Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Projects Biden Wins Wisconsin; Biden Campaign Preparing For Possible Trump Recount Requests; Update On Battleground States. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired November 04, 2020 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:30:00]
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So, Jake, you set that up perfectly. They're wanting to continue to count the ballots and recount the ballots in Wisconsin, while halting the ballots in Michigan.
At the same time, the Trump campaign says is announcing they're going to have a press conference at 3:30 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to talk about what they believe to be irregularities there.
Of course, that has to be taken with a giant grain of salt. They haven't presented any proof of irregularities in the state of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
I will tell you, Jake, talking to Trump advisers this morning -- I talked to one Trump adviser early this morning who said President Trump is the driving force behind in this fight-it-out-to-the-finish mentality that has taken hold inside the Trump campaign.
In the words of this Trump adviser, the president feels like the election is being stolen from him. So we'll have to watch this develop as the day goes on, Jake.
The same rhetoric we were talking about at 2:00 in the morning last night is the same rhetoric we're hearing at 2:00 in the afternoon today. The president wants to fight this out to the end.
It sounds as though he wants his lawyers to hold up the blue wall he carried four years ago -- Jake?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: As you know, there's no evidence of any malfeasance that he's alleging, that he was alleging weeks ago.
Jim Acosta, thanks so much.
ACOSTA: Thanks.
TAPPER: Jeff Zeleny, what is the Biden campaign's response to the possibility of a recount in Wisconsin?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Jake, the Biden campaign, of course, has been preparing for all of these possibilities. These are battleground states for a reason. There were lawyers set up in advance for all of these swing states.
The Biden campaign will respond, they say, within the hour, once there's a formal complaint filed. But this is after the certification, so we are talking quite some time.
The reality is, even Republicans in Wisconsin, the Biden campaign is heartened by the fact that Scott Walker, the former governor, says this recount is not likely to produce the needed number of votes.
The Biden campaign is also zeroing in on the message here. The top lawyer of the campaign, Bob Bauer, said, just a short time ago, this is a scrambled message.
What he means by that is this: The president earlier this morning was saying you must stop the counting of ballots, no more counting of ballots after the polls close.
That's exactly what they are asking for now in Wisconsin. So a mixed message from state to state to state. That is a sign that the Trump campaign is in a state of weakness at this point.
Jake, we are expecting to hear from the former Vice President Joe Biden here at the Chase Center at some point this afternoon.
We believe he will essential amplify what the campaign manager said earlier that they are on track to winning this, but they do want every count to be counted.
We don't expect him to declare victory. We expect him to say he's on track to winning this campaign -- Jake?
TAPPER: All right, Jeff Zeleny, in Wilmington, Delaware.
Wolf, this is the Democratic process. The votes are being counted.
Oh, Wolf Blitzer, you have a key race alert.
WOOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right. You have to count the votes.
Let's go to a key race alert.
Let's take a look at Michigan, first, a key battleground state. And 16 electoral votes in Michigan.
Biden is ahead by some 37,000 votes right now. And 94 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden has 49.5 percent. Trump has 48.8 percent in Michigan.
Arizona right now, 86 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden ahead by more than 93,000 votes, 51 percent, to 47.6 percent. And 11 electoral votes in Arizona.
In Nevada right now, 86 percent of the vote is in. Biden has a very narrow lead, some 7,600 votes over Trump, 49.3 percent to 4807 percent. Nevada has six electoral votes.
Let's go over to John.
Let's look at the three battleground states. They're clearly up in the air. But they're so, so important.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If Biden wins the states he's leading in, he will be president of the United States. If he wins. We are not there yet.
You see the board right now. You see all the states red and blue. I want to do this. The gray states now, you see Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia. These are not called.
When you're looking at this map, you're seeing who is leading. These are not called yet.
But let's show who is leading. We have projected Wisconsin. It makes Michigan all the more important, again, Joe Biden is trying to retake the blue wall states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan
He has Wisconsin. Now the question is Michigan. If you look right here at 37,350 votes ahead. We know the vote count continues. That's about 94 percent.
We know the secretary of state, with the conversation with her just last hour, a lot of votes are here in Wayne County. Do the common sense at home. We'll count the votes to see if anything changes.
But Joe Biden getting 67 percent of the vote here, 31 percent for the president.
You see there's about 20 percent of the votes to be counted here, largest population center here in the state.
Move it up so you can see it. The bigger the circle, the higher density of population. The red circles tend to be more Republicans. The blue circle and to be more Democratic.
We know this is where the bulk of the votes are, in Detroit.
We also know the secretary of state says out here, in Grand Rapids, this is a big deceptive. This is a Republican area countywide. Grand Rapids City is where the missing votes are. Missing is the wrong world. Yet to be counted votes are in Grand Rapids.
[14:35:06]
So, again, logic tells you there's more Democratic votes in the city of south. But let's count them. That's the whole point. Count them out.
If you pull out, there are more votes out here as yet to be counted.
And you come down here, to this county where Flint, Michigan is. Joe Biden is winning, not by a ton, not by a ton, which is why you count them.
But we do know by our data, in most -- Democrats voted disproportionately by mail. We'll see if that plays out.
Let me turn this up. That is just Michigan. You add Michigan to Joe Biden's total. Michigan, Wisconsin. And then you move out here.
I'll too of in Nevada. That was a Clinton state. Michigan would be a flip. Wisconsin is a flip. Nevada would be a hold.
You see there's every reason the Trump campaign says keep counting votes. They should. They don't have the same approach in other places.
But here, again, the issue is what's missing, right? The votes that have not been counted are here in Clark County for the most part. And 72 percent, 73 percent of the votes comes out Vegas and the suburbs surrounding it.
If there's still ballots to be counted here, the president could come back.
But the overwhelming population is in this area. But just where the people live, where the votes are, yet to be counted, we count them until the end.
Not since Bill Clinton has a Democrat carried for president. But that's a healthy chunk of votes.
What are we looking for? Phoenix and Tucson, the overwhelming pool of votes is in the population centers of Phoenix and Tucson. And mainly here, Maricopa County, Phoenix and the fast-growing suburbs around it.
One of the fastest-changing pieces of America, which is why Democrats targeted it. More Latinos. More college educated, more suburban, old people.
Joe Biden constituency 52, 46. About 14 percent of the votes left. They come in. The votes yet to be counted. Come in just like the votes counted.
But if you're in the Biden campaign, you see you're winning a majority of the votes in Maricopa County, you expect you will.
Again, we have yet to call Georgia. Yet to call North Carolina. The president is leading in those states.
I want to walk over here to get to the point of the drama of today, Wolf, in that, if you look at the map right now, see where we are, if Biden's lead in Michigan holds, the lead in Arizona holds, the lead in Nevada holds, that's 270. That's the finish line.
That could be the finish line. Even if Donald Trump holds on, the president holds on to Pennsylvania, Joe Biden can still win the presidency, or if the count goes on in Pennsylvania.
If the counting advances here, here, and here, by the end of the night, the Biden campaign would be in position to claim he's the president-elect.
Again, they're still counting votes. But if he holds the states he's now leading, Joe Biden will get to 270 electoral votes.
BLITZER: Even without Pennsylvania and --
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Even without Pennsylvania.
And they believe, they have to win about two-thirds of the votes still outstanding in Pennsylvania. They believe the math is there. We'll see.
BLITZER: We're standing by to hear from Joe Biden, as he inches closer and closer to the 270 electoral votes after his projected win in Wisconsin.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:40:33]
TAPPER: Joe Biden widening his advantage in the race to 270 electoral votes. After his projection of a win in Wisconsin, Biden now that is at 237. President Trump has 213, as the vote counting continues in multiple battleground states. And it's really anyone's race.
Let's go to some of our correspondents in those battleground states.
We'll start with Kate Bolduan in Philadelphia.
Kate, the counting continues in the City of Brotherly Love.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR, "AT THIS HOUR": It absolutely does. Here are the latest numbers and here's why they matter.
Twenty-four hours after they began actually scanning the mail-in ballots into the system and the process began here at this convention center behind me, they are in at 50 percent of the mail-in ballots counted in Philadelphia County.
That's 350,000 mail-in ballots that they have received, which leaves them with a 350,000 total that they have received. And 186,000 have been canvassed, leaving them with more than 160,000 mail-in ballots still to go.
Statewide, some perspective, the secretary of state says, Jake, there's still more than a million mail-in ballots that have yet to be counted.
In the commonwealth, where 44,000 votes was the margin of Donald Trump's victory, a million ballots still left out there. That is an important number.
We don't know, of course, how they voted. But we do know that registered Democrats requested mail-in ballots in Philly and statewide by an overwhelming majority. Again, we don't know how they voted.
Publicly, the commissioners here in Philadelphia are not giving a timeline of when they'll be done with this process. But they've told me behind the scenes it's not unreasonable to think they'll be done with wrapping this up by tomorrow morning -- Jake?
TAPPER: Kate Bolduan, say hi to everybody there for me.
Now let's go to Sara Sidner in Detroit, Michigan.
Sara, when do they expect totals there?
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They're not given the exact time, but by sometime today, by this evening. That's what we heard from the secretary of state, so a few hours ago.
She said they were just over 100,000 ballots left to be counted. So that's where they were in the entire state.
[14:45:04]
Obviously, we are in Wayne County. We're in Detroit, which is the most populous county.
The counting continues here. There was a bit of a kerfuffle, where five or six people saying they were GOP observers trying to get in, trying to replace others who had left. They were not allowed in.
I overheard one of the people trying to check them in, that they were not following the rules. There's a back and forth with police standing at the doors. And there are conversations going on there.
I can also tell you we have heard from the Trump campaign who says they're suing, because they feel they have not been given good access to observe, a meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots.
I managed to talk to one of the people who has been here for hours counting ballots. She is retired, as she told me. She did not want us to use her name, because she already been asked her name by some GOP representatives, and she felt a bit threatened.
But she said, look, I can tell you, anytime there's a problem -- and we've watched this play out, Jake.
Anytime there's a discrepancy, an issue, someone raises a red flag or it's brought to the attention of supervisors, literally, you see six or seven observers, both Republicans and Democrats, swarming the table, looking at what's going on and making their argument.
So she said absolutely does not believe there's any stopping of people being able to observe what's going on -- Jake?
TAPPER: All right, Sara Sidner in Detroit. Thank you so much.
Let's go to Las Vegas, Nevada, where we find Erica Hill. Erica, what's the latest?
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: What we are waiting on, Jake, is more numbers and more votes.
What we know is the secretary of state says they are not releasing any further data until 9:00 a.m. local tomorrow morning.
Here's what has been counted so far. Early votes, election-day voting and any mail-in ballots received through November 2nd.
Keep in mind, the first time in this state every single active voter was sent a mail-in ballot. It was their choice whether they wanted to vote by mail or come and vote in person.
At every polling location there were also drop boxes.
As everything is coming back in tonight, keep in mind there could be multiple mail-in ballots dropped at the polls locations.
Here in Nevada, there's a real focus on those mail-in ballots. As long as they were postmarked by Election Day and arrive by November 10th, they will still be counted.
There's a couple days built in there in case signatures need to be cured, in case there are any issues.
Where do we stand in terms of mail-in ballots? Why are they so important this time around?
Looking at the ballots returned so far, especially here in Clark County, as we know Joe Biden has a slight lead right now over President Trump.
The vast majority of those mail-in ballots, almost half, have come from Democrats.
As Kate said, this doesn't mean they necessarily voted with their party.
But the fact of the majority of ballots have come from Democrats, that is something people are focusing on.
The bottom line is we don't know how many more could come in the next week -- Jake?
TAPPER: Thank you, Erica, in Las Vegas. Thank you so much. We'll check back in with you.
Anderson?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Jake, thanks very much.
A lot to talk about.
David Axelrod, how do you see it? DAVID AXELROD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & CNN HOST, "THE AXE FILES:
Look, I said this last night, I would much sooner be Biden than the president.
What we are seeing is the playing out of what we knew would happen, which is that the mail-in votes would be counted later, and they would be heavily in favor of the Democrats because of the way they came in.
Democrats voted more heavily --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: And they have said they would be counted later and warned about this for a long time, but people are still freaking out.
AXELROD: Big time. My thing is on fire here.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: The question is, do we heat everybody up, or do we calm people down? The president is heating everybody up.
COOPER: I vote for calm.
AXELROD: I do as well.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: Look, I'm reading a book.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: Look, I really -- you know, we have known for the longest time that this was the scenario that was most likely to happen, that he states weren't going to be significant.
And there was always this possibility that the president because he had signaled this, would jump in and try to take advantage of the situation, rile people up. That's what he chose to do.
Let's just count the votes. We're going to know very soon. Let's count them and move on.
[14:49:59]
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I think what gets people riled up is the recount issue. There's a lot of PTS about Bush/Gore 2000.
And I think one think to think about is recounts don't general change the elections. In Wisconsin, the votes that have been flipped in recounts are in the hundreds, you have the president behind by, what, over 22,000 votes there.
And I think that when you start talking about recounts, it prolongs things and doesn't calm everybody down.
The White House is entitled to recount in Wisconsin. That is what they want to do. They're raising money to do it. Biden is raising money to try and defend himself there.
But this notion that these recounts are going to change the outcome of what we have seen so far is pretty low.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: For me, I just want to say a couple things. Number one, it is system is holding. I think it's important to point that out.
The president last night came out and said despicable stuff that is really -- he's running as a law-and-order candidate.
And he comes out basically against the rule of law, against the Constitution and declares himself the winner. And the system is holding.
Everybody got out and said, that's dumb. A bunch of Republicans said, that's dumb, and we're doing what we do as Americans.
I think that's very important.
This country is not what we thought it was. I don't care who you are, nobody predicted this outcome. It turns out that the outreach from Republicans to African-Americans and Latinos was effective.
It also turns out that --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: They picked up more African-American females, African-American males.
JONES: Yes.
So because Donald Trump says racially inflammatory stuff, he'll never make any inroads. It turns out that wasn't true.
It also turns out the politics of Joe Biden also worked. We can't just go -- we're doing a census. We're doing an election. People vote for all kinds of reasons. Both parties need to go back to the drawing board.
But I feel relieved. I was terrified last night listening to the president of the United States talk that way.
But to wake up this morning and hear the entire system saying, you know what -- McConnell said go away. That's good for America.
RICK SANTORUM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Just to pick up on the Latino and African-Americans, I've been having this conversation a lot. I've been saying that what Donald Trump is doing, and the policies that he's putting forward, which is directly reaching out on manufacturing, on trade, on a whole host of issues that are blue collar issues, working people issues is going to connect -- I've been saying this.
If it wasn't for him and his rhetoric -- these policies are popular. This is who the Democratic Party used to be but isn't anymore.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Right now, it looks like he may be losing. So --
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: And the reason -- I'm leading to Nevada.
Again, I'm not going to predict that Donald Trump is going to win Nevada, but he's only 8,000 votes down.
From what we just heard from Erica, which is that votes were just cast 24 hours ago, right before the election, which sounds like a Pence/Trump voter, and he is doing exceptional well in Nevada.
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: Why? Because he wants to open up the economy.
BORGER: Yes.
SANTORUM: And Nevada, what's their economy? Travel.
And so this --
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: This could be -- this could be a really interesting thing, that if Donald Trump holds onto Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, and actually upsets in wins in Nevada that COVID could decide this election because Trump wanted to open and Biden portrayed that you couldn't.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: Whether he does or he doesn't, it has to be said that he brought people out in ways that weren't expected yesterday.
And Republicans -- Democrats went into yesterday's election expecting to add a dozen seats in the U.S. House. They have lost seats. And it's not clear just yet how many.
They went into the election expecting and hoping to take control of the U.S. Senate. That is not going to happen.
So they were hoping to take over legislative chambers, in this very important year, because reapportionment is coming up.
There were half a dozen that were in their sights. They won none of them. So Trump had a real impact.
JONES: And even if Joe Biden wins, a lot of -- it's still going to be very divided.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: And the idea of -- he's going to be the pilot of a plane he can't fly because you'll have the Senate on one side and the state Houses on the other side as well.
[14:55:02]
COOPER: We're going to come back shortly before Joe Biden's Wisconsin win. Will we be able to predict any more states soon? We'll take a look at that.
Our coverage of the ELECTION DAY IN AMERICA continues in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:00:00]
BLITZER: We're back with our coverage of Election Day in America continued. I'm Wolf Blitzer.
Former Vice President Joe Biden has widened his edge over President Trump in the race for the White House.
