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CNN Live Event/Special

State of Maine Goes to Joe Biden; Michigan Secretary of State: Just Over 100,000 Votes Yet to be Counted; Soon: Wisconsin Officials Give Update on Vote Count; Biden Leads in Michigan, Wisconsin, Trump Leads in Pennsylvania; Nevada Secretary of State: No New Numbers Until Tomorrow. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired November 04, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: It is pretty close in the count right now. What is giving the Biden Campaign confidence there and again each side is going to express confidence. Sometimes it will be hard to separate out the confidence and the spin from the data but we do have votes to look at and we do have information.

In Nevada what is giving the Trump Campaign some hope is that I think we're up to like 86 percent of the estimated vote is in Nevada that there's a greater percentage of outstanding vote. But here is the problem. So much of that outstanding vote is in Clark County, Las Vegas or Warsaw and is the early vote.

So not only is the outstanding vote absentee vote which has been trending to Joe Biden but also it is in Democratic heavy areas in the state. So I'm not sure that the confidence from the Trump Campaign about Nevada is warranted but there is still much more counting to go which keeps them hopeful to stay in the game there.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, as we count and count and count Anderson minute by minute these tallies are changing.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And it is going to be a long day we're just at the top of the hour the Biden Campaign moments ago saying they are on a clear path to victory this afternoon. They were looking at the vote counts out of Michigan and Wisconsin.

Our Jessica Dean says the mood at Biden headquarters is optimistic but the counting is certainly not over, won't be for certainly today maybe tomorrow and until Friday. Who knows we have breaking news on outstanding ballots right now in Michigan? CNN's Sara Sidner has the breaking news. Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey Anderson, yes Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told reporters just moments ago that they have just over 100,000 ballots that are still outstanding, that still need to be counted.

But she says she's optimistic that the majority of those ballots will be tabulated by the end of today saying that, look, she thinks that by day's end she'll have those tallied. It will be the unofficial count of course but you'll have a very good idea of who took this state?

Joe Biden has been up about 30,000 or so points as they have gotten to this point which is just over 100,000 ballots to be left. Now we're in Wayne County that's the most populous county. This is Detroit. And behind me what you're seeing is the count going on. It has been going on for hours like everywhere else.

People are on pins and needles wondering who is going to take this state. We should remember, too, that this is a historic here because there are more voters that came out this year than any other time in the history of the state. 5.1 or more than 5.1 million people came out to vote, cast their ballots.

We should mention that the last time they hit a record was 2008. That was when Barack Obama won. That was about 60,000 votes less than what people have cast now. So an incredible number of people have come out to vote and they are counting every single one.

I will tell you this, what we've been seeing throughout the day, we will see people lifting up red flags any time that they have any kind of discrepancy, any kind of issue they see with a ballot and then a supervisor comes over and checks it.

It is meticulous the way that they are going through each of these ballots. If there was any problem, trust me, someone will find it because they also have dozens of challengers here both from the Republican side of things and the Democratic side of things who are walking around.

Anyone that you see sort of walking around many of those are challengers looking at each and every vote. If there's a problem they swarm the table sometimes to see what is going on to make sure that every vote is counted. Anderson.

COOPER: It's a really important point you make given what we anticipate, obviously, from the Trump Campaign. What sort of things does warrant a red flag from somebody? Is it signature discrepancy? Is it something wrong with the ballot, multiple marks on the ballot? What is it?

SIDNER: I can literally tell you what I just heard. I was listening as someone had raised a red flag to say, hey, we have an issue. There was someone counting the ballot. They noticed that a name appeared to be on the ballot twice with two different addresses and so they were concerned that that person may have voted twice.

And so they have taken that ballot to ensure that there could be someone obviously with the same name, first and last name. And so they were looking to make sure that that person did not vote twice. It's things like that.

They are looking at every single detail. I think it should be made very clear that there is - if you look around this room and you see the number of people who are watching this, this is a free and fair election. There have been no major problems according to the Secretary of State. And so there are people that are painstakingly spending their time going through every single vote and any problem that arises trust me, you'll hear about it from one of the challengers, whether it would be a Democratic challenger or Republican challenger.

You will certainly hear about it. It may end up in the courts if there are a huge challenge at some point in the day but so far things going very smoothly here, Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Sara Sidner, appreciate that.

[12:05:00]

COOPER: I want to go back to John King, who is also standing by at the magic wall. So John, given what we just learned from Sara, about 100,000 votes in Michigan still outstanding, where do we stand in that state in terms of this race?

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: So let me do this backwards and explain first why today matters so much and then I'll drill down on some of the states. First though I just want to stop again where we just saw from Sara Sidner, standing in a room watching Americans count votes transparently.

You heard her talking about the flag this is how it works. The president and the truth have a very casual relationship. We know that from the past four plus years. When he talks about this that is not how it works. This is my ninth presidential election; I've covered all the races for Governors and everything else in between. That's exactly how it works.

There are eyeballs in there. If a Republican sees something they don't like they will ask a question, if a Democrat sees something they will say something. Anderson I'm told I have to go back to you.

COOPER: Yes, standby we have a major projection. We are projecting State of Maine to going for Joe Biden. Let's look at this. Joe Biden is the winner in the State of Maine getting three out of four electoral votes in the state. Joe Biden 76,648 votes ahead, 54.2 percent to 42.6 percent, a pick up for Joe Biden in the race to 270. John.

KING: So Anderson, I was just going to see I wanted to go backwards if you will, drill down on the state first. The Maine count you just gave us, that projection makes it all the more reason to do so. So look at our map right now this is where we stand.

Joe Biden at 224, 223 for Donald Trump. Let's do the math let's do the addition you just gave me the State of Maine. Let's bring it up right here. I gave most of it; I'm going to take one away now right. Maine does this by congressional district. You just gave Joe Biden three.

Let's assume that Donald Trump carries Maine's second congressional district. We're still counting some votes there but Joe Biden is going to get three. Let's assume Donald Trump gets there. That would get Joe Biden to 227. This is why today matters so much. Let's walk through this with me. Please be patient. We haven't called Alaska yet. We expect that to go to the president. That would get him up to 217. North Carolina we haven't called that yet. Georgia, we haven't called that yet. They are still counting votes but the President has a lead right now.

Democrats want to count those votes I get this completely hypothetical exercise. If this stays red, if this stays red, that gets the president to 248. This is why today is so critical to what you're hearing. That has the president within striking distance.

But, now the but, Joe Biden leading in Nevada, Joe Biden leading in Arizona. We're not done with those states yet but that gets you 248 to 244, leading in Wisconsin, leading in Michigan. If that holds up, game over even without the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. That is why today is so important because we expect progress here, we expect progress here.

Joe Biden leads in both Michigan and Wisconsin as those vote counts continue. If the vote counts in Arizona and Nevada continue to have Biden leading, he could be by the end of the day won't be certified, there will be lawyers involved there will be people asking but Joe Biden can get to 270.

Even if the president held onto the lead he has right now in Pennsylvania that would get you 270-268. 270 gives you Presidency of the United States. That is razor thin. That is why today matters Anderson go ahead.

COOPER: And what's so interesting about that, without needing Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania we heard from the Secretary of State could take till Friday to get a final count. There's even ballots coming in from service members overseas and Americans living overseas that may take longer. If you don't need Pennsylvania, if the Biden Campaign doesn't need Pennsylvania, we could have a result by the end of today, by tomorrow.

KING: We could have solid numbers. If they are very close, remember what David Chalian said earlier. We will know the math. That doesn't mean the state has certified them. In some states there is automatic recount, in other states within a certain percentage the losing candidate, the trailing candidate has the right to ask for a recount.

Given what we heard from the president last night and what we heard from his campaign team today, we have every reason to believe that these results will be challenged or that any legal right and it is their legal right.

If Wisconsin is razor thin and you're within the recount margin that is their right. If you're a Biden supporter, you need to respect that right. It would be nice if the president would also respect the counting of votes. Everybody needs to respect the laws and the rules but this is why today I just want to drill down, this is important.

If that leads hold up in Michigan and that lead holds up in Wisconsin and the leads in Arizona and Nevada hold up what you just told us about Maine could get Joe Biden to the finish line. Now the Biden Campaign believes over time that Pennsylvania is going to flip his way over time.

Just think about the period we could be going into though. Even if we keep this one uncertain, let's leave Pennsylvania as a toss-up. By the end of the day the Biden Campaign could well say we think we have 270 electoral votes, the Trump Campaign says no.

And we enter into this uncertain period where the results are not certified. Math is the math. We see it with our eyes. We're watching people count votes but they aren't certified. So that's why we go through the rest of the day but I'm just going to come over here very quickly just to check in.

[12:10:00]

KING: Sara Sidner was just here. And again I hope our viewers no matter who you support, remember what you just saw, transparency, honest hardworking people counting votes. Raising a red flag if somebody sees something that's a little odd, she said somebody thought it was a same name. So they have two names then they check the voter rolls, they go back to the precinct they sort it out that's what we do every time in elections.

COOPER: That's why I followed up with her. Because I think it's so fascinating the level of eyes on each ballot. There are poll watchers there from both supporters of President Trump, supporters of Vice President Biden, and their voices are also heard in this process.

KING: They are. Again, look I said this last night, I'll say it again. No matter who wins this election, look at this, 69 million votes for Joe Biden so far, 66.4 million for President Trump they are still counting votes. So these totals are going to go higher.

You see Joe Biden is leading with 69. Hillary Clinton won the popular last time with 65.8. More Americans voted in this election. That is a good thing no matter who wins right. So we come back to this election here counting.

Maybe it's a civics lesson for people who haven't seen close elections, haven't been inside those rooms but those are decent people trying to count ballots. Yes, some of them are Democrats, some of them are Republicans. That's not what they are doing. They are Americans sitting there counting the ballots. So let's see where she was? She was in Wayne County in Michigan--

COOPER: They are saying 100,000 votes - about 100,000 votes still to be counted in Michigan. So do we know, is it mostly Wayne County?

KING: We know a lot of them are in Wayne County because that's the largest jurisdiction in the state. So remember what you just said, we need to count them. We can also use our common sense, Joe Biden is ahead by 31,261, if there are 100,000 left Donald Trump needs to win two-thirds of those I'm doing this on the flag but in that ballpark to catch up. Well, that's really hard to do if a lot of them are from Wayne County where Joe Biden right now is getting 67 percent of the vote. So that's just basic common sense there about the trajectory. Now sometimes the count defies common sense, right?

Sometimes there's a surge, that something we don't know about. So let's count them. There is no shame in counting them. That's why the Biden Campaign is optimistic about this because of where the votes are still being counted, the lead they have right now, the data that everybody has.

Both campaigns have this. The Trump Campaign knows this. That's why the president came out in that mood last night. They know the votes still to be counted in Michigan most likely are going to be disproportionately for Joe Biden.

They know the votes counted in Wisconsin are likely to be because they are early mail-in ballots and we know Democrats by disproportionate numbers voted early, most of the ballots still to be counted are those and we know disproportionately for Joe Biden.

And even over here where the president's lead at the moment 481,678 that seems like a big lead and it is but there are more votes to be counted and we know from the data and we know from what we've seen so far in the counties where they are missing including down here in Philadelphia County, they tend to be overwhelming for Joe Biden.

This is a steep hill for Biden to climb to come back in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But it is doable because we know the number of ballots that are outstanding and we know roughly from what we've seen in the ballots that have already been counted the percentage Joe Biden is getting.

If he can match that percentage, in the ballots as they count them, he can get back in the game here as well. But just again, when you hear now the tension from the campaigns, I just want to walk back over here, the Trump Campaign is essentially saying please stop counting votes here.

We don't like that you counted votes overnight here. We don't like that you counted votes overnight here. But excuse me, can you keep counting votes out here and can you keep counting votes out here. Again, set the politics aside. That's politics because of the math.

The math is trending against him right now. So they are trying to argue in places where they are hurting and they're trying to keep the door open they're hoping that something brings them back because they are very close.

And you know what Anderson? The math tells you the trajectory in Arizona and Nevada is not going their way. But that's OK they have every right to ask people to look closely. The Trump Campaign does, the Biden Campaign does, I wish they would turn down the volume but I'm naive to think they will.

COOPER: But just to be clear in some of these states the reason they are still counting votes is that the legislature in those states Republican control did not allow them to process them earlier.

KING: Yes. In both Michigan and Wisconsin you have a situation where you have Democratic Governors and Republican, at least one chamber of the legislature controlled by the Republicans. And the Governors had asked the Secretary of State Benson from Michigan was on earlier, I've spoken to her repeatedly over the last several months.

She kept saying you know we're heading in for this scenario, right? This scenario that's going to make it more controversial, more open to people criticizing it. I think it's fantastic that it's transparent in our correspondence and in everybody's correspondence and again, Republicans and Democrats do it.

It's not just the news media in the room watching the votes being counted; Democrats and Republicans have people in there to watch. That is how it works. But yes, they had asked some time ago could the legislature please help.

Let me put another point on the table, too. We've known for months that we could end up in this scenario, right? One of the things that the conversations in Washington when they were debating Coronavirus stimulus, do you give states more aid to help with this? Do you surge more resources in to help the post office? Did any of that happen from this town?

No. It's not all the president's fault but he had no interest in doing anything that was going to help with the vote count, help with the post office that was a nonstarter at the Trump White House.

[12:15:00]

KING: So here we are. Guess what, the states know what they are doing and will count the votes.

COOPER: All right, John standby let's go to Erin.

BURNETT: All right. And let's go to Gloria here and Abby as we start to see some of these gray pieces fill in, right small pieces of the puzzle as we wait, coming in a bit by bit. Now we have a sense of part of Maine Gloria. What are you hearing from the Biden Campaign?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, just like you're hearing from the Trump Campaign, I think they are saying they are very confident. They believe that if they don't win Pennsylvania, they think they need to win Pennsylvania.

Obviously they would like to win Pennsylvania. If they don't get Pennsylvania or Georgia, they are very, very confident about Nevada. They are very confident about Arizona. So they think they are on the way.

I've been talking to a couple of people this morning though about this notion of Trump deciding to take it to court because the Democrats have been there before. They have been there before 20 years ago. It did not go well for them when it was taken to the Supreme Court. But what was talked about 20 years ago is what you are talking about now, which is counting the votes versus stopping counting the votes. So what they say is that Republicans are throwing up roadblocks in state after state. You have a President of the United States who has effectively said - who has said stop counting, which as we all know is anti-Democratic.

The Democrats are wondering, as am I, when some Republican will publicly come out and say this is ridiculous. Not whispering privately to journalists, not whispering privately to each other but when is someone going to come out and say, Mr. President, this is a democracy, we need to count the votes.

After all, in the State of Michigan, for example, last time, you only won by 10,000 votes. What are you going to say about that? In the State of Wisconsin, you won by 22,000 votes. So you have no right to say any of this until all the votes are counted.

You know, they are not going to get through to him, because, of course, he's still claiming that in the last election he won the popular vote, which we know he did not.

BURNETT: Right. And of course 2.8 million advantage right now in the popular vote as we have it right now for Joe Biden. Abby, when you look at these numbers. So to Gloria's point, Abby you know Mitch McConnell spoke just a moment ago or not a moment ago within the past hour as he's won.

His comment was claiming you win the election is different from finishing the count. That's about the strongest thing that we've heard on the record from a Republican at this hour Abby, looking at these numbers coming in, looking at the votes as they are tabulated and looking at that popular vote margin in favor of Biden?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's something. I would say that we need to wait and see what continues to happen as this week goes on? There are a lot of Republicans even in the United States Senate who have tacitly approved of the president's stated strategy, which would be to take this to the Supreme Court to litigate the validity of a certain type of ballot, mail-in ballots specifically.

Not because there's anything necessarily wrong or proven to be fraudulent but just because they are mail-in ballots. So until I start to see Republicans speaking out about that, I'm going to reserve judgment on that situation.

Look, I think that this is a divided country. We have repeatedly seen the winner of the presidential contest with the electoral votes not necessarily being the person who wins the popular vote count.

Now for the Democratic Party, this is something that has particularly affected them. It angers a lot of Democrats. I think the question for the Democratic Party today, if Joe Biden does, in fact - if he does pull this out, even if he does pull this out, they have a big question before them, which is how do they become more solidly competitive in these battleground states so that we're not always in these type of squeaker situations?

I've been talking to a lot of Democrats and a lot of Republicans who say, look, this result is going to be what it is but both parties are going to have to do a lot of soul searching about what happens next because these kinds of margins 10,000 votes 30,000 votes in three or four states, it's an unsustainable situation.

BURNETT: It really is. One year it's 10,000, one year it's 30. It's razor thin when you're talking about millions of votes. Gloria, some context crucial here when you look at Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, right? All with GOP-controlled legislatures that weren't able to start counting those early and absentee ballots early.

OK. So here we are. Yet the sense of things that we're getting from Wisconsin and Michigan is a lot more colored in on the map than it is Pennsylvania, OK?

[12:20:00]

BURNETT: It's a lot slower. What's going on?

BORGER: Well, in Pennsylvania it was really complicated situation. But what I would say is it's a failure of the legislature to do what it should have done. The Republicans and Democrats were arguing over when you could start the count. And they thought they had an agreement. It fell apart because people on the Republican side, I'm told, were adding other things into the agreement.

And so as a result, instead of being able to at least start opening envelopes, putting them in some order, doing what they needed to do, they ended up in many counties starting late. When you start late, this is what occurs. There was no trust on either side in the legislature. They are pointing fingers at each other.

But the result is that Pennsylvania is now in a situation where it is not counting its ballots as quickly as it needs to. Look, I personally believe the American public can wait a couple of days. Everybody is very anxious. Bush/Gore took 36 days, and it did go to the Supreme Court.

What you have now is a situation that is inflamed by the President of the United States. During Bush/Gore, while they were arguing different sides, the candidates, nobody charged the other side saying this is stealing the election if you count these votes.

They disagreed on what you ought to count and how long that ought to take and what counties ought to be counted? But at this point, they weren't saying that someone was stealing the election and enflaming the electoral.

BURNETT: Right, right ballot dumping and things as he has alleged in just the past few hours. Thank you, both, Abby and Gloria. We are expecting to hear from Wisconsin officials shortly about the vote counting there the very latest. Next, this one could keep us all in suspense until tomorrow. New reporting out of Nevada wait to hear this on their counts that and more our live coverage continues. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

COOPER: And there is a key race alert that shows President Trump's lead has narrowed a bit in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and in Georgia as well. Pennsylvania now, the president still leading with 472,623 votes, but that is actually - Vice President Biden has gained about 70,000 votes, eating into President Trump's lead.

Also in Georgia, the president still ahead with 87,608 votes but just in the last few moments as more votes are being counted, Vice President Biden has gained about 15,000 votes in the State of Georgia. So narrowing the lead for the president in both Pennsylvania and Georgia more votes still to be counted. Erica Hill is standing by in Nevada with some information about when we may see more votes there? Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. A lot of questions, Anderson, about these six electoral votes in Nevada and the Secretary of State made it very clear this morning, we're not going to get more results from the Secretary of State for another 24 hours, not until 9:00 am on Thursday.

And as we look at the numbers right now, this is a very tight race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump here in Nevada. What folks are really focused on are these mail-in ballots. Keep in mind for the first time ever the state sent a ballot to every active voter because of COVID in the state.

So we know that a number of those were returned, more than 600,000. But a number of people also showed up to vote really strong early voter turnout. Early voting lasted for two weeks here. In Nevada, we had about 84,000 voters come out just in Clark County alone yesterday, and a real focus is on Clark County because this is home, Anderson, to about 70 percent of active voters in the state that leans heavily Democratic.

And as people watch that, they want to know where the split is? Right now Joe Biden also leading among votes tabulated here in Clark County. But again, it is those mail-in ballots. So in Nevada as long as that ballot is postmarked by Election Day, as long as it was postmarked yesterday, it can arrive through November 10th and still be counted.

There are a couple of days built in too, in case there are issues with the ballot, in case the signature needs to be cured. So as for when we'll know, yes, we're going to get more information from the Secretary of State tomorrow, counties will likely be updating as well, but we may not have that final count for another few days because we simply don't know how many mail-in ballots could still be coming in?

COOPER: All right, fascinating. Erica Hill, appreciate that. We're awaiting word from Secretary of State in Wisconsin for an update on the ballots in Wisconsin, on what ballots still needs to be looked at? Let's go back to John King. John, let's talk about Pennsylvania and Georgia and Nevada whichever one you want to start with, maybe Nevada since we were just there with Erica Hill. It is a tight race there, where are the votes still to be counted?

KING: West to east in this hour Anderson, we're going to keep counting throughout the day.

[12:30:00]