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CNN Live Event/Special

Biden On Verge Of Presidency, Will Address Nation Tonight. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 06, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

DANA BASH, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Presumably he is going to be giving that speech without what, you know, what normally happens, which is a call from the person who you beat.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: The looser?

BASH: And like, my guess is that he's going to just ignore it. So I thought about what he would do as President.

TAPPER: Yes. And if there ever was, we're a democratic politician for a moment like this, to talk about the need to unite the country, to ignore the noise coming from the likes of the President and his supporters. And to try to appeal to our better angels, as a different President once referred, it's Joe Biden, whatever you think of Joe Biden and his limitations as a politician, or as a person. This is the moment that he has been preparing for his entire life, an attempt to bring the country together, an attempt to reconcile the deep divisions in this nation, even while there are still actors trying to rip apart those scabs.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, to play devil's advocate here, I think you would, you will find many people, principally Democrats, wondering if Joe Biden's kind of nostalgic view of Washington is outdated, whether it applies to the Republican Party of today.

TAPPER: That was the charge against him in the primaries.

PHILLIP: That was the charge against him in the primaries, if he were to reach out his hand to Mitch McConnell and to a Lindsey Graham, who was at a time a very good friend of his, would they reciprocate? I think it's really an open question. It's one of the biggest questions for this time, this post-election period. What are Republicans going to do? I think we know what Joe Biden's going to do. But what are Republicans going to do to reciprocate on that? And does that -- does that work in the Donald Trump, Washington that he's really created with the Republican Party?

BASH: That such a good question. We don't know if it's going to work. But as you're talking, I was sitting here thinking of the last, the second and last debate that Biden and Trump had. And as we were watching, I think it was Gary Tuchman doing the interview with the focus group. And the -- of all of the things that were said during that debate, I think it was you who noted, the thing that was most striking was everybody like the fact that Joe Biden wanted to just stop the chaos and bring people together. And that's something that that was sort of the most resonant thing that Joe Biden said for these undecided voters.

TAPPER: In addition to it being who he is. I don't think that it wasn't a strategic decision by him. I mean, you know, it was naturally who Joe Biden is. And he got hammered forward in terms of his willingness in the 70s, to work with horrible bigots who are part of the Democratic Party and Republican Party. But it also is strategically wise, because they were making the calculation that there were enough moderate, independent, white voters that were just tired of the fighting, that were just exhausted of the fighting, and --

BASH: People are really tired. And we see, you know, there is --

PHILLIP: In addition to us being --

BASH: Yes.

TAPPER: We're physically tired. That's different. But, you know, he's going to win the popular vote by several million, at least 4 million last count, maybe five or six, you know, when it's all said and done. So it appears to have been a good bet. And in addition to that, you know, I think that this is a time for that because the Trump presidency. He didn't create these divisions. They were there in the country before he came, but he should have ran rank towards them, and President --

BASH: And he harnessed them.

TAPPER: He harnessed them. He won the White House using them. But he has been one who has sought very often to divide, and that's the election that he ran, was getting his people to the polls, attacking Joe Biden personally, attacking Joe Biden's son personally. You might remember that a few days ago, it was a huge national security risk that hunter Biden existed. We seemed to have -- the Republicans who were pounding that drum seemed to have forgotten all about that.

PHILLIP: Well, I mean, I think --

BASH: My guess is it'll come back.

TAPPER: Yes. That's right. They'll be hearings.

PHILLIP: Because Joe Biden did survive a general election in which the kitchen sink was thrown at him by this President. And, you know, the counter argument to the devil's advocate argument that I gave earlier, is that Joe Biden not only got through the Democratic primary arguing that he could bring the country together, he got through a general election. And if the Pennsylvania goes his way, he might be president- elect having won narrowly or not on that message. And so maybe that is proof that he -- that it's a message that A, the American people want, but that B, that it is something that might be able to work because he -- a win is a win, and if you win, that's it.

TAPPER: Yes. And just one other personal note about Joe Biden when I prepared to interview Jill Biden, who may be possibly the next first lady of this country, she wrote and believe it or not, I read her biography it was actually --

[12:35:09]

BASH: I did too. It was good.

TAPPER: -- pretty good. Yes, it's pretty good book. And, you know, one of the things, one of the observations she makes is that her husband, Joe Biden, forgives people and not only forgives but forgets. She doesn't so much. She remembers. But he forgives and forgets. So maybe he is -- maybe he was born for this era. Certainly not for his previous runs.

We are following the critical ballot count in Pennsylvania where Joe Biden's lead is only growing and we're standing by for new numbers to come in momentarily. Our special coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:04]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Now, let's get an update on what's going on in Pennsylvania right now as you can see 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania. It is certainly key 95 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden maintains his lead, nearly 10,000 vote lead, 9,746, 49.4 percent to Trump's 49.3 percent. Let's go over to Pamela Brown. Pamela, you're at the voting desk for us. Where are these outstanding votes in Pennsylvania?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: These votes that we're anxiously awaiting. Wolf, let's take a look. Let's look at the overall here in Pennsylvania as we're waiting for these results to come through 124,000 outstanding ballots that we're waiting on the results for. These are three counties that were I, you know, we've been talking a lot about Allegheny and Philadelphia, those are two of the biggest counties in Pennsylvania without sending ballots. Philadelphia alone still has 25,000 to get through. But you look here, these are the suburbs outside of Philadelphia, Delaware still has more than 3600 ballots. Montgomery has 2,800 more than -- a little over 2,800. And Chester has a little over 2,000.

And so these -- we're trying to find out, we have reached out to these counties, Wolf, to find out when they're going to release the results. They know that they're under the microscope as we await to learn more in Pennsylvania.

BLITZER: All right, Pamela, thanks very much. I'm here with John King at the magic wall. But I got Bob Harvie, the Bucks County Commissioner on the phone for us right now. Bob, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks to you and your team. For all the important work you're doing. What's the latest information on how many outstanding votes there are in Bucks County? And when do we expect to get a new count on what's going on?

BOB HARVIE, BUCKS COUNTY, PA COMMISSIONER: Well, we just did an update about a half hour ago on our website, the next update should be somewhere in the 2 o'clock hour. The outstanding votes we have here in Bucks County are sort of in a couple of categories. We do have some of the roughly 7,000 that are naked ballots. And so those we know we're not going to be able to count. We also have some that are being independently verified right now. Because they were as they went through the scanner, there were a couple thousand that were going through manually to make sure that we have the right votes recorded for those.

And then we did receive some that came in after Election Day. And the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has given counties themselves today, 5 o'clock, excuse me, alike votes to come in. Let's take a look at those. And there also are some that are, we have to look at the outside of the envelopes because there maybe some issues in terms of whether or not people sign them or put the right date, things of that nature. So we plan to have the verifications done, a few thousand more of those to go in the next roughly hour and a half. And then the others will be sort of things we process over the next few days.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Bob, its John King, grateful for your time. I know you're busy trying to get this all finished. You mentioned naked ballots, for our viewers who might not understand that term. Can you just explain that if I'm right, those because the mail-in ballot process in Pennsylvania, you have an inside envelope, you just put your ballot in for secrecy purposes, then you put it inside a larger envelope and mail it back in. And so if you don't get it back properly sent to you and one of those envelopes is missing, do they get set aside and discarded or do they get set aside and then you have a conversation about whether you count them?

HARVIE: Well, it's a little bit of both. There are certain categories. If the ballot comes in not in the secrecy envelope, we can't look at it. We can't do anything with it. So that's that aside. There's also a role in the Pennsylvania law that say there can't be any identifying marks on the secrecy envelope. We did have some people who maybe they misunderstood some of the law or the instructions they signed on the outside of their secrecy envelope. The law is pretty clear about those. But trademarks, anything that doesn't identify the voter doesn't identify who they're voting for, you know, those are ones you're going to have to have discussions about.

BLITZER: Bob Harvie, thank you so much. We got to end this conversation. We're getting a news conference going on in Philadelphia right now, the president of the city commissioner, giving some numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA DEELEY, CHAIRWOMAN, PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISSIONERS: After that the remaining ballots generally fall into one of three categories, those that require review provisional, U.S. military overseas ballots. I would estimate there's approximately 40,000 remaining to be counted. We can also tell you that it may take several days to complete the reporting of that. And as you know, election results are not officially certified until 20 days after the election.

Thank you again. Thank you to the citizens of Philadelphia. And now, I would like to invite Commissioner Omar Sabir to the podium.

[12:45:01]

OMAR SABIR, PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISSIONER: Good afternoon. I'd like to thank the County Board of Elections' staff. I would like to thank the taxpayer citizens of Philadelphia and across America. I think it's safe to say that democracy has won. Democracy is beautiful. We saw Octavius, the statue of Octavius Catto right on City Hall, where he died so that Americans can have access to the democratic process. And as we stand here today in 2020, people still have access to democracy. That's a beautiful thing, but we still want everyone to exert patience, ignore a lot of the noise that's going on. Allow us to complete the counting process.

And again, I'd like to think everyone. I would also like to think my beautiful wife at home with my six children while I'm down here doing all of the counting. And I'd like to say, hi wife, I love you and thank you. All right now, I'd like to bring on our Council President Darrell Clarke, who's a friend, who's a mentor and a true leader of Philadelphia.

DARRELL CLARKE, PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT: Thank you, commissioner. Good afternoon everyone. So to say this was a tumultuous year would be the understatement of the year. We in the City of Philadelphia and across the nation, have gone through some very, very challenging times. But in spite of that all, democracy works. Democracy works. I want to thank the commissioners who were given a short time frame to transition from the traditional in-person voting that Philadelphians are known for, to having a mail-in ballot system, to have multiple options.

And guys, I just want to say you did a great job. You did a great job. But in all due respect to you, you guys, I want to thank the people that work. Every time you went by Broad Street or you went by City Hall or you went by Delaware and Spring Garden --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: All right, local leaders in Philadelphia giving an update on what's going on, John. I guess the most important information we got from those officials 40,000 votes remaining to be counted in Philadelphia.

KING: Right. And so you heard from the Bucks County Executive who we're just talking to and then these Philadelphia city officials, they're near the finish line. So they're looking now at ballot, some of them are so called provisional ballots, you show up, you request in a mail ballot, perhaps or they have your address wrong. And so there's some sort of a mix up, they say we're not sure you're eligible to vote, you fill out a provisional ballot, and then they check after the fact. So you get your right to vote. And then they go through after to make sure it's legit, ballots that have been somehow creased or marked wrong, that they have to look at and see what they can count. So you're at the finish line. This happens in every election. It's getting a lot more attention now, international attention, because you have let's come back out that was Philadelphia city, you have in the state that could decide the presidential election, Joe Biden with a 9,746 vote lead in a state where if you look more than 6.6 million votes have been cast.

So they're getting intense scrutiny, doing the nuts and bolts, the unglamorous work, if you will, of finishing an election count. But you mentioned that number there. That number is here. That number is the largest basket of still uncounted votes long ago cast uncounted. Joe Biden is getting 81 percent of the vote in Philadelphia. So every time they count more votes in Philadelphia, you can be certain Joe Biden's number is going to grow. We were just talking to the county executive here in Bucks County, suburban county to the north, it's more competitive you see, every time they've counted votes there though, Joe Biden's number has gone up because what they're counting now are the mail-in ballots, disproportionately Democrats, breaking disproportionately above those numbers for Biden.

Pam Brown was talking to us earlier about ballots still out, modest number, but a couple thousand in Montgomery County, some more in Chester County, some over here in Delaware County. What is unique about all these suburbs around Philadelphia? They are blue. Joe Biden's get a very healthy percentage of the vote in these mail-in ballots, it's even higher. And what you see on the screen, it has been that way consistently, as you come through, Montgomery County, 62. They'll count mail-in ballots. We'll see numbers closer to 70, sometimes even in excess of 80.

So the math of this as we go forward, because some of these ballots are damaged, some of them they have to just -- they have a bipartisan group come in, do we count this one or not? Do we have a conversation about it, it's going to take some time, what it's going to do is add to that lead in the end, because you've got 20,000 I believe they said in Philadelphia, plus, you know, 2, 3, 4, 5 when you add up around the suburban collar counties, another 8 to 10,000 there. There's 35,000 out here.

In Allegheny County they're trying to get through today and so that will be the arduous process of getting through those today. And again, some of them are damaged, so you count them, you look at them by hand, you -- the observers take a look at them. Others there are legal challenges to some of them, they'll get through this. It may take into the weekend. And again, this happens at the end of every election. If he had a 50 or 60,000 vote lead already, we wouldn't be concerned about it as much so they wouldn't get that attention. But that's what happens. We're going to have to go through the process.

BLITZER: It's a legitimate process this democracy in action. Kate Bolduan is in Philadelphia for us right now. So, Kate to give us an update on what you're learning.

[12:50:03]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So one thing that we learned from this press conference from Lisa Deeley, the chairwoman of the city commissioners here who's been overseeing this count, is that what they do expect is this afternoon, they will be updating the count of 2 to 3,000 more mail-in ballots that will be added to this count. And what they also said is there is then overall 40,000 ballots remaining to be reviewed.

And it -- from what I heard, and I believe this checks with all of the recording that we have is that that includes, that 40,000 includes provisional ballots, which previously they had not necessarily combined and discussed as the remaining ballots to be counted. The reason that matters is because they are -- what we've been told is there are 15,000 to 20,000 provisional ballots. And that's why the viewers have been following us and might be confusing that at one point earlier this morning, we were told there was 25,000 left to be counted, and now it's actually increased. That's why they're now talking about the provisional ballots as part of that overall total. Importantly, also, it could take several days to complete. Wolf?

BLITZER: Very interesting indeed. All right, you know, John, so 2 to 3,000, you know, mail-in ballots, they're going to release that fairly soon. But then the 40,000, as Kate says, those are the provisional ballots, so that they got to check to make sure that they're real, and they're worthwhile.

KING: Right. And in most again, in most elections in the United States of America, those numbers provisional ballots get counted, sometimes days, sometimes a week or two after, as they go through the process, they get added to the vote totals you see online, they're not part of the conversation, or when you're trying to, you know, pick a new mayor or pick a new city council or a school committee. We're picking a president of United States right now. So when Philadelphia counts its votes, Joe Biden is in the lead statewide and he knows that will add to it. And that's why we're in this conversation right now.

And again, a provisional ballot if you don't understand, let's say, you show up at the Pam Brown Elementary School and you moved last year, they don't have you on the voting roll. You say you registered to vote, you changed your address, then they say, OK, well here, fill out this provisional ballot, they were going to check to make sure you didn't vote in your old district, make sure you're not trying to vote twice. Once they check all that they count your ballot, they find something wrong, they don't count your ballot. This happens in elections all across America all the time.

Again, the reason they're getting the attention is because in the state that could well decide the presidency, even perhaps, by the end of the day, Joe Biden has a 9,746 vote lead. But you did mention, they have a couple of thousand that they will update quite soon. Every time we've gotten an increased count from Philadelphia, where Kate is, Joe Biden has been getting 80 percent or more of those ballots. There's another couple thousand here in Montgomery County, it's the same. When they count those later today, unless something dramatic changes, all throughout yesterday and the early morning hours today, Joe Biden gets more there.

Move over to Chester County, it's been the very same dynamic, there's a couple thousand here as well. And there's a couple thousand here in Delaware County. They're trying to get through most of those by the end of the day today. And then in western Pennsylvania, Allegheny County where Pittsburgh is that's the blue there, there are 35,000. They're trying to get through most of those by the end of the day.

That tells you that just went up to 12,000. You see it right now as we're speaking here, more ballots are coming in. And that is exactly what is happening. Sometimes they're counting a couple hundreds, sometimes they count a few thousand, every time they have with the exception of one county up here, this county came in with some mail-in ballots, and it was a net change of about 130 plus for the President.

BLITZER: All right, hold on a second. Let me just do the key race alert formally, what you just said, John, the numbers have just gone up. Joe Biden now has a new lead of 12,390, 49.5 percent to 49.3 percent, 12,390 vote lead for Biden over Trump. That number is increasing almost by the hour, John. It keeps going up and up and up and we anticipate it could go up to 30, 40 50,000 within the next few hours.

KING: And let me tell you where those ballots just came from. We've been focusing down in Philadelphia, the suburban color around it. I was just telling you about western Pennsylvania and Allegheny County. Well, this is Lehigh County and you see Allentown right in the middle of it in the Lehigh River Valley. And this is what just happened to change the vote totals here. We have some new counts here and Joe Biden got 4,747. Joe Biden's down here, 4,747. The president of the United States received 2,103. That's 68 percent. For Joe Biden, and again, Joe Biden is in the lead, so just the most basic math of all, he's leading the race, he keeps getting more votes, that's a problem for him.

And again, you know, you look at this and you say OK, 2002, you know, 2,000, 4,000 it's not a ton of votes. But this is the end of the line. All of these counties now have been counting their mail-in ballots. They're done with most but every time they kind of new batch, they come in, this is Lehigh County. Look and again, this is important as we go through these counties because this is happening almost every time.

Joe Biden is getting 53 percent of the vote in this county, it's a competitive county. It was red most of the day yesterday. Donald Trump was leading and as they kept counting the votes, it switch. But it is competitive, right? But in the overall vote including Election Day vote where the President is strong. It's 53 to 46 if you round up. But look what's happening, when they count just the mail-in ballots.

[12:55:16]

Again, Joe Biden's number when they count the mail-in ballot is without fail above the overall number. So as they continue this process throughout the day, what does that tell you? Joe Biden's lead is going to increase. And it's going to increase in bigger proportions disproportionally in a good way for him, then where he is in the vote right now. So, again, 4,747 to 2,103, 68 percent for Joe Biden that adds to his lead in Lehigh County. And then also adds to his lead statewide, which is now 12,390. And that was just a perfect demonstration, Wolf, of what we've been talking about.

They expect when more come in, in Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery County around here, Allegheny County out there, most Democrats would tell you and the Republicans are not arguing this. They expect that that 12,390 will grow, surpass 20 most likely climb past 30. And that is the big challenge. What is that number for Joe Biden at the end of this day, as the President of the United States considers then pretty momentous options, because if that's this one stays blue, that one alone makes Joe Biden the president.

BLITZER: All right, we're going to get more votes from Pennsylvania any moment now. The numbers will increase. We'll have much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:00]