Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Event/Special
Votes Continue To Be Counted In Pennsylvania, Arizona, And Nevada; Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Leading President Trump In Vote Count In Remaining Battleground States; Remaining Outstanding Ballots From Cities And Mail-In Likely Favor Joe Biden; Pennsylvania Win Will Clinch Electoral College For Joe Biden. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired November 07, 2020 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:13]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're awaiting new results from the crucial presidential battleground of Pennsylvania. Thousands of votes may finally -- may finally decide this election. I'm Wolf Blitzer. We're back here in the CNN Election Center.
Former Vice President Joe Biden says he has no doubt he will win the White House and defeat President Trump, but the numbers aren't quite there yet. But they could be very, very soon. Vote counters are back at work in Pennsylvania, and we expect new vote tallies to drop at any time. We also expect new results from Arizona and Nevada in the hours ahead. But only Pennsylvania could put Biden over the top on its own. It's 20 electoral votes would give him more than the 270 he needs to close the deal.
Let's go right to a key race alert. Let's start off in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, which we're watching oh so closely right now -- 20 electoral votes. Joe Biden is ahead by 28,833 votes. He has 49.6 percent to 49.1 percent for Donald Trump, 96 percent of the estimated vote is in. We're also watching Georgia, where 99 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden's lead has jumped up a bit to 7,248. He has 49.4 percent.
Trump has 49.3 percent. In Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes, Biden's lead is close to 30,000 -- 29,861, 49.6 percent to 48.6 percent. In Nevada, six electoral votes, Biden maintains a steady lead, 22,657, 49.8 percent to 48 percent, 93 percent of the estimated vote in Nevada is in.
Let's walk over to John King, who is watching this as closely as anyone on earth right now. It's getting closer and closer.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Day five, good morning. How are you doing?
BLITZER: Yes.
KING: Look, day five, so you say, why is it taking so long? Day five could very well, because of what Wolf just outlined, be the decisive day. And why is that? Here's the national map. Joe Biden building an impressive lead in the popular vote as more are counted. That's a moral victory, an important victory for the Democratic Party. But what Joe Biden needs, as you noted, is just to get over the top -- 253 electoral votes, we have not changed that in two days as these states count through.
But today we do know Pennsylvania, Wolf noted, 28,833. When you see both candidates above 3.3 million votes, just shy of 29,000 votes does not seem like a big lead, but now we are down fewer ballots left to count. So what are we waiting for? We're waiting, number one, to see if we get another installment out of Philadelphia right here. Philadelphia and the suburbs still have a modest amount of ballots, but they're counting those modest ballots.
Here's the question -- we know in the mail-in ballots, Joe Biden has been running up impressive ballots. There are so called provisional ballots, you want some of those to be reported so you can just match it up. Is the math the same, or is President Trump somehow making up ground? Most unlikely he's going to make up ground here. But you want to see the votes. We expect some any time later this morning.
Another big important allocation of votes, they've been counting votes out here in Allegheny County, this is Pittsburgh. And again, late last night before we left we got some votes from here, and, again, Joe Biden overwhelmingly winning these late ballots. We want to watch a few more installments here. It's a comfort zone factor. It's a giant state, more than 6.6 million votes count when you added them all up. So you see 28,000 and you want a little more evidence that the trajectory is solid. We could get that within minutes, but certainly within hours.
You also noted, Wolf, I just want to bring this up, Georgia, the secretary of state said yesterday most likely to head into a recount. So you look at this, 7,248 votes in a state that is 49.4 to 49.3. That's actually quite significant. The Biden lead grew by nearly 3,000 votes overnight, and a recount lawyer will tell you, in a recount, maybe a dozen votes change, every now and then 100 or so vote change.
When you can add 3,000 if you're going to head into recount, you're at 7,200 now, going up. They will tell you that's quite significant. It makes it much less likely that there would be any change. And again, sometimes there's human error writing something down. It's not about anything nefarious. But you go though, you recheck the votes. Sometimes it doesn't change, maybe 100 - 7,200 vote lead is pretty solid.
And then you mentioned, obviously, there's a lot of impatience in the country. We get that, we share it. But they're trying to count votes. So you move out to Arizona, they're still counting votes, 29,861 vote lead. This is the one state -- in Pennsylvania when they count votes, Joe Biden expands his lead.
In Georgia, when they count votes, Joe Biden expands his lead. Out here in the west, the president has made some gains. It's been a little bit of a seesaw. Sometimes Biden does, sometimes the president does. But the president has made gains here. He's cut into a lead that was larger than that at one point. So you want to keep counting the votes.
[10:04:57] And then Nevada, we expect in a couple of hours more results. You see how close it is, 22,657 statewide. We expect more. This is the decisive county, you see it there. More than 70 percent of the vote, as much as 75 percent of the vote when they're all said and one in Nevada will come from Clark County, and we expect more votes today.
So if you've been with us the last five days, you understand and you're waiting, but we are potentially at that decisive moment because if we get votes out of Pennsylvania that confirm Biden's lead continues to grow, that would do it. That's enough right there, 273 would make Joe Biden not the Democratic nominee anymore, the Democratic candidate anymore. That would make him president elect.
And then, as we've said, he has the potential, potential, we'll count for the rest of the day, but we may well know by the end of the day if Joe Biden can get that high, 306 electoral votes. That appears to be his ceiling. That would match the president's total from four years ago.
But this one here, this one here is the one that matters most right here, 20 electoral votes. It's the largest prize on the board. And so if you come over here and you just zoom in, that's what we're waiting for. Every vote matters in every state across the country, but this is the state that any moment could put Joe Biden over the top.
BLITZER: Let's check in with Brian Todd. His in Pittsburgh for us right now, Allegheny County. Brian, I understand votes are about to come in where you are?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we expect another batch of vote count to come here, probably within the next couple of hours. They're not really giving us a timeline. They just started counting behind me a little over an hour ago here. I'll move to the side and our photojournalist Michael we'll take you into where the ballot counters are working.
They're working on those 29,000 misprinted ballots that came in that they had to correct and mail out back again to voters with the correct information on them. So those came in a little late. So they're working on those.
We are told by Rich Fitzgerald, the executive of Allegheny County, that they've got about 20,000 more of those to go through of the 29,000. So that's what we're doing right now. They've been at this pretty much all morning. The observers are here in the foreground. And these, according to Rich Fitzgerald, these ballots will take longer to get through because they have to open the envelopes. They have to check to see if the ballot in question is maybe a duplicate or not. They have to go through some other things on the ballot to make sure it's the correct ballots.
These ballots, as we said, the initial ballots that were mailed out had bad information on them. They had some candidates that were mailed to voters, some candidates that were not really running for office in those districts, so they couldn't vote for those people. But they could vote legitimately for the president.
So some of those ballots they have to check to make sure the votes they cast were for the president and not for the incorrect candidates down ballot. So that's one of the issues that they're checking to see, if the vote coming in is correctly filled out. So it takes time. And we're going to get probably some additional votes maybe in the next few hours, Wolf, as we monitor the situation here.
BLITZER: So just remind us, Brian, how many outstanding ballots are there in Allegheny County where you are, around Pittsburgh? And are they all mail-in ballots?
TODD: Yes, just about all of them are mail-in ballots. There are at least 20,000 outstanding ballots in Allegheny County that they have left to count. And they said it might take into the weekend. But we hope to get a significant amount of them back within the next couple of hours. Maybe not all of them, because they've been giving them to us, Wolf, in just small batches of a few thousand here or there. So we expect that will probably happen today. But by the end of the day we hope to get a pretty significant amount of those vote counts in.
BLITZER: Brian Todd, we'll get back to you. Thank you.
John, 20,000 ballots in Allegheny County, you can see it's a pretty blue county over there around Pittsburgh. We're going to get those numbers, I suspect, fairly soon. Almost all of them mail-in ballots, and we know that Biden does really well, Trump does not do that well with these mail-in ballots.
KING: Right, you see the overall percentage here, 59 to 39. That's Allegheny County, it's Pittsburgh and the suburbs around it. And you see if I come back out to the statewide look, the president does pretty well, very well, in western Pennsylvania, the city of Pittsburgh itself, blue collar, labor unions, backed Biden. So you do see the Democrats winning the city area, the urban areas. But the president does all right.
But what we have seen consistently is in this county and statewide, you see the president at 39 percent here in Allegheny County, you see him at 49 percent when you go statewide. Look, you see all the red. The president has strong support in Pennsylvania. But what we have seen consistently over now, the last three plus days, is when they count these mail-in ballots Joe Biden routinely, disproportionately, his total statewide is 50. He'll get 60, 70, sometimes more than 80 percent if we're talking about southeast Pennsylvania here.
Out here last night when Brian Todd and the executive out there were bringing us votes, Joe Biden was consistently above 60 and 70 percent in the mail-in ballot counts. Why? Democrats voted by mail in this unorthodox, unprecedented pandemic election. Republicans tended to turn out much more on Election Day. So what is left to count tells you we know it favors Biden, because that's how Democrats voted, not just in Pennsylvania, but across America.
[10:10:00] So when you have more than 6.6 million cast and a 28,833 lead, what we're looking for is just proof that this trajectory, slow build continues, because it will be a narrow victory. But for anyone out there saying wow, the president carried the state by 40,000 votes four years ago. It's a very competitive state. The president did a good job. He got more votes this time than he did last time. The Democrats have done a better job, and they're inching up to the finish line, Wolf, as come. And again, Brian says those could come any minute. We're going to move the state up for you here.
We also know, as I said, right here, if you look at the size of Pennsylvania, you think this is the tiny southeast corner. This is the population center. Democrats need to run it up here. And if you go through these counties, you start first in the city of -- sorry about that, I went across the line here.
You come here, you start in the city of Philadelphia, and you come up, look at that, 81 percent. And in the mail-in ballots it's been higher than that. You come up to Bucks County, it's the more competitive of the counties, suburban collar counties, but in the mail-in ballots, Joe Biden has been well ahead of that.
So we'll have a couple hundred here, a couple thousand there. They're going to start to come in this morning. Joe Biden inching closer to a decisive moment. And again, this would be fitting for Joe Biden, it would be poetic in some ways. He was born in the state, number one, and number two, when he announced his candidacy, he said his mission, he believed he was the strongest Democrat to take Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin back. He's got two of the three prizes. If he gets the third, he's president.
BLITZER: And they retain Minnesota as well.
Kate Bolduan is in Philadelphia for us watching all this unfold. So Kate, what are you hearing about Philadelphia? That's the largest batch of votes potentially out there.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. And we have just received an update on timing. I've having mixed, you guys, so I'm going to take this out of my ear. We just got an update on timing and amount. We are told by sources that we should expect between 2,000 and 3,000 votes to be counted and updated to the system soon. One source telling us by noon, another source saying it could be more like early afternoon.
And as we have seen throughout this process, Wolf, that the timing of uploading and finalizing getting these votes into the system and counted, the timing can slip. There are a lot of factors that go into getting it from the beginning to the end, and so the timing can slip. But importantly, especially on this day with 20,000 mail-in votes left outstanding here in Philadelphia, at least the first update of the day will be coming soon -- 2,000 to 3,000 is what we're told by sources.
One source saying by noon eastern, another saying it could be early afternoon. And this very possibly is not the final update from the day. We know they're getting through these ballots. They're beginning that review process that is a slower, more labor-intensive process. But they're definitely up and running now, Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Kate.
Let's talk about that in Philadelphia right now. And in Philadelphia you see how Biden has 80.8 percent, Trump has 18.3 percent. Potentially if these mail-in ballots come in in Philadelphia, he might wind up, Biden, getting 70 percent, 80 percent, maybe 85 percent of those ballots.
KING: You're exactly right because he has consistently exceeded the numbers in any county. Even in the red counties where President Trump is winning, you look at Joe Biden's number, then they count the mail- in ballots, and with one or two exceptions, as we've gone through this dozens of times over the last three days, Joe Biden exceeds that number, matches it or exceeds. So 80 percent, 81 percent if you round up in Philadelphia. We have had reports, installments of votes come in where he's getting 87 percent and higher.
And so that's the key point. So Kate Bolduan just mentioned 20,000 outstanding here in the city of Philadelphia. Number one population center in the state by far. So you get 2,000 to 3,000 of those. There's 20,000 now. You get 2,000 to 3,000 of those, so it's 10 percent or more, maybe, of what they have left. And so Democrats are asking, why haven't you called this race? It's 3.3 million votes, 3.3 million votes.
Joe Biden is at 28,000 -- you think about a universe of roughly 100,000 left. If Joe Biden gets above 30,000, starts to build beyond that, then you feel more comfortable because you've seen out here in the western part of the state that a new installment here in the southeastern part of the state, Joe Biden getting 60, 70, 80 percent or more of those votes. At some point the trajectory gets you past any probability that the president of the United States is going to come back.
And for those who say, well, you're already at that point -- the president is attacking this process. We have our own rules, we have our own process, but especially when the process is under attack, sticking to the rules, using your building blocks, methodically getting to the finish line and being cautious is a great way to do it. If they start bringing in some more votes, we will know the outcome in Pennsylvania perhaps sometime today.
But we get, completely get the frustration and the anticipation out there. It's just important to have rules and not bend them, especially at a time, the integrity of the system is being unfairly attacked by the candidate, who, if he loses this state, is a one-term president.
[10:15:04]
BLITZER: Yes, we're watching this and we're bracing for more numbers coming in fairly soon.
Let's check in with Jake to see what else is going on. Jake?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Wolf, and hello, world. We're back again, day five of election night in America, and we do think that there will be some resolution today. We do think that there will be some indication of what the future will bring for the United States.
As you note there, you see on the side of the screen, there are four states, the margins in Georgia are getting better for Biden, the margin in Nevada is getting better for Biden, the margin in Pennsylvania is getting better for Biden. And in Arizona, actually, it's gotten a little bit worse for Biden, a little bit better for President Trump.
Let's check in with the campaigns right now. Jeff Zeleny is covering the Biden campaign. He's in Wilmington, Delaware. And Jeff, a lot of impatient Democrats out there, understandably so. How is former Vice President Joe Biden doing?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Jake, good morning. I am told by talking to a variety of Democrats, Joe Biden is actually very patient. He's very calm, much more so than some of his supporters and donors and others who are growing impatient about this.
But I am told that the former vice president is looking forward, he believes that victory is at hand and he believes and his advisers believe it will happen at some point during the coming hours or sometime today. But he is looking forward, specifically focusing on the challenges ahead of coronavirus.
He is going to move forward through his transition. I'm told he's not going to be deciding on any members of the cabinet for a few weeks, but he will be focusing on coronavirus. And look for some type of announcement on that to come in the very soon hours or days after he declares victory, which he expects to do at some point.
And it is because of these rising challenges, the rising numbers. As we've been talking about election numbers, of course, he's been getting briefings every day, sometimes a few times a day on the rising cases of coronavirus. So I'm told he's going to put in place some type of the Biden COVID-19 task force like the one we've sawn in the White House, which we have not seen for days or weeks. So that is what his focus is on, even as Democrats, of course, around him are waiting for that victory speech.
The stage, as you can see, Jake, you've seen all week, is still set up behind me here. It is the anticipation that they would still use it for some type of a victory speech, but as this goes on further, the reality and the challenges here are the important moments. So do these fireworks still seem appropriate given the deaths and coronavirus cases? That is something that the Biden team is talking about, that the transition, even though it's not being talked about, is well under way behind-the-scenes, Jake.
TAPPER: If, in fact, he wins, he will have a lot of work to do, especially when it comes to rebuilding the economy and trying to contain the coronavirus. Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much for that update.
Let's go now to the White House, where we find Jim Acosta who has been covering the Trump White House and the Trump campaign. And Jim, there has been this mad scramble by Trump and his supporters to try to find evidence, try to find any reason why the ballots and the vote counting should be questioned. I have not seen anything. Have they found anything even remotely credible yet?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not yet, Jake. And I will tell you, just spoke with a Trump adviser about this just a short while ago. And as the president is tweeting all these unfounded rumors and baseless accusations, a pretty stunning admission from one Trump adviser I'm speaking with, and this person is saying we have found nothing concrete, quote, nothing concrete in terms of allegations of voter fraud.
I think that is significant, Jake, because as the president is saying these things publicly, there are people inside the campaign, inside Trump world, Republicans up on Capitol Hill, Republican operatives that I speak with, they are all telling me the same thing, that the president is making baseless allegations about voter fraud that at this point simply don't exist. And so even though the president is flailing at this point and wanting this thing to be dragged out, it doesn't sound like they have anything in terms of hard evidence that would hold up in any kind of courtroom or anywhere, for that matter.
And so this is just the president, I think, at the end of the game trying to cry foul, try to complain about the refs, complain about the officials as much as possible to see how long he can drag it out.
We should point out, just a short while ago he did leave in his motorcade from the White House. We suspect he may be heading off to the golf course, which I suppose there are going to be officials inside the campaign and so on who are going to be relieved if they can somehow separate him from his smartphone for a brief period of time because, obviously, there are people inside the campaign who just feel like he's making matters worse.
And on top of all of that, Jake, we should point out this White House is once again looking like a hot zone for the coronavirus. More cases of the coronavirus were discovered overnight, including the chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
[10:20:01]
That's something else that we're tracking over here in addition to what is going to happen with the resolution of this election, is whether or not it's even safe to work inside the White House, which is sort of an incredible commentary on where we are right now, Jake.
TAPPER: Yes, this would be something like the third or fourth outbreak in the White House of the coronavirus. They're not exactly sticklers when it comes to wearing masks, I think it's fair to say. Jim Acosta, thanks so much, appreciate it. We're going to come back to you as matters develop.
It's sad to see the president tweeting these lies, one after the other after the other, but at this point, frankly, it's almost irrelevant. We're at the point now where one of these states, data is going to come in, and we're going to be able to call it, and there's not one of those states trending red right now.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, I agree. The only thing that is relevant, too, or the only people, those tweets, which are lies about things we won't even talk about, are people who, the tens of millions of people who read his tweets and believe what he says. And we've lived through this kind of alternate universe for five years now, but when we're talking about one of the basic tenets of democracy, which is the peaceful transition of power, it takes it to another level.
And let's just hope that this is the transition period, or as one of his advisers told me yesterday, his grieving period, and he'll get to the other side when the numbers become more clear, because the people who listen to him have to be brought along to the notion that this was not illegitimate, that this was not laden with fraud, that this was done appropriately.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I totally agree. The president needs to bring his people along to get to that conclusion. What he is doing right now is not helping. It's hurting that process. And there at some point will need to be, as you've said repeatedly, a real intervention from Republican leaders with this president about what's going on.
But I think people might be confused as to why that hasn't happened yet, and I think the answer is pretty simple. This is still Donald Trump's Republican Party, whether he is reelected or not. And Republicans in Washington, some of whom were just reelected to their offices, some of whom are facing reelection the next two years or four years, they know that they will need the president's supporters.
And so there's a fear, a real fear in Washington right now about how to handle this, how not to alienate these people, and what will happen if President Trump is not reelected and he's no longer on the ballot to help them out, to bring these people out to the polls. And so you talk about a grieving period. There's a grieving period happening for the rest of Washington as well on the Republican side. But at some point, the fate of the country has to come before that. And I do think it will. It's just a matter of time.
TAPPER: You see some of that in statements from Republican leaders, the more sane ones, like Senator Mitt Romney or Congressman Adam Kinzinger, people who understand that maybe the fat lady hasn't sung, but she is sure clearing her throat. And the idea that it's time to start praising President Trump's accomplishments. the Republican Party had a fantastic night other than at the top of the ticket.
They picked up seats in the House. As of right now they've held on to the Senate, they've held on to all their legislatures, et cetera. President Trump has a number of accomplishments that Republicans can be proud of when it comes to Supreme Court justices, when it comes to tax cuts, when it comes to deregulation, when it comes to criminal justice reform.
It is time for Republicans to start praising Caesar and preparing to bury him both, because it is very clear what is going on. It is not helpful, as you note, that there are Republicans competing for the MAGA voters who are ginning up and following -- Republicans, by the way, who know better, like Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Lindsey Graham, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, people who know better, who know that there is no evidence of fraud --
BASH: That's exactly right.
TAPPER: -- and it's time for them to come back to planet earth. It looks like the Trump era is in its last throes. Anything could happen, I suppose, but it certainly looks that way. And it's time for them to start doing what's best for not just the country, but also themselves.
BASH: So I agree with you that the Trump era might be coming to a close now, but the Trump grip on the Republican Party is nowhere near over. And that is the calculation that those lawmakers have been making for a long time.
[10:25:04]
And look, there's already open speculation, informed speculation, that if, in fact, the numbers continue to go where they go and the president is a one-term president, the first since George H. W. Bush, that he will run again in 2024. That is not a wild thought, because that is something that he -- maybe he's joking, maybe he's not. But we can obviously see that happening. So that is the reality that these Republicans are living in right now.
TAPPER: Don't go anywhere. We are waiting for new numbers, votes from Pennsylvania, that could put Joe Biden over the top and into the White House. Stay with us. Our special coverage continues next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. We're watching key battlegrounds right now, and they are Georgia. Biden is ahead there by 7,248 votes. Nevada, Biden is ahead there by 22,657 votes.
[10:30:01]
Pennsylvania, Biden is ahead there by 28,833 votes. Arizona, Biden is ahead there by 29,861 votes. Four key battlegrounds. Pamela Brown, you're at the CNN voting desk, where are the outstanding votes right now, especially in Pennsylvania?
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There are four key states that we're looking at, Wolf, as you well know. And this morning we could be getting the release of data from these mail-in ballots in some of these states that could put Joe Biden over the edge.
And we're looking at Pennsylvania first. We're starting there, because that is the one, that is the state that could do it this morning. It has 76,000 ballots outstanding, 101,000 provisional ballots. Philadelphia, we're expecting to release more results this morning, perhaps as we have reporting that they could release up to 3,000 by noon. Now, in Georgia, looking there, approximately 12,770 provisional
ballots there in Georgia, up to 8,400 overseas and military ballots. I want to mention that these are ballots that were sent out, but we don't know the number that has actually been returned in Georgia, and we know the deadline for that was on Friday.
There's also counting under way in Gwinnett County right outside of Atlanta, another Democratic stronghold. In Arizona, we're also expecting an update there in its largest county, Maricopa. It has 126,000 ballots altogether in Arizona, 47,000 provisional ballots. So we'll wait for that update from Maricopa. That's an important one there in Arizona.
And finally, you have Nevada we're keeping a close eye on, 124,500 ballots there, 60,000 provisional ballots, and we are expecting an important update from Clark County at 12:00 p.m. eastern time. That, again, is another important county there in Nevada, the home of Las Vegas. So we'll be keeping an eye on that. But really right now so much attention is on Pennsylvania. Wolf.
BLITZER: It certainly is. Pamela, we'll get back to you.
John, if Biden were to win all four of these contests that we just discussed, he would wind up with 306 electoral votes, which is exactly the same number that Trump won four years ago, 306 electoral votes. He won Pennsylvania by about 44,000 votes. He called that a landslide four years ago. But it would be intriguing that if he wins all four, Biden, 306, Trump won 306 four years ago.
KING: And you're remaking the map. And that's the political statement a President Biden would like to make. This is Pennsylvania, we're waiting for this to come in, as Pam just noted, could be any minute, more votes out of Pittsburgh, more votes out of Philadelphia, that could get you to the decisive point.
But to your point, Wolf, number one, Joe Biden believes that is a statement. More votes than any candidate for president in the history of the United States America, that's likely to go over 75 million. The president is number two, so Dana made this point earlier -- his grip on the Republican Party, he may well lose the White House, and he may well know that within a matter of hours. Donald Trump can say I got 70 million votes, I still have a grip over this party. It's the Trump party, it's not the Republican Party anymore. And that will be a dynamic that continues even if Donald Trump has to leave the White House.
But to Joe Biden's point, 75 million votes. Last night he said he thinks he has a mandate to govern. The Republicans may still control the Senate. We don't know that yet. Two run-offs in the state of Georgia, two run-offs there to control the balance of power. Still an evenly divided country if you look at the House elections, you look at the Senate elections.
So how does Joe Biden make that case? Number one, the Democrats, he says I'm your leader because I did what I said I would do. I said I would flip Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania back, and we're still waiting on the final one. But if he's successful, he can say this is why I ran, I was right. That helps in politics. It's very important when you're trying to sway people over to reach compromise, get some people, say progressives who want him to be more ambitious and more bold on climate change and other issues, to get them to be more patient and to take his way.
This would be another statement, as would this. When you're a new president you want to be able to get in the room with the Republicans who will still have a lot of power and say the American people just told you to listen to me. That has been a Republican state, not since Bill Clinton in 1992 has a Democrat carried it for president.
That has been a Republican state. Not since Bill Clinton in 1996 in an election running against Bob Dole and Ross Perot has a Democrat carried that. So it gives him some political leverage to go into the room and tell Republicans your voters are turning on you, you should listen to me.
That doesn't mean it works. Washington is an incredibly polarized place. But it gives Biden some leverage as he goes into it. And that's the point he's trying to make as he remakes this map a bit, a bit. Not a fundamental wow change in the map, but an important change in the map. This gives him credibility with Democrats, it gives him a little bit more credibility with Republicans.
Just one perspective, Wolf. I always look at this, and Democrats get mad at me when I do this, but I like to show this, because the polarization of America is going nowhere. Joe Biden may by the end of this day have an impressive win for the presidency. But just like Barack Obama and just like Donald Trump, he will become president of a very divided country.
You see all this red. That's how America voted by county. Now, Democrats at home are already saying nobody lives here. They're right, these are less populous counties. But these states still get two senators, and those senators overwhelmingly from this part of the country are Republicans. That's what complicates the politics.
[10:35:07]
This is the fight over the Senate, this is the fight over the Electoral College, this is the fight over should you have the filibuster. I get it. All those fights will be waiting for the new president. But if you look at the map, you see Democrats incredibly strong on the coasts, incredible strong on the coast. That's why when you come out of this -- that's why this is significant to Joe Biden, to get a win in Georgia, to pick up in Arizona, would give him some more leverage. How much?
That's what the next 100 days, the first 100 days of the administration would teach us. But this map tells us red and blue. It also tells us a lot, that America is still in a tug of war, and the politics are still evenly divided. But, again, if you can -- that's a statement, that's a statement.
You set out on day one saying that's what I would do if on the decisive day you can prove you did it. That matters in politics. It gives you credibility.
BLITZER: And we heard Biden say last night, one of the major thrusts of the speech, he wants to unite the country, try to bring the country together, assuming he becomes president of the United States.
KING: Just quickly, that's a fascinating dynamic, because we do know let's assume Mitch McConnell stays at the majority leader. Again, there will be two run-offs, two run-offs in the state of Georgia that could well determine --
BLITZER: Run-offs for the Senate.
KING: For the Senate, whether the Democrats get 50 and then Kamala Harris would break the tie as Vice President. We don't know that yet and we might not know that until the middle of January. Joe Biden does have a relationship of trust with Mitch McConnell. I'm not saying they're friends, I'm not saying they agree on much. But during the Obama administration when they were cutting deals with McConnell, Biden's word was good, in the sense that if Mitch McConnell gave Biden his word, he trusted him, and if Biden gave Mitch McConnell his word, he trusted him.
That was a long time ago. You say it's only four years ago, right. It seems like a very long time ago and how Washington has changed. But there are little things, little things. The question is, again, to that point, so Biden has a relationship of trust, not policy agreement, but trust with McConnell to cut compromises, which is what Biden says he wants to do. How much leverage does Mitch McConnell got to do that?
When he got 70 million votes, and even if he's gone from the White House, and if you've been on social media, he has a Twitter presence. He has other ways of making clear what he wants Republicans to do. So today could be a decisive day in the presidential race. It also will turn the page to what will be a fascinating new chapter in politics.
BLITZER: We're expecting, John, a bunch of votes to come in from Arizona fairly soon. Bill Weir is in Phoenix for us right now. So Bill, what is the latest over there? What are you hearing?
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are at their places here in Maricopa County as we expect the new set of numbers in less than half- an-hour here today. And there will be two big number dumps today, and that will pretty much make it all over but the shouting.
We have seen since the Associated Press called this state, Joe Biden's lead eroded by more than half as these counties like Navajo and Yuma and Cochise and Yavapai, John McCain country, start to give the president more and more votes. Last night he picked up another 7,000 here in Maricopa.
But of course, the two biggest counties are the last to finish voting, and that is Maricopa, that is Pima County. And this election, of course, in Arizona is thrown upside down by the president's behavior, typically because so many people here vote absentee. Republicans would get their ballots in earlier, they verify those signatures so those get counted first. And then Democrats would wait until the last minute, get them in, and you would see a blue surge at the end the way we're seeing around the country.
This year because the president injected so much doubt into the mail, we don't know what these last ballots are going to bring us here. And so it could go down if Joe Biden holds onto Arizona as the biggest example of political self-sabotage ever.
BLITZER: Bill Weir, we'll stay in very close touch with you as well, we'll get those numbers coming in, we assume, in about a half-an-hour. John, stand by.
We're expecting also lots of results. Thousands of ballots in Pennsylvania could be coming in very soon, and that could decide the race for the White House. Our special coverage continues right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back. We continue to watch the votes be counted. We anticipate getting more numbers in very shortly, and perhaps some form of resolution shortly as well. There you see the numbers in Georgia, a 7,000 lead by Biden. But it is Pennsylvania where so many eyes are on and where we have been seeing Vice President Biden's lead just increasing hour by hour over the last several days.
Gloria, if it is Pennsylvania that gives Joe Biden the presidency, there would be some certainly significance for the Biden family in that. First of all, today, November 7th, in 1972, Joe Biden was elected to the Senate for the first time.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: At the age of 29.
COOPER: Forty-eight years ago today. So certainly, for Joe Biden, there would be relevance in that. As John mentioned, Pennsylvania is the state that got him there. It's the state that he was born in. There's a lot of memories for him there. It's the state that launched his campaign for the presidency. And he really framed this race as a battle between Scranton and Park Avenue.
BORGER: He did. He was born there, and his family was forced to leave Scranton because his father lost his job. And the family moved to Wilmington eventually. But he sees Scranton as his home, and he is a son of Wilmington, obviously, a senator from the state of Pennsylvania, but very close -- sorry, I'm tired, from the state of Delaware. But he feels very close to both states.
And I think, for him, it is where he believes his values come from, that he is the son of somebody who struggled financially. They lived in this very modest house with his aunts, his uncles, his mom, dad, brothers, sisters.
[10:45:00]
That is where he says he was born politically to a degree, and it is why he says he believes in what he believes and has, as you say, framed the campaign as someone who understands main street against somebody who understands Park Avenue.
COOPER: And the argument that Biden will make and has already said is that he has rebuilt the blue wall.
DAVID AXELROD, FORMER OBAMA SENIOR ADVISER: Yes, look, I think there's something to that. I've been thinking the last few days, and this will irritate some Democrats, but could another Democrat have done what he did here? I think it's very questionable. He did have reach to voters and areas that perhaps other Democrats didn't particularly in the industrial Midwest.
And I'm reminded of the fact that one of the many reasons that Barack Obama chose him in 2008 was because there was this recognition. We just parked him in those states because he knew how to talk to folks there, he felt culturally akin to them. So, you know, I think he has a real claim to that. The question for the party is what happens post- Biden. But right now, he was the right guy to put this back together.
BORGER: His complaint about Hillary Clinton's campaign was that she didn't campaign in those states enough that you're talking about.
AXELROD: But it's not just that she didn't campaign there. She really didn't connect there.
BORGER: That's right.
AXELROD: And Biden culturally connected with constituencies that she did not. Obviously he got mamboed in these rural areas, but he did get eight percent more than Hillary Clinton did among white non-college voters, and he ran up the score in suburban areas where his moderation was actually a plus with independent voters.
COOPER: Is mambo one of those terms --
AXELROD: It's a political word. I'll send you the whole dictionary.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: Pennsylvania, you yesterday were talking about the numbers in Pennsylvania, and looking at them, and I know you continue to look at the numbers coming in, and what does that tell you about these allegations?
RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm looking at it candidly. I'm looking for evidence, is there any monkey business going on, to see if there's something that sort of sticks out that they stacked the vote or there's any anomalies.
COOPER: Which are the allegations being made by --
SANTORUM: The allegations -- yes, so if we're going to make those allegations, obviously you have to prove them with facts. But also it's good to look at what do the numbers show, that if there are anomalies in the numbers that shows that that's the case. And so I was just looking at them, because we're getting these from
Allegheny County. Joe Biden is doing two-and-a-half percent better than Hillary Clinton in Allegheny County. You would say, wow, that's western Pennsylvania, and it must be the city of Pittsburgh. But in a suburban county next to it, Westmoreland, which is Trump country, big numbers, he's doing two-and-a-half percent better there, too.
You go north, his last big rally was in Butler County, which is where I lived most of my childhood. He's doing three percent better in Butler County than Hillary Clinton. You go to Washington County, which is south, again, Trump county, he's doing two percent better. Beaver County he's only doing one percent better, but the idea is he's doing better everywhere down there, and Allegheny County is not an anomaly.
And so, again, if you're looking for fraud, you have to look at where are they moving numbers sufficiently that would look outside what the norm is. And, again, I don't see it.
COOPER: The numbers --
SANTORUM: It doesn't mean it's not happening. And on the other side of the state -- so that's southwestern Pennsylvania. Southeastern Pennsylvania, which is Biden country, he's done seven percent better in Chester County, which is primarily a wealth suburban county, Montgomery County, five percent better, Delaware County, four percent better, Bucks County, five percent better, Philadelphia, where the fraud is supposedly taking place, he's doing 4.5 percent worse than Hillary Clinton.
And in the suburban counties, the vote is up 10 to 12 percent. In Philadelphia it's only up three percent. So, again, if you're looking at well, I know these are a lot of numbers and maybe I'm not explaining it well, but I guess --
BORGER: No, it's interesting.
SANTORUM: But it shows to me that in the areas that you would expect the fraud to occur, the big cities, you don't really see -- you see Philadelphia, actually Trump did better. And the machine didn't crank out their vote like the rest of it.
COOPER: David raised the question of could any other Democrat have done what Joe Biden did in Pennsylvania. You know the state well. What do you think?
SANTORUM: Look, I campaigned for George Bush. I was the chairman of his committee in 2004.
[10:50:00]
And I've run a lot of campaigns in Pennsylvania, including my own. I've never seen a better campaign in the state up until that point. We did everything right, and he lost. And the reason he lost is, I hate to say it, a Texas oilman never quite connected. And I would make the argument that that was true for Hillary Clinton four years ago. She never connected to the middle of -- sort of the swing voter in
Pennsylvania, the lunch bucket voter. Donald Trump connected and did really, really well there four years ago. He still connected. He did really, really well there. But Joe Biden connected enough.
I lost a race in 2006 to a guy, I don't whether you're doing this because I'm on the network, but you have him on a lot, Bob Casey, I lost to him. And the reason I lost to him is because I ran against liberals in the past and I was able to beat liberals because that's not Pennsylvania. And in the case of Bob Casey, he connected because he was from a Casey family that --
COOPER: And Biden did that as well.
SANTORUM: Yes. And so Biden is of that same image, and that's why I think he did well there.
COOPER: All eyes on Pennsylvania this morning as we await results from thousands more ballots that could propel Joe Biden to the White House. Our special coverage continues right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:56:03]
BLITZER: We're getting a slew of new vote totals from make-or-break battlegrounds. This nail-biter election is nearing the finish line. I'm Wolf blitzer. We're told former Vice President Joe Biden believes this is the date he will become president-elect and seal a victory over President Trump. That could happen sometime soon, as Pennsylvania vote counters are very busy right now tallying ballots in Philadelphia and in Pittsburgh. We're standing by for new results from the keystone state at any moment.
They're also making a big push to count outstanding ballots in Arizona. We expect thousands of votes to be revealed in the state's largest county at any moment. We're awaiting new results in Nevada as well. It might be all enough to give Joe Biden a new win or wins that would bump his electoral vote count from 253 to the winning number of 270. And Trump, with 213 electoral votes, is not, repeat not, in a position to stop him.
Let's get a key race alert. Let's start off in Arizona, some new numbers are just coming in. You can see Biden still maintains his lead, 28,052 over President Trump, 49.5 percent to 48.7 percent, 95 percent of the estimated vote is in in Arizona, 11 electoral votes.
In the critically important battleground state of Pennsylvania right now, Biden maintains his lead of 28,833, 49.6 percent to 49.1 percent, 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania, 96 percent of the estimated vote is in.
Let's talk to John King about what's going on. This is crunch time for these candidates, and it's looking closer and closer for Biden.
KING: It is crunch time. I was just looking at the vote count in Pennsylvania. You see 28,833 in a state where 3.33 million, 3.30 million, when you're going that deep into the decimal points, that tells you, you have a very close race. A lot of people think, wow, how competitive that is. So this was a heavyweight fight. It was a heavyweight fight four years ago. Donald Trump won it by 44,000 votes. It is a heavyweight fight this time as Joe Biden moves in.
We expect new votes any moment now. We know there are new votes coming from Philadelphia. We know there are new votes coming from Pittsburgh. What do those two share in common? You can see, they are Biden blue on the map. The question is, can Joe Biden build up a little more to that lead to get to the point where the math tells you it is virtually impossible or impossible for the president to catch up.
This has been a very impressive win. Again, you see it so close and you think, well, it's competitive. That's not a blow-out. No, it's not a blowout but that is what makes it such a great fight. It's a heavyweight fight in the 15th round. You see in Philadelphia right here, 555,000 to 125,000, that 81 percent of the vote. This is where a Democrat has to have the big building block in the city of Philadelphia.
But it's not just there. It's the suburbs around Philadelphia. What Senator Santorum was talking about just a little bit earlier, Wolf, you move around the state, no big Biden shifts from Hillary Clinton. He didn't go in and steal away tons of Trump voters. But he turned out Democrats. This is where he was born, Scranton, Lackawanna County, 53 percent, 54 if you round up, to 45.
You go back to four years ago, 50 percent there to 46. You see the 50.2. You just get a little bit more. You just get a little bit more, right? So you're not blowing it out, it's not a game-changing election, but you move the dial a little bit in a close state. That's what makes the difference. You can also most down here. You come down here to North Hampton County. It's not a very big county. You see 85,000 votes to 82,000 votes. It's almost a wash, right? Go ahead, please.
BLITZER: I was going to say, let's go to Arizona right now. We're about to get a whole bunch of new votes from Arizona as well, and it's a critically important battleground state that we're watching. In Maricopa County, the largest county in the Arizona, Phoenix area, the vote is about to come in. And right now we see Biden maintains his lead of about 28,000 votes over Trump. But that lead has shrunk a bit over these past couple of days.
KING: Yes, so over the past couple of days, if you rewound the tape you'd see a Biden lead of just shy of 50,000.
