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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN's Coverage Of The 2020 Presidential Race; Trump Campaign Files Lawsuit In MI, PA, GA; Biden Advisers Say They Feel Good About AZ, GA, PA; Protesters Gathering Outside Arizona Election Site; Race For Presidency Getting Closer As Key Battleground Votes Are Counted; Biden Underperforms Among Latino Voters. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired November 04, 2020 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Biden is at 49.3 percent. Trump is at 48.7 percent. Six electoral votes are at stake right now.
Let's take another look at some of the other states that we are watching right now. Pennsylvania, 20 electoral votes, it's a big prize, 88 percent of the vote is in. Trump is leading by 182,000 votes over Biden, 50.8 percent to 47.9 percent.
In Georgia right now, Trump's lead has shrunk to only 31,748 right now. It was more than 358,000 only last night. 49.7 percent for Trump, Biden 49.1 percent, 5 percent of the estimated votes still outstanding, 95 percent of the estimated now in.
In North Carolina, 15 electoral votes at stake, 95 percent of the estimated vote is in. Trump has a lead, a nice cushion of 76,000 votes. 50.1 percent to 48.6 percent for Biden.
Let's go over to John King at the magic wall. We're watching all of this very closely. You've got your eyes on several of these states. But what are you looking at right now?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm just wandering through some of these states where we see the trends happening here, in George and Pennsylvania for example, big leads for the president. We go back several hours, we go back 24 hours, big leads for the president in both Georgia, commonwealth of Pennsylvania, smaller leads right now. Those trend lines going Biden's way. You go out to Arizona, big lead for former Vice President Biden last night. It's shrinking some as we wait for more votes.
I was just going through some of the counties, I just look at some of the trends. I was looking at Georgia a moment ago. Just brings up one up here again. See the president's lead, 31,748, 50 to 49 if you round the president's 49.7up. It's just important to remember this was 372,000, the president's lead at midnight last night. So what has been happening?
They're counting ballots. Nothing wrong with that. That's a big shift. But it's a big shift because they're counting ballots and most of it has come right here. So we had been waiting for quite some time, Wolf, to see if we get more of it. So I just want to go in and pull out some of these Fulton County, is Atlanta, again up to 94 percent.
So, if you're Joe Biden, you are trying to figure out where are the big Democratic areas. Atlanta and the surrounding suburbs (inaudible) one of them, 94 percent up to a thousand ballots still left there. We will wait and see. This has been the biggest boom for Joe Biden, I'll turn the illustration off, so it doesn't distract. This has been the biggest boom, and this is important, still at 90 percent. And he's getting 83 percent and just look, 300,000 votes to 57,000 votes.
So, this is a big population center, big populated suburb here. Still 10 percent to go DeKalb County will go a long way in saying whether Joe Biden comes back. You look around, you are trying to find places, are there votes here for the president. We come down here, we were told earlier that Holston County had some, they were at 90 then, up to about 95 now.
You're just looking to see places. You know that Joe Biden, Atlanta, the suburbs around there, going to wrap up some more votes. Will the president get them? You start ticking around the map, this is what you do at this point just to see anything left out there. 95, again, very small population centers. We are going to pick up some. It's a dozen here. It's a dozen there. Sometimes that doesn't matter, but in a close race, it can.
So, that's one of the things we're looking at. Georgia is fascinating right now as is the commonwealth of Pennsylvania when you pull this up here. Again, you can go back in time and look at this. And the president's lead was you know, I mean, the presidency is much bigger than this last night and now you see what's happening.
Just come out look in the middle of the state, 86 percent, Centre County, Central Pennsylvania. You know, it's more of an even split, but more votes to count here. The challenge will be here. I looked at all the small counties just to see if we get really tight late in the night, you know, where you are looking for a few votes here and there. But the big story here is still waiting on Philadelphia. And I keep checking in to see when you get -- that when we do get votes out of Philadelphia, you're likely to get a big bunch of votes when they report because they're at 70 percent and they've been there for some time.
And again, you see the president's lead. You think can Joe Biden really make that up. That's a big hill. 79 percent of the vote, 457,000 right now with a lot still out. So, if you're at 457 and that's 70 percent, if you continue at 79 percent, you're talking about tens of thousands of votes.
BLITZER: Almost a third of the vote are still available.
KING: Right. So, you are talking about tens of thousands of votes. And so, that is what you are looking at and you go through these states and then as we go west away for more votes out of Arizona, especially Maricopa County. These one is interesting. The last batch of votes reported in Maricopa County, you see it's blue. Joe Biden is winning the County. But the last batch of votes here shrunk Joe Biden's lead. The president made up some ground. And so if you come out the
statewide now you see 79,000, right. That is not a comfortable lead when you have still more than a hundred thousand votes out. Its double out I think still in Arizona, it might be even higher. So, you're waiting for more of these votes to come in. If you're in the Biden campaign, you're happy about the progress in Georgia.
You're happy about Pennsylvania. The trends are going in your way there. You are hoping you can squeeze it in. But you have to be a little bit nervous about Arizona. And I just want to come over here, Wolf and say just where we are because it's been a long two days and this may take longer. This may take a third day, and it could possibly take --
BLITZER: Nothing wrong with that.
KING: Absolutely nothing wrong with that. Remember the collision of the coronavirus and this campaign. It's making it a more arduous task to count the votes. It's just a fact. They're good people, they're counting votes, and we will watch them.
[23:05:05]
But you see, 253 to 213. We began the day, Joe Biden -- the president has not moved today. His number has not moved since sunrise here on the East Coast today. Joe Biden's number has moved, plus 29. He picked up this Nebraska Congressional district. He picked up two of the Congressional districts in Maine.
And the biggest news on this day after the election as we continue to count the votes, 16 in Michigan, 10 in Wisconsin, those are two states that helped make Donald Trump the president of the United States, two of the three, Pennsylvania the other piece of the blue wall.
So, you're looking at this now. And if you're in the Biden campaign and you're optimistic, you say we're leading there. Only 70,000 votes, but 7,000 votes here you are leading. Here you have a lead, shrinking a little bit, you still have it. Those two would be enough. Will we get them tonight? We don't know.
The expectation is out of Nevada. We are waiting to see Clarke County, more votes tonight. We may have a long wait there into tomorrow. We'll see. We will get more out of Arizona tonight. Will it be enough to project the state? We don't know. We have to see those votes. But Joe Biden could get to the finish line right here. The question is does he come back enough here and here to have something on the sort of 300 if he doesn't get them all?
Maybe the math is a little different or let's come back to where we are now. Will it be the case that the president defends this lead, keeps that, keeps that -- we know he's leading up here in Maine's other Congressional district, the second Congressional district. And so, if the president gets here, right? All places here, then we fight it out here because the president will get Alaska as well.
So, you could get the president completely within the realm that the president of the United States gets up to 268 and then Arizona and Nevada would settle the race. So, there's different scenarios. All the campaigns are still running through them right now.
BLITZER: Let's check in with David Chalian. David, what are you looking at?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Wolf, we're taking a look at Arizona and Nevada to see sort of what to watch for as we get more votes over the next several hours from both of those states. In Arizona, the current state of the race, Joe Biden in the lead 50.7 percent to Donald Trump's 47.9 percent. That's with 84 percent of the vote in. And after that last additional vote, Joe Biden's lead narrowed to 79,173 votes on top of Donald Trump.
Now, take a look at what we know about the outstanding vote. This is what we're waiting to see when the next delivery of a batch of votes comes in. This uncounted vote, 515,000, will go down. Of this universe of 515,000 votes, we've calculated that Joe Biden needs about 40 to 42 percent of them in order to maintain his lead and flip this state that Donald Trump won four years ago.
Donald Trump, for his part, needs to get about 55 percent to 57 percent of this universe of 515,000, our rough estimate of the total outstanding vote universe. He needs 55 percent to 57 percent in order to overcome Joe Biden's lead and hang on to Arizona. Not an impossible task, but certainly a bigger vote share than he is currently getting statewide in the total at 47.9 percent.
We also are taking a look in Nevada because we know in the next few hours we're going to get some results from Nevada. Take a look at the state of the play right now. It's been solid all day because they just haven't been reporting votes. You see Joe Biden 49.3 percent to Donald Trump's 48.7 percent. That's with 86 percent of the estimated vote in. That's a 7,647 vote lead Biden has over Trump.
We expect there are about 200,000 outstanding votes to be counted in Nevada. That's again, just a rough estimate. Assuming that is the right universe of uncounted ballots, Joe Biden would need 45 percent to 47 percent of them in order to hang on to his lead in Nevada and keep this Clinton 2016 state in the Democratic column.
Donald Trump would need about 52 percent to 54 percent of that universe of 200,000 uncounted ballots in Nevada. Again, not entirely out of reach, but that would do it to overtake Joe Biden's lead in Nevada and actually flip a state that he lost four years ago. You see his current percentage is 48.7 percent.
So, it's a little bit higher. He's got to get -- he's got to improve his performance when these 200,000 votes start to get counted from what it is statewide right now. But it's not completely out of his reach, so we've got to count those votes in Nevada. Wolf?
BLITZER: All right. David, thanks very much.
How big of a challenge is that for what's going on out west right now for the president. KING: It's a challenge as David noted. Donald Trump has to turn in,
you know, higher performance in both states than he is right now. The question is, is it available to him? And if -- you know, if you go back -- rough wind back about three hours, you would be a little bit more skeptical. But we did see, again, the last votes that came in from Maricopa County, the president narrowed it some.
So, you see this blue, and if you haven't followed a lot of presidential elections, this is one of the big changing states. Georgia too, that's why Georgia has tighten.
[23:10:01]
These are the states in the Sun Belt that are changing demographically. Joe Biden did very well with seniors, we have a lot of those in Arizona. Joe Biden is winning the suburbs which have sort of revolted against President Trump. But you see this blue right now and you think OK, you know, this is 60 percent, or more of the state's vote. Joe Biden is carrying it with 52 percent. Basic math tells you whether Joe Biden is going to win the state except it's a little more complicated when you look at the history.
This was once reliably Republican territory. Not since Bill Clinton. With the help of (inaudible) as a Democrat carry Arizona for president. So, if you go back four years ago, the president not only carried Maricopa County, he carried the state. It was close, it was a 4.5 point race back then. But this was a Republican state. So, when you see it now and you see this blue, that's advantage Biden. They're in the lead right now. But there are a good deal of Republican votes that could come in here when we get more votes for Maricopa County and that is the key.
Most of the votes are here. It's the biggest vote center. Joe Biden needs when we get more votes out of Maricopa County, you want your lead statewide to be going up. Last time it went down. We'll get some votes from Pima, although they are at 91 percent right now. We'll see. We'll see some local reports there if they stopped counting for the night. Maybe they're done. And we haven't gotten an update on that number or maybe they had to get some tomorrow.
But if there are more votes out of Pima County, the expectation would be they would be Democratic votes. But then you see the smaller counties. You know, Sedona is here. Look at what the president (inaudible) says 99 percent. So, perhaps they're done here for him. But you move over here. We were talking to the Secretary of State earlier today. And she says there's some more votes here. Again, it's not big math but it adds up if you get a bunch of them.
BLITZER: The numbers in Pennsylvania narrowing a little bit right now. We keep seeing it happen. Let's take a look at Pennsylvania right now. You see the lead that the president has gone back 164,414. 89 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania is in. That means 11 percent outstanding.
KING: That is. So, two things we want to do. The first thing I want to do is check in. We're still at 70 percent in Philadelphia. So, when I see the numbers move, the first thing you want to see is where did they come from? If they come from here, it's imperative that Joe Biden makes a big move. He has to close the gap a lot with Philadelphia. So, it's not Philadelphia and he's closing the gap some. If you're in the Biden campaign you're thinking we still got a shot at this.
Now, I just want to go back in time to play this out, right. And let's go all the way back to the beginning here. This is Pennsylvania and you see, midnight, 548,000, right. The president looks like he's comfortably ahead at midnight. Then you come through here to 2:00 a.m., he builds it to 709,000 in Pennsylvania. 3:00 a.m., it starts to shrink a little bit, 589,000 and change. Then you come here, by 3:00 this afternoon, you see down to 435. And then at 5:00 in the afternoon, there you go.
So, right now, at that point, is the day went through this is 6:00 in the Trump campaign headquarters saying, whoa, we have a problem here. The votes are coming and then you get to 9:00. You're down to 195. And then you come back out live now, excuse me, I hit the map wrong. But come back out here now and you're live and you see what you get. You're down to 164,000.
So, the trend line here is not good for the president. He absolutely -- this is 20 electoral votes. If Joe Biden takes this -- look at your math right over your shoulder here. We've been talking a lot about Arizona and Nevada. The two of those if you add it up could put Joe Biden over the top.
If we have to wait for those and we're waiting for these and for some reason Joe Biden could roll back and get that, forget about it, right. So, the president absolutely positively must hold his lead here if he wants to have a prayer, if Joe Biden takes the commonwealth of Pennsylvania we want to count the others to get to the final total. But we will be past the finish line if Joe Biden could turn the state where he was born blue. Still counting the votes.
BLITZER: We should be getting some more numbers fairly soon. Let's go back to Jake, a lot of nail biters going on right now, Jake.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: That's right. We're all on the edges of our seats. So, let's check in with the campaigns right now. Kaitlan Collins is at the White House. Kaitlan, what are you hearing?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now they're of course still waiting to see what's happening in Arizona. But Jake, we are now hearing that the Trump campaign is considering taking legal action in Arizona and in Nevada according to two sources. Now, they don't appear to have made a final decision on that but we are told internally that is something that they are considering right now as those two states are still very much counting votes.
And while we've seen a lot of legal challenges coming out of the Trump campaign today, they don't really have much else to do as they're seeing their numbers and the president's chances of being reelected continue to shrink, we should point out that a lot of these legal challenges seem to be long shots. And they've been based on pretty thin cases. And even it doesn't appear that they could substantially change the
dynamic of this presidential race. But that is what the campaign is doing there as the president has instructed his aides to do, to pursue lawsuits in several of these states. Because he believes that what is happening is unfair to him as of course, he's made clear on Twitter. T
But Jake, the other thing to consider here is the campaign does not have a lot of money and recounts like they said that they want in Wisconsin and these lawsuits that they're filing are expensive. So, that is why we are seeing a desperate attempt by the Trump campaign to try to fund raise money right now.
We heard the Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel earlier was asking for money. We've seen several emails and texts go out from the Trump campaign. Usually you get those in the last few days of the race. Not after the race. Of course, it's already happening and the votes are still coming in.
[23:15:10]
But that is what the campaign is doing right now. That's basically what the president is sitting back and watching as they're waiting to see what these numbers are going to look like. And we should also note part of these lawsuits is also a deflection technique because it can help slow down the votes in states where they think that the president is going to lose.
TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan, what I don't understand is right now Trump trails Biden in Arizona and Nevada. So, it would be common sense to want to have the voting continue in those states because to stop the voting he would be behind. I understand that these aren't necessarily the most thought out litigation strategies, but why? Why would -- I mean is there any grounds for any complaint or grievance in those states?
COLLINS: These litigation strategies are being thought out of by the moment, Jake. We should make sure that is really clear to the people who are watching. You saw it in Michigan earlier. They were already threatening legal action there and they hadn't even actually called the state of Michigan yet.
So, of course in Arizona, you know the question is why would they do that? They haven't done it yet. We should note, they are only thinking about it. They are likely waiting to see how these numbers are going to play out and whether in about an hour we find out if this margin is going to get better for President Trump or worse for President Trump.
That's obviously going to factor. We saw that happen with Georgia. As soon as the president's lead started shrinking there. And then they announced they were going to launch, this lawsuit that only affects about 50 votes, I believe 53 votes exactly. So, of course, you know, the legal basis behind a lot of these is not strong.
TAPPER: To say the least. All right. Kaitlan Collins at the White House. Thank you so much. Let's go to Arlette Saenz. She is covering the Biden campaign in Wilmington, Delaware. And Arlette, obviously nothing is more suggestive of the fact that President Trump doesn't think he's going to win than the legal flailing that we're seeing coming from his camp. What are you picking up from team Biden?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, the mood inside Biden's campaign right now is one of confidence, as Biden is inching closer to that 270 electoral votes that they are hoping to attain. They are watching these results that are coming in over the course of the night very closely in Georgia. They're feeling good about the way things currently stand. They're keeping an eye on those counties in that Atlanta area where they are hoping that they can continue to shrink the margin with President Trump.
And Georgia is one of those states. The Biden campaign has long said is an expansion state that they hope they could win to help complicate President Trump's path to the presidency. You saw Joe Biden going in there in the final stretch of the campaign. The campaign also sent in their most powerful surrogate, President Obama that they were hoping to drive up some of that Democratic support in that state that has been a reliably red state.
Now, looking over at Arizona, the Biden campaign is still feeling well about their prospects there. They've acknowledged that the vote could tighten a bit in that state, but they ultimately don't believe that their current standing will be overcome there in Arizona. But so much of their strategy is still hinging on that blue wall.
At the start of the day, they projected confidence about maintaining that strength -- position of strength in the blue wall. Right now they have two of the three states that they were hoping to re-establish. They have won Wisconsin and Michigan, and they are confident and hopeful about the way things are progressing over in Pennsylvania.
And Jake, it was just almost 24 hours ago where Joe Biden stood on that stage right behind me and urged his supporters to have patience. And that is something that he and his campaign continue to lean on as the votes continue to come in.
TAPPER: All right. Arlette Saenz with the Biden campaign in Delaware. It is -- let's chat about this. So, Dana, I mean, one of the things we need to acknowledge is once again we still don't know who's going to be the president --
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Nope.
TAPPER: The presidency hangs in the balance. Joe Biden is ahead in electoral votes and is leading in several states. Trump is leading in Georgia and Pennsylvania. We don't know what's going to happen. The ways that these two candidates and their campaigns are behaving could not be more different. Donald Trump and this flailing -- this lawsuit flailing really suggests much more in terms of their own pessimism than anything we're seeing on the board.
BASH: I totally agree with you. And we don't know who is going to be president. What we do know is that we're going to continue to see waves of new vote counts coming in from the early votes, from absentee ballots, from these remaining really, really crucial states that both of these candidates need.
[23:20:09]
But for right now, given the fact that Wisconsin and Michigan -- I think that was today. That was today at CNN.
TAPPER: Yes, that was right. A few hours ago.
BASH: Whatever today means anymore, called for Joe Biden. That it gives Joe Biden a much more, many more options right now. But the one thing that I am just thinking of as we are, you know, getting late into the night again and we are seeing more results not just from the presidential, but also from the Congressional races is how much Democrats in particular are really, really relying on and hoping to get this win in the White House.
Not just because it's the White House and everything that goes along with it, especially since they so want to get Donald Trump out, but because they feel that they really did not do well and failed across the board, not entirely, but in many, many races for the United States Senate where Democrats thought that they had it frankly in the bag not that long ago. And tonight we see Republican after Republican who was vulnerable eking it out for another term.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I mean, it really makes me think about if there is a Biden presidency what governance will look like in Washington with this kind of divided government for perhaps, you know, maybe another two years, another four years. It's just that Democrats for so long have focused so heavily on the White House because President Trump is such a polarizing figure and because President Trump really used the presidency as a bludgeon against his enemies, including his predecessor, trying to undo everything that Barack Obama did.
They're very focus on the presidency, and it's important to them. But there are a lot of agenda items, big picture agenda items the Democrats have on health care, on the economy that are going to require a cooperative Congress.
And it's going to be tough going, particularly if Republicans are able to hold on to the Senate and Democrats end up with a narrowed majority in the House of Representatives. It's just going to be tough going. This is not going to be the panacea, perhaps, that some Democrats hoped for.
BASH: Particularly since this the majority in the House already is quite diverse ideologically and it will be even more apparent how diverse they are when it looks like the majority, as you said, is going to be slimmer. More Republicans won seats in the House than any Democrat, and frankly even some Republicans anticipated.
TAPPER: During the Obama years when Joe Biden was vice president, he and Mitch McConnell were able to do deals together. There were many times that --
BASH: That's right. TAPPER: -- the Senate and Barack Obama were miles apart and Biden and
McConnell, old time Senate deal makers, were able to sit down and negotiate. I don't know what the dynamics of this relationship would be like. I suspect that in some ways Joe Biden would appreciate being in the driver's seat and being able to tell the left of his party, this is the only way I can do things. But by the same token, he's going to have a whole leftward flank that he needs to appease.
PHILLIP: That is definitely true, especially when it comes to the House of Representatives. But I also wonder -- I mean, McConnell in the Obama years was -- I mean, McConnell is a strong partisan, but he was able to work with Biden, in part because he also had other Senators who were in some cases of like mind thinking of the Senate as a statement, as the aghast sort of body that it's supposed to be. I think the Senate has changed. Dana, I don't know what you think about that. But it feels to me like so many of these Senate Republicans now are in the Trumpian mode.
BASH: Exactly.
TAPPER: All right. While we're standing by for new vote numbers from some of the remaining battleground states that will decide this election, we're going to go live there next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:25:00]
BLITZER: We're here at the magic wall. John King is here. We're checking what's going on in several of the key battlegrounds right now. I want to go out to Arizona. Kyung Lah is in Phoenix for us. What do we know Kyung, what's the latest? What are you hearing?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In just about one hour, Wolf, what we are anticipating is that there's going to be another ballot result. We're going to get another bit of data from Maricopa County where they are diligently counting the votes. We anticipate that that will be the last bit of ballot information that we're going to get for today.
So, I kind of want to walk you through exactly some of the stuff we've seen happening in the last couple hours or so. I want to start here because these are the good people who are working here counting the vote, doing the important and you know, at times the tedious job of American democracy.
Now, I'm going to have you follow me this way. And the reason we're walking this way is because there has been a security situation here at the Maricopa County elections department, and this security situation -- listen.
(CROWD CHANTING): (Inaudible).
LAH: Kevin Myers (ph), step forward just a little bit further. You can see a line of law enforcement here, the sheriff's department and a very large crowd. It is hard for me to tell exactly how large this crowd is, but you can see for yourself there are a lot of red hats. There are a lot of Trump signs. And there is a lot of chanting.
I want to remind everybody here that this is outside the very office where they are counting the votes where we are hoping to learn a little bit more about which way Arizona's 11 electoral votes are going to go. A lot of the people inside there are continuing to do this very important work. This is what they're seeing as I try to do that, Wolf?
BLITZER: All right, Kyung, be careful over there. We'll get back to you. The 80,000 votes that the Biden lead in Arizona, right now, 84 percent of the vote is in. John, stand by for a moment. I want to go to Sara Murray. She's in Philadelphia for us right now, another battle underway there. What are you hearing? What are you seeing?
SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't hear anything.
BLITZER: Sara, can you hear me? Can you hear me, Sara? All right, we're going to get back to Sara shortly. Let's talk about Arizona and then Pennsylvania. We'll get to Sara Murray in a moment.
KING: And so, here in the Biden campaign, if you're just joining us, if you haven't been with us the past two days, you look at this and you say, okay, 79,000 votes. Joe Biden has a lead in Arizona. That looks good, 84 percent of the vote in.
However, Joe Biden's lead was a lot bigger than that. If we got through the night, we can actually go back and go quickly through it. Let me bring this up and just we go through it here for you. Let me bring this out and we make sure we have the right state here.
We go Arizona and we come back. If you go to Arizona, look, just at midnight last night, right, so 24 hours ago, Joe Biden had a lead in Arizona of 207,000 votes. You see it's starting to slip overnight as they count. These are east coast time so, the west coast is out there, 155, 130, 93, and then it got down to 79.
And now, we come up to real time where we are, 79,173 votes. So, you're still ahead and that's what you want, but your lead has been shrinking as they count votes, and that's the dynamic. It's working the other way. It's working in Joe Biden's favor in Pennsylvania, in Joe Biden's favor in Georgia, but against Joe Biden right now in the state of Arizona.
And Wolf, the reason we're watching these handful of states that we have left is that Joe Biden is very close, 253 electoral votes. So he's knocking at the door. He's 17 away, and he can get there with Arizona and Nevada. There are other ways too, but he's leading in Arizona and Nevada, which is why it's so important.
Kyung Lah just said they think they're going to have more votes here in an hour. Those votes will be in Maricopa County, largest county by far, 60 percent of the vote in the state comes out of this county. The question is, when they bring in more votes here, Joe Biden has to build this lead.
If Joe Biden's lead continues to shrink that would be a warning sign because there aren't as many votes in these other red counties. They are smaller and rural counties, but if Joe Biden's lead starts to go down here and they start counting votes up here, then it gets interesting and we just have to keep watching them.
BLITZER: It gets interesting in Pennsylvania, right, too.
KING: It sure does. So we'd come over and Sara Murray is standing in the most important spot in Pennsylvania. So hopefully we establish communications with her because again, you look at this, 164,000 looks like a healthy lead. That lead was a lot bigger as well last night.
This is one of the states trending in Joe Biden's favor, 51 if you round up to 48, a lot of votes, right, 3.2 million to 3 million and some change there, but 89 percent reporting. So, we're still counting and we're waiting.
And just as, if you can bring Sara back in if we have her, you know, 79 percent of the vote Joe Biden is getting in Philadelphia right now. That's what we're waiting for. They're at 70 percent, a lot of votes.
BLITZER: Sara is ready. She's in Philadelphia for us. Sara, what are you seeing? What are you hearing over there?
MURRAY: Well, look, you guys, all right, there is a lot of vote that's still coming in. But there are still a lot to be counted. You know, as far as mail-in ballots, there are still more than 763,000 mail-in ballots that still have not been counted. You know, that's a big deal.
That could still be a game changer when it comes to this race. Here in Philadelphia County alone, there are 120,000 mail-in ballots that still haven't been counted. You know, we know these big counties like Philadelphia County for instance, are working overnight. They're trying to kind of chug through these totals.
It just takes a while. But in a sign that I think this count may be going a little bit faster than we previously anticipated, the secretary of state, Kathy Boockvar, said on another network tonight that she now expects the vast majority of this counting to be done by tomorrow.
Previously, she was saying it could still be a couple of days, so it seems like that timeline is moving up. And I can't say this enough. We haven't heard of any big issues. We haven't heard of any big problems. Everything seems to be going smoothly. It just takes a while because it's a lot of mail-in ballots.
BLITZER: Yes, it is, 763,000 ballots still there. They got to count that. That's a lot there, John.
KING: Right. So, you're looking at just Philadelphia right here. These numbers are going to shrink as I do this. Let me turn off the telestrator so I could shrink this back. That's 763 -- let me clear that because it's a little confusing the way it just faded there -- 763,000 votes still could be counted, a 164,000 vote lead for the president of the United States. And again, the trend line over the last 24 hours has been dramatically
in Joe Biden's favor. So, especially given that so many of those votes are here in the southeastern part of the state, we'll bring it up here, you know, Philadelphia itself as Sara just noted, 30 percent of the votes still to be counted.
This is an overwhelming Democratic city. When they count those votes, Joe Biden is going to close the gap. When they count the remaining votes here in Montgomery County, not as many, they're up to 95 percent, Joe Biden likely to gain some votes there.
It's not guaranteed. There could be some Republicans with mailed-in ballots as well, but you see this blue on the map, Joe Biden, Chester County there. So you see the blue here. You see the blue out in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Joe Biden has been picking up steam here with that many ballots still out.
That's a very nervous moment in the Trump campaign. Joe Biden comes back and pulls ahead in Pennsylvania and carry Pennsylvania, just forget about it.
[23:35:02]
BLITZER: Where Jim Acosta say the president's freaking out about Pennsylvania right now. He's watching it very closely thinking about Georgia especially right now as well. Pamela Brown, you're getting some new information on Pennsylvania. What are you hearing?
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And one county that the president is focused on is Eerie County, and here's why. Eerie County was a county that the president flipped in 2016. It was one of three counties that helped him win Pennsylvania.
But if you'll recall in October, the president went back to Eerie and here's what he said. He said, I wasn't coming to Eerie, I have to be honest, there's no way I was coming. I didn't have to. And then we got hit with the plague. I had to go back to work. Hello, Eerie. May I please have your vote?
He thought he had it in the bag. Then COVID hit, and now let's look at the numbers and that trend line we're talking about in Philadelphia. As you see right here, there's 17,000 votes left to count. These are early votes there in Eerie County.
The margin right now, Trump is only ahead around 6,000 votes. And I just spoke to an official tonight in Eerie County who tells me the trim line right with counting these absentee ballots in Eerie County has been 4 to 1 in Biden's favor. John King, I'll let you put that in perspective.
KING: Well, we've just seen, again, that matches what we've seen in other parts of the state. We know, again, remember one of the reasons this is taking a long time and people are frustrated, especially if you have a high stake, high intensity in this election, you want to know who the winner is. Remember, a lot of people voted by mail, a ton of people in a big
state like the commonwealth (ph) where Pennsylvania voted by mail. Then there are the people who voted early by standing in line. Then there was the Election Day turnout.
I know I'm repeating this throughout the day if you've been with us, but it's just important to understand. That's why it's taking so long because it's unprecedented especially in a place like Pennsylvania which has not really have a history of this.
So, Eerie County, if Joe Biden can make up ground here it's very important. Wolf, you know this territory well. You're from Buffalo. You come down here. This is blue collar territory, one of the places where Donald Trump has made big inroads for himself and the Republican Party in recent years, important math.
BLITZER: Yes, he went there and he's -- he was working it hard. Pamela, you're getting new information on Georgia as well.
BROWN: Yes, that's right. The campaign may not only be going for a recount in Wisconsin. I'm also learning from a source tonight familiar with the legal strategy for the Trump campaign, that they're also eyeing Georgia as they're watching that margin get tighter and tighter and tighter.
There are discussions. There is talk about if Donald Trump loses in Georgia and the margin is tight enough that the Trump campaign will also push for a recount in there in Georgia.
Now, I spoke to another source who was still staying optimistic in the Trump campaign saying, look, Trump is still ahead there. We could still pull it off. But that is a reality the Trump campaign is facing now as they see their chances there dwindle.
And when it comes to a recount, this is how tight it has to be in Georgia. It has to be less than .5 percent of a margin in order for the campaign to be able to push for a recount there. And so, as we watch those numbers, it will be interesting to see how it turns out.
BLITZER: And David Chalian is getting some new information on Pennsylvania and Georgia as well. What are you picking up, David?
CHALIAN: Yes. We want to take a look at the state of the race and what is left to count. So, here is where things stand in Pennsylvania. You were just talking to Sara Murray. Donald Trump has a lead, 50.7 percent to 48.1 percent. That's with 89 percent of the estimated vote in.
That is a lead of 164,414 votes, Trump over Biden. That is a lead that has been shrinking. We think there are about 765,000 outstanding votes. I think Sara said 763,000. We're rounding up here, the 765,000 uncounted votes according to the secretary of state's office.
Look at what Joe Biden needs to win to overcome Donald Trump's lead. He needs 59 to 61 percent of those 765,000 outstanding votes to overtake Trump and flip Pennsylvania blue. It sounds like a high percentage, but you just heard what Pam said about Eerie County.
These absentee ballots are coming in 4 to 1. Joe Biden is getting sort of 78 percent, 79 percent of these votes that are coming in right now from Democratic areas with the mail vote. So, it's not impossible for him to hit that target.
Donald Trump, for his part, only needs to hit between 39 and 41 percent of that remaining 765,000 bucket of votes left in Pennsylvania in order to keep his lead and keep the state. But this is a totally achievable number for Joe Biden, so we'll just have to watch as the votes are counted to see if he can close the gap.
In Georgia, we are looking to see, is Donald Trump going to be hold on to that lead? Look at where he is right now. He's got 49.7 percent of the vote to Joe Biden's 49.1 percent. That's with 95 percent of the estimated vote in. That is a lead of 31,748 votes, a razor thin lead in the Georgia race.
What is left to count? About 90,000 outstanding ballots. That is according to the secretary of state. Now, there are some models out there that think maybe there's a larger universe of uncounted ballots in Georgia.
[23:40:01]
But I just want to go right now with our reporting from the secretary of state's office. They expect around 90,000 uncounted votes in Georgia is what is left. Well, what would Joe Biden need? He would need about 53 to 55 percent of those 90,000 votes in order to overtake Donald Trump and actually win Georgia.
I just want to tell you, all the vote coming in for Joe Biden today in Georgia that has helped him close the gap, he's getting about an average of 71 percent of the votes that are coming in today. So, 71 is a lot higher than what he needs there - 53 to 55 percent of those remaining 90,000 votes.
Donald Trump needs only 44 to 46 percent of those outstanding 90,000 ballots. If he gets that range, he is likely to hold on to Georgia and keep it red, Wolf.
BLITZER: More votes are about to come in from the handful of battleground states that will make or break the election for President Trump and Joe Biden. Our special coverage will continue right after this.
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[23:45:00]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: We are waiting more votes from Arizona. A lot of interest in seeing what we can learn in the next few minutes in the state of Arizona. Florida, of course battleground state. We are looking at the -- at how Joe Biden's underperforming among Latino voters. According CNN's exit polls, 52 percent of Latino voters in Florida supported Joe Biden, a 10 percent drop from the 62 percent of Latino support Hillary Clinton got last election in that state.
Joining me now, CNN Political Commentator, Ana Navarro who campaigned for Biden in Florida. Anna, it's one thing to talk about the Latino vote but as you've talk about before especially in Florida, there is such variety among the voters in that state, Cuban, Venezuelan, people from Central America, Nicaragua, Puerto Ricans who have left the island in the wake of the storm there. Why do you think Biden underperformed?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, you know, here in Florida and frankly around the country, it's you know, 31 flavors of Latinos. And so when we talk about the Latino vote, it can be very, very misunderstood and misguided to just try to paint it in one broad stroke.
And I want to talk to you about that because, look, I think we allowed ourselves to define the Latino vote yesterday by what happened in Miami-Dade where it cratered. It cratered for Joe Biden and it was an exercise, a four-year of building by Donald Trump of working the community, of coming up here, of talking about socialism, talking about communism, drilling that in, and it paid off for him.
The Puerto Rican vote, a little bit up the road, a few hours up the road in central Florida. Actually Joe Biden's numbers held. He got 72 percent there according to the exit polls and did much, much better. And Anderson, we've spent all night talking about Arizona.
In Arizona, 700,000 Latinos voted. And Joe Biden and some counties got as much as 78 percent. His total -- his average in Arizona was 75 percent. So, we've got to keep in mind, and I think we talked a lot about Miami yesterday because it was shocking.
Okay, I felt like a doll who had the stuffing plucked out of her when I saw those numbers. But the numbers around the country have been much better for Joe Biden than we are talking about. There's a new Latino senator in Colorado because of the Latino vote.
And the Colorado seat flipped because of the Latino vote. If Joe Biden pulls it off in Arizona, it's in large part because of the Latino vote and because we organize there. Latinos organize there for 10 years in response to Joe Arpaio and to SB-1070. And so, you know, it's like a study and contrast almost what happened in Arizona and what happened in Miami.
COOPER: Do you think the Biden campaign focused on Latino voters enough?
NAVARRO: I think they focused on Latino voters a lot around the country. Look, there were 135,000 Latinos who voted in Wisconsin. Upwards of 75 or 70 percent for Biden. I think that in Miami-Dade, frankly, they were bombarded and by the time they showed up here, by the time Joe Biden had been elected the nominee, the pie had been baked. And you also have to remember that here in Florida, in Miami, Donald
Trump counts with the alliance and with the structure and ground game of Marco Rubio, and of Mario Diaz-Balart, and of Rick Scott, and of Governor Ron DeSantis.
So, the playing field advantage that existed here with the Latinos and there is something about Donald Trump's idiosyncrasy and his message of, you know, his demagoguery and just - look, Latinos in Miami, so many of us are traumatized. We fled communism.
So you start talking to us about radical left and you start talking to us about communism and socialism and it triggers an emotional reaction. It triggers trauma and it triggers fear, past fear. So many of us lived it firsthand.
And so, it's a very different scenario. And also keep this in mind, the Latinos in Miami keep on voting. Miami is 3 percent of the national vote.
COOPER: Yes.
NAVARRO: And so, you know, what happened here was dramatic. It cost congressional seats. It cost two congressional seats for Democrats who lost them last night here in Miami and seats up and down the state legislature, but it does not paint a picture for what happened nationally for Joe Biden.
[23:49:59]
And if Joe Biden becomes the next president that reaches 270 votes, the Latinos have no small part in it.
COOPER: Yes, Anna Navarro, appreciate it. We are watching obviously Arizona and Nevada very closely right now. Back now with our panel here. We're expecting these votes, this last batch of votes tonight from Arizona. Probably, I mean, supposedly within the next hour.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I'm told by supporters of the vice president, that they do expect with each succeeding release, that this gap will narrow. They're of the mind that it's not going to narrow enough. And I don't know that we're going to be in a position to judge that tonight. But, you know, we'll see how pronounced the drop is. And if it doesn't happen, then I think they'll --
COOPER: You are hearing confidence from Biden supporters?
AXELROD: Yes. Yes. But, also, an acknowledgment that the race is tightening and it may continue to tighten here.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I think they may be, in a way, more confident about Pennsylvania than they might be about Arizona right now. But, let's just point out that all these races that we're looking at are dynamic.
And we, you know, we're talking of both campaigns and they're looking at different sets of voters that they think will come out for them and we just don't know. We haven't covered an election like this before. We don't know about all this early voting and the counting early and the counting later. And so, it's kind of -- it's more dynamic I think than it's been in a very long time.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's also, you know, they showed the protestors and demonstrators there, and that's, you know, a very big show of force. People can feel intimidated by that. But the crazy thing is they literally have opposite chants.
So, it's count the votes in Arizona. In Michigan, its stop the vote. So the Trump people literally arguing the opposite thing. They are out there chanting, stop the vote, count the vote.
BORGER: Or steal the vote.
JONES: So, I think, you know, tensions are high. People are upset or whatever. But the reality is nobody knows how this is going to work out. But what I think is interesting, you don't see Biden supporters doing any of that.
Same stakes. Same concern. You don't see large numbers of Biden supporters going and trying to intimidate and challenge. You don't see Biden supporters going and filing lawsuit after lawsuit, most of them frivolous and silly.
Because I think the Biden team has a confidence that the American people have rendered a judgment and that judgment is time to move on to a difference style of governance. So, you can see the character of the candidates and the way the campaign is responding right now.
RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I can't really disagree with that. I mean, the Biden camp is very, very confident. I know the Trump camp sees paths. They believe there are paths and there are. I mean, this race is not over, yet.
But, you know, the Biden folks have had an air of confidence. And if you look at Georgia, which we may be getting tonight. And look at how the numbers have come down dramatically and the average. And there's really nothing there that I would see that would say, you know, the next tranche of votes is going to be any different than the tranches that came in before. I just wanted to use --
BORGER: So -- you want to use the word --
SANTORUM: That was for you.
BORGER: What's this, you know, what's this insistence on lawsuits and recount even before you know the count? It seems, to me, that this is not how people who expect to win behave.
JONES: Not at all.
BORGER: They're kind of just throwing everything up against the wall, just in case. And that's how the Biden campaign is very different.
COOOPER: But (inaudible), I mean, I assume comes from the president directly.
JONES: Yes. Absolutely.
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: Yes, hold on. I mean, don't give the impression the Biden campaign isn't deploying people all over the country.
BORGER: Absolutely.
SANTORUM: They are doing it, too.
BORGER: But they're not filing the lawsuits.
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: They're filing because they have credible instances, in the case of Pennsylvania. You've heard me say this before. There is a credible claim that the secretary of state is breaking the law. You can say, well, it's not going to be material. It doesn't matter. When someone's doing something like that, they have every right to go in and tell the secretary --
COOPER: The president is standing up for law and order.
SANTORUM: He is. He is a law-and-order guy.
AXELROD: But it does sound like every time you see the numbers move, suddenly, a report surfaces saying in that state they're going to -- they are playing whack a mole every time the number get unfavorable to them.
JONES: It's not a well-coordinated effort. And I think, some of us who are very concerned are actually kind of surprised. You know, if you look at the fear for the Democrats, you would have, you know, Trump get within, as Pete would say, Mayor Pete would say, cheating distance.
And then, suddenly, you would have him come out and I have won. The fear was Republicans would line up behind him. The president's won. The Republicans did the opposite. They abandoned him when he did that.
[23:55:00]
Then they thought it's going to be this blizzard of lawsuits. We're going to be buried in lawsuits. These lawsuits are scattershot. They're trivial. There maybe a couple of them that are serious - a couple of them maybe serious, but overall, overall, they're not that impressive.
And then there was this concern that, you know, you would then have this big division in the country. You would have unrest in the streets. What you've got is some desperate Trump supporters out there harassing vote counters and mostly a quiet country.
BORGER: And a quiet Donald Trump. JONES: But you know, if Rudy argues these in court, I mean, the scale is right there.
BORGER: But also, Donald Trump was quiet today. I mean, he was on twitter everywhere, right.
SANTORUM: I was going to say, you know, for all those who say that Donald Trump is stoking. Donald Trump isn't doing any of those things right now. So, let's just -- no, he's not.
JONES: The last time he did.
BORGER: He did (inaudible) with stealing the election.
SANTORUM: Going to court doesn't mean you're stoking anything. You are defending your right if you think (inaudible) wrong (ph).
JONES: Last night (inaudible).
AXELROD: Well, you said last night was --
SANTORUM: I agree. And he, as you mentioned --
AXELROD: So he hasn't stoked in 24 hours.
SANTORUM: He was -- he was -- but he was tamped down pretty (inaudible).
COOPER: Arizona, one of the tightest make-or-break races. Tonight, we are standing by to get details a new vote tally as the election -- new tranche, if you will, as the election comes down to the wire. Election night in America continues after this.
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