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Biden Close to Victory as Counts Continue in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania; Biden Calls for Unity as He Inches Closer to Victory; Trump Has Told People He Has No Plans to Concede; Biden Expands His Lead in Georgia. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired November 07, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN's continuing coverage Election Night in America, Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon. Here we are, waiting for the final votes to be counted so a winner can be declared, and we can start dealing with the worst medical emergency in a generation.

The trending is, Joe Biden may well be the next president-elect -- Don Lemon.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And we have to tell you. We feel like you feel at home. If I have any more sugar and any more coffee, we don't know what's going to happen. We know you've been up for days. We have, too. We know you're feeling anxious. We want this to be over.

But we're going to take you through it. We promise we'll get you through it and soon, sometime soon, the race will be called.

The former vice president addressed the American people tonight. He said he is confident that he is going to win the election. That is what he believes but he's asking for everyone to be patient.

CUOMO: It's hard to be patient when you are suffering from a pandemic. We just learned the president's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has it, the man who said we cannot control the virus. Certainly, can't control it in the White House.

Yet, we have to be certain because of this atmosphere of doubt that was put out as a fog of toxicity by this president.

So, we go slow, get it right, do it once.

What does that mean?

It means it is time for a key race alert. Pennsylvania, 20 electoral votes.

Could Biden pad that with what we think is remaining?

Yes. Will he?

We'll see.

Georgia, 16 electoral votes. 4,430 votes, on our watch, here in the early morning hours. Joe Biden actually gained 30 votes on that lead. The batches are very small, but they still matter.

Arizona, 11 electoral votes, 29,861. For Joe Biden, he's been in the opposite dynamic, here. He has been losing a lead cushion to Donald Trump, who is over-performing in the all-important Maricopa County.

Will the president catch him?

It does not look that way but we're not sure, so we keep watching. CNN has not called Arizona, for that reason.

Nevada, six electoral votes, 22,657 are the margin. It seems, actually, a little safer for Joe Biden, certainly, than Arizona. Why?

The way the votes are trending. OK. So that's what we have. All right?

Everybody wants to know what's going to happen so how do we analyze it?

Look. Where are the rest of the votes in Pennsylvania?

Where do we expect them?

What could they mean?

Kristen Holmes at the voting desk.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Chris. Yes, let's talk about what votes are still missing in Pennsylvania. It's all about when are they going to come in and what are they going to look like?

So right now, currently, there are 89,000 outstanding ballots; 101,000 of these are provisional ballots. We talked about these a little last night. These are ballots, people showed up.

[02:05:00]

HOLMES: It wasn't clear if they were eligible to vote. So they have to go through a whole other process.

I spoke to an official tonight, who said this process can take between anywhere between one and 20 minutes a ballot.

Now let's look at the two biggest counties. Philadelphia, of course. Approximately 38,000 ballots left to count, 15,000 to 20,000 of those are the provisional ballots. Now the other 20,000 to 25,000 of them are mail-in ballots.

We know how those have been skewing but here is the catch with these mail-in ballots. They're not all just going through the system. Some are basically at the bottom of the barrel here that are left. They have issues. They might have to go to committee for review. So again, another time-consuming process.

Now Allegheny County. That is the Pittsburgh area, 35,000 ballots left. That includes mail-in ballots and provisional. There was a big issue there, a lawsuit was involved, misprinting ballots.

Now Bucks County. This is a suburb of Philadelphia, a Democratic stronghold, right now. They still need to review 2,000 damaged ballots and 6,700 provisional ballots here. So all of this is going to take time.

Remember, what we have talked about over and over again. We are at the end of the road here where all of this is a process. When it comes to the damaged ballots that need review, election commissions have bipartisan groups of people who have to really go through, ballot by ballot, to see what the voter intent was, to see what the problem is. Again, time consuming. People urging patience on this.

And then, we have the last three other big counties we have been watching, Luzerne County, a Republican county. As we talked about, even if they are coming from a very red area, they're mail-in ballots. So, there is a chance many of these ballots could skew Democratic, as we have seen throughout the state.

Montgomery, another suburb, 10,000 plus ballots there. And Chester County, 2,300 ballots. So again, some of this is going to take a lot of time but we are still waiting for some of those big waves of numbers, particularly from the big counties -- Chris.

CUOMO: And the reason that matters, obviously, is not just for the basic, which is the outcome, but the amount.

Can Joe Biden not just win in Pennsylvania, thereby securing his win, but get outside the automatic recount zone?

We'll see. We'll see. Thank you very much for that. Very helpful. CNN's Alexandra Field is in Pittsburgh.

Take us a little deeper in there, Alex.

What do we know about the state of play and the count?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look. It requires more patience, Chris. Kristen was walking you through all the reasons this could be a slow process here in Pittsburgh. Particularly, we know this last batch of ballots will take a lot of time. They've got to review them by hand.

These are ballots that were incorrectly sent out. They want to make sure they don't have any duplicates. All of this is happening, of course, under intense spotlight because we know the whole election could come down to what happens in Pennsylvania, with a relatively small number of votes.

But put the spotlight aside. The fact is that, in every precinct, in every state across the country, you have got to do what it takes when electing an American president, to protect the integrity of the president.

That means, like what I saw in Pittsburgh today, you have got poll watchers from both campaigns. You've got the media. We were able to shoot video of this process. It's got to be carefully done. It's got to be carefully watched.

What is different, Chris, this year, is that you don't only have to protect the integrity of the process; you also have to defend the integrity of the process. That's why they've got to be so methodical and they've got to be so vociferous, vocal about the efforts they are undertaking to get this big job done, as long as it takes.

That is, of course, because you have a president in the White House, who has spent months making baseless claims, attempted at discrediting the possible outcome of this election, even before we have the election.

This is a president who has called for the counting of votes to stop across the country while that is still underway. Right here in Pennsylvania, you have a Democratic governor and secretary of state, who have said there have not been any widespread irregularities or problems, Just that this is a slow-going process in order to do everything that needs to be done.

Even so, you have got Republican state leaders calling on the governor to implement an immediate audit of the ongoing count. They say it's not necessary to bolster confidence in this process, confidence that probably has only been eroded, if it has been, because of the baseless claims we have been hearing -- Chris.

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CUOMO: Alexandra, thank you very much. Appreciate that report. Let's go over to Phil Mattingly at the magic wall.

You know, on one level, why should it be surprising that, even here in the last moments of an election, we have this president continuing the battle of him being offensive to what we believe to be true?

So that was really good what Kristen took us through in Pennsylvania in terms of where we are waiting for those votes.

Is there a chance that Joe Biden not just wins Pennsylvania but gets outside that 0.5 percent margin?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

CUOMO: Really?

MATTINGLY: Yes and it actually seems likely. I'm going to walk you through why.

First off, Philadelphia. Right now, we know they've got a little north of 20,000 outstanding votes that need to be counted and tabulated. They're all mail-in. What we have seen out of the count of Philadelphia, the city, as these votes have come in, has been 85 percent to 88 percent for Joe Biden.

Look at the margin, it is going bigger, Joe Biden, in this city. It will be going bigger Joe Biden when that gets reported. It's about 20,000 provisional there as well.

One other thing. I am fascinated by this and Harry might have some thoughts on this, too. Right here. You see the top-line turnout in Philadelphia, and we know they have got somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 votes still outstanding. Take a look back to 2016 in Philadelphia.

Hillary Clinton had 584,000 votes in Philadelphia. Philadelphia did OK. Milwaukee and Detroit, back in 2016, fell off the map and that's in large part why Hillary Clinton lost those states.

But turnout has exploded; it's the same trend we have seen over the rest of the country. The idea that turnout in the biggest Democratic stronghold in the biggest county in the state is at or maybe even slightly below what Hillary Clinton had in 2016.

CUOMO: This is up.

MATTINGLY: This is up. So I'm just saying I want to watch that. I don't know what it means. It just -- it doesn't track. If you go to Wayne County, where Detroit is, turnout was up.

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CUOMO: OK. Demographics.

Could it be what the president suggests, which is, I've done better among Blacks and Latinos and Latinx people than any Republican ever?

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HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hold on. Hold on. Look. There's no doubt that President Trump has done better, if you look across the country, right?

Sometimes, it differs a little bit with nonwhite voters or voters of color. But if you look at the individual wards on the Philadelphia County Board of Elections website or the equivalent of that, you do seem to see the areas that are most pro-Democratic, that's where, right now, it seems the fewest votes are in.

To me, that is an indication there are votes to be counted in the most pro-Democratic areas, which should boost Biden's numbers. And to the larger point Phil is making, I would be really surprised if we don't end up out of the 0.5 percentage point margin to not have the recount you are talking about, Chris.

MATTINGLY: I'm just really interested to see how it ends up because it doesn't track with where Milwaukee is. Doesn't track with where Wayne is. But outstanding vote still in Montgomery County, it has gone bigger for Biden in the mail-in ballots.

Move over to Bucks County which we actually got a decent chunk, decent batch of today, a little more of a swing county. You see a little bit of a narrower margin here; however, mail-in ballots here were coming in 60 percent plus for Joe Biden.

Let's look where he sits. He is sitting right at it. The vote that's outstanding, the bulk of the vote that's outstanding is coming from Philadelphia. It's coming from Montgomery. It's coming from Bucks.

All of those have come in big for him. If you wonder why Harry and I have been banging the drum the last couple days, it's purely looking at what's outstanding, the rate at which it's coming in for Joe Biden.

CUOMO: As we go to break, if the president is going to come for the legitimacy of the vote, Pennsylvania's going to be where he does it, not just because it's what beat him but the Democrats in charge here.

So, if one of the tools can be taken away from what may very well be an unfair attack by him, that margin is important because you don't get a recount. Please, stay with CNN.

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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The vast majority of almost 150 -- 150 million Americans that voted, they want to get the vitriol out of our politics.

We're certainly not going to agree on a lot of issues but at least we can agree to be civil with one another. Let's put the anger and the demonization behind us. It's time for us to come together, as a nation, to heal.

It's not going to be easy. We have to try. My responsibility, as president, will be -- will be to represent the whole nation. And I want you to know, that I'll work as hard for those who voted against me, as those who voted for me. That's the job. That's the job.

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CUOMO: Joe Biden, tonight.

Is that a preview of what he might say in his first address to the country, as president-elect, if he is given that opportunity by you?

Let's bring in MJ Lee in Wilmington, Delaware.

Thank you for joining, my friend, in these late hours. But everybody's waiting.

What do you hear about what this man would see as his primary point of focus, if he had to address the nation as president-elect?

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, obviously, Biden and his campaign, they had hoped that the race might be called on Friday. That, obviously, did not happen. And right now, they are in a bit of a holding pattern until they can actually get past the 270 electoral vote thresholds.

[02:20:00]

LEE: But yes, in terms of what a Biden victory speech might sound like, if and when it happens, we have basically been getting clues all week when we have heard from the former vice president, including last night when he spoke here in Wilmington.

We saw him really go out of his way to make an appeal to people who don't support him, don't support his candidacy and to people who clearly supported President Trump, instead.

We just heard, in that sound bite that you played, him saying that, my opponents are not my enemies, promising that he would work just as hard for those who don't support him as for the people who do support him.

And when I was talking to a Biden aide, shortly after he gave that speech, they said, yes, you can definitely expect that tone of national unity and the message about healing and bringing the country together.

We, definitely, can expect the former vice president to continue talking about those themes, regardless of where we are in the vote- counting process, regardless of whether the race has been called yet or not.

And this shouldn't be surprising to anybody, right?

I mean, this is sort of the major crux of his candidacy and has been from day one. As you know, Biden, himself, has publicly said, many times, one of the major reasons, driving factors, for why he got into this race in the first place was seeing what happened in Charlottesville in 2017 and just feeling like -- watching those images, made him feel like this is a moment of crisis for this country.

And I want to play a role in sort of bringing the country back together. So that is just, I think, a big clue as to what we are probably likely to hear, again, if and when there is a victory speech from Biden.

And just in terms of the holding pattern, what that might look like, today, Saturday, here in Wilmington, we know he's been spending time with family and senior advisers and just watching these vote tallies coming in slowly. We also know, as we reported in the last hour, aides are saying he

will continue the behind-the-scenes work related to COVID-19, that likely includes the meetings and briefings he's had with public health officials and other information, because, as you know, as we are still waiting for results to come in, the pandemic is still raging across the country -- Chris.

CUOMO: MJ Lee, thank you very much. Let's take it to the better minds. I have CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson, Harry Enten and Alex Burns.

What's the right message?

It's got to be a function of what the mandate is.

So, if there is a win for Joe Biden, what does it mean that he was asked to do?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think people were asking for a return to normalcy, turning away from the chaos, getting some calm in the White House. And you saw that, tonight, just him being a normal president, being a normal, public figure.

You know, I think some of his lines about unity and healing, that's probably going to be a tall order. But hearing someone who might be the president, again, talk in that way, I think is what Americans wanted and is such a departure from the divisiveness of this president.

I think the line where he says we may be opponents by we are not enemies. We're Americans. I mean, for Donald Trump, everyone --

CUOMO: Us and them.

HENDERSON: Yes, it's us and them, sort of divisiveness. So I think that's the main thing.

In terms of a mandate in policy, very hard to see what he is going to be able to get done, given the fact that he is likely not to have a Senate. We don't know, yet, if Mitch McConnell's still going to be in charge there but it's likely. So all of the sort of big plans he has, I think they'll likely be stymied by a Republican Senate.

CUOMO: I think what you said makes a lot of sense but let's play with it a little for the sake of argument. Or, is the mandate, we had this many people come out, maybe 76 million, maybe 77 million for Biden because we hate this guy and we don't like the people who follow him. And it's got to be stomped down.

And that's what you have to be, Joe. You got to be Fightin' Joe and we don't want to get along with bigots.

Because there is a big part of that on the Left, right?

I mean, there was a lot of animus towards who follows Trump and what Trump's message is.

ENTEN: That would not be who Joe Biden is.

CUOMO: They picked the wrong guy if they wanted a vengeance guy.

ENTEN: That's right. This is a continuation of who Joe Biden was on the campaign trail. I'm going to bring folks together. I'm going to act presidential. I'm going to be the opposite of the current occupant of the White House.

So, anybody who's expecting that Joe Biden is all of a sudden going to turn up the rhetoric, become more like the current president of the United States, I think, is sorely mistaken.

[02:25:00]

CUOMO: You know what, Alex?

What about this take, just for a third, you know, slice at it?

What if the message is very little of this and, literally, he's rolling up his sleeves? I know what to do here because, when I came in with my friend, Barack, the economy was in the deepest hole we had seen, you know, in decades.

We got a big problem. I know how to deal with it. You know, let's get after this together and just go right into it at the pandemic.

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that's exactly what the mandate is. You don't elect a president in the middle of a national crisis like this one to do any job, except deal with the national crisis.

Now you may like other things he campaigned on. You may want to see him pursue a broader agenda and there's considerable evidence some voters do want to see him do things on issues like climate, deeper reforms to the economy.

But if your mandate is to end the war -- and while we are not in a literal war with the coronavirus, I think a lot of people feel their lives are under siege. And the gauge of his presidency is, whether, a year from now or two years from now, we say they approved a vaccine, distributed it safely, brought back the economy and life has retired to normal in the sense that you can have Thanksgiving, again, right?

You can go to your parents for their birthdays or see your grandparents or your grandchildren. I think Joe Biden, that you alluded to in the first term, coming into office in the middle of a global economic crisis, certainly informs his thinking that there are plenty of Democrats that are very, very proud of the broad agenda the Obama administration pursued.

The Affordable Care Act, most of all. But there are a lot of Democrats who acknowledged they moved on from talking about the economy far too soon. They were elected in the middle of a deep recession and they probably should have kept their eyes on that ball longer than they did. CUOMO: There is a big moment in history coming. And we've lived

through them before. So let's get a little context from where we are right now and it will kind of give us a focus on where we need to be. So we'll get after that, right after this.

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LEMON: When all the votes are counted, it looks more and more like Joe Biden will be the president-elect. It's not over, yet, though. The president's talking about voter fraud and on and on and on.

So, let's get some context, right?

On what this means in history, for this moment in history from Tim Naftali.

We can always learn something from history, right?

Good to see you.

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Great seeing you, Don.

LEMON: The president's lying. He is resorting to poll watchers and fraud and all this stuff.

How dangerous is this information at a critical time, like this?

NAFTALI: Well, until this moment, we had a tradition in this country that no presidential candidate declared victory until his opponent had conceded. That is a time-honored tradition.

Normally, what would happen is newspapers in that era or now television networks, would declare a victor. Then, the losing candidate, in the old days, would send a telegram or go on television and concede.

And then, the president-elect would appear before the people and proclaim victory. That's the way it's always been.

We are looking at a situation where that's unlikely to be the scenario. The president has already made clear that he thinks this entire election has, somehow, been the -- has been the victim of a conspiracy, of some kind of huge fraud.

He has not, in the course of his four years, shown a willingness to admit error. He usually doubles down. And so, we face the unfortunate likelihood that President Trump will force President-Elect Biden to declare victory before a concession and that's an unfortunate norm busting.

Why does it matter?

It matters because 70 million plus Americans voted for President Trump. In our history, the losing candidate turns to the American people and says, the people have spoken. I want you -- it was a tough election. We tried hard. We are sad. But now, we have got to hope for the best for our country.

LEMON: It's not too late.

You don't think he's going to do it?

NAFTALI: No, I don't think he's going to do it because it would mean accepting that some president, other than Donald J. Trump, could be good at the job.

And my fear is that President Trump will not help President -- a President-Elect Biden combat the coronavirus. We need, both, the president and the president-elect, in the next few months, to work together to attack this public health crisis and to not send mixed messages.

And I worry that, as part of his warfare against this outcome, President Trump will not be the good loser that his predecessors have, without exception, being.

LEMON: Tim, you worry. I just don't think it's -- it's going to happen.

[02:35:00]

LEMON: It's going to be up to some folks on the transition team to maybe do it for this president. I don't think you'll see this president do it. I just don't think it's in him because he has been lying to us for years.

Has that damaged the country's ability to really trust the truth?

To trust facts.

To trust science.

That the system is actually working?

NAFTALI: Well, Don, I agree with you. I fear for the scenario I just laid out. I believe that Vice -- that the former vice president has an opportunity to speak to a much broader group of Americans. I know he'll speak to all Americans.

But I think he has an opportunity to speak to a much broader group that includes people who voted for Trump, at least in 2016. I'll leave it to Harry, once all the votes are in. But I have a feeling people were ticket-splitters, that there were people who voted for Biden for president but a Republican in their local congressional district.

And that means, you have people who are Republicans, even Trumpists, to some extent, who are willing to work with Biden. And if President- Elect Biden finds the right language, I think he can work with those people and show them, through success, that science can be helpful. But you don't lecture them. You don't treat them like students.

LEMON: But who are you talking about when you say that?

Are you talking about his supporters?

Are you talking about people in government?

NAFTALI: I'm talking about -- no, I'm talk -- well, two -- the audience are those people in the blue wall states, who voted for Trump in 2016 and, probably, voted for Biden in 2020. Those people are persuadable.

The ones who are carrying this message are going to be members of the Biden team. I just worry that if we -- if we come at it this way and say, you all don't understand climate change. You don't accept science and give people the sense that we who worry about climate change think they're stupid, that we're going to find ourselves in trench warfare, again, cultural trench warfare.

And I think Biden has the opportunity to end some of the trench warfare on these larger issues. I'm not talking small policy issues; I'm talking about issues like public health.

(CROSSTALK)

NAFTALI: I think Biden has that chance.

LEMON: It's tough but I think people have to be open to that. And how can you -- when you -- when you -- when someone doesn't believe the truth, it's really -- or what you're saying has any credence, it's really -- that's going to be a tough sell, to try to tell people, who don't believe in science, who haven't believed in facts for quite some time, that one plus one equals two and that they need to wear masks.

I think, it is an uphill climb for the former vice president if he becomes president. But I'm hopeful that he can do it. Tim, it's good to see you. You be safe, my friend, and I will talk to you soon.

We have to remember, even when we are talking about these issues, we are talking about policies and what happens if there is a Joe Biden presidency. The numbers are still coming in and we still have to figure out where we are in this election and where the numbers are.

And if Joe Biden is, indeed, to become president, where is he going to pick up the numbers to get him to 270?

We're tracking all the information, especially out of Pennsylvania and Georgia. Don't go anywhere. This is CNN.

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CUOMO: All right. We're discussing how we got where we are. And it's going to be important, it's going to be more important, moving forward. One of the conversations we will have is, were the polls off again?

If so, why?

One of the things we can look at here is Texas. Supposed to be, oh, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. Donald Trump, if you take a look, he is up 656,000 plus votes there, 52-46, he's up. That's a pretty good whooping.

So why now this battle to the finish in Georgia?

MATTINGLY: It's going to take weeks or months to get the full autopsy but the beauty of this wonderful machine right here is we can start trying to put some stuff together. One thing I'm going to do, I'm going to put full county mode.

So, where did President Trump overperform by 5 percent or more?

Texas, Harris County, home of Houston, surged in its turnout; same with Dallas County, as well. All you need to do is look right here. That area, right there, all of which were so many counties you see over performed, this is for Democrats, they knew they would get the suburban turnout. They needed to ensure Latinos came out near the border.

Down on the border, even where Trump lost, he was overperforming his 2016 results. These are primarily Latino voters.

CUOMO: So why?

The president had been demonizing, by extension, Latinos, when he was talking about how people coming across the border, illegally, are rapists and murderers and all that ugly stuff.

Why didn't that resonate?

MATTINGLY: Well, we're going to have to wait and see. One, I think a good lesson -- a good lesson -- go ahead.

ENTEN: President Trump had a --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: You have to work on your "let me get in here" skills.

ENTEN: I don't like being rude. I like to let people finish talking -- and I do.

Here is the deal. He had major reach out to Hispanic voters.

[02:45:00] ENTEN: He made a real play for them. Also, they are much more culturally conservative than I think they're given credit for. And there are differences -- They're not homogenous. We do see differences, right, Hispanic population in California. We see differences in the Hispanic population in Texas, Mexicans, versus Cubans. We see different things.

One thing about the real shift of that vote. Look at this county down in Texas. I believe I have it up here. I believe it was Starr County. If you pull it up on there, it's in the southern part of that state. What you would essentially see is a 60-point margin that Hillary Clinton won by in 2016 switched and Joe Biden won that county by just 5 points. That's a 55-point shift in one county.

CUOMO: But why?

MATTINGLY: This is demographic layers. Where you see a deeper shade is a higher percentage of Hispanic population. I drew the lines where you saw the over performance of Trump by 5 percent. Huge grouping of counties all right here.

CUOMO: Wait, hold on one second.

Did you say something, in the control room?

Oh, I thought he said we have breaking, as in news. We have to go to break.

Yes. I'm just trying to make sure that I'm using the right context of "break" when I use it.

Finish your point, please, Phil. And then we will, go to commercial.

MATTINGLY: What was the difference between Georgia and Texas?

Pull this out. Go away. We got to go to break. Go away.

CUOMO: It worked.

MATTINGLY: It worked. Pull this out.

Why did -- why did Joe Biden win Georgia or why is he leading in Georgia right now?

Right here, right here, right here. The deeper shade is the higher percentage of African American population. Joe Biden crushed with African American population in the key, key areas of Georgia. Joe Biden is potentially on the verge of winning Georgia.

Joe Biden, in Texas, under performed in a key demographic that he had to win in the Latino population. That is the difference between Georgia and Texas, as we have it right now. Data that we have right now, based on demographics, makes very clear he fell short with one and crushed with the other.

CUOMO: Great explanation and thank you. And, Harry, thank you for the context.

Let's go to break. I think there is a deeper conversation about what worked with Latinos, what didn't and why, so we'll look at that, right after this.

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[02:50:00]

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CUOMO: All right. We have movement on our watch. In the last few minutes, Joe Biden's lead in Georgia grew again by 64 percent. That means, key race alert. All right.

What does 64 percent mean when the margin is this small?

It means you go from 4,000-plus to 7,248 votes in the all-important state of Georgia.

Why?

Well, if Biden secures Georgia, there is no route for the president, Donald Trump, to win this election through the Electoral College. Still, a little bit of vote could come in. But this is very important, for the reason that we just stated. And one more. Let's go to Phil Mattingly at the magic wall.

The other reason, which you gave this morning, is it would be good for him to be recount safe.

But the higher this gets, the more likely, what?

MATTINGLY: The more likely that it holds. If he comes into a recount with a 7,000-vote lead, again, it would take a catastrophic failure in counting for that to, somehow, be flipped. It doesn't mean it won't happen. But I'm just saying, right now, him being at 4,000 is a comfortable case to be in a recount.

Joe Biden, at 7,000, is a much more comfortable place. We know Fulton County, largest county in the state, Joe Biden pulled in 3,915 votes. Donald Trump pulled in 1,097. Work on the handwriting a little bit.

CUOMO: Just the 9s.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTINGLY: Percentage wise, Joe Biden getting 76.1 percent.

Man, this is going very, very poorly. Let me go ahead and do this. Here's what matters.

(LAUGHTER) CUOMO: Well done. Well done.

MATTINGLY: What Joe Biden netted out of Fulton County, if I did the math right, 2,818 votes, which brought him from where he was sitting, to 7,248.

Now we knew, in terms of the universe of outstanding votes, that we were looking at military ballots that were coming in. We were looking at provisional ballots which were coming in as well. Fulton reported a decent grouping of those, largest county in the state of Georgia, I think about 10 percent of the population.

What's the difference between Texas and Georgia?

Why is Joe Biden potentially on the verge of turning Georgia blue when he fell short in Texas, when Democrats thought there was a real chance there?

In both states, the suburban vote, the college educated and above vote for white voters came out; the difference is here. Black voters in the state of Georgia came out in a huge, huge way. You can thank Stacey Abrams for that, from her governor run back in 2018 that fell just short.

But in counties, like Fulton County, across the state, the margins are coming in so big, so big, for Vice President Biden.

[02:55:00]

MATTINGLY: And this is another one where we are looking at the margin here. Obviously, this is a huge margin. Joe Biden outperformed the batch of votes we just got in.

CUOMO: Harry, do we have any insight into whether or not military ballots played a role here?

ENTEN: I'm not sure but I do want to note Phil is not the one with the worst handwriting on this set. Mine is far worse than that.

In terms of recount, right now, the lead for Joe Biden, Georgia, is 7,248 votes. And just to give you some context. Florida 2000, which, of course, is the most famous sort of recount of all time, heading into the initial automatic count in that particular race, the margin was 1,784 votes.

So this is a very large margin, especially given there are far fewer votes cast in Georgia in this election than there was in Florida in 2000.

CUOMO: D. Lemon, what do you think of this latest news?

LEMON: I was supposed to get a whole panel ready but --

CUOMO: You're more than enough.

(CROSSTALK) LEMON: You guys are doing a great job.

All I'll say is, Harry --

ENTEN: Yes, sir?

LEMON: -- would be very proud of you except for your handwriting.

CUOMO: May he rest in peace.

LEMON: May he rest in peace.

CUOMO: Also a Buffalo Bills fan, just like Harry.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Chris, we got a lot to talk about. You saw what happened in Georgia.

Could that happen in Pennsylvania?

Could it happen in Arizona?

We don't know. That's why we are here for you. We will have some key race -- key race alert.

How could I forget that?

Coming up on the other side of the break.