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The Situation Room

Top Adviser to Vice President Pence Tests Positive for Coronavirus; Obama Campaigns for Biden in Battleground State of Florida; Black Women Pushing for a Blue Wave in Michigan; Trump and Biden Blitz Must-win States in Election's Final Stretch; Trump Announces Israel, Sudan Have Agreed to Normalize Relations; Florida Likely Critical for Trump's Re-Election Chances. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired October 24, 2020 - 21:00   ET

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

[21:00:53]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer here in Washington. This is a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM.

Ten days is all the time left to President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden before election day here in the United States. And the reality is each day there are fewer and fewer voters who are still waiting to cast their ballot. More than 52 million Americans have already cast their votes. It's a stunning number but there's another number that is also stunning and could have a very massive impact on the outcome of this election.

The Johns Hopkins University reporting that 83,757 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus occurred in the United States just yesterday. That's the highest number of new cases reported in a single day since the pandemic started so many months ago. Nearly 1,000 Americans died from the virus just yesterday.

And with so little time left, the candidates, their running mates, various surrogates, they are all out in force, even late tonight in Wisconsin, where we begin.

Let's go there right. The president getting ready to hold a rally. He's been very busy at battleground states all day. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Waukesha, Wisconsin, for us.

Jeremy, I want to start with some breaking news. You've got some new reporting on a positive virus test in the vice president's inner circle, Vice President Mike Pence's inner circle?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. We are just a few weeks removed now from the president of the United States testing positive for the virus and a whole host of White House aides and advisers to the president testing positive, and now it seemed that Vice President Mike Pence's bubble is also perhaps getting burst by the coronavirus. One of his top political advisers, Marty Obst, tested positive for the

virus earlier this week. A source familiar with the matter confirming that to me. Tonight Bloomberg News first reported that news, Wolf, and they say that Marty Obst tested positive for the virus on Wednesday.

Now, it's not clear from my reporting at this point when the last time was that Marty Obst was in the vicinity of or in close proximity to the vice president. But obviously this is going to raise questions about the vice president who has been, you know, engaging in a pre- active campaign schedule and whether or not he will continue to do so or whether he will potentially have to quarantine amid this news.

It doesn't seem so, Wolf, because the vice president has been campaigning in the days since Marty Obst apparently tested positive for the virus. Even today he was continuing to campaign. But obviously troubling news that one of the vice president's top political advisers has now tested positive.

And of course, Wolf, we know that President Trump, you know, he is continuing a very active campaign schedule. We're expecting him to arrive right here in Waukesha, Wisconsin, very shortly. He's already landed in Milwaukee and he's on the way here right now. And what we're seeing here, Wolf, is a continuation of that disregard for the basic public health safety measures as it relates to the coronavirus.

We have thousands of people here tightly packed together, a majority of the people here are not wearing masks. And of course we know that the White House's own Coronavirus Task Force has said that these kind of events, large public gatherings, are exactly the kind of events that you want to avoid particularly when you're seeing a surge in cases and hospitalizations and deaths as the state of Wisconsin is currently right now. And of course, Wolf, as the entire country is at this moment.

BLITZER: All right, we'll get back to you. Good music in the background by the way. Jeremy Diamond reporting for us.

So joining us now, Dr. Jeremy Faust, emergency physician at Brigham Women's Hospital and Patrice Harris, the immediate past president of the American Medical Association.

Doctors, to both of you, thanks so much for joining us, and as you know, on Friday, just yesterday, the U.S. posted its highest number yet of new confirmed coronavirus cases in a single day. More than 83,000 Americans were diagnosed with coronavirus just yesterday. Yet the president has repeatedly griped about news coverage of the pandemic at his campaign rallies. He's been doing so throughout the day.

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Here is what he said just a little while ago at a rally in Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: COVID, COVID, COVID. If a plane goes down with 500 people, they don't talk about it. All they talk -- because they are trying to scare everybody. You have to lead your life and you have to get out, you have to be vigilant. Be careful. Socially distance. You get too close, put the mask on. Put it on. You know, lots of different things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, Dr. Faust, that's certainly not the first time he's done that today. When you hear him use COVID as a laugh line as he's been doing all day today, you hear him downplaying the fact that nearly 225,000 Americans have died from the virus over the past several months and only grudgingly saying, put the mask on if you have to. What's your reaction?

DR. JEREMY FAUST, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: He's acting like this is not his problem, and yet at the same time, he's running for re-election so it could continue to be his problem. That makes no sense. He's also saying on one hand it is no big deal, and on the other hand, at the debate the other night, he said, essentially, I heard it very clearly, that his strategy is what's called herd immunity. Let's all go out there and get the virus, learn to live with it.

And it's not like people who are going out who are younger are human shields. They're actually vectors. They go and get the virus and give it to other people. So he actually is sort of talking out of both sides of his mouth here, and it couldn't come at a worst time because, as we said, the number of cases we have is astronomically high.

Quite frankly it's an embarrassment and public health experts are really worried about what's coming down the pipeline here because as we head into cold and flu season, now our patients are coming in droves for all kinds of reasons including COVID. So again we're worrying about PPE and we're worrying about drug shortages, and the next four to eight weeks are not time I'm looking forward to it, quite frankly.

BLITZER: Yes. We've had more coronavirus confirmed deaths in the United States, nearly 225,000 over these months than any other country in the world. It's not something that we should be proud of.

Dr. Harris, the president says repeatedly, we're rounding the turn, rounding the corner on the virus, yet these record spikes are occurring all across the country. He claims the case numbers are up simply because there's a lot more testing that's going on. Clearly that's false. Is the president's stance in discussing this really hurting Americans right now who may be thinking, well, it's not much of a big deal?

DR. PATRICE HARRIS, FORMER PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: Well, Wolf, it is certainly painful and frustrating to hear anyone downplay the seriousness of this pandemic, and as you note, we are breaking records that we don't want to break. We are seeing more hospitalizations in some areas of the country. We are back to ICU bed capacity issues. And we know what happens after a trend of increased hospitalization. Lives are lost. And so it is so important that we do what we know to work.

And, by the way, Wolf, wearing a mask is not hard. It may be inconvenient but it's not hard. Both Dr. Faust and I have seen patients do hard work to stay well and get well. Undergo rounds of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. And I've seen newborns undergo heart surgery. Those are the things that's hard. Wearing a mask is not hard and we should not downplay the seriousness of this disease or what we need to do to prevent the spread of this disease.

BLITZER: Yes, if 90 percent or 95 percent of the American public wore masks when they were involved with other people, they would save thousands and thousands of lives. And Dr. Fauci, made a very important point about young people. They may be totally asymptomatic, they may not even know they have coronavirus but the fact is they can transmit it to their parents, their grandparents, their family members, to all sorts of people. So it is a big deal if they come down with coronavirus.

The president keeps saying that his 14-year-old son had it, it was not big deal. But it is a big deal, And I want you to elaborate on this.

FAUST: Thanks for asking that question because it's been a long time coming to understand what's really happening to young Americans. This week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, came out with a really important report that said that black and Hispanic young people, 25 to 44, are having astronomically horrible experience with this virus. It's real -- it's causing real deaths. This is not little blips on the radar. These are actual big movements and that young people are dying at really high rates.

I'm working with a research group here at Harvard Medical School and with colleagues at Yale, and we're looking at this question very carefully, and we can no longer say that this is just a disease of the elderly. Certainly that's the most affected group but it actually hits younger people. And we know that every day that we're closer to a vaccine, fewer lives will be lost, and when a young life is lost, it reverberates for so long because it's not just five or 10 years which is tragic in and of itself when someone older dies, it's 50, 60 years, and where are your siblings and the parents of young children.

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Those are the deaths that hit us even harder. So we're learning about this and we're learning that we need to stall. We need to get a little more time for that vaccine to come.

BLITZER: And we're also learning that even if someone is asymptomatic, Dr. Harris, a young person, for example, you don't know necessarily what the long-term ramifications of that illness are going to be down the road, six months down the road, a year down the road. There's a lot we don't really understand right now about the coronavirus. Right?

HARRIS: There is a lot we don't know. And that is just all the more reason for us to continue to be hyper vigilant. And Dr. Faust said, you know, when it's your child, your son, your daughter, you don't much care about the denominator. You really care about the numerator. And we are worried. We have seen long-term, these long haulers report of symptoms and we've seen issues around a heart inflammation, around our younger adults and some older adolescents. So no one wants to take a chance here. Yes, there is less chance for worse outcomes but there's certainly not zero chance. And so again, we need to all do what we know works to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

BLITZER: So important indeed. Dr. Harris, Dr. Faust, thanks to both of you for joining us. We really appreciate it.

Meanwhile, the former president of the United States, Barack Obama, he was in Florida today campaigning for Joe Biden. And he did not hold back at all in his very tough and bitter criticism of the incumbent president, President Trump. But will President Obama be enough to help Joe Biden carry Florida, that key battleground state?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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BLITZER: Just 10 days now until the election here in the United States, and former president Barack Obama stumping for Joe Biden in the truly critical battleground state of Florida today. Biden's star surrogate making it very clear who he thinks is and isn't fit to lead the United States out of this very, very worsening pandemic and into the next four years.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is joining us right now. She's following the Biden campaign for us in Miami.

Arlette, so what did we hear from the former president of the United States today?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Wolf, Florida is always one of those incredibly close battlegrounds and President Obama travelled here hoping that he can help deliver the state that he won twice for his former vice president in November. He told supporters and volunteers here that if they are able to bring home Florida for Joe Biden, that the election essentially will be over, and the former president held a socially distant drive-in rally here in north Miami.

He talked about the character and leadership traits that he's seen in Joe Biden and also contrasted that and slammed President Trump. He took on the president over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and also his behavior in office, saying that that is not a normal way for a president to act. And President Obama also talked about that upcoming "60 Minutes" interview that President Trump filmed earlier on the week. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: When "60 Minutes" and Leslie Stahl are too tough for you, you ain't all that tough. If you've got to walk out of a "60 Minutes" interview, then you're never going to stand up to a dictator. If you're spending all your time complaining about how mean reporters are to you, you are not going to stand up to Putin. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: So that is one of the rare moments where you see a former president criticizing their successor. And an overarching message for Obama while he was here in Florida was encouraging supporters to make a plan to get out there and vote early as this election is reaching that crucial 10-day period as the election is quickly approaching.

Now while they have the heavy hitter here on the ground in Florida, the Biden campaign is also hitting the air waves, airing another ad during the World Series this evening. This advertisement narrated by Brad Pitt earlier in the week. They've also run advertisements during the World Series.

The Biden campaign really putting their financial resources on the national air waves. They have a lot of cash on hand heading into this final stretch and they're trying to use it and maximize it to the best of their ability, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. They want to spend that money over these next 10 days. Will the former president, Arlette, be doing anymore campaigning for Biden?

SAENZ: Well, we haven't gotten an exact schedule yet from President Obama. But we have been told that he would be doing about a handful of events heading into this final stretch of the election. Trying to hit some of those states where early voting is under way. The Biden campaign really feels that the former president can help mobilize African-American men, Latino, and young voters in this crucial final stretch.

And while all of his events so far have been solo, there is a possibility that Joe Biden and Barack Obama could appear together in the closing days of the campaign, perhaps repricing their partnership that we've seen in the White House during those two terms -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And if you listen to President Obama's speeches, and I did today and the other day, 35, 40 minutes, it underscores, he still clearly has that campaign capability and underscores why he was twice elected president of the United States. Very good on the campaign trail.

Arlette, thank you very, very much.

Let's bring in our senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. He's also a senior editor at "The Atlantic."

Ron, thanks so much for joining us. Let's take a moment to listen to more of the former president's unrelented attack today on President Trump.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Eight months into this pandemic. New cases are breaking records. Donald Trump isn't going to suddenly protect all of us. He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself. We don't want a president who threatens people with jail for just criticizing him. That's not normal behavior, Florida.

Florida men wouldn't even do this stuff. With Joe and Kamala at the help, you won't have to think about them every single day. There might be a whole day where they don't be on TV. There might be a whole day where they don't tweet some craziness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You know, Ron, the former first lady Michelle Obama is famous for saying when they go low, we go high. Did the former president go low there today? Did he go high? I mean, he was very, very decisive in condemning the current president of the United States.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. On the other hand, Wolf, he is talking about a current president who has suggested that he should be arrested and indicted along with his former opponent, Hillary Clinton, and along with his current opponent, Joe Biden, and his family.

You know, I thought in that one clip, former President Obama really got to two of the central vulnerabilities that President Trump has faced, one that predates the coronavirus, which is the sense among many voters that he has simply not conducted himself as they expect a president to do so. And when former President Obama says, well, you might not have to think about Joe Biden for a day, that is actually a pretty relaxing prospect to a lot of Americans who are exhausted.

And of course the other -- the new development this year, and it is worth noting that Donald Trump is trailing in the polls last year before the pandemic began because certainly that's an argument that he's making, it was hitting him on his handling of the virus, and I think the president has sent a very clear signal, and especially those first 10 minutes, 15 minutes of the debate, that even as cases are spiking, he is still dismissing it, he is telling the American people he is not going to do anything different.

And that is really, you know, ultimately going to find a gamble of the campaign at a time when 60 percent of the country disapproves of the way he's been handling this.

BLITZER: What President Obama can really do, and you're an expert in this area, he can really energize that Democratic base. So many millions of Democrats who voted for Obama in 2008, 2012, got him elected president twice, they didn't show up four years ago for Hillary Clinton, and that basically cost her the election, right?

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Well, I mean, there are two problems from the 2012 to 2016 period. First is what you say. The African-American turnout dropped from 67 percent to 60 percent. The biggest election-to- election decline in American history, and that was really felt in places like Detroit, and Milwaukee, and to a somewhat lesser extent Philadelphia, certainly Cleveland. In those states, it was a big problem for Hillary Clinton. The other problem of course was that there were a lot of blue-collar

white voters who actually did vote for Obama who switched to voting for Trump in 2016, and Joe Biden has been laser focused on them. Whatever else you can say about Joe Biden, he is not taking his eye off what, you know, I think Democrats hired him to do, which was to win back some of those working class white voters and the rustbelt.

In Lucerne County today, in Pennsylvania, a county that Obama won but that Trump won by 20 points, one of the 98 counties in the rustbelt that flipped, he has spent a lot of time in those blue-collar counties. So it's almost like a division of responsibility. I mean, Biden does have issues with motivating aspects of the Democratic base particularly younger non-white voters. President Obama can be helpful there.

They may never entirely solve that problem with Joe Biden at the top of the ticket but they can do it well enough that combine with the recoil from President Trump among college educated whites and some improvement among non-college whites, it has Biden in a pretty strong position here 10 days out.

BLITZER: You know, you're an expert when it comes to political polling. The national polls four years ago are fairly accurate. They did show Hillary Clinton was ahead and she did win the popular vote by about three million votes. But the polls in some of those key battleground states, whether Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, they failed. Had there been major changes to the various polls in those states for example that will make them more accurate this time?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. And they could still fail again. I mean, look, Donald Trump won in 2016 because he turned out more noncollege and more nonurban whites than the pollsters anticipated. They have made significant changes in methodology to try to account for that most polls, doing more waiting by education, to combat the tendency of those with advance education be more likely to answer the poll in the first place.

So they feel like they have a better handle on the electorate. But of course if Donald Trump wins, if he finds a way to win this time, it will almost certainly be through that same route, turning out more of his core voters than the pollsters expected. The problem he's got, Wolf, is that, you know, last time, as we said, he turned out more of his side while African-Americans, in particular, they're turning -- and youth turnout and Latino turnout wasn't great. It was depressed on the Democratic side.

[21:25:10]

Now everybody is voting in huge numbers. Look at what's happening in Harris County, Texas, where there are over a million votes, or in Dane County in Wisconsin where the turnout is through the roof. The odds of Trump changing the turnout, makes in his favor, it gets tougher if the denominator is getting bigger, too, and in fact if the entire pool is getting larger. So that does put Biden in a better position I think than Clinton. But that is the big risk. I mean, no question, and there are Democrats who are worried about the

signs of how many noncollege and nonurban whites are voting in the rustbelt states even now in the early voting.

BLITZER: All right. We'll see, 10 days to go. Ron Brownstein, as usual, thank you so, so much.

And with only 10 days until election day, one key group could decide the election in the key battleground state of Michigan. That's ahead when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:30:22]

BLITZER: President Trump won Michigan by less than 11,000 votes back in 2016. But this year that battleground state could come down to the critical voice of black voters. In Detroit, one woman is on a personal mission to make sure voters don't sit this one out.

CNN's Kate Bolduan reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WENDY CALDWELL-LIDDELL, FOUNDER, MOBILIZE DETROIT: OK, so let's say, you ain't registered. So let's get you registered, OK?

I think that the apathy has just grown and has just become so pervasive in our communities, because people are just trying to survive that we have to get back to empowering people.

So let's cycle back this way.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR, AT THIS HOUR (voice-over): 29-year-old Wendy Caldwell-Liddell is a woman with no shortage of energy.

CALDWELL-LIDDELL: Hey, did she talk to you already?

BOLDUAN: She doesn't work for any campaign, but since August, she says she's spent three days a week every week between her full-time job and taking care of two kids, using that energy to try and convince fellow Detroiters their vote matters.

CALDWELL-LIDDELL: At this point, this is our survival now. What happens politically is a part of our survival and there is no escaping that.

BOLDUAN (on camera): 10,704. What does that number mean to you?

CALDWELL-LIDDELL: Is that how many votes Trump won by?

BOLDUAN: That's exactly how many votes.

CALDWELL-LIDDELL: So that number -- it hurts. It hurts.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): Wayne County, which includes Detroit, went for Hillary Clinton by a wide margin in 2016. But she got about 76,000 fewer votes there than Obama did in 2012. Remember, Trump won the entire state by just 10,704 votes.

(On camera): Are you voting for Joe Biden or are you more voting against Donald Trump?

CALDWELL-LIDDELL: Eighty percent against Donald Trump, 20 percent for Joe Biden. I would say that.

BOLDUAN: What does that mean?

CALDWELL-LIDDELL: It means that I know that as a voter and as a black woman that there's a job that I have to do in order to get a representative who will come close to protecting my people in office. But I am not necessarily excited about having another representative there who, really, does not inherently understand the needs of our community.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): Markita Blanchard, like Wendy, has lived in Detroit her whole life. But at 63 years old, she sees the choice this election a bit differently.

MARKITA BLANCHARD, BIDEN SUPPORTER: I'm 100 percent voting for Biden.

BOLDUAN (on camera): Does Biden make you excited?

BLANCHARD: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, he does. His enthusiasm, his past record, it's like a charge.

BOLDUAN: President Trump says often that he has done more for the black community --

BLANCHARD: That's -- go ahead.

BOLDUAN: No, I don't even need to finish.

BLANCHARD: He is full of (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You know what I'm saying? He has not done nothing. I've had people say, well, he's not my president. I didn't vote. I said, well, did you vote at all? They say no, I didn't vote. I say, well, if you did not vote, you did vote for him.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): Amber Davis is one of those Detroiters who voted for Obama in 2012, then didn't vote at all in 2016.

(On camera): Why didn't you vote in 2016?

AMBER DAVIS, MICHIGAN VOTER: I don't want Trump and I don't want Hillary. I didn't really care who won that election.

BOLDUAN: So what's your plan this election?

DAVIS: I don't like Biden, but I'm voting for Biden. The coronavirus, everything that's going on is just horrible. So he's got to go.

BOLDUAN: One path to flipping Michigan blue again and a critical pursuit of the Biden campaign is getting those voters who sat out four years ago to show up this time. And a sign the Trump campaign knows this, it has an office right down the road from the Democrats specifically targeting black voters in Detroit.

How unusual is that to see, forget Trump, but a Republican presidential campaign opened an office in the west side of Detroit?

MARY SHEFFIELD, DETROIT CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT PRO TERM: I've never seen it. I've never seen it ever, ever before.

BOLDUAN: But what does it tell you?

SHEFFIELD: The importance of not only Michigan but Detroit in the black vote because the parties -- both parties need us, really.

CALDWELL-LIDDELL: Are you going to help me?

BOLDUAN: Everyone always talks about on TV, they always talk about how black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party.

CALDWELL-LIDDELL: We are. We are. Black women are the backbone.

BOLDUAN: Do you think the Democratic Party takes you for granted?

CALDWELL-LIDDELL: Absolutely. Absolutely they take us for granted because they know that black women are going to help them get the big wins they need where it matters, but they also know that they can give us the bare minimum knowing that we aren't going to choose the other side.

[21:35:01]

BOLDUAN: What does that say about the country?

CALDWELL-LIDDELL: It says we've still got a long way to go when the backbone of the country is the most neglected.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Kate Bolduan, excellent, excellent reporting in Michigan for us. Thank you so much, Kate.

Ten days until election day here in the United States, and as candidates and their surrogates pan out across the country in the race's final days where they go in these last few days of the campaign can certainly tell us a lot about what they see as their path to the 270 electoral votes needed to be elected. We're going to break it down for you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: So with just 10 days until the election, nothing is more valuable than a candidate's time, and if you want to know the states they desperately need to win, just look at where they are going to campaign. President Trump and Joe Biden both campaigning in critical

battleground states today. Trump hitting the trail in North Carolina, then Ohio, and now Wisconsin, while Biden made his pitch to voters in Pennsylvania.

[21:40:06]

Our senior political writer and analyst, Harry Enten is joining us right now.

So, Harry, what do the polls tell us about the current state of the race? Let's start with North Carolina.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Sure, you know, if you take a look right now at the polls in North Carolina what you'll find is a slight Biden advantage there. But here's of course the key thing. Right? You can recall four years ago, what was the result? Trump won that state by four. So this is a pattern that we're seeing consistently where Joe Biden is doing better than Hillary Clinton did and he is right near 50 percent.

BLITZER: What about Wisconsin?

ENTEN: Wisconsin is a must-win state in my mind probably for Joe Biden. As closes as you possibly can get. You know, a lot of the electoral maps that get him to 270 include Wisconsin, and he is leading there right now. He's leading by six points. He is over 50 percent, and remember, of course, Wisconsin was one of the most key contests in 2016. So the fact that Biden is ahead there, it leads a Midwest path with Pennsylvania and Michigan very much open for him.

BLITZER: We know Florida is such a, such a critical battleground state right now. I've always believed that if the Republican incumbent, in this case Donald Trump, doesn't win Florida, he is almost certainly not going to win the election. What do the poll numbers in Florida tell us now?

ENTEN: Yes, I think exactly what you just said, Wolf, and look at the polls right now in Florida. It's close just like North Carolina but again you see that lead for Joe Biden. He's up by three points right near that 50 percent mark. It was a state Trump won by a little over a point last time around, and what you said was exactly right. Donald Trump almost certainly needs to win Florida because if he doesn't win in the state of Florida, get this, he has a less than 5 percent chance of winning the election without winning Florida, while Joe Biden if he doesn't win without Florida, he still has about a 60 percent chance of winning.

So obviously Biden wants Florida. But it's not necessary in the same way it is for Trump, and one last little nugget for you, since 1928 no Republican has won the presidency without winning Florida.

BLITZER: Yes. And Florida is a big -- a highly populated state now with a lot of electoral votes. That's why it's so, so critical and why the former president Barack Obama was campaigning for Biden in Miami earlier today. Harry Enten, as usual, thanks so much. Really appreciate the

expertise.

So with just 10 more days to go, and as expected, all eyes are of course turning to Florida. We're going to take a closer look at why the state will play such a pivotal role. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:47:35]

BLITZER: While foreign affairs hasn't been a huge issue in this election here in the United States, the president is claiming another major accomplishment in that area, announcing on Friday that Sudan and Israel have agreed to normalize relations.

CNN's Oren Liebermann has more on the significance of this historic agreement.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is a significant foreign policy accomplishment for the Trump administration and of course the timing can't be ignored here just a week and a half before election in which Trump is trailing in the polls. It's also a lifeline for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who's under attack from his right, and faces sinking popularity because of his handling of the coronavirus, not to mention his trial on corruption charges which is coming up in just a few weeks.

It is incredibly significant for Sudan. A country in dire financial straits with a fragile transitional government aimed to lead it towards the creation of democratic institutions and the country's own future. It needed financial help and for that to happen, it needed Trump to remove it from the state sponsors of terrorism list. That part happened and this process will begin to move forward but perhaps not as fast as Trump and Netanyahu wanted.

The Sudanese foreign minister saying this isn't normalization, it's an agreement to move forward with normalization. The official act of normalization has to be ratified by country's legislative council which hasn't even been created yet in the transitional government -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, 10 days away from what might be the most contentious U.S. election in decades, and Florida voters know exactly how big of a role they'll be playing in the outcome. Tonight, CNN will air a special hour highlighting the passions and the emotions inside this key battleground state. In "DIVIDED WE STAND, INSIDE AMERICA'S ANGER," CNN's Randi Kaye talks to voters who are set on voting President Trump back into office and to those who feel just as strongly about voting him out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: With its 29 electoral votes, Donald Trump wins Florida. JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It was a stunning

defeat.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He won this battleground state right here of Florida.

TRUMP: I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear --

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four years later.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're still supporting Donald Trump, you're a racist. You're a bigot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My students are very aware of what is happening. They are very aware of police killings.

[21:50:04]

KAYE (on camera): When you do meet people who are supporting Joe Biden, what's that conversation like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very short.

KAYE (voice-over): The political divide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) around.

KAYE: Wider than ever.

CROWD: No peace.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're literally talking in different realms of fact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just out and out nasty.

KAYE: And in Florida --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: We are expecting a record number of people to mail in vote, millions of ballots.

And in Florida --

KAYE: The anger and unrest are driving voters to the polls.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted to do something. I wanted to get out.

KAYE (on camera): What made you switch parties?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like the party has moved in a different direction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's only solidified my position.

KAYE (voice-over): The difference? Who wins this swing state often wins the White House. (On camera): Is Florida a must-win for Donald Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There really is no math. He really has to win here to have any chance of being president.

KAYE (voice-over): Why it matters for Biden?

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is the most important election in our lifetime.

KAYE: And for Trump.

TRUMP: My administration is focused on delivering real results.

KAYE (on camera): How would you describe this part of Florida?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10,000 kilowatts of red state debate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And Randi Kaye is joining us right now.

Randi, this documentary, which is truly excellent, entitled, "DIVIDED WE STAND," what did you hear from folks about why there were so much division, so much anger out there in Florida right now?

KAYE: Yes. It's pretty ugly out there, Wolf, as you know. But we spoke with dozens of people, veterans, teachers, small business owners, white voters, black voters, Latino voters, and there is just a lot of anger among all of them and what we found is that it seems to be this fear and anxiety that's giving rise to this anger really on both sides.

I mean, the left feels that they have been left behind by this administration. The right feels that they have been emboldened and empowered by this administration, able to speak their mind and say anything which we have certainly seen, but we have met people who are afraid for their lives, afraid of losing their jobs, afraid of losing their guns, afraid for their health care, and we found with COVID people have even less control really of their emotions, of their lives.

And that's why they're lashing out, both sides really, and it's become such a volatile situation and in this documentary, Wolf, you will meet people who really went at it, they got into a fist fight, and I'm not talking about teenagers. I'm talking about senior citizens out there in the villages here in Florida so it is ugly and we saw it firsthand.

BLITZER: And Florida is such a key battleground state, that probably intensifies the anger out there between these various factions.

Randi Kaye, thanks so much for what you're doing. We really appreciate it.

The CNN special, once again, "DIVIDED WE STAND: INSIDE AMERICA'S ANGER." That airs right at the top of the hour. And coming up, as the United States breaks the record for new daily

confirmed cases of coronavirus, we're going to show you the moment the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health simply broke down in tears over her state's rising toll. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:57:15]

BLITZER: I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back tomorrow night with another special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. But before I go, I want to leave you with a warning of what's at stake in this coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier tonight I showed you the moment when the Illinois Department of Public of Health director, Ngozi Ezike, fought back tears while sharing statistics about the virus in her state. Watch the doctor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. NGOZI EZIKE, DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Since yesterday, we lost an additional 31 lives for a total of 9,418 deaths. These are people who started with us in 2020 and won't be with us at the Thanksgiving table.

To date, we are reporting 3,874 cases for a total of 364,033 confirmed cases since the start of this pandemic. Excuse me, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Dr. Ngozi Ezike found the strength to go on and ended with a warning, one that applies to all of us. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EZIKE: My message to you is to stay strong. I've never run a marathon but I have the utmost regard for those who've been able to train and plan and finish a marathon, but this is a difficult race when you can't actually see the end point. And I'm sorry that that's the message I have for you. Nevertheless, I'm asking you to fight the fatigue. Fight the urge to give up on social distancing. Fight for your kids to have safe, healthy opportunity to have in-person learning in school with teachers who are trained to teach them in the classroom.

Fight to have safe, healthy environments in which we can work so that businesses can remain open, so that our economies can start to thrive again. This does mean wearing your mask.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We know the consequences when we fail to listen to the advice of public health professionals like Dr. Ezike. This is why every night we end THE SITUATION ROOM with a tribute to the victims of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Mukul Chandra was a prominent cardiologist in Dayton, Ohio, just 57 years old. He died last Sunday from coronavirus complications after being diagnosed early on in the pandemic. An avid runner who completed nearly 20 marathons, his passing reminds us that this virus does not discriminate against the young or the healthy. Dr. Chandra leaves behind a wife and two children.

Warren Bowie was a beloved high school English teacher in Wisconsin, recently retired. He passed away Sunday from coronavirus complications. His teaching career spanned more than 20 years and impacted thousands who remember him as a true inspiration. He was just 57 years old.

May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.

[22:00:25]