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CNN Live Event/Special

Vote Count Trajectories Continue in Biden's Favor; Members of Congress Begin Issuing Statements on Election; Joe Biden to Give Primetime Speech Tonight. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 06, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: He's been building that lead since he overtook Donald Trump in the vote count in Pennsylvania, and now what our decision desk is doing is doing the calculation to get to a level of confidence that we understand the exact universe of the outstanding ballots that exist.

Because in order to make a projection, our team wants to be at a very high level of confidence that the number-two candidate in the race -- right now Donald Trump in Pennsylvania -- does not have a mathematical possibility of overtaking the number-one candidate in the race, right now Joe Biden in Pennsylvania.

And until we can get to that highest level of confidence, that is when we would be able to make a projection. Getting to that level of confidence, Wolf, requires understanding exactly how many ballots are out and where they are.

And as you've been seeing with John King throughout the day, as we get vote totals, we see the trajectory and the trend that Joe Biden is winning these vote-by-mail ballots overwhelmingly. They're still in pockets of Democratic territory. So all of that should allow us to prepare for the fact that Biden's going to pad his lead in Pennsylvania.

But again, we need to get a full understanding of what is outstanding so that we can get to that high level of confidence that Donald Trump would not be able to overtake Joe Biden in the vote count. That is when we will make a projection -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Very interesting indeed. All right, decision desk there, thinking -- they're thinking a lot about this, obviously --

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Right.

BLITZER: -- for good reason, John. It's not an easy decision for CNN to make a projection like that.

KING: Not an easy decision if it was the first state we were projecting, it's not an easy decision because you have to be cautious and take it seriously no matter what. But it's especially not an easy decision to make and you want to have extra caution and due diligence because if we call Pennsylvania, those 20 electoral votes would make Joe Biden the president-elect of the United States. So you want to triple-check and be cautious.

As David said, the trajectory is inevitable so unless something surprising happens we will get there at some point. But why rush it? This is the presidency of the United States at stake, there's -- the president is saying things that are frankly reckless and irresponsible about fraud this, fraud that -- there's no evidence of that.

But let's -- so let's just let the magic work. And the magic is counting votes. That is the magic of democracy, 13,220-vote lead for Joe Biden now in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Remember, at one point early on, the president led by more than 600,000 votes but that is because the unique nature of this COVID campaign.

The Election Day vote -- you see all that red? That's the president's vote, he did a great job turning out his vote, more votes in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in this election than four years ago, when Pennsylvania was critical to his first election.

But the Democrats have turned out more so far. And if we keep counting these votes -- well, here's the math David Chalian was talking about: 13,220 votes ahead. There are about 124,000 mail-in ballots still to be counted statewide. We know 30,000 or so are in Allegheny County, that's where Pittsburgh is, overwhelmingly Democratic votes.

We know we still have some votes down here -- I'll move this up a little bit -- Philadelphia, in the city of Philadelphia, Joe Biden is getting 80 percent in the mail-in ballots, his number's even higher than 80 percent, it's overwhelming.

We know there are a small amount left -- you go to Montgomery County, you go to Chester County, you go to Delaware County -- these are the suburbs around Philadelphia. They're populous, they're Democratic, it's where the Democrats do the building blocks of a statewide win in a very competitive state.

And so as this happens right now, we're seeing this over and over and over again. I'm going to give you one example here, some votes just came in from Delaware County, right? So this is a long process, to get through 124,000 left.

Delaware County, you have -- these votes came in here, says the president got 289 in a small batch of votes that came in here, 289 to 99 for the former vice president. So this is the first time in a long time we have seen some votes come in where the president comes out ahead of the former vice president.

So that cuts -- you see, you know, less than 200, it's 190 votes -- but it's 190 votes, you get a shift in the lead. That's what we're going to do, we're going to count them. Now, that's good news for the president -- it's that much good news, but the overall trajectory is there.

If you look at -- (CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: I'll just point out the -- the lead that Biden has over Trump in Pennsylvania went down a little bit from 13,374 to 13,220, what it is right now.

KING: Right. And so that's as you get those small counts of votes, and that's why you want to count. So you just get -- you know, why the rush to call it when you just see -- it's a very small number of votes, and that was a very modest shrink in the lead overall. We have seen, if you take hours of vote counts, the trajectory has been in Biden's favor. But let's count votes. What's the shame and what's the harm in being patient?

I will say this though, we know from the last 24 hours that Joe Biden is getting more than 70 percent of the mail-in votes. In many of these counties, he's getting closer to 80 percent. And in Philadelphia, as I said, he's getting 85, 87, 88 percent when they report these batches of votes.

If Joe Biden got 70 percent -- 70 percent of the outstanding votes, he would add nearly 50,000 votes to that lead net, right? You give the president his votes, you give Joe Biden. So that's why Democrats are quite optimistic, they just want to get through the count.

And some of this takes time because it's mail ballots. Out here, they've had some legal challenges and they were told they couldn't count them until 5:00 tonight for example. They will count those votes.

[14:05:00]

So again, the trajectory is clear. If you go back in time -- let me make sure I have Pennsylvania up here, bring up Pennsylvania -- if you go back in time, you can understand the anxiety among Republicans. You look, Wednesday, as Election Day turned, it was 548,000 votes. Then it was 589 Wednesday morning.

And then you start going through the day. Wednesday, 3:00 p.m. in the East, 435. Then a big drop by Wednesday 11:00 as they started, again, moving from the Election Day count to the mail-in ballot count. That's what happened there.

And then by Thursday, this is yesterday morning at 9:00. Yesterday afternoon, we're down to 108,000. And then you just see the inevitable trajectory here as they count the mail-in ballots, especially in the populous Democratic counties. This is midnight as we turned from -- first Tuesday's Election Day, then Wednesday, then Thursday -- this is as we turn the page to Friday.

Then you see it there, then you come down here, Joe Biden moves into the lead and now you come into real time. It's just -- it was a steady, methodical march. Again, as they shift from counting the Election Day ballots through these mail-in ballots.

BLITZER: President Trump alleges that that -- there's something wrong with that, that's not possible, that the vote could turn like that. But he doesn't allege that it's exactly the opposite of what happened in Ohio --

KING: Right.

BLITZER: -- to his benefit.

KING: Right. And again, so in Pennsylvania, state law. There's mail- in ballots, millions of them, you cannot touch them until Election Day. You cannot touch them. You cannot verify signatures, you cannot even take them out of the envelope, put them in a nice neat stack so that you feed them in the machine. Can't do it, it's against the law.

So they sat there and they waited and they counted in this state, they counted the Election Day, the ballots, the people who showed up on Tuesday, they counted those votes first and the president did a great job, that's why he pulled out to a big lead.

But you make an important point as we're in these contentious few days. The next several hours today, see what happens with the Biden lead. And then you go on.

Remember Ohio. Early on in this night, they did it the other way around. Ohio has permission to canvass -- they call it -- those ballots first. Your envelope comes in, they open it up --

BLITZER: The mail-in ballots?

KING: Yes, the mail-in ballots come in, they open it up, they check the signatures. If anyone's going to challenge it, they do it then. And once they're ready, they put them in a stack so on Election Day, into the machine, and they count them. So those ballots came out first, and Joe Biden jumped out to a huge lead.

And then they started counting the Election Day vote -- you see all that red -- and the president came back and he won. He's not complaining about this. It's the same process, it's just done in a different order. They're counting legally cast votes.

In Ohio, they counted the mail-in ballots first, the president wins in the end. In Pennsylvania, they counted the day-of vote first, the president pulled out to a big lead. Joe Biden is ahead now.

You made the key point just moments ago: Conservative Republican Senator Pat Toomey of this state says he sees no evidence of what the president is saying. And this is not only -- it's a defining moment in the race. If this lead continues to build, Joe Biden is the next president of the United States.

It's also a defining challenge for the Republican Party. Senator Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee -- an attorney -- I believe he's still active in the military Reserves -- said that I think you will see real evidence of fraud in the hours ahead, I think you will see. He's the chairman of a committee. That's not the way it works. If you have it, show it. Otherwise, button it. It's just not healthy

for a democracy, especially somebody who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee -- chairman of the committee that overlooks the laws, you can't walk into a courthouse and say, I think somebody stole something from me. You have to prove it, you have to prove it.

BLITZER: It's an important point. Yes, but we're seeing -- not big numbers, but increasing numbers of Republicans beginning to question what the president of the United States is saying right now. Mitt Romney for example issued a very strong statement.

KING: Yes, and so -- and you saw Mitch McConnell earlier today, the Senate majority leader, likely to remain the Senate majority leader -- although there's still a question about that, some Senate races still in play -- in his home state of Kentucky today, Senator McConnell won re-election, congratulations to him.

He didn't want to touch this subject. He just said I hope they keep counting the votes, every legally cast ballot should be counted. That's the right position. He would not go and say, I wish the president would turn it down.

That is the challenge for Republicans in the days ahead, especially if it becomes clear to us -- if this lead holds up and the president of the United States is going to lose -- that means we have a transition to a Democratic president, and a transition at a challenging time for an evenly divided country. Their words matter, especially the words of those in leadership.

So props to Senator Toomey for speaking up, saying that's my state, I represent this state, I don't see it. So prove it. That's the right position. The president has every right -- every right to mount a challenge if he sees a problem somewhere.

But again, Wolf, I was just looking at some notes before we came back on the air: Republicans saying they're preparing a possible legal challenge in Michigan. In Michigan, it's nearly 150,000 votes. Tell me your legal challenge in the state of Michigan. You're not trying to come into a position and say, oh my goodness, you know, we found 10 or 15 votes in Detroit? It's 150,000 votes nearly, 147,000 votes.

So what you're hearing is designed to generate outrage from the president's supporters, to generate things on social media -- frankly, to raise money for a legal defense fund right now, 147,000 votes, there's no legal strategy that overturns something like that. It's just ridiculous.

[14:10:04]

BLITZER: And in Georgia, for example, let's not forget there's a Republican governor, a Republican secretary of state. They're going to do a recount. But having a recount is not necessarily all that unusual.

KING: Having a recount is responsible when you have a very close election, 49.4 to 49.4. The state law allows it, the Trump campaign apparently has requested it. And again, there's a difference between exercising your lawful rights -- look how close this is, right?

Look how close this is, 1,500 votes. If it were the other way around, the Democrats would be saying, could you please recount the votes in Georgia. You check the machines, you run the count again. And sometimes it changes.

I've been at this for 35 years .They do a recount, something like that, the 1,500, in some cases it goes up to 1,700 in some cases it comes down to 1,300, that's normally what happens. Somebody transposed something wrong when they were writing it down. And you know, instead of 1,962, they wrote 1,296, something like that. And -- so you'll see a little bit of a change.

Even a narrow lead like that, you will not -- you very rarely see overturned. But why not? It's allowed so have it, do it. But do it calmly and do it within the rules, and don't jump up and down and scream foul.

But you make a key point, Republican governor here, they counted the votes, they're still counting the votes. Republican governor out here in Arizona, Joe Biden has a lead there -- it's come down a little bit, we're going to continue to count the votes.

The president's attacks on the system are ridiculous. But again, he has every right -- if he has evidence to prove it -- and in the hours ahead, especially -- I'll say it one more time, if this grows, this is more than enough to give Joe Biden the presidency, right?

So we're not going to be certain about this one for some time, because they're going to have an understandable recount. But you see what color it is right now -- a takeaway, that was a Clinton state ,that was a Clinton state. That was a Clinton state, where the former vice president leads. We'll get more votes out there later today. This would be a hole (ph).

So if Joe Biden wins the presidency with all of those, he's at 306 even if this is tentative until we get through the recount phase. That would put him at 306, it's a much more difficult argument to make if that's the case, it just is.

I just want to show you, Wolf, this came in while we were standing here. So we're watching this march, right? Of the votes. And they're coming in in small numbers. So let me just put this up here for Pennsylvania. And this is Bucks County, so let me come to down here and just north of Philadelphia is where you find Bucks County, right? it's the more conservative -- it's a Democratic suburb, but it's the more contested one, right? You see it's 51 to 48.

So here's what we have seen happen here as more votes come in, and this is how they're coming in. They're trickling in as they count these ballots. So the latest count, 895 to 551, you get 60 percent. That's a low number if you will, Joe Biden normally has been getting a higher number among these, but still he's getting 60 percent.

He's the candidate behind, he has to start passing Joe Biden in these counts. And this is what we're happening throughout the day. In a state where you see -- you know, 500 -- you know, 1,300, 1,400 votes when you go over the top there, Joe Biden advantage.

This is what we're doing in a state where more than, you know, 6.6 million ballots have been cast. We're getting them a couple hundred at a time .

BLITZER: And his number just increased the lead --

KING: Right.

BLITZER: -- by -- over Trump in Pennsylvania, went from 13,220 went up to 13,558, it went up by a few hundred as a result of that.

KING: Right .And so as these -- they trickle in, right? Eight hundred from this county, 500 from that county, that's the issue. They had a couple thousand and we're getting them in spurts because decent public servants are counting the votes and posting the results as quickly as they can.

So here's the numbers right now in Pennsylvania, I'll just write this up here for you, what we believe are left, these are ballpark figures because they change as we go. But about 120,000, ,right? There are about 120,000 mail-in ballots to be cast --

BLITZER: Hundred and twelve.

KING: Hundred and twelve thousand, I'm sorry, thank you for correcting me. The president of the United States needs to get 56 percent of those, that's what President Trump needs to catch up, right? the president of the United States right now is getting 49 percent statewide, and he's getting well below -- well below 49 percent as we count the mail-in ballots.

So is that mathematically impossible? No. Based on everything that's happened in the last 24 hours, it is -- is it a statistically probable? Absolutely not. So the march of the math here is in Joe Biden's favor. We just need to wait for them to continue and finish the vote count.

BLITZER: Nothing wrong with being patient and letting them count the vote.

KING: Not at all, I'm enjoying your company. Stay as long as you want.

BLITZER: We've been spending a lot of quality time together over here.

KING: What day is it?

BLITZER: I don't know.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: It's a little intense.

KING: You know what, it's Friday and we're counting and math is fun. [14:14:25]

BLITZER: Yes, all right. We're watching what's going on in Pennsylvania, the votes are coming in. We're going to take a quick break, much more of our special coverage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to ELECTION DAY IN AMERICA CONTINUED. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, we are monitoring four battleground states: Georgia, in which Joe Biden is ahead by 1,554 votes, that state is going to go to a recount as requested by the Trump campaign.

Pennsylvania, more than 100,000 ballots are outstanding and remaining to be counted. The president right now is behind, 13,662, Joe Biden with the margin of victory there as of now.

In Nevada, same thing except an even larger margin, Joe Biden up by more than 20,000 votes.

And in Arizona, Joe Biden up by more than twice that, 43,779 votes.

Things look good for Joe Biden, although not enough states have been projected in his column for him to yet be declared the president- elect. But it does look good for him. Let's go and check in with the Biden campaign, specifically with Jeff Zeleny who covers the campaign for us, he comes to us live now from Wilmington, Delaware. Jeff, what's the latest there?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, Joe Biden has spent many nights here and days in Wilmington, waiting to get election returns since he first ran in 1972 for the Senate, but none like this of course. The stakes, incredibly high.

[14:20:07]

But with that said, I can tell you there's a sense of calm around Biden advisors, and indeed the Democrats watching all of this, because they do believe they know where this s headed.

But we should point out, they thought it would have been resolved by now. That's why that stage behind me that you can see is where they do expect Joe Biden to come speak tonight. It is scheduled for a primetime speech to what he hopes would be a victory speech, but we will see if this race is called and finished by then.

But he's also going to be joined by his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, who also, you know, is going to be steeped in history of her own here. If they win, she of course will be the first woman elected vice president, first woman of color of course as well. So, so much history is just in the offing but not quite there yet.

But, Jake, I can tell you, the Biden campaign has declined to respond to every statement that the president has put out. They're not responding directly to every piece of litigation that they're doing. They're monitoring all of it, I'm told, with lawyers in every state. But they are not responding point by point.

So that is certainly a change from some days ago when, you know, we had this back-and-forth. The Biden campaign is quiet today and just watching the results.

TAPPER: All right, Jeff Zeleny in Wilmington, Delaware, thanks so much for that update.

And Abby, I have to say, it's probably wise, given the amount of stuff that the Trump team is throwing against the wall to see what sticks for the Biden campaign to not feel that they need to respond to everyone, every item of junk that's being thrown.

If you look at the transcripts from judges' rulings in Michigan and transcripts in Philadelphia, I mean, they don't have any evidence, the Trump team, of any serious malfeasance. And they're getting slapped down by judges.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN PLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. In fact in Pennsylvania, before the election, the Trump -- the Republicans in that state trying to challenge some of these mail-in ballot rules were asked to produce evidence and they couldn't produce, really, any evidence. And that's one of the cases that they were not successful in, challenging some of these rules about drop boxes and deadlines for how long you can accept mail-in ballots in that state.

It would be hard for me to see what the Biden campaign would even respond to. The president's latest statement today is incredibly nonspecific. A lot of the other claims that have been made over the last several days have been already debunked by officials in Nevada and Arizona and elsewhere where they've been made.

So yes, it doesn't surprise me at all that the Biden campaign is saying we're not going to -- you know, we're not going to duke this out in press releases, see you in court. Because ultimately, those statements say very little. The court filings will say a lot if they're able to produce actual --

(CROSSTALK)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And, Jake, Abby and I were just communicating with a Republican strategist about the fact that this is, in the words of this strategist, when you approach these things there is the P.R. aspect and the legal aspect. And this Republican said to us, the Biden campaign is running a clinic on how to handle the P.R. track, meaning they're doing a really good job.

TAPPER: Yes.

BASH: Just stand back, don't say much, let it play out and the issue that Republicans have had since the minute that Donald Trump became their nominee, is they have to deal with and work around the words and actions of the president, which doesn't always follow the --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: This is the problem, yes.

TAPPER: That's exactly right. And somebody -- I think it was Kaitlan Collins -- was talking about so much of the Trump era has been marked by the president saying something false, and then his people trying to figure out some way in which the remark was kind of, sort of near the neighborhood of true in some way.

And that's what's going on in courts right now. And I just read a transcript of a court hearing in Philadelphia from yesterday, in which the Republicans were trying to argue that the Trump team was not allowed to have observers in these counting rooms? Completely false, not true.

And the judge is asking the Republican lawyer, well, were there any Republicans there? Were there any Republican observers there? And eventually, the Republican lawyer -- the person representing the Trump side of it -- had to confirm and acknowledge that there were a "nonzero" number of Republican observers --

(LAUGHTER)

BASH: Oh my goodness.

TAPPER: -- in the room, a nonzero number. That's how -- I mean --

BASH: It's --

TAPPER: -- a lot of these lawyers --

BASH: They have to twist themselves into pretzels.

PHILLIP: It's --

TAPPER: A lot of these lawyers need to watch out what they're signing their names to because this is just crap.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: It's very difficult when you're dealing with a president who believes the conspiracy first and then waits for proof later, or maybe doesn't wait for proof at all. That doesn't cut it in legal proceedings, it doesn't work.

And they might be on stronger legal standing if they just took a step back from some of these more conspiratorial claims, but they can't because the president has already gone there, he's already gone out there and made wildly false statements about what's going on. And now they are forced to back it up.

[14:25:10]

TAPPER: As they say, votes don't care about your feelings.

New numbers continue to come in from Pennsylvania, which could make the election for Joe Biden. We're expecting more ballot counts soon. Our special coverage continues, next. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And Pennsylvania is the focus now, and probably until this race is called. I'm Anderson Cooper along with Erin Burnett -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: -- Anderson. Joe Biden's lead has been growing of course in Pennsylvania throughout the day. If you're watching this, you've been seeing it bit by bit by bit, creeping up .But the question is now ,how many ballots are there left? How is the count progressing? When will we actually know the outcome for sure?

COOPER: Yes, and we are watching this vote by vote as the votes come in. We have reporters on both ends of the state of Pennsylvania, where outstanding ballots remain. CNN's Kate Bolduan is in Philadelphia, CNN's Brian Todd is in Pittsburgh. let's state with Kate in Philadelphia.

Kate, what's the latest?