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CNN Live Event/Special
Republicans May Need Time to Adjust to Election Result; Maricopa County to Announce Updated Ballot Count Soon, as Georgia and Nevada Continue Counting; Biden Looks Likely to Win Though Ballot Counting Continues. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired November 06, 2020 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The -- litigating the -- those arguments, you know, finding out what is real, what is not, stuff floating around the internet --
(CROSSTALK)
RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's what they're doing, yes.
COOPER: -- stuff, right. But that -- is that -- that's a process that takes place, ultimately in court, if it ever went -- if it gets there, if it's valid enough to get there, the lawyers will --
SANTORUM: Yes.
COOPER: Trump lawyers will look at it and say, OK, well, there's -- I can't even bring that to a courtroom, but here, this, I can bring to a courtroom --
SANTORUM: Yes, yes.
COOPER: -- does the president then -- I mean, he's not going to wait -- does he wait for the legal process -- the --
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think so --
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: -- that's the scary part --
COOPER: There's a public relations battle at the same time.
JONES: There are two different -- there are two different things that are happening here. One, you have reasonable people like Rick Santorum and others who are pointing out, you know, reasonable claims and calling for a reasonable process. That, I think everybody has to respect.
There's something else that's happening, which is that the president is throwing raw meat to his base, and his base is starting to react and there are other Republicans who seem to be going in that direction. So the concern that I have is that no matter what these numbers look
like, if you get enough people whipped up, they're going to say it's all fake. Now you've got a legitimacy crisis. The thing you don't want in a democracy is a legitimacy crisis, where you have millions of people who do not believe that they are being governed legitimately.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And if Ben Ginsburg is coming out and saying it's harder to make the case when Republicans did so well in these states, and the president did not do well? It gets harder and harder.
And I think what's going on is that in the White House, you have a president -- remember -- who said that Joe Biden was the worst candidate in history. And he probably feels humiliation to a degree --
SANTORUM: Yes.
BORGER: -- and he cannot --
SANTORUM: Yes, no, look --
BORGER: -- get around this notion that he could lose to that guy. Losing is hard enough for this president, but losing to that guy is harder --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: I'm sure there's a couple of Republicans who have had that same thought about the current president --
SANTORUM: Yes, I --
BORGER: Right, right. Well, and Hillary Clinton may have had that thought about --
SANTORUM: I've lost a few times.
COOPER: Right.
BORGER: -- Donald Trump. But --
SANTORUM: I stood on a stage, I remember, with like 15 Republicans, and they all -- I'm sure at one point or another they were like, this guy?
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Trying to figure out how to go to him and to talk to him about it and to say, wait a minute, this -- you've got to face reality here.
SANTORUM: Gloria -- and this is one of the things I'm just -- give people time.
BORGER: Yes. SANTORUM: I mean, you know, he's just found out that he's just found
out that he's, you know, probably not going to be the president of the United States here. And I mean, you could say, well it was in the cards, but you don't until the votes are counted. I mean, listen to John King, you don't know.
BORGER: But it's not his schedule, it's democracy's schedule. It's not Donald Trump's --
SANTORUM: Give his supporters and everybody time to figure this out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With Hillary Clinton, that's what happened.
SANTORUM: David, thank you for the comment that, you know, we'll take trespassers out of the White House? it's not time to --
BORGER: I agree with that, I agree --
SANTORUM: -- you know, that kind of rhetoric is not going to be helpful. This is a very emotional time. Either side under this election, it would have -- I mean, that's why they were -- no offense, Anderson, that's why they were boarding up places in -- you know, across the country. Because they were afraid of, you know, if Joe Biden was going to win by 10 points, and he loses? Fraud. I mean, this would be the cry of the other side, too. Let the process work. Give people space --
JONES: I remember when Hillary --
SANTORUM: -- to work through this. I mean, I was (ph) --
JONES: -- wait, I'm just agreeing with you. I remember, people wanted Hillary Clinton to come out that night, and she needed a minute and her supporters needed a minute, and she came out the next day.
I don't think that we're looking at that same situation with Donald Trump. The fear that people have, which maybe you can speak to, is that this isn't about him kind of getting himself together to come out and make a responsible speech, that he just is going to be a bitter ender and --
SANTORUM: Well --
JONES: -- then there are -- and I just want to finish this. There are things that can be done. There are extra innings in our Constitution, which we don't talk about. You can go and try to fight this out in the state legislatures, in Congress, at the electoral college level. It has never been done before.
And so there's a concern that if you have a bitter ender in the White House who's going to continue fighting in the extra innings that have never been used before --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what --
JONES: -- you've got a growing crisis, a growing crisis. AXELROD: Beyond that, he --
COOPER: Sorry, you didn't finish your thought though.
SANTORUM: Yes. The extra inning, I don't think is going to go there unless they have a clear record of substantial fraud that they've been able to prove.
BORGER: Well, they've been hiding it if they have.
SANTORUM: No, but I'm saying, give them time, let them -- give them the time to play this out.
AXELROD: I hear you, and I agree with you. Here's the concern. We have a president who does not have particular regard for rules, laws, norms. I mean, that's -- and institutions. We've seen that for four years. So why now would he find a sense of decorum about this process? That is the concern. I hope that he does.
Here's what I remember four years ago. Hillary Clinton lost Michigan by 11,000 votes. She lost Wisconsin by 27,000 votes. She lost Pennsylvania by 40,000 votes. There was no talk about you know, how do we overturn this. Because she had some regard, even as -- you talk about humiliation?
[10:35:07]
COOPER: Right.
AXELROD: How about waking up and learning that you lost to Donald Trump?
BORGER: Well, I think the -- what's going on in the White House now is they're trying to figure out ways to convince the president that he's lost if all these challenges don't -- aren't -- don't prove to be what they hope they are, but lots of people believe they're not going to amount to much including Ben Ginsburg, who has more experience than anyone we know.
And so it seems to me to be that this president, as you're talking about, David, is not much interested in what the people voted for. He's interested in the fact that he feels bad, that he's humiliated, losing to this guy, and he wants to keep punching when in fact people voted against him --
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: It's also what did his -- what did his father tell him? His father said there are two kinds of people in the world, there are killers and there are losers.
BORGER: Right.
AXELROD: And the message was clear, you've got to be a --
(CROSSTALK) SANTORUM: Here's what I would say -- if I can, this is what I would say --
COOPER: -- Santorum (ph) and then we've got to go.
SANTORUM: -- here's what I would say to Donald Trump. He -- yes, he didn't get enough votes. But there is no way Republicans are looking at this election as a loser. I mean, we --
BORGER: That's right.
SANTORUM: -- flipped --
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: -- we flipped --
BORGER: Exactly.
SANTORUM: -- seats in the Congress, we held onto the -- no one thought we would hold onto the United States Senate. We picked up state houses, we won --
BORGER: I agree.
SANTORUM: -- we picked up one additional governor's seat. I mean, this was a great election for -- and we were outspent four -- three and four to one.
BORGER: But Donald Trump doesn't care.
SANTORUM: So the bottom line is, we had a good election and we wouldn't have without Donald Trump. Donald Trump was responsible for all of these wins.
Now, I know you'd say, well, Donald Trump, the selfless leader of the -- but he -- in the end, you may -- he may not see it that way --
(LAUGHTER)
-- but I think a lot of Republicans are going to be very grateful for Donald Trump, for what he does.
And one final point. If Philadelphia was cheating, then they did a bad job of it because Donald Trump got more votes -- a higher percentage of the votes in Philadelphia than he did four years ago, so --
BORGER: Right.
SANTORUM: -- understand, he actually did do better in the African- American community than he did four years ago. So -- because he did worse in the white community.
So give -- Donald Trump has done a lot of good things here. There's a lot of people who are very grateful. Personally I am -- you know, I'm very grateful for the course he charted from the policy for our party. And I think maybe more, talk about that, about the success of Donald Trump, would be a little bit of a salve on the wound.
[10:37:35]
COOPER: we are watching history in the making as Joe Biden's lead in Pennsylvania grows. The former vice president moves closer to the presidency. We're standing by for new vote counts, expected to come in soon. Our special coverage continues, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to ELECTION DAY IN AMERICA CONTINUED. We're watching the race for 270 electoral votes, 253 right now for Biden, 213 for Trump, 270, that's the number you need to be elected president of the United States.
And Biden is getting closer and closer and closer. Let's get a key race alert right now, take a look at these numbers coming in from these key battleground states, four of them.
In Pennsylvania right now -- that's the most important with 20 electoral votes -- if Biden wins Pennsylvania, it's done, he's the president-elect of the United States. Right now, his lead has increased in Pennsylvania. His lead is now 6,826 over Trump, 95 percent of the vote is in, 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania.
In Georgia right now, Biden's lead is 1,579 -- 49.4 percent to 49.4 percent, 99 percent of the vote in Georgia is in, that's 16 electoral votes.
In Arizona, Biden's lead is 47,052, 50.1 percent to 48.5 percent for Trump, 90 percent of the vote is in, still a lot of votes outstanding in Arizona, 11 electoral votes.
And finally in Nevada, 89 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden's lead, 11,438, six electoral votes in Nevada right now.
We're watching what's going on in all those states. Let's check in with our battleground reporters right now. Let's start with Kyung Lah in Phoenix, Arizona for us.
So, Kyung, what are you learning? Are we expecting more votes any time soon?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are. And I'm just getting this update from the Maricopa County Elections Department. So I want to make clear, we do not have the results yet. We are anticipating them in 15 minutes. The latest ballot update from Maricopa County, the largest county here in Arizona, which includes Phoenix, we are expecting those results in 15 minutes.
But what I can tell you is that we will learn those results of 60,000 ballots, so we will know 60,000 ballots here in Maricopa in about 15 minutes. That means as we look at how many votes are still left outstanding in this county, there are 140,000 left to count still.
[10:45:09] That's the latest that we're getting from Maricopa County. If you look at it statewide, you add 80,000 to that and we are looking at about 220 votes left to count in the state of Arizona.
So that's -- again, we don't know exactly what's going to happen in 15 minutes. At the current Arizona Biden lead at 47,000, that number is going to change -- we don't know which way yet -- but the picture here in Arizona, what's going to happen with the 11 electoral votes? The picture, again, coming sharper into focus in about 15 minutes -- Wolf.
BLITZER: I will get back to you in 15 minutes, we'll find out those numbers. Thanks very much, Kyung.
Gary Tuchman is in Atlanta for us. Gary, what's going on? I see something going on behind you.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm in the state capitol building, Wolf, in Atlanta. I'm going to talk softly like I'm an announcer at the Masters Golf Tournament -- which by the way is next week here, down the road in Augusta, Georgia.
The secretary of state's office is having a news conference right now, but I can give you the main information from this news conference. There are still 4,169 absentee ballots to count in four counties. Almost all of those votes are from Democratic counties: Gwinnett, which has 3,500 votes still to count; Cobb, which has 75 votes -- those are the Democratic counties. Two Republican counties? Floyd, 444 votes; and Cherokee, 150 votes.
Those are the votes that still need to be counted, but that's not all the votes that will be counted, there are still provisional ballots to look at, hundreds of provisional ballots, perhaps in the low thousands that have to be looked at throughout the state of Georgia, and then there's up to 9,000 overseas expat military ballots that could still come by the end of the business day today. There may not be any that come, there may be thousands that some, they just don't know.
But either way, Joe Biden leads here by about 1,600 votes right now. What's important to mention is the secretary of state said every legal vote should be counted. One of the questions we were wondering: Is that an inference that there are allegations that there are illegal votes? And the secretary of state's office says there is no allegations of any illegality at this time.
I also wanted to mention that the final tally they say has huge implications, obviously for the nation, so they're going to be very careful. They expect that there will be a recount by whoever loses this election. Under Georgia law, if the deficit is less that 0.5 percent -- half of a percent -- then that candidate can ask for a recount.
And one final interesting thing, Wolf, the secretary of state's office just said a short time ago that the margin -- and this isn't a surprise, but it's an interesting way to put it -- but that the margin of this may be less than a large high school -- Wolf. BLITZER: Very interesting indeed. And the secretary of state of
Georgia is a Republican, the governor is a Republican as well -- let's not forget that.
Let's go to Nevada right now where Erica Hill is on the scene for us in Clark County, that's the largest county obviously. What are you hearing over there, Erica?
ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So we are waiting on new numbers, which we'll get in just about 90 minutes, 9:00 a.m. local time, 12:00 p.m. Eastern. The secretary of state has said that they know of about 190,000 ballots that still need to be processed in this state. Of those, about 90 percent are right here in Clark County.
We learned from the registrar in Clark County yesterday that we should get the results for about 51,000 ballots today, so we're looking for those numbers this morning in Clark County. And then over the weekend, they expect to have processed the remaining 63,000 or so additional mail-in ballots that they received in drop boxes on Election Day and that were delivered on Election Day and the day after.
One important note, Wolf, even as we're getting the rest of these results in -- and as the secretary of state says they know of about 190,000 ballots that need to be processed statewide -- ballots, mail- in ballots in this state can arrive up until the 10th, until next Tuesday. If they were postmarked by November 3rd, they will then be processed and they will have a couple of days to make sure that any issues can be dealt with if signatures need to be cured before they need to have that final tally in here in Clark County on November 12th.
BLITZER: Erica Hill in Nevada for us, we'll stay in close touch with you as well.
John, these four states, very important. It's close in all four of these states. Biden is ahead in all four, at least right now, but the most important clearly is Pennsylvania.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Most important is Pennsylvania because if Joe Biden wins Pennsylvania it gets him over the top, 273, and the flip side of that is there's no way -- Joe Biden can win without Pennsylvania, Donald Trump cannot. So that is why it is the most important.
Right now as you look at it, you see 6,826 votes ahead. That is a narrow lead, especially when you look, 3.2 million votes -- 3.2 million votes for each candidate here. It's a narrow lead, Wolf, but the trajectory here has been steady and consistent and methodical and irrefutable. And that is, as more of these ballots come in, they're almost all from Democratic counties. Joe Biden is winning 70 percent, 80 percent sometimes in Philadelphia, we've seen 87, 88 percent in the count coming in.
So they'll continue to count the ballots, that lead is growing. The question is, how big is it at the end? As the president raises allegations -- completely unsubstantiated at the moment -- of some sort of nefarious activity, fraud, cheating and the like, what's that number at the end of the day? You know, Republicans in the state are not alleging any such thing, Trump campaign people are saying that. We'll see, we'll see what happens.
[10:50:20]
But right now, this is the decisive state right here, that lead has been growing consistently, it was red when we came into work this morning, it flipped to blue this morning and the lead has grown a couple hundred at a time as it moves up. That is by far the most important -- no offense to the other states, but this one is 20, and again the president cannot win if he does not carry the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Where Gary is, you noted, down here in Georgia, 1,579. This has consistently grown. I just want to show you another example of what we've been seeing in all of these states. I just want to bring this up. A small number of votes came in a short time ago. Clayton County -- Democratic county, it's where the Atlanta airport is, just south of Atlanta -- and so these votes come in, and here's what happens. We've seen this consistently.
More votes come in, 527 for Biden, it's 46 for the president of the United States, which means this is 91 percent, right? And we've seen this consistently in a county -- let me move this up and pull up Clayton County so you can see it -- I just want you to see what's happening because it's happening repeatedly.
We bring up, Clayton County, Joe Biden getting 85 percent in the county. That's overwhelming, right? Wow, 85 percent in a county. But then they're counting just the mail-in ballots in just about every county. Joe Biden is exceeding what he's winning when all of the votes are counted.
By all of the votes, I mean those votes for the president, the bulk of them -- there's 46 here, but the bulk of them were cast on Election Day. So they counted those votes already. Now in Georgia, in Pennsylvania, that's what's happening, they're counting mail-in ballots and Joe Biden continues to exceed his overall percentages, so he's winning every time we see new votes. That puts you on the path to protect your lead.
It's a narrow lead, so as Gary just said, they know that there are potentially 8,800 or so overseas ballots, military, Georgians who live or work overseas for some reason. They don't know how many of those are going to come back, the deadline is tonight.
But you see the trajectory here is crystal-clear. If Joe Biden continues to build his lead, we expect that number to go up because, as Gary noted, some of the ballots remaining are here in Gwinnett County, some of the others are in the Atlanta suburbs and it has just been unmistakable, what is happening there, Joe Biden's numbers come in big.
The question is, by the end of the day, how big is that lead with the mail ballots counted and then you wait, the secretary of state will tell us -- presumably late tonight -- how many more came in from overseas. It'll be close enough, they'll be counting for a while.
BLITZER: Let's check in with Pamela Brown at the CNN voting desk. Pamela, let's talk about Georgia and the potential recount that may be necessary there.
PAMELA BROWN, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, let's dig a little bit deeper on that, Wolf. The superintendent in Georgia may recount -- or re-canvass if it appears there's an error. We just heard from Gary Tuchman in his report that at this point, state officials have not seen any errors, irregularities that would lead to that.
So then, that raises the question, will the campaign -- will the Trump campaign -- ask for a recount? They can if the margin of victory is less than 0.5 percent. And a source familiar -- a source close to the Trump campaign -- tells me that yes, if it stays this close, that they will ask for a recount in Georgia. So that's important to keep in mind.
Now, it still may take a while for that to happen, it has to happen two business days after election results are certified, so that could be as late as November 24th.
So this is all to keep in mind, with a recount, if it's going to happen, ballot scanners are going to look -- use ballot scanners unless defective (ph), they're conducted by superintendents -- that's the process for the recount.
It's also important to keep in mind here though, we don't have the exact number of provisional ballots in Georgia, and we know there's up to 9,000 outstanding overseas ballots including from the military, so all of that could factor in with how the numbers there in Georgia shake out.
[10:53:49]
BLITZER: Well, we'll watch it together with you. The numbers are coming in, we're -- votes are coming in Pennsylvania and Arizona right now, we're about to get a new batch of votes, we'll share them with you. Election Day in America continues right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: The nail-biter presidential election is on the verge of a dramatic finish. I'm Wolf Blitzer. This hour, former Vice President Joe Biden is inching closer and closer to locking up a victory over President Trump as his lead in crucial Pennsylvania is now growing.
We're awaiting more votes from that battleground state, where counting continues in Philadelphia and other locations. We're also expecting new results in Arizona at any moment now, new results from the most populous county in that state.
And we're closely watching Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada, four important undecided battlegrounds where Biden is leading. But Pennsylvania certainly is key because its 20 electoral votes will have the power to decide the presidential race.
Biden currently has 253 electoral votes; Pennsylvania alone would push him over, above the 270 he needs to win. Trump, significantly trailing with 213. He may soon be handed a crushing defeat if Biden wins Pennsylvania or two of those other states.
Let's get a key race alert right now. Let's start with Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, oh so important. Right now, Biden is ahead by 6,826 votes, 49.4 percent to 49.3 percent. It's close, but Biden's lead in Pennsylvania is growing.
In Georgia right now, Biden's lead is at 1,586. It's close in Georgia, 49.4 percent for both of these candidates. We're watching the vote- counting in Georgia.
[11:00:09]
