational figure. No, I really mean it.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

There's a second way you get inspired, and I'm not being a wise guy -- but really bad leaders. And I'm not joking. Because when people get to see the other side, they realize, my Lord, I didn't think it could get this way.

You're all young. You never thought, even at your age, that you would be in a situation where we're really fighting for democracy. We're fighting for -- literally fighting for our democracy.

And the idea that that's what you're doing is something that I think is -- we have such enormous opportunities. We're going to not only deal with the climate change. We're going to create millions of good- paying jobs.

There was an article in the paper yesterday, Mr. President, where -- actually yesterday, where the president's secretary of the treasury is saying, Wall Street's going to regret saying Joe Biden's going to create more jobs.

You know, that's not -- that's not a liberal think tank. The fact is, that's where we come from. We are. We're working class folks. That's how we both came up. That's how a lot of you have come up.

But in fact, we have an enormous opportunity -- and here's my hope. I hope that in addition to us winning, I hope you stay engaged, stay involved. I hope some of you run for office.

I'm not being -- I'm not being solicitous. I really mean it. You can get engaged but stay engaged. You can change things.

You're going to be -- I think you're probably already surprised how much you can change. And I want to see -- I want to be back here, God willing, four years from now talking to y'all and supporting some of you or two years from now. Some of you are running for office.

We can change. We have never been in a better position. I've never been more optimistic about America's chances. It's because of you. By the way, Z Generation and the millennials, you're the most informed generation in American history.

(CHEERS)

Not a joke. You're the best educated generation in American history. You're the least prejudiced generation in American history. And you're the most engaged. So, I expect that to continue.

And by the way, you guys are going to own it all. If your generation votes at the same percentage that everybody else voted last time, guess what? Five-point-two million more votes cast in America.

[16:10:04]

So, you can own it. Okay? And I hope to all see you, God willing, and the creek not rise, as they say in southern Delaware, I hope to see y'all at the inauguration.

Tim, Gov, thanks, great seeing you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

OBAMA: Joe Biden, everybody. Joe Biden.

BIDEN: Thank you.

OBAMA: Our next president of the United States, Joe Biden. Let's get to work.

KEILAR: All right. You are seeing the former President Barack Obama campaigning alongside the former vice president, Joe Biden.

And I want to bring in CNN's Arlette Saenz. She is in Detroit, which is where Obama and Biden will be headed. They are going to appear at an event with Stevie Wonder very soon.

And I also want to bring in our CNN analyst to talk a little bit more about what we're watching, Sabrina Siddiqui, who is national politics reporter for "The Wall Street Journal". April Ryan with us as well, she's White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks.

OK, Arlette, to you first. This is -- I mean, this is sort of the tag team today that we're seeing on the Democratic side with the former President Barack Obama lending his popularity to the former vice president.

This was a previously unannounced stop, something that they stopped on the way at a church, at a canvassing kickoff. Tell us about, you know, what you are listening for today in this final push with Barack Obama on the campaign trail.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, you heard both Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama -- they are sort of rallying the troops as they head into this final critical push heading into Election Day and their message over the course of the day has been simple. It's get out there and vote.

And you've also heard the former president talking about his former VP in very personal terms, talking about how he witnessed the way he worked in the White House and how that has provided him with the skills to become commander-in-chief. And you also heard President Obama make a very forceful case against President Trump, contrasting both the leadership style of the current president with that of Joe Biden and also the way that they are approaching this coronavirus pandemic, which is hitting so many people across the country, including in a lot of these Midwestern states where COVID-19 cases are on the rise.

Take a listen to a bit of President Obama's message in Flint, Michigan, earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Our country's going through a pandemic. That's not what you're supposed to be worrying about. And that's the difference between Joe Biden and Trump, right there.

Trump cares about feeding his ego. Joe cares about keeping you and your family safe. And he's less interested in feeding his ego, with having big crowds, than he is making sure he's not going around making more and more people sick. That's what you should expect from a president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: And you also heard both the president -- former president and Joe Biden encouraging people to get out and vote. They are spending three days out from the election here in this critical battleground state of Michigan, which will be central to reestablishing that blue wall heading into November. Or that is one of the priorities of the Biden campaign in these final days. They don't want to take anything for granted. This is a state, Brianna, as you remember, that Hillary Clinton lost by only 10,000 votes, so they are putting in the time here, trying to turn out those voters heading into Tuesday.

KEILAR: Yeah, this is something, look, Joe Biden really needs Michigan, and Donald Trump also really needs Michigan, April. So, all eyes are certainly on this state during this final push. Michigan getting, perhaps, the attention it deserves this time around compared to four years ago.

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hillary Clinton is not even a factor today. What's the factor in the state of Michigan is that Michigan was hit hard early on with the coronavirus, something that's now the kryptonite for this president who wants to consider himself Superman. But nonetheless -- and you have the governor of the state who, because of the president's words, has been targeted for her efforts to fight for the people to make sure that they get the needed help, the testing that they needed, et cetera, the ventilators, what have you.

Michigan also has the auto industry there. Four years ago, the auto industry was saying, oh, Donald Trump and this trade deal will work. Four years later, they are hurting. The auto industry is split on what it feels about Donald Trump. They have been impacted by his words and by the tariffs. And they are trying to rebound just like the country that's in a recession, trying to stave off a depression.

So, this president needs Michigan but he's going to have to come back with more than empty promises because he's been tried.

[16:15:01]

And what is true at this moment is, people are hurting in the state of Michigan, and Joe Biden has a chance there. Donald Trump has proven that he's dropped the ball in some areas in the state of Michigan.

KEILAR: And yet, Sabrina, Democrats are worried. They are worried that Michigan is going to repeat what happened in 2016.

SABRINA SIDDIQUI, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think if you look at the broader context, a Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, is ahead in both national and battleground polls. He has been consistently ahead of President Trump over the last few months.

He has raised an unprecedented amount of money that has enabled him to compete everywhere. That's why you've seen his campaign not only try and lock down some of these key battlegrounds but also to expand the map.

But then again, as you point out, this is a party that is still haunted by the ghost of 2016 and remembers all too well that Hillary Clinton was in this a similar position but ultimately came up short on Election Day in a handful of states that were separated by razor thin margins.

Now, Democrats, of course, feel this is different. This time, Trump is not a hypothetical candidate. He is the president, and they have four years of his record to point to. That is what you heard former President Obama do during his campaign rally today on behalf of Joe Biden, making that case that we can no longer accept the kind of conduct and behavior that we have seen from this president.

But you know, you have those early voting numbers up as well, more than 90 million Americans have already cast their ballots, and, at this point, it's about converting support from, you know, those former Obama to Trump voters that the Biden has targeted. It's also about boosting turnout from some of the coalitions who are key and have been key to the success of the Democratic Party in previous cycles and that includes black voters, Hispanic voters, young voters, single women.

I think this party understands that it has gained support from suburban voters and independents who helped the party take back the House in 2018. But they also need to make sure that they do not lose sight of their base. And so, a lot of the next few days is just really about energizing people to actually go to the polls and vote.

KEILAR: Sabrina Siddiqui, April Ryan, Arlette Saenz, wonderful to see you, ladies. Thank you so much. And President Trump today on an all-out blitz in the state of Pennsylvania. He's on his second rally of the day. He's got two more to go after this. He, of course, won this state in 2016, and it is a must-win this year.

CNN's Sara Murray is joining me now from a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Sara, these final stops are ultimately about lighting a fire under supporters to get to the polls.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's absolutely right.

Look, anyone in Pennsylvania for the first time can vote by mail, and a lot of people have, you know? More than 2 million ballots have already been returned and that Trump and other Republicans in the state know a lot of those are going to be Democrats. They know he has to be here in this state to drive his base to the polls on Election Day.

And that is why we are seeing him barn storm the state today, going to four different counties. Some of that is to try to get some suburban women to come back his direction. Some of it is to go to red parts of the state to drive up his numbers and make sure they turn up on Election Day.

But that's why we're seeing him all across the state today. You know, he sounds like he may be winding down here right now, and we're hearing what we would expect. We're hearing him downplay the coronavirus, talking about how he's going to ensure the economy has a V-shaped recovery and, Brianna, he's going after this rule in Pennsylvania that lets them count ballots that they receive between November 3rd and November 6th, which he's saying is akin to cheating, which, of course, is not the case. That's allowed here in Pennsylvania -- Brianna.

KEILAR: That's right. Coronavirus, very much, unfortunately, alive and very well, threatening the health of Americans and it's not a V-shaped economy.

Sara Murray, thank you so much for us with that from Reading, Pennsylvania.

It is a state that voted Republican in every single election but one, since the 1950s. This year, though, Arizona could go for Joe Biden. We're going to take you live there, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:23:16]

KEILAR: President Trump is on defense in Arizona. He dispatched Vice President Pence to the state yesterday, even though Arizona has long been in the Republican column. Democrats even thinking they can flip the late Senator John McCain's seat. CNN's Kyung Lah is joining me now from Phoenix.

Kyung, what is making these Arizona races tighter this year?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are a number of factors, and as you pointed out, just a minute ago, Brianna, it is a state that is reliably red, voting Republican since 1952 with the exception of Bill Clinton in 1996.

So, what has recently changed? Well, some of it are the people who are moving here.

I'm in Maricopa County. This is the fastest-growing county in all of America, and so, the people who are moving here tend to be more college-educated, because of the tech jobs who are here. They tend to be more moderate and more liberal as well as younger. So that has been a change in this state.

Also, as far as the people who are making this place home, a third of people who live in Arizona are now Latino, so those demographic shifts have helped move this state into the purple category.

Now, does this mean that should the state go to the Democrats, that it would stay that way? Absolutely not. You can talk to Democrats. You can talk to Republicans, and what they will point to are the registration rates, the voter registration rates.

Currently, Republicans still hold the lead over Democrats. The way it breaks down right now is about a third Republican, a third Democrat, and a third independent.

So, this is a fiercely independent state. So, the people who are driving up here to these emergency voting places like this one in Phoenix where you just pull up and drop your ballot.

[16:25:07]

It's really hard to tell which way they're going to go, and those independents hold a lot of sway here in Arizona, Brianna.

KEILAR: Kyung, thank you so much for bringing that to us from the campaign trail in Phoenix.

Arizona is not the only reliably red state that is potentially in play, and joining me now to talk about this is CNN political director David Chalian.

OK. So what other red states are Democrats setting their sights on?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: So, this year is the 2016 map. You remember it well, Brianna. This is where it ended election night 2016, Donald Trump with 306 electoral votes, Hillary Clinton with 232.

What you were just talking about with Kyung, sort of the Sun Belt path, those reliably Republican states, traditionally Republican states, that Democrats now, for ten years, have had sort of a project of looking at the demographic changes and seeing if they can change the map.

So, watch what would happen here if indeed Joe Biden won Arizona, okay? And then where would they go next? Well, the Biden campaign feels pretty good about their chances in Georgia. They see it as a real dead heat kind of a state and one that some Biden folks are a little bit more bullish about, even, than Arizona.

And then the third one here is North Carolina to look at. Look, I just made those three states go blue for Biden and Biden wins with that, with 274 electoral votes. You see that keeps Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, those usually traditional blue states that he flipped four years ago red.

Joe Biden could potentially make his way to the White House not building back the blue wall but here through the Sun Belt, and that is without Texas or Florida, two real battleground states, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yeah, and a lot of votes there. That's pretty interesting to look at how you can just move some of those around and get the sense of what he does and does not need.

David, thank you so much for taking us through that.

CHALIAN: Sure.

KEILAR: The U.S. continues setting all the wrong records when it comes to coronavirus. While England is announcing a second lockdown, we're going to discuss whether the U.S. could follow suit, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:33]

KEILAR: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a second national lockdown in England just a short time ago.

He had rejected such calls for weeks. He was opting, instead, for targeted measures. But here we are at this point.

And I want to go to Max Foster on this.

You had said, Max, at your reporting from London, this is a bit of a U-turn.

MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: It is, because Boris Johnson has been resisting a national lockdown. Instead, relying on a regional strategy, regional lockdowns.

But it just hasn't worked, as it hasn't worked in other parts of the continent. So now we have the three major economies in Europe, France, Germany, and the U.K., all in national lockdowns.

Boris Johnson, though, having this last-minute national address on a Saturday night, all televised across the nation, very high-profile, but laying out his reasons for his change in stance. And they are, basically, that he's worried that the National Health Service is about to become overwhelmed and wouldn't be able to carry on serving the public in a matter of weeks if we carried on as we were.

He said potentially this part of the pandemic could have been twice as bad as the initial peak if we didn't do something at this point.

So, he's turning around, he's saying there's going to be a national lockdown for four weeks, from Thursday.

But crucially, schools won't be locked down this time round. Let's listen to his explanation for that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: My priority, our priority remains keeping people in education. So childcare, early years settings, schools, colleges, and universities will all remain open.

Our senior clinicians still advise that school is the best place for children to be.

We cannot let this virus damage our children's futures even more than it has already. And I urge parents to continue taking their children to school.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: So, the issue here, when you look at the numbers, Brianna, is that the numbers are going up.

But it's amongst the hospital admissions, the elderly going into hospital, a massive concern that the deaths would go up, but they won't be able to treat non-coronavirus sufferers either.

So, a big concern here. We're going into national lockdown on Thursday.

KEILAR: On Thursday.

All right, Max, thank you so much. Max Foster for us from London.

Yesterday, in the U.S., we recorded just under 100,000 new cases of COVID-19. That is not only a record daily total in this country. That is the highest ever in the entire world in the course of this pandemic.

And the numbers suggest that the spike is accelerating, not slowing down. The five highest daily totals have come in the last eight days. Friday broke Thursday's record by more than 10,000.

I want to bring in Dr. David Shulkin, who previously served at the secretary of Veterans Affairs under President Trump. He's joining us now in Philadelphia. And Dr. Shulkin, we just heard just now of a second national lockdown in England. Do you think that that is where the U.S. is heading or where it should be heading?

DR. DAVID SHULKIN, FORMER VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY: Brianna, I don't think any of us want to see a lockdown in the United States.

But the situation in Europe really has left them with no option. If they don't create that type of national lockdown right now, they're going to be overrun in their hospital system in just a matter of weeks.

And I think we're about three weeks behind where Europe is, so we're inching very, very close to where this may not be a choice for us. And frankly, right now is the time for us to be acting.

[16:35:07]

We need to have a national public health response. There needs to be a national mandate in terms of mask wearing, social distancing, limiting the gatherings that we're still seeing happening around the country.

And without such rapid and swift action that we need to take right now, I'm afraid we are going to be in a situation where that's exactly where we may be headed in about three weeks, right as we get to Thanksgiving holiday for this country.

KEILAR: Yes, and some people will be reticent to change how they gather for the holiday.

It's really arresting to hear you say that, that we're watching Europe like it's a tsunami, that is heading in our direction here in a few weeks.

I should mention -- as I mentioned, you worked for the administration as the Veterans Affairs secretary. You were undersecretary during the Obama administration.

You did not part ways amicably with the Trump administration for sure. You are a physician, bottom line. That is your job.

What is your response to the president's recent claims that doctors are profiting off of inflated COVID-19 cases and deaths?

SHUKLIN: Brianna, I couldn't be prouder of the response of our physicians and nurses and first responders in this country. They really have done an incredible job.

I know so many of them who haven't stopped working since this pandemic first started happening in February and March. And they have really been the heroes of this response.

And to take an action or to suggest that they are profiting from this or that their ethics are being compromised, I find highly offensive.

This is a group of individuals that this country should have great gratitude to.

And frankly, we're going to need them and the public's going to have to continue to have confidence in our physicians and nurses as we enter into what looks like an increasingly alarming situation with the pandemic and certainly one that looks like we're going to be dealing with for quite some time in 2021.

So, this is not the time to be attacking our health care professionals. Rather, this is a time to recognize just how much they've responded and how much we're going to need them.

KEILAR: This is -- I mean, we know this is certainly not what they are doing. They don't make extra money, doctors, for treating COVID patients.

You've worked with the president. Do you think that he is knowingly lying about that?

SHULKIN: Well, you know, it's hard to know. This president gets his information from, you know, friends and other sources, and is highly influenced. And sometimes or often doesn't take the time to really understand t

he real situation. So I'm not going to assign intentions to this president.

But I do know that this is not the right message in the middle of a pandemic.

And in fact, the message that we need coming out of leadership and coming out of the White House is one saying that we are looking at a very scary situation right now.

We have to rely upon our health professionals. We have to listen to them.

And we have to have a national response. We can't continue to just watch thousands of Americans die, projections that thousands more will die if we don't take swifter action.

So this is a true public health emergency. And we need our officials to be acting that way.

KEILAR: Yes, this is a key moment. Will the government meet the moment? That's the question.

Secretary, thank you so much for being with us.

SHULKIN: Thank you.

KEILAR: If you have voted already, you are part of a record turnout of early voters. The impact that you could have on the race, next.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [16:43:00]

KEILAR: It is three days until the polls close. And we have an update on the number of people who have already voted. More than 90 million at this point.

The majority of states are reporting record turnout for early voters.

CNN's Tom Foreman joining us now.

And, Tom, that figure, I mean, 90 million people, it's about 43 percent of registered voters in the country who have voted already. And we're not even talking about people who are voting absentee.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is just astonishing, how many votes have come in so far. Really, we're pushing up on two-thirds of the entire number of votes that were cast in the 2016 election.

Certain trends have emerged that make this also very interesting. For example, the bulk of this early voting is happening in 16 key states that we have identified as being important here, including the battlegrounds out there.

Shows some of the enthusiasm. That is one of the up trends in this.

Also up, the number of young voters seems to be higher than it was in the past at this point in the race. The number of older voters down at this point in the race.

Don't jump to big conclusions about that. Older voters trend Republican, tend to vote on Election Day. But nonetheless, they're interesting to look at those trends.

And none of that tells us what we all really want to know. When will we have a result in this? When will it be counted?

Well, we could have some indications by Tuesday night, depending on how the vote goes as to which direction it is headed.

But in terms of a full count, it's complicated because state to state to state, the rules are different about when you start counting all the early votes and certainly the mail-in votes, the absentee votes.

In some places, that's already going on. In other places, it will start on Election Day.

That includes Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which have been really key as battleground states.

We've looked at that very closely. They won't start looking at all that until Election Day.

Millions of votes, if they have any kind of complications that could drag on.

Michigan starts a few hours before the election opens. But still very, very close to the polls opening there too as well.

[16:45:02]

So, all of that together, Bri, it tells us that maybe, maybe by election night, we'll have an idea of where things are going.

Very likely, it could be a day or two days later or a week later or more depending on the complications and how close the race is -- Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, Tom, we will get ready.

Thank you so much, Tom Foreman.

We have three days to go now until Election Day. You are looking right now at President Trump speaking live in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Moments ago, he made clear that even if he doesn't win on Tuesday, he thinks he has some options.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:36]

KEILAR: President Trump just wrapped up in Reading, Pennsylvania, which is his second of four rallies today in a state that he won in 2016. And he said something incredibly concerning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we win on Tuesday or -- thank you very much, Supreme Court -- shortly thereafter --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right, Jonathan Diaz is CNN's election law analyst.

I mean, Jonathan, the president has -- he actually advised the court today. He's not happy with some recent decisions the court has made.

He is, though, it appears, expecting some help from the Supreme Court if he is not declared the winner of the election.

I mean, first off, just react to what he said, and what do you think he can expect or really anyone can expect when it comes to the Supreme Court and the election.

JONATHAN DIAZ, CNN ELECTION LAW ANALYST: Thanks, Brianna.

I mean, I think, first of all, it's incredibly concerning that the president of the United States would suggest that the Supreme Court would have any role in determining the outcome of the presidential election, particularly one in which he is a candidate.

It's important to remember that in the entire history of this country, there has been one presidential election in which the Supreme Court has played any role and that was famously in 2000 or infamously, depending on your perspective.

But the Trump campaign and the Republican Party appear to be doing everything they can to lay the groundwork for a similar challenge to wind its way up to the Supreme Court this cycle.

There have been a number of cases, the ones the president was criticizing, in Reading today, dealing with extensions to the absentee ballot receipt deadline in a number of battleground states, including Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Minnesota.

The Supreme Court so far has not changed any of those dates, which allow absentee ballots that have been postmarked by Election Day and received within a certain number of days thereafter to be counted.

But at least four of the justices on the court have suggested that they would be open to hearing post-election challenges as to whether or not those ballots can be counted.

In order for it to get there, there are a number of steps that would need to happen.

First, the election would have to come down to one of those states. It would have to be so close, that the number of ballots received between Election Day and the extended deadline could be decisive.

And the president would have to be ahead, notwithstanding those post- Election Day ballots, in order for a challenge to really make a difference. Those are not likely scenarios, but they are possible.

And I think another thing that's important to note is that at the time that the Supreme Court declined to overturn those extended deadlines, Justice Barrett had been sworn in but didn't participate in those cases.

KEILAR: Yes.

DIAZ: So, if such a dispute were to get to the court, there's really no telling exactly which way it would go. But we're a long ways away from that.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: We don't have the full picture or an indicator of what that would be.

So, right now, when it comes to these battleground states, you have, from both -- both campaigns, legal experts in battleground states who are preparing to challenge results should they see there be an opportunity or a reason to do that.

How do you see that time after Election Day playing out? What could this look like?

DIAZ: It's difficult to say, because we've never had an election that has featured this much litigation in the run-up and where the parties themselves have telegraphed so clearly that they plan or expect there to be post-election challenges.

The rules, like everything else in our electoral system, for who can challenge ballots on or after Election Day and on what grounds are different from state to state. And in some states, you know, that window has passed.

For example, in Pennsylvania, for mail-in and absentee ballots, challenges to voter eligibility had to happen at the application stage by 5:00 p.m. yesterday.

So, it is really hard to predict when and where these challenges are going to take place. I think the only thing we know for sure is that they will.

KEILAR: Yes. Certainly, they are going to. There's going to be a lot -- you are going to be very busy, Jonathan.

And we certainly appreciate you coming on today, talking us through what we may see. And all of the really unknowns of what is going to have to happen after Election Day.

[16:55:03]

After a race like no other, it's all going to end here. Join us live for special live coverage the way that only CNN can bring it to you.

From the first votes to the critical count, understand what is happening in your state and all across the country. "ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA," our special coverage, starts Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.

That's it for me.

Our special election coverage continues right after this with Wolf Blitzer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is CNN's special coverage of the countdown to Election Day.

[17:00:03]

We're only three days from an election that will be like none we have ever seen in our lifetimes, coming in the midst of a deadly pandemic.