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Biden on Verge of Presidency; Biden still Leads in Arizona but Lead Shrinks a Bit; Biden Takes Lead in Pennsylvania on Verge of Presidency. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 06, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: 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.

In Arizona right now, 90 percent of the vote is in still lots of votes outstanding. 47,052, that's the Biden lead over Trump in Arizona but we're about to get thousands and thousands more votes, actually 60,000 more votes in Arizona any minute now, 11 electoral votes once again in Arizona.

And in Nevada, 89 percent of the estimated vote is in, Biden has a lead, maintains his lead, 11,438, 49.4 percent to 48.5 percent, six electoral votes over there as well.

Let's take a look, first of all, what's going on? We're expecting in Arizona a whole bunch of 60,000 votes are about to come in. That could be a huge development.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: It could be, because we have seen, again, this is the flip side of what we've seen in Pennsylvania and Georgia. In those two battleground states as they count the mail-in ballots Joe Biden has caught up to now passed the president. Joe Biden leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia.

Here in Arizona we've seen a different trend. Republicans traditionally are used to voting with mail-in ballots and the like. And so, they've counted votes in the last 24 hours. President Trump has actually narrowed Joe Biden's lead. You see it at 47,052, 50.1 percent to 48.5 percent.

BLITZER: Hold on, hold on for a moment John. I'm told Kyung Lah is joining us. She has got the new numbers. We're taking notes Kyung. Tell us what you've got.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK. These are numbers, and before I read them, I want to make really clear to our viewers this is Maricopa County, the largest county in the State of Arizona. These are not state numbers, so here are the numbers.

Biden -- Joe Biden at 972,570. I'm going to repeat that 972,570. The president at 912,115. Here in this county, that is a three-point difference. It is a smaller gain in this county than what we saw last night at that ballot release. Just an ever-slight shrinking as far as that jump every time we've seen these ballot numbers coming out.

So, again, Joe Biden at 972,570, Donald Trump 912,115. So that's the very latest that we have here out of Maricopa County. The county that includes Phoenix, the very important county, Wolf. You have to win it here if you want to win the State of Arizona.

BLITZER: Thanks very much Kyung. So, let's take some notes right now because we're just been told, John, how many votes Biden gained in Maricopa County, how many votes Trump gained in Maricopa County. Let's start with Biden right now. He gained 28,285 votes, 28,285 votes. Trump gained more. He gained 31,716 votes.

KING: Well, this is what we've seen consistently in Maricopa County. And, again, I'm going to move this up a little bit on the screen so I can move around the map. But these are the new votes. Kyung just gave you the totals in the county.

So, let's get Maricopa County, the contests from Maricopa County is 60 percent, probably a little bit higher of the statewide total in Arizona. So, the battleground here, you know, six in 10 votes are cast right here. Look how close it is, right?

51-48 if you round that up, and this is where we have seen in the last 24 hours or so when we get new votes, the president is consistently coming out on top. Now you see it as blue. It's the flip of what we've seen across Pennsylvania and across Georgia, even in Republican counties, Joe Biden is winning the mail-in votes.

This is a different - just a different situation out in Arizona. I want to just go back in time to show why this is different? The president carried Maricopa County four years ago, there is no question the suburban shift in America is helping Joe Biden in this election. But this is not Philadelphia. This is not a blowout Democratic county.

Joe Biden is winning it but just barely right now and as the later votes come in, again just as we've seen the opportunity for Joe Biden and now the reality for Joe Biden, catching up in Georgia, and catching up in Pennsylvania, passing the president, first in Georgia and then in Pennsylvania, this is the opportunity for the president, the possibility.

He still has a long way to go, but we've seen this consistently when we get these batches of votes that the president, not by a ton, not by a ton, but he's chipping into the lead. So, this is just in Maricopa County and you bring it out to statewide in here what you have 50-49 if you round up so a one-point race, 43,000 votes, that lead is smaller than it was 24 and 30 hours ago.

BLITZER: So, it's going down a little bit. It's now 43,569 votes. Biden is still ahead of Trump, but it's been narrowed just a little bit.

KING: Yes. It goes down as we go through it, and, again, there's a strategic importance to this. If I can come over here just for a second as we go through this right now because we know right now, let's just go through what -- where we believe the president has a chance, in Maine's second congressional district the president is leading.

[11:05:04]

BLITZER: One congressional --

KING: Right. Joe Biden is on the door of becoming the president-elect of the United States which is why I'm going through this exercise right here. Joe Biden is knocking at the door and the president is leading in North Carolina right now.

KING: The president we expect fully to win the State of Alaska when that comes in. And so here you're looking right now, if Joe Biden holds Pennsylvania, right? If Joe Biden can hold Pennsylvania so the President of the United States is in trouble. That gets Joe Biden over the top.

He has to keep this. There's no way, right? So, I'm going to put this back in tossup just to say Donald Trump has come back here. The key here is Wolf, if we move on in this election and the calculation is do you sue, right, how do you keep suing?

If the president can come back here and the president can come back here, you know, then you're in a place where you have a close election. The issue at the White House calculations about a legal challenge, if Joe Biden holds this lead and Joe Biden wins here and wins here, Joe Biden is already President of the United States here.

So, one state is not going to make a difference that's -- as now you're thinking about how to mount a legal challenge? You can't sue because you lost. It doesn't work that way in a democracy. I'm mad, the other guy got more votes. I'm going to court. That's not the way it works. You have to have a case of fraud, but even if you think you might have a case they counted late ballots here, we don't like the way they handled the mail-in votes. If it is in one place but Joe Biden is at or near or above 300 it's not going to matter. I think that's the key calculation for the rest of today.

As we get more votes in Arizona, more votes in Nevada, we get closer to the finish line in these two states. Is Joe Biden at 270 or is Joe Biden is at 280 or 300 because if he's at 300, maybe we're waiting for a recount here because it's so close. Maybe there's a court challenge somewhere else, but there's an inevitability to the math as long as Joe Biden protects that lead and that lead which is why as we get the new vote counts from the west states, Arizona and Nevada later today, critical in the margins, again, if Joe Biden protects these two leads he's the President of the United States pending whatever court battle we get.

BLITZER: It's a close race in Georgia so even if there's a recount, the Republican Secretary has saved the Republican Governor the recount is a normal thing. It's not that unusual in close, close race statewide to have a recount. Let's go back to Arizona for a second right now.

KING: So -- BLITZER: There are still we're told 220,000 statewide ballots outstanding right now and 140,000 of those are in Maricopa County, the largest county where Phoenix is.

KING: Right. And so, since you have the bulk of them here and we've seen again recently when we get more votes, the president, you know -- the question is -- 3,000 votes right there. I'm rounding up a little bit and doing it on the fly, but what does the president need?

The president we knew coming into the day he needs to get like 61, 62 percent of the remaining votes in Arizona. The question is he meeting that test as more of these votes come in? If you're in the Trump Campaign, again every time we get new votes here, the president is coming out on top, by a narrow margin sometimes, but at least if you're in the Trump Campaign the overall count is trending in your direction.

The question is does it start to pick up steam and trend fast enough as we get the rest of the votes in the state? Again, will Arizona matter in the end in it the calculation of 270? Not if Joe Biden holds Pennsylvania, not if Joe Biden protects that lead in Georgia, but as we go through this potentially decisive day hours ahead the counts here and here.

You know if the president loses both of these, no matter what happens in Pennsylvania and Georgia, Joe Biden is the President-elect and so it just affects your legal strategy, your recount strategy and look, the political mood of the country, without a doubt.

BLITZER: Arizona is an important state and let's not forget Biden still has that lead, 43,569 has gone down a bit but it's still a lead, still a 43,000-vote lead.

KING: Right. And remember, just for the context, we have watched though, you know, if you're in the Trump Campaign, if you're a Trump supporter and you're thinking is that feasible? Well, we'll keep counting votes because remember, Donald Trump was ahead there when we woke up this morning and at one point, he was ahead by 650,000 votes.

He was ahead there when we woke up this morning or just as the sun was rising anyway and Joe Biden in the count passed him and is now building a lead. So, it's entirely possible that that happens out there for the president.

We're counting every vote, and we'll see where they go? We count them and if it changes to red it will flip to red. If you're in the Biden Campaign, you want to protect the lead. They believe that it will narrow, and they will ultimately win but we'll count the votes.

We'll know more in the hours ahead as they count them. Again, the question becomes does it matter, and I don't mean obviously matters to the people of Arizona it matters to the final count but if Joe Biden protects those and even just that.

If Joe Biden stretches that lead in Pennsylvania to the point where it's irrefutable, he's the President-elect of the United States and again then the rest of the counting is to find out by what margin.

BLITZER: The president yesterday made it clear he likes the vote- counting in Arizona, doesn't necessarily like the vote-counting in Georgia and Pennsylvania.

KING: That's an excellent point as we go through this day and people hear about all the contention, right? Democratic governor here, they're crying foul. Well, what are they going to do about that? That's a Republican governor there and a Trump supporter Brian Kemp. They're counting the votes.

Joe Biden is pulled ahead, it's a Republican governor out there and the president has been narrowing the lead, but Joe Biden leads right now so there's intellectual inconsistency to what we're hearing out of the White House. We'll let the people make their political arguments. We'll count votes.

[11:10:06]

BLITZER: Intellectual inconsistency, it's a very nice phrase you've got very diplomatic.

KING: Trying to be polite.

BLITZER: Let's check in with David Chalian. What are you seeing? What are you picking up from the battleground desk?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, we're looking inside that latest update from Arizona. You noted the state of play. Joe Biden still has a lead though a slightly diminished lead 43,779 votes. There are 220,000 outstanding votes in Arizona. That's the universe of ballots left to count, we think, rough estimate.

Joe Biden would only need 39 to 41 percent of them to hang on to his lead and win Arizona. Donald Trump's numbers the ones to look at. He would need about 58 to 60 percent somewhere in that range of those uncounted ballots in Arizona in order to overtake Joe Biden and win the state.

And here is the slight downside for Donald Trump. That latest update that we just got, Donald Trump won 51 percent of those votes, Joe Biden got 46 percent. That number, 51 percent for Donald Trump that is below what he needs to be doing if he's actually going to overtake Joe Biden and win Arizona.

So, he has to actually, even though he's making some ground, Wolf, Donald Trump actually has to significantly improve his performance in the rest of the vote than what we just saw in that latest update.

BLITZER: Very important point. Let's pick that up, John, because Arizona is -- we've still got plenty of votes outstanding. I think David Chalian just said 220,000 votes still waiting to be counted.

KING: Right. And so, it's been a slower count in the western states, Arizona and Nevada and we'll wait to count them. But to David's point you show those numbers, and if you're a Trump supporter you should be happy. The president came in ahead in the latest batch of votes.

The question is we've seen Joe Biden in Pennsylvania and Georgia overwhelming when we get the new votes, overwhelming majorities even in Republican counties. The president won there as David noted not by enough.

So, the challenge is when these new votes come out in Maricopa but also in the rest of the state is the president over performing that metric? Is he well over 50 percent and getting close to 60 percent, that's what he needs as we count the rest of the votes and we'll just see?

It's been a slow process which given where we are, with Joe Biden on the cusp of 270 electoral votes, if you're a Trump supporter you're looking anywhere for some hope. Arizona is a source of it, but, remembers, it's not as big in the Electoral College count as Pennsylvania or as Georgia.

So it's a sign of potential hope for a Trump voter, but if you look at the overall dynamics of the map right now, again, the colt fact right now no matter who you support is that Joe Biden is on the verge of being the President-elect of the United States if the trendlines continue, the most important one of them right here.

6,800 votes, it is a very small hardest lead, but we know of what is out is largely in blue places, blue counties like Allegheny where Pittsburgh is still more votes in Philadelphia. The vote count here is inevitably trending up for Joe Biden and the question is by the end of the day how big of a margin is that which gets you into the whole.

Do you have a recount? Is there a recanvassing? Is there any prayer of mounting a challenge anywhere? So, the final number there is critical, but fact of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is blue, it stays that way if -- if it stays that way right there, Joe Biden is the next President of the United States.

And, again, you come down here. This is such a hotly contested election and look how close this is, right? 1,500 votes right now, but we do know the votes that are out, it is a very modest number now in Georgia, they are -- of the modest number out, they are overwhelmingly in Democratic counties so we expect that to grow a little bit, too.

And then the challenge becomes, as you try to do the final math, we're still waiting on Alaska. The president is leading there, and we expect it will stay that way. North Carolina is not final. The president is leading, and we expect it to stay that way.

And so, these two states as we go through the day, and I suspect it will be into the evening hour and in Nevada they said it could perhaps even be tomorrow. But if Joe Biden protects those leads, those two alone are enough to get him to the presidency, but if he holds Pennsylvania and builds those. Again, it gets you above 270 which change both the political conversation in this town and out in the country and the president's legal strategy. If you have to flip more than one state, you know, then, that's a pipe dream. BLITZER: Yes, because if the president -- if the president-elect, let's assume it's Biden if he wins Pennsylvania, let's assume he wins Georgia and wins these two states, Arizona and Nevada, that's 306 electoral votes, and it's going to be very difficult for the president to start raising questions about legal challenges, Supreme Court decisions if four states are in play as opposed to one.

KING: If four states -- look, the Supreme Court or any court, a state court in Pennsylvania, state court in Georgia, unless you're alleging some federal rights violation, you can start in U.S. district court somewhere in Pennsylvania, somewhere in Georgia or somewhere else if you're going to make that case. You have you to make your case, sure, but, again, the question is if it's 306, even if -- even if you think you have some challenge here, it's not enough if you take one state away. So that's -- there's a legal dynamic to the politics.

And there is another factor in this and, again, no -- a court would tell you this is not how we make decisions, right? But as this goes forward, you know, 73 million and counting, right, a huge 4 million vote margin in the popular vote.

[11:15:06]

Courts make decisions. At least they are supposed to make decisions based on the letter of the law as the country would watch that play out though. That is a strong moral argument for Joe Biden especially, again, if you get at or close or above 300 even if there's one state being contested, the overall result will be crystal clear, those 20 are the most important.

Let's just watch those numbers as they playout. That goes -- you know, we're in 6,000 plus now I think is the last time. That one goes to 10, 20, 30, 40, and then we can have a contentious argument over this and the other thing. Joe Biden will be the next president.

BLITZER: And here I remember Donald Trump has a history of making accusations of election fraud when he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton four years ago. He was -- he claimed the only reason he lost the popular vote is because there was election fraud. He organized the commission of inquiry to look into it and they lasted for a few months and it disbanded. They found no evidence.

KING: They found no evidence, and that was one of the early -- I was going to call it the original lie of the Trump Presidency. There have been others. So, I don't know which one came first. But it was one of the early lies of the Trump Presidency that 6 million of those votes for Secretary Clinton, 6 million of those the president said, and the president's allies said.

And they were amplified by the president's friends 6 million of those allegedly cast by illegal voters, undocumented immigrants voting illegally in the United States, simply flatly irrefutably not true. Hillary Clinton won those votes fair and square and the president won those votes fair and square.

The interesting thing about this election is you just look, the turnout in this election, again, give more people ways to vote, turns out they want to vote. This is very high turnout election. The president got more votes than he did last time. One of the interesting conversations will be if Joe Biden is the next President of the United States, what does Donald Trump decide to do once he gets over his wounds and moves on?

He can still tell the Republican Party look at that. That is the second highest vote total in a presidential election in American history.

BLITZER: Let's see if he does that? All right, we're waiting for more results coming in from Pennsylvania right now much more of our special coverage when we come back.

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[11:21:30]

BLITZER: We've got a key race alert. Take a look at this Joe Biden's lead in Pennsylvania is increasing right now. It's now 9,027. It's gone up. Biden leads Trump by 9,027 votes. 49.4 percent to 49.3 percent. 20 electoral votes at stake in Pennsylvania 95 percent of the estimated vote is there in.

Let's go back to John King over at the magic wall. So, it was 1,000, 5,000, 7,000, 9,000 it keeps going up and up. I suspect it's going to go up even more dramatically but tell us where the increase just occurred?

KING: Now we keep saying this and it's the same pattern. This increase happened right here, Delaware County, just to the southwest, one of the suburban collars right around Philadelphia a place where overall Joe Biden is getting 63 percent of the vote to 36 for the president.

But Wolf, as we've seen throughout this pattern, I just want to bring this up and we'll move it up here. This is Delaware County. New batch of votes from here and we've seen this consistently. Here is what happened here, Joe Biden gets 3,523 and Donald Trump gets 1,289 and so that is 72 percent, right?

72 percent for Joe Biden running almost 10 points higher than what he's doing in the overall vote when you add up Election Day voting, early voting and these mail-in ballots and we've seen this consistently. And so, we're at a point in the race now where the president, because he's trailing in Pennsylvania.

Let's pull out to the overall numbers, this is the new numbers in Delaware County, increase the -- increase Joe Biden's lead to 9,027 votes. The president right now needs to get 53 percent of all the incoming votes. It will be higher now because of this, but before these numbers the president needed 53 percent. Joe Biden is getting 72 percent so just a very simple math lesson here, the president needs to over perform dramatically instead what we're seeing in every single one of these counties when they send in the new batches of these mail- in ballots that they are counting this is what we're seeing everywhere we go. Joe Biden getting 72 percent of the mail-in ballots in a place where when you look at it, he's been getting only 62 percent, 63 percent, that's impressive, don't get me wrong. But Joe Biden is over performing the totality of the vote just in the subset of these mail- in ballots and it's been consistent which is why that's a small number, you might say, it's a modest number in a giant state like Pennsylvania. But it has been a methodical build for Joe Biden, first catching up to the president and now as he pulls away and, again, the smart people in Pennsylvania say this pattern continues, now within a couple of hours that lead will go past 10, expect it to go past 20 and they expect it to grow. That's not inevitable. We'll keep counting them.

But there's been a science to this and there has been consistency to it every time they count the mail-in ballots. Again, there are 35,000 out there. In Allegheny County Joe Biden is pulling 70 percent or more of those. You just do the math at home that lead is going to grow.

The big challenge is again in the big picture that alone is enough. It is blue now. That alone is enough to make Joe Biden the next President of the United States. The question is as we get later in the day as the president talks about challenging this and suing about that, how big is that lead?

How big is that lead because the bigger it gets, already that, find me a recount in a 10,000-vote race that's returned the results. You know you got to spend a long time looking for it. So, if that grows to 20 or 30 or 40 it deeply impacts the president's both political and legal strategy as we go forward and that's the trajectory that's on, it is unmistakable.

BLITZER: And the trajectory that we're seeing unfolding. It could easily become that -- that 9,000 could easily become 50,000 when all the votes are counted.

[11:25:05]

KING: Right. There are people in the state who think it will go as high at 100,000. We'll see. I did some back of the envelope math last night and had it in the 45 to 55 range if it continued at that pace and to be fair to those who think it could go higher, Joe Biden's percentages actually coming higher than I gave them when I was doing some back of the envelope math.

Now, again that's not inevitable but we've just seen it. I can't remember the time when any of these mail-in votes have come in where the president gets more. We're seeing that to a degree in Arizona. That's why we're going to continue to watch it.

But the simple math and the simple history here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has been every single time, even in the Republican counties, we get a new batch of these mail-in votes as they are counted. They're not new votes. There are people out there saying where rare these votes coming from.

These are legally cast mail-in ballots that they decided to count last. Election Day vote was tallied first. That's why the president ran up his big league, we're just counting votes that have been legally cast and every time, every time again even in these ruby red Republican counties Joe Biden is coming ahead and not just ahead, Wolf, in the ballpark of 60 percent and in many of these counties 70 percent, 80 percent or more.

And just to button it up again, you're trying to be fair and you're saying where these votes are? Well, a lot of the outstanding votes are in Philadelphia. Joe Biden is getting 81 percent. So, the president is not going to make up ground with votes coming from Philadelphia.

A lot of the votes 36,000 or so out here in Allegheny County which is Pittsburgh, the president is more competitive here than he is in Philadelphia, but the president is not going to make up those votes in Allegheny County. It's just, its math and fact.

BLITZER: Yes. And those numbers are increasing. Let's go back to David Chalian right now. David, give us a sense, at what point will we be able to project a winner in Pennsylvania.

CHALIAN: Right. I know a lot of people watching these vote totals from Pennsylvania get added and see Joe Biden's lead continue to grow over the president. Here John walked through the pattern of these ballots and we're sitting there and wondering like why is this not projected yet?

Here is why, because what our decision desk is doing behind the scenes right now, they are looking at the 9,027-vote lead that you see there for Joe Biden in Pennsylvania right now. And then they look at everything that's outstanding and what do we know about that outstanding vote?

And where is it coming from? And if it is indeed all mails we expect we know that's a big Joe Biden category that gets factored in, but is there enough vote out there that we can definitively say who the winner of this state is going to be, that we're certain that the number two candidate right now, Donald Trump in Pennsylvania has no chance of becoming the number one candidate when all of that votes comes in.

When we know reach that level of confidence, that threshold that we know the number two candidate cannot overtake the person currently in the lead and right now that is Joe Biden, then we make a projection. Until then we continue to look for more about this outstanding vote as it comes in to get to that confidence level. Wolf?

BLITZER: History clearly unfolding right now and we're getting more and more votes, especially in Pennsylvania right now. Our special coverage will continue right after a quick break.

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