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Biden on Brink of Win, Waiting for Pennsylvania; New Votes Coming In From Pennsylvania; More Arizona Vote Results Expected Soon. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired November 05, 2020 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: More and more in Joe Biden's direction. I'm Wolf Blitzer.
The former Vice President has nearly wiped out President Trump's lead in Georgia as more votes are counted, and he is pushing even closer to the President in Pennsylvania tonight. Those are must win battle grounds for Trump and they appear to be slipping away.
Meantime, Arizona has moved in a different direction tonight as Biden's lead there has narrowed. Biden needs to win one or two of those states or Nevada to increase his electoral vote count from the current 253 to the winning number of 270. Trump is lagging at only 213.
And tonight, he is making false and dangerous attacks on the legitimate vote counting that continues right now.
Here is a key race alert.
Look at these three states. In Arizona right now, Biden maintains his lead, 50.2 percent to 48.3 percent. But the lead has shrunk. He is leading right now by 56,547, eighty seven percent of the estimated vote is in, 13 percent remains outstanding. Eleven electoral votes in Arizona.
In Pennsylvania, meantime, Trump's lead has shrunk dramatically in Pennsylvania. He is now ahead by only 63,725 votes. He has got 49.8 percent to 48.9 percent for Biden, 94 percent of the estimated vote in Pennsylvania is in, six percent is outstanding, 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania.
If Biden were to win all 20 of those electoral votes, he would be President of the United States.
In Georgia right now. Look at this, Trump's dramatic lead, it used to be in the hundreds of thousands is now only 3,486, forty nine point four percent for Trump, 49.3 percent for Biden. Ninety nine percent of the estimated vote is in, 16 electoral votes in Georgia.
We are watching those screens -- those races so, so closely as we walk over to John King at the magic wall. I want to check in with Gary Tuchman. He is on the ground for us in Atlanta right now watching what's going on. Gary, I understand you have some new information.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I want to start you, Wolf, this building behind me is the State Capitol in Georgia. Two people who work inside this building are the Governor and the Secretary of State. They are both Republicans. They are in charge of the State Election apparatus.
President Trump said that it was Democrats who are in charge of Georgia's election apparatus. That is not true. The Secretary of State who says he is doing everything by the book, trying to keep everything secure has come out with some new numbers just a short time ago. He says there are still 18,936 votes to be counted.
The reason that number is so interesting is because right now, Donald Trump is less than 3,500 votes in front of Joe Biden. Doing some very simple math, I can tell you that if Joe Biden gets 61 percent or more of those remaining votes, those remaining 18,936 votes, he would move in front of Donald Trump.
But those aren't the only votes left, and this is a very important point. There are far more than 18,900 votes to count because there are still thousands of provisional ballots to count, including 3,500 here in Fulton County, the largest county in the State of Georgia. The provisional ballots are used for people who go in to vote and here in Georgia, you need to show identification.
If you walk in, you don't have an ID, or if you're registered in two addresses, your name is spelled differently, you fill out a provisional ballot and then they make sure it's okay that you're supposed to vote and they count it. Usually, they'll count most of those.
So there are thousands more votes to count. In addition, there's up to 9,000 overseas ballots from expats and military members that are allowed to come as late as tomorrow and those could also be included in the count.
I want to tell you what we're hearing, it is seven counties here in the state that are part of that 18,936 number. Most of them are from Democratic counties, and one of them is Clayton County, which is where the Atlanta Airport is located south of the City of Atlanta, 5,726 votes.
Gwinnett County, which is east of Atlanta, 4,800 votes; and one other county in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area, Cobb County, 700 votes. There are some votes in the considerable amount, maybe as many as 20 percent from Republican leaning areas, one of them is Forsyth County, 4,713 votes, that's just north of Atlanta.
There's also Lawrence County, which is 1,797; Taylor County, 456; and Floyd County, 444. So those are the seven counties that have the 18,936 outstanding votes. But it's so important to emphasize that you still have these provisional ballots.
I also want to tell you something important to know that the counties have until a week from Friday to certify these ballots, so there's no expectation it's going to be done late tonight or tomorrow. It may take a lot longer, particularly with these provisional ballots, and then the state certifies the ballots by the 20th of November, which is still quite a distance away.
So the race is very close in Georgia. Joe Biden has had a pace that's been greater than 61 percent picking up these votes when they've been checking out these absentee ballots. He just needs 61 percent based on this number.
But one other thing I want to mention to you, Wolf and John, is this. I've spent the Election Day in Ohio. I've spent time here.
[20:05:10]
TUCHMAN: I've been with hundreds of election workers of both those states, there are thousands of election workers across this country. They are Republicans. They are Democrats. They are Independents. They are good Americans.
We, as journalists can take the disrespect from politicians. We're used to it. But it hurts me, it pains me to see the disrespect, the anger from politicians directed towards this process when we see these amazingly noble people working during a dangerous pandemic to try to ensure that our elections are fair and safe.
It's hard to watch.
BLITZER: Yes, very well said, Gary, thank you. Thank you so much for that. We totally agree with you.
We know these people. They are wonderful, decent people. Let's make some sense of Georgia going on right now.
Trump is ahead, John by 3,486. We just heard from Gary, 18,936 ballots are waiting to be counted. Biden can easily get 60 to 70 to 80 percent of that. And if he does, he probably will win that state.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And so some people watching at home, I'm going to say, wait a minute, what do you mean Biden can easily get 60 percent when right now he is below 50 percent. But again, we're going to keep making this point because it is important.
They are counting now mail-in ballots. Democrats disproportionately voted by mail. Joe Biden has been winning more than 60 percent of the ballots counted, the mail-in ballots counted in Georgia today. So he just has to keep on the track record he is on.
So, let's take a look at several. We won't go through them all. But let's look at several of these counties Gary just mentioned. He mentioned Clayton County, Atlanta Airport, south of the city; again, Joe Biden needs 60 percent, right, 60 percent of the votes.
Well, he is getting 85 percent of the votes in this county. This is the largest batch left, 5,726 ballots right here. If Joe Biden gets 60 percent of those, he is on track. Right now, he is getting 80 percent of those. And it's just -- I'm sorry, it's just safe logic to say the mail-in vote has been predominantly Democratic, Joe Biden is going to hit that number there.
So let's move around and see a little bit more. DeKalb County has counted. Gwinnett County is on the list, 4,800. So nearly 5,000 ballots, 4,800 ballots, again, Joe Biden needs around 60 percent. When you add them all up? Well, that's about what he is getting here and in the mail ballots, he is running higher than that.
So you see that, you think, okay, every reason to believe Joe Biden is going to get it, hit the mark where he needs there.
So let's move over. This is Fulton County. They are done counting their mail-in ballots. But then you move over here to Cobb County, 700. So, a smaller number. But again, Joe Biden getting 56 percent there. Perfectly reasonable to assume, if the benchmark for Biden to continue to come back is 60 percent. More than reasonable to see -- believe that he will get it there.
The challenge comes when you move to some of these other counties. So let's pick one up right here. This is Lawrence County. This was on Gary's list, a smaller number of ballots here, 1,797. So, here's the test for Biden.
You're matching your metric in the blue counties? Can you match it in your red county where overall you're only getting 35 percent of the vote? That is a test. But so far today, he has been beating that and again, people vote by mail, they stand in line to vote early, or they vote on Election Day.
In the votes by mail, even in Republican communities, they are overwhelmingly Democratic. There are Democrats and Republicans who live everywhere in Georgia and what is happening, and we have seen this play out all day long. We'll see if it plays out again.
We're going to count all these votes to the finish line. But Joe Biden has been producing that metric in these red counties, getting 50 percent, 60 percent, in some cases, close to 80 percent. So it's possible and we'll count, please.
BLITZER: Because there's no doubt that the President was discouraging Republicans for voting by mail. The Democrats were encouraging during this time of the coronavirus, go ahead and vote by mail. And as a result, the Democrats are doing much better with those mail-in ballots.
KING: That's an excellent point. I want to follow up on it, one second, because you make the point and Gary just made a point about his time in Ohio. And I want to take one minute just to play this out, to just show you that what -- it is just ludicrous what we're hearing from the President of the United States.
Just one more, Wolf. This is Taylor County, again, 456 votes, a much smaller number than some of the others. But guess what? Every one of those counts. Every one of them deserves to be counted, even if they are votes for the President.
Yes, we should count them all. And again, so here's the test. Joe Biden needs in the big pool of 18,000, almost 19,000 votes, 18,936. He needs to get 60 percent. He has been, again, in these Republican communities, he is doing that, but that's why we're going to count.
So what do we have here? Three thousand four hundred and eighty six. Again, the President's lead at one point was 200,000, right, in Georgia. So Republicans are saying this is an outrage. It's not an outrage. It's democracy.
And I just want to pull out for a minute and go back, whoops, sorry about that -- and pull out here. I want to come back to the State of Ohio. This one is done. We've called it for the President. He won it with a pretty healthy margin.
If you were with us Tuesday night, early on, we were saying, wow, might Joe Biden win Ohio. Why? Because they counted the mail-in ballots first. They did it. They did it in a different order. Pennsylvania and Georgia are counting the mail-in ballots last. They did it first in Ohio because the state law allows them to do so and they have posted them first and Joe Biden pulled out to a big lead.
And we all thought, oh my God, is there a blue wave? Joe Biden is going to win Ohio and then they counted the Election Day votes and Donald Trump pulled ahead in a fair, honest, legitimate count.
BLITZER: The same thing in Florida, too.
KING: Same thing happened in Florida. So, what we're seeing in these other states is just the reverse of the process because different states do it in different ways.
[20:10:10]
KING: But they are counting legally cast ballots. In Ohio, on Election Night, Joe Biden benefited from the early count, it looked like he was ahead. They ran it well, it's a Republican state. They counted it fairly and they got to the finish line.
You make the same point about Florida. That's all we're seeing in Pennsylvania and Georgia now. They're just doing it in reverse order. They decided because they thought they would have long lines. They didn't have the staff on Election Day, set the mail ballots over here, let's deal with the Election Day crush, and then we will count those ballots. That's all it is.
They are all legally cast ballots. States just counting them in different orders. So the results are coming in a little differently. But it is a legal count.
I just want to check on this again, 63,000, again, that lead was 10 times that. Ten times that, it was above 600,000 at one point. And again, that's not fraud. They counted the Election Day ballots first. Good for the President, his rallies ran it up right there, and now, they are just counting the mail-in ballots, and they tend to be disproportionately in these blue counties, Democratic counties, and Joe Biden is on a pace to catch up again.
The way the ballots have been coming in so far, it would not be inconceivable if Joe Biden were not only to pull ahead, but perhaps based on the math so far, somewhere in the ballpark of a 40,000-vote lead is possible if they keep coming in at the rate they're coming in right now.
BLITZER: Yes, it's not fraud. It's democracy. That's what we're seeing unfold in all of these various states. People went to the polls, or they mailed in their ballots, and then now they are being counted and we are getting the results.
Sometimes it's good for Trump, sometimes it's bad for Trump and for Biden, too. So we're just watching the count come in.
KING: We are watching the count. And just to put the exclamation point on why. Why does the President want to keep counting out there where he is losing, and stop counting here where he is ahead? Because Donald Trump cannot win re-election if he loses those two states. He needs them both.
If he loses either one of those states, Donald Trump cannot win re- election. That's why he is complaining about democracy in action.
It just simply -- it's pure math. Some of this is complicated. Some of it is arithmetic, Donald Trump cannot win if he loses those states that is why he is complaining.
BLITZER: In a statement, he is warning there will be a lot of litigation. We may even go to the highest court of the land.
KING: Well, that part he drops, and that's the reckless part. The President just named a new Supreme Court Justice. He has a six to three majority right now. He thinks because he is President, judges are supposed to do what he says. That's not the way it works.
Now, he does have a six to three majority in the Supreme Court, but he has to make a case in a lower court that makes it to a higher court, which is why I've been saying all day, whether it's from a Democrat in your community in a race for dog catcher, or the Republican President of the United States in the race for President, don't listen to what they say. You have to put it on paper at some point and file it in a courthouse.
Let's see, when they do that if they have any evidence of this fraud. Republicans around the country right now are saying they don't see it. They don't see anything like what the President is saying. Again, you can talk about it all you want. If you want to sue, you've got to put it on paper, prove it in court. We'll see.
BLITZER: He said throughout these past several months, the only way you could lose if it were a rigged election, he said once again tonight, I said if there's a rigged election, they would steal an election, then that was the only way possibly he could lose. He says, we think we will win very easily. Well, he is not winning very easily. All likelihood is he could lose very easily. KING: The count is not going in his favor right now and we are going
to finish it to the end, but he sees the trend lines.
Look, his people know more about it than we do. They have people in all these counties. They know the math. They have their own data analytics team. They are talking to local Republicans. The reason the President is so hot and so mad is because he is being told if they keep counting these votes, he is likely to lose here and possibly lose there.
And if that happens, Joe Biden is the President-elect of the United States. The President knows that. He is trying to stop the most treasured process in the United States of America.
BLITZER: But will he go ahead and file all of these lawsuits and potentially go to the Supreme Court to prevent the will of the people from going forward?
KING: We will see that. Look, again, I think in part, let me do a little math here. I think in part, Republicans don't want him to, unless you heard Senator Santorum on our air earlier tonight from Pennsylvania has won and lost close elections in Pennsylvania. He knows personally how the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania plays out. He has been on the winning side and on the losing side.
Republicans don't want the President to do this unless he can show them clear evidence of fraud, right? And so what is the political dynamic, if you have a situation where let's just say, let's say you have something like this? Well, I'm going to flip this, let's say you have something like this and then you have something like this and this, right?
And if there if there were ever to come down to the fact that the President somehow could come out on top here, like this, and you have 270 to 268, and Joe Biden is President because of one state, right, I just did one scenario to give you one. If it's just one state, and if you can take one state away, then you might see a lawsuit.
What Republicans believe is if it becomes more than that, if Joe Biden -- if the track continues, and Joe Biden does something like that, then you're at 306 electoral votes. The President complaining about one state is not going to change the math in the end, right?
So Republicans are hoping that if the math is insurmountable, the President will back off, and in any event, in any event, if the President has a legal case, make it, prove it, put it on paper. Don't walk into a briefing room and spew things that even Republicans say are simply not true.
[20:15:14]
BLITZER: Republican leaders are already coming up against the President. Larry Hogan, the Republican Governor of Maryland has already criticized the President for what he said tonight. Adam Kinzinger, the Republican Congressman from Illinois has already criticized the President for what he said. Do you think we will be hearing more from the congressional, the
Senate and the House leadership telling the President, calm down, let the let the vote be counted.
KING: It will be interesting. We did see a tweet, I believe, it was yesterday from Marco Rubio, Republican senator from Florida. We saw a tweet yesterday from Ben Sasse, the republican senator of Nebraska saying count the votes, count every legally cast ballot, every legally cast ballot.
Look, there is going to be a debate in this country. Republicans believe the President is going to lose. They don't want to talk about that publicly right now because of the chainsaw that he can be on Twitter to them, and because of his popularity with the Republican base.
Look at this map. Look at this map. You know, Joe Biden has more votes than anybody in American presidential history. You know who the second ranked candidate for President is in terms of total votes ever an election, it's Donald Trump with 69 million votes. So if you are a Republican, especially in any of those red states, but anywhere in America, it is still very risky to criticize this President because of his popularity with his people.
But there is the beginning of the conversation in the Republican Party about the post-Trump Republican Party, one giant factor, and that is even if he lose, no one thinks he is going to go away. They think he is going to rail against this and they are going to say he was -- he is going to say he was defrauded. He is going to say this never should have happened. And he is going to keep open the possibility of running in four years if he loses. Every Republican knows that.
So they have to make a choice about where to plant their flag in the early hours, and in the early days of a post-Trump presidency Republican Party. If he continues on this path, I think you will see more and more Republicans deciding that's a bridge too far, that we are not going to attack the most sacred institution of our democracy from the most sacred building in our democracy.
BLITZER: This has been a day that we've seen such dramatic narrowing of the vote. Let's go through these four states that we've been looking at from this morning until now. If we take a look at these key battleground states, how the numbers have shifted so dramatically.
KING: So let's start in Pennsylvania. And as I do this, we don't get to do this very often. We're on television all the time. There are amazing people behind the scenes who help us with this. So I want to thank my team for helping me with this because I think this is very helpful to show what has happened here, and our people have done a fantastic job here.
This is the president as Tuesday turned to Wednesday, 12:00 a.m., midnight, right? The President is up by more than a half million votes in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state that was essential to his win four years ago. He is thinking I'm on the road to re-election. That looks great in Pennsylvania. Then it gets -- it builds up. He gets to 618,840 votes, it's getting
even better as we turn into the morning after the election, Wednesday morning. These are all ballots cast on Election Day. Then as the count continues, Wednesday, 3:00 p.m., 435,000 votes, still a very healthy lead. But it starts to shrink.
Then by midnight last night, tonight, 164,000, right? So that's almost 20 -- not quite, we're at 8:17. Checking my watch. It's been a long three days.
But at midnight, as Wednesday turns to Thursday, it's down to 164,000. Then Thursday, 9:00 a.m., it's about the same. Then you come down here, it gets to 108,000, and we keep coming through here and it gets down to 75,000. That's 6:30 p.m. And now from there to here. You see the trajectory. It is just -- it's a snowball coming down the hill and Joe Biden keeps picking up votes in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
BLITZER: So he is winning now by 63,725. We're told there's still about another 250,000 mail-in ballots that need to be counted. What does Biden need to do amongst those 250,000 mail-in ballots in order to win Pennsylvania?
KING: If he wins about 53 percent, 52.7, if want to be exact. You know, we're getting -- we're having this 62.7. Sixty two point seven, I'm sorry about that, 62.7. So again, again, if you're watching at home, you see that and you think well, Joe Biden can't get 62.7. Let's say 63 percent of the vote. That's the number he is getting statewide. But yes, he can. Yes, he can, because he has been outperforming that metric all day long, because that is all the ballots. That is Election Day ballots, early voting ballots and the mail-in ballots that have been counted.
But again, as we just showed you when we came down here into Philadelphia, he is winning 80 percent of the vote here, and as the mail-in ballots come in, even in the Republican counties, even in places like this, we did this earlier tonight.
BLITZER: Hold on one second because we are talking about Philadelphia, Sara Murray has got some new information. Sara, what are you hearing about the vote counting in Philadelphia?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Wolf, here in Pennsylvania, there are less than 10 percent across the state of these mail-in ballots that are still left to be counted in Philadelphia. They are also just churning through these votes.
You know, we've told you before and I'll tell you again, they are working 24/7 here in Philadelphia to churn through and to counties mail in ballots, so they have you know about 72,500 still that they are trying to work through and look, this is a big part of ballots, as you've noted, the lead in Pennsylvania is shrinking. It's a big deal.
[20:20:09]
MURRAY: They are continuing to work through the night because they want to get through this I think just as much as we want to get through this, but they want it to be accurate. The Secretary of State earlier was talking to reporters, and she said she felt like they were moving at a good clip, that there was potentially a way where we could see, you know, overnight, or later this evening, who was going to be the leader of Pennsylvania.
Obviously, that depends on how close the race is. We are still monitoring that, but I think it's very important to note that we are under this 10 percent threshold of mail-in ballots across the state and just over 72,000 here in Philadelphia.
BLITZER: Seventy two thousand. All right, thanks, Sara. Go ahead, John, I interrupted you.
KING: I just want to -- just do the basic math there, 72,000 votes still in Philadelphia, right, 72,000 votes here where the former Vice President is getting 80 percent. And actually, in these mail-in ballots, he is getting higher than that.
The most recent -- twice in the last couple hours, we've gotten more ballots out of Philadelphia and both times, Vice President Biden has come in above that 80 percent. And again, in Pennsylvania, he needs 62.7.
Every time you come in at 80, or 85, or 87 here, you lower the overall number and that is what is happening as they count the votes in Philadelphia. And so you see that 60,000-vote lead right there you know, the former Vice President can catch up pretty much just out of the City of Philadelphia. And then we know tomorrow, they're going to count 35,000 to 36,000 ballots in Allegheny County.
And again, he is already getting 59 percent in all ballots count, including Election Day ballots and so when they count just mail-in ballots, the metric goes up, and Biden over performs the 58 that he has been getting in 70 and 80 percent of these ballots as we count them throughout the day.
So the trajectory right now is toward Biden overcoming that lead. Trajectory is one thing, we need to do the math and keep counting them.
But every time we see more votes out of Pennsylvania or out of Georgia, every time throughout the day, today, we get more votes, those leads are shrinking. And again, the flip side is, the President has kind of dented to Joe Biden's lead out in Arizona, a little bit, too.
So we're counting them both ways. We're just counting votes and we will we will follow them wherever they lead us.
BLITZER: And we're following the votes in Georgia. Let's take another look. In Georgia right now, what's going on there, Georgia -- this is since this morning. Let's take a look at how it has changed. Right now, Trump is ahead by 3,400 votes.
KING: So let's go back in time. Let's make sure we are on Georgia, we are and let's go back again. We are using to be -- as our starting point, Tuesday's Election Day, we get to midnight. The counts are progressing in all of these states. And you see in battleground Georgia, the President of the United States is up by 372,000 votes because remember, just like in Pennsylvania, what they counted first was Election Day turnout, people who showed up on Tuesday and cast ballots at polling places. That's what they counted first.
So then let's move on, we get to 9:00 a.m., Wednesday, the lead comes down a bit as they start counting additional ballots, as the counties kick in with their count and then you get to Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. You see we are down below 80,000, seventy nine thousand five hundred and nine. So then you move to midnight, right.
As Wednesday turned to Thursday, it's down to 31,748 because these counties are doing what they do, they are counting legally cast ballots, and they moved on to the mail ballots at this point. So then you move down here, nine o'clock this morning, it falls below 20,000 to 18,588. Then by three o'clock this afternoon, we're down to 12,828. So below 13,000, then 6:30 p.m., you get to 9,426, then you come back to real time now, that lead cut significantly again.
And again, there has just been a steady progression of this as these counties and again, Gary Tuchman for us a short time ago, laid it out, 18,936 left, the bulk of them in places like this, places around Atlanta where Joe Biden is getting a very healthy share of the vote. Joe Biden needs to get 59 percent, a little bigger than that of the votes still to be counted, 59.2. He has been over performing that significantly.
So again, if the trajectory stays on its current path, as they count those votes, Joe Biden will catch and pass the President of the United States in Georgia. No guarantee of that. But that's the way it has played out all day long without fail. Joe Biden has been on that trajectory. He's heading in that direction.
It may change as we count the votes. That's why we're here and we're going to keep going. But that lead has been shrinking dramatically so, which is again why the President is so hot because as we come back out, the President of the United States right now knows the math, and he knows there is no disputing unless he wins those two, where his lead is shrinking and shrinking dramatically, without those two, it is over.
BLITZER: Let's take a look at Pennsylvania one more time because we just got some votes coming in from Bucks County in Pennsylvania. If you take a look at that, you can see what's going on. We want to let our viewers know what's going on in Bucks County over there.
You see what's going on. Right now, we just got about 8,000 votes in. We are told that Biden got 5,837 of those votes and Trump guys 2,893.
KING: One more time? Two thousand --
[20:25:03]
BLITZER: Trump got 2,863.
KING: Yes.
BLITZER: Biden got 5,837.
KING: So, there, you see it again. Again, this is the most competitive.
BLITZER: We got 66 percent of the vote that just came in.
KING: This goes to 66. And so we've been saying all along, you know, Biden has to get -- keep his percentage up, right, in Pennsylvania, I'm going to double check these notes every time, Biden has to get 63 -- sixty two point seven percent. So anything above 62. Sixty three is good. There's 66 again, and as I've said, this trajectory has been consistent.
When the new votes come in, we match them up with what he needs. So now if he is getting 66 percent here, he needed 62.7. Every time you over perform you put --
BLITZER: One of the state, the numbers are just --
KING: You push it down a little bit. Let's take this out of the way, and come back out to statewide, and there you go. Now, you're below 60,000 votes at 58 to 86. And again, the trend line here has been consistent, because Biden is consistently over performing what he needs to perform with in the count of these mail-in ballots.
BLITZER: Can you find Delaware County for us?
KING: Sure, I can. You come down in Philadelphia. But -- sorry, that's Montgomery County and you come down here, Chester County, and you come over here and you get to Delaware County. Again, the suburban collar around Philadelphia is the building block of any Democratic win in Pennsylvania. It has to happen right here.
BLITZER: And the numbers are coming in from Delaware County and Biden is doing well -- very well just now as well.
KING: Let me pop that up. Do we have the numbers?
BLITZER: We're waiting to get them, but we're told that very encouraging numbers for Biden out of Delaware County, right now and as soon as we get them, we'll put them on screen.
KING: Let me get this out of the way and can bring it back when we need it. We can just show it as we go.
Again, this is -- I'm going to come back out so you can see this. You see all this red. If you're watching somewhere else in the United States or somewhere around the world, you're not familiar you look at that map, you would think, okay, President Trump wins Pennsylvania, look at all of that red.
He does win these counties big, but these are smaller counties. These are Republican counties. You see 16,000 votes with 77 percent. That's impressive. The President runs it up in rural Pennsylvania. Here's the issue. You come back over here, you just mentioned Delaware
County, much more populated. These are the crowded, populated, growing suburban areas around Philadelphia and you see 184,000 here. So this is -- if the Democrat is going to win -- any Democrat, race for Senate, race for Governor, any statewide office or the presidency, Democrats have to run it up in this blue part here. Get a big margin out here to offset and President Trump is extraordinarily good.
Senator Bob Casey earlier today calling the Republican President of a lifetime in terms of how he runs it up out here.
BLITZER: We just got the numbers in Delaware County. Let's take a look at Delaware.
KING: Give me one second. I'll bring this up for you. You tell me. Fire away.
BLITZER: All right. Trump got 807 votes. Biden got 3,272 votes.
KING: Three thousand two hundred and seventy two votes. So again --
BLITZER: That's 79.2 percent.
KING: So I'm going to leave it at 79. Be kind to the President, I won't add the point two. But again, again, whatever we've been saying, Joe Biden needs 62 percent. But if you're watching at home, you have every right to say well, that's outrageous. He's never going to get that number.
In the mail-in ballots, they are so disproportionate Democratic ballots. The Democrats encouraged people to do that. We have the COVID safety concerns. A lot of Democrats took advantage of the opportunity, the expanded opportunity to vote by mail in this election.
Here is another example and they just keep coming in. Right? If we see something to the contrary, we'll be quick to report it because we're just telling you the numbers. But yet again, you get more votes, 3,272 to 807 in one of the Philadelphia suburban collar counties, 79 percent -- 79 percent. The former Vice President continues to over perform.
He needs 62 -- sixty three percent if you round up of these votes still to be counted and we've done this now three times in the last half hour with different vote counts and every time, he has been in excess -- in excess not even close -- in excess of what he needs.
So what does that tell you? That tells you that lead keeps shrinking and if we stay on this trajectory, there are enough votes out there that if the former Vice President, meaning the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden keeps getting votes at the percentage he is getting them now, he will pass the President of the United States and open a lead in Pennsylvania somewhere in the ballpark -- if it keeps coming in at that number, maybe even in excess of 40,000.
BLITZER: Remember, only 94 percent of the estimated vote in Pennsylvania is in, six percent out, a lot of votes. Outstanding.
Trump's numbers are shrinking and shrinking. We're going to stay on top of this. We are going to update you.
ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA will continue right after this.
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[20:33:42]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, getting your numbers in from Pennsylvania right now. And John, Trump's lead is shrinking and shrinking right now. He's up by 53,221, 94% of the vote is in 6% outstanding, plenty of votes outstanding in Pennsylvania.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Plenty -- not only plenty of votes mathematically, but plenty of votes because we know where they are. And many of them, not most of them are in Democratic areas and even where they're not Joe Biden throughout this day has been getting 70% or more of the mail-in votes 70% or more of the mail- in votes. I'm told the latest votes were at Lehigh County that came in and you just see that up to 90% now, Joe Biden pulling away. And again, you see the 52 on your screen and you think OK, you know, Joe Biden needs, I'm going to check the numbers again. As of a while ago, he needed 63%. He's been exceeding that and the votes we've seen. So that number is most definitely smaller by now, but let's just use it. It's a higher bar than it has to be. If Joe Biden keeps getting 62, 63% of the votes he will pass Donald Trump not only pass him, pull out to a lead in the ballpark of 40,000 votes maybe more.
Again, Lehigh, this was read most of the time. If we went back in time, again, I want to do this just so people can see this. This is counting votes, OK. This is counting votes. This is not -- that's Georgia, let me bring up Pennsylvania here. Make sure I have the right state. This is what I'm going to leave it just here. This is the -- you're going to see the numbers just in this county. OK. You see Donald Trump ahead as Tuesday turned to Wednesday. It's just this one counter.
BLITZER: Sure.
[20:35:00]
KING: Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. He builds it there. That's Allentown, right. He built it again. You see there, the Trump lead goes up some more. This is counting Election Day votes, Republicans voted on Election Day. Now we move into Wednesday. And look at the lead, the President has 51 to 48. We move into Thursday 50 to 48. It stays there. Then here, except you see that started 73,000 there, but the percentage is coming down a little bit. And you move a little bit more and it flips. And now we get there. And so, you see the steady progression and count Joe Biden as they count the mail-in ballots, just overwhelming passing now in Lehigh County. The same in Lehigh.
BLITZER: And we just got some new numbers from Lehigh County, in Pennsylvania right now put this down on the screen, take a look. Trump just came in with an additional 2,416 votes. Biden just came in with an additional 7,481 votes, he got 75% of that batch that just came in. KING: Right. And again, so we've been saying all along, he needs 62%. This is again, this was 35, 40 minutes or so ago. So, if you're getting 75, that 63, I'm giving you is a wrong number. It's lower now, but let's just use it and keep the bar higher than it needs to be for Joe Biden right now. And he is exceeding it every time we get new votes. If we turned out the President may turn in a stronger performance in one of these counties as we go through it. But this is Lehigh County, Allentown, Pennsylvania blue collar territory, one of the places the President was leading early on, and you just see, this is, you know, you can't say inevitable because we're not the finish line yet. But this has just been time after time, after time, as new votes come in. They've been roughly along this breakdown right here.
And if this keeps happening, this keeps happening. I'm going to turn this off. I'm just going to move it up in case we want to come back to it, would leave it right there if we want to see it. This keeps happening. You see it, now down to 53, a lead that was more than 600,000 votes back at the beginning. And again, the President screaming fraud, the President says stop, the President wanted his votes counted on Tuesday and into Wednesday. Those were Election Day votes. Democrats disproportionately voted by mail because of the COVID pandemic. His votes were counted first. The other votes are being counted now. They happen to be coming in disproportionately for Joe Biden because Democrats voted by mail. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
BLITZER: And let's not forget 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania. We can't stress enough that if Biden wins Pennsylvania. That's it, he wins the presidency. Take a look at Allegheny County where Pittsburgh is right now. The county executive of Allegheny County Rich Fitzgerald is joining us on the phone right now.
Hey Rich, thanks so much for joining us. How many uncounted ballots do you have left in Allegheny County?
RICH FITZGERALD, ALLEGHENY COUNTY EXECUTIVE: We have Wolf about 35,000 uncounted ballots. And our ballots have been running about 80 to 81% for Joe Biden and about nine -- little over 90% for Donald Trump.
BLITZER: When do you think we'll get the results of those remaining ballots? Those are those are mail-in ballots right?
FITZGERALD: They're all mail-in ballots. Yes. They're the ballots that weren't able to be processed. One of the 28,000 of those as a batch that was placed, they got mailed to the wrong addresses, and then they got re-mailed. And because of a court order by a federal court, we're not allowed to begin processing and counting those ballots until 5:00 p.m. on Friday. So our election department will begin, our return board will begin processing those ballots tomorrow at 5:00. It's a slow process, because they almost have to do them all by hand, to go and compare them to make sure that those ballots weren't that that voter didn't already votes.
So, probably not every one of those 28,000 ballots are going to be counted. Some of the probably will be will be duplicates. There's another batch of about 7,000 ballots that have probably other issues. They got mangled in the machine, by the mail, and they also have to be painstakingly gone through. That process will begin tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Both of those are because of state law and court order. Otherwise, we would have been counting them today.
BLITZER: Do you know the affiliation of those ballots Democrat versus Republican, what percentage were Democrat? What percentage were Republican?
FITZGERALD: I don't know. We wouldn't know what that that percentage would be. But what I can tell you is of the 300,000 ballots plus that have already been done in Allegheny County, and they're random it could be for the city could be from the suburbs. It's just a random sample. They ran a little over 80% for Joe Biden, and a little under 20% for Donald Trump.
KING: And so Rich, this is John King, thank you for your time. I know it's a busy time. We have the county up right here. I just want to make the point to people and I come to a question for you. So you see this 58.7 and then you hear from the administrator, Joe Biden's getting at 80%. That's in the mail-in ballots. And so, that's what we need to keep explaining because people voted in three phases. You mail-in your vote, you show up early to vote in line, or you show up on Election Day, and President Trump is winning the Election Day vote.
So Rich, to the point you were just making, the President is saying, you know, there's all this fraud going on, all this nefarious conduct going on in Pennsylvania. You mentioned some of these ballots. There's a question of just whether they went to the right address and they're being corrected. Other ballots they opened up and you're worried about, you know, the wrinkled, so they wouldn't go through the machine. When these aren't validated? They're in a room. And please correct me if I'm wrong. There's an election official. There's a Democrat, Republican, independence, transparent eyes, if anybody has any issue, they can raise their hand. And those questions have to be adjudicated, correct?
[20:40:26]
FITZGERALD: That is absolutely right. And there's also cameras everywhere, these are filled with the watch. There are people that have been watching this process really throughout in the warehouse that we were doing the counting. And yes, tomorrow will swear an election board in (INAUDIBLE) excuse me, I returned board in at 9:00, they will then begin the process that will all be very public. The Trump campaign, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Biden campaign, the Libertarian Party, everyone's a lot in there to watch and do that process.
KING: And so, just quickly, I'm sorry, well, just one more. So this is the normal process as it plays out in every election. You're getting international attention right now, because this is a presidential election. And the President of United States just stood in the White House briefing room and said there's cheating and fraud happening in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This is the normal process and there are bipartisan eyes on it, correct? FITZGERALD: This is absolutely a normal process. Whether you're running for school board or Borough Council or local mayor, or county executive, every one of these processes is the same. We go through this it's state law, but regarding the return board. There have been court cases. This is a little unusual that these 28,000 ballots were going into federal court and then the court ruled that we couldn't begin this process until 5:00 but yet this is a normal process.
BLITZER: We're grateful to you Rich Fitzgerald, the Allegheny County Executive. Thanks for everything you're doing. Thanks for everything that everyone in Allegheny County and the Pittsburgh area are doing.
We're going to stay on top of the story. Obviously, the stakes are enormous right now we're getting new members -- really new numbers coming in from Pennsylvania. New numbers coming in from Arizona. They're about to come in as well stay with us. Election Night in America will continue right after this.
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[20:45:39]
BLITZER: All right, let's take a look and see what's going on in Arizona right now where Bill Weir is on the scene for us in Arizona. Bill Weir, what are you seeing, what are you hearing? It looks intense out there.
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is intense both inside and out as a Trump protest stopped the steel rally they're calling it forms outside. This is Democracy, in the making right here. This machine which does about 68,000 counts per hour. It is the folks that each of those little cubicles there. There's one Republican, one Democrat, they go over each of those that are kicked out.
Now today, Joe Biden lost about 10,000 votes in the state of Arizona for a number of reasons. Trump one big in small, bright red counties. But then Joe Biden won by a much narrower margin in bright blue Puma county or Pima County rather. And then the Apache County the Navajo Nation, huge sweep for Joe Biden 81 to 17%. So, the Biden lead now around 57, 844. But in just about 14 minutes, we're expecting the latest dump from Maricopa County. And if it's anything like last night, it'll be over 100,000 new votes. And if the margin, like last night is at 17-point or greater advantage for President Trump, that could mark a big comeback for the president here in Arizona.
BLITZER: And very interesting indeed. And John King is with us. Let's take a look at Arizona right now. We're waiting for a big batch of votes to come in. Right at the top of the hour, we'll see what happens there. Bill Weir just reporting those numbers are about to come in. But right now, Biden is ahead of Trump I 56,833 with 88% of the estimated vote in.
KING: And so, the Biden campaign is confident they're going to hold on here. But again, this is the reverse of what we're seeing in Pennsylvania and Georgia. In Pennsylvania, Georgia, we have seen a steady erosion of what were big leads for President Trump, Joe Biden is now in striking distance in the last 24 hours in Arizona, we have seen a steady erosion of the Biden lead to the point where it's now down to 56,833. Does that put the President striking? Distance that really depends, as Bill just smartly noted. America per county is 60% or more of your vote. And so, when we get the next big installment of votes for Maricopa County, he said we could get as many as 100,000. That will tell us a lot because they're getting they're -- you know, they're getting closer to the finish line now. They're not quite there yet. But if you get 100,000 votes out of here, the big question will be, you know, we have 51-40 -- and we have 51 for Joe Biden in the county after is that going up or down, this will determine the trend line here will determine the rest of the state.
Now you see, you know, there's a lot of red for the President here, but these are much more when you come through them about by county, you know, 99%, but look at 88,000. Right. So, you're just about done here 88,000 to win it. And you come down here just to remind you of the difference 912,000. So, we're just talking about night and day, when it comes to the size of the population, 60% of the vote is going to come out of here. In Phoenix and the suburbs, the next biggest is Pima County here. This is the second largest county about 15% of 60% here. The drop off to the second largest county 15% here, Joe Biden's getting about 60%, 59% of the vote there made up a little bit of ground earlier today. But we're waiting here. This is the ballgame. The next big installments out of Maricopa County will tell us a lot.
And again, this would be a flip. This was a Trump state in 2016. Not by a lot. Arizona has been evolving. It's long been a Republican state, but it was competitive. Three and a half points four years ago, you see the 1.2 million to win, right 1.2 million to win four years ago. We're at 1.4 million for Biden right now, one of the things we're seeing consistently across the states, whether they're red or blue, is the turnout is up across much of America. But so, we'll wait where a percent and the big bulk of the rest of it is right there. If you're in the Biden campaign, you hold this. Anything Biden takes off the table now the President must win Pennsylvania must win Georgia, and then he would still need more. So then if you're Biden you're just -- you know, trying to take things off the table. If any chess piece you can remove from the board makes the Presidents -- the bar for the President even higher. And if the former Vice President holds this, and holds this. He's president.
BLITZER: Nevada.
KING: Nevada and Arizona, Nevada and Arizona would get Joe Biden to exactly 270 even if what's happening in Pennsylvania doesn't continue, even if what's happening in Georgia doesn't continue. The Biden campaign thinks it's going to be a much better night than that. But they believe they also believe they will hold Nevada and Arizona. We need to see.
[20:50:07]
BLITZER: Got a question for Bill Weir if he's still there. Bill, you still look, can you still hear me? I don't know if he can. But what I'm wondering, John, if the 100,000 votes that are about to get from Arizona, are they the mail-in or are the day of votes, are the early votes? Do you have any idea?
KING: I believe when we talked to Secretary State earlier, she said the majority of what they were counting were mail-in votes. But I don't know if --
BLITZER: Yes, that would be good, presumably for Biden?
KING: Presumably, although we need to be fair to the President here. The last couple of times, we have gotten substantial vote counts. I believe we can show you on the timeline here. Last couple of times, we've gotten substantial vote lines out of Arizona. Let me flip to Arizona here. So we make sure on the right state and get you back to the beginning. You watch, you watch. And these are Maricopa County votes. So, the President has been narrowing the gap in Maricopa. You see 270,000 --
(CROSSTALK)
KING: I'm sorry, is Tuesday turned to Wednesday, then it drops Wednesday 1:00 a.m. and more votes come in. And you see it come down a little bit more 155,810. That's Wednesday, 2:00 a.m. Then Wednesday, 3:00 a.m., it drops a little bit more. And then you come down here to 93. And you come down here a little further. And then you come -- you're dropping to 68. And now here we are in real time 58 and change. So, this has been steadily dropping as they come in. Again, this is the ballgame 60% of the vote. I just want to go back in time that, you know, it's blue for Joe Biden right now. But Donald Trump narrowly care this is candidate Trump. Now he's President Trump four years ago, he narrowly cared this, you see how close it was.
So, when you see this blue, not everything blue is overwhelmingly blue. This is blue, but it's competitive. And the last couple of times we've gotten votes out of here, Biden's lead has shrunk. So, the President is getting both. Phoenix itself out here into the suburbs. You can move farther out there a lot of Republican votes in Maricopa County. One of the question was how many suburban Republicans would desert the President and go Joe Biden's way? That's what we'll sort through as we get more of these votes? There's no question. Trump won it, Biden's winning it. But the Democrats are more competitive here. But it's not like the President's not going to get votes.
BLITZER: Bill Weir, the votes that are we're about to get in from Arizona mostly mail-in votes. Is that what you're hearing?
WEIR: Yes, Wolf, you know, Arizona has been doing sort of absentee ballots automatically for years. And so, most voters here just get them and most of those voters are registered Republicans. And it's sort of a flip of what we've seen nationwide. Historically, they said they would get their Democrat absentees in earlier or later at last minute, and Republicans would sort of fill up the whole time, but this year, they got a bunch of Joe Biden votes early, that they don't know how many Trump supporters either showed up in person to vote on election day, or sent in those absentee votes late, you know, right before the election. So, that's what makes this so intriguing. We don't know how this is going to break. Conventional wisdom would tell you just based on the demographics here in Maricopa that Joe Biden should be getting the brunt of these and that's probably why the Associated Press and another network call the state for Joe Biden already. But who knows the way this is break -- away broke last night it woke everybody up to go, whoa, Donald Trump got a 17-point edge in that last dump of 100. And I can't remember it was over 100 and maybe 15,000 yesterday, 140,000 yesterday. And that went 5,740 Trump. So, if those numbers come in again, and it continues to erode Joe Biden's lead here, the Democrats will certainly get heartburn.
BLITZER: Well, we get those numbers right at the top of the hour at 9:00 p.m. Eastern here, Bill, is that where they're going to release it?
WEIR: That's it. And so it's, I'm wearing out my refresh finger, just in case they post a little bit earlier. If you remember Tom Cruise's nightmare and risky business, my nightmare is having to do math live on TV, but we'll do the best as we try to figure out how much of this a new batch, what the percentage breakdown is for both candidates. And to see how these trend lines are continuing.
BLITZER: We got good. The good news is we got people who are really excellent in math. Bill, standby. We're going to take a quick break. Much more of a coverage. We're staying with Arizona. We're about to get thousands and thousands of votes from Arizona coming in. We'll share that with you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:59:16]
BLITZER: We're seeing dramatic tightening and crucial presidential battlegrounds on this election night in America continued. I'm Wolf Blitzer.
In the last few hours and minutes former Vice President Biden has severely eroded President Trump's lead in both Pennsylvania and in Georgia. And Trump has narrowed Biden's advantage in Arizona. We're about to get an update on the vote count and Arizona's most populous county at any moment. Right now, we're tracking every, every vote in states that are still up for grabs.
Biden is aiming for new wins that would push him beyond the 253 electoral votes. He already has to reach the winning number of 270. Trump is behind with 213 electoral votes. We'll see if those numbers change tonight as new votes keep coming in.
[21:00:03]
Here's a key race alert. Let's look at these three states in Pennsylvania right now, 94 percent.
