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CNN Live Event/Special

Biden Promises To Undo Trump's Unorthodox Foreign Policy; Initial Election Results May Look Different From Final Outcome; Facebook Fact-Checkers Say They Are Unbiased; NYT: Some Trump Officials Worrying About Day After Election; COVID-19 At Record Levels Two Days From Election. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired November 01, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. You are watching CNN's special coverage of the countdown to Election Day in America. The final days of this most unusual campaign season are upon us.

And with just two days to go we're seeing Donald Trump and Joe Biden weaving through the battleground states. Here's where they're campaigning on this final weekend.

There is understandably a huge focus on a handful of states, including states like Michigan and Pennsylvania that they clearly want and need in some circumstances to get to the White House, to get to 270. Here's what the candidates were saying just on Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know the job we've done?

You are so lucky that I'm your president. You are so lucky. Pennsylvania, you are so lucky. You'd better get out and vote on Tuesday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's nothing he can do to stop the people in this nation from voting in overwhelming numbers and taking back this democracy. It's time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Millions of Americans are showing up already. More than 91 million Americans have already cast ballots by the mail or in person. It's really remarkable. As the campaigning nears its end, there is no escaping, though, the

pandemic. The cases are rising in most states over the last seven-day period. Just look at the map. That is not good.

More than 81,000 reported on Saturday, one day after America saw the worst single day total anywhere in the world, nearly 100,000. And reporting over the weekend, there normally is a dip in reporting over the weekend. So we have to wait almost fearfully to see what it looks like come Monday.

Amid all of this, the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, not only with a warning but taking a shot at another member of the Coronavirus Task Force, telling "The Washington Post" the virus could get much worse this winter.

The United States could not possibly be positioned more poorly, is how he put it. He also had this to say about Dr. Scott Atlas, who has become President Trump's real de facto top COVID adviser at this point.

Dr. Fauci, saying "I have real problems with that guy."

He called Atlas a smart guy who is talking about things that I believe he doesn't have any real insight or knowledge or experience in. Dr. Fauci goes onto say, "He keeps talking about things that, when you dissect it out and parse it out, it doesn't make any sense."

The White House responded very quickly saying this. It's unacceptable and breaking with all norms for Dr. Anthony Fauci to choose three days before an election to play politics.

He says, as a member of the task force, Dr. Fauci has a duty to express concerns or push for a change in strategy but he's not done that. Instead, choosing to criticize the president in the media and make his political leanings known.

The candidates, meantime, are fighting for their political lives. They need 270 electoral votes to win.

Joe Biden?

Well, depends on the math at the moment. The way it looks, if all states hold, that were blue before he looks closer. He has more paths to 270 than Donald Trump. You can see which states lean to the Democrats, which lean Republican and which are most in play. Right there.

CNN Chief U.S. Correspondent, John King has the latest polling numbers from the battleground states.

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Some important new battleground state polling three nights out. In three nights we fill this one in red and blue. Let's go to 2016 and use the Clinton race as a template. Four of them, west to east. Arizona, this would be a big deal. Donald

Trump carried the state four years ago. You see by 3.5 points, Biden 50. Four points is close. Biden on top in a state the president needs to win to win reelection. Joe Biden hoping suburban voters around Phoenix give him a huge victory.

[04:05:00]

KING: North Carolina, again, a big part of the Trump win four years ago. A three-point race there. Right now, a 6-point lead for Joe Biden. This is significant. Over 50 percent. Donald Trump at 45. Trump campaign says they're having a late surge in North Carolina.

If you're the Biden campaign, that's an encouraging poll. The Midwest, this is what made Donald Trump president. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.

Michigan tonight?

Look at that. A 12-point lead for Joe Biden. He's above 50. The most significant part is that, an incumbent president stuck in the low 40s. Hard to make up ground late if you're an incumbent. A troubling number for the president.

You move next door to Wisconsin, again, a 12-point lead for Joe Biden. The president is stuck in the mid-40s. Look how close this was, 22,000 votes and change. Four years ago, Joe Biden with a healthy Wisconsin lead into the final days.

One more poll. We want to show you this. It's an important state. The Iowa poll shows the president with a 7-point lead. Other polls have been closer. Some with Biden on top. The Trump campaign insists the rural voters in the Midwest will come out on Election Day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Let's focus on two new polls released overnight. In Pennsylvania, a poll of likely voters has former vice president Biden leading Trump 51 percent to 44 percent. There's a margin of error of 4 percent. In Florida Trump is ahead by 2 points. It's too close to call. It's anyone's race right now.

Let's get perspective on the end game. CNN political analyst Toluse Olorunnipa is live with us in Washington.

Saturday was spent in Pennsylvania for the president. The president hitting the road again today.

What are you hearing from the campaign on what their specific goal is in these last couple days?

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, as John said, at this point they are not trying to convert undecided voters. They're trying to rally the president's base. The president is holding multiple rallies across the country. Yesterday he spent a lot of time in Pennsylvania, in part because that

state is going to be incredibly important for either side. Whoever wins is likely going to have to do well in Pennsylvania. And they're trying to juice the president's turnout among his base.

They know in the record early vote we've seen so far, Democrats have an advantage and President Trump has been telling his voters to turn out on Election Day, to create this quote-unquote, "red wave."

They're trying to energize the president's supporters, get them to turn out in huge numbers and make up for a deficit they're facing with the Democratic record side early vote. They're trying to create enthusiasm, speak directly to the president's most hardcore supporters, not necessarily trying to win over suburban voters or people undecided.

The president is delivering red meat to his supporters, trying to get them enthusiastic and trying to get them come out to vote on Tuesday.

BOLDUAN: I was going to ask you about the president talking about this red wave coming. I was curious you where you think they are getting the confidence from. Since there is just inherently so much we don't know because of the unprecedented levels of early voting that has already happened.

OLORUNNIPA: Both candidates, both campaigns are flying blind at this point. They've never seen anything like this when it comes to the huge amount of early votes. We could have 100 million people who have already early voted by Tuesday.

And neither campaign will know how much of that vote is already banked. How many of the voters would have voted on Election Day but now they're staying home. President Trump is banking on the fact that he believes a large number of his voters haven't voted yet, are waiting for Election Day, are going to overwhelm the early vote that Democrats have put up in pretty large numbers of in key states.

So it's a really major gamble, because nothing -- anything can happen on Election Day. Some of the voters could stay home. There could be rain. But President Trump believes the red wave is coming and so many of his voters have waited. They were skeptical about the mail and are going to turn up on Election Day like they have in the past.

If that happens, he could defy the polls and do better than expected, especially in Pennsylvania, Florida and Iowa, where the polls show the race within shooting distance for the president. If not, he would be in a position where he could make up ground in the final day.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Absolutely. It's great to see you. Thank you so much.

OLORUNNIPA: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Joe Biden, he has promised voters that, if he wins the election, he will reembrace U.S. allies and put America back into international agreements like the Paris accord.

[04:10:00]

BOLDUAN: President Trump has spent the last four years trying to make good on his campaign promise of America first.

What has the Trump foreign policy looked like over the last four years?

If you look at North Korea, President Trump, well, he can't say enough about the beautiful letters from his friend Kim Jong-un. But Biden says Trump gave Kim what he wanted, a meeting and a sense of legitimacy.

The president claims no one has been tougher on Russia than he has. And sanctions against Russia from the United States have been severe. Trump has never publicly criticized Vladimir Putin for putting bounties on the heads of U.S. troops or interfering in the 2016 election and attempting to do the same in 2020.

Trump also started the major trade war with China. He's hampered Beijing -- hammered Beijing over the coronavirus, blaming China repeatedly at every campaign stop for the pandemic and accusing the World Health Organization of being an accomplice.

What does foreign policy look like at this point and come the new year?

Let's discuss it with Josh Rogin, CNN political analyst and foreign policy and national security columnist for "The Washington Post."

Josh, foreign policy has not been front and center in this election.

Regardless, come the new year, what is the most pressing foreign policy issue facing the White House?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's clear, no matter who wins, they will enter the next term of the presidency facing a world in severe crisis. The number one issue right now is the coronavirus pandemic.

And what the Trump administration does -- has done is removed the United States from the community of nations working together on that pandemic.

That is what top Biden officials tell me repeatedly will be their first order of business, to bring the United States back into the WHO but also back to a position leading the search for a cure and the cooperation to stop the spread.

That will be what we call the low-hanging fruit because that's in everyone's interest. After that, if Joe Biden wins the presidency, he faces across the board a bunch of really difficult issues that have only become only more difficult since president Trump took office. North Korea, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, these are tough problems.

And although the world will surely welcome a Biden presidency after the attitude that Trump and America first brought, that doesn't make any of those problems any easier to solve.

BOLDUAN: I am curious and it's impossible to know, of course, if Joe Biden wins, what we're going to see coming from the White House is clearly going to be a different approach to foreign policy. That goes without saying.

If Donald Trump is reelected, in your experience, how does a second term foreign policy agenda differ from a first?

ROGIN: Joe Biden's advisers say they will build the alliances back to then confront China and other authoritarian regimes. What we usually see in second term presidents is the true instincts of the president come out in the foreign policy.

So for Ronald Reagan that was actually a little bit more of a detente and friendly, sort of more open policy. When it was George W. Bush, we saw a freedom agenda. With Donald Trump we know what his instinct is. It's the MAGA instinct.

We'll see MAGA on steroids. That means he's likely to replace all the officials in his national security bureaucracy, who are traditional hawk Republicans, neocons, conservatives, with the real MAGA people. And that means real America first, you know, more trade protectionism, more rolling up of U.S. responsibilities and bases abroad.

Less international cooperation. Less multilateral organization participation. Imagine the struggle between the old Republicans and the Trump Republicans is over and, in a second term, the Trump Republicans will rule the roost.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I have to say, Josh, you've done great reporting on China's election interference methods. I'm struck at how it almost seems that people are so desensitized to this.

Is this something that Americans, I don't know, need to get used to?

Or what would it take to change it?

ROGIN: We should never, ever get used to foreign governments interfering in our elections, especially the countries that are our adversaries, like Russia, China and Iran. The problem here is the president of the United States, in 2016, when he was running for election, welcomed the Russian interference and magnified it.

In 2020 his minions, including, especially Rudy Giuliani, have welcomed and magnified and assisted the Russian interference again. So they want you to become desensitized to it.

[04:15:00]

ROGIN: Giuliani wants us to think of Russian interference in our election as just what happens. But it's not what happens. It's not good and we need to stop it.

The Chinese interference is more complicated. The Chinese government seems to favor Biden. But there are some working with Rudy and Steve Bannon, who favor Trump. You have Chinese interference on both sides of the electorate. That's crazy but it's true.

And that's why we have to not make the rule that, OK, interference is good when it helps me or helps my side. We have to bind together as a country and decide that foreign interference is bad and we have to stop it, much less, aid it and abet it, as the president's team is doing right now.

BOLDUAN: You really put a spotlight on it. Thank you so much. It's good to see you.

ROGIN: Any time.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, a historic turnout for early voting across the United States as Americans brave long lines and the pandemic to make their voices, make sure their voices are heard.

Which candidate benefits from this massive movement to the polls before Election Day?

We're going to be right back.

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BOLDUAN: Americans are making it clear, they want their voices heard and they have voted early at historic levels. More than 91.6 million people have now cast ballots either absentee or in person according to researchers. There's a huge number, more than two-thirds of the total votes cast in the last presidential election.

Both Texas and Hawaii have already surpassed their 2016 turnout totals with -- we can't even call it Election Day anymore. Obviously it's Election Day every day until counting with counting the Election Day still two days off. With all those absentee and early votes, Election Night results may not look like they normally do, especially if margins are close. When will we know who has won?

CNN senior political analyst John Avlon looks at that.

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JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: So, what will we know and when will we know it?

Florida, Arizona and North Carolina will tell us a lot about what Election Week looks like this time next week. That's because their early votes will be counted ahead of Election Day.

On the flip side, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin were key to Trump's victory in 2016, winning by about 78,000 votes. But these three swing states will not start counting most early ballots until Election Day.

In Pennsylvania, all votes postmarked by Election Day will be counted as long as they arrived within three days but Wisconsin cannot. And in Michigan, many early votes won't get counted until Election Day. And officials are saying it could take three days for the full count.

In many of the states the Democrats' edge could increase as mail-in votes are counted. It's called the blue shift. And it's legitimate. This is already the most litigious election ever.

It's all a reminder that nothing is preordained. Keep cool but, remember, the right to vote is really the fight to vote. And democracy is on the ballot. And that's your reality check.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: John, thanks so much.

If there is a delay in the final result, how do the campaigns handle that?

Let's bring in CNN political commentators Scott Jennings and Hilary Rosen.

Thank you for being up to talk to me about this. Let me play, Scott --

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Where else would we be, Kate?

BOLDUAN: I pushed you to wake up and promised you alcohol afterward.

Let's play how the president talks about this concept, Scott. Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: On Tuesday, November 3rd, I think this group wants November 3rd. Results Election Day. Of course, now that our United States Supreme Court has delayed everything, it should be a very interesting evening.

And I wonder what happens during this period of delay with the ballots. I wonder what happens.

Are they going to find more ballots, Mr. Congressman?

Are they going to find more ballots?

Can you imagine what happened?

Can you imagine, just be careful. Be vigilant and watch and report whatever you see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: He continues to tell -- suggest to his supporters that, if we don't know by the end of the night November 3rd, something is wrong. Why is he doing this?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Truthfully, I don't know. Because there will be ballots counted after the election. It happened in 2018. It happens in a lot of elections. Now some states will certainly have a quite high percentage of their votes counted on Election Night, like Florida, for instance, I think is a state that I'm watching that will tell us a lot about where the next few days are going.

But the reality is some states are going to need time to count. I do think -- he's always been worried about what happens with the voting system in America. He thought even after he won that he was cheated out of certain votes in a lot of places, which I'm not sure was the case.

I think he's always been nervous about this. But I am not sure there's a need to be nervous and I'm optimistic we're going to have a free, fair election.

BOLDUAN: Hilary, real or perceived, this creates real tension about this delay of time before the country sees the full result. As Scott laid out, the way the things are -- the way states have changed the rules, the way that ballots are -- how many early votes have happened, things are going to potentially move slower.

If there is this delay and Donald Trump is creating this uncertainty and this tension, what does the Biden campaign -- what should they be doing about this?

ROSEN: It is important to distinguish between early and mail-in voting. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.

[04:25:00]

ROSEN: They're not going to count their mail-in ballots until Tuesday. But if you're voted in person, that registers on a machine. So there will be a lot of ballots counted on Election Day.

But look, you know, I think what's going to happen on Election Day is what happened in this country for the last four years, essentially everybody else has to be the grownup in the room while Donald Trump has temper tantrums.

And the grownups in the room right now, I think the Biden campaign are counting on it being the networks, the social media platforms to keep lies off the platforms. You know, I'm looking at you, FOX News, not to indulge crazy Trump ranting.

So I think the rest of the media, the rest of the country are people like Scott Jennings and the president's allies on TV, are going to have to work overtime to make sure that people perceive that there is time to count these ballots and to have a fair election.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

Scott, you've been involved in many a campaign and many an Election Night.

What is the wait like for both campaigns?

What is it going to be doing this entire time?

JENNINGS: Election Day is a frustrating day. Everybody you've met throughout the course of the campaign calls and says do you have any results or any information that literally only you would have and you'll share with me, random caller, because I called you and asked for it.

And so you fend off these calls. And you wait. Now you do have Election Day get out the vote operations going. And you're looking at the data that you have coming in, who has voted, who hasn't, which is depending on the state, actually fairly available and fairly refreshed throughout the day.

So you're hoping and you're working that your final get out the vote plans are happening. And as was pointed out by the president in his remark that you played, Kate, Republicans are expecting a huge turnout on Election Day.

If you look at the polls and all the states, Republicans by and large would like to vote on Election Day and Trump needs a huge surge on Election Day. You'll be monitoring if you're on the Republican camp to see is that surge happening?

Are our people turning out?

BOLDUAN: Hilary, I thought it was interesting. Yesterday the Biden campaign announced that he's going to be -- the way they put it, addressing the nation on Tuesday night.

Does that suggest anything, since it seems more than likely no one is going to know the result by the end of the election by then?

ROSEN: Well, I think the campaign is preparing for Joe Biden to start to talk to the country on Tuesday night in a calming and reassuring way. And if we have -- if we have chaos, that's going to be reassuring. If we don't know what the vote tallies are, he's going to keep people engaged and enthusiastic.

Remember, on the West Coast, if you don't have the polls closing until late, it's always been an issue for people on the East Coast to try and jump the gun. We want those people on the West Coast to vote. There are a lot of local races that matter.

So I think we are going to hear from Joe Biden at some point Tuesday night, even if we don't hear results. He feels like that is part of his job, is to start to calm this country down, heal this divide and talk to people with real facts.

BOLDUAN: Stand by to stand by, friends. It's good to see you. Thanks for getting up.

ROSEN: Thanks, Kate. BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us, under fire over the facts. Facebook is

trying to fight misinformation with an army of fact checkers, they say why some Trump supporters are so upset with them about this. That's up next.

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BOLDUAN: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Thank you for joining us.

Facebook has come under fire over misinformation flowing freely on its platform. It says it's trying to do something about it. The social media giant has hired multiple independent fact checkers to label information as false. But many Trump supporters feel their posts are coming under unfair and undue scrutiny. Listen to this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Facebook has fact checkers, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could call them that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anything I put on there about our president is generally only on for a few minutes and then they're fact checking me, saying this, that and the other thing, which I know is not true. Their fact checker is wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't -- the fact checkers, I don't trust them.

ALAN DUKE, LEAD STORIES: I understand why there are people who don't like fact checkers, because we take away something that they believe in, that we challenge it. And so the natural reaction is to think the fact checkers must be opposed to me.

But we're not. I've been concerned about how people openly talk about the need to get their guns and take action against the government or against a certain political party. Even if it's just one-tenth of one percent of the people. don't take it personally if your content is fact checked. Consider it a service. Open your mind. Question this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Fascinating. That reporting comes from CNN politics and technology reporter, Donie O'Sullivan.

Thank you so much for getting up early.

What else are you hearing from the fact checkers about this?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. Controversially, Facebook does not fact check politicians. They can fact check anybody else. But Mark Zuckerberg's stated policy here is we do not fact check Trump.

We don't fact check any politician. That means that politicians, if they want and that have, can spend millions of dollars on ads on Facebook targeting voters with misinformation.

But everything else these third party fact checkers have, what one described to me as the nightmare Facebook feed. It's a customized feed with all the misinformation circulating -- or a lot of it -- on Facebook and they're fact checking it.

That fact checker we spoke to is a former CNN employee. But we also spoke to another fact checker, who also works with Facebook.

[04:35:00]

O'SULLIVAN: And both of them said, at the moment, there is more misinformation on the Right than the Left. And one of them said a big reason for that is because of President Trump.

President Trump puts so much misinformation out there, so much lies and mistruths, that a lot of that gets echoed and parroted by his supporters and other people on the right-wing Internet ecosystem. That's contributing to a lot of the false information on the Right.

BOLDUAN: And that's why I kind of wonder, if you think the fact checkers are doing enough. Because we hear so much about how much misinformation is on a platform like Facebook.

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. I think they will tell you they're not doing enough, that they can't do enough because there is so much misinformation out there. It's difficult to quantify and, since 2016, we've all spent an awful amount of time talking about the role of foreign interference in American elections.

And we know in 2016 that Russia used social media to push misinformation. But I think certainly from what we can see right now, so much of the misinformation happening now is domestic. And it's coming right from the top.

It's coming from the White House and there are sort of three buckets of the main sort of misinformation we're seeing. One is what is trying to undermine the election. You've seen Trump and as you mentioned in the last segment, saying the results are going to be false or the election is going to be rigged in some way.

We've also seen a lot of false and doctored videos, a lot of them from the Trump campaign, trying to make side Biden look senile in some way. And finally the QAnon conspiracy, which we're seeing a lot of.

BOLDUAN: And you're tracking it all. Donie, thank you very much. Great reporting.

President Trump has been called the disrupter in chief. Now a new report that some former and current Trump administration officials are concerned about what he might do after November 3rd. We're going to talk to the man who wrote the book on Trump about what he thinks when we get back.

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BOLDUAN: A campaign confrontation on a Texas highway. A caravan of President Trump supporters surrounded a Biden-Harris bus as it was traveling from San Antonio to Austin Friday.

A Biden campaign official says the vehicles tried to slow the bus down and even push it off the road. Staffers on the bus eventually called in law enforcement for assistance, which they did come and assist.

The Biden campaign did cancel at least one event due to the incident, citing safety concerns. Neither Biden nor Harris were on board at the time.

The Biden campaign put out a statement, saying this in part, 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 took note of what happened and he tweeted about the incident with the quote, just only saying, "I love Texas." He even brought it up during a rally Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Did anybody see the picture of the crazy bus driving down the highway surrounded by cars. Trump flags all over them. What a group.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: There's that; we also know we may not know for days who wins the election, which leads to the question, what will President Trump do?

According to a "New York Times" report, many current and former administration officials are worried about that very thing, what the president could do, from allegations of voter fraud to moving to use the National Guard to even pushing foreign governments to intervene.

One anonymous FBI official is quoted as saying, "We are all hands on deck for the foreseeable future."

CNN contributor Michael D'Antonio is the author of "The Truth About Trump" and joins me now.

Michael, thank you for being here. The president has played coy over a peaceful transfer of power. Even before this piece from "The Times," Trump could very well cause serious chaos before election results are known.

How do you think he'll handle that delay from when the polls close and when the final results and votes are counted?

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think he's given us a forecast of what he wants to do by the chaos you see at that incident in Texas. You know, I sort of think of what happens around the campaign and around his base of support as an expression of the president's intent.

He's been priming people to expect conflict at the polls, challenges to ballots being cast as they're counted. And protests from him and his side that will go on and on. If he doesn't get the result that he wants, I don't think there's any extreme to which he won't go.

BOLDUAN: Let me read kind of to what you're talking about, let me read some of the reporting of "The Times" about this. They say this.

"No matter how the votes split, there's an expectation among officials that Mr. Trump will claim some kind of victory on November 4th, even if he claims it was hijacked by fraud as he falsely claimed that Hillary Clinton's 3 million vote lead in the popular vote was the result of millions of votes from unauthorized immigrants.

"This could come in conjunction with statements, supported by carefully chosen quote-unquote "facts" that the election was indeed rigged as he's long been warning."

After millions and millions of votes are counted and, yes, elections are not always announced, the results are not always announced the same day. Look at what happened in 2018.

How likely is this scenario?

D'ANTONIO: Well, I think it's almost guaranteed that he will do as much as we can imagine and then do something beyond that to confuse the situation, to give people the sense that what's happening is not legitimate. And this is the thing that the president has done his entire life.

[04:45:00]

D'ANTONIO: He never engages in the contest that right in front of him. He fights a fight that's about the rules or it's a fight about whether things are fair.

And I've been thinking about this and I think that people experience enough unfairness in their own lives that they're sort of primed for this message. So if someone comes along, it is like a conspiracy theory and says this is rigged, there's something secret and terrible going on, there are a lot of people who are ready to believe it.

BOLDUAN: Michael, thanks for coming on. I appreciate it.

D'ANTONIO: Thank you, Kate. BOLDUAN: "You could not possibly be positioned more poorly."

That is from Dr. Anthony Fauci. His take on where the country stands right now in the coronavirus pandemic.

What does that mean for the weeks and months ahead and what should the United States be preparing for in this moment?

Plus Europe's dangerous spike in COVID cases and hospitalizations. Lockdowns are either underway or imminent. We'll bring you the latest from around the world.

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[04:50:00]

BOLDUAN: Staggering new coronavirus case numbers in the United States lead to one conclusion. The country is not handling the pandemic well at all. Still. Johns Hopkins counts more than 9.1 million cases in the past nine days.

The U.S. posted five of its highest daily case counts ever. There were more than 99,000 new cases on Friday alone. That's the most in any country on any single day since the pandemic began.

Doctors are worrying figures like that will translate to a big jump in hospitalizations and deaths. The nation's top infectious disease expert is warning of grim weeks ahead. Dr. Anthony Fauci telling "The Washington Post" in a new interview, we're all in for a lot of hurt. He adds 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 indoors. We could not be positioned more poorly."

Several European nations are trying to stop surging coronavirus cases with new lockdowns and restrictions. Life in China is looking more relaxed. Let's get to the latest updates. David Culver in Shanghai, Melissa Bell in Paris and Salma Abdelaziz in London.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: After a dramatic turn of events yesterday, this country is coming to terms that England will enter a four-week lockdown starting Thursday. All non essential businesses must shut down. People will be asked to stay and work from home. Schools will remain open.

This is an about face for prime minister Boris Johnson. He's a leader who vowed over and over again there would not be a lockdown. He even faced opposition from his own scientific advisers and insisted on his strategy. So the question is, is this enough at this time?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Melissa Bell in Paris, we're on day three of a strict second nationwide lockdown that essentially means you're not allowed to leave your home or only if you're going less than a mile and for under an hour unless you have a special piece of paper explaining why it's necessary.

Lockdowns in Germany, Austria and Portugal, designed to bring Europe's surge in coronavirus figures back under control. According to the World Health Organization, this continent is the epicenter of the pandemic and we're seeing positivity rates above 20 percent in some countries. It's the virulence of the second wave that's taken Europe by surprise, a spread faster and wider than during the first.

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm David Culver live in Shanghai. A stark contrast here in China compared with what you heard from Melissa and Salma in other parts of the world. People more and more relaxed, taking off their masks.

Mask policies have been quickly eased and people are feeling more comfortable and trusting state media, that the central government has the virus under control.

There are exceptions. The far western region of China, they're dealing with a cluster outbreak. The way China has touted their dealing of this is by essentially controlling things with mass testing, contact tracing and, of course, some of the isolated lockdowns. But the reality is most masks we saw in Shanghai were Halloween masks.

BOLDUAN: Thank you all so much. I appreciate the updates.

Joining me now is Dr. Esther Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University.

Doctor, thank you for being here. First, I want to ask you about the record levels we saw of new cases on Friday in the United States. Just nearing the 100,000 mark that was so feared and people thought was a point that would not be reached, could not be reached.

How could it?

Now we're so close to it. What is your reaction to that?

DR. ESTHER CHOO, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It feels unbelievable. I mean, I never thought we'd be here in the fall. For a long time didn't think we'd be here. It seemed like at some point over the summer, the message was getting out. People were taking up face masks.

And that we were going to be able to go into the fall well prepared for the flu season and potentially in a position to be able to celebrate some of these fall and winter holidays.

Instead, we're at the exact opposite, worse than we were at the very peak earlier in the summer. Every day, we're breaking records, which is just not the direction you want to be going into. So we are indeed, in bad shape. And hospitals already are becoming overwhelmed once again. We are back here, where we never wanted to be to begin with.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And Dr. Fauci mirroring what you're saying, when he said all the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter with people congregating indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.

He also says, Doctor, the country needs an abrupt change right now. I'm curious as to what you think an abrupt change would look like.

[04:55:00]

CHOO: Yes. I mean, I think what the hope was that we could get lots of people to do little things. And that would win. I mean, the things we've been asking for for months are so small in the grand scheme of things. Wear a mask. Keep your distance from people. Try not to have large indoor gatherings.

Of course, it's hurtful to have to delay things like weddings and things. But if you can elect to do so, please don't do those things. And now it's been hard for people to do even those things, to consistently wear masks.

I think people either don't believe the recommendations, don't think it's that serious because there's been a lot of messaging, especially from our administration, that it's not that serious or they think, like many people do, that my one little action doesn't matter to change the whole picture.

Whatever it is, we're not getting consistent action. So of course, as we're seeing in other countries, if we can't get people to do these little things, that we have to do escalating measures. But I do think the main thing is a massive turnaround in the consistency of the public message, which just simply has not been there for the entire past month.

BOLDUAN: No, especially when you have -- when you read what Dr. Anthony Fauci is telling "The Washington Post" and not even putting politics on it. The president of the United States speaking to thousands of people, saying that we're turning the corner.

I guess the next line is he's not being clear with them what corner we're turning, which is to a worse place. Dr. Choo, thank you very much.

CHOO: Thank you so much, Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. I'm Kate Bolduan. Our special coverage of the countdown to Election Day in America continues after a quick break.