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CNN Live Event/Special
New Vote Totals Coming In From AZ; Trump Campaign Files Lawsuits In MI, PA, GA; Senator Klobuchar On Joe Biden. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired November 04, 2020 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN LEAD POLITICAL ANCHOR, CNN HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM WITH BLITZER: --with 213 electoral votes right now. Let's get a closer look at the state-by-state numbers in this key race alert.
Let's take a look at these four states, starting with Arizona, a 11 electoral votes, 82 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden is ahead of Trump by almost 93,000 votes right now, 51 percent to 47.6 percent.
In Nevada, with its six electoral votes, 86 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden is ahead there as well, but only by 7,600 votes or so, 49.3 percent to 48.7 percent.
In Georgia, right now, the Trump lead has dramatically diminished, 16 electoral votes. 95 percent of the vote is in. Trump is up by nearly 40,000 votes over Biden, 49.8 percent to 49 percent. He was up by more than 300,000 votes overnight, now only less than 40,000.
In Pennsylvania right now, where there is 20 electoral votes, 88 percent of the estimated vote is in. Trump remains ahead by about 195,000 - 196,000 votes, 50.9 percent to 47.8 percent.
Let's check in with Kyung Lah. She's in Phoenix right now.
Kyung, I understand, we're about to get a whole lot more numbers from Arizona.
KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Emphasis there is "About to." We anticipate, at any moment, that we are going to get our first real look at where the ballot count is here in Maricopa County.
I'm standing in the belly of the beast. This is where the counting is happening in the most populous county in Arizona. This includes the Phoenix - the Phoenix, Arizona population.
This counting is still going on. You can see that we have adjudicators over here, still looking at the ballots, the ballots that need to have some type of - oh, we're just hearing now.
I'm going to - I'm going to hit refresh. I'm looking at my screen because we have new numbers. And you can see here - this is - I want to clarify here. This is numbers for Maricopa County, Joe Biden at 887,457, Trump, 802,160, so that is 52 percent of the vote for Joe Biden, 47 percent of the vote for Donald Trump.
I'm going to repeat that. The number for Joe Biden, the actual vote count is 887,457. That's 52 percent of the vote here in Maricopa County, I want to stress that's Maricopa County. For Donald Trump, President Trump, we have 802,160, 47 percent. So, there is a 5-point spread here. It is very tight here in Maricopa County.
The advantage, though, for the Vice President, who is at 52 percent, President Trump at 47 percent, a 5-point spread, that has fluctuated a bit ever since we started watching the returns last night, but it is tightening here in Maricopa County.
It is the reason why Maricopa County is so important is because this is the most populous county in the State of Arizona. It is a growing population. How Maricopa goes will mean how Arizona goes. You have to win it here, if you want to win in the rest of the state. That is a conventional political playbook here.
Is it possible to not have that happen? Anything is possible. But it is extremely unlikely. Both Republicans and Democrats, here in Arizona, will tell you, you got to win Maricopa County, and these last totals that are coming in are extremely important.
So, we are getting, you know, just - I'm so bad at math here. I want to stick to what I'm seeing here. What we're looking for here is what's going to happen with the next - the next ballot release as well, Wolf. That is expected in the next few hours or so.
BLITZER: All right, standby, Kyung, we got a key race alert. Well let's show our viewers what's going on in Arizona with these new numbers right now.
84 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden maintains his lead, almost 80,000, of vote lead, 79,173, over Donald Trump, 50.7 percent in the whole state, not just in that County, 47.9 percent - 47.9 percent for Donald Trump.
John King, let's talk a little bit about what's going on. Biden still has a very significant lead in Arizona.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Right. And so, you are up to 84 percent of the estimated vote. We have to keep going, right? So, every time you get new votes, you figure out, has it changed the dynamic of the race?
You look at the new numbers in Maricopa, again, 52 percent, if you round up, 47 percent, if you round up. That's a close race. As Kyung noted, close race here in Maricopa County.
I just want to go back and look. Four years ago, the President carried Maricopa County, remember, the third-party candidate, especially Gary Johnson, in Arizona did quite well. So, the President was at 49 percent, and Hillary Clinton at 46 percent, if you round up.
[21:05:00] So, you come up now, Biden on top. That is part of the suburban shift in the United States of America. And the suburban shift in this particular state raises the potential, Joe Biden leading right now, in what would be a flip. Donald Trump carried the state four years ago, Joe Biden leading now.
But the challenge simply is, Wolf, if every time we get new votes, Joe Biden is on top, even if it's just a little bit on top, he's leading in the race. And so, that's the dynamic now.
When you are in the lead, you just need to come out one more than the other guy every time we had votes, and you're going to make it through the night. The question is what else is, you know, where else? We'll get more from Maricopa County.
Just want to look, again, in Pima County, the Tucson, Joe Biden is winning by even more right now, leading by even more right now, so we have some votes out there as well. You would expect him to adhere.
And that's the challenge, as we go through Pennsylvania, as we go through Georgia and as we go through Arizona, Joe Biden just needs to essentially 50-plus-one the rest of the way, the lead might narrow some, but he'll get there. And then, of course, then we're going to look next door and then--
BLITZER: Hold on one moment. Before we leave Arizona, you and I are going to talk to Katie Hobbs, the Secretary of State of Arizona once again.
Secretary of State, thank you so much, for joining us. So, tell us what's going on in Arizona. We just got the new numbers from Maricopa County. What's the latest - how much more of an outstanding vote is there in your state?
KATIE HOBBS, ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, it's around 600,000. And right before the ballots that were just uploaded, there were 420,000 outstanding ballots in Maricopa County.
I don't know how many ballots they just uploaded. And so, that doesn't answer the question of how many outstanding there were. But before 7 o'clock, before just now, there were around 600,000 in the state.
BLITZER: They just uploaded, I think, about 80,000 in Maricopa.
HOBBS: OK.
BLITZER: That's the number that we just got.
HOBBS: OK. So, if I do - if I'm doing my math right, then they're down to 340,000 outstanding in Maricopa County.
BLITZER: So, there is still plenty of votes left out there. John King has a question for you.
KING: Yes.
BLITZER: Go ahead, John.
KING: I just want to walkthrough, where are the rest? Obviously, Joe Biden is leading in Maricopa County right now. So, if you're the Biden campaign, the more votes there are the better for you. At least you think that.
How about Pima County where Joe Biden is leading by - leading by even more than in Maricopa? How many of the outstanding are in Pima? Do we know?
HOBBS: Just over 90,000 are in Pima County.
KING: Right. And so I just want to pull out, so people can see the statewide map, Madam Secretary.
In terms of these more Republican counties, if you are the Trump campaign, you are trying to make this up. What about Yuma County? Do we know how many are out there?
HOBBS: Yes, it looks like about 17,000 - 18,000 in Yuma County.
KING: So, you're seeing smaller numbers. This is what we have to follow.
HOBBS: Yes.
KING: Excuse for interrupting Madam Secretary. But as we go through, Wolf, the blue counties, where Joe Biden is leading, had a higher percentage of votes. And as we move up, and La Paz is at about the same, or is that fewer?
HOBBS: La Paz is much fewer. It's less than a 1,000.
KING: Less than a 1,000. So, you're seeing again, this is a place where the President is running quite well, so as you watch it out.
So, and Madam Secretary, just I pulled out to this, the whole statewide numbers. Obviously, you move up here, up in the Flagstaff area, Coconino County, how many up there?
HOBBS: 12,000 - 13,000.
KING: 13,000. So, again, in a place where Joe Biden is running ahead is where you have the bulk of the votes. Don't mean to put you on the spot. But do you have any sense of when we're going to see the rest of these?
HOBBS: Maricopa said that they are going to do another upload, later tonight, 10:30 our time, so 12:30 for you guys. And then, they have said that they're going to do 7 o'clock every night, until they are done.
BLITZER: Are these really--
HOBBS: And I need to clarify that I did misspeak about Pima County. Pima County is 46,000, not 91,000. KING: 46,000, thank you.
BLITZER: So, are these early votes--
HOBBS: Yes.
BLITZER: --mail-in votes, early person votes, or today votes, or yesterday votes, should we say?
HOBBS: Yesterday's votes are done. So, what we're looking at, right now, are early ballots that were either mailed back, or dropped off, received by counties Monday, Tuesday.
BLITZER: What are the rules in Arizona right now as far as mail-in ballots? They have to be received by a certain day, right? But what if they arrive a little late, but they're postmarked earlier?
HOBBS: No. We don't have a postmark deadline. They had to be in the County's hands, yesterday, by 7:00 P.M.
BLITZER: Including military personnel overseas?
HOBBS: They're I - you know what? I'm sorry. Off the top of my head, there might be a few days leeway there. But they also get their ballots earlier, and they have the ability to upload them electronically to our office.
BLITZER: You do. All right, that's encouraging.
Do you know the party affiliation of the outstanding votes right now? How many Democrat versus how many Republican?
HOBBS: Yes. Unfortunately, we don't know that number. And I know the counties right now, what they're focused on doing is getting those ballots processed, and tabulated. And they're not sorting them by party or precinct or anything like that.
[21:10:00]
BLITZER: So, when will we get, let's say, 99 percent or hopefully, 100 percent, of the vote in, in Arizona?
HOBBS: I wish I could tell you that. I don't know the answer. But I think we'll have a more solid answer about that by tomorrow, or Friday.
BLITZER: Well, we will definitely want you to come back on.
KING: Yes.
BLITZER: You have been very helpful to us today. The Secretary of State of Arizona, Katie Hobbs, thanks so much for joining us.
HOBBS: Thank you.
BLITZER: You got a great state. We love Arizona, too. KING: Yes, yes.
BLITZER: Just a little note. Go ahead, John.
KING: I just want to say again, whether you're talking to a Democratic Secretary of State, or Republican Secretary of State, some of the Elections Officers, Chief Elections Officers in the states are non- partisan, the good cheer.
They're overwhelmed. They're busy. They're stressed. They haven't slept all that much. And they're doing the right thing. They're taking their time to count votes, and they're being transparent about it, which I think is the best part.
Places that are putting a spotlight on this, some places have cameras in them. Many places have journalists in them. There are obviously Democrats, Republicans and Independent observers in there.
So again, there is a lot of dust being stirred up right now about vote counting and people questioning this, that and the other thing. These people know what they're doing, and they're in a good mood about it as well.
We should be grateful for what they're doing. We should not be criticizing them. We should be grateful. Sure, keep an eye on them. That's part of our job. And it's part of the campaigns'. Most campaigns could keep an eye on them as well, let them count the votes. But it's pretty remarkable. She's tired. That's good cheer.
BLITZER: Yes.
KING: We like that. And if you look at this, right now, it's just fascinating, Wolf. 79,000, right?
And so, everybody understands the stakes here. If Joe Biden flips this state and keeps his lead in Nevada, he's the next President of the United States. So, that's why we're asking we would like those votes as soon as possible.
And that's why the Secretary of State, she understands this as well. The country and the world are watching her and watching the count in her state. And so, they're going to get it right.
Again, if you're looking at the trajectory, right now, in the Biden campaign, you have almost an 80,000-vote lead. But, as she noted, we got 400,000 votes, just in Maricopa County to count.
Again, if you look at them, you can do the statistical analysis at home. Joe Biden is winning 52 percent of the vote there. These are absentee ballots. The expectation is he'll stay somewhere in that ballpark, but you don't know that until you count them, right? And so, that's why you have to count them. You have to narrow that down a little bit.
You are not comfortable to project the state until you get a little closer, especially in this uncertain election, where you had, again, people vote by mail, people stand in line, and vote early, some people using drop box, the people who came out and turned out in a natural way on Election Day, like you normally do it.
But the different states are dealing with different issues. And we're being - we're always cautious. You'd be even more cautious in an environment like this, and just count votes and figure it out.
But, again, it's 80,000 votes. That's a - that's a decent lead. But with so many more count, we'll just wait, and hopefully, we get more by the end of the night. Once, as you narrow down, the outstanding ballots, well then you can make more judgments, especially as you watch.
We just got that dump from Maricopa County then you get the next one. Is it the same - is it about the same? Is the lead growing? Is the lead contracting? And we run it through. We got great people out there, there are great people in Arizona, and we'll figure it out.
BLITZER: Let's stay in close touch with Kyung Lah.
KING: Sure.
BLITZER: 84 percent of the vote is in. That means 16 percent of the vote is still out.
KING: Yes.
BLITZER: So, we'll wait for more of those votes.
KING: Right.
BLITZER: And I totally agree. We're grateful to all those poll workers.
KING: Right.
BLITZER: So many of them are volunteers. They're doing really, really important work for our country.
All right, let's go back to Jake, Dana, and Abby.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER: Thanks, Wolf. Appreciate it.
And as all this news is coming in, most of it not seeming all that great for President Trump, Dana, you have some new reporting.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I talked to a source familiar with President Trump's thinking, who said that the President is down, obviously tired, which is understandable, but not feeling all that great, despite the public bluster that we have seen and heard from his campaign, from his children that the President is seeing what's happening.
He's seeing that in some of these key states that will determine whether he is president or not, his lead is shrinking, or if Joe Biden is ahead, notwithstanding what we just saw, this is before that that just happened, it's just not looking that good for the President.
And the sense from the source that I spoke to is that the President is starting to see this slip away. That's the mood of the President. Now, could that change like this, with changes in the votes? Of course.
But it also kind of dovetails with some reporting that we had earlier from our colleague, Kevin Liptak, who said the President is calling to allies, saying that he doesn't understand the strategy that his campaign is using to kind of have these lawsuits in various states. Why didn't they try this more aggressively before the votes were counted?
So, there's a - there's some hand wringing going on, behind the scenes, while there is some public bravado.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
BASH: It's quite different.
PHILLIP: And I don't blame him for being confused about his legal team's strategy because it is a little confounding, when you actually look at what is going on.
We've been talking all night about the way in which the strategy is talking out of one side of their mouth in Arizona and, in Nevada, and then out of another in Pennsylvania, and Georgia, and Michigan. So, it is confusing.
[21:15:00]
And, earlier in the year, the President really did push his team and the RNC to have a very aggressive legal strategy. And I think he really had hoped that a lot of this stuff would be resolved before we got to this point.
And much of it actually had been resolved, and litigated in the courts, which is why you are seeing some of the legal challenges that they're putting out now are, as we've discussed, fairly thin.
And so, I'm not surprised to see that the President finds it to be a somewhat unconvincing case.
TAPPER: But do you think that--
PHILLIP: Of victory.
TAPPER: --do you think that his issue is that he's not finding their legal strategy now to be up to the standards that he wants, or he doesn't understand why they're not able to stop the counting of votes? I mean, that seems more like in keeping with Donald Trump. His--
PHILLIP: It's probably a little bit of both.
TAPPER: --his legal team was fairly aggressively out there.
BASH: Yes, yes. TAPPER: I mean they - they were trying to stop mail-in ballots in any number of states, including the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I mean the problem is that just because he's President, he's not able just to stop mail-in ballots, he's not able to stop the counting of ballots. I think, with all due respect, I think you are giving him a little bit too much--
PHILLIP: Yes.
TAPPER: --credit.
PHILLIP: Well I mean I'm sure it's a little bit of both, that he wants to stop the ballots from being counted. But again, I'm sure he's not blind to the fact that these cases that are being brought are long shots.
BASH: Exactly.
PHILLIP: I mean they're just hard to--
TAPPER: But that's not his legal team's fault.
PHILLIP: Well no, it's not, but as we have been saying all night, they are throwing everything they can up against this wall.
The President obviously wants to win. He wants the ballots to perhaps not be counted, but I think, he, as someone who, as you pointed out, is very litigious, he understands that these cases are not as rock- solid as he wants it.
BASH: That's exactly right. I think that he's - he's just - it sounds to me like he is just voicing his frustration. And the one thing he can hang it on right now, because it's the way that they are being active in the Trump campaign is by the lawsuits right now.
And because he actually has so much experience in the courts, maybe not in election law, but experience in the courts that he is seeing that the campaign is just kind of trying to find ways to publicly say "We don't believe this. We're going to challenge this." But it's not necessarily something that is really - that it's not - he's not standing on firm ground.
TAPPER: He doesn't have experience winning in courts. He has experience with completely frivolous lawsuits.
BASH: Yes.
TAPPER: Well we'll - let's table this for a second.
BASH: Yes.
TAPPER: I want to go to Kaitlan Collins at the White House who can give us some more insight into President Trump's frustrations about what's going on. Kaitlan?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's so interesting to hear you guys talk about the legal strategy because this legal strategy came about because after Fox News called Arizona for Joe Biden, last night, something that we should note CNN has not done yet, I am told by sources, that's when the President went into this kind of panic mode with aides after thinking that he was going to win, and pull this off that he started instructing them to start filing these lawsuits and start to pursuing litigation that we have seen play out all day.
And so, that is what campaign aides have really spent the day doing. And some have conceded in part, Jake, so they can buy themselves more time as they are waiting on votes in places like Arizona to come in.
The other thing the President has spent the day doing, since we have not seen him in-person today, and the White House has called a lid, meaning we are not expecting any appearances from him, though we could hear from him, of course, on Twitter tonight, Jake, is angrily calling Republican governors, these people who he believes are his allies, as he is trying to will what is happening and what we are seeing playing out from actually happening.
And that includes Doug Ducey of Arizona, Brian Kemp of Georgia, And Ron DeSantis of Florida, I am told by sources. He has been angrily calling them, because he is not happy with what he's seeing.
Of course, Florida is a different situation. I think that's more of a venting situation, from what I've understood so far. But that is what the President has spent his day doing. So, he is angrily calling these Republican governors, but casting doubt on the legal strategy that he has told his own aides to pursue.
And of course, if you talk to these - the campaign aides, who are working on this, some of them obviously do not believe some of these lawsuits will be successful. But they feel basically like they have run out of options at this point.
And when the President feels like he is backed into a corner, often, throughout the decades of his life, before he was even in office, his go-to strategy has been to sue, or to file lawsuits, or to try to melt some kind of legal challenge to stop what is happening from happening.
TAPPER: Thank you, Kaitlan Collins.
That's - see, that's exactly what I thought was going on, the idea that he's waging these frivolous lawsuits because he's telling them to do it.
Anyway, Kaitlan, thank you so much.
Let's go to Arlette Saenz, who's with the Biden team in Wilmington, Delaware.
What are you hearing from Team Biden, Arlette? There is obviously still a narrowing race in Arizona. We don't know what's happening in Nevada, and a narrowing race in Pennsylvania and, of course, in Georgia.
[21:20:00]
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, they are closely watching these results coming in, in Arizona. But, at this point, they are still projecting confidence about his standing in that state.
The Biden campaign acknowledges that the margin could tighten in a county like Maricopa County, but they don't expect that his current standing will be overcome, even as the Trump campaign has pushed that narrative over the course of the day.
Now, Arizona and Nevada, another states the Biden campaign is looking to hold on to, those are states that Joe Biden only visited once, as the Democratic nominee, which is quite the contrast to the time and resources he's devoted to those "Blue walls" he was trying to reclaim this time around.
Now, the Biden campaign started the day projecting confidence about that "Blue wall," the Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. And, at this point, they have had two of those three states called in their favor.
Now, heading and looking forward to Pennsylvania, the Biden campaign says they still remain confident, as those votes continue to be counted, and say that they will remain vigilant, about ensuring that every last vote is counted in that state.
TAPPER: All right, Arlette Saenz, thank you so much, in Wilmington, Delaware.
And we should also talk about the fact that I do and, I'm sure, you do expect Arizona to narrow.
BASH: Yes.
PHILLIP: Yes.
TAPPER: I mean I do think that - I do think that margin of victory, which is--
BASH: It started to, yes.
TAPPER: What is it?
BASH: Now it's like little more than - right there, you go, 50.7 percent to 47.9 percent. A little narrowed that was before.
PHILLIP: Yes. And the Biden campaign, they also expect it to narrow, but they believe that he will win. So, yes, it's not going to be a blow-out in Arizona, but the question is can President Trump make it up with the votes that are outstanding?
And this - we got a relatively small tranche of votes earlier tonight. It narrowed a little bit. But it's - the split, based on what we know, from Maricopa, the President needs to do a little bit better than that. TAPPER: He needs to get about 60 percent--
PHILLIP: 60--
TAPPER: --of those again.
PHILLIP: Yes. It needs to be a little bit more Republican, more pro- Trump, in order for him to try to even begin to overcome it.
BASH: And remember what the Secretary of State just said--
PHILLIP: Yes.
BASH: --to Wolf and John that we might not know, until Friday.
PHILLIP: Yes.
BASH: I mean they're going to do as much as they can. She said they're counting as fast as they can, and so on and so forth. But we might not get the results of all of the outstanding ballots until Friday.
TAPPER: Same with Pennsylvania.
BASH: Same with Pennsylvania
TAPPER: And in Nevada, we're not expecting until--
BASH: Tomorrow.
TAPPER: --tomorrow. But it's funny that you clarified yourself there--
PHILLIP: Yes.
TAPPER: --on the Republican votes versus--
PHILLIP: Yes.
TAPPER: --pro-Trump. Now explain because--
PHILLIP: I mean even on a good day, right, I don't like assuming that party affiliation--
BASH: Yes.
PHILLIP: --is going to translate into votes. But you dig into a little bit of the exit polls, in the State of Arizona, you see something interesting that we were talking about, President Trump doing a little worse with Republicans, getting 88 percent of the vote among Republicans.
Joe Biden taking 10 percent in a state, where as we've discussed, Cindy McCain came out strong against him, and the Native son John McCain was notoriously in this - in this feud, I guess you can say, with the President.
BASH: And this is totally anecdotal, but just to make your - help make your point, I got a text from family members, who are telling me that they have friends, who are lifelong Republicans, registered Republicans, who are telling them they're voting for Joe Biden, so.
Just because we are seeing Republican votes come in doesn't mean that those are Trump votes, and maybe vice versa.
PHILLIP: 80 percent is a lot.
TAPPER: Look, if it's--
PHILLIP: But it's - but for Trump, I mean, he's in the 90s.
TAPPER: And that's the thing. If Joe Biden ends up winning Arizona by 40,000 votes, guess what? That's 40,000 reasons that President Trump should not have attacked John McCain, if you're talking about 10 percent of Republicans in Arizona voting for Joe Biden.
David Chalian, let's talk about Arizona and what needs to happen in these remaining ballots that have yet to be counted.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN VICE PRESIDENT OF POLITICAL COVERAGE, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. So we're taking a look.
This is obviously the state of play after that vote dump that we just got in Arizona. You noted Joe Biden is 50.7 percent, Donald Trump 47.9 percent. 84 percent of the estimated vote is in. And that is a 79,000 vote lead for Joe Biden.
Here is what we now know about the outstanding vote, what has not been counted yet, after those votes were dumped into the system. It's now down to 515,000 outstanding votes in Arizona. That's a rough estimate, not exactly precise, but that's sort of back-of-the-envelope estimate.
And, so, we take a look at sort of what each candidate needs. And I'll just say Donald Trump actually benefitted a little there.
You saw that it narrowed and he benefitted a little there from that latest vote dump in terms of narrowing the gap with Biden. He now only needs 55 percent to 57 percent of the remaining outstanding vote, of those 515,000 uncounted votes in Arizona, to overtake Joe Biden, and actually keep this State in his column.
[21:25:00]
You see Joe Biden needs 40 percent to 42 percent of the outstanding ballots in order to hang on to his lead there, and actually flip Arizona from red to blue.
Donald Trump, that percentage is not out of reach for Donald Trump in Arizona. Obviously, it's a bit better than he has statewide right now with his 47.9 percent. But it is obviously still in the hunt in some sense. And we got to count the rest of these 515,000 votes before we can see the final state of the play there in Arizona.
TAPPER: And, David, of the 515,000 uncounted votes, we believe most of them are from counties that Biden won. Is that correct? CHALIAN: Right. It sounded like, if I heard the Secretary of State properly, from Pima County, down in Tucson area and, of course, Maricopa County, in the Phoenix area, the big population centers, and those are the places where Joe Biden has a lead.
We also heard that almost all of it, I think she said, is not Election Day vote that it is from prior to that. We've also seen that being a Biden advantage category. But, again, I just want to say, guys, Donald Trump got a little benefit out of that last dump.
And, so, if he gets more votes that he can continue to narrow in what we see the next time they update their vote totals, then possibly his percentage of what he needs, will go down a little bit. So, with 515,000 votes, outstanding in Arizona, there's simply more counting to do.
TAPPER: That's why we count all the votes.
CHALIAN: Yes.
TAPPER: To see who actually won, whether it's Trump or Biden. David Chalian, thanks so much.
As more results are coming in tonight, will Joe Biden's electoral count go up? Much more of our election coverage coming up. Thank you.
[21:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: The race for 270 electoral votes is heating up dramatically. Right now, Biden has 253. Trump has 213. 270, that's the magic number. You get 270 you are the President of the United States.
Let's get a key race alert right now, and see where things stand in these four states.
In Pennsylvania, right now, where there is 20 electoral votes, and 88 percent of the estimated vote is now in, Trump maintains his lead, 190,000 vote lead over Joe Biden, 50.9 percent to 47.8 percent in Pennsylvania.
In Georgia, right now, 95 percent of the estimated vote is in. Trump still maintains the lead, but it has really been diminished, 38,996 votes ahead of Biden, 49.8 percent to 49 percent.
In Arizona, 84 percent of the vote is in. Biden maintains his lead, just under 80,000 votes over Trump, 50.7 percent to 47.9 percent.
And in Nevada, 86 percent of the vote is in. Biden maintains his lead, but it's a small lead of about 7,600 votes right now, 49.3 percent to 48.7 percent.
Let's walk over to John King over at the Magic Wall.
We're looking at all these states very closely. Which state is jumping out to you the most right now?
KING: Well, just in the context, if Joe Biden is knocking on the door of 270, so obviously Arizona and Nevada are the two states that could get him there.
But the surprise of the day, if you will, has been the closing race in Georgia. So let's just start there. I say "Surprise" just because the shift has been so dramatic. And here's where we are right now, 38,996 votes. That's where President Trump is ahead right now with 49.8 percent, so round it up to 50 percent, to 49 percent, remarkably close race, 95 percent of the vote.
But Wolf, I want to show you a new feature we have. Let's go back in time. Let's go back in time. This is midnight. We talked about this earlier. Look at midnight statewide in Georgia, 372,407 votes. That was the President ahead. Then they're counting votes overnight.
At 9 A.M., it was down to 103,705 votes. Then, by 3 o'clock, this afternoon, you are down inside 80,000 votes. And then you move up to 6:30 P.M, and you see it's 57,266. And then, at 7:30 P.M., it dropped even more. Now, I want to show you - that's just looking at statewide.
Watch the suburbs, just outside of Atlanta. This is DeKalb County right here. You heard Gary Tuchman talking about this earlier. Midnight, last night, look at Joe Biden's vote total, 81,600 right here, in DeKalb County. So, how did Joe Biden come back overnight? Watch these, as it plays out overnight. By 9 o'clock in the morning, as they counted overnight, look at that, 265,000.
Again, 81,000, if you went to bed at midnight, by 9 o'clock, this morning, as they counted overnight, these are the Democratic suburbs, DeKalb case, just to the east of Atlanta, you come down here, the vote count at 3 o'clock, at 4 o'clock, it went up a little bit more, stayed stable in the vote count later, after that.
So, you just see what has happened overnight. If you went to bed at midnight, you thought the President had an insurmountable lead in the State of Georgia. But they continued to count those votes. Now you are in a position where a 38,000 - almost 39,000 vote lead, and tension, because the President cannot afford to lose anything on the board.
If Joe Biden keeps his lead, in Arizona, and Nevada, he gets to 270, if he can pass the President, in Georgia, as well. It's essentially a Plan B, if you will, it helps Joe Biden get to 270, and potentially beyond.
So, this is a great moment of tension in the Trump campaign, when it comes to Georgia. And, again, we're watching Arizona as well. You could make the case the President has narrowed - you can make the case, it's a fact, the President has narrowed the gap a little bit there, in Arizona, but we still have to count there as well.
BLITZER: Well let's take a look at Arizona.
KING: Let's move out and see. And we can show you the same impact and effect here. Let's just start right here and see where we are. Again, 84 percent, we're expecting more votes a bit later, couple
hours from now, we expect to get a decent chunk of votes from Maricopa County. Pima County also has a lot of votes. That's the county to the south of Phoenix.
Both of those are blue, so we expect Joe Biden. The expectation is because he's running so strong. You see him here, 52 percent in Maricopa, even better than that, 60 percent in Pima. So, the Biden campaign thinks it will gain in those places. But let's just game this out.
Again, 79,000 right now, let's take this and go back in time, right? Let me bring this up for you here, let me come out here for you, and switch to Arizona, and we'll go back in time.
[21:35:00]
This is midnight. And you see then, Joe Biden, 207,000 votes ahead, 207,000 and change. Then you see it starts to slip a little bit overnight. There is 1:00 A.M. And here is 3:00 A.M. You are at 155,000. 4:00 A.M., it's 130,000. 10 o'clock, down to 93,000.
And when Kyung Lah just told us a short time, look at that lead, 93,000 in the Biden campaign and then more votes in Maricopa County gets it down to 79,000. So, this one is trending in the other - in the other direction.
And so, we'll come out live to where we are now, but we're in the same spot, where Joe Biden had a more comfortable lead overnight, and Donald Trump has closed the gap a little bit, you see the - and that's largely from here, in Maricopa County, making up some ground.
The flip side in Georgia, the overnight was good to Joe Biden. And now we count votes.
BLITZER: Speaking of Georgia, I want to go to Georgia right now.
KING: Right.
BLITZER: Gary Tuchman is in the Atlanta area for us right now.
Gary, you've got a special guest who can update us on what's going on there?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well that's right, Wolf.
We're here in Atlanta, Georgia, in Downtown, in Fulton County, and this is where they are processing, and scanning the absentee ballots right now. These are the votes that are about to be counted that may help decide who the President of the United States is.
And with me right now is Richard Barron. Richard Barron is the Election Chief here, in Georgia's largest county.
159 counties in the state, this is the largest. I want to ask you first of all, you told us earlier the result. 142,000 mail-in ballots that you got.
RICHARD BARRON, FULTON COUNTY ELECTIONS DIRECTOR: Yes.
TUCHMAN: What is the up-to-date number of ballots that you have now counted?
BARRON: We have scanned 118,339. We've adjudicated a little over 113,000 so far.
TUCHMAN: OK. So, I'm doing some math in my head. That's about 29,000 that you still have to count.
BARRON: Yes. Yes. We'll have to adjudicate the remainder of that, the 29,000.
TUCHMAN: And adjudicating means if there is a problem with the ballots you have a Democrat and a Republican look at it to make sure that the intention of the voter is known.
BARRON: Right. They look at voter intent on any contest that's flagged by the software.
TUCHMAN: So, 29,000 more votes to be counted. When will we see all the votes, all the absentee ballot votes on your website?
BARRON: It will be after midnight, sometime between midnight and 3, I think.
TUCHMAN: So, it'll be tonight?
BARRON: Yes. Well we've got - brought in some fresh bodies, and we're going to make sure that - we make sure every vote is counted tonight, and we'll do what it takes to stay all night.
TUCHMAN: I was saying earlier, looks like a beehive behind us.
BARRON: Yes. And it's been all energy all day in here because we know that everyone is looking at us, looking at Georgia. And it could - it could determine the next president so.
TUCHMAN: A lot of pressure, right? The question I'm going to ask you, are you feeling any pressure or getting any pressure from either Donald Trump's campaign or Joe Biden's campaign?
BARRON: No. We haven't received - I haven't felt any pressure from either of the campaigns. I think it's mostly the fact that there are just so many people interested in this. We have a lot of media in the room, so obviously interest is high.
TUCHMAN: You haven't gotten pressure from the campaigns, but do you feel pressure on your shoulders?
BARRON: Well, yes, because we want to make sure all the votes count. And it's an immense pressure because this is an important election. All presidential elections are important. But I think there has been a lot of focus this year on this presidential election, and we've been preparing for months. So, yes, it's a lot of pressure.
TUCHMAN: The Trump campaign has filed suit saying that it wants Georgia to not count absentee ballots that came after the deadline, which was 7 o'clock last night, alleging that in Chatham County, which is where Savannah, Georgia is, it's, by the way, it's one of the most beautiful cities in the United States, Atlanta is nice, but Savannah is beautiful, alleging that that County took at least 50 ballots that came too late, and put them in a pile of ballots that are allowed.
What do you think about that suit being filed against the State of Georgia?
BARRON: Well, as long as the ballots came in before 7 o'clock, all those - all those ballots should be counted.
And we had somebody at all of our ballot drop boxes at 7:00 P.M. They locked them right at 7:00 P.M. And we accepted all the ballots that we received in the mail through 7:00 P.M., and that's the way it should work. All the votes that are cast by 7:00 P.M. need to be counted.
TUCHMAN: So, are all these votes that we're seeing, and we're seeing lots of ballots, these are all, do you know for sure, they're all legal?
BARRON: Yes, they are all legal.
TUCHMAN: And, by the way, this may sound like a silly question, but I think it's an important question. How do you know there isn't someone here who takes a pile of ballots they don't like, puts them in their pocket, walks home with them, and never gets them counted?
BARRON: We have a chain of custody. They're all - everything that comes in is with the chain of custody form. And it goes through a whole process of being opened and cut over to the flattener, and then over to the scanner, so we can - we can balance that.
TUCHMAN: A final question for you, Richard. You must be very proud of these people - that's a statement, but you must be very proud.
BARRON: Oh, I'm very proud. My staff has been working long hours for many months since before the June election. We have been hit with a COVID outbreak of 25 people a couple weeks ago, so we've been impacted hard.
TUCHMAN: Richard Barron, thank you for joining us.
BARRON: You're welcome.
TUCHMAN: Wolf, I could tell you there is at least 60,000 votes just in the Atlanta area, including here that still haven't been counted. Back to you.
BLITZER: We'll wait for them to be counted, and then we'll report the news, as we always do. Please thank Mr. Barron from all of us.
[21:40:00] We're waiting for more votes to come in from Arizona and Georgia. We'll also speak with a former presidential candidate, and we'll discuss how close this race is. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: Welcome back to Election Night in America Continued.
Joining us now, former presidential candidate, Democratic Senator, Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota.
Senator Klobuchar, thanks so much for joining us.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Thanks, Jake.
TAPPER: Congratulations on Minnesota going blue, which I know you wanted it to. And it was a lot - there was a lot more drama four years ago.
KLOBUCHAR: Yes.
TAPPER: Have you talked to the former Vice President, Joe Biden? How are you feeling about the results so far?
KLOBUCHAR: I haven't talked to him directly. I think he should be focused on how he is focused, and that is on being calm.
I think the fact that he has addressed the nation now twice, and I think it gives you some idea of how he's going to govern, making very clear he wants all the votes counted, yes. But that his demeanor is going to be really important, as we go forward. So, I feel good about what's happening.
[21:45:00]
Arizona, the fact that, this was, a state, that the President spent years, going after their favorite son, as Dana just pointed out, about an hour ago, John McCain, the repercussions, of that, and Cindy, going all over the country, helping Joe Biden.
The fact that in Pennsylvania, so many votes in the suburban area, Philadelphia, and Philadelphia are still outstanding, we feel good about that.
And then Georgia, and one of the points that I want to make is these are local elected - local election officials just doing their jobs right now. You can see them. It's transparent.
And in Georgia, you've got a Republican Governor, Republican Secretary of State, Donald Trump, you know, going after them for still counting ballots, give me a break.
You've got Democratic and Republicans just doing their jobs right now. Let them be. Let them do their jobs. And I think it contributes to this idea that this is democracy in action and we've got to allow the votes to be counted. TAPPER: And you've had a few recounts in Minnesota, if I recall correctly.
KLOBUCHAR: Yes.
TAPPER: Overall, these results, these election results were not the large scale repudiation of President Trump, the Democrats were hoping for.
I know we're still waiting on final results, but that must be disappointing considering the fact that so many Democrats thought that this was going to be a landslide victory for Joe Biden, and that the Republicans were going to lose control of the Senate and on and on. Joe Biden may well win, but it isn't the repudiation you were hoping for.
KLOBUCHAR: Look, you always want to win big, and you want to win every single seat. We know that.
And, sure, it's hard, especially when you have had some seats that we have lost with such good, great, amazing candidates and elected officials, like my friend Doug Jones that I talked to today, so many people.
But that being said, what matters here, oxygen on the White House first, is that we win the White House. And to me, it looks like that is a direction that we are headed. And given that we didn't win every seat that we wanted, I actually can't think of a better president for that time than Joe Biden.
He's someone that can work with people, regardless of where they come from, and what their political view is, and I'm going to deal with all that after we find out what all the results are because there is still a lot of seats outstanding.
So, I think, tonight our focus should continue to be on the numbers that we're seeing coming in on the presidency because that's all Donald Trump is doing. And I think we have to be laser-focused on that right now.
But when and if Joe Biden wins, and I have every reason to believe he will, he will be very effective at working with Congress.
TAPPER: What happened in the Democrats' attempt to take the Senate?
Susan Collins was re-elected in Maine, Joni Ernst was reelected in Iowa, Daines in Montana, Tillis in North Carolina. I mean with the exception of Colorado and Arizona, it's really not a good night in terms of - good results for Democrats.
KLOBUCHAR: It was a really tough map, and every single person that looked at it, any expert on this would say that from the get-go.
So many Republican states, so many heavy Trump states, including some of the House districts where, of course, Nancy Pelosi will still be the Speaker, but there were some losses there as well. And a lot of it had to do with that.
I will note we are still one ahead in the Senate races. Mark Kelly, tremendous candidate, winning in a what's considered a red state, soon to be turned blue, of Arizona, and also Governor Hickenlooper, winning in Colorado. So, and the results are still out in Georgia, where we are certain to have one runoff, if not two.
TAPPER: Before you go, your husband John had Coronavirus. Has he fully recovered? Is he doing OK?
KLOBUCHAR: Yes, he is doing great, except maybe he's watching your station too much.
TAPPER: No such thing.
KLOBUCHAR: He may be watching right now because he has become an expert on every single ballot issue. And so, I've had to urge walks and things like that because I think just he is like everyone else.
I think when he personally had to experience this, you really want a president in there that's going to get us through this, get us through the other end, have a plan, because he doesn't want to have it happen to people like what happened to him. He made it through, but he got really, really sick, and was in the hospital.
And so many Americans are, as we speak, watching this right now who are sick or worried that someone they love is going to die. And I think it just makes this even more important as we go into these next two days, and we just ask people to be patient.
We always knew this, Jake. I put out a report with Bernie and a few other senators, about 10 days before the election. We knew that Pennsylvania and Wisconsin count late. They start the day of the election, and we knew there'd be some close states.
[21:50:00]
And the important thing is to use that patience of Joe Biden, and get through it, instead of acting like Donald Trump. And I think we're doing the right thing here.
TAPPER: I do have time for one more question. I just want to ask you--
KLOBUCHAR: Oh, good!
TAPPER: When you - when you look at - when you look at the exit polls, and you look at how close this election continues to be, with neither Biden nor Trump having secured enough electoral votes, do you think your Party needs to work on connecting to the working-class in a way that you maintained during the primaries was important for your Party?
I mean obviously, Joe Biden isn't necessarily having as much of a problem as some of your other House and Senate candidates, and I'm wondering if you think that reckoning needs to happen with the Democratic Party and the Democratic leadership? KLOBUCHAR: Well, I'm not ready to comment on exactly what happened here when you look at some of these Senate and House races. I start out with the fact that these were in states like Alaska and in Montana, where you've had significant Trump vote.
That being said, I think so much of this is going to depend on the economic agenda, and what we can get done, with Joe Biden, working with the House, working with the Democrats in the Senate, and then, in his unique way, being able to work with some of the Republicans, something that I have done throughout my career in the Senate.
We are going to have to come up with some way to work with them. There's no doubt about that. But let me be clear. There are so many people suffering economically right now.
And the problems we had before the pandemic, problems with paying off student loans, hard for people to get training, hard for people to be able to get child care, all of those remain unsolved for so many Americans. So, we just have to get to work.
And enough of this garbage of just the constant, constant Republican attacks on everything we want to do. I think the American people are not going to stomach it anymore, and Joe Biden's victories in these states, what I think about to happen in Arizona, and Georgia, and Pennsylvania, and the entire Upper Midwest--
TAPPER: Right.
KLOBUCHAR: --I think that's a message to them too, Jake. That's a message to them.
TAPPER: OK. Senator Klobuchar, thank you so much.
KLOBUCHAR: OK.
TAPPER: Really appreciate you stopping by today.
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you.
TAPPER: We are standing by for new numbers at the top of the hour from more states where the vote is very close. Stay with us. Our special coverage continues next.
[21:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We're getting deeper into the second night of the presidential election, awaiting more results in key battlegrounds. I'm Wolf Blitzer.
Tonight, former Vice President Biden is looking to run up the score, and seal a victory, while President Trump is filing legal challenges before the final outcome is known.
With six states still too early to call, votes are being counted into the night, including in Arizona and Georgia. Those key battlegrounds are preparing to roll out more vote tallies soon. Stand by for that. This, as Biden needs 17 more electoral votes to reach the magic number of 270, while President Trump is holding right now at 213.
Let's get a key race alert right now. All right, we're looking at these three states.
Arizona, let's start in Arizona, 84 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden maintains his lead of nearly 80,000 votes right now in Arizona, 50.7 percent to 47.9 percent.
In Nevada, 86 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden is ahead there, but by only by about 7,600 votes, 49.3 percent to 48.7 percent.
Look at Georgia right now, how that gap has narrowed. 95 percent of the estimated vote in Georgia is in. Trump is ahead, but only, only by 37,000 votes or so, 49.8 percent to 49 percent, that lead that the President has, over Biden in Georgia, has really shrunk over these past few hours.
Let's go over to David Chalian right now.
We're taking a closer look at Pennsylvania right now, David, as well.
CHALIAN: That third piece of the blue wall that Joe Biden's trying to rebuild. Take a look at the state of play. Donald Trump with 50.8 percent, Joe Biden trailing at 47.9 percent, that's with 88 percent of the estimated vote in, a lead for Donald Trump of 186,755 votes.
Now, here is what we know about the outstanding vote. Those ballots, that have not yet been counted, we expect that to be about 800,000 uncounted votes, our rough sort of back-of-the-envelope estimate, not a precise number, but that's about the universe of uncounted votes.
So then we calculate what does each candidate need in order to win the State of Pennsylvania? Well take a look here.
Joe Biden needs between 61 percent and 63 percent of those 800,000 uncounted votes to overtake Donald Trump's lead, and win the State of Pennsylvania. Donald Trump only needs about 36 percent to 38 percent of those uncounted votes, to hang on to his lead, and keep Pennsylvania red.
Here is an important thing to understand though. That 61 percent to 63 percent, that is not out of reach for Joe Biden. The bulk of the votes coming in today, mail votes from Democratic areas, they're going like 78 percent to 22 percent Biden to Trump. He has been getting really big margins in the vote that has been coming in today.
And so, it's not out of the question that Joe Biden could indeed hit that target and overtake Donald Trump, but we have to count these 800,000 votes. It is a lot of votes. Donald Trump needs a lower percentage to hang on to it, so we'll just have to count them and see what's happening in Pennsylvania, as the count goes on, Wolf.
BLITZER: We'll watch it very closely together with you. John King is with us.
You know, it's interesting, you got the popular vote.
KING: Right.
BLITZER: Biden is ahead right now by 3.5 million votes on a popular vote nationwide.
KING: It's amazing in the sense that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote four years ago. We know Donald Trump won the Electoral College. We are waiting tonight to see if we get more votes.
Joe Biden has the chance, if he can get Arizona and Nevada. If he holds his leads there, he would get to 270, and he would be President- elect of the United States.
But the President, who is losing the popular vote, is still in the hunt, if the late states break his way. You'd have to say, you know, trend lines are pointing Biden's way right now, but we are not done, because we have votes to count.
And so, when you just went through, you heard David go through those states, each state is a little bit different. If you look at Georgia, right now, and you are the Biden campaign--
