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CNN Live Event/Special

Trump, Biden Barnstorm Battleground States with Two Days to Go. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 01, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: One in 500 by the end of this pandemic. That is a mass casualty event in the black community. And it's totally unnecessary, totally uncalled for.

My public health plan will ensure the needs of communities that are being hit the hardest by this virus are a priority, not an after- thought. We're going to have to plan to get our economy back on track. Not to get back to where we were, but to build back better, to make sure everyone is dealt in on a full-scale share of the American dream.

We're going to address systemic racism and build real economic opportunity of equality to the black community. The blinders have been taken off. The American people have seen. They've seen how bad things are. To make it easier to start a business, to buy your first home, to pursue an education after high school without being burdened with debt. To invest in HBCUs that do so much to mold black leaders of tomorrow.

I mean it. This is not just talk. I mean it. We're going to act to deliver racial justice in America. I see in all the protests here in Philadelphia and across the country, a cry for justice.

Folks, protesting is not burning or looting, and violence must never be tolerated. It won't. But the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, Walter Wallace Jr., they will not soon be forgotten. They will not be forgotten by me. They will not be forgotten by you. And they'll not be forgotten by the American people.

Because here's what they're going to do. They're inspiring a new wave of justice in America. George Floyd's little girl, 6 years old, said to me when I went to be with the family, I knelt down to say hi to her and she looked at me and she said, Daddy is going to change the world. Daddy -- that's what she said to me, 6 years old. Daddy.

Look, we can change the world. Not in one (INAUDIBLE). We can change it. We all know this country has to come together. We cannot afford four more years of anger, hate and division that we've seen under this president.

Folk, look, from the day he announced, from the moment he came down that escalator, what did he say in New York? He said, we're going to go out and get those rapist Mexicans. Rapist Mexicans. He put a ban on all Muslims coming to the United States and the way he talked about the African-American community. The way he talked about the Hispanic community.

Look, folks, we got to come together. I'm running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president for everybody. I will work as hard for those who don't support me as those who do support me. I mean it. That's the job of a president. The duty to care, the duty to care for everyone. In President Biden's America there will be no red states or blue states, there will only be the United States of America.

Look, our faith in our country is being tested, but our faith in God is helping us through because of all of you. Thank you for your commitment to the greatest commandment. Love our neighbors as ourselves. And for our dedication to never grow weary of doing good. Being with you all reminds me of that gospel hymn that inspired so many of us. Last -- when I last talked to John Lewis as he was dying, he reminded me of it.

I don't feel no ways tired. I've come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me the road would be easy. I don't believe he brought me this far to leave me. He did not leave us. We are not tired. The road hasn't been easy. But we've come too far to stop now.

So, please, vote. Get everyone you know to vote. We need to get every soul in Philadelphia to the polls. Your voice, your vote matters. Your voice deserves to be heard. And if you still have an absentee ballot, get it to a drop box as soon as you can or you can vote on election day, but make a plan.

[16:05:06]

I mean it, make a plan now. Help get out the vote. Go to iwillvote.com/pa. Folks, folks, you know, I've been doing this a while. One of the reasons I got elected in the first place in Delaware across the line was because of the folks in Pennsylvania. All the media in Pennsylvania, all the media in Delaware for the first 25 years of my career was all Philadelphia television. There were no Delaware television. And I was very happy to have the moniker of being known as Pennsylvania's third senator.

I know Philadelphia well. I married a Philly girl, by the way. And by the way, I got my Eagles jacket on. Folks, here's what I want to say, and I'll conclude, you've been here a long time. I'll never forget when President John F. Kennedy said, when he promised that we were going to go to the moon, he said -- he said words that my colleagues in the Senate always used to kid me for repeating.

He said, we're doing it because we are Americans. We refuse to postpone. Well, I refuse to postpone the incredible opportunities available to the American people. I refuse to postpone what we can do. There's nothing beyond the capacity of the United States of America, nothing. There's no limit to America's future. The blinders have been taken off. The only thing that can tear America apart is America itself.

And that's exactly what Trump's been trying to do, from the very beginning, dividing America, based on race, religion, gender, national origin. It's wrong. It's not who we are. This is not who we are. Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. Let's keep showing them who we are.

Folks -- and I mean this. It's not just campaign rhetoric. We choose hope over fear. We choose unity over division. We choose science over fiction. And, yes, we choose truth over lies, the multiple lies he repeats. It's time to stand up. It's time to take back our democracy. We can do this. We're better than this. We're better than what we've been. We can be at our best. This is the United States of America.

God bless you all and may God protect our troops. I love you. I love you. You brought me to the dance. Thank you, thank you, thank you. God love you all.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right. You're watching Joe Biden there wrap up an event in Philadelphia. I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Brianna Keilar in Washington and we are counting down to election day.

Just two days to go and President Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden are barnstorming key battleground states. That of course was the former vice president speaking there in Pennsylvania. So I want to get more now on all of this with our CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash, our CNN senior correspondent Nia-Malika Henderson and CNN senior political commentator and former Obama senior adviser, David Axelrod.

And to you first, David, as you're watching, you know, there's just this kind of sense. It's a different feeling here in the last couple of days before an election that the cake is kind of baked, right? And we're just moving towards really just the final stretch here. What do you see happening right there out in the country right now?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, let me say, I have -- I'm glad to be here with you and not have that lump in my throat that I know the strategists have at this point in the process, because a lot of it is out of your hands. But what is in your hands is the last-minute efforts to get the vote out. And while 100 million Americans may have voted already, in some of these states the people who come out on election day are going to have a lot to say about this.

So it's no coincidence that Joe Biden is in Philadelphia today. He wants to see a big turnout, particularly among minority voters in the city of Philadelphia because he's going to need that to assure that he crosses the finish line first here. President Trump is hoping that he can overwhelm Biden on election day in Pennsylvania. And you're seeing these kinds of strategies in all the battleground states. President Obama going down tomorrow to Georgia, to South Florida, the same principle.

[16:10:04]

Now it's not about getting people to early vote. Now it's about getting those who haven't voted out to vote. And that is the essential task that remains. KEILAR: Dana, what do you think about this closing message that we

just heard from Joe Biden as he's trying to get the vote out?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's classic Joe Biden. I mean, it's really actually kind of remarkable that Biden's message has been really consistent despite the fact that when he started running, there was no pandemic in this country or in the world. But the consistency is in its core, which is that what we are seeing right now is not America. Should not be America. He talks about fighting for the heart and the soul of America.

I mean, these are really kind of 30,000-foot kind of messages and hopeful. Certainly he is very tough on the president saying that he's a liar, which, you know, it wasn't that long ago that politicians never said things like that. But that is the way that Joe Biden is trying to get people to the polls. As David said, it's not necessarily -- probably not at all about persuading voters.

It's reminding them, you've got to vote. And that's what he was trying to do in that message that we heard in Philadelphia and all over the battleground states.

KEILAR: And, Nia, I think one of his final lines here, one of his lines here in the final days is that he says he's a proud Democrat but he's going to be an American president. So he's really tacking towards the center here in these final days of the election.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's a message that resonates with a broad swath of Americans, particularly independents. A lot of Americans also just sick of division, sick of the partisanship. So in a lot of focus groups, you hear people talk about this. This idea that they want a president who's able to work across the aisle. And that, again, is vintage Joe Biden when he talks about being able to work across the aisle.

He's sincere in that and it's something that he's done throughout his entire career. This very much was a 30,000-foot message, as Dana talked about, but it's also clearly tailored at African-Americans, talking about the Black Lives Matter movement, for instance, mentioning conversations that he had with John Lewis, riffing on that James Cleveland song from -- you know, that a lot of African-Americans obviously hear in church.

Pennsylvania was a state where you saw a massive drop-off in African- American voters. They were about 13 percent of the electorate in 2012. They were only 10 percent of the electorate in 2020. So if you're a Democrat, you want to see that number rise. Maybe it won't get to 13 percent, maybe it gets to 11 percent or 12 percent. But that's what you need.

Also, you think about a state like Pennsylvania, a lot of Catholics in Pennsylvania as well and throughout the entire Midwest and rustbelt. We know that obviously Joe Biden is a Catholic so there he was mentioning the first Catholic president, John Kennedy, in that state where he's going to look to have a lot of Catholics pull the lever for him.

And you obviously know that Donald Trump also mindful of that, campaigning with Lou Holtz, also a Catholic. So it was a -- you know, it was a broad speech but also tailored specifically to Pennsylvania, a state that he wants to block Donald Trump from winning on Tuesday.

KEILAR: I wonder kind of what you all think -- yes, sorry, go on, David.

AXELROD: No, I just wanted to pick up on what both of my colleagues have mentioned. First of all, it is extraordinary, as Dana said, the consistency of Biden's message. He started off with an ad about the demonstrations in Charlottesville and about the soul of the nation. And he has run against divisiveness throughout. He's finishing where he began. And as Nia said, he's got a message that reaches across the aisle.

And he's being rewarded for it, if you look at the polling, with support among independent voters which is really significant in a country where the parties are so balkanized, so polarized. The candidate who wins the independent vote often has the advantage in the election. And Donald Trump won independents last night. Joe Biden is leading this time. I think his message has a lot to do with it.

KEILAR: And of course, here we are, Dana, in this point where it's about getting people out to vote. But I don't know that we've ever seen a situation where people are worried about whether their vote is going to count. I mean, there's this cloud sort of hanging over this leadup to this election that we have not seen before.

BASH: That's right. Particularly, I mean, you know, the former vice president is in Pennsylvania right now. That is one of the questions. That is one of the places where it is -- it is a new phenomenon to have mail-in voting. It is a phenomenon that is borne out of this pandemic. And it is not something that the electorate is kind of used to in a broad way. And more importantly, it doesn't seem to be something that each of the 60-plus counties in Pennsylvania is really kind of understanding of and knows kind of how to get it going fast.

[16:15:10]

To the point where each of them is going to be able to decide on its own when to start the counting. And they probably -- many of them won't start until after, which is why if Pennsylvania really is the key, the commonwealth that is the path through which either Donald Trump or Joe Biden must go to get the presidency, it could be a while, which is scaring a lot of people because this is a -- this country right now is kind of a tinderbox.

And there's a lot of anxiety. And you know, there's a lot of feeling that the sooner we know whatever way it's going to go, the better. And it might not happen.

KEILAR: Yes. It shouldn't be a partisan issue, right?

BASH: No. KEILAR: This ability of people, Nia, to cast their vote and have their

vote be counted. It's almost -- and it's odd to have to say that.

HENDERSON: It is odd to have to say that. But it is a very, very partisan issue. We have one party, the Republican Party, that wants to prevent people from voting easily. As well as toss out votes, voters who already cast their ballot. They've tried to do that unsuccessfully, thank goodness, in Texas. And Democrats want to expand the ballot, make it much easier for people to vote.

We sort of used to talk about this in terms of voter ID laws versus voter suppression. Republicans are the party of voter suppression. It's very, very clear if it wasn't before, and we see them making those attempts to do that in battleground states. Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and, of course, Texas, too, where they have decided that these huge counties only need one drop box.

So I think, you know, the Republican Party is obviously shown the world who they are, very anti-democratic in terms of wanting to expand the ballot. And you see Democrats really wanting to do that. And there are going to be lawyers all across this country on election day arguing about what ballot should count. Is this postmark there, you know, on time? Is it the right postmark? And then, of course, you have a more complicated issue with the U.S. mail system which, again, Republicans have tried to thwart the mail system.

And there's some indications that they've been able to do that successfully. And so at this point people should go to the polls. They shouldn't be relying on the mail. But we do know that there are some ballots that are going to be in the mail that might not make it on time and that's going to be a real battle for these different campaigns once this thing happens on Tuesday.

KEILAR: All right, thank you --

AXELROD: We shouldn't -- I'm sorry.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: No, David, final word.

AXELROD: I just was going to say, we shouldn't exempt the president of the United States here. He barnstormed through Pennsylvania yesterday and at every stop he warned people that these ballots that are going to be counted after election day are somehow fraudulent ballots. That's not true, it's not right and it's dangerous to hear the president of the United States say that. He is fomenting a crisis and one hopes that we can navigate it. But he bears responsibility for a lot of the anxiety people are feeling right now.

KEILAR: David, Dana, and Nia, thank you so much for the conversation. It's great to see all of you here in the home stretch.

BASH: Thanks, Bri.

AXELROD: Thank you. KEILAR: And coming up next, where the candidates stand on the path to

the 270 electoral votes they need to claim victory. Plus a major decision impacting more than 120,000 drive-through votes already cast in a key state.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:22:47]

KEILAR: The president is holding five rallies today. He's already been to Michigan and Iowa and North Carolina, scheduled for next hour. Then he is on to Georgia and Florida.

I want to go now to CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins in Hickory, North Carolina, which is where President Trump will be appearing for his next rally.

And Kaitlan, the president visiting these five states today. What's his push here in the final 48 hours?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, for weeks we have seen the president and his aides try to lay the groundwork for him to dispute the outcome of the election should he lose on Tuesday. And now we're seeing the strategy for how they're doing that, by saying that votes that are cast after November 3rd should not be counted. That's an argument the president made earlier today, it's one his advisers are making and it's also one his family is making, Brianna.

Listen to what he told the crowd in Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've seen people where the election got stolen. And by the way, we're not going to let that happen to us, you know, with these ballots. How about the Supreme Court ruling with the Supreme Court -- no, this was not good news. The Supreme Court gave them more time, more time. So what does this mean? Does this mean we go and we wait? So it's not November 3rd? It's going to be much later than that?

No. No. We should know the result of the election on November 3rd, the evening of November 3rd. That's the way it's been and that's the way it should be. What's going on in this country? What's going on?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, Brianna, the president is trying to make it sound nefarious but there is nothing nefarious about counting ballots that were legitimately cast in the election. And that is what the president is saying there. He's saying we've always known on election night. That's not true. We've not always known for certain by midnight on election night who the next president is going to be.

And obviously, it takes a while to count mail ballots. That doesn't mean they're not legitimate. It just means it takes a little bit more time, especially given the year that we are living in. But that is not the message the president and his aides are trying to send today. And instead, they are preparing themselves if things are not going their way on Tuesday for an argument they can make trying to cast this as some illegitimate election when it is not and there's no evidence of that.

KEILAR: Yes. No, it's clearly very revealing that they're worried they're in trouble. I think that's very evident from what we see there.

[16:25:05]

And Kaitlan, the FBI is now investigating an incident that was caught on tape. This is something that happened on a Texas interstate. The Biden campaign says there were a caravan of Trump supporters in vehicles surrounding their bus, tried to slow it down and run it off the road. Tell us how the president is responding to this.

COLLINS: Yes, this is an ugly closing moment of this race, Brianna, seeing that happen. And though today we had the RNC chair on TV insisting that the president would never condone actions like that, trying to wish harm on people, the president did not express a similar sentiment to that, and instead claimed that those supporters, those hundreds of supporters in the cars that were surrounding that bus and trying to slow it down to 20 miles per hour on the interstate were instead just trying to protect the Biden bus. Listen to what he said earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Did you see the way our people -- you know, they were protecting his bus yesterday. Because they're nice. So, his bus -- they had hundreds of cars, Trump, Trump. Trump and the American flag. You see Trump and the American flag. Do you ever notice when you see the other side -- I don't even see much of the other side. You don't see any -- they have no spirit. They have no enthusiasm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, Brianna, clearly the staffers on that bus did not think they were trying to protect them and the president didn't say from what because they called 911 to actually assist them because they were so concerned about how they were being slowed down on the interstate by these Trump supporters.

But instead of condemning their action, you saw the president embracing what they did and also trying to justify it today by saying that they were trying to protect them, which clearly was not happening. And the FBI obviously does not agree because they are now investigating what happened on that highway yesterday.

KEILAR: Yes, I do believe I hear the theme song from the "Titanic" playing behind you as well. Sort of a weird moment going on as we discuss the politics of this home stretch here.

Kaitlan, the president's favorite White House Coronavirus Task Force member, Dr. Scott Atlas, is now apologizing because he's facing backlash. He did an interview with RT, which is effectively Russian state television. What is Atlas saying?

COLLINS: Yes. Not even just effectively. They are registered as a foreign agent.

KEILAR: Right.

COLLINS: Because remember RT is this network that was when the Justice Department did their probe into Russian interference, they helped disseminate Russian propaganda trying to interfere in the American election.

Now this is a Web site or, excuse me, a television site that Dr. Scott Atlas, a member of the Coronavirus Task Force, did an extensive interview with over the weekend, around 30 minutes, criticizing lockdowns, talking about masks. Of course we know this is someone the president listens to greatly. And we've seen that really play out of the White House over the last several days between Dr. Atlas, President Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

And now Dr. Scott Atlas is apologizing for going on there saying he did not know that they were a registered foreign agent when he did the interview with them, though, of course, Brianna, it's hard to really think what he thought RT was given it stands for "Russia Today" and it is a well-known Kremlin-operated propaganda site.

KEILAR: Yes, it was a pretty surprising move but he's trying to excuse it away.

Kaitlan Collins, thank you so much, live for us from North Carolina, where the president's rally will be under way shortly.

And up next, we're going to look at the paths for each candidate to get to that key 270 electoral votes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:33:01]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: President Trump is in the midst of a five state campaign swing right now while Joe Biden is holding a pair of events in Philadelphia. I want to bring in CNN's Mark Preston to talk about this with us.

Walk us through this path. This is the key to 270 electoral votes, show us where things stand, Mark.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. Let's start with Donald Trump's path first. Well, this was his path, Brianna, back in 2016, a sea of red all across the country, including these Democratic states up here in the Midwest or traditionally Democratic states. But it's a different time this year, he is now playing defense in all of these states, Brianna, which is why Donald Trump right now is on this massive campaign swing these past couple of days, five events yesterday, five events today. That's why he's out there. So let's look at this map right here. Let's assume now that Donald

Trump is able to maintain Florida. He's able to hold that, same thing with Texas. He did very well in a poll in Iowa yesterday. Let's assume that he holds on to Iowa as well.

Now, he's starting to climb up. He's got about 200 electoral votes. Because of Florida, let's assume Georgia where he'll be in just a couple of hours, let's assume he takes Georgia as well, holds out in the Republican column. OK. Now he is climbing back up.

Look where his paths are right now. Even up here in Maine, we're going to give to him, but it's not necessarily going to go his way. Still, let's look at North Carolina. If he picks up North Carolina, Democrats are bullish on it. Again, what is his path to victory?

Well, Ohio we saw his daughter Ivanka there yesterday. Let's assume he gets that. He is still now 21 electoral votes shy of getting to 270. That's why we talk about Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and then of course, Arizona at the end.

Now, for Joe Biden, he's in a much better place right now, Brianna. Because if you look at it and you look at the same map, where all of these states are on the board, it gives Joe Biden a lot more time to get through it.

[16:35:03]

So let's assume he picks up North Carolina, Joe Biden does. Let's assume as well that he doesn't pick up Ohio, but he picks up Pennsylvania. He has three electoral votes shy. If he doesn't get Pennsylvania, let's just assume that Pennsylvania doesn't go his way. He still has Michigan, rather, do that here. So only seven away to 273.

And by the way, one state we haven't really talked about and we will next hour is Arizona and we'll talk all the way across the south right here about how Joe Biden is now vying for these states right here that Donald Trump should not have to be defending, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Mark Preston, thank you so much. It's certainly helpful to see the math. This is the key getting to 270.

Coming up, important developments in the court fight over drive through voting in Texas. And there are more than 120,000 early ballots already cast that are at stake here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:40:09]

KEILAR: As we count down to the election, we have some important news that is coming in from Texas where the State Supreme Court just stopped one Republican attempt to throw out more than 120,000 early votes. Votes that had been cast already. But another court challenge is looming.

Let's go right now to CNN's Ed Lavandera. Tell us more about this fight. This is happening right at this very moment, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brianna. Well, early voting is over. Election Day is the next time Texans can cast ballots. But all of this has to do with this bay of essentially voting locations. These are the voting locations that are set up in a drive thru manner and this is one of 10 locations across Harris County, where you can vote like this. You essentially pull into one of these bays and this will essentially serve as a polling location.

Now there's been a group of Republicans who are working to stop the ballots that have been cast here in this drive thru locations from being tallied in the overall general election number here in Harris County. But the Texas Supreme Court ruled just a few hours ago, essentially has denied the Republicans request to essentially set aside those votes.

Here in Harris County, that accounts for about 127,000 votes of the 1.4 million that were cast during the early voting period. So as of now, those votes will count. However, that Republican group is still trying in federal court, there's a emergency hearing slated for tomorrow morning. We spoke with the lawyer who's leading that charge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA(off-camera): What do you say to those people who say, look, Republicans are just scared that Texas is this close and they're trying anything they can to get rid of 127,000 votes.

JARED WOODFILL, PLAINTIFF CHALLENGING DRIVE-THROUGH VOTING, FORMER HARRIS COUNTY GOP CHAIR: Well, I think I would say to those folks, don't you think it's important to follow the law? If we're not a state based on the rule of law, then what forms of voting are we going to allow?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Democrats here in Harris County say Republicans are simply desperate at this point. Top Republicans in the state here in Texas have not said much about this. There have been two Republicans that have come out criticizing the efforts to set aside these votes. One, a state representative here in the Houston area who described this Republican effort to set aside these drive-thru votes as patently absurd and outright harmful.

So all of this continues and emergency federal court hearings slated for Monday morning to determine the fate of these 127,000 votes that were cast, Brianna, and these drive thru locations in 10 different areas of Harris County.

KEILAR: All right. Ed, thank you so much. Ed Lavandera in Houston for us.

President Trump campaigning in Michigan today and he's going back tomorrow. It's a sign of just how much he needs to duplicate his victory there that he secured in 2016. We have CNN's Miguel Marquez in Detroit. Miguel, tell us the latest there. MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Let me show you.

This is where all the action is right now. Yet another happy voter here in Detroit who's dropping off their vote in a dropbox here. The Secretary of State expects that about two thirds of all votes will be in it. That's why Donald Trump is coming back here time and again.

If he comes here tomorrow, that would be four trips by the President to this state since last Tuesday. He won the state by 10,704 votes. That is a number that sticks in the mind of not only Republicans but certainly Democrats here as well. That was out of about 5 million votes that were cast.

Joe Biden also working this state very hard, he was here yesterday with his former boss, Barack Obama. They were in Flint and then Oakland County just north of Detroit and then in Detroit itself they got a little help from Stevie Wonder as well. Both candidates looking to sort of motivate African-Americans to vote.

The president today, typically he goes after the coronavirus, people wearing masks and talks about the media and how it's all sort of fictitious and they're rounding the corner and a vaccine is coming. He didn't do that today. He went after Joe Biden on the economics. And he really went after African-American votes asking African-American voters to vote for him. So clearly they are looking for votes everywhere they can, Brianna.

KEILAR: It is fascinating to watch this dropbox behind you. It's seen a lot of visitors there. They're very, very engaged.

MARQUEZ: It is.

KEILAR: All right. Miguel, thank you so much. Miguel Marquez live for us in Detroit, Michigan.

I want to go to Florida, which is of course a key battleground state and it's just a huge prize when it comes to electoral votes. Last week, Joe Biden said if Florida goes blue 'it's over'. CNN's Drew Griffin is in Tallahassee. And Drew, Biden's wife, Jill Biden, was just campaigning in Florida. Tell us about this.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The polls are razor thin close here, 29 electoral votes. It's going to come out the turnout. And Brianna, I want to show you the turnout right now.

[16:45:02]

We've got about an hour and 20 minutes left here in Tallahassee to vote and look at all these voters that have lined up in this last hour to come in here and cast their ballots. Jill Biden was in town earlier today. She was at a souls to polls event.

I want to show you they actually turned it into a parade to come to this polling spot earlier today, a lot of enthusiasm. And Democrats really need that enthusiasm because, Brianna, they are concerned that Republicans are really catching up to them in this enthusiasm gap. It's why Joe Biden was here, it's why Barack Obama will come back to South Miami, South Florida tomorrow trying to especially get every last vote they can out of the black and Hispanic communities where Democratic strategist fear they are underperforming.

President Trump, of course, will be here later on today, almost midnight tonight. But this is a state that is so important and yet like every other time Florida is going to be decided by these very, very thin, thin margins of victory, Briana?

KEILAR: Yes, Florida, always keeping it very interesting, you would say. Drew Griffin, thank you so much live for us from Tallahassee. And a quick reminder, you can stay with CNN throughout the vote count. Our special election night coverage is going to begin on Tuesday starting at 4 pm Eastern.

Coming up, Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning that the U.S. is 'in for a whole lot of hurt'. As the country heads into winter amid a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Plus, the all-important path to 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. We'll look at where the candidates stand with just two days to go until the election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:51:46]

KEILAR: All right. Let's go now to Philadelphia where the former Vice President was making an unscheduled stop in Philadelphia just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My name is Joe Biden. I'm Jill Biden's husband, a Philly girl and I am Finnegan Biden's grandpop. That's her grandmom and I am her grandpop.

Look, we have an expression where I come from, you never forget those who bring you to the dance? Well, let me tell you 1650 [00:02:20] bring them a lot. We always hold family, beautiful daughter as well and we got to get another picture when we're able to hug each other again, OK, like we had before. Because it really was the day I announced, Brennan (ph) announced for me and I think you're the first person in United States Congress to do it and I brought along everything else that's happened and I really mean it.

Because the thing that Brennan (ph) and I used to kid about, I always when we finish our conversations, I then drive my wife crazy by saying that's the Irish of it. But it's all about decency, loyalty. It's all about remembering where you came from. It's all about remembering why you got involved in the first place. We got involved for the same reason and the reason all of you are involved.

Wall Street in build America. Hard working middle class folk build America. They're the ones like my dad, my mom, who just didn't ask for a damn thing, just a shot. All they wanted was a shot. And the American people have been really hurt badly. Middle class hadn't been getting much of a shot. They're really been hurting.

And I was asked once and I probably shouldn't have said it, but I believe it, how I look at this race. And again, I look at it from the perspective of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Claymont, Delaware not far from that, there is the neighborhoods I grew up in.

But a hard working folks who play by the rules, have done everything they can provide for the families. It's all about families. My first campaign I ran as a local councillor. I had a billboard just said one thing, for all our families. It's about our families. It's about who we are. That's what makes us who we are. And we're so much better than we've been.

We're so much better than we've been under this president, I really mean it. It's not who we are. We're people who were raised to talk to - treat people with respect, treat people some sense of dignity. Brennan (ph) certainly say many times, my dad when he lost the job of the Scranton when the coal died, we moved down to Wilmington and he took us all to my grandpop's house in Scranton and it took a lot I realized what it must have done to his pride to ask his father-in-law whether his wife and three kids at the time could stay with him, it would be about a year and he commute every day - not every day, every weekend from Wilmington to Scranton jobs down in Wilmington, actually turns out to be Claymonth.

And ever since that time growing up, when we finally got down to Wilmington, and first had an apartment 1650 [00:05:05] buy a small three-bedroom home.

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And after three years with four kids and a grandpop in it 1655 [00:00:15]. My dad used to say, Joe, your job is a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's about your place in the community. It's about who you are. It's about being able to look your kid in the eye, and this was his phrase, I promise you, my word, look your kid in the eye say, honey, everything is going to OK, I mean it.

There's so many people today don't think they can say that, so many people can't say that. In the midst, I'm not going to make a long speech here, but in the midst of this pandemic, the billionaires and they're listed, do you know how many there are in the United States?

Billionaires have made $300 billion more than they started with just during the pandemic. Because President looks at everything from Wall Street, looks at what's going on ...

KEILAR: All right. You're listening there to the former Vice President Joe Biden making a bit of an unscheduled stop between scheduled campaign stops there in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of course, a key battleground state. And just two days ahead of one of the most consequential elections in recent history, the U.S. is being pounded by a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic more than 9.1 million cases, more than 230,000 Americans dead. I want to get more on all of this with CNN Medical Analyst, Dr. Leana

Wen. I want to read a warning, a new warning from Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Wen. He says, "We're in for a whole lot of hurt. All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly."

When you are looking here, I know we're seeing cases hit records, but we also know that deaths, trail cases by two to eight weeks according to Harvard public health, what is a whole lot of hurt as he puts it going to look like here as those numbers catch up with us here in the next few weeks?

LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Brianna, Dr. Fauci is right. We are breaking all kinds of records here. The rate of spread of coronavirus is accelerating and it's getting worse by the day. I mean, we had 1 million new cases in the last 14 days and we're going to reach the next million even faster than that. And we had always known that this winter was going to be hard because as people are getting together indoors as there's quarantine activity, we knew that we would see a surge.

But we had hoped that we could suppress the level of infection more so that we could be entering this winter with ideally 10,000 or under 10,000 new cases per day. But now we're entering with over 100,000 potentially cases every day and the worst part of all this is that it didn't have to be this way. And it still doesn't, but we have to take urgent action now.

KEILAR: And the White House is saying, Dr. Wen, they're accusing Dr. Fauci of making his political leanings known by saying that the Biden campaign is taking the coronavirus seriously. But isn't Dr. Fauci just, I mean, isn't he just stating a fact. Biden is tracking with reality about the coronavirus and Trump is trying to say that it's going to go away after Tuesday.

WEN: All you have to do is to look at the numbers, because the numbers don't lie. We are seeing rising number of cases. We know that test positivity is also on the rise, including in some states where it's as high as 30 percent or 40 percent. Meaning that we are missing so many other cases for every one case that's detected. And we're already seeing hospitals becoming overwhelmed, hospitals having to divert patients to other places, ambulances being turned away.

And some states like Utah are starting to discuss crisis levels of care, such that we could be rationing care, scarce resources. I mean, this is a breaking point that we could be reaching. We're certainly not turning the corner in any way in this pandemic.

KEILAR: I wonder what you thought of the interview on RT, which is Russia Today. It's actually a registered foreign agent. It's essentially state - not essentially, it is state television for Russia and Dr. Scott Atlas, who is the President's favored doctor on the White House Coronavirus Task Force appeared on RT and he falsely claimed that lockdowns are a failure and the deaths aren't increasing. What is your reaction to that interview? WEN: Well, it's just false. And spreading misinformation like this is

extremely dangerous at this time when we need for everyone to be saying the same thing to be speaking with science and following public health guidance.

Look, no one wants lockdowns. They are bad for the economy. People have lost their livelihoods as a result. It's bad for mental health, bad for so many reasons.

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