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The Situation Room
Biden, Trump Campaign On Final Day Before Election; Federal Judge Rejects GOP Bid To Toss 127,000 Ballots In Texas; Non-Scalable Fence Going Up Around The White House. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired November 02, 2020 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Guys like the dictator of North Korea, they're rooting for him.
Why is that? They know that Joe won't suck up to dictators. And Joe -- listen, Trump said this. He said Putin, Xi, who is the president of China, Kim Jong-un, the president of North Korea, they want him to win.
Yes, we know, of course, because you have been doing whatever they want for almost four years. He's been coddling dictators for the last four years, and now, apparently, he says he might declare victory before all the votes are counted tomorrow.
(BOOING)
OBAMA: Don't boo. Vote.
That's not something you want to hear in Little Havana or Little Haiti. That's not something that a leader of a democracy does.
That's something a two-bit dictator does. If you believe in democracy, you want every vote counted.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Joe Biden will restore our battered standing in the world, because he knows our true strength comes from setting an example the world wants to follow, and that's a nation that stands with democracy, and not dictators, a nation that can inspire and mobilize others to overcome threats like climate change and terrorism and poverty and disease, and stand up for human rights, whether it's in Cuba or anywhere else around the world...
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: ... including human rights right here in the United States of America.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: And here's the other thing. You know, I've joked about this, but everybody says that's a good point. They say that.
With Joe and Kamala, you're not going to think about them every single day.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: You're not going to have to argue about some crazy tweet that the president sent out this morning. It won't be so exhausting. You'll be able to go about your lives knowing that the president's doing his job, instead of suggesting we inject bleach, that the president's not going to retweet conspiracy theories that the Navy SEALs didn't actually kill Bin Laden.
We're not going to have a president who goes out of his way to insult people just because they don't agree with him. It's not normal behavior, South Florida. We wouldn't put up with this from a teacher, or a high school principal, or a -- or our co-worker. Why would we accept it from the president of the United States?
Because there are consequences when somebody behaves that way, when the person who's supposed to be a top leader acts like that. It emboldens other people to be mean and cruel and dismissive, and racist. And it frays the fabric of all of our lives.
And it affects how our kids see the world. And it affects our families and how they get along. It affects how the world sees America. And that's why Joe talks about the soul of America. And that, more than anything, is what separates him from his opponent. And that's what's at stake in this election.
Joe Biden cares about every American. And Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and I think you, those of you who are out there listening, I think he tries to live up to the values that we cherish, that we were taught, of honesty, and hard work, and kindness, and humility, and responsibility, and giving somebody a hand up when they're down.
Wasn't that what you were taught? That's what I was taught. And we don't always do it perfectly. Sometimes, we make mistakes in our own lives and our own families, but we try to own up to it. We try to make ourselves better. We try to teach our kids to do the right thing, right?
And when you're like Joe Biden, that's what you'll see reflected in the White House. And these are not Republican or Democratic values. I was talking -- we were flying over, because we were Georgia earlier today, and I was telling my staff, if there was a Democrat who was behaving this way, the way our current president does, I couldn't support him.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: If I saw -- if I saw a Democrat who was lying every single day, I mean, the fact-checkers can't keep up, it's like, just over and over again.
[18:05:08] You know, I would say, well, I don't -- that's not the example I want.
I don't trust that person to manage the country's affairs, because it's violating the values that we try to live by, and these are values we try to teach our kids. They're not white values. They're not black values. They're not Latino values or Asian American values or Native American values.
They're American values. And we have to reclaim that.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Some of you saw some folks -- there was a Biden/Harris bus in Texas.
And they were surrounded by Trump cars and supporters.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, we're going break away from former President Obama. I want to go to Traverse City, Michigan, right now.
The current President Donald Trump, is speaking there.
Let's listen in.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They would have been out of business.
Biden's energy ban will send every state into crushing poverty, from -- and you know this -- you know what they're doing -- from Michigan, to Wisconsin, to Arizona, where we're leading very nicely, thank you, and to Pennsylvania.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: As long as I'm president, we will remain the number one producer of oil and natural gas on Earth.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And we will remain energy-independent. We're energy-independent for the first time, first time. That means we don't have to call people up in faraway places and say, we need some oil, please. We will send our armies over there to protect you and help you.
But we do have great allies over there. We will help them. We have certainly helped Israel. But we have a lot of good people over there. We will help them.
But we don't need their oil. It's nice not to. We have more oil than they do now. You know, we have actually more oil than they do. We're the largest in the world. Isn't that a nice feeling?
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Sleepy Joe -- and that would not have happened, except for what we have done over the last three-and-a-half years.
There's never been an administration or president, there's never been an administration that has done in the first three-and-a-half years what we have done, never, and not even close, with all the things we have done.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And the fake news never even questions it. I have been saying it for a long time. They don't even question it because they can't.
Joe Biden is a globalist who spent 47 years outsourcing your jobs, opening your borders, and sacrificing American blood and treasure in endless, ridiculous foreign wars, countries you have never even heard of.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: A vote for Biden is a vote to extinguish and eradicate your state's auto industry. You don't like that. Do you? I don't think so.
AUDIENCE: No!
TRUMP: You know, he was going to do the TPP. He was going to do different things that would have been so bad for you. I ended it. I ended it all.
He was a cheerleader for NAFTA, which was the worst trade deal ever made probably by any country that sent all your auto jobs -- you know, they have 32 percent of our auto jobs, right? And it's probably the number one reason I ran for president.
And, in fact, I was in Michigan. I don't know if anybody remembers this, 12 years ago. They gave me the man of the year. You remember? And I had a big -- I made a speech. And I said, why are you letting -- you know, it's not my business, but I said, why you letting them steal your auto jobs? They're all going down to Mexico.
And, by the way, plenty go to Canada, too, right? People don't know that. And it was a terrible thing that took place. But we have stopped that. And now the USMCA makes it very, very financially difficult for them to do that.
It was very important to me.
BLITZER: All right, we're going to continue to month interest the president. He is speaking in Michigan right now, a key battleground state.
We heard earlier from Joe Biden. We heard from Barack Obama. We heard from the president of the United States. They're all campaigning right now.
Let's bring in Dana Bash, Nia-Malika Henderson, and former Governor John Kasich of Ohio. So, Dana, in these final hours before Election Day, it's hard to
overstate the importance of what we're seeing, what we're learning right now.
Tomorrow is going to be, obviously, a historical, critically important day. The reality right now, as far as we can tell, Dana, either candidate potentially could still win.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That is absolutely true.
And if I could just kind of on where we just left in watching the candidates and their surrogates on the campaign trail, it is so fascinating to watch Donald Trump in Michigan right now.
The Trump campaign is doing this, clearly, the president wanted to do this, to mirror what he did four years ago. He had a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the last one he had of the 2016 campaign. And then, at the end of the -- counting the election results in Michigan, he had won by 10,704 votes.
[18:10:10]
That is why President Trump is back in Michigan, despite the fact that the polls don't look great for him there, because he doesn't believe it. And he believes that he can kind of get the magic back that he had four years ago, and maybe even more so from people who very much like the president. They like what he did.
And he's going towards his base. I mean, that's what he's doing, not just in Michigan, Pennsylvania, all over the battleground states that he's hit over the past 48 hours. It is about getting as many of the people who have loved him for a long time to get out and vote as possible.
And what we're going to find out when all the votes are counted is whether that was enough.
BLITZER: It's going to be critically important, Michigan one of these key battleground state, as you say.
Governor Kasich, it was really significant today. A federal judge now says 127,000 ballots that were cast in Texas via these drive-through locations can in fact be counted. I know you have taken some issue with some of these Republican-led challenges to invalidate votes in our country.
But what's your reaction to this decision by this federal judge?
JOHN KASICH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Wolf, as I have learned about the decision, he said those votes can be counted, but, curiously, he said something about, I hope this doesn't continue or we have to count these votes separately, which was -- I don't know how to interpret that.
He said they had no standing in his court. So, I guess we have to see how that plays out. But the problem with that is the folks that were voting on this drive-through, everything was checked, make sure that they were legitimate, they were real voters, that they could be identified, and that there was no reason to suspect that somebody was pulling something.
So I wish it had just been a clean decision with nothing else. But, Wolf, it makes sense to me that, when people vote and they do it in a COVID time, and people have approved it, and we know who they are, it's just ridiculous for somebody to try to say their vote shouldn't be counted, because every vote counts.
And if we get into this back and forth and this legal business and we start to see people who are legitimately qualified to vote and voting appropriately losing the power of their vote, I don't really want to say much more, other than it speaks for itself, because I know we're all on edge, and want to make sure that we handle this very responsibly.
BLITZER: Which is so, so critically important right now. So much of the country is on edge right now.
You know, Nia, the president is pushing for an election result, though, by tomorrow night. But votes will be counted past tomorrow, as they always have been counted past Election Day. Those votes potentially, if it's close, could determine the outcome of this election, right?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's exactly right.
Listen, I mean, the president really has beef with a lot of these Republicans in some of these states who aren't allowing some of these early ballots to be counted. They're the ones who stood in the way of the Democrats, who wanted those mail-in ballots counted early, counted now, as is happening in Florida and Arizona, but won't happen in some of those Rust Belt states.
So, listen, the president can say all he wants. He wants election results on Tuesday night. That is likely not to happen. The votes that will be counted after election night count as much as the ones that will be counted on Election Day, the folks who show up in person.
Of course, he's counting fact that maybe a lot of Republicans will show up on Election Day and overwhelm a lot of these early mail-in ballots that we have seen come in, almost 100 million at this point.
But, as you said, this has happened every election. Votes are counted after Election Day. And just because they're counted after Election Day does not make them illegitimate, does not make them sort of not part of the total, does not mean that the president can move to discount those ballots.
But, listen, we have seen Republican legislators and obviously this president try to delegitimize certain votes, mail-in votes, for instance, votes from regions he may not like, as was happening in Texas. And it's certainly anti-democratic, but it is par for the course for this president, who wants to cast a lot of doubt on voters and votes that don't go his way.
BLITZER: Yes, very anti-democratic indeed. You have got to count all the ballots.
Jim Acosta, our chief White House correspondent, is in Grand Rapids, Michigan, right now.
Jim, give us a sense of what you're hearing from inside the Trump campaign right now. What are they -- what are they saying to you? What are you hearing? How do they feel about this election?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I would say, right now, they are cautiously optimistic. There is some quiet confidence in the Trump campaign that these big rowdy rallies that the president has been holding over the last several days will somehow close the gap that we're seeing in he's polls.
[18:15:01]
But let's keep in mind, Wolf, there is a big polling gap between President Trump and former Vice President Biden. It is a bigger gap than what we saw four years ago.
But when we talk to Trump advisers, they say will, listen, this is a president who has defied gravity before. I talked to a Trump adviser earlier over the weekend who said, listen, when you're a Trump voter, you understand that there is sometimes a stigma attached to being a Trump supporter, and that you may not tell your true feelings to a pollster who calls. You may not answer the phone or talk to a pollster on the phone.
So, that's the reason why, according to this Trump adviser, that there is this sometimes huge gap between the president and his rivals when it comes to election time. They feel like they can close this gap once again, and that will make the difference.
But I will tell you, Wolf, covering this president over the last several days, this has got to be the ugliest closing message I have ever seen from a politician in my lifetime covering politics.
The president out on the campaign trail today in Scranton, Pennsylvania, saying, Governor Wolf of Pennsylvania, we have people watching you. Don't try to do anything foolish. We have eyes on you.
What kind of rhetoric is that coming from a president of the United States, talking about how he could knock over Joe Biden over the weekend if he wanted to, and so on?
And so the question, I think, Wolf, is whether or not the president can replicate the kind of success he had last time around. But he doesn't sound like somebody who is going to close the gap. He doesn't sound like somebody who is going to shock the world again. He sounds like somebody who is going to lose, and he is upset about it -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, those words were so, so ugly, speaking about the democratically elected governor of Pennsylvania. Arlette Saenz is in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, for us. She's covering
the Biden campaign. So, what are you hearing from inside that campaign, Arlette, about what they think is going to happen over the next couple days?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Wolf, those inside Joe Biden's campaign have a pretty positive outlook heading into election today.
You know, they acknowledge that it's not impossible for President Trump to win, but they feel that, right now, they are in the stronger position as Election Day nears. The campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, earlier today did a briefing, where she talked about how she believes that the strength of their support and what they are seeing in early voting has put them in the driver's seat heading into Election Day.
And you see that in the way that they have been campaigning over the past few days, and especially right now here in a state like Pennsylvania that is critical to their path to 270 electoral votes. You know, Joe Biden held his very first campaign rally back in April of 2019 right here in Pittsburgh.
And, at that time, he said that, if he is going to beat President Trump in this election, it's going to happen right here. And you see that that is something that they still very strongly believe, as they have sent Joe Biden to Pittsburgh in the waning hours of this campaign.
His wife and also Kamala Harris and her husband have also fanned out across all corners of the state, as they are trying to mobilize what they believe is a wide swathe of voters that they think is reflective of the entire country, suburban women, older voters, black and Latino voters, even those who voted for President Trump that they are trying to bring back into the Democratic column.
So, heading into tomorrow, they are cautiously optimistic, as I think most campaigns usually are. And they really do believe that, in the end, that Biden will pull this off as he heading into Election Day.
BLITZER: All right, stand by.
Dana, if you take look at the states the candidates are visiting right now, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, more Pennsylvania, these states are so critically important and could determine who wins and who loses, as opposed to so many of the other states.
BASH: Yes.
And the battleground, the battlefield is bigger than it has been in recent years. I mean, the fact that Georgia -- you have Pennsylvania up right now, but the former vice president started his day in Ohio. I have been to a lot of campaign stops in Ohio, both with Democrats and Republicans running for president in my time, but, in the last election, it wasn't even close. Hillary Clinton didn't even come near Donald Trump there. And now it
is neck and neck. Arizona is the same story. Georgia is the same story. It doesn't mean that it's not going to go back to its most recent DNA, which is red states and vote for the Republican for president.
But it does mean that there are more options for Joe Biden than there are for Donald Trump at this point.
And the one thing I also want to say, Wolf, as we're talking about this, is, look at the screen; 98 million, almost 100 million people have voted, and it says here almost a quarter of the electorate in 2016. That's amazing. That really is amazing.
And what the vote total will be at the end of Election Day, we don't know. But the fact that so many people clearly on both sides of the aisle are energized to go and vote, to make their voices heard is something that, despite how tense everything is right now, something that we should all celebrate.
[18:20:16]
BLITZER: Yes, 98 million, as you know, three-quarters of the turnout four years ago, so, so significant. We will see what happens tomorrow.
David Chalian is joining us. He is over at the Magic Wall for us.
So, walk us through this battle, this path to get to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I will start with Joe Biden's path.
This map here takes all the states we currently have rated as leaning one way or the other or true toss-ups. We have made then yellow, the battlegrounds, OK?
And let me just explain Joe Biden's path here. First, it's to hold the states Hillary Clinton won four years ago, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, New Hampshire. That's mission number one, OK?
And then mission number two is rebuilding that blue wall that he -- Joe Biden talks about all the time, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Now, that would do the trick. That's sort of the bare minimum of how Joe Biden gets to 270, Wolf.
But let me just show you where the polling is in a lot of these Sunbelt states right now. North Carolina, average at the polls, Biden 50, Trump 46, Florida, 49 Biden, 46 Trump, Georgia, 49 Biden, 46, Arizona, 49 Biden, 46 Trump.
These are margin-of-error races. But Joe Biden is in the hunt in these races that have been going red of late in these states. So, imagine Joe Biden's election night could also include North Carolina, could include Georgia, could possibly include Florida, could include Arizona. This is not -- this is not an out-of-the-question map here for Joe
Biden, given the state of the race right now. Again, his easiest path, though, is rebuilding this blue wall here.
BLITZER: The so-called blue wall.
So, what is President Trump's potential path to 270 electoral votes, David?
CHALIAN: Well, remember, this is the successful Trump map from 2016.
This is what Donald Trump is trying to rebuild. And, again, it's why we see him right here all day today, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, campaigning to prevent Joe Biden from building that blue wall.
But here is Donald Trump's top challenge. If indeed Joe Biden is successful at taking Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin, that drops Donald Trump to 260 electoral votes. Where would he go to find the 10 more electoral votes he would need in order to get reelected?
He would have to dig into deeper Democratic territory. He would have to go to a state Hillary Clinton won four years ago, like Minnesota, and flip it, 270. That would get him there.
But if Joe Biden rebuilds that blue wall, Donald Trump's path to try and get reelected means he is going to have to go into deeper Democratic territory than he has in the past, Wolf.
BLITZER: So, interesting, indeed.
Governor Kasich, the former governor of Ohio, is still with us.
Governor Kasich, almost 100 million Americans have already cast their ballots. They have already voted. What does that say to you about what's going on in this country right now?
KASICH: Well, Wolf, first of all, and the more I think about it, I'm steaming, because, in the state of Ohio, as long as you have a mail-in ballot that is postmarked before Election Day, that ballot can be counted 10 days after the election.
For the president of the United States or anybody running for office to cast aspersions on legitimate votes by legitimate voters, by the American electorate, is ridiculous. I mean, it's, frankly, ridiculous.
And then to argue, what we're going to do is we're going to send in a bunch of lawyers, and we're going to try to contest all this, and say these votes are not legitimate, just like these people tried to do down in Texas.
And I'm going to suggest this to you. And a lot of people, they kind of snicker when I say it, but the Republican leaders at the end of the day are going to have to stand up for the legitimacy of this election in this country. And, frankly, if it goes the other way and somehow we see things that
we are not expecting, then it's going to be incumbent on the Democratic leaders.
But I don't hear them talking about contesting the election or going into court. I only hear this out of the president.
And let me just suggest, we cannot have a country, Wolf, where 20 percent of the country says the election is not legitimate. And that is going to require other Republicans to find their courage.
Now, I know that there are commentators and journalists who will shake their heads and say, that will never happen. It must happen, if, in fact Trump does not win, if, in fact, he loses this, and it is legitimately counted, for whatever the rules are in each of these states. '
[18:25:05]
And you cannot call these states, just like you can't call any election, until the officials who count the ballots give you the word, plain and simple.
So, I hope we're not going see a bonanza for lawyers trying to figure out how the disenfranchise people. We went through that in the history of this country, when we tried to deliberately disenfranchise people. That is not our country. And people marched and they were beaten and jailed because they just wanted to make sure that everybody could vote and every vote would count.
BLITZER: Yes.
KASICH: I'm sorry to go on with that.
BLITZER: No, it's...
KASICH: But I just got to tell you, Wolf, it's just -- it just is -- this is America. We love America. We're all united. We can't just be fighting all the time. It won't work that way.
BASH: And, Wolf, if I just may, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, has sent signals that he is going to abide by the rules and not disenfranchise people.
Hopefully, we won't get to the point where any of this is relevant, but it is going to be a question that is going to be put to him again when and if that does happen.
BLITZER: Because, Nia, it is so dangerous...
(CROSSTALK)
KASICH: And, Dana -- let me just say one more thing, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, go ahead.
KASICH: Wolf, let me just say one more thing here.
And Dana is exactly right. And I raised the issue last night about somebody like Mitch McConnell, John Thune, the senator from Texas. I mean, it's going to take the Republican leadership to say what is legitimate, OK, when it is legitimate.
And I'm not presuming. I have my own thoughts about what's going to happen in this election, but I'm not here to tell you that tonight.
I'm just saying that, however it goes, comes out, you cannot disenfranchise people. And there will be Republicans, if Joe Biden wins, who have to say this was a legitimate election. That will go a long way to settling the country down.
BLITZER: You know, it's really important to note, as Governor Kasich says, Nia, the president uttered some really, really dangerous words when he attacked the governor of Pennsylvania, Governor Wolf, who wants simply to be able to count ballots, legitimately placed blots, for three days after the election.
In Ohio, they do it for 10 days after the election. He said: "We're all watching." This is the president of the United States speaking, "We're all watching," directing his comments at Governor Wolf. "We're all watching you, Governor. We have got a lot eyes -- we have a lot eyes on the governor and his friends, a couple of other governors out there as well."
And he said what was going on, allowing this extension to count ballots, is physically dangerous, physically dangerous. I don't know what he is talking about. But those words are ugly.
HENDERSON: His words are ugly.
And, so far, you haven't really heard anything from Republicans. Governor Kasich is hoping that, after the fact, they will come out and show some courage and stand up to the president. So far, the president has been maligning this process, talking about it being rigged, talking about sending poll workers to root out fraud at some of these polling places.
And we have heard nothing at all from Republicans. So they are in many ways giving the president leeway to talk in this very dangerous way about a very sacred thing, an American election, of a democratic process, of people voting at the polls.
So, listen, it will be interesting to see if Republicans finally find a voice, finally defend democracy, finally speak out against some of these anti-democratic statements that the president is making. But, so far, we haven't seen that.
And, listen, ultimately, it's going to be up to these local leaders in these states, Republican leaders, in county by county. Those are the folks that will be counting ballots, and those are the folks that are going to be determining the outcome of the election and to see if these votes are counted.
So, listen, we will see what happens, but this is a dangerous time and dangerous rhetoric from this president.
BLITZER: In the last hour, I spoke to the Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine. He said: I don't know what the president is talking about.
Well, the president is obviously making some pretty outrageous statements.
Everybody, stand by.
Up next, we're going go to key battleground states, including Texas, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Any one of them could make or break the race for either candidate.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:30:00]
BLITZER: On this election eve, CNN has correspondents all across the country in the battleground states that will decide the election.
Let's go to Texas right now and the breaking news on a Republican challenge to tens of thousands of ballots. Brian Todd is on the scene for us.
Brian, a federal judge is now allowing those ballots to be counted?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. A very dramatic ruling a short time ago by this judge known as a conservative judge, Andrew Hanen. He flatly rejected the Republican attempt to block about a 127,000 drive-through ballots that have been cast already in Harris County. This is the biggest county in Texas.
This was a political fight from start. The last minute the Republicans tried to fight this in court and try to get those ballots thrown out, but in the end, the judge rejected it.
On the Republican side, they had argued this was unfair, this system, that it skewed towards Democrats and that it opened things up for voter fraud. On the other side, Harris County had argued that this is all legal and above-board and was a safe and efficient means for getting people to vote.
But this was a very political fight, Wolf, because Harris County is a Democratic stronghold. In the end Judge Andrew Hanen, said this, quote, when you balance the harms, you've got to weigh in favor of that in counting the votes.
And then a short time later we heard from Steve Hotze, in the Republican side, and also this, from Chris Hollins, the clerk of the Harris County, who talk about the Republican effort to block the votes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRIS HOLLINS, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS, CLERK: Their motive is not to win. Their motive is to delay. Their motive is to confuse. Their motive is ultimately to reduce the odds that folks are going to exercise their constitutional right to vote.
[18:35:00]
STEVE HOTZE, PLAINTIFF: This is just another scheme by the Democrats in Harris County to steal the election. Why did they only put them in -- why did they put ten voting --
REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE).
HOTZE: Yes, drive-through voters. Why did they put nine out of ten in Democratic precincts?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: Now, the Republicans say they are going to appeal this ruling. They're going to go the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. But what we can tell you is that drive-through voting, those votes that have already been cast, 127,000 are valid, according to this judge, and there will be drive-through voting here in Harris County tomorrow. They're going to have that at polling places, and they expect maybe 20,000 to 25,000 more drive-through votes tomorrow, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, we'll see what happens over there, Brian Todd reporting for us from Texas.
Let's go to Wisconsin right now, where President Trump has a campaign stop tonight. CNN's Bill Weir is covering the fight for Wisconsin.
So, Bill, what's the latest there?
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's kind of telling the choice of spots they came to Wisconsin. It's a battleground state. No surprise he'd come back here, but Kenosha is still very much an open wound in this state after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in August and, of course, the protests that followed and Kyle Rittenhouse now accused of murdering two of those protesters.
He is jailed in Kenosha, has becomes sort of a call celebre for some conservatives raising money for his defense. It will be interesting to see if the president uses that as part of his closing argument, just as emotions there are still so rough at such a horrible chapter, still fresh.
And as for the votes, just about 13 hours from now, from Rhinelander up north to Milwaukie from Sheboygan to Beaver Dam, hundreds of clerks will be ripping open those absentee ballots, about 1.9 million already in. Once they start counting, they can't stop until they're done. In many small town, Trump-leaning towns, those results will be obviously counted in time for when the ballots close.
But, Wolf, in Milwaukee they're saying it will be between 3:00 A.M. and 4:00 A.M. on Wednesday before those absentee ballots are all in. BLITZER: Bill Weir in Madison, Wisconsin for us, a key battleground state, thank you.
Now to Pennsylvania, where both presidential candidates and their running mates have had campaign events today. Our Political Correspondent, Sara Murray, is there for us.
Sara, all four candidates, and that speaks to the critical importance of that state.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. It's a big prize, 20 electoral votes. And Joe Biden will be back in Pennsylvania tomorrow. This is a big test for the state. It's the first time anyone can vote by mail. They already have 2.4 million ballots returned, and, so far, counties have start kind of sifting through these.
They can see by the outside of these envelopes that there are already some issues. Some voters who have forgotten to put them in the secrecy envelope, all they can really do is kind of set those aside and wait until tomorrow. They can't open these mail-in ballots, these more than 2.4 million mail-in ballots until 7:00 A.M. on Election Day.
And there are a number of counties CNN has confirmed that are not even going to start until the day after Election Day. The key thing officials are saying in this state is that they may not know who won the state of Pennsylvania on election night. They're saying that is okay. They're urging people to be patient, to stay calm. They are going keep counting until we know who won the Keystone State. Back to you.
BLITZER: All right, Sara. Sara Murray in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for us, Thank you.
Just ahead, new fencing, get this, is now going up around the White House as the nation is clearly on edge. We're going there live. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:40:00]
BLITZER: There is breaking news coming out of the White House where work has just begun to put back in place the so-called non-scalable fence. Alex Marquardt is on the scene for us working the story.
So what are you right now? Tell us what is going on, Alex.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Wolf, back in place, this fencing. A lot of it was erected in the wake or during the George Floyd protests earlier this summer. Now, it is going back up. You can see these workers installing this non-scalable fence, it's about eight feet high.
And it's going to ring the White House, essentially creating a strong perimeter all the way around the White House. I was just speaking with some of those workers. They said that they're going to work on through the night until around 5:00 in the morning.
Wolf, this is certainly emblematic of the violence that could follow in the next few days. The chief of police here in Washington, D.C. has said that civil unrest is expected no matter who wins. I was speaking with a senior official in the mayor's office earlier today who said that they don't have any indications right now of violence. They certainly fear the prospect of violence. But right now, there is no credible threat.
Now, the Metropolitan Police Department, the police here in D.C., have been fully mobilized. They will have a 24-hour command center. And over the next few days, they will, of course, be coordinating with their federal partners. They have said, the police here, that they do not need federal resources. But, Wolf, one defense official does tell CNN that they have identified some 250 National Guards troops that could get called up if need be, Wolf.
BLITZER: Show us a little bit of the fencing that's going up. I'm really curious to see. It's going to encircle the entire White House grounds right now, I take it, right?
MARQUARDT: Yes. Take a look at this Wolf. So this is the fencing, over here, Tony, if you wouldn't mind following me. This is the fencing, extremely solid. We saw this t earlier this summer. It's very tough for protesters to climb, if that is indeed their intention, very hard to shake.
[18:45:04]
Now, we have asked the Secret Service for an explanation, some sort of comment. They have not given one us to.
One other scene that is playing out across the city in D.C. and all across the country, Wolf, as you know is the boarding up of businesses. On all the other three corners on this intersection, you can the city in D.C. and all across the country, Wolf, as the city in D.C. and all across the country, Wolf, as you know is the boarding up of businesses. On all the other three corners on this intersection, you can see businesses that have been boarded up. That is, again, a reflection of the fear about the potential violence that could arise.
We have seen major retail chains across the country, whether it's Macy's, CVS, Target, Tiffany's, saying that in certain areas, they'll be boarding up their shots. Rodeo Drive, that luxury retail avenue in Beverly Hills, they're shutting down tonight at midnight until Wednesday.
Now, the mayor of D.C., as well as the mayor of New York, they said they did not tell businesses to board up, but they certainly understand it, Wolf.
So there is a lot of anxiety not just about the vote itself, but what could -- what could ensue afterwards -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Yeah, it's a pretty significant ominous development that they got to not only put these fences around the entire White House grounds, but that all these areas of downtown Washington right near the White House are merely blocks away, they're boarded up preemptively, hoping for the best, but getting ready, god forbid, for the worst. There is a lot of nervousness going on right now.
All right, Alex, we're going stay on top of this together with you. Thank you very, very much.
Let's discuss these late-breaking developments with a former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, that served during the Obama administration.
Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining us.
As you can see, and as you sense yourself, Americans are on edge right now.
What -- what's your take? What's your reaction when you see this new fencing going up around the entire White House grounds? You see all these stores, these businesses boarding up not only in the nation's capital, but in so many cities around the country right now -- the fear of disturbances irrespective of who wins this election?
JEH JOHNSON, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Wolf, I don't like what I see. I was responsible for the security of the White House compound when I was secretary of homeland security. The sight of businesses boarding up their windows across America, it's unnerving. I don't like what I see. I can not discount the possibility of unrest, violence on Election Day, in the aftermath of Election Day.
And so I suspect that over the coming days, when roughly one-half of America is going to be very, very unhappy with the election result and tensions are running high, that we're going to have to count on our nation's leaders, Republicans and Democrats to help bring the temperature down, to tell people that there are things more important than the outcome of a particular election for four years, for a four- year period.
And so, I cannot count -- discount the possibility of civil unrest here. It's very troubling to see this, but all Americans should realize that there are things more important than the outcome of a single election. The preservation of our democracy, our public safety.
And I hope that those with a public voice can be counted on to help bring the temperature down. Unfortunately, we have not seen that from our president in the last four years.
BLITZER: Walk us through decision-making process. You were the secretary of homeland security. How does that unfold, a decision to put a huge fence now around the White House on the eve of a presidential election? I have never seen that before, before a presidential election. I don't know if you have. But it's pretty extraordinary.
JOHNSON: I've never seen anything like that. And, in fact, in my experience, this is about as high as emotions can run just before a presidential election. My educated guess is that the Secret Service, those in Homeland Security, those in law enforcement are looking at law enforcement-sensitive reports about possible civil unrest and are taking adequate precautions.
The White House compound in ordinary circumstances is the most secure building in America. For the Secret Service to take this added step is quite significant in my view.
BLITZER: And we do know the president will be at the White House tomorrow night. He'll be watching the election results. They will have a reception for supporters in the White House tomorrow night as well. So they want to make sure everything is secure.
In a situation like this, you got to err on the side of caution, obviously, because everyone is so nervous.
But it's so critically important as the results come in, Mr. Secretary, for the leaders of this country, Republicans and Democrats, everyone, to tell -- to tell the country, you know what?
[18:50:07]
This is democracy. This is an election. Let's see what happens, calm down.
JOHNSON: Yes. That's my point. Elections state by state are rarely certified on the night of the election. They're rarely formally called by state election officials.
You folks in the networks have developed very, very sophisticated means for projecting the winner of an election. I remember well, Wolf, in November of 2008, you projected Barack Obama was going to be the president of the United States. That was a call made by the networks. That was not the final tally.
And so, I suspect that this may be a very close election and we may have to wait for a number of days. And during that period, you're right, it's incumbent upon those of us with a public voice, Republicans and Democrats, to work to bring the temperature down, to bring the anxiety down until we get a final result. We're used to peaceful transitions of power in this free democracy. And I hope that this year is not an exception.
BLITZER: The president had this to say earlier about Pennsylvania, which is going to be counting ballots that arrive within three days after Election Day, even if they were postmarked before Election Day.
But I want you to listen to what the president had to say. It's very disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And when the Supreme Court gave you an extension, they made a very dangerous situation, and I mean dangerous, physically dangerous, and they made it a very, very bad -- they did a very bad thing for this state. They did a very bad thing for this nation. You have to have a date. You can't extend dates. The danger that could
be caused by that extension and especially when you know what goes on in Philadelphia and has been going on for years.
So, Governor, open up your state and please don't cheat, Governor. Please don't cheat.
Because we're all watching. We'll all watching you, Governor. Got a lot of -- we have a lot of eyes on the governor and his friends. Couple of other governors out there, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: So what's your reaction when the president levels what clearly sounds like a threat to Governor Wolf of Pennsylvania?
JOHNSON: Wolf, I'll repeat what I've said before. People do listen to their leaders, particularly the president. A downward spiral in rhetoric makes the previously intolerable tolerable, and for the deranged, dangerous people who live among us violence inevitable.
We got a taste of that in Michigan. Fortunately, through the good work of law enforcement, state and federal, that conspiracy was stopped in its tracks.
People do listen to their leaders, which is why those with a microphone, particularly the president, need to be responsible in their rhetoric. There could be dangerous consequences if someone with a bullhorn the size of what President Trump has, is not responsible.
BLITZER: Yeah, he says that we should stop counting ballots on Tuesday, tomorrow, tomorrow night, after that we shouldn't count anymore.
We've always counted ballots after the Tuesday of Election Day. You were the general counsel at the Department of Defense. You know military ballots, hundreds of thousands of troops around the world, they always come in late. And they're always counted.
JOHNSON: Wolf, my son wears the uniform of our nation. He cast a ballot from overseas. I want my son's vote counted. He's a patriotic American who is serving our country like many others, who wear the uniform of this nation. They deserve to have their votes counted.
If someone is qualified to vote, someone votes on time, if someone sends in a ballot that is postmarked on or before Election Day, they deserve to have their votes counted. I cannot imagine a reason why someone would want to stop the counting of votes from those who are qualified to vote and who have voted.
BLITZER: Yeah, that's what the president is saying, and it's outrageous I must say.
Jeh Johnson, the former secretary of homeland security, thanks so much for joining us.
JOHNSON: Thank you.
BLITZER: All right. We're going to have more news right after this.
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[18:59:39]
BLITZER: We're just hours away from the election of a lifetime. Please be sure to join me and our political team for our live special coverage of "Election Night in America". It all begins tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
And I leave you with this. It is so, so important to get out and vote. You still have time. You still have tonight and tomorrow. So please, please vote. Every vote counts. This is a democracy.
I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. Thanks very much for watching.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
