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CNN Live Event/Special

Biden Takes the Lead in Georgia. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired November 06, 2020 - 05:00   ET

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

[5:00:16]

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York City. I'm Chris Cuomo. Don Lemon joins me as always.

And it may be early, but it is now prime time on this Friday morning because we just had big news in a race that counts as many of you are waking up in the East.

What happened, Don?

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Yeah, a lot of people are going to wake up and go, "oh, my gosh" when they see what happened overnight.

You know what, Chris, here's what happened. There's a new batch of votes that just put Joe Biden over the top, at least for now, ahead of President Trump in Georgia -- traditionally, a ruby red state.

Biden now leads there by a super tight margin, but, you know, it's still until the lead. It's a vital one. We don't know what's going to happen. It all has to play out.

The president cannot win this election without Georgia, so if it remains this way, the president has no path, but again, it's not done yet.

Biden also picked up thousands of more votes, by the way, in Pennsylvania overnight, Chris.

CUOMO: Yes, the race is changing, and that calls for a key race alert.

All right. Obviously, we start with Georgia, 16 electoral votes. Donald Trump needs them to win through the Electoral College.

The spread right now, Joe Biden for the first time up 917 votes, still a statistical dead heat. There are still more votes to be had, and if they continue to break the way they have to this point, in the last couple of days, Joe Biden may pad that lead.

So, it is not over. There are more votes to come in. Things could change. There may be a recount.

But for now, Joe Biden is ahead in the state of Georgia.

Nick Valencia is in Jonesboro, which is in Clayton County, where these votes came from.

They promised us, my friend, they were going to work through the night, and they have and they put out the vote that made a difference for Joe Biden.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And they have done such important work. We are seeing democracy in action. You have been highlighting their work for the last 48 hours, and we wanted to bring you a live look inside what's happening right now in Clayton County.

We know they started counting the absentee mail-in ballots at 9:00 a.m. yesterday. We saw an hour and a half ago or so, roughly a dozen or more poll workers leave, and this behind me, this is who's left here, a group of about a dozen poll workers here in Clayton County, and things have pretty much effectively come to a standstill.

It was within the last several minutes that we saw batches of ballots, we believe, being scanned into the system. If what has been happening, if this pattern holds true, we should expect another update here in a little bit, maybe a few minutes. We don't know. Of new votes or votes that are now counted in Georgia.

This has been exhausting work. They guaranteed that they would go through the night until the job is done, and this is exactly what they have done.

I want to move here to the other side so I can show you, show you the layout here of this building. It used to be an old police department headquarters as we understand, turned into an area where they are processing and counting ballots. This is the room where you saw video earlier that we showed you last hour where there was about 20 poll workers.

We understand, and this is all information that we're getting secondhand because there's no one on site here that's talking to us officially. But as we understand it, as other reporters here have said, this is the room where they were going through ballots that had potential discrepancy, duplications, and then from here, they were transferred over here, Chris, that's the door that leads to the room I was just showing you.

It's in there they scan the ballots and they started with 4,300. We don't know how many are left. But what I showed you here, it appears they have come to the end here. We can't be clear, but that's how it looks what's going on here in Clayton County -- Chris.

CUOMO: I appreciate you. I want to let you go.

But just one quick thing -- are we right when we say that many of the people working there are volunteers?

VALENCIA: That's right. That's right. They're either staff of the county. They volunteered.

Some I understand are paid. I did speak to poll workers on the way out of the location yesterday where we're at, they said they maybe were going to get a paycheck, they didn't know. They're certain not doing it for the money. It's all about democracy in action, Chris.

CUOMO: They should get paid. I mean, they're doing something that truly manners. But I just want to make sure that people understand what we call Americans, these people volunteering their time, many have other jobs they have to leave and get to, worked through the night to deliver us a look at our democracy in action, and they should be celebrated for that. In fact, everybody who voted should because as you know, Nick, we have never seen participation like this in a presidential election. It's a real testament to the strength of this country in hard times.

VALENCIA: Historic.

CUOMO: All right, my friend. I'll check back.

Let's get right to Jason Carroll. He is with the Biden campaign in Wilmington, Delaware.

Jason, the Biden campaign giving a lot of credit to one person for the temporary swing in Georgia, we'll see what happens, but right now, a good moment for Biden.

[05:05:03]

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we'll see what happens, and that one person, of course, is Stacey Abrams.

First, we should note that the Biden campaign has made it very clear that they saw Georgia as one of their possible paths to 270. Their data showed that.

But a lot of folks, a lot of Democratic operators have said, look, the Biden campaign owes a great deal of credit to Stacey Abrams for all of her efforts on the ground. You remember, Chris, back in 2018 when she lost her bid for governor, right after that, she got to work and formed a nonprofit group with the expressed goal of stopping voter suppression in the state, and turning out voter registration in communities of color.

Abrams was one of those people very early on who thought, look, this is a state who has the potential of turning blue, and so she was really getting out the effort there on the ground, and the campaign paid attention, as you know, former President Barack Obama was there in the state last week. Joe Biden paid -- was in the state, went to two locations in the state. Kamala Harris spending time in the state.

So they saw the potential there, but a lot of folks there on the ground are saying that the reason why we're seeing some of the outcome that we're seeing so far there in the state, is due to Stacey Abrams, and she deserves a lot of credit -- Chris.

CUOMO: Just so people understand, you're standing there not randomly right now. Where you are is the potential site of a Biden victory event, right?

CARROLL: That is correct. We are here waiting to see what will happen, and waiting to see if it will happen today, and you know, in terms of talking to some of the folks in the campaign, the feeling is that Friday, today, could be the day that Joe Biden reaches 270. They're paying a lot of attention to what's happening in Philadelphia, still feeling very strongly about what's happening in Philadelphia, feeling as though when all the votes are counted and at the end of the day, they're going to have what they're calling a decisive victory there in the state of Pennsylvania.

We'll wait, we'll see what happens, but right now, the stage is set. A lot of folks are wondering what's going to happen sort of later on here today. But look, the campaign is basically at the mercy of those who are counting the votes, and Vice President Biden for his part has been saying all along, just be patient. Count all the votes, let the Democratic process play itself out.

But the stage is set. Some folks are betting the stage will be set and ready for what happens later today -- Chris.

CUOMO: Jason, thank you very much. Appreciate it, especially at this time.

All right. Now, we're with Phil Mattingly at the magic wall.

How did it happen in Georgia, and what is the likelihood that the change is real, meaning not just for this moment?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, first, take a look -- take a look at this map. This whole southeast has been red. This whole southeast has been red. It was red back in 2016 for Democrats. Georgia has been out of reach on the presidential level since 1992. Before that, just Jimmy Carter.

Georgia is blue. Georgia is blue. We'll see if it holds. We'll see if it holds.

Let's dig for one quick second and then we're kind of go back out and explain why it's important for the bigger picture.

What just happened is we saw vote come in from Clayton County. Clayton County is a Democratic county. Look at the margin. Joe Biden leads the county handily, and over the course of the night they have been the county reporting.

Hats off to them for working through the night and continuously churning out votes. And as they have continuously churned out votes, batch after batch after batch, even if it's only 200 votes, we're going to Joe Biden by rate of about 84, 85 percent. That was above what he needed. He's been overperforming.

The reason why, Democratic county, reason why, mail-in vote, it's what we have seen across several states and that put Joe Biden over the top.

What we are waiting to see and are likely to see is what else is left over. Couple of things here -- one, my understanding, based on the math I have been doing in my head, is Clayton County may not be done. And I think that's what Nick was talking about, that they're scanning more ballots. They may actually be a little bit more vote in Clayton County.

We've seen how that goes for Joe Biden, that may pad his lead even more.

CUOMO: What does little mean? Just so people --

MATTINGLY: A couple hundred. Based on kind of the back of the envelope.

CUOMO: Harry Enten?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: About right, maybe 500. Maybe a little bit less, somewhere in that neighborhood.

CUOMO: OK, thank you, bud.

MATTINGLY: So, that's Clayton. We have seen how that goes for Joe Biden, if that comes in, it will pad his lead based on what we have seen to this point.

Democrats are also looking to Gwinnett County. It is a blue county, it has gone towards Joe Biden for an 18-point margin. Vote by mail, bigger than the margins, 4,700 votes here, another opportunity for the Biden campaign to pad their lead.

We will also be watching two Republican counties, Forsyth, a little over a thousand votes outstanding there that we expect to be reported. We'll see how they come in.

I think the big question both in Forsyth County, down in Lawrence County as well, just because it's a Republican county, doesn't mean the vote is going to move heavily towards President Trump because it's mail-in ballots.

[05:10:00]

We will have to watch how this plays out.

If you talked to Democrats, they believe if Joe Biden overtook President Trump based on how little vote was left, it was likely a lead that would hold. We will see how that happens as the vote comes in over the course of the day.

CUOMO: Now, without getting too deeply into this because we don't have to, this will be perceived differently by the two camps. Now, eventually after an election, there won't be two camps anymore because it's getting us nowhere.

The direct point is this, there will be a suggestion. Here's the proof of what the president was saying. I'm not going through the detail of his latest litany of attacks that have come throughout the night because I can't substantiate any of it, even Twitter is flagging the tweets of this president on the subject. But we will remind you of this, for the president to be right that this was somehow taken from him, that means a Republican governor, a Republican secretary of state, and a Republican election infrastructure decided to do their favored candidate dirty. Does that make sense? Then follow the math.

Let's take a break. When we come back, latest developments, stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:20]

LEMON: All right. Well, we are back now. Listen, we're watching the key battleground states all over the country. Georgia is really the one that we're paying attention to now because the former vice president just pulled ahead for now in Georgia.

Let's bring in Andrew Yang, S.E. Cupp, and John Avlon.

So good to have you here.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you.

LEMON: Since we last saw each other in the wee hours this morning or yesterday morning, a lot has changed, S.E. What do you think, how are Republicans feeling about this now?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This has to be very disconcerting, I think a lot of people, certainly Democrats hoped that Georgia would be in play. I don't think a lot of Republicans embraced that idea. I think Republicans believed in the demographics of Georgia remaining the same, and they have changed. They have changed under our feet.

You know, you lived there. We visit there because we've got a big bureau there. So, we know the demographics have changed. The voters there have changed.

And I think when you look at, you know, elections like Ossoff versus Perdue, you have the tendency to think the demographics haven't changed, it's still a red state. That could say more actually about the infrastructure of someone like David Perdue, and the Republican Party.

Same for Lindsey Graham in South Carolina. He won, maybe not because that state is as red as it used to be, maybe it's because he's an election machine. Same with Mitch McConnell.

I think in Georgia, you have to acknowledge, whatever happens in what will probably be a special election, those demographics have changed and they are benefitting Joe Biden currently.

LEMON: Yeah. It's almost I think -- Ron Brownstein, which -- I was talking to him about this earlier, when you look at the metro centers, almost like an earthquake and you have the bands that drift out into the suburbs, and that's what's happening pretty much and if you look at the battleground states, almost every metropolitan area around the country.

But it happened in the presidential race but not necessarily in the congressional races or Senate races.

AVLON: In Senate races, that's right. There are lots of reasons for that, on the House level there's the additional burden of gerrymandering, which makes it difficult to flip seats.

But, look, you know, as we talk about red states and blue states, and even in the deep south, what we know is actually the deeper divisions in politics are urban versus rural, and the South, cities in the South have been voting Democrat by increasing margins as their demographics in the state changes. That puts a lot of places in play.

But nobody at the beginning of this cycle thought Georgia would be in play. People were putting it in the same bucket as Texas. That's a pipe dream.

LEMON: Doesn't that scare the folks that the president was trying to get to turn out? The folks who live in the rural areas, people afraid of the changing demographics of this country --

AVLON: That has been the theory of the case.

LEMON: Is that not a motivation to them?

AVLON: That has always been the theory of the case. And if you look at where Donald Trump has campaigned in past races, you know, that has been an inflammation point.

But, you know, consider this, Joe Biden is the first Democrat to win non-southern Democrat to win Georgia since JFK, and the politics were different. And Bill Clinton, and jimmy carter pulled it off. It's significant that Joe Biden has done this.

With Kamala Harris on the ticket, this is -- look, it's a razor thin margin, people, but this is extraordinary.

CUPP: But this is also why folks during the Democratic primary thought someone like Joe Biden is better positioned to potentially go after places like Georgia versus someone like Elizabeth Warren, for example. This was sort of the dream, you know, the fever dream and that it might become a reality today I think validates those impulses to choose a more moderate candidate.

LEMON: There's so much to talk to you about here. First I want it ask you quickly, did you ever think we would be in this position with Georgia, what's happening in the Philadelphia suburbs, and Atlanta and so on?

ANDREW YANG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This was the dream that Georgia would flip blue. Credit to Stacey Abrams for helping make it happen, and making sure that votes are counted in Georgia. America, if you wanted to take a break from politics, I've got some

tough news for you because everyone's eyes are going to be on Georgia for the next two months, you're going to have two special Senate races that could determine the balance of power in the Senate.

LEMON: We're going to talk about that but --

(CROSSTALK)

YANG: -- 50/50, then Kamala is the time breaker, and you have a Democratic Senate.

LEMON: I want to talk about that. It's not just that, we're going to have probably some litigation, a lot of litigation from races around the country, from the president and Republicans. We're going to have to see what happens if Joe Biden actually, indeed, becomes the winner, if this president is going to hand him the keys to the station wagon, right?

[05:20:04]

We're going to deal with the special election. And we've got to deal with the balance of power. And you're right -- I think a lot of money --

YANG: So much money is getting spent.

LEMON: -- is just going to pour into Georgia, and we're going to be watching it.

YANG: And there is a way we could have been spared this, where if you're concerned about polarization in the United States of America, which I believe we all should be, if you had rank choice voting in these Georgia races, then we would be spared these special elections that are happening in January, rank choice voting, it encourages civility, it diminishes extremism.

CUPP: Can you briefly explain what it is? Because you posted this, right, and a lot of people on my feed were like, sounds great, what is it?

LEMON: We got to do it quick because we got to get back --

YANG: Sure thing. Rank choice voting, rank your favorite candidates and if your first choice doesn't win, it goes to your second choice until someone gets over 50 percent.

LEMON: And that happened with Susan Collins.

(LAUGHTER)

AVLON: Then jazz hands.

LEMON: Think about this, think about where we are right now, Georgia, right now, the former vice president is ahead of the current president, who is a Republican. Former vice president obviously a Democrat, ahead of a Republican in ruby red Georgia by 917 votes at 5:21 on a Friday morning. Who would have thunk we would be here?

And more votes are coming in. We know that because we have seen the live shot in Philadelphia at the polling place. We have seen the live shot in Georgia at the polling place. So, who knows what's going to happen next?

And maybe Pennsylvania. There's Pennsylvania right now, Philadelphia, maybe Pennsylvania will be next to go to the former vice president's favor. We'll see.

Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:26:11]

CUOMO: Key race alert, there's been a big change in the state of play in this election.

Look at the board. Georgia now in the lead, Joe Biden. 917 votes right now. There may be some more vote coming in in the state of Georgia.

This is huge. Why? President Donald Trump needs the state of Georgia to win this election through the Electoral College.

So big change of play here. Will it hold? We'll see. But there is more vote coming in there that could pad Joe Biden's lead. We'll see.

Pennsylvania, we've also been watching, why? If Joe Biden wins Pennsylvania this election is over.

So what is happening right now? The lead is down to 18,229 votes. It has been coming down. We are awaiting more vote. We don't know when, so we are watching it.

Let's figure out how we got here. Let's go to the magic wall and Phil Mattingly.

Look, you called it early in the night. We had to watch Georgia. Why were we watching and what made the difference?

MATTINGLY: Well, we were watching Georgia because we knew what vote was outstanding, we know where it was coming from, largely vote by mail, and we knew Joe Biden has an opportunity to surpass Donald Trump. That has occurred.

It's not a matter of if with Pennsylvania right now, it's a matter of when. Right now, Donald Trump is up 18,229 votes. If you look at the map, you are seeing a similar pathway here in Pennsylvania, also similar to what we saw in Wisconsin, in Michigan, Donald Trump started with a huge lead, why, because Pennsylvania counts the early vote first, and the early vote went very heavy towards President Trump. It did in multiple states throughout the country, and then they started counting the mail-in ballots.

When they counted the mail-in ballots, it has come in huge for Vice President Biden. What is left outstanding are Democratic strongholds and it's all mail-in ballots. Again, mail-in ballots across the country, especially in Pennsylvania, have leaned heavily Democratic.

So, what is left outstanding? Look down here, southeastern Pennsylvania, Philly, Philadelphia, being the anchor there, push out into the suburbs as well, that is going heavily Democratic, you see the blue, and it's also got a lot outstanding, about 160,000 total ballots in the states we right now, as we push forward and look around what's left in the state, Joe Biden has an advantage in terms of where the vote is outstanding, how the vote was actually cast, vote by mail.

If you're the Biden campaign, you look at this 18,000 vote lead for Donald Trump right now, and you're saying not only are we going to surpass that, we are going to surpass that by a decent amount.

Now, we're still waiting for it to be counted and we're waiting for it to be reported. It has been slow over the last couple of hours. But I'll just give you one example, Philadelphia right now, still 8 percent outstanding. You look at that margin, 80 percent to 18 percent. Rounded up, 81 percent to 19 percent.

Philadelphia's mail-in ballots have been coming in somewhere between 85 and 88 percent for Biden. So, not only is it a big margin and if Joe Biden holds that margin, he surpasses easily Donald Trump with what's left over in Philadelphia, but he's doing better than this margin.

That's what you're watching this morning. Georgia has flipped blue, we'll see if that holdings. Georgia has flipped blue. Pennsylvania is on track to do the same thing at some point this morning.

CUOMO: So to bring in Don Lemon here, Phil is saying it's not if, it's when. When goes to, well, when do we start seeing more vote out of Pennsylvania. We're being patient because we want the people to do the job the right way. That's what we're waiting on, Don.

LEMON: We have the perfect guest for that, Chris. So, you guys stand by and listen to this, and maybe you want to chime in as well.

Al Schmidt is here. He is the Philadelphia city commissioner responsible for elections there.

Thank you, Commissioner. I appreciate you joining us.

As we are speaking now, you see the vote totals changing in Georgia, and also in Pennsylvania. So can you -- we're looking at a live picture now, 5:21 a.m. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that's where the votes are being counted.

So, first thing, are we going to see anymore ballots coming in soon?

AL SCHMIDT, PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISIONER: Yes, our last report was around 1:00 a.m. this morning. And we have been counting for the past several hours. And I expect you'll see another update in the next hour or two.

LEMON: In the next hour or two.