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Biden Closes In On Presidency As His Lead Grows In Pennsylvania And Georgia; White House Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows Tests Positive For COVID-19; Biden Makes Appeal For Unity With Victory Seemingly On The Horizon. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired November 07, 2020 - 06:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman alongside Alisyn Camerota. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. So after three days, seven hours and 12 seconds or so on this rollercoaster, very soon, the United States is very likely to have a new president-elect.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: As Joe Biden's lead over President Trump continues to grow in the key states of Pennsylvania and Georgia, so do his chances of claiming victory by the end of today. Biden is pushing unity and patience, while President Trump is defiant and his legal team vows to, quote, "Keep playing until the whistle blows."

BERMAN: So right now, but maybe not for much longer, Joe Biden sits at 253 electoral votes, President Trump has 213. Biden is potentially one state away from the magic number and that's where we begin with a CNN Key Race Alert. So these are the states we are watching this morning.

Let's start with Pennsylvania where Joe Biden holds a 28,000-vote lead. Why is this state so important? Twenty electoral votes. If Joe Biden wins Pennsylvania, he wins the presidency and what you need to know, there are tens of thousands of votes left to be counted, most in very Democratic areas. We will be getting new votes over the next couple hours from Pennsylvania.

In the state of Georgia, Joe Biden has a 7,000-vote lead. Very close there. Sixteen electoral votes up for grabs. Biden's lead there has grown overnight. We are expecting more vote from Georgia, perhaps soon. There will be a recount there no matter what.

The state of Arizona next. Eleven electoral votes up for grabs. Joe Biden's lead has been shrinking. Right now, he's at about 29,000. There are well over 100,000 votes left. President Trump needs about 60 percent of the remaining votes to take the lead. Lately, he has not been getting that margin as the votes have been coming in.

Nevada, six electoral votes up for grabs. Joe Biden 22,000 votes ahead. Most of the remaining vote there again from largely Democratic areas. Anything could happen, but you get a sense of the trends in that state. We will get more vote from Nevada later this morning.

Overall, this is where things stand. Joe Biden has 253 electoral votes. President Trump has 213. The state's there on that map in white, the states where they are still counting and we will bring you updates as soon as we get them throughout the morning.

Let's walk over to Phil Mattingly at the Magic Wall to find out exactly where things stand. Phil, I do want to start with Pennsylvania.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BERMAN: Why? Because Pennsylvania could put Joe Biden over the top soon, maybe as soon as this morning depending on what kind of vote we get. Tell us what and where those votes are coming from.

MATTINGLY: Look, the reality is this. Pennsylvania is key and Pennsylvania has been heading in Joe Biden's direction now for a couple of days. It's been the reason why Joe Biden has erased a nearly 600,000-vote deficit in this state, now leading 28,833 votes. So the big question is what's outstanding and where will that vote go?

Well, let's start with where the vote is outstanding. Just shy of about 90,000 votes right now and a good chunk of them come in here. You'll notice it's blue, it is the Democratic stronghold, it is Southeastern Pennsylvania, it is anchored by Philadelphia where Joe Biden has regularly been putting up big margins.

How big are the margins? Well, if you just dig in on Philadelphia, look right there, 80.8 percent to 18.3 percent for Biden. The vote that's been coming in has been even bigger than that. Mail-in ballots, which Democrats have been winning rather handily in the state, his average has been -- margin has been somewhere between 86 percent and 88 percent.

In other words, the vast majority of what comes in from Philadelphia has been going Biden's way, giving him a major advantage. The outskirts, pushing into the suburbs of those collar counties, also outstanding votes, also going heavily to Joe Biden.

Another Democratic stronghold, just shy of 30,000 votes outstanding -- Pittsburgh, Allegheny County. We've seen those votes come in. They have gone big for Joe Biden. You look at the margin when you pull it out, a bit of a closer margin here, 59.2 percent to 39.3 percent, but here's the reality -- the mail-in ballots, what's being counted right now in Allegheny County, they've been going anywhere from 75 percent to 77 percent for Joe Biden.

It's why the trend lines are all pointing in one direction. It's why the Biden campaign feels comfortable that this will end up in their column. The state of Pennsylvania, the state that can put them over 270. The question is when and what is the full universe of the outstanding ballots as we go into these final days of counting?

BERMAN: Again, just to reiterate what you're saying, the Philadelphia area over there, the Pittsburgh area over here, tens of thousands of votes left.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

BERMAN: We do know that and those have been very Democratic-leaning, disproportionately so even beyond their vote totals. Now, one of the things that has been unknown, and this has been a little bit of a discussion point since yesterday afternoon, is the provisional ballots.

MATTINGLY: Right.

BERMAN: We don't know exactly how many are left to count statewide. Sometimes we're getting different numbers from different counties, 80,000 plus. I want to switch to Georgia to talk about provisional votes if I can ...

MATTINGLY: Yes.

[06:05:01]

BERMAN: ... because we have some sense of how they've been behaving nationally from vote that came in overnight from Georgia. You can see Joe Biden has padded his lead. It's now 7,000. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it was 4,000 when I went to bed for an hour and a half at about 9:00 o'clock. It went up to 7,000. That's because some vote that came in largely from Fulton County which was provisional. Explain.

MATTINGLY: And it's a good example. Look, provisional ballots, obviously they're usually counted last and they come if you, say, showed up at a polling place and you moved, it wasn't your exact polling place, you didn't have the proper identification. So when they are counted, how they go through, one of the big outstanding questions, both in Pennsylvania and in Georgia with the outstanding provisional ballots right now, is how are they going to go?

Are they going to track with what we've seen from where they're located over the course of the count up to that point? And Fulton County, while not necessarily directly analogous with Pennsylvania, gives you a bit of an example. What we talk to people on the ground think will happen in Pennsylvania, happening in Georgia right now. Overnight, the provisional ballots coming in from Fulton County went heavily, heavily towards Joe Biden.

Why? Well, look at the margin, 72.6 percent to 26.2 percent. So the outstanding question is how are provisional ballots going to go? Are they going to lean one way or the other? Right now what we've seen, we've seen a little bit in Pennsylvania, we've definitely seen it here in Fulton County at about 3:30 A.M. when I came in -- it was a nice little surprise to get 3,000 votes in -- was they are tracking mostly with the margins from whichever county of which they originated.

BERMAN: Now, it may mean they're not tracking disproportionately ...

MATTINGLY: Right.

BERMAN: ... to Joe Biden, but they're not tracking disproportionately against either. So in Fulton, which was a Biden county, it meant that he padded his vote. Let's go back, if we can one more time, to Pennsylvania because that is where we expect to learn the most maybe over the next few hours. Explain also in these Trump counties -- and Trump has won many of these counties by a lot. MATTINGLY: Yes.

BERMAN: The late arriving vote -- actually the early arriving vote. The mail-in vote has still been skewing toward Joe Biden.

MATTINGLY: And I think this is the most important point. You talk about the stronghold, you talk about everything that you see blue in here coming in big for Joe Biden. It's not just that that's coming in big for Joe Biden. You pull up one of President Trump's strongest counties, Westmoreland County back in 2016. This county basically made the entirety of his margin in this state. That's how powerful he is in this county.

In this county over the course of the last 40, 48 hours, probably 36 hours, that margin has dropped from 69.6 percent to 63.6 percent. Why? Well, just because it's a red county doesn't mean there aren't Democratic voters here. How are Democrats voting? Largely vote-by- mail. How are Republicans voting? In person. What was counted first? In person.

President Trump ran up huge margins in the early -- when the early vote was counted. Now that the mail vote is coming in, Joe Biden, regardless of where they are, red county or blue county, is hitting big margins and actually winning batches of votes coming out of these conservative counties.

BERMAN: Joe Biden is widening his lead with every vote nearly that comes in. We are expecting more over the next several hours, Phil. We'll come back to you as soon as we get more information. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Guys, thank you very much. So if Biden captures Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes today, that would clinch the election. CNN's Alexandra Field is live in Pittsburgh for us. So what's the status there, Alexandra? How many votes left to be counted?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, certainly the pressure is on, Alisyn. you've got a relatively smaller number of votes left to be counted now, under 90,000. Phil walked you through where they are. the fact of the matter is this, and it might be slightly unwelcome news on a Saturday morning. We do know that we're going to get more returns later this morning, but officials in both Philadelphia and in Pittsburgh here in Allegheny County are warning us that the rate of the returns might actually slow down at this point.

And that is because the outstanding ballots are what they dub the most difficult ballots to deal with. These are ballots that all have to be reviewed by hand. Here in Allegheny County, at 9:00 A.M., they're going to start that process up once again. They're dealing today largely with a pool of about 29,000 ballots that were incorrectly sent out.

Those ballots were then reissued, so the correct ballots were then sent out to voters, but this return board, which was sworn in by the chief executive of the county yesterday, has to go through each of these ballots by hand to make sure that there are no duplicates. They've got to make sure there aren't any other errors. This is a process that will take a bit of time.

So they're going to report these results as quickly as they have them, but this isn't the same thing as just opening up an envelope, taking a ballot out of a security sleeve, unfolding it and just putting it through a machine. It's more labor-intensive than that.

We are hearing something similar in Philadelphia where they've been working on 20,000 to 25,000 ballots overnight. These are ballots that could include an error, something like a signature in the wrong place or an envelope with the wrong barcode. These are also ballots that have to be examined and prepared by hand. We should then get some of these returns later this morning.

So again, we can't tell you how quickly this will happen, but you've got officials across the state who are saying it is so paramount right now to exercise some patience. They are trying to show us, we are trying to convey to all of you exactly how the process works.

[06:10:04]

It is important, of course, to protect the process, the integrity of the process in any election. It is particularly important this year to also defend the integrity of the process and that's because the election has been coming under fire with baseless claims made by the White House for months now, efforts to claim widespread voter fraud without any evidence of it.

The governor here in Pennsylvania, the secretary of state here in Pennsylvania have continued to say they have seen no evidence of problems. This is just how the process works. Despite that, you've got Republicans in the state who have called on the governor to implement an immediate audit while the counting is still ongoing in order to bolster confidence in the election process.

Democrats here have continued to say you don't need to bolster confidence in the election process. There has been no evidence of a problem, but if anyone is questioning, if anyone has any confidence about the problem, you would have to draw that line right to the president who has been making an attempt to discredit this election before it ever started, John, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Alex, thank you for all of that. It sounds painstaking and obviously so much gratitude to the counters who are going through it piece by piece. We'll check back with you, of course, throughout the program.

FIELD: And Alisyn, it -- yes.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Quickly.

FIELD: Yes. Just wanted to tell you, this is a process that is happening in the open. We were able to observe it yesterday, we'll be able to observe it again today. We could see the ballots being counted, you had poll watchers from both campaigns watching and even cameras in the building. CAMEROTA: I really appreciate you making that point, Alex, because obviously that is one of the lawsuits or certainly that's one of the complaints on the Republican side. So we'll get into that as well. We'll talk to you very soon for an update. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign already launching legal challenges in court. So let's bring in Jessica Huseman who may be able to hear me. Jessica? Hi.

JESSICA HUSEMAN, REPORTER, PROPUBLICA: Yes. Hi.

CAMEROTA: OK. Good. We're just parachuting you in right now to talk about these lawsuits.

HUSEMAN: Sorry.

CAMEROTA: No problem. You're a reporter for "ProPublica." Let's tick through some of these lawsuits, OK? And you can tell us which ones have merit. Let's start with Pennsylvania, OK? so where we just were, where we just got that report from Alex. First is that postmarked battle, OK? So ballots that are postmarked by Election Day we know can still be counted in Pennsylvania for three days. That deadline has expired yesterday. I thought the Supreme Court already ruled on this. Why are we still fighting this one in court?

HUSEMAN: I have no idea. Your guess is as good as mine. I don't know that anything will happen with this lawsuit. The ballots that the Trump campaign is convinced are going to come in for them have already been taken care of by this lawsuit. It's not -- it's not an open question anymore.

I think that the Trump campaign is really throwing out lawsuits just so that they have something to talk about when they go on the news for the next couple of days. This is really sort of a covering-their-area move. I don't know that anything is going to come, especially in Pennsylvania, out of these lawsuits.

CAMEROTA: Well, I have a couple more in Pennsylvania and that's one that Alex just ended her report with. The Trump spokespeople, I don't know if they're actually officially on his campaign, but I've heard some on other networks talking about how they're very upset that they're not getting observers. Alex says they are getting observers, but some observers were moved, I think at the behest of the Trump campaign, from 10 feet away to six feet away to better eyeball the situation. So are we good now?

HUSEMAN: I mean, I think that we were always good. They have always had observers in the places where observers are located. The Democrats did not get a better view than they did. They were not six feet away while the Republicans were kept 10 or 25 feet away. They have always had a viewpoint into the counting and into the voting. So again, I think that this is just a lawsuit to file a lawsuit.

CAMEROTA: So just to be clear, outside of Pennsylvania as well, we're talking in Nevada, we're talking in Arizona, observers are allowed and it's all equal, equal distant, between Democrats and Republicans.

HUSEMAN: Yes. I think that that's definitely the case. I mean, you know, poll watching has been a thing in the United States since the 1800s. This is incredibly well regulated. Every single state has a very specific set of laws. All poll workers are trained to work with poll watchers in the exact same way and so I think that there's really no basis to claim that Democrats were given a bigger advantage or Republicans were prevented from observing the polls. That's simply not the case. It has never been the case.

CAMEROTA: There are legal challenges in lots of states from the Trump side, Arizona, Georgia, Nevad, but in some of these, judges have already heard them and they seem to be kind of dismissing them out of hand. So let's move on to recounts, OK? So Georgia's is definite, right? That's happening. Georgia will be recounting and what about the other states?

HUSEMAN: You know, I think that there could be a couple of other states that come within recount territory, but I think if you look historically at the recounts that have happened during presidential elections, they really don't move the needle that much.

[06:15:10]

We're talking about 100, 150 votes here or there. Certainly not enough to turn around the margins that we're seeing coming out of Georgia and Pennsylvania and Nevada and so I think that we might have to be patient and wait for some recounts, but again, I don't anticipate that that bucks the trend that we're seeing across the country today.

CAMEROTA: How long do those normally take, those recounts?

HUSEMAN: It depends on the state. In some states, they can do these recounts in a couple of days. In other states, it takes a week or more. I think that this year, we're probably looking at, just because of all of the new mail-in votes and all of the paper that we have, we're looking at a little bit of a different recount process.

You know, I think that there have been a lot of people for many years saying that we need paper backups for all of our votes. Well, we've got that more than ever this year and so we will at least know the recounts are as high quality as they have ever been. I do anticipate, though, that in some states, it'll take several days.

CAMEROTA: Jessica Huseman, thank you very much for all of your reporting and all of this information. It is super helpful. All right. Let's go back to ...

HUSEMAN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's go back to John.

BERMAN: All right. And Alisyn, one key thing about recounts, historically and traditionally, they can change tens of votes, hundreds of votes maximum, not thousands and that's where we are right now.

Other major news overnight. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tests positive for coronavirus. Officials there tell us he has been all over the White House since Election Day. We have new details on what's happening behind the scenes next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:00]

BERMAN: Welcome back to CNN's special live coverage. Let's look at where things stand in Nevada and Arizona. In Nevada, with six electoral votes up for grabs, Joe Biden leads by 22,000 votes. What you need to know about the remaining vote, more than 100,000 ballots, most of it comes from Democratic leaning areas. Joe Biden has been growing his lead when these ballots are counted.

Arizona, a little bit of a different story. Joe Biden leads there by 29,000 votes, 11 electoral votes up for grabs. Most of the remaining vote here, over 100,000, it's been mixed. Donald Trump has been leading in the vote as it comes back, but Republicans will tell you he needs to get about 60 percent of the remaining vote. He hasn't been getting quite that much. We are watching that come in very closely. If Joe Biden were to win both of these states, it would be enough to give him the election.

Overall, let's take one last look at the map at where things stand. Right now, Joe Biden has 253 electoral votes, Donald Trump has 213. The states in white are the states we're watching. We could get more votes over the next few hours. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, John. Meanwhile, the White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has tested positive for coronavirus. In the past week, Meadows has been traveling with the president and his family to campaign stops and election events all over the country. He has not been seen wearing a mask. CNN's Ryan Nobles live at the White House. So what are they saying this morning, Ryan?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, this is just another example of the stark reality that still exists in this country as we wait for these election results to play out. The coronavirus pandemic remains a serious threat in this country as the cases rise, including right behind me here in the White House. Mark Meadows, the White House Chief of Staff, testing positive for the coronavirus.

This after being seen all week in many public events with a number of staffers close by inside with Meadows not wearing a mask. He was here at the White House on election night for what was supposed to be the election night victory party for President Trump and he was also with the president that morning when he traveled to Arlington to be at the Trump headquarters.

Right now, the White House not providing too much information about exactly, you know, who Mark Meadows was in contact with, saying that they have been contact tracing, but we're told, sources telling our Jim Acosta, that Mark Meadows was actually asking staffers to keep his diagnosis a secret so that it wouldn't become a big story. That's obviously not what happened, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Ryan, when is the last time we saw President Trump and what does he have on his schedule today? NOBLES: Well, the last time we saw President Trump was when he came out and spoke as the election results were still coming in and made a number of baseless claims about the election supposedly being stolen from him. That was the last time we saw him in person. Of course his Twitter feed has been very active, but as of today, there are no public events on the president's schedule and that is very rare.

It is unlike him to go this many days without being seen in public, make some sort of a statement. There are no plans right now for the president to come out and speak to reporters or speak to the public in any way, shape or form, not even just a campaign event, perhaps some sort of an event that shows him still governing. He is, of course, still president of the United States.

We'll of course see if that changes, Alisyn. Of course the former vice president, Joe Biden, had the last word when he gave a speech last night. It's not like President Trump to go very long with letting a political opponent have the last word, so perhaps we'll see the president in some way, shape or form today, but as of right now, there are no plans for that to happen, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Anything can change on a dime, as we know. Ryan, thank you very much for all of that reporting from the White House. So up next, former VP Biden calls for calm as President Trump threatens a long legal battle. We'll discuss where we go from here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back to CNN' special live coverage. John Berman here along with Alisyn Camerota and by this morning, really by the end of the morning, we could know a winner in this presidential race. President Trump is promising that his legal proceedings have just begun. Joe Biden is urging calm and promising to be a president for all Americans.

Let's bring in CNN political commentator Errol Louis as well as CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston. Maeve, I want to start with you. Joe Biden gave a speech last night. The former vice president is trying to begin the process, I think, of looking forward and imagining what happens once and if he becomes president-elect. What did you see?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, I think it's been really fascinating, over the last couple of days, to watch the way in which Joe Biden is trying to take the temperature of the country down. I mean, he came out last night in a purple tie. He has been talking about how there are no red or blue states, that he'll be a president for all people and I think that, you know, he talked about having a mandate last night.

[06:30:00]

RESTON: But I think that that is still very much in question, given the fact that we are seeing these incredibly close margins in these states. And that one challenge that he's going to have is that Donald Trump was in fact able to turn out a lot of those so-called hidden Trump voters that we were also skeptical of, and turn out a lot of these people. And so, I think that in order to succeed here to the extent that he can, if he is in fact president-elect, Joe Biden is really going to have to think about a more pragmatic agenda that's going to address a lot of the economic uncertainty that we saw reflected in this election.

We expected it to be the COVID election and to some extent it was. But it also was a reflection of the deep economic uncertainty in this country, and you saw that in particular in states like Nevada where Biden could have potentially done a lot better if people weren't as worried about what the economy's going to look like as this pandemic continues, John.

CAMEROTA: Errol, I'm just curious about this process. Because let's just say that Pennsylvania's numbers come in today. Let's say that we can call it for Biden and President Trump doesn't concede and he never concedes. Then what? How does Biden move forward? I mean, this is more than a nicety. The concession calls more than a nicety, it's a trigger, right?

BERMAN: Well, do you know what the constitution says about concession phone calls?

CAMEROTA: Nothing.

BERMAN: Exactly.

CAMEROTA: I know. How dare the founding fathers?

BERMAN: Exactly nothing. Well, no, the point is, it has absolutely no legal or official role whatsoever.

CAMEROTA: But then when is the starting gate -- I mean, when is the starting bell in that case, Errol?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right, well, it's interesting that the former vice president is waiting for media organizations to essentially dictate when he can step forward, publicly start organizing his transition and otherwise try to put things in order. The reality is, yes, he's waiting on other people.

President Trump is not going to be one of those people. I mean, it would make absolutely no sense to wait for the Trump campaign and the Trump administration to decide that they're going to drop their legal arguments, drop their political arguments, and declare that the game is over.

On the other hand, allowing media organizations to do that puts Joe Biden in a tricky position as well. We know that he wanted to get a declaration yesterday and start moving forward. Well, that didn't happen. And if you look at what the "Associated Press" and other news organizations are doing, they're going to wait, you know. I mean, it takes Georgia off the map in some ways until there's a

recount. News organizations aren't going to declare anything definitively, I don't think. And there are a number of other kind of forms of uncertainty that could really cloud his ability to move forward.

On the other hand, you know, look, I think we all see where this is heading. We understand that the electoral college count at some point could, in fact, if a certain number of states line up for Joe Biden in a way that is unimpeachable, then, yes, he will be declared by one or another major news organization. He'll then pick that up. He'll start his transition, and we'll all move forward.

I mean whether or not the Trump folks want to sort of sink into a morass of conspiracy theories and complain to their dying days that they were kept too many feet away from the vote-counting process in Philadelphia, you know, that's up to them, but the country clearly is ready to move forward, Alisyn.

BERMAN: One sign that the apparatus of government is working independently from the political operation inside the White House is the Secret Service, which is already treating Joe Biden differently than they did before election day. They have increased the security around him substantially. And the traditional transition apparatus will in all likelihood kick into gear once things become clear, regardless of the lawsuits.

The lawsuits will play out how they're going to play out, but it will not keep the business of the country in all likelihood from moving though we have to watch it very closely. Maeve, on the issue of mandate, and the issue of Joe Biden's behavior, one thing is clear is that Biden is handling this a certain way and reaching out to all parties.

He has chosen not to spike the ball, granted he gives an overnight, he's chosen not to spike the ball. But one thing I learned from covering George W. Bush in 2000 after he won by 530 votes and two electoral votes is, the mandate you get is the mandate you take. I mean, this is a guy who lost the popular vote, barely won the election and went into the office and passed a huge tax cut that was politically complicated and controversial, passed a huge education bill. You get what you get. You get what you take. So Joe Biden might be able to make a difference no matter what people perceive to be his mandate or otherwise.

RESTON: I think that's so true, and that's such a good point, John. I do think that remembering those times that we are in a much more divided and polarized America, and we've seen that, you know, play out just in terms of the temperature on both sides.

[06:35:00]

That, you know, I think it will be hard going forward for Joe Biden not -- he is a person who has spent his career, you know, trying to make deals, working across the aisle, putting bipartisanship at the center of his persona and his agenda, but you have a lot of Republicans around the country who are going to look at these margins and think that, you know, they still are beholden to some extent to Donald Trump's popularity around the country. And I think that will make it very hard for Biden to move forward and bring some of those people along.

We already saw Brad Parscale, for example, on Twitter when the president was wanting more Republicans to come out and defend him, say, you know, anybody that wants to win in 2024, now is the time to speak up. So, I think we will see Trump world continue to try to keep Republicans sort of under their control with those kinds of threats, John.

CAMEROTA: Errol, what do you think about that? I mean, is it -- Joe Biden seems to be built for this moment in terms of he has a history of compromise, sometimes to his detriment or sometimes he's taken hits for that. And so, what do you think about how he plans to --

LOUIS: Yes --

CAMEROTA: Move forward?

LOUIS: Well, look, he's built for this moment, but this moment is not going to last, right? I mean, we're only 24 months away from the midterms, Alisyn, and he's going to have to -- he's going to have to deliver for the industrial Midwest. If there's a Biden administration, they're going to have to deliver. They're going to have to come through with jobs, with hope, with economic recovery for states that are the worst hit in some cases like Wisconsin by the coronavirus pandemic. He's going to have to really produce, and he's going to have to do it quickly.

There's going to be a partisan wrangling, there's going to be enormous fights. There is going to be a showdown in the midterms, a short two years from now, and then there will be time to start talking about the re-elect. So, he's got -- he's got his hands full. I mean, the states that delivered him this victory, which ones are decreed to be the actual margin of victory, it's going to be very important, but for sure, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, he's going to have to really -- these are essentially blue wall-slash-swing states at this point, right?

I mean, if you look at the numbers, the fact that it's so close this time means that it is by no means a sure thing that these economically distressed areas are going to simply support Democrats indefinitely. So he's going to have to hit the ground running really. There's not going to be too much time, I think, for the healing that he talks about before he has to really get down to brass tacks and start delivering for the people who gave him this victory.

BERMAN: I'm sure that's not going to be hard for Scranton Joe, for lunch pail Joe, appealing to the people of Pennsylvania maybe something that comes -- whether it'll work, I don't know, but it comes naturally to him. All right, Errol Louis, Maeve Reston, thank you both very much.

RESTON: Thank you. BERMAN: In the state of Georgia right now, a razor-thin margin, but relatively speaking, a big change overnight. What it means next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

BERMAN: Welcome back to CNN special live coverage. We could have a president-elect, could, sometime this morning. Why? Well, let's take a look at two of the most important states right now. In Pennsylvania, with 20 electoral votes up for grabs, enough if Joe Biden wins it to get the presidency, he leads by 28,000 votes at this hour. There are tens of thousands, potentially a 100,000 or more votes left to count, most of them coming from largely Democratic areas. It's quite likely he will add to his vote total throughout the morning.

In the state of Georgia, 16 electoral votes up for grabs, it's razor thin there, a 7,000 vote margin there with Joe Biden in the lead, not much vote left to count. It's important to note Biden actually grew his lead from 4,000 to 7,000 overnight. There will be a recount there no matter what. Still, Joe Biden's lead is growing. Let's go over to Kristen Holmes at the voting desk to get a sense of what the rules are surrounding recounts. Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, I mean, I want to say something before we even get into the rules here, which is that in the history of the United States, it is very rare that a recount actually flips in an election. Usually, you see something like a single digit number of votes, maybe a couple of hundred votes.

But the idea that there would be thousands and thousands of votes that would change a presidential election is very -- if not completely not possible, but at least very slim. So, let's start with the rules in Pennsylvania because we're still within that margin. There is an automatic recount threshold which we are still in of 0.5 percent or less.

So, let's look at the margin we have right now. Biden is ahead by 29,000-ish votes. So 0.4 percent, so within that margin now. If you talk to Democrats in the state, they say that this margin is going to be way bigger, they're counting those votes still out of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. But right now, just for the sake of argument, we are still in that margin, we know that it would be a big deal, this one, to a recount. Now, Georgia rules, as you said, they're already going to have a recount. But we'll just go through the rules anyway.

There is no automatic recount. Candidates can request one if the margin of victory is 0.5 percent or less. So, we go to the margin, Biden is ahead by 7,248 votes, 0.1 percent, so still in that margin.

[06:45:00]

Again though, the last two recounts that happened in Georgia, there was no change at all in the actual winner. So, something to keep in mind here, John? BERMAN: Kristen, it's so important, recounts tend to change dozens of

votes, hundreds of votes at the outside, almost never, I can't think of a time where they've changed thousands of votes, that is crucial, terrific work, thanks so much for being with us. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Good John, as of this morning, there are less than 20,000 ballots left to count in Georgia. CNN's Nick Valencia is standing by in Atlanta, so Nick, can we expect the results today?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I would love to be able to tell you that answer, but it is another we'll see this morning. Today, those 20,000 overseas provisional military ballots that they're expected to get through and overnight as you mentioned, there was some potentially significant developments as Fulton County here in Metro Atlanta got through 5,000 provisional ballots, giving Joe Biden a 7,248 lead and the unofficial tally over President Trump. Yesterday in Gwinnett County, they attempted to get through up to 1,500 provisional ballots, but they had some problems with the Dominion voting machines.

They say that caused the delay, will try a second attempt at that later today. But remember, because those ballots are provisional, they may not all reflect in the overall tally. The bottom line is, Kristen was just talking about is there is probably going to be a recount here in Georgia, but not just a recount, also a runoff, and not one, but two Senate races that could hand power of the Senate to the Democrats if they're able to get those two races in their favor. This is no question about it, Georgia will be the center of the political universe for at least two more months. That runoff is scheduled for January 5th, 2021, Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, hey, thank you very much for all of that, Nick, tell us when anything breaks there --

VALENCIA: You bet --

CAMEROTA: President Trump and his aides have been conspicuously quiet for the past 24 hours. What's going on in the White House. That's next.

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[06:50:00]

CAMEROTA: Joe Biden is leading this morning in the final four battleground states. So, how is "Fox TV", the network that has amplified President Trump's message for four years. How are they framing the results? Let's take a look at some of "Fox's" coverage over the past couple of days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: It seems inevitable that in this initial vote-count that Joe Biden is going to win.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Trump campaign has said that they wanted to have their poll watchers there, and that -- I guess they're being asked to provide evidence for something that they say they weren't able to even participate in or to be able to see, and so that's -- I think, where they would say that needs to be rectified, if it could be.

ERIC SHAWN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: That's not true. It's not true. It's just not true. The election poll watchers, they're called canvass watchers. Republicans have been in this room, in that room where they're supposed to be, standing alongside with the Democrats.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: When they are talking the fraud issue and they're talking, you know, irregularities, illegalities, what are they specifically referring to?

STEVE HARRIGAN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, I think you're right on target. You see a lot of passion and a lot of anger, but you don't see any specific examples of where was the irregularity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point, the president needs to win at least three recounts to even get to 270 or maybe tie it as 269. It's just a -- it's a really tough uphill battle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To all you patriots who supported President Trump, stand tall and be proud of your efforts and his. It was all worth it. We all helped reshape the national conversation on China, on immigration, on trade and political correctness, et cetera. We don't have time to bury our heads in crying towels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Let's bring in CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter. Brian, wasn't that interesting to see the real reporters --

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes --

CAMEROTA: Eric Shawn, Steve Harrigan, have to shoot down the hosts by saying that's not true, that's simply not true. I mean, they're on the ground. They're doing the real reporting, that you can see the kind of --

STELTER: Yes --

CAMEROTA: You know, schizophrenic take on what's happening over there.

STELTER: I think this is a giant tug-of-war, and it's so important because President Trump is watching this happen. He's watching TV all day, and tens of millions of American voters have their minds influenced by the coverage on "Fox". "Fox" is in the middle of a giant tug-of-war right now. One minute, Sean Hannity is yelling about voter fraud, but the next minute, Laura Ingraham is talking about the Trump presidency in the past tense. Some of the news anchors have been gently pushing back at these ridiculous voter fraud claims, others have been letting it slide on the air.

I do think on Friday, Alisyn, we started to see a tone shift at "Fox". There was more skepticism towards Trump, and I think Laura Ingraham's commentary last night where she talked about grace and conceding with grace, that was hugely significant. That was a message directly through the camera to the president. I know it's wild, but we're in this world where these stars on "Fox" try to communicate to the president through the camera --

CAMEROTA: And do it --

STELTER: And it also happened in print. The "Wall Street Journal" editorial board also owned by Rupert Murdoch is sending the same message right now.

BERMAN: Look, I agree it's all interesting what "Fox" and the Murdoch empire does, but they don't get to decide who the president is, the American people get to decide who the president is and the voters get to decide who the president is. And we'll figure out soon enough what the voters want here, maybe even by noon today. I will also tell you, Brian, I think the White House knows which way the voters are leaning right now, how this is going, why? Because they've disappeared.

[06:55:00]

We haven't seen anybody really from inside the White House for more than 24 hours. Why do you think that is?

STELTER: Well, I called it a tug-of-war. I think a tug-of-war is happening in the White House as well. Think about the end of a football game, think about the end of any sporting event. Sometimes the last minute is the most important, sometimes the last minute is the only minute you remember, and I think these White House staffers are wondering, how am I going to be remembered?

How is this president going to be remembered? And that's been the rhetoric on "Fox" by the way. How is your presidency going to be remembered? You know, yesterday, we reported that some staffers at "Fox" were told to stay away from the term president-elect when Biden crosses the 270 mark.

After we reported that here on CNN, there was internal angst about that idea, there was backlash, and then anchors on "Fox" started to in hypothetical conversations refer to Biden as president-elect. This tug-of-war is happening at "Fox" and at the White House right now, and it's understandable that some staffers don't want to be caught up in the president's lies on Twitter, his lies about voter fraud.

By the way, you know, he has been -- he has been labeled on Twitter many times this week for bogus lies. We've never seen that before. These platforms, these networks are taking a stand right now.

BERMAN: Brian Stelter, please keep us posted, I expect we'll hear more from them over the next several hours.

STELTER: Yes --

BERMAN: Obviously, the voters will have their say, and as soon as this morning, we might know who the president-elect will be, and the one place that might decide it soonest, Pennsylvania. One region, Allegheny County, we're expecting thousands of votes from there soon. Up next, we'll speak to a key official from there to find out how much vote remaining and when they're going to provide it. Stick around.

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