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CNN Live Event/Special
Biden Makes First Joint Campaign Appearance With Obama; Polls: Trump Leads Among Those Still To Vote; Battle For The U.S. Senate; COVID-19 At Record Levels Two Days From Election. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired November 01, 2020 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The clock is ticking. Donald Trump and Joe Biden are spending the final moments of the campaign season making their final arguments to the American people, why they should lead the country for the next four years.
Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you so much for joining me for CNN's special coverage of Countdown to Election Day in America.
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BOLDUAN: We are closing in on a presidential election like no other. Just two days left and Donald Trump and Joe Biden are campaigning hard in the limited time that remains. They're making a weekend sprint in key battleground states, with Biden hoping to win back some of the states that went red in 2016.
In Michigan, Biden laid out his vision for a divided country, where the coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 9 million people and killed more than 230,000 people. President Trump is focusing on Pennsylvania, going after the Supreme Court for allowing Pennsylvania and North Carolina to move ahead with plans to count mail-in ballots received after Election Day. Listen here.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a terrible thing that they've done to our country. And that's the United States Supreme Court I'm talking about. That is a terrible, political, horrible decision that they made. We're going to be waiting November 3rd and it's going to come and go and we're not going to know.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. Let's show him who we are. We choose hope over fear. We choose unity over division. We choose science over fiction. And, yes, we choose truth over lie after lie after lie after lie.
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BOLDUAN: Joe Biden was joined by some Democratic star power on Saturday. Political correspondent Arlette Saenz is in Michigan with more on that.
But first, another Trump rally took an unfortunate turn for some of the president's supporters after the president wrapped up his remarks. CNN's Ryan Nobles has that.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump putting a lot of focus on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the last weekend of the campaign and he made a stop here in Butler, Pennsylvania, and he gave his traditional stump speech, encouraging Pennsylvanians to come out and vote.
But it's what happened afterwards that was a little bit of a concern for Trump and his supporters. Just like the situation that played out in Omaha, Nebraska, a couple of days ago, thousands of Trump supporters left the event and had nowhere to go.
There were no buses waiting for them, no lines set up, telling them where to go so they could get back to their cars and parking lots and be able to drive home on a cold night.
That led many of these supporters to just give up and walk. We saw some supporters walk as far as a mile, two miles, even three miles away on dark country roads that were busy with traffic leaving the event.
The Trump campaign pushed back on our reporting, saying they did indeed have people ready to pick these folks up. They posted a picture an hour and a half after the event let out, showing people getting onto buses. They claimed as many as 47 shuttle buses showed up to bring people away from the rally.
But what we witnessed with our own eyes were a lot of frustrated Trump supporters, not exactly knowing how they were going to get home. And this is a pattern. We've seen this happen after a number of Trump rallies, where the logistics just aren't put in place that well.
And they do a good job of getting these Trump supporters into the rally but don't seem to be all that concerned with them after they leave the rally. Well, there are a number of Trump rallies still to go before here, the end of the campaign. All told, the president will make 14 stops between Saturday and Monday, leading up to the election and he'll be back here in Pennsylvania on Monday -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Butler, Pennsylvania.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe Biden brought his closing pitch here to the battleground state of Michigan. And he made it with the help of his former boss and powerful surrogate, former president Barack Obama.
The two men campaigned together for the first time, making three stops here in the state as they took their pitch to voters. The former president talked about his time in the White House, with Joe Biden saying that he is ready to be commander in chief.
And Obama also criticized President Trump, slamming his leadership style and his approach to the coronavirus pandemic at a time when coronavirus cases are rising in states like Michigan.
And the former president also talked a bit about President Trump's rallies and his focus on crowd sizes. Take a listen.
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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What's his obsession with crowds anyway?
I mean, he's still worrying -- he is still talking about his inauguration crowd being small. Although he doesn't admit it. And that's the difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump right there. Trump cares about feeding his ego. Joe cares about keeping you safe and your family safe and getting this country moving again.
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SAENZ: Now Biden and Obama spent the day campaigning here in Michigan, one of those states that President Trump won back in 2016, as Biden is looking to re-establish the blue wall, those Democratic states that flipped red back in the last election, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
And Pennsylvania is where Biden is putting his focus in the final two days of the election. On Sunday, he'll be campaigning in Philadelphia and then, on Monday, Biden; his running mate, Kamala Harris, and their spouses are fanning out across the state of Pennsylvania, as that state is very critical to Biden's path of 270 electoral votes -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, Detroit, Michigan.
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BOLDUAN: Thank you so much for that.
We also have in fresh new CNN polling showing Joe Biden holding a lead in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan. They're part of what is considered the blue wall that turned to President Trump four years ago. Let's bring in CNN political writer and analyst Harry Enten, kind enough to be up at this beautiful hour with me to go through this.
Harry, it might be early but the numbers are still important. Walk us through these new numbers in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in North Carolina, in Arizona. HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure, Kate and it's a pleasure to be with you, no matter what hour of the day it is. Look, here's the situation looking at the polls. You see Joe Biden is polling ahead of Donald Trump in all four of the states you mentioned.
In Arizona, it's the closest; we call that no clear leader because it's just a 4 point lead. But then you go to North Carolina and you can find a 6 point advantage for Joe Biden. You go to Wisconsin, you find an 8 point advantage for Joe Biden and go to Michigan and find a double digit advantage for Joe Biden.
And also in all four of those states, Joe Biden is polling at 50 percent or above and that is a big deal because, if you're at 50 percent or above, even if Donald Trump wins all the undecideds, the best he can do is tie in those states.
And then the geographical diversity of those states, two are part of that big blue wall in the North and North Carolina and Arizona are part of the Sun Belt and the South and that suggests Joe Biden perhaps has multiple pathways to 270.
Indeed, if you add those states to the states Hillary Clinton won back in 2016, you don't even have to win Pennsylvania for Joe Biden to get over 270 electoral votes.
BOLDUAN: You mention anyone still undecided. Of course, I wonder if there's anyone undecided, considering how many people have already voted and everyone's been voting. And counting is just going to start beginning really in two days.
But who are the voters driving these poll numbers?
What are you seeing, Harry?
ENTEN: I think there are basically three different divides I'm looking at really interesting to me. The first is obviously and pretty much in all these polls there's a huge gender divide. We're looking at a record gender gap in this election, even more so than four years ago, particularly women are moving so quickly towards the Democratic column that, in a number of these states, Donald Trump has clear leads among men but, simply put, is not able to overcome Joe Biden's lead among women.
Secondly, I'd be looking at white voters with a college degree. That's particularly important in a state like North Carolina, where Joe Biden is leading amongst them. And that's really driving his lead in a state that's only gone Democratic once in my lifetime, of course, back in 2008, when Barack Obama barely carried it.
And third, white voters without a college degree, very important in the North and the Upper Midwest, particularly in the state of Wisconsin, where you see Joe Biden, while he's losing amongst them, he's losing by 10 points less than Hillary Clinton was four years ago. That's more than enough to carry a state that Hillary Clinton lost by less than a percentage point.
BOLDUAN: There's also new numbers out from Iowa showing Donald Trump has the lead.
What's going on there?
ENTEN: Yes, I can't tell you how many text messages, Gmails, Zooms I got about this poll because the poll has a great record in the state of Iowa and that poll does show, in fact, Donald Trump has a 7-point lead. Their previous poll was a tie.
Look, this looks like their poll did in 2016. If Donald Trump ultimately ends up winning, we'll look back at this poll and say, hey, there were some hints of it along the way. Here's what I will point out, it's just one poll. It's just one poll. The rest of the polls are high quality polls and show something very, very different.
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ENTEN: So it's one poll. And the other thing I will note is Donald Trump must carry the state of Iowa. Joe Biden does not. There are a lot of pathways for Joe Biden to get to 270 electoral votes without Iowa. There are very few pathways for Donald Trump to do so.
BOLDUAN: Great to see you, Harry, thank you.
ENTEN: Thank you.
BOLDUAN: So in the final days of any campaign, where a candidate decides to spend their precious time can be very telling. Look at where Donald Trump and Joe Biden are spending their last Sunday of this cycle.
Donald Trump is holding rallies in several swing states, including Michigan, as we were discussing, and Florida. Joe Biden is spending his entire day in the critical state, as Harry was talking about -- Pennsylvania, starting in Philadelphia.
Joining me right now is CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein with much more on all this and he's also the senior editor at "The Atlantic."
Great to see you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: -- up early or up late, I'm --
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BOLDUAN: Which one?
Whichever one makes you happy, that's all I want. Talk to me about Pennsylvania, how critical it is.
When you see the numbers that Harry Enten was just laying out with the polling, what are you seeing right now, Ron?
BROWNSTEIN: Look, after 2016, everyone is chastened about polling and, in fact, Joe Biden doesn't have an insurmountable lead in enough states to feel like this thing is totally in the bank.
But having said that, Biden has restored enough strength across the Rust Belt to leave the president on a very, very narrow ledge. If Biden holds all the states Hillary Clinton won in 2016, he is in a very strong position in Michigan and Wisconsin. We're talking about a catastrophic polling failure. It's much bigger margins than last time.
He still needs one more state if that is the case. Even if he adds Michigan or Wisconsin to all the Clinton states. And Pennsylvania looks like the best bet, although Arizona is also in that mix.
What we've seen from Biden, I think, Kate, is a lot of discipline in the map. Yes, they are competing in the Sun Belt states. You see, for example, Kamala Harris finishing the race, you know, going from Arizona to Texas to Florida to Georgia to North Carolina, all through the Sun Belt.
But from the beginning, Joe Biden, Scranton Joe, my hometown -- Bruce Springsteen ad out tonight -- he has been overwhelmingly focused on those three Rust Belt states dislodged from the blue wall, which we go back to 2009.
And he has just kept his focus there. And so that is, I think, is his competitive advantage in this race, is his strength at this point in those Rust Belt states whatever happens in the Sun Belt battlegrounds.
BOLDUAN: You mentioned Texas, where Kamala Harris had went to (sic). You took a deep dive into Texas to look at what is happening there. The state has led the country in early voting, has already surpassed its entire 2016 total turnout in what they're looking at.
Why do you think we could be looking at a seismic shift in Texas?
And what do you think it does mean for kind of the map we're talking about beyond the borders?
BROWNSTEIN: It is a seismic shift, win or lose, because Texas really embodies the sharpening divide that we are seeing between kind of metro America, that is diverse, that is inclusive, that is white collar, and non-metro America, which is much more preponderantly white, more Christian, more tied to the big industries of the 20th century, ag energy and manufacturing.
What you are seeing -- Kate, what I think what you're going to see nationwide -- and Texas is right at the forefront of this -- is, under Trump, the Republican Party is being exiled from the fast growing metros really everywhere that are driving economic growth.
The five biggest counties in Texas, which embody Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth. In 2012 Obama won them by a combined 130,000 votes. In 2016, Clinton won them by combined 516,000 votes. By '18, it was up to 790,000 for Beto, six times as much as for Obama.
And in this election, no one will be surprised if Biden wins those five counties alone by well over 1 million votes. Harris County could double the margin from four years ago. Austin could double the margin from four years ago.
There may be enough rural that -- you know, most people would say there probably are enough rural votes for Trump who's going to win them 3-1 to win the state. But it's indicative both of where Texas is going and where the country is going.
Pretty much every population center, you can draw an imaginary beltway around it, Democrats are consolidating within that beltway. Republicans remain very strong outside of it.
BOLDUAN: It's really interesting, the look you took into Texas. I was really fascinated by it.
There's a new interview out in "The Washington Post" that Dr. Anthony Fauci did.
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BOLDUAN: And he is warning in this interview that the country is, in his words in, quote, "in for a whole lot of hurt" with coronavirus coming up.
And the president at the same time continues to try to convince people that the exact opposite is happening.
Well, now this is hitting a new level, Ron. Dr. Fauci is saying -- I want to read this about the doctor who the president is now leaning on so much, his new closest advisor in COVID, Dr. Scott Atlas.
Fauci saying this. "I have real problems with that guy. He's a smart guy who's talking about things that I believe he doesn't have any real insight or knowledge or experience in.
"He keeps talking about things that, when you dissect it and parse it out, it doesn't make any sense."
Almost as striking, Ron, is the White House quickly responding and attacking Dr. Fauci, saying that he's playing politics with what he's saying.
Can you just explain to me the political play?
Because there's a lot of polling showing that Fauci is much more liked and trusted than the president.
BROWNSTEIN: And much more trusted. Look, I mean this is what the president does on almost every issue. He doubles down on trying to energize a minority of the country rather than trying to persuade the majority of the country.
There may be a third of the country that wants to open up at any cost or maybe a third or quarter or 30 percent of the country that's opposed to mask wearing as some sort of culture war statement.
But most Americans believe that you cannot have the economy working until the virus is under control. And the president is simply crosswise with that.
The fundamental gravity in this race, perhaps more than any other, is that 60 percent of the country consistently has disapproved of the way he's handled the virus. And that's made it hard for him to get his vote above the low 40s.
And he's basically sending the public a very clear signal, he's given up on trying to protect them. And if you re-elect him, nothing is going to be any different. The medium, as they said back in the '60s -- the medium is the message here.
I think louder than anything he says on the stage is the way those rallies are being conducted and that's telling, I think, voters exactly what they can and cannot expect. And certainly you have to look at a state like Wisconsin and say, the terrifying upsurge in cases is part of the reason why a state we all thought was going to be an absolute photo finish, now has the potential to be something considerably wider than that.
BOLDUAN: It's great to see you, Ron. Thank you so much.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, Kate.
BOLDUAN: So who will win the White House remains a very big question mark. There's also a big unknown.
Could there be a major power shift in the Senate?
The balance of power in Washington, we're going to dive into that when we get back.
And if there was any question about how crucial Pennsylvania is, just look at the candidates' travel schedules.
Who has the upper hand in this critical battleground state and what is going on there?
Stay with us for more of our special coverage.
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BOLDUAN: Beyond the race of the White House, the balance of power in the Senate is up for grabs as well. Democrats seeing the best chance they've had in quite a while to win back control of the chamber.
And that would have huge implications for either a second term of President Trump or a newly elected Democratic president Joe Biden.
Here's a quick look at the Senate map. For Democrats to take over, they need a net gain of four seats outright or three seats if they win the White House, since the vice president breaks the tie in that chamber.
Here are the top states where Democrats are keeping their eyes, for Democratic pick ups of Republican held seats. You can see all of the races are really -- they span the country, some closer than others but all crucial to who and what party will really wield power come next year.
I want to look at one race that's not even making the Democrats' top five best of chances, if you will, in the usually reliable red state of Georgia. Democrat Jon Ossoff, he's there on the right. He's now in a dead heat with the incumbent Republican senator, David Perdue, in an average of polls. The two traded some very serious sparks at a debate in Savannah, Georgia.
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JON OSSOFF (D-GA), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Perhaps Senator Perdue would have been able to respond properly to the COVID-19 pandemic if you hadn't been fending off multiple federal investigations for insider trading. It's not just that you're a crook, Senator. It's that you're attacking the health of the people that you represent.
SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA): He'll talk about anything except his own accountability and his own responsibility. The thing I'm most upset about though, is that he'll say and do anything to my friends in Georgia to mislead them about how radical and socialist this --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is your time, Senator Perdue.
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BOLDUAN: Let's take a look at another race, Maine, where Republican Susan Collins is fighting for her political life right now. The long- time incumbent has a tricky relationship with the president and therefore struggles with his base. And she's struggling with folks back home.
Her Democratic challenger, she's trying to nationalize the race, as many are, making it about Senate control, what we're talking about. But there's also identity politics at play. Critics are calling Collins out of touch with reality in this country because of this moment at a recent debate.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Senator, 30 seconds for a follow-up here.
Is systemic racism is a problem here in Maine?
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I do not believe systemic racism is a problem in the state of Maine.
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BOLDUAN: And Democrats also see an opening in South Carolina, where Jamie Harrison has broken fundraising records like left and right as he tries to unseat the incumbent senator, Lindsey Graham. It is an uphill battle for Harrison, especially in such a deep red state, where Lindsey Graham has such deep roots.
But he's tapping into outrage over Graham's hypocrisy over -- for one thing filling a Supreme Court seat so close to an election, when Lindsey Graham said the exact opposite of what he did before.
It's also boosting Graham's standing among conservatives. A recent poll has Graham ahead. But Harrison is within striking distance. That is one to watch.
So what really could happen as we look kind of at the broader picture?
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BOLDUAN: Here with me now, Doug Heye, former communications director for the Republican National Committee, long-time Hill staffer who knows the ins and outs there.
And David Swerdlick, the assistant editor of "The Washington Post."
Thanks, guys, for being here.
David, let me start with you. I want to separate these into the most likely pickups and then the others that folks are watching. The most likely Dem pickups include Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina.
What is it about these races that have Democrats so hopeful?
Is there a common thread throughout?
DAVID SWERDLICK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, Kate, good morning. Good early morning. I think one of the things is that you see a couple of those states being now what you call truly purple states.
I'm from North Carolina. The Democratic challenger there, actually Kyle Cunningham, is one of my law school classmates. It went to Barack Obama in 2008 and then Mitt Romney in 2012 and then to Donald Trump. Now it's a pretty close race there for president. I'd call it a purple state.
Same with Arizona. You've had Democrats and Republicans win there in recent years. So the Democrats in both of those states have sort of comfortable, mid-single digit leads but I don't think you can say either of those races is in the bag.
And a couple of those other states, I think the throughline as you said in your setup, is this has become in some ways a nationalized race, a referendum on President Trump and therefore a referendum on the country in the last four years.
In all of those states, Republicans are having to sort of defend the president's rhetoric and, at the same time, establish themselves as independent. And that's a tough line to walk when you want to be seen as a loyal Republican but not captive by Trumpism in a state where Trumpism is popular among some and unpopular among others.
And that is a challenge for all these Republicans, even those doing well or ahead of the polls.
BOLDUAN: And Doug, there are likely Republican pickups, fewer, but we're looking at Alabama and Michigan.
What is it about those races?
DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Alabama was the special election for senator Doug Jones, the Democrat won over somebody he was accused of basically dating young women and a lot of other scandalous activities that caused that race to go Democratic.
Of all the races out there I think that's the one we can say is really definitely going to be a pickup. I would agree with David, Arizona and Colorado are likely Democratic pickups. But we know Republicans are going to win in Alabama.
In Michigan, John James is one heck of a candidate, African American Republican, running against a pretty lackluster Democratic incumbent, Gary Peters, who is just not well known in the state.
I didn't know David was law school classmates with Kyle Cunningham in North Carolina. They could never beat us in basketball, never beat us in baseball. It looks right now he has the edge. But that's a very tough race. And as David pointed out, Obama won it in '08 and lost it in 2012.
Both of those times North Carolina was the second closest state in the country and it's a very purple state and it's nip and tuck in the presidential race as well.
BOLDUAN: I'm feeling I'm very clearly the odd woman out of this, that I don't have a personal connection to Kyle Cunningham or --
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BOLDUAN: -- clearly I'm just not that cool.
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BOLDUAN: So David, the other set of races getting attention, one of them is Georgia. Both seats are up and both incumbents are trying to run as hard and fast as they can toward Donald Trump. Biden was just there campaigning this week.
What is it with this race, these races?
SWERDLICK: There's a couple of things going on in Georgia. One is that Democrats are still fuming over what happened in the governor's race. A lot of people feel, with reason, that it was stolen from Democrat Stacey Abrams because of voter suppression on part of Republicans in that state.
The other is you have two Senate races going on at once. You have the Perdue-Ossoff race and the Warnock-Loeffler-Collins race. Republicans are trying to defend a seat with Senator Loeffler, who was appointed to that seat. She's not a particularly strong candidate.
And in the case of the Perdue race, he's an incumbent, Senator Perdue. But Jon Ossoff came very close to winning the House race in 2017. It's Georgia's, I believe, 6th District. That was one of those early races in the Trump administration, one of those early special elections that Democrats thought they'd pick up and didn't.
But then over time Democrats have built momentum in that state. Georgia is one of those states that, in general, Democrats feel like demographics are shifting in their favor and they want to turn it blue. I'm not sure this is quite the year overall for Democrats.
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SWERDLICK: But Georgia is headed that way, as is a lot of the Sun Belt. And I think that's one of the dynamics at play.
The other one quick thing is that you have a huge early vote turnout. Over 90 percent already in Georgia of their total in 2016, that seems to favor Democrats but nothing is in the bag obviously until voters go to the polls on Tuesday and all the returns are in.
BOLDUAN: Yes, no kidding.
Doug, real quick, give me your gut.
Do you think this -- that it's likely the Senate will change over to Democratic majority?
HEYE: I think it's really hard to have a gut with this. Two reasons. One, in Iowa, Joni Ernst is in a much better position, the Republican incumbent, than she was two weeks ago. Right now I'd actually bet on her to win.
And in Georgia, with the two Senate races, you have to get to 50 percent of the vote to win. You can't win with 49.9 percent of the vote. So you could see a runoff in one or both of those elections, which means we could have the balance of the Senate really hang out there until the first week of January until they have those runoffs.
BOLDUAN: Crazy scenario there and then you could look at how long it could be dangling out there for a presidential election as well. Doug, David, thank you both.
This year to the road to the White House runs right through Pennsylvania. Why everyone from the campaigns to the pundits are so focused on the Keystone State.
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(MUSIC PLAYING) BOLDUAN: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around
the world. You're watching CNN's special coverage of the countdown to the election in America.
[03:35:00]
BOLDUAN: I'm Kate Bolduan.
Pennsylvania could -- could -- determine who wins the White House. It is one of the biggest prizes of the battleground map. And for Joe Biden, who was born in the state, it's a little bit personal. Pennsylvania has 20 Electoral College votes. Florida is the only other battleground state with more.
Trump became the first Republican to win the state since George H.W. Bush carrying the state by a slim margin. It's just over 44,000 votes, which is less than 1 percent. President Trump had four events in Pennsylvania on Saturday, showing just how important that state is.
Joe Biden will be there again on Sunday. Right now according to the polls it appears to be Biden with the advantage. The latest CNN poll shows Biden ahead there by 7 points.
So what is it about Pennsylvania?
Joining me right now Charlie Dent from Pennsylvania, someone I lean on all the time to better understand Pennsylvania.
So, Charlie, why is this state so critical for both candidates?
CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Kate, it's particularly critical for Joe Biden. I think Joe Biden really does need Pennsylvania to win just as Trump needs Florida.
And Pennsylvania is an interesting state, too, because it is so big and so diverse. And Pennsylvania, like many other of these battleground states, Republicans are really struggling in these suburban communities.
And there's been considerable erosion in 2016 and the president doesn't have much of a margin for error here. So that's why I think people are really watching the state.
BOLDUAN: On that exact point, I'm curious your thoughts on where you think Trump needs to do better, where you think Biden really needs to do well.
But in terms of where the president needs to do better this time versus last time, we know he's losing support, as you said, in the suburbs, especially among women in the suburbs. I talked with some of them earlier this month in Pennsylvania. I want to play for our viewers just a little bit of that.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can tell you how I felt four years ago. Shame. BOLDUAN: Do you regret your vote?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where we are today, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got it wrong and it hurts my heart. I mean it truly hurts my heart because the things that I saw I didn't take seriously enough.
BOLDUAN: Was there a moment in the last four years when you said, I can't do this again?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The COVID pandemic, the way he handled it, it was the absolute last straw for me. He didn't create the virus but he kind of left us all in the dark, guessing what was going on and that wasn't fair to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: And Charlie, those are all Democrats and Republican women who voted for Trump in 2016, now voting for Joe Biden.
How big of a problem is that for Donald Trump?
DENT: Well, his mishandling of the coronavirus is an enormous issue with seniors and I would also argue with women, because women quite often are the ones who are responsible for health care in the household. They tend to have a greater interest on the health care issue.
And, of course, seniors are the most vulnerable and at risk in the pandemic. So it's a huge problem. And I would argue, Kate, as a quick prediction, whichever one of these candidates wins North Hampton County and Erie County is going to win Pennsylvania because those are two of the three counties that went from Obama to Trump.
And watch those closely because I think those are the real bellwethers in the state. And I think right now Biden is performing pretty well certainly in North Hampton.
BOLDUAN: In general, Pennsylvania is a fascinating place. I feel like it's representative of how divided the country is because -- a piece recently put -- it's like Pennsylvania, depending on where you live, you inhabit different worlds, culturally, demographically, politically.
How do you describe that diversity of the state to someone who doesn't understand?
DENT: I would say there's two Pennsylvanias essentially. One east and south of the Susquehanna River. That's like a northeastern state, that part of Pennsylvania. When you get north and west, it's really like a Midwestern state.
So the Philadelphia region probably represents close to 35 percent of all the votes. Then you go out to the next ring, where I live in the Lehigh Valley, and that's like the Pennsylvania Dutch and the Pennsylvania German belt.
And you get out in southwestern Pennsylvania and parts of it look like West Virginia and parts of it look maybe like Ohio. That's why it's so diverse. The central part up across the northern tier, that's the very Republican area of the state, where Republicans typically overperform.
And where Joe Biden candidly is probably not going to do as badly as Hillary Clinton, whose vote collapsed up state. Joe Biden I think will be marginally stronger.
BOLDUAN: Got to watch it county by county and we're going to do it together.
Great to see you, Charlie.
Still ahead for us, pepper sprayed on their way to the polls.
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BOLDUAN: These chaotic scenes from North Carolina, where police broke up what demonstrators say was a peaceful march. That's coming up.
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BOLDUAN: It was billed as a peaceful march to a polling station, folks trying to get out the vote. Then it ended with some getting pepper sprayed by police. Watch.
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BOLDUAN (voice-over): This happened Saturday in North Carolina. Demonstrators stopped at the courthouse as planned to hold a moment of silence in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others.
Police say the group was blocking a roadway and ordered them to disperse. Then officers broke out pepper spray after, well, police say they wouldn't clear the streets. North Carolina's Democratic Party leader calls this unwarranted police hostility and voter suppression.
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BOLDUAN: So there's that and then there was another campaign confrontation on a Texas highway I want to tell you about. A caravan of Trump supporters surrounding a Biden-Harris bus as it was traveling from San Antonio to Austin.
A Biden campaign official says the vehicles, they were trying to slow the bus down and even push it off the road. Staffers on the bus eventually called in law enforcement to help, which they did.
And the Biden campaign ended up canceling at least one event due to the incident, citing safety concerns. Neither Biden nor Harris were on board the bus.
The Biden campaign said this, quote, "Rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas today instead decided to put our staff surrogates, supporters and others in harm's way."
President Trump tweeted about the incident, putting it out and writing, quote, "I love Texas."
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BOLDUAN: And he even brought it up during a rally Saturday.
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TRUMP: Did anybody see the picture of their crazy bus driving down the highway surrounded by like hundreds of cars and there are all Trump flags over the place. What a group.
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BOLDUAN: Let me bring in right now Samantha Vinograd.
Great to see you. Just your reaction to these kinds of incidents that are happening that we just saw play out.
SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Kate, if these incidents were happening anywhere but here in the United States, we'd at a minimum be issuing strong statements of condemnation.
These actions are frankly dangerous and also undemocratic. Voter suppression, voter intimidation, those are illegal. And if the Department of Justice was led by anyone but Bill Barr, I'd say I was hopeful these incidents would be investigated.
Unfortunately, I think these may be examples of what's yet to come. The risk of physical violence as we get closer to Election Day and in an attenuated period, if election results are not certified or unclear, is very high at this juncture.
BOLDUAN: To that point, major cities around the country have businesses that are boarding up in preparation for possible violence after the election.
I mean, what kind of preparations do you think should be happening right now?
How real is the threat, do you think, of widespread violence over the election?
VINOGRAD: The threat of widespread physical violence is very high. We've had a member of the Proud Boys arrested for trying to -- for a plotting, excuse me, an attack on a polling site.
And we have law enforcement at the federal, state and local levels preparing for physical violence at various areas, at voting sites like polling stations. We have patrols. We have a plus up in resources, we have law enforcement personnel wearing additional gear in case there is violence.
We have intelligence resources ramped up, too, to try to identify different threat streams, targeting high value targets, like polling sites, for example. And we also have a plus up in resources to deal with any associated civil unrest after polls close, if results are contested or, again, are not yet certified.
We may see civil unrest not only because the president has, frankly, encouraged it with his dog whistles to various extremist groups. Physical threats could come from domestic violent extremists across the political spectrum. In particular, I'm concerned about members of the far Right and anti-government protesters.
And we also have been warned by the FBI and DHS about the risk of lone wolf actors as well.
BOLDUAN: It's great to see you, Sam. Thank you so much.
VINOGRAD: Thanks.
BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, we're in for a whole lot of hurt. That is the stark and really sobering warning coming from the nation's top infectious disease expert about what Americans can expect next when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. We're going to talk about what can be done to try to stop it.
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BOLDUAN: The coronavirus pandemic in the United States is spiraling out of control. The country is seeing a record number of new cases. Nearly 100,000 just on Friday. Friday was the most recorded cases by any country since the pandemic began in a single day.
And the top infectious disease expert in the country says things are going to get worse. Dr. Anthony Fauci telling "The Washington Post" in a new interview, quote, "We're in for a whole lot of hurt," adding, "It's not a good situation.
"All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home and indoors. You cannot possibly be positioned more poorly."
Joining us right now is Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, a viral specialist in Los Angeles.
Thank you so much for jumping on.
Do you think Dr. Fauci is right about how bad it is going to be?
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: Absolutely. Absolutely 100 percent he's right. Every projection, every estimate that has been made has been right on the money, unfortunately.
And we're just in the beginning of November now. And with -- the worst definitely is yet to come, especially if people don't heed the recommendations of masks and social distancing. I think he's 100 percent right.
BOLDUAN: Dr. Fauci also told "The Post" in this interview -- the way he put it is that the country needs an abrupt change in public health practices and behavior. I'm wondering at this point, this many months in, what does that look like, when it is clear that how it's been handled is every state for itself and its own approach?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, I believe -- and I've said this for a long time -- that we need a national policy including, and now more certain than ever, a national mandate for wearing masks.
This is not about freedom. We want to have the freedom a year from now to continue with our lives. So it involves a coordination between all states and similar policies but that is not going to happen until we have clear and concise leadership on the federal level. That's what it should look like.
BOLDUAN: You know, the president says that the country is turning a corner just at the very same time you hear this from Dr. Fauci. He's saying the exact opposite from what experts are saying.
And he also said something just on Friday about doctors on the front lines that really cannot be ignored, Dr. Rodriguez. And it really should not go unchallenged, either. Let me play this for you and get your reaction.
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TRUMP: You know, our doctors get more money if somebody dies from COVID.
You know that, right?
I mean our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say, I'm sorry but you know, everybody dies of COVID.
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[03:55:00]
BOLDUAN: Just your reaction to that.
RODRIGUEZ: Well, what a moronic, asinine, divisive thing to say. It's been criticized, the whole world, the United States, from the American Medical Association down to all physicians. Listen, physicians have spent all their lives and pledge to help
people. We go into rooms when people are -- have tuberculosis, have HIV, you know, now have COVID. We don't say, hey, we have bone spurs, we can't go in.
You know, I'm being sarcastic but this cuts right to the core of who we are as doctors. And this rhetoric is undermining yet one institution more and that is of the medical profession. But it goes beyond that. It is undermining really the sacred trust between doctors and their patients by just spouting forth these fallacies.
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BOLDUAN: No, Doctor, I was just going to say, I was also -- beyond the president's words when he said that at a rally I was struck there were people in the crowd going along with it and booing and going, just like you said, creating this distrust between -- the sacred distrust in this, what is really a sacred relationship between a doctor and their patient, where the White House is accusing Dr. Fauci of playing politics with his interview with "The Washington Post."
It is clear that the president is when he makes statements like that.
RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. And, you know, some Trump supporters will agree to anything he says. But you know what's ironic, Kate?
When the president was sick, boy, there was a helicopter on the White House lawn immediately to rush him to where?
Walter Reed hospital.
To be treated by whom?
By physicians and doctors. So this is really just bupkis, if you will. But it's dangerous. The truth is, we hear this. We get insulted but we're too busy trying to take care of people to stop and really pay much attention. Because for us it's saving lives and helping people that matters. That's the bottom line.
BOLDUAN: And that's where the focus should always remain. Thank you, Dr. Rodriguez, for coming on. I really appreciate it.
Stay with us, everyone. We have more of CNN's special coverage, the countdown to the election in America, just ahead.
