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CNN Live Event/Special

Race for White House Narrows As Votes Are Counted. Aired 7:30- 8a ET

Aired November 05, 2020 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: That he is not just wrong, but lying about it. You think this may be the one that backfires.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, he's picked a lot of wrong things to target and told a lot of lies during his presidency. He's paid a price for it throughout his presidency. We know that he's the first president in the polling era to never reach 50 percent approval.

I do think that as Laura and David said, we have a stark demonstration of how divided the country is. We've also had an outpouring of participation. And I think one thing that is true -- I've been watching Joe Biden try to become president for a long time.

I was there in the Spring of 1987 in Wilmington, Delaware, when he announced his presidency, his presidential campaign in 1988. It hadn't worked out for various reasons. He wasn't a terrific candidate in 1988 or in 2008 when he ran.

But he happens to have arrived at a moment where if the task for the country is to try to bridge the divide in some way, to try to pull the country together in some way, he has the ideal set of personal characteristics to attempt to do that -- don't know if he can, it's going to be very difficult, Laura said, presidents got a chance to do one thing in their first year, if he's got a Republican Senate, don't know if he can do that one big thing.

It's going to be very tough. Republicans have been very unyielding in taking on Democratic presidents. But the contrast with Donald Trump serve to Joe Biden's benefit in this campaign. That's why he's leading in this race. And if what is needed is a salve or a balm on those divisions, Joe Biden by virtue of his biography, by the resilience that he's shown in the face of personal setbacks, by his instinct as a person is very well-suited to try to do that. Don't know if he can.

CUOMO: Will the third time be a charm? Hurry up, go ahead, David.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I just think it's such an important point because he does have that skill set. And Americans tend to get it right. If we end up with divided government like that, it's a real test of whether we can get to some -- get back to some kind of politics of the possible or whether the rigidity of our differences are what prevail because people just want to win the argument. But the prospect of a divided Congress is very interesting, because Biden has the ability to bridge it. That will be the test.

CUOMO: David Gregory, thank you very much. Laura and John, let's stand by for a second, take a break. President Trump and Joe Biden waking up this morning, no idea which one of them will lead this nation after January 20th. But we might all know the answer and not just know it, but know it in the next few hours. That's why we're here for you and with you, so stay with CNN.

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[07:35:00]

CUOMO: You asked Phil Mattingly to describe the state of play of this election in one word, I guarantee you, it will be Pennsylvania. Why?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, well, math, to start with. Joe Biden with 253 electoral votes. You don't need to win any other state if you win the state of Pennsylvania. That's 20 votes right there. Also, the DNA of it. It follows what we saw in Michigan and Wisconsin. Starts off red because they're counting election day votes. When they start counting vote by mail, which leans heavily Democratic, the blue starts to catch up, and that's what we've seen. The blue has started to catch up, once with 700,000 votes, now it's 164,000 votes.

The question is, can Joe Biden complete the comeback and actually overtake Donald Trump? The answer is, there's enough vote outstanding. It's a matter of if that vote is going to go more heavily Democratic. What you're looking for right now, you are looking into southeast Pennsylvania.

Most notably, you're looking to Philadelphia County, largest county in the state, most outstanding vote, only 70 percent in, keep an eye on that, keep an eye on Allegheny County as well, home to Pittsburgh. That's what Democrats are looking to -- the key collar counties, southeastern Pennsylvania, a little bit out west as well.

That is where they think their vote will come from, that is where vote is outstanding, and that is why Democrats in the Biden campaign believe they can overtake Donald Trump and his campaign. We'll wait and see, there's a lot of red. A lot of red. And so the big question is, within that red, is there also some mail-in Republican vote that can keep Donald Trump ahead? That's what we'll be watching for over the course of the day.

CUOMO: We're waiting because the time is worth it to get it right. There have been no disappointments in terms of the voting and the counting. Let's get it over to Don Lemon. The only disappointment we've suffered so far, Don, was that we have a president that tried to disrespect this amazing turnout as a function of something going wrong. No, everything went right. People came out in a way we never imagined. Now we just have to count it. DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You don't want to disrespect the process. This

is people -- this is sacred, people's right to vote. You guys talked about -- you said the one word that Phil is going to remember, and that's Pennsylvania. Well, someone who knows all about Pennsylvania is Pennsylvania Democratic Senator Bob Casey. He joins me now. Thank you, senator. Good morning to you.

SEN. BOB CASEY (D-PA): Hey, Don, thank you, good to be with you.

LEMON: So, let me ask you. We got our magic wall, we see you got your wall up behind you. And as I understand, you have been keeping close track of all the counts that are coming out, even -- you even have your own map. So my question is, do you think the votes are still out there for the former Vice President Joe Biden? Will Pennsylvania put him over the top?

CASEY: I hope we put him over the top, but Joe Biden is going to win, he's going to win the state, there's no question about it.

LEMON: You think he's going to win the state. Why are you saying that?

CASEY: Well, we've still got about 400,000 votes outstanding, and most of those votes, as Phil just indicated and others have indicated are in Philadelphia and the suburban counties and some in Allegheny as well. So that's going to be overwhelmingly for Joe Biden. Some places, 75, 25, and other places, 80 or 85. So he'll be able to overtake him, especially when we get a much higher Philadelphia number.

[07:40:00]

We've only seen with Philadelphia about maybe 70 or so percent of the vote counted. A lot is going to come in this morning. And when that comes in, that in alone just Philadelphia might be enough to have the margin go in Joe Biden's direction.

LEMON: Now, forgive me, senator, I don't want to make any assumptions. Could just be your decor, your decoration behind you, but I see the map behind you, and I see you've got numbers on it and for what reason? What does --

CASEY: Yes --

LEMON: That -- what are the numbers up there?

CASEY: Well, Don, this is low-tech John King, OK?

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Or Phil Mattingly, we've got to get both in, but go on --

CASEY: Phil Mattingly, yes. Philly was plus 71 for Barack Obama, plus 67 for Hillary Clinton. That was the percentage margin. I think Joe Biden is going to be there in the middle or he might even meet the Obama number, and that would be significant. President Obama almost won Philadelphia by 500,000, because the turnout is so much higher, Joe Biden might get to that. But he doesn't necessarily have to.

LEMON: Now, how are you keeping track of those numbers? Are you -- do you have your own sort of internal system? Are you watching the news networks, are you getting it from the state, do you have folks at your office? Are you talking to the Biden campaign?

CASEY: It's all memory, Don -- no, it's --

LEMON: You are John King --

CASEY: It's a combination of looking at past results, but also relying upon very smart people who do this for a living. In Pennsylvania, Kevin Mack and the voter project have been crunching these numbers, a team of people for weeks preparing, and they've been crunching them ever since after the vote. So they've indicated and others have indicated that they think they can win -- that Joe Biden can win the state by a 100,000 or more.

LEMON: The last part of my question there was, have you spoken to the -- have you spoken to the former vice president or anyone at his campaign? Have they reached out to you?

CASEY: Oh, yes, I've talked to his campaign a number of times. I spoke to Vice President Biden -- so it was Wednesday morning, this was after midnight.

LEMON: OK, go on.

(LAUGHTER)

CASEY: No, I'm not going to reveal the content of the conversation. But Don, he was very upbeat and he was checking in for that very purpose. What are you seeing in different counties and what's happening in the states? So, he was just checking in. But look, this vote this morning that will commence in Philadelphia will be substantial, and there's another factor here that you should take a look at. Last time in Philadelphia, 2 percent of the vote went to several third and fourth party candidates.

Now you have just one third party candidate and she's getting a very low number statewide, like one -- a little more than 1 percent. So it's possible because Philadelphia is so intensely democratic, that even that would add to the Joe Biden margin. But it's going to be a big margin. And we haven't even talked about the suburbs yet.

LEMON: Yes, so here's the thing. We have been hearing that we're going to get some information from Pennsylvania today. Are we going to hear who -- because if he wins Pennsylvania, he's won it all. Are we going to hear anything that could possibly put the former vice president over the line, up to 270 or over?

CASEY: Well, it's possible, Philadelphia could be that number. We'll see how much they've counted. But statewide, there's about roughly 400,000 uncounted ballots. Most of them on the southeast, Philadelphia and the four suburban counties. But I think the Philadelphia vote will be higher than it was last

time, not the 7070, you can't really see that. Last time, it was 707,000 people voting. It's going to be higher than that. The question is, does it get to 800 or does it stay around 750? So, this will be a big vote. And I think Joe Biden could get about 85 percent, at least, of that, say 750 or whatever the number is.

LEMON: So, you know nothing about timelines and when they may release some tranche of, you know, votes --

CASEY: Oh, we do --

LEMON: OK --

CASEY: No, we know that. There'll be something, I think, by noontime. I don't know the exact hour, but I think there's going to be a lot of Philadelphia votes. I don't know if that will mean that Philadelphia will be at 95 percent of the votes in, but today, as of "The New York Times", they've only got about 70 percent of the votes in. A lot of Philadelphia votes still to come in.

LEMON: OK, so you mentioned Philadelphia. Let's talk about some of the areas -- we see what your magic wall has, right?

[07:45:00]

But on our magic wall, what should we be looking at. Philadelphia, Allegheny, Montgomery, and you mentioned, Chester, Bucks. You mentioned some of the suburbs. Where do you think we should be looking?

CASEY: Yes, Montgomery is mostly in. And then -- I'm sorry, I'm getting my voice repeated to me, so it's hard to concentrate. But Montgomery, Hillary Clinton won by 21 points. A big win, 90,000 votes I think it was. Joe Biden, as of last night was at 26 percent in Montgomery.

So, it will be a bigger margin, well over 100,000, just for Montgomery County. Then you go to Bucks County, which I'm still waiting to see the update on that, but Joe Biden will win Bucks County, won't be as big as Montgomery, but he'll win it big. He'll win it. Maybe -- I don't know, maybe 55 percent.

Then you go to Delaware County. That number will -- he'll get more than 60 percent there, but they still have maybe, I don't know, 15 percent to 20 percent to count. And Chester County, we know, his percentage there is higher than last time.

I won't build all the way, but Obama was plus 2, Hillary was plus 10 in Chester. And Joe Biden is going to be in a good position there. So, you can see the four suburban counties adding a lot addition to Philadelphia. And then I haven't seen the final numbers in Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, but that was plus 15, Obama, plus 19 -- yes, 17, I'm sorry, 17 Hillary. His margin will be 20 or more --

LEMON: All right -- CASEY: I think to 25.

LEMON: Wow, so you're quite sure the former vice president is going to win Pennsylvania. Listen, no one knows it for sure --

CASEY: Yes --

LEMON: Until all the votes are counted, but senator, thank you, we appreciate and we appreciate you sharing your magic wall and your knowledge with us. And hope to see you soon here on CNN, thanks so much Senator Bob Casey.

CASEY: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: Well, there you go, make sure you stay with us. We're going to continue to count the votes as they come in. You heard what he said, some time by noon today, we could get some numbers that may be determinative in Pennsylvania. We shall see. Our continuing coverage right after this.

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[07:50:00]

CUOMO: So we had a busy night here, we watched President Trump's lead in Georgia erode and we're waiting to see what happens as more Pennsylvania votes continue to come in. Therefore, we need a key race alert. Pennsylvania, 20 electoral votes, if Joe Biden wins this state, he wins the election. Big if, why? Donald Trump in the lead by 164,414 votes, about 10 percent of the vote remaining outstanding, however, the good news for Joe Biden is that there are enough outstanding votes in areas that he could dominate to meet and beat the president.

We just had Senator Casey on, he says we will hear later this morning about the vote in Pennsylvania. Will it be enough information? We'll see. Georgia, 16 electoral votes, also very much in play, this is the state where Donald Trump's spread keeps getting lower and lower.

We now really understand why he wanted voting stopped before it really got started. So 96 percent of the vote is in, about 5 percent there, it's very close, certainly in recount territory. If that becomes necessary, Don, because we've got to see how all the different pieces fall here. If Joe Biden wins and it doesn't matter about Georgia's count, then the recount becomes perfunctory, there is no reason to have it.

But we've got a long way to go, however, today seems by all indications to be a very informative day for the American people.

LEMON: Yes, it is. And listen, just -- I think we should talk about this because we've been paying attention to it hour after hour, hour after hour, here on television, it's our jobs to do it, but people have gone to bed and they're up now --

CUOMO: And we're still here.

LEMON: And we're still here --

CUOMO: Yes --

LEMON: Knock on wood. But here is the thing. There are some big things that happened overnight, right? As you -- and I and Phil have been covering it. Arizona narrowed --

CUOMO: Wow --

LEMON: But it's helping the president and the president is complaining about counting of the votes, well, maybe he shouldn't be so quick to do that because maybe he's going to win if he allows the votes to be counted -- well, the votes are going to be counted anyways, but maybe he's going to win. Pennsylvania is tightening, as you said, we just spoke to Bob Casey.

Bob Casey has been around for a long time, he knows Pennsylvania politics, he is a senator there. He believes -- now, again, this is his belief -- he believes that the former vice president will take Pennsylvania simply because as we have been stating here, as you've been talking about, where those votes are coming in.

And then you have Georgia. Georgia tightening as well, and you had the president come out yesterday and say, listen, you know, Pennsylvania, we're ahead, why are they not calling this for us. This place we're ahead, why are they not calling it for us?

It's because of what's happening now, as it happens in every single election, especially a presidential election, a country-wide election, the votes come in at different times. They come in sometimes after election day, and sometimes they're not counted until after election day. So this is a normal part of the process. The only thing that's not normal is that we're doing this in the middle of a pandemic.

CUOMO: Yes, you know, the president once mused that he could shoot somebody in the face on 5th Avenue and people would still love him -- maybe. But if you shoot all of us in the face at the same time, there's no one to love you. And when you go after the Democratic process in an election, I think he underestimated what putting stink on an election would mean to the American people.

[07:55:00]

They came out strong. You and I have never seen turnout like this before --

LEMON: No --

CUOMO: In our lifetimes.

LEMON: If Joe Biden wins -- well, I shouldn't say if he wins, as a presidential candidate, he's gotten more --

CUOMO: Yes --

LEMON: Votes than any other candidate in history -- CUOMO: But just turnout --

LEMON: It's the turnout, yes --

CUOMO: We're going to see numbers of absolute votes and turnout in areas and demographically the likes of which we've never seen, and that is good. And for the president to inject shame into that game, that success of America is a mistake, especially when he needs it, Don. He needs the votes to be counted in Arizona and we'll be watching.

LEMON: Well, one thing you can count on, you can count on us here on CNN covering this for you. If there is a victor, whenever that is or there's going to be one soon or sometime, but whenever that is, you'll see it right here on CNN.

CUOMO: This is what it's all about. The gift of --

LEMON: Yes --

CUOMO: Journalism is being a witness to history. So, there's a lot going to happen this morning, for Don Lemon, the man, and me, thank you very much for joining us. CNN election coverage continues with the A team, John Berman and Alisyn Camerota.

LEMON: The A.M. team.

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