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CNN Live Event/Special
Biden Closes in on Presidency as Lead in PA Grows to 20K. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired November 06, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KATIE HOBBS, ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE: To my knowledge, they did move to intervene in the lawsuit, baseless lawsuit over the Sharpies.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And just remind our viewers, because that was totally ridiculous that whole Sharpie thing. But tell our viewers, we got a lot of publicity out there, especially on social media, remind us what happened.
HOBBS: Yes. So, Maricopa County that particular tabulators that they use, the manufacturer recommends Sharpies as the tool the ballot marking pens. That's what the poll workers gave the voters, and somebody somewhere decided that this was bad because in some counties, you can't use Sharpies because it bleeds through and the tabulator can't read it.
It doesn't matter if the tabulator can't read it, we still count the votes. But in this case, it was not causing any problems. There were no ballots rejected because of the Sharpies, but this spread like wildfire fire. It's a baseless conspiracy theory that we are now dealing with a lawsuit over.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And to that degree, look, there are Democratic governors in Pennsylvania. The President doesn't like the way the vote count went there. The President - there are Democratic governors in Michigan and Wisconsin, the President doesn't like the fact that Joe Biden has won those states.
You have a Republican governor who has been an ally of this President. I saw a statement from him earlier today saying every legally cast ballot should be counted. Didn't say anything about irregularities or fraud. Do you feel any political pressure within the borders of Arizona or has this been a bipartisan effort to just count the votes and do it right or are you nervous at all about the political dynamics here?
HOBBS: No, it's absolutely been a bipartisan effort and regardless of what anyone says, we are going to keep counting the ballots. That is what we are legally required to do and that's what is happening.
KING: Madam Secretary, grateful for your time. I know you're very busy trying to get this count finished and we're grateful for your time and your transparency. Thank you.
HOBBS: Thank you so much.
KING: Thank you. Wolf.
BLITZER: We got a key race alert, let's check out the numbers right now for key battleground states. Let's start off in Arizona right now with its 11 electoral votes, 94 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden maintains his lead although it shrunk a little bit, 38,455, he has 49.9 percent, Trump has 48.6 percent. In Nevada right now, 93 percent of the estimated vote is in six electoral votes in Nevada. Biden maintains his lead, 22,657 has gone up a bit 49.8 percent to 48 percent for Trump.
In Pennsylvania right now and that's the big prize right now, 20 electoral votes, 96 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden's lead is 16,784. He has 49.5 percent. Trump has 49.2 percent. And in Georgia right now, 99 percent, almost all of the votes are in, in Georgia, 16 electoral votes. By maintains the lead. It's gone up a bit, 4,273, 49.4 percent, 49.3 percent for Trump. Those are the key battleground states.
So john, let's go through those four states right now. Tell us what we're waiting for. Let's review because this is the ball game right now.
KING: This is the ball game, and this could be the decisive night, Friday night. The election was Tuesday, but they're counting the votes. Let's start in the biggest prize on the board, Pennsylvania, 20 electoral votes. Donald Trump must win it to stay in the hunt for reelection, must win it, no room for error there. The President has to win this state.
Joe Biden doesn't need it, but if he wins it, Pennsylvania alone would put them over the top. You see Joe Biden lead of 16,784 votes. At nine o'clock this morning that lead was 5,500 votes. So, Joe Biden has been growing his lead not by leaps and bounds but steadily and consistently throughout the day, 16,784. We're still waiting for ballots. We expect momentarily to get some ballots out of Allegheny County, that's Pittsburgh out here in the western part of the state.
As you can see, Joe Biden is winning the county and so far, he has been getting an even higher percentage when they count these mail-in ballots. More ballots as well still to come from Southeastern Pennsylvania, but you see 16,784 lead. It is growing.
The Biden campaign is confident, but you want to see that get up higher. We're still waiting. We're not ready to project in Pennsylvania yet, but we're watching the trends. And again, the President cannot lose Pennsylvania. If the President loses Pennsylvania, it is game over.
It's the same, the President also needs Georgia. The only path to 270 for President Donald Trump includes Pennsylvania and Georgia. He needs both of those. You see Joe Biden right now. That's a very narrow lead, 4,266 votes.
This morning, it was 1,097 votes. So again, as they count more mail-in ballots, Joe Biden's lead has grown. But this one is so close 49.4 to 49.3. The Secretary of State saying earlier today they most likely will have a recount. The Trump campaign can request that and wants one.
We're also waiting here as we're waiting for them to count some additional outstanding mail-in ballots. They're also waiting to see what universe of Military ballots and overseas ballots. The deadline was tonight. Those ballots must be returned by tonight, so they count - they sent out thousands of them, it doesn't guarantee they all come back. They'll get those ballots tonight and count, so we'll hopefully get an update from Georgia as well.
[19:05:01]
But Joe Biden up just shy of 4,300 votes. Again, a state that he would be flipping, a state the President needs and a state that most likely will go for a recount but leaning Biden at the moment.
BLITZER: Let's go through those other three states in a moment, but Pennsylvania right now, I want to go through Pennsylvania because Brian Todd is on the ground for us in Pittsburgh right now, in Allegheny County with a special guest. Brian, you're going to have new information for our viewers, a very important information.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Some exclusive information to CNN, some new results from Allegheny County of results from damaged ballots that were counted and military ballots that were counted. This is Rich Fitzgerald, the Executive of Allegheny County. Mr. Fitzgerald let's have those numbers.
RICH FITZGERALD, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PA EXECUTIVE: OK. They processed 5,345 ballots. For Joe Biden 4,134, for Donald Trump 1,076.
TODD: All right. So, Joe Biden with a clear victory - not a victory, but he's clearly ahead so far in the Allegheny County count. How many total ballots are outstanding at this point in Allegheny County?
FITZGERALD: It's hard to say, because we have the 29,000 that they'll begin processing, the 17,000 or so provisional and there are still probably maybe 1,500 or so military and overseas ballots to do. But there's a couple thousand military and overseas ballots in these numbers as well.
TODD: The 29,000, those segregated ballots that had misprints on them that had to be sent out, you're starting that process now. About how long do you think it'll take before we get those results?
FITZGERALD: It is hard to say. They just began that, so I don't have an estimate of how many they do per hour or how much they do per time. But I'll get that, and we'll have that to you maybe in an hour or so we'll be able to give you those results.
TODD: Will we get them all at the same time or little by little?
FITZGERALD: No. They'll probably - whatever they finish or not finished, but whatever they get done later on in the evening, they will post those numbers and then they'll continue the process tomorrow and then on into Sunday, if they have to. TODD: All right. But just one more time if you can read those numbers,
the numbers for Vice President Biden and the numbers for President Trump among those early counted votes here in Allegheny County.
FITZGERALD: Yes. Combining regular votes plus the military ballots 4,134 for Joe Biden, 1,076 for President Trump.
TODD: Thank you very much. Mr. Fitzgerald, thank you for your patience and bearing with us and we're going to be in touch with you for much of the night. Thank you very much.
So, Wolf, what they had told us also is that they had expected these - the ballot counters and the poll workers here to work from 9 am to 9 pm. They just told us they're going to extend that to try to get some of these results in a little bit earlier.
BLITZER: It was so nice to have Mr. Fitzgerald to give us those numbers exclusively. Brian, thank you very, very much.
So, John, let's talk about that. That's an impressive - a batch of new votes are coming in for Biden. It's not official yet, but I could tell you what the new lead for Biden is going to be and it hasn't been processed yet. But thanks to Brian Todd and Mr. Fitzgerald, statewide Biden's lead is now 19,842, almost 20,000-vote lead that Biden has in Pennsylvania right now. As you can see, 4,134 Biden got, and Trump only got 1,076.
KING: Right. Repeat those numbers, again, statewide. So our viewers could see it right here, because that was the current lead. We're waiting for those numbers. Thanks to Brian Todd's hustle, we have him first. But there'll be put into the system and that 16,784 will go up to ...
BLITZER: It's now 19,842. It'll be processed very soon. We'll see it up on the board, but right now we haven't seen it yet. We got it exclusively from rich Fitzgerald.
KING: Right. So, we appreciate the cooperation there and again Brian's hustle. So, what does that tell you? It tells you, number one, that's going to grow, the statewide lead growing now in the ballpark of 20,000 votes. That is a significant milestone as it passes that.
Number two, what else does it tell you? You're looking for the pattern, right? Joe Biden is receiving 60 percent just shy 59 percent of the vote in Allegheny County to 40 percent for the President. But again, in the mail-in ballots that they're counting, and this batch also includes some military ballots. Joe Biden has been overperforming, meaning getting a higher percentage in that count than he does in the overall count, which includes ballots cast on Election Day and here it is, again, 77 percent in this batch of votes compared to 59 percent there.
So again, as you're watching the trajectory in Pennsylvania, as they count what is left, mostly mail-in ballots, some military ballots in this case, Joe Biden is overperforming consistently, not always. There have been a couple of exceptions in Ruby Red Republican counties. But for the most part, Joe Biden is overperforming in these ballots they're counting tonight than in the overall vote count, which is just an important signal as you try to decide is this math getting to the point of inevitability.
So, these are not even added into Allegheny County and this will get Joe Biden over 400,000 votes in Allegheny County, that thousand will be added to the President's total there. And again, I'm going to flip it off the screen so we can just come back and look at it again. That 16,000 is now close to 20,000. Thanks to the hustle of Brian and the cooperation of Mr. Fitzgerald.
And again, what are you doing here? Still similar outstanding balance here. We're trying to count them, because we know you're waiting to see a winner that we would like to see as well. So, the trajectory grows now toward 25,000 and we're still waiting as Mr. Fitzgerald said they have some more ballots here they're working on.
[19:10:04]
They have some more ballots out here in the southeast part of the state here, including in Philadelphia where the former Vice President is getting, Joe Biden is getting 80 percent plus (INAUDIBLE) ...
BLITZER: (INAUDIBLE) some perspective, John, four years ago Trump won Pennsylvania. He beat Hillary Clinton, but let's remind our viewers what he won by.
KING: Right, there it is right there for you, 44,000 votes and change, 44,292. So a fiercely competitive state four years ago, an absolute critical building block of President Trump's victory, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. The three states combined 70,000 votes. He won all three of them.
But this one, 20 electoral votes is the biggest prize, 45,000 votes just shy of that, 44,292. And again, this is not - if Joe Biden goes on to win this state, that is certainly the trajectory at the moment. It is not because Donald Trump suddenly had a collapse of support in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 2.9 million votes four years ago, 3.3 million votes.
Now, the President turned out his vote in Pennsylvania at the moment and the trajectory is growing. Joe Biden just turned out more.
BLITZER: Yes. We can see that number now. He's got 19,584. He's leading Trump in the state of Pennsylvania. A critically important state right now, because as you've pointed out so many times in the course of these days, John, 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania. Trump right now - Biden, excuse me, right now has 253. He gets 20, you do the math, he's got 273. You just need 270, you're elected president.
KING: Right. And again, at a time when some people are questioning why is taking so long, the numbers have been updated up there. You see it. But thanks to Brian's hustle and Mr. Fitzgerald and more importantly, the openness. The openness. People are raising questions, why is it taking long, you just saw what's happening. A camera in the room, a reporter in the room, Democrats and Republicans watching in the room as public servants count votes.
We can all be a little frustrated if we want to be with the process, it was overwhelming this year because of, A, turnout. That's great. Higher turnout is great. Plus, the three different ways people voted, so it's taking a little longer than perhaps we might have expected, but wide open and to see that aid the cooperation of public servants and the openness and transparency. That's how you build trust in elections right there.
BLITZER: I love the transparency. Now, I love all of these officials being willing to talk about what's going on and share what's going on with the American public. Jake, over to you.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Thanks, Wolf. And as we say in Philadelphia, trust the process under slightly different circumstances, of course, but trust the process. I want to go to Jim Acosta right now, who's covering the Trump White House.
And Jim, right now one of the big questions hanging over this country like a dark cloud is whether or not President Trump is prepared to accept the ugly reality that it looks like he will soon be facing. Do you have some news for us on that front?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake. I just talked to a source familiar with some of the legal discussions going on behind the scenes. And this source said that the President is starting to acknowledge to advisors around him that he may not be able to pull out some kind of come from behind victory in this race against Joe Biden.
Does that mean he's planning to concede? No. Does that mean he's not going to be filing some of these appeals around the country? No.
But it is a sign that he is starting to be realistic. Realistic is the word that the source used when I spoke to this person just a short time ago. And the source pointed to the President's tweet from earlier today, which was very toned down compared to the performance that we saw in the White House briefing room last night as sort of modulated tone from the President there.
Does that mean that he is going to give this up anytime soon? Not necessarily. But the President, according to this source familiar with these legal discussions is starting to acknowledge to advisors that he just may not be able to pull this out.
And one other thing that's important to note, the source went on to say that the picture is becoming clearer to the President's team that without wins in Georgia and Arizona, it would be difficult to launch some kind of legal challenge in Pennsylvania. So if the President can't get to 270 electoral votes, a court would say according to this source I spoke with, what's the point of moving further. If the President can't win Georgia, if he can't win Arizona, what's the point of a legal challenge in Pennsylvania if he can't ultimately get to 270 electoral votes.
That's also a part of these legal discussions going on behind the scenes, Jake. So have we seen a puff of white smoke coming from the West Wing yet? No, we have not. But it is an indication that perhaps the President is starting maybe beginning to accept the reality of the situation that he may not be able to pull this out, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. I'll believe it when I see it, but I appreciate that information. Jim Acosta, thanks so much.
So let us just talk about the hypothetical of us calling one of these states for Joe Biden when our data crunchers are confident of it. I know there are a lot of frustrated people out there and I understand why. But we're just trying to make sure that we get it right.
If Joe Biden becomes the President elect, he will be presiding over a country in which he has received more popular votes than anyone else in the history of this country has ever run for president.
[19:15:04]
It's a 74 million plus as of right now. But also he will be the President of more than 69 million, almost 70 million people as of now who voted for Donald Trump. And he has made it his calling card. He has said he will be the President for every American, not just those who voted for him which, by the way, is quite a departure from what we've been getting from President Trump who has really been the President of his supporters and not so much reaching out to other people as a general rule.
How does Joe Biden handle that? How does Joe Biden reach out to these 69 million, 70 million Americans who went with Donald Trump?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think you said it earlier that if there's anybody who is made for that moment in the Democratic Party, it is Joe Biden, because he genuinely has a multi- decade history of doing just that. His work is going to be cut out for him.
I mean, these numbers in general, I mean, Joe Biden, yes, has so far already won more votes than anybody in American history, but Donald Trump, I mean, almost 70 million people think that he should have another term. That's pretty remarkable.
And that is one of the reasons why Donald Trump - as Jim Acosta was just saying, Trump's advisors even though some are trying to say, come on, keep fighting, no matter what happens. Many of them are not, many of them are trying to get him to a place where he feels OK with kind of moving along. But it's like trying to grab an iceberg with your bare hands and push. It is really, really hard.
And the other challenge is given these numbers is it's not just Donald Trump. It's moving all of his supporters along slowly. It's taken them slowly off the exit ramp. It's not an easy thing. These are super but ...
TAPPER: The ramp at West Point.
BASH: Kind of like the ramp at West Point. It's a slow walk down the ramp. And some of it is that they just have to manage the President, but it's also managing the supporters who kind of need to understand the process and move through it in a, yes, slower way.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's absolutely right. And I think President Trump is always nursing his supporters' feelings and emotions. But in this case, he is actually doing more to make that process harder and not easier. And there's a reason why people in this country typically concede even before votes are officially certified, the Electoral College has competed all of that.
And it's because doing that early helps encourage your supporters to go along with the process. The President is not doing that, so it's creating a situation in which Biden's work is going to be cut out for him, because the incumbent President is making it harder. There is - you get the sense that one of the reasons for this is because of President Trump's own experience with 2016 and a sense of grievance about how he came into office, feeling that he was being undermined and delegitimized in his presidency.
And you do get a sense that there's a feeling like it's at least fair for the Republican side to do the same to Biden and that is what is motivating so much of this. How does Joe Biden deal with that? It's not exactly clear.
But the problem for Biden is that this is four years in the making of grievance from the President about the impeachment, about the Russia investigation that's manifesting itself.
TAPPER: Oh, and more than that, just about how nobody thought he was going to win and all that. Let's go to Wilmington, Delaware right now where Arlette Saenz who also covers the Biden campaign for us is in. And Arlette, I know that a lot of people in the Biden campaign thought that major news organizations were going to have called some sort of permutation of states so that he would be president elect right now and the data crunchers have not made those determinations yet. Is he still planning on speaking this evening?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, that is one of the key questions about tonight. His campaign had announced that it was expected that Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris would be delivering some type of primetime remarks this evening. But the question still remains whether or not that is actually going to happen if the race has not been called at this moment.
And Biden's campaign is closely watching those results that are coming in tonight, including in Pennsylvania, which is one of those states that they really hope could put them over the top of 270 electoral votes. And aides started the day hopeful that today would be the day that this race was called in Joe Biden's favor.
[19:20:07]
But the reality has sunk in that it may take a bit longer for that to happen. Now, the public activity of the campaign today has been night and day to what we've seen the previous days. There was no election briefing from the campaign's top advisors. There have been no tweets from Joe Biden or his running mate, Kamala Harris.
In fact, the last time that we heard from Joe Biden was a little over 26 hours ago, where he urged people to remain calm and patient as the vote count continued. But one thing that we are still waiting to hear is if the former Vice President will in fact speak tonight as his campaign had previewed he was expected to do.
Now, here at the Chase Center, just a little while ago, we actually saw some staffers up on stage doing a bit of a run through. We saw two people walk out and wave their hands as if they were practicing for something and then they walked behind the podium. So for now, preparations still remain underway here at the Chase Center, a site that has gone unused for several days at this point, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Arlette Saenz, Thank you so much. And Abby, just to keep on the point you're making. I think one of the questions about President Trump kind of processing the fact that he may lose and trying to bring his supporters along with him all 69 plus million is, as you note, he has spent the last several months saying that this was going to be a fraud. And since Election Day he has been lying about the results of the election.
First, declaring victory. He said, remember, that he won Michigan and Wisconsin. He did not win Michigan and Wisconsin. He continues to - it's not just sowing seeds of doubt in the election, lying, accusing people of stealing the election. So I don't know how one makes that pivot to use of word from accusing the Joe Biden and the Democrats and big media and big tech, et cetera, et cetera, of stealing an election, which of course, is not being done. There's no evidence of that anywhere. And then just saying, OK, but I'm going to go home. How do you do that?
PHILLIP: Well, one doesn't.
TAPPER: Right.
PHILLIP: And President Trump has been pretty clear that he doesn't think that he needs to. He recently in an interview with Axios talked about Hillary Clinton and whether or not he was asked about Hillary Clinton conceded to you the next morning, will you do the same, and his response was effectively, I don't think she ever really conceded. I don't think she ever really acknowledged that I was duly elected. She kept talking about the Russia investigation.
So it is mind even though Hillary Clinton did concede to him, in his mind, she didn't really because she never truly believed that he was a duly elected president. But we should note, the night of the election four years ago, President Obama called Hillary Clinton and urged her to accept what was apparent before her and she did. The question is for President Trump, who will do that for him and will he listen.
BASH: And a lot of that is going to be dictated and determined by the votes that we're seeing and how they're counted and when they're counted. And we were talking about this earlier? I mean, we feel everybody's pain right now. We understand everybody is saying, come on, let's get on with it. TAPPER: We've slept less than they.
BASH: Yes, exactly. But, look, we're sitting here and we're talking when we just got the news that for the third day in a row, more than a hundred thousand people in this country tested positive for COVID. That is part of why we are waiting so long. Pennsylvania decided for the first time to allow more freely people to send in ballot by mail before COVID.
But because of COVID, people are utilizing that and that is part of what is taking so long, never mind that people are counting votes in the midst of a pandemic. So, all of those things are really important factors that are leaving us where we are right now.
TAPPER: Excellent reminder and also excellent reminder of the stakes here who becomes president is literally a matter of life and death. We're looking for more vote results soon from Pennsylvania and Arizona as the world waits to see, who will be the next President of the United States. Our special coverage continues right after this quick break. We'll be right back.
[19:24:50]
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[19:28:33]
BLITZER: Welcome back to our special coverage. Take a look at this stuff four contests, very, very close contest we're watching right now. In Georgia, Biden is ahead by 3,962 votes. In Pennsylvania, Biden is ahead by 19,584 votes. In Nevada, Biden is ahead by 22,657 votes. In Arizona, Biden beats Trump so far by 38,455 votes. Four close contests, Biden is ahead of Trump in all four of those contests. Let's walk over to Pamela Brown at the CNN voting desk. What are you learning about right now about Pennsylvania and the outstanding vote there?
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, right now in Pennsylvania, there are 102,000 outstanding mail-in ballots to be counted. This doesn't include provisionals. But here's what's noteworthy about this number on your screen right here.
A majority of these outstanding ballots are coming from blue counties right now in Pennsylvania. Let's look a little bit deeper into that, Philadelphia, you see, there are approximately 30,000 ballots left. Now, we do want to note that Pennsylvania, released about 2,300 ballots, results for ballots tonight, so we had that update. And we are awaiting more as workers there in Philadelphia work throughout the night in that big convention center trying to get us the results.
And then you look at another blue county here in Pennsylvania. There are 47,000 ballots left and that is including provisionals. Of course, Allegheny is the home to Pittsburgh. They had to stop counting yesterday because of a lawsuit and so now tonight we learned 5,300 ballots that were released, those results came out tonight.
[19:30:05]
And then we look at Bucks County, 7,000 mail in and absentee ballots left. 2,000 damaged ballots need review there. That's also a blue county.
And here are few others, the only red one here is Luzerne, right, next to Scranton, where Biden is from. More than 4,000 ballots remaining there. Montgomery County, more than 10,000, Chester, more than 2,300.
And it's worth noting as we're awaiting these results, Wolf, that as the election system is so decentralized, so is finding out the results from all of these places. They had their own ways of releasing the results and whether the provisional ballots are included, and the total that they're releasing. So, we're actively reaching out to these counties, Wolf, every hour, trying to get update on when they're going to release more. But right now, at this hour, 102,000, roughly 102,000 left in Pennsylvania and does not include provisional, Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Pamela.
A hundred two thousand ballots outstanding, not including provisional, John. Biden is ahead in Pennsylvania by, what, nearly 20,000 votes, 19,584. That lead has built almost every hour.
KING: It has built almost every hour and important if you listen to Pam, not just the votes it are out where they are. You start down in Philadelphia. We're waiting down on Montgomery county, waiting for votes. This is places where Bucks County, we got several earlier, Chester County here, Delaware County here. These areas where Joe Biden is running it up here.
So, Pamela is just saying that we're waiting for votes from these counties. That tells you about 10 percent of the votes are done, at least 10 percent of the votes are down here in suburban Philadelphia. That tells if you look at the math that those places where Biden has been doing very well.
But you have 19,000 now, a hundred thousand ballots and change still out, the goal of those is to get more of those into the count. As they come into the count, you mentioned Joe Biden has built that lead again. This morning, the lead was 5,500. At 9:00 a.m. this morning, 5,587, so it is triple that and more.
So, you're going up. That's a trajectory in a state where each candidate is getting more than 3.3 million votes, you want more of a comfort zone. And you want the trajectory that's in Biden's favor to just go up a bit. The overwhelming trajectory is been in Biden's favor, continues, that has been overwhelming.
There have been one or two small counties where the president, where votes have come in and president has made up, you know, 100 here, or a little bit there. But the overwhelming trajectory has been in Biden's favor, that's just where we tend to be getting votes now, maybe it's a couple hundred at a time, maybe 5,000 or 6,000 at a time. So, we're waiting to pull it out. But the trend line in Pennsylvania is in the president's direction, without a doubt. I just want to go out to Arizona where you do see some evidence of
tightening. Now, the president can't afford to lose Pennsylvania. Arizona is important, but it's as smaller prize than Pennsylvania.
But if the president can hold onto Pennsylvania which there's no evidence at the moment, but if you're in Trump campaign, you're hoping for some kind of a comeback in Pennsylvania, and then you built from there. Trump loses Pennsylvania, we're done.
What they're trying to see if they can close the gap here in Arizona, 36,835, it was 47,000 in 9:00 a.m. this morning, so Joe Biden's lead has eroded by about 10,000. And we just got some votes here at Sedona donor area, Yavapai County. And again, we're not getting a ton of votes. But just to show, you were counting them all.
If you're a Trump supporter, and you're seeing it home watching us count votes in Pennsylvania. We are not just counting votes to go for Biden, we're counting them all, as soon as we get them. And you see in Yavapai County here, 2,243 to 623, so that's 75 percent of that vote total goes for the president.
Again, he's 75 percent here, he's getting 64 percent in the county, that's good news for the president. So modest number votes, cuts into the league a little bit, but you cannot, right? Twenty-two forty-three to 623, you can add to the county in the county, they get out into the count statewide, again 36,000 and change.
It's a lot of votes, but it was 47,000 this morning, so if you're in the Trump campaign, you know, again Trump's campaign attitude is please keep counting, and we're getting close to here. I just want to point out, the Trump campaign is stop counting them here, and start counting them there. You like to rewind the, clock sorry it just doesn't work that way.
BLITZER: What did you call it, an inconsistency?
KING: Intellectual inconsistency. I was raised to be polite.
BLITZER: Very diplomatic. You can be an ambassador with that kind of diplomacy.
KING: I like a right here. I'm doing just fine.
(LAUGHTER)
BLITZER: Very nice indeed.
So we got Pennsylvania, we got Arizona, Nevada. Let's take a look at Nevada.
KING: Right, another state again. These western states, Arizona and Nevada close, battlegrounds. That's why we call them battleground states, that's why they're still on the board, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, right? We're still here four nights later.
Again, this -- that Arizona I just showed you was a state that Donald Trump narrowly carried four years ago. President Trump made a run for the state four years ago. Hillary Clinton won it by a couple of points.
So, these western states, people think of Nevada now as reliably blue. It has been blue in recent election. The reliable part is in question, right?
So, let's come back and look at this right here -- 50 to 48 if you round Joe Biden up. 22,000 votes, again we began the day with Joe Biden up 11,000 votes, 11,438.
So, he's almost doubled that lead. So, again, the directional arrow is pointing in the right way for Biden, he would just like to see it, you know, 49-48. You'd like the see it jump more than that.
So, what are you waiting for here? It's Clark County. I mean, it's Clark County, it's Clark County, it's Clark County, and then you move out. I say that not to insult the rest of state, it's a beautiful state, but 72, 73 percent, high turnout could be 75 percent of your vote, it's going to come right here, out of Las Vegas and the suburbs.
And the election official earlier said they're doing their job. We'll see if we get any more votes. But there's -- in Clark county, 54 to 45 if you round out there. You bring it back here and see what's happening.
For the Democrats, it's absolutely critical. This somewhere the bulk of the votes are. You need to run it up here because you see this re, nowhere near the population. Most of the population is in Vegas. This is just south of Carson City here, in Douglas, the president added some votes here a short time ago.
You come up here to Carson City, the president is winning, not by a ton, but he's winning there. Again, just -- it's the math that matters, too. You see the percentages, you just think this is strong for the president, there's 15,000 voters there when you pull back out. Even here in Washoe County, Reno and the rural areas to the north, you see Joe Biden getting 123,000, but again, relatively competitive, 51- 47, if you do the rounding there.
The president is putting up a good fight in Nevada. At the moment, he is trailing. The Biden campaign expresses confidence they can win the state. The Trump campaign says it will come back. It believes it made a powerful economic argument there. We'll count the votes.
But it is a leaning blue state. We had it leaning blue for Biden for some time. The president is putting up a good fight. Putting up good night in Nevada, putting up a fight in Arizona.
But at the moment, you know, a good fight doesn't matter, winning is what matters in presidential politics.
And at the moment, Biden leads. Biden leads. Biden leads. That's the dynamic the president must turn around. We can count the numbers. We can go counted the county. When you step back to the big picture, the map has a lot more blue than the president can stand. BLITZER: Yes, as they say.
Two states at the center of the race tonight, Pennsylvania and Arizona. We're standing by for new numbers soon from both of them as election night in America continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:41:15]
COOPER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage, ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA.
We're just been hearing from Vice President Biden tonight. The campaign had said he planned to speak during prime time. Still no word yet whether that actually will take place particularly if Pennsylvania has not actually been called.
David Axelrod, what do you think discussion?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think everybody is at the mercy the count here and the calls. My sense is he scheduled that set of remarks with the expectation that we'd have enough in the networks and news organizations could make a call on the race. I'm not sure you want to gear up twice. If it happens tomorrow, you're going to want to go out and do that tomorrow.
So they might differ, that's my guess the remarks until they have something to talk about. Otherwise, it will just be the same remarks he's been giving every night.
COOPER: Right.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I mean, there's -- you know, you can say be shade be patient, patient and everyone's been patient, so I think they're kind of taking a look at quite honestly what the networks are going to do.
COOPER: Do you think you'd be would be wise for him to come out and stay visible? Come out and speak without having something called?
BORGER: I don't know that it's necessary. You haven't heard from the president of the United States today, other than through his tweets, which still sound bellicose and, you know, we could talk about that.
COOPER: Yes, his recent tweet is, I had such a big lead in all these states in the late into election night, only to see these leads miraculously disappear as the days went by. Perhaps he leads will return is our legal proceedings move forward.
AXELROD: Yes.
BORGER: Yes, miraculously is the word. They keep saying how these votes miraculously turn up, when we know -- and we've said over and over again, this is how the count was going to go. What I see and talking to my sources, I spoke today with a Trump ally who says that the Trump surrogates were trying to this Hail Mary in the courts are an embarrassment. This is what the source said, they are an embarrassment to the good people who supported Trump over the last 4 years. They are not poised, well-thought out or credible. I think there is a lot of Trump supporters, who are saying you are not doing yourself any good right here.
COOPER: Senator Santorum?
RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I'll just give you -- obviously I'm from Pennsylvania, I look at Pennsylvania, because people are charging that Pennsylvania is a center where fraud happened and that this vote that he was way, way and all of us and it's gone away. I know we've explained it, mail-in ballots versus the rest.
If you just look at the, I went through look at all the counties in the states, the bigger counties, the ones that have either suburban counties or ones that have cities in them, of the big counties in the state, there's only two in which the president did better. Every other county, whether it's -- just to give you towns like Allentown, and Burkes and suburban Harrisburg, York -- excuse me, not York, Lancaster, Erie, all of those places including one, two, three, four that he won, he did worse this time that he did last time.
There's only two big counties that he did better. One is York County where there is a big congressional race there, that may have driven turnout even bigger, and the other county Philadelphia. He actually did better in Philadelphia, he actually did four and a half points better. He lost by 62 percent, excuse me, 67 percent to Hillary Clinton, he's losing by 62 and a half percent.
Now, that may change a little bit with a few extra votes, but the bottom line is, he actually -- here's the other thing about -- here's the other thing, it's really important.
[19:45:06]
If you look outside of Pennsylvania, again, we've been told how many ballots are coming, in and that may change, but the percentage turnout in Pennsylvania looks to be in excess of 10 percent maybe size as 11 percent. The increase in turnout in the city of Philadelphia was 3 percent. The rest of the state was 11 or 12 percent.
So here's the point. If you're -- if you're going to steal an election, they did a pretty bad job in Philadelphia, because they didn't turn out as much as the rest of the state and Trump did better. So it's hard, I'm not saying there isn't anything there, I'm not, because there may be something, and they have been worse, but the point is just looking on the face when what doesn't look right here? When you look at Philadelphia, you would, say wow, Philadelphia votes down, vis-a-vis the rest of the state, and Trump did better. So, that doesn't --
(CROSSTALK) AXELROD: The lawyers call them an unfriendly fact.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, look --
SANTORUM: It's an unfriendly fact.
Again, I'm not saying we should pursue causes, and there may be things there, but on the face of, it's a tough case to make just looking at the facts.
JONES: I mean, look, I think it's -- there is a blizzard of, I would call, it disinformation at this point. This video, this thing, whatever, people are really beginning to believe that Philadelphia is a place where -- listen -- there is something called facts, and the facts are, Trump did better in Philadelphia this time than he did last time.
We should fire our election stealing dealing committee because -- you know, as I've said a million times, it takes away from the great work of people, who did great work, and who actually put the work in to make the election happen.
But I do think, you know, for me, a lot of people are just -- they're hanging on the edge of their seat, and are getting tired, waiting for democracy to work. I think we should just hold on.
It -- I would much rather for us to be here, tomorrow night, and when it's finally called, for to be called right. Again, if Biden is not going to say be patient, I think we should say the patient.
In the meantime, the people of don't great, work and brought this victory within a stone's throw, I think they should rest knowing that the effort was not in vain.
BORGER: I think our numbers are interesting, and important.
SANTORUM: They're not my numbers.
BORGER: Well, the numbers.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: And I think if you look around the country, and look at the results for Republicans around the country, not just Pennsylvania, you can make the case that, I think, quite easily, Republicans had a great election. And we don't know if they will lose the senate, they could, but it wasn't any kind of wave election. Democrats did not do as well as they wanted to in the house. So, if there was a big steal here, they did a bad job of it.
COOPER: Also just the whole notion of a massive referendum on the president, yes, obviously, Biden is way ahead in the popular vote, but the idea of a referendum election that would send a message to the president and forever Trumpism, it's not that.
SANTORUM: Didn't happen. I would make the argument that Trump succeeded in making the argument that we will not be a socialist country. I think, after this election, we are not going to be a socialist country, certainly for the next couple of years. I think we are set up, actually, in 2022, to as Republicans, to win a bunch of governorships, to potentially take back the House, because we not only held all of our state legislators we had, in spite of Eric Holder, and this enormous, huge amount of money, trying to flip legislatures for redistricting purposes, Republicans held them, in fact, picked up New Hampshire.
And we are in a position to be able to draw just -- let me finish, be able to draw congressional maps that create better opportunities for us to win congressional districts, take back the house --
JONES: In other words, gerrymander.
SANTORUM: Both sides gerrymander. Let's look at California.
JONES: Funny you mentioned California. In California, they actually put up a commission to get rid of gerrymandering, to make it more fair.
SANTORUM: Let me finish my point. The point is, Donald Trump accomplished what he set, look, he said, I want to stop socialism, this is my purpose. He's done it, he accomplished it.
JONES: Joe Biden stopped in the Democratic Party, and you guys keep lying about it. Part of the problem is, that as we try to move forward, and get the country together, the good thing is, we will have a divided government, we're going to have to talk to each, other and work with each, other which I like.
The bogeyman -- you have to run against the bogeyman of socialism -- which was already stopped by Joe Biden in our party.
[19:50:05]
And now, you already have people saying they're going to gerrymander. At some point, we got to point out some way for us to actually -- you literally just said it.
SANTORUM: Every state that isn't controlled by a Democrats, or Republicans, is gerrymandered.
JONES: California literally stopped gerrymandering.
COOPER: We argue in the set.
We are going to take a break, we're going to come back, here. Ultimately, will Pennsylvania propelled showed Biden to the White House? New numbers coming in soon from the Keystone State? From Arizona as well, we're standing by as election night in America continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We have some breaking news for you now from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Let's bring in Pamela Brown.
Pamela, what's happening?
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the spotlight on those late arriving ballots in Pennsylvania continues with a new order, or just arriving, from Justice Alito on the Supreme Court. He is ordering all of the counties in Pennsylvania to put aside the late arriving ballots, and to count them separately.
[19:55:07]
He's saying, look, you can count them, but just make sure it is not part of the total. Now, what's important to note here, this is the guidance of the secretary of state had put out before the election, that they could be -- they should be put up aside, separated, and counted separately.
What's interesting of this order is it comes in the wake of a filing today from Pennsylvania Republicans who went to the court, and asked for this order, saying, we aren't sure that every county has applied, this may not be legally binding. We want the Supreme Court to step in, make sure these counties are separating, and counting.
Now, Alito -- Justice Alito, in reading this order, he seems a little bit irked by the fact that he did not get updated guidance from the secretary of state herself on separating the county. Remember this one from the court in late October? The secretary of state initially said, we will separate the ballots, didn't say anything about counting. That influenced the court's decision.
And now, based -- and then, she changed the guidance, didn't go back to the court, so now we're finding out that Justice Alito is ordering all of these counties in Pennsylvania to put those ballots aside.
One note, the number we believe of late arriving ballots are marginal, and we do not believe they will move the needle one where the other -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Pamela Brown, thanks so much.
Let's bring in Republican attorney Ben Ginsberg to discuss this. He is also a CNN contributor.
Ben, you and I have discussed, this is the one legal action that the Trump team, and Republicans have taken, that we would not consider to be frivolous. This is based on an actual dispute. The secretary of state, and other officials in Pennsylvania have said that there should be a 3-day grace period so that ballots that arrived after election day, through today, be included, as long as they are not postmarked after election day.
Republicans have fought that, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court weighed in, and sided with the secretary of state, saying it is OK. Now, there is a dispute about whether or not they should be taken to the Supreme Court, whether they should weigh in.
Do you think this suggests that these ballots, which arrive after election day, become relevant it, and that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments about this?
BEN GINSBERG, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think what Justice Alito does is sort of preserve the status quo, the way things are now. In other words, the ballots are still being counted, so the Republican Party lost its attempt to halt the county. But as Pamela says, this is not an amount that will impact the election.
So, the ballots will be counted, but not included in the counts. Just so that the status quo, all options, will still be on the table with this order.
TAPPER: In other words, if it comes out that these ballots that were sent before election day, or on election day, postmarked by election, but arrive after election day, these three days, if they become relevant to who wins Pennsylvania, then there may be more action, if they make up the margin of victory for one candidate, or another. If not, then probably not.
GINSBERG: I think that is the way it will come out. Importantly, there really is no objection to what Justice Alito did with this order, because it does preserve the current state. It is not gotten to referral to the court on whether to count these ballots, or not count the ballots, or to exclude them. Nor to deal with the issue of whether the state Supreme Court can weigh in on the rules for the election, and whether that is something that is left to the legislature.
TAPPER: All right. Ben Ginsberg, thanks so much for your expertise. We appreciate it.
GINSBERG: Thanks, Jake.
TAPPER: Our coverage of this continues right now.
(MUSIC)
BLITZER: We keep getting new results from battleground states that could be closers in the presidential race. Is the decision around the corner?
I'm Wolf Blitzer, former Vice President Joe Biden is counseling patients as all of us wait to see if the trends hold and he is able to declare victory over President Trump. Biden's lead in critical Pennsylvania grew once again just a little while ago as the vote counting continues. We could get even more results from the Keystone State at any time.
We are also standing by for new vote totals out of Arizona tonight. It is another one of the undecided battlegrounds where Biden is ahead and could add to his electoral count.
Remember, it's all about the map. Biden, looking for the winning equation, to bump up from 253 electoral votes, to the necessary to 270. Trump has 213. And while some of the outstanding races are close, the numbers are working against him.
Here is another key race alert.
In Pennsylvania right now, the all-important stay, 20 electoral votes. Biden still maintains an impressive lead, nearly 20,000 votes, 19,471, over Trump. That lead has grown and grown almost every hour, 49.5 percent for Biden, 49.2 percent for Trump.
