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Trump's Lead Narrows in Georgia; Race for White House Narrows as Votes are Counted. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 05, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:00:00]

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. It is Thursday, November 5th, 7:00 A.M. in the east and this is election night/morning in America continued. I'm Chris Cuomo with the legend, Don Lemon.

And, look, we saw changes overnight, but more importantly, we now have the tables set and there's a very good likelihood that we have a pretty clear picture by the end of today of which way this country is going to go.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And I think everybody, that would be to everyone's satisfaction, because everyone is on pins and needles, Chris. But you know what? You've got to do the work, as you and I have been saying, every single vote counts and counting every vote takes some time, as we know, because we have been up all night. And we'll do this as long as we have to until we find out who's going to be the next president of the United States.

We've got new numbers coming in this morning, Chris, from the vote count if Georgia that went through the night, and President Trump's lead is eroding there.

CUOMO: Look. The grind is the glory when it comes to counting these votes. It's slow work, it's tedious, it's painstaking, they have to be very exacting, and it takes the time it takes because you want no mistakes. As long as they have powder, we'll keep going, as long as they can powder our faces.

But here's what we know, that the state of play has changed in two fundamental ways, all right? Don just mentioned Arizona, okay? Biden's lead there is shrinking. The president is overperforming. Is there enough vote in the state's largest county, Maricopa, for him to meet or beat Biden? This calls for a key race alert.

All right, we'll get to Arizona, We'll start with Georgia, 16 electoral votes, 96 percent of the estimated vote in and those estimates are just that. They are a close guess, but very often inaccurate. But more important than just how much is out, it's where it's out. We've watched the president's lead slip overnight from somewhere over 30,000 to now, 18,540. This state very much in recount territory, if necessary based on the outcome of the election. But the tale of the tape here is, where is the outstanding vote and what is the ratio of how that batch of votes is coming in? That's where we see Joe Biden having an opportunity to meet or beat the president. Will he? Maybe, maybe not. We'll take you through it at the wall in a second.

Pennsylvania, this is the Megillah (ph), 20 electoral votes. About 90 percent of the vote is in. But, again, the big question, is where is the outstanding vote and that really gives a suggestion of potential strength for Biden? This is the biggest lead we're dealing with. This is the state the president used look for a presumption of finality early on in this.

Look, how far I am ahead in Pennsylvania, and then things just stopped, one of the most gross lies we've heard from this current president. Why? He knew damned well that Pennsylvania counts day of votes first. They never even looked at the mail-in votes until they finished with that. So, of course, we had a skewed sample.

And to his credit, the president did very, very well on day of voting. But now comes the mail-in vote. And as big as that lead is, it started at 600,000-plus, now it's at 164,000. Every time they bring in more vote it, it goes down. The question is, is there enough of an outstanding vote for Joe Biden to meet or beat the president in Pennsylvania? If there is, this race is over.

Onward. Arizona, as we were saying, 11 electoral votes, 86 percent of the vote in. This is the opposite story here. Biden's lead has been going down. Why? Trump is strong. He won Arizona last time. This was the potential flip state for Biden. Maricopa County, you win Maricopa, you win Arizona, but by how much and with what kind of vote?

Here we see the president overperforming in the late-breaking vote there in batches. Are there never votes there for him to meet or beat Biden? If there are changes the state of this race. We'll take you through the details in a moment.

It leaves us with Nevada, six electoral votes.

[07:05:00]

Easy tell, because there's nothing to tell. We were informed by the secretary of state, whenever we started this coverage after the election, that he would come out later today around noon, 9:00 or so our time in the morning, with -- that doesn't make any sense, probably noon their time, they'll come out with more information about what's happening there in the all-important Clark County. That's where Las Vegas is. That is usually a Democrat stronghold. Will it stay that way? Very, very thin margin. Very, very thin margin.

Electoral map, let's look at the state, 253-213, this map is going to change most likely today. By color, that's what it's been picked for, no color that means no projection yet, yet, yet.

But let's go Phil Mattingly, breaking down what's happening at the magic wall. It's good to see you, my friend. So we've seen things change tonight, not like we did last night.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A little slower.

CUOMO: The less vote you have, the more slowly it goes. And we've seen people really going through their paces to get us the vote. Paths, what are the paths that we're watching now?

MATTINGLY: Yes. So, you see the map right now. I kind of want to play things out first before we actually dig into what we saw over the course of the night. Let's start, races that have been called up to this point. Every state that you see filled in is a race that CNN has called. If it's red, it went to President Trump, if it's blue, it went to Joe Biden, if it's gray, that means we have not called the race yet, there's still vote outstanding and they are still counting.

So, you want to try to map out how do you get to 270 electoral votes if you are President Trump or if you are Joe Biden.

Right now, as it currently stands, Joe Biden, 253 electoral votes, President Trump, 213 electoral votes. And let's just say, for the sake of doing this, of gaming this out, President Trump hangs on to the state of North Carolina, he's had a pretty consistent lead there, Chris just told you about it, and ends up hanging on to Alaska, which is expected to some degree. That leaves Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada.

So, let's talk about pathways. Where is Joe Biden leading right now? Joe Biden is leading in the state of Arizona. Joe Biden is leading in the state of Nevada. If Joe Biden wins the state of Arizona and the state of Nevada, Joe Biden is at 270 electoral votes. That is one pathway for Joe Biden.

Here is the question. You mentioned, as you went through the results, that Arizona has tightened. It has tightened significantly over the course of the last 24 hours, went from 220,000 vote, to 60,000 votes, where it stands right now. What happens if President Trump stays on that track? What happens if in the next couple of matches coming out of Maricopa County, President Trump is able to flip Arizona? Biden's team doesn't think that's possible, Trump's team says it is. We'll give it to Trump just to kind of play this out, game this out a little bit.

We talked about Clark County. What we're waiting for in Nevada, what if the 7,000-vote lead that Joe Biden has in Nevada disappears when that new batch comes in? We don't know yet. We don't know the composition yet. Give that to President Trump as well.

Who if Georgia, razor-thin, razor-thin margin, under 20,000 votes right now, but what if President Trump is able to hang on to Georgia? Where does that put things? 264, 253.

Here is the point that I'm trying to make as I game all this out. The outstanding closest states right now, President Trump can win all of those states, including two states where he's behind, two states where it is very, very close. If Joe Biden wins the state of Pennsylvania, this race is over, period, end of story.

And why is that important? I want to dig in real quick if we've got time to do so, because I think this is probably the most important thing you're going to watch throughout the course of the day. Obviously, we've got Georgia, obviously, we have Arizona and we're very, very keen on what comes out of Nevada 12:00 Eastern Time, 9:00 out in Las Vegas.

Let's go to Pennsylvania and take a look. Why when President Trump is 164,000 votes --

CUOMO: 89 percent in.

MATTINGLY: And 89 percent, reporting the biggest margin by far --

CUOMO: Lot of races are projected with a much smaller percentage of vote.

MATTINGLY: I'm going to flash you back to Wisconsin and to Michigan. You laid it out perfectly. It was the early day vote that was counted first. It's a very, very similar construct in terms of how these two states count, or how these three states count.

In Wisconsin and in Michigan, it started out very, very red as they counted the Election Day vote. Why? President Trump had a great turnout operation. They've turned out across the country in record levels for Republicans and they came out on Election Day. What were democrats doing? They were voting by mail. They were voting by mail in enormous margins.

Pennsylvania is very similar. It has been very red. We talked about this, 600,000, 700,000 vote lead for President Trump over the course of the last 24 hours, it has been whittled down to 164,000, as you count the mail-in ballots. The mail-in ballots are not just heavily Democratic, they are skewing very Joe Biden and there are a ton of them that are still outstanding, somewhere between 400, 500,000.

And why does that matter? Well, the biggest outstanding county right now, Philadelphia County, largest county in the state, 12 percent of the voting population, still 30 percent outstanding.

If you want to get some context here about why this is important, how much vote is still out there right now, take a look at this margin, 79.4 percent to 19.7 percent. But more importantly, take a look at the top line vote. There has been record turnout throughout the country.

[07:10:00]

There has been record turnout in a lot of Pennsylvania counties that we've seen up to this point. Joe Biden at 457,000 right now. Back in 2016, Hillary Clinton was at 584,000.

The expectation is Joe Biden will be at or go higher than that based on precedent, based on what we're seeing. The expectation that Joe Biden's margin will be at least what Hillary Clinton's margin is. We've seen that across the board as counties have fully reported. That means there is a lot of vote outstanding in just this one county if go through the map right now, if you go through what we're looking at.

Across the board, in Pennsylvania, almost county-by-county, even the major President Trump strongholds, counties like Luzerne, where he runs up a very, very big margin. 10, 12 hours ago, it was at 65 percent, 67 percent. It has dropped. Why has it dropped? Even in Republican counties, as Democratic vote by mail has come in, even in Republican counties, it has eaten at margins.

And why does that matter top line and we can move on? Look at margins. Donald Trump, 2016, flipped this county from President Obama, crushed this county, 58 percent. What's he at right now, 2020, 56 percent. It doesn't seem like a lot. But when you roll that up, red counties and Democratic strength in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is, that's outstanding vote right now, that's still what's to come in.

Right now, Democrats are looking at the map in Pennsylvania, they're looking at the outstanding vote and they're saying, we have a pathway, we have a very legitimate pathway. We'll wait to see. There's still a lot of vote outstanding, still have got to count the votes, still have got to mercifully report the votes, take your time, do it right, but that is where Pennsylvania stands right now. And as I noted, 20 electoral votes, Joe Biden is at 253 right now, 20 gets him over 270.

CUOMO: Georgia?

MATTINGLY: Let's tick down to Georgia, because this has been the one place where we have seen results throughout the course of the night. And throughout the course of the night, this has gone from 31,000 to 29,000, to 26,000, to 18,540.

So the question in the state of Georgia as this has continued to narrow, with 96 percent reporting, does Joe Biden have 18,540 votes out there? Not total,in net after factoring in President Trump as well? The short answer is, he has a path. There's enough vote outstanding. Why is there enough vote outstanding?

I want to go down to the Democratic stronghold. That's the Atlanta metro area. You've got Clayton County, look at the margin here, 87,000 to 14,000, 84 percent to 14 percent, still about 16 percent waiting to come in in Clayton County.

Pull out a little bit more, let's flip down over to where Savannah is located, in Chatham County, 87 percent reporting. That means there is vote here. That vote is right now splitting towards Biden. It's vote by mail as well, which is largely splitting towards Biden.

What I'm telling you is even though there's 94, 95, 96 percent reporting in the state right now, there is outstanding vote in Georgia that could go towards Joe Biden.

If you want one really good example, Nick Valencia, who's been amazing on the ground for us throughout the course of the night, has been talking about Fulton County. We've seen batches of Fulton County vote come in. There's still some outstanding right now based on Nick's last report.

When it's coming in in 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 6,0000 at a time, it is breaking 80/20 to Joe Biden. That is higher than the current margin that we've seen. What does that mean? Vote by mail not just Joe Biden in Joe Biden counties, it's going at a higher level.

In order to win Georgia, Joe Biden needs to win the rest of the outstanding vote somewhere between 62 and 64 percent. 80/20 is higher than 62 to 64 percent.

Bottom line, there is a pathway. There is pathway. We're still waiting to see how much outstanding vote is left, whether or not he can actually meet that pathway, but the bottom line with Georgia there's an opportunity for Joe Biden to close it, but it's tight and it's going to stay tight no matter which way it goes.

CUOMO: Absolutely. I mean, every one of these races, even Pennsylvania, even though the current disposition has it at 164,000, that is promising to be tight also.

Now, there is a point of instruction here we can make as we go to Nick Valencia, who is in that all-important Atlanta seat county there that we have been watching him throughout the night. There was a reference made that he people are finding votes for Biden all over the place, okay? That is a misstatement of fact and it is a very malignant characterization. Nobody is finding anything. They've had the votes.

They voted -- they counted first the people who came in on the day of the election. They had these ballots. They're postmarked before or as of the day of the election. They are legal and legitimate, okay? Nobody is finding them. They're just counting them, okay?

And I want to take you to Nick Valencia so you can see what counting them really is. Now he's standing there, he's almost alone. People are trickling back in. We watched volunteers with Nick, let's go to Nick, where they came and stayed all night long, since midnight. And Phil and I would watch as Nick was presenting the information he had there and doing his interviews, and they were just going like crazy all through the night.

[07:15:07]

They are citizens, they are volunteers, they are doing the job because they believe in this country. They're what we call Americans. And it was so big there in Fulton County as you were going through it. And now as we get into these early morning hours, what is the state of play there? They're basically done with their job, right? What are you hearing?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just really quick on those poll workers, some of them had second jobs. So, as you saw them leave the door here, they were on their way to their morning job, wrapping up their more than 12-hour marathon shift.

Next to me here, it is Rick Barron, Fulton County elections director here. And things are close here and they're only getting closer. Donald Trump had about a 30,000-vote lead at around midnight. That's almost been cut in half, Rick. A lot of it having to do with the votes coming out of this county. Tell us. Give us the state of play here this morning. What's going on?

RICHARD BARRON, FULTON COUNTY DIRECTOR OF REGISTRATION: Well, we've scanned 137,134 ballots so far. We've adjudicated 132,272. And we've set the review panel to come back at 10:00 A.M.

VALENCIA: Is that when we'll start to see these tallies here, votes adjudicated here?

BARRON: Yes. So once that review panel meets at 10:00, hopefully, we'll be done. We have nine trays left to open, that's about 3,600 ballots. There's a few in process that are going to be scanned before that and --

VALENCIA: So, just 3,600 ballots left. You started the night around 20,000 ballots, is that right?

BARRON: Yes. So we're close.

VALENCIA: So tell me a little bit more here, because you had an update on your website a short time ago, about an hour ago, 8,300 ballots were upload there had. How many more are expected to be added? Where are those ballots coming from? And when is the next batch that we could expect to see on the Fulton County website?

BARRON: it should be -- once the vote review panel meets at 10:00, hopefully, that will be it. And so we should expect to see something up by 11:00 A.M.

VALENCIA: And the 8,300 votes are coming from those 20,000 absentee that you started the night with?

BARRON: Yes, yes. And then the remaining probably 10,000 will be at that next vote review panel.

VALENCIA: So, just to be clear, what we're waiting for is about 10,000 to 11,000 votes to show up on the Fulton County website. After they're processed here, they're going to be adjudicated, so another 10,000, 110,000 votes we're waiting for?

BARRON: Yes.

VALENCIA: That includes the 3,500 that you're still waiting to go through here?

BARRON: Go through, yes.

VALENCIA: Okay, great. So you've got a lot of work here on your hands.

BARRON: Yes.

VALENCIA: I hate to ask you, but it's so close, half a percentage point means it's an automatic recount. Are you thinking about that at all?

BARRON: I haven't yet. We've still got provisional ballots to do on Friday in (INAUDIBLE), military. Once we get through that, then we'll have to look forward and do a recount.

VALENCIA: When do you certify? When do you certify?

BARRON: That will be scheduled for the 13th.

VALENCIA: And after another week here?

BARRON: Right, yes.

VALENCIA: Even though a lot of attention is on you right now, Rick? We'll let you get back to it.

Rick is actually jumping in and working himself. We took him away from that process. I want to let you get back to that, Rick. Thank you so much.

But it's still razor thin here. We are in the final countdown, you heard it here, just about 3,500 votes left to be tabulated here in Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold. Joe Biden trying to become the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the state of Georgia since 1992 and hand President Trump a devastating blow to his re- election bid. Chris?

CUOMO: And you grabbed a headline there, Nick. 11:00 this morning, we expect to have another bunch of information from the all-important Fulton County there in Georgia. Thank you very much, Nick. Keep your energy up, best to the team. We'll check on you in a second.

All right, let's take a break right now. Things are going to change today. The shape of the race is going to change. The votes are being counted. It is a beautiful demonstration of our democracy in action. Stay with CNN.

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[07:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: And even in the face of a pandemic, more Americans voted this election than ever before in American history. Over 150 million people cast their votes. I think that's just extraordinary.

And if we had any doubts, we shouldn't have any longer, about a government of, by, and for the people is very much alive, very much alive in America. Here, the people rule. Power can't be taken or asserted. It flows from the people. It is their will that determines who will be the president of the United States and their will alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CUOMO: Well, Joe Biden is right about that. You know what we're showing you right now? This is the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. This is where the Biden campaign has prepared, you know, days ago, for a victory celebration or a potential one, and it still lies in wait because we don't know what's going on.

And for all the unanswered questions we have, we haven't answered one big, arguably, one of the most important questions. This country can still bring it. The level of participation is outstanding, especially during a pandemic. At a time that disillusionment and people's desperation is at an all-time high, they still stepped up and voted in a way that I haven't seen in my lifetime. And that is good news for us.

And that's why we shouldn't let anybody cheapen the process and say that something is happening that's wrong, it's not legit, it's not as much as it seems. None of that has a basis. And the idea that you guys stepped up and voted is 100 percent proof of itself as a basis.

Let's discuss what other questions may get answered today. Let's bring in John Harwood, Laura Barron-Lopez and David Gregory.

[07:25:01]

D. Greg, we just heard from that county commissioner in Fulton County in Georgia, 11:00, they're going to give us another batch. We're expecting numbers later tonight from Arizona. Also this morning, we're going to hear from Nevada. Could today be the day that this race really takes definite shape?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it could. I think it could, because we're just getting closer to the finish line of the counting, and it's remarkable. You know, the level of participation is something that I've been thinking about, as well, and it's important. It's also been motivated by fear. And so there's a lot of darkness and a lot of heaviness in our election season because of the fear of four more years for Trump, the fear of the left and what Biden represents. The rigidity of the differences in this country are really playing out.

And what I've been thinking about this morning, as we take such a granular look at the vote is the obvious point, why mobilization is so important. If you're looking at the outstanding vote for Joe Biden, it reflects an emphasis on, first of all, mail-in voting, to make sure participation would be high in a pandemic, because there were real fears about the dangers for older voters and others to actually show up to the polls. So you have that piece.

You look at the level of participation and the mobilization of African-American voters in some of these key areas we're talking about in Georgia and in Michigan. And you look at Biden's ability, not to reshape the map, because, again, the rigidity of our political differences are so striking, but to eat in a little bit into that support in suburban America in places like Wisconsin, among working class white voters in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, as well. These are marginal differences that we're spending time looking at this morning in granular detail that may ultimately tell us the story of the difference between 2016 and 2020.

CUOMO: Laura, things are tight. This race is tight. We could have a recount. We could have two recounts. We may have none depending on Pennsylvania, because the other recounts wouldn't matter if the margin there is right. But what is, you think, the story of what the turnout and the tension between the two sides will be? Will this be a demonstration of strength in this country or do you think it's going to be a tale of cities?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it's a bit of both, Chris, which is that, look, I mean, as you said, turnout is strong. I think it surprised, actually, a lot of people given that there was a pandemic and there were concerns throughout the process about whether or not that would deter people from voting, whether or not vote by mail options would be enough, given also the president's attacks on mail voting that were unfounded and what that could do to dampen turnout. But despite all of that, we've seen an increase across the board.

We also saw an increase among young voters in turning out, especially in the early vote. And so that's another story that we'll look into as we see the difference pieces of the electorate that manifested. And then I think there also though is the other element, which is that we could very well end up with Vice President Joe Biden in the White House, a Republican-controlled Senate, and a House controlled by Democrats. And so with that split government, what is able to move through?

House Democrats that I was talking to yesterday really didn't want to totally explore what they could even move through a government made up of those elements because of the possibility that they could face a Republican Senate and how difficult it could be to get through a lot of the big policy proposals that Biden has been talking about. We know that a president sometimes only gets one big item during their first term, and he has a lot of things that he wants to address, if he is ultimately the winner.

So I think that speaks to this tale of two cities, as you said, Chris, which is a country that has divided sides, and that's why it's so close.

CUOMO: Yes. I mean, I'm not a big red/blue person, I'm really a have/have not person. And I think class is what's playing out here and you conflate it with color and you get the rift between have and have not in this country and it has to be addressed. We just haven't found the right way to do it, John, and that leads me to the idea of messaging.

Do you think there's a chance that Donald Trump finally picked the wrong thing to bully and disrespect, which is the election process? Because he was -- he came so strong and so wrong about this being a fraudulent, you know, way of doing things, a fraudulent process, and it's so demonstrable that he is not just wrong, but lying about it. You think this may be the one that backfired?