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Trump & Biden Battle In Key States In Final Stretch Of Campaign; White House Accuses Fauci Of Playing Politics After Criticizing Trump's COVID Response; Biden Campaign Cancels Texas Event After Trump Supporters Surround Campaign Bus On Interstate; Businesses In Several Cities Boarding Up Ahead Of Possible Unrest; Former NSA General Counsel: America's Elections Are More Secure Than You Think; New CNN Polls: Biden Leads In Michigan And Wisconsin; Europe Scrambles to Implement New Measures As Cases Soar. Aired 7-8a ET
Aired November 1, 2020 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:00:01]
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We choose hope over fear! And yes, we choose truth over lies!
(CHEERS)
REPORTER: U.S. confirmed coronavirus cases have now surpassed nine million.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We now have one person being diagnosed of coronavirus every second.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our nation is plunging into a terrible darkness from COVID-19.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Dr. Anthony Fauci, he just spoke to the "Washington Post" and as the headline suggests said a mouthful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slamming the president's medical adviser Scott Atlas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: A live look at the White House this morning. And in the decision to determine who will live and work there, there are now two days left in the election, two days out from official -- calendar Election Day. And more than 91 million people have already voted.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And candidates, both of them, are all over the place today, particularly in battleground states making their final pitch to voters.
And it's clear the president is playing defense a bit. He is going to be in Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia today. Yes, five states, five events in one day. Vice President Pence also headed to North Carolina, as well. But the Republicans did win all those states in 2016.
BLACKWELL: Democrats obviously trying to flip three states that Trump won last time around.
Today, Joe Biden will be campaign in Pennsylvania. Kamala Harris will be holding events in Georgia, in North Carolina, and CNN has all the angles covered.
Sarah Westwood is at the White House. Jason Carroll is in Wilmington, Delaware. And Jean Casarez is in New York.
PAUL: Sarah, I want to start with you there at the White House.
As we know, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top doctor on the coronavirus task force, of course, he's becoming increasingly critical of the White House, and the White House does not seem too pleased about it. Walk us through what's happened in the last 24 hours.
SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, Christi.
Yesterday, Dr. Anthony Fauci really just unloaded on this White House in an interview with "The Washington Post." And it was the most candid that we've seen him be when talking about the pandemic response. In the past, he's sort of made some veiled criticisms of elements of the pandemic response, but he really took aim at some of the choices that the Trump administration has made in that interview.
And I want to read part of what he said: We're in for a whole lot of hurt. It's not a good situation. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.
And he was, of course, talking about how the White House has positioned itself heading into what could be a deadly winter. That's something public health experts have been warning about for months, and when the cold weather drives people inside, we could see cases spike. That's happening now.
And Fauci also took aim at Dr. Scott atlas, a medical adviser to the president, but not an infectious disease expert. He's certainly caused some friction on the task force.
Fauci said: I have real problems with that guy. He's a smart guy who's talking about things that I believe he doesn't have any real insight or knowledge or experience in.
Now, unsurprisingly, the White House not happy with this Fauci interview. They sort of unleashed on Fauci yesterday, and I want to read a statement from Judd Deere, White House spokesperson.
It's unacceptable and breaking with all norms for Dr. Fauci, a senior member of the president's coronavirus task force, and someone who has praised President Trump's actions throughout this pandemic, to choose three days before the election to play politics. Certainly interesting timing to say the least for Fauci to choose now to be so candid with the media. Dr. Atlas also responded on Twitter firing back at Fauci with a series of hashtags, #embarrassinghimself, #notimeforpolitics.
Now, we're also learning more about how frequently Trump and Fauci are speaking as we're seeing the pandemic worsening. Take a listen to "Washington Post" reporter Josh Dawsey who conducted this Fauci interview on how often Trump and Fauci are engaging.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH DAWSEY, THE WASHINGTON POST (via telephone): I asked Dr. Fauci on the phone last night, Anderson, whether he have spoken to the president. Dr. Fauci said it was only about his own case recently when he was in Walter Reed, and he had not spoken to the president. Now, Dr. Fauci said on the phone that he does not regularly go to the White House anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WESTWOOD: Now, we have seen the task force increasingly sidelined, and the public-facing roles of experts like Fauci, like Dr. Deborah Birx, sort of be minimized as the president has turned the attention to the re-election efforts.
BLACKWELL: And the White House highlights the timing. It's also the day that we learned that the U.S. setting a new global record for the most new coronavirus cases reported in a single day, 99,321.
Sarah, before we let you go, can you explain this tweet from the president yesterday, video appearing to show a caravan of cars and trucks with Trump flags surrounding a Biden/Harris campaign bus.
WESTWOOD: Yeah. The president tweeted this video, certainly raised eyebrows. He tweeted it with the headline "I love Texas."
[07:05:00]
But it was a video of his supporters seemingly surrounding a Biden campaign bus on a highway in Texas.
This group apparently calls itself the Trump Train Group. It's a group of vehicles that get together. They do these drive-byes with Trump flags and paraphernalia.
CNN is reporting about 100 vehicles involved in this incident. That bus was going from San Antonio to Austin. And it appears they were trying to slow it down or prevent it from getting to its destination.
The Trump campaign has not responded to a request for comment about why the president has seemingly embraced this potentially dangerous behavior from his supporters -- Victor and Christi.
BLACKWELL: Sarah Westwood at the White House, thanks so much.
PAUL: So, let's go to CNN's Jason Carroll. He's following the Biden campaign from Delaware this morning.
And, Jason, we know that Biden's camp has some things to say about the president's tweet and about the incident itself. What is this side saying?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Well, a couple of things.
First of all, the Biden campaign ended up canceling an event in Austin, Texas, out of abundance of caution.
As for reaction, a Biden spokesperson tweeted this last night saying for the second time in a week, your campaign has left your supporters stranded in the cold with no transportation at one of your super- spreader rallies. Maybe you should spend more time worried about those buses than ours. Of course, it's a reference to the fallout from folks at that Trump event in Pennsylvania who was stranded after that event and also there was a previous event in Omaha, Nebraska, where the same thing happened.
But on to what matters most to the Biden camp at this point -- and that is securing the blue wall in the Midwest. That is what they're focused on. Focus on states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, that's why you've seen so much time and energy spent in those states.
Yesterday, for example, Biden joined former President Barack Obama for the first time out on the campaign trail, in Michigan making two stops, in Flint and Detroit, driving home some of the same messages that we've heard throughout the campaign -- the president's failed response on the coronavirus, the importance of getting out there and voting, and, of course, Biden's message of bringing the country together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'll work as hard for those who don't support me as those who do. And you know what, in this America, in my America, there's no red state or blue state. It's everybody. That's a job of president, the duty to care, to care for everyone. So for god's sakes, please vote.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: Go vote. If you've already voted, what do you do? Go get your friends to vote. Get your family to make a plan to vote. We need everybody to turn out.
This is a family affair. That's why Joe Biden is my brother. I love Joe Biden. He will be a great president.
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: His song "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours," the same song that Obama used for his campaign. It worked for him then. We'll have to see if it works again for the Biden campaign now. Biden for his part will be holding two events in Philadelphia today.
Tomorrow, he'll be campaigning again in the state of Pennsylvania, again emphasizing the importance of holding this state if they're going to rebuild the blue wall that they lost in 2016 -- Christi, Victor.
BLACKWELL: Jason Carroll, thank you.
We're seeing some preparations in cities across the country for what may come after Election Day. Some businesses are boarding up windows and storefronts, New York and Washington we're seeing this.
I guess they're anticipating our preparing for vandalism in those areas.
PAUL: Yeah. Jean Casarez is in New York right now following this. What are you seeing about the measures that people are being taken and their reasoning for going as far as they seem to be going now with just two days to go?
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's very interesting, and a lot of businesses are being boarded up. I mean, right here in New York City yesterday, we were at Macy's, which is the flagship Macy's for this country in Herald Square. They were boarding up the doors.
You might remember at the end of May, Macy's was vandalized here in New York City, as were many other businesses. I can tell you that a lot of businesses have remained boarded up since the end of May here in New York City. But yesterday, walking by the Empire State Building, that was being boarded up.
Now the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, is saying the state police are ready, and they are in coordination with and communication with local authorities, other state law enforcement authorities, and even federal authorities. And if needed, they will not hesitate to take action, he said.
[07:10:03]
Now it's not only New York but Washington, D.C., California, Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, all of these states -- and I'm sure others -- are taking the precaution, business owners are boarding up their businesses.
Now, we spoke with one of the major security firms based here in New York City. They're saying that they're getting so many calls from not only businesses but other types of retail outlets asking them to come and assess, to see if their safety precautions are enough, asking for security, asking them how soon they can get there if they find they need security.
And the reasoning they believe that this is so important to these business owners is, number one, the election. Number two, it's the pandemic, and people have had to stay home, and they just have that urge to get out. And number three, that there may be misinformation. We may not know
the winner Tuesday night, Wednesday, Thursday, may not know for a while. And those emotions will vent up and the volatility of the situation could create something where businesses need that protection.
PAUL: All right. Jean Casarez, thank you so much for the update.
Be sure to watch "ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA" as well. Our special coverage starts Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.
BLACKWELL: Police in North Carolina used pepper spray to break up a march at a polling station. They say that the demonstration turned unsafe and unlawful.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
PAUL: You see some of the moments there that officers began using that pepper spray in this crowd. A congressional candidate says people were peacefully demonstrating. Now the protest was organized to be in solidarity with black lives matter and to honor lives lost to racial injustice.
BLACKWELL: The president's favorite adviser on the coronavirus spoke to a Russian television network and his administration says that that network tries to undermine democracy in the U.S.
PAUL: Dr. Scott Atlas gave an interview to the Kremlin-controlled network yesterday from the White House. We're going to tell you what he said.
Also, England is preparing for a new national lockdown. There are other parts of the world, though, for instance Australia, recording zero cases for the first time in months.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:16:34]
PAUL: So, add this to the controversy surrounding the president's coronavirus adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, an extensive interview on the Kremlin-controlled propaganda network RT. Also noteworthy here, it appears he gave the interview via satellite from White House grounds. That's according to the footage aired of the interview.
BLACKWELL: Now, here's why this is a problem for some people -- the U.S. government has said many times that RT is a tool of the Russians to spread disinformation and try to undermine democracy in the U.S. But Dr. Atlas used that network to slam some respected public health experts, criticized Joe Biden, and tout some really out there views about COVID.
And during this interview, atlas talked about the criticism of him by Dr. Fauci and others. And this is what he said, it's a quote: I'm proud to be an outlier especially when the inliers are completely wrong. I'm not afraid to be a contrarian because I know I'm right. We should remind you that he is not an epidemiologist. He is not a public health specialist. He's a radiologist.
PAUL: And we should also let you know that just in a couple of minutes, we're talking to a former NSA general counsel about that, a man who served under both presidents Obama and President Trump. And we will talk to him about what just happened here, as well.
Also, U.S. coronavirus cases passed 9.1 million, and the death toll is more than 230,000. More than 81,000 new cases were reported just yesterday.
BLACKWELL: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that most people traveling into New York have to get a COVID-19 test before and after they arrive. And you know, the holidays are coming up, and he also cautioned people to stay vigilant.
CNN correspondent Natasha Chen has more for us.
Tell us about the rules and when they go into effect.
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Victor and Christi, this starts November 4th. And Governor Cuomo really wants to keep that positivity right down. New York suffered in the very beginning, but over the summer, between June and September, the seven-day average of new cases really stayed under 1,000.
That changed in October. Since October, it's tipped over 1,000 and stayed that way every day. So this new rule change essentially means that travelers outside of those contingency states who have been outside the states for more than 24 hours have to show two negative tests in order to come out of quarantine in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHEN (voice-over): With cases surging throughout the country this Halloween weekend, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday that most travelers to the Empire State will now be required to show they've tested negative for COVID-19 three days before they arrive and upon their arrival.
The governor said during a call with the media the new policy replaces a previous advisory list of states with rising case counts from come travelers were required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in New York. In the U.S., the total number of COVID-19 cases surpassed 9.1 million and the nation's death toll from the pandemic topped 230,000 on Saturday.
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: A hundred thousand cases yesterday, two weeks from now, we'll start to translate into massive numbers of deaths. So, we're going to see not just the cases continue to escalate, but we're going to see perhaps 2,000 deaths per day two or three weeks from now.
[07:20:00] CHEN: In Florida, health officials reported 2,331 new cases on Saturday, the 12th consecutive day with over 2,000 cases, according to a CNN tally.
Pennsylvania on Saturday reported 2,510 new cases, according to a health department statement. Daily increases in the state along with Michigan and Wisconsin were at the highest level since the start of the pandemic, health officials in those states said.
At least 47,374 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals on Saturday according to a COVID Tracking Project. That's up 65.6 percent from a three-month low of 28,608 on September 20th. And it's the highest total since mid-August. Hospitalizations decreased in Georgia and Hawaii this month, while California's hospitalizations held steady.
Every other state and the District of Columbia saw increases, the COVID Tracking Project showed.
Former Baltimore health commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen, said Saturday the U.S. has a narrow window of time before more drastic measures like mandatory lockdowns have to be considered.
DR. LEANA WEN, FROMER BALTIMORE CITY HEALTH COMMISSIONER: We are seeing COVID-19 hot spots raging all over the country. And right now, we have an opportunity to implement targeted measures like universal mask wearing, like making sure that our high-risk businesses like bars and certain areas, indoor bars, are shut down, like instructing the public that we should be avoiding social gatherings of extended family and friends.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHEN: And this morning, we've learned that the Illinois health department has also reported its highest daily case count on Saturday. This is an alarming trend across many states, as you've seen across the U.S. and of course, the total seven-day moving average of new cases in this country has moved steadily up since mid-September, and now experts are particularly concerned as we're also entering flu season.
Victor and Christi, back to you.
BLACKWELL: Dr. Fauci says that we're in for a whole lot of hurt.
All right. Natasha Chen for us, thanks so much.
PAUL: Still to come, President Trump continues to cast doubt on the election results. A former general counsel of the NSA, though, says the elections are more secure than we may think. He joins us next.
Stay close.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:26:24] BLACKWELL: This really is a remarkable number -- the 91.6 million people have already voted, and Election Day is still two days away. This is according to a survey, and it's about 43 percent of all registered voters across the country.
Right now, at least 16 states have already seen more than half of their registered voters vote in this early election. And among the 28 states that break down those numbers by party, 44 percent are Democrats, 31 percent are Republicans.
Now, in Florida, early voting wraps up in more counties today. The latest numbers show that more than 8.3 million people have voted there across the state. That's an increase from 6.4 million pre-election votes cast at this point in 2016.
PAUL: So, let's break it down by party for you. Democrats have a slight edge over Republicans by a little more than 113,000 votes. The president carried the state in 2016 with 29 electoral votes there that are up for grabs. It's coveted by both campaigns obviously.
BLACKWELL: CNN's Randi Kaye is there in Broward County -- of course, the battleground within the battleground.
Randi, new polls showing that Florida is a very close race. Tell us what we found.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Here's what we're getting this morning -- the new poll from ABC and the "Washington Post" showing Trump with 50 percent support and Joe Biden with 48 percent. Still very tight.
But you have the other poll from "The New York Times" and Sienna College showing the opposite with Biden on top 47 percent to Trump with 44 percent. So, clearly, Florida is still a tossup, certainly too close to call at this point.
But the question really here in the state is what are the independent voters going to do or the no-party-affiliated voters as they're called here, NPAs. Only about 43 percent of them have turned out to vote already. So where are the rest of them? Are they going to vote on Election Day in person after early voting wraps up today? There's no voting tomorrow. Or are they going to sit this one out?
We're also taking a closer look at who is actually voting. I spoke with a political professor from the University of Florida. And he has found that not so many young people are turning out to vote so far, 39 percent or so of 18 to 23-year-olds and about 33 percent of those 24 to 29. But more than 70 percent of those 65 and older.
And if you look at race, certainly that is a big thing here in the state of Florida. African-Americans and Hispanic voters lagging behind white voters by about 7 percent points. It's a big reason why Barack Obama will be back here in south Florida tomorrow.
Kamala Harris spent the day here yesterday. She made three stops. She was telling voters around south Florida that they should honor their ancestors and get out and vote. It's a big part of the Biden strategy. Listen --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I do believe that a path to victory runs through Florida. This is my -- I don't know -- second time at least in person since I've been on the ticket, but traveling up and down the state. Certainly in the last couple of weeks.
So, we're putting the resources and the investment in Miami. I think we're seeing the response to that. We've seen in each of the events, for example, today the kind of enthusiasm and turnout, not to mention the numbers in terms of people who are voting across the board.
So election night I think will determine who has come out and who hasn't. And we can have that conversation then.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: And if you look back at 2016, about 9.4 million people here in the state of Florida. Donald Trump won by 1.2 percent, 113,000 votes or so.
[07:30:02]
Joe Biden hopes to change that this year.
Back to you.
PAUL: All right. Randi Kaye, good to know. Thank you so much.
Businesses across the country are boarding up their windows ahead of Election Day, by the way. They're concerned about potential unrest at the polls and protests in their communities. Officials say President Trump questioning the integrity of the election could create flash points nationwide.
Let's talk about this with expert Glenn Gerstell. He served at the National Security Agency during the 2016 election -- actually served under both Presidents Obama and President Trump.
Glenn, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.
Before we get into some of that -- the security questions there, I know that you had a most recent article in "Barron's" magazine, an interesting piece, I highly recommend it for people to read it. And you say that America's elections are actually more secure than you think.
And you write this: Chances are we'll soon look back on the 2020 election elections as the most secure in history.
Why do you believe that?
GLENN GERSTELL, ELECTION SECURITY & DISINFORMATION EXPERT: Well, we should look to 2016 when the Russians were poking around our elections system, trying every door handle to see what doors were locked, to see what windows were open in our election security system, and spewing disinformation. That was four years ago. Two years later in the midterm elections, we learned our lessons and pushed back very strongly on the Russians both in terms of election -- voting interference as well as disinformation.
And so, now, two years later, ready for the largest presidential elections of 2020, we're now in a much better place to prevent foreign election interference, actually changing vote totals, and preventing widespread fraud with mail-in ballots or other balloting at the polling places.
So, we're in a much better place from a security point of view. It doesn't mean it's perfect, but we're in a much better place than we've been before.
PAUL: So since you mentioned Russia and the disinformation campaign, I need ask you about the news that we're getting this morning that White House pandemic adviser Dr. Scott Atlas just gave this extensive interview to Russia state media, RT, as it's known. It was mainly about the coronavirus, but it does beg the question considering the fact that the U.S. government has repeatedly said that RT is a Russian tool to spread disinformation and try to undermine U.S. democracy.
Is that the right place for a White House official to be having any conversations?
GERSTELL: Well, I'm certainly more concerned about disinformation than I am about actual problems with widespread ballot chicanery. On the disinformation point, you're absolutely right that Russia has been a very, very strong adversary in that regard. RT, Russia Television, is part and parcel of the overall Russian apparatus in spreading disinformation. They take fabrications that arise elsewhere, and they amplify it on RT.
For me, appearing for an American official to appear on RT is, certainly I'll say, a concerning choice, an odd choice. We don't normally have public officials appear there for interviews.
And it's all part of -- potentially, potentially, we don't know, part of information on the part of Russia. We're not sure. That's something that we need to be concerned about.
PAUL: So you would be concerned about that. It illustrates, obviously, that there is some communication with RT and the White House. Now, this might have been a one-off. We don't know what that communication may be. We want to be very transparent. We don't know about that.
But as a former n as general counsel, if you were still until that position, would you be concerned about any security around any conversations that may be being had and the intention of this White House?
GERSTELL: Well, I think we need to separate security concerns from disinformation. On the disinformation front, I think this clearly has the potential for being part of Russia's overall effort to sow discord and promote untruths in this election cycle and associated with the pandemic. So from that point of view, yes, it is potentially concerning. The intelligence community would look to see whether this is corroborated elsewhere with other Russian efforts that they may be doing on social media platforms or elsewhere.
From a security point of view, I'll have to leave that to the domestic law enforcement questions.
PAUL: So before I let you go, I wanted to ask you about the machinery that you talk about in your article, the voting being the source of the problem. You know, people get this image when we talk about disinformation or interference in an election. They get inaccurate vote tallies in their heads or election night tabulations.
How vulnerable is that part of it? And who -- what foreign entity is the U.S. most at risk from in your opinion?
[07:35:04]
Because we know the ODNI released a report August 7th about China, Iran, and Russia. What are your thoughts on both of those pieces of information?
GERSTELL: Right. So because our election system is so disbursed, over 3,000 counties with 85,000 polling places which employ literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of electronic equipment, it's surely possible that something can go wrong. There could be a software glitch. There could be a ransomware demand somewhere in a case of a county that doesn't have great cybersecurity.
There could, of course, be isolated cases of fraud. Humans are involved. So, we can't discount isolated cases of -- of ballot fraud, probably not likely to favor one party over another, and almost surely not going to affect actual outcomes in a national sense.
In terms of who's likely to be tinkering with the election, for various reasons I don't think any foreign country's actually going to be interfering with the actual ballot, the actually changing votes, changing a seven to a nine.
Will there be disinformation? Principally from Russia, absolutely. Possibly China. Iran, we've seen a little bit. North Korea to a less extent.
But Russia is the principal one to be concerned about from the point of view of disinformation.
From the point of view of actually changing vote totals. Again, I think the main messages we're probably in a pretty good place.
PAUL: Okay. Yeah.
Again, his article in "Barron's," "America's elections are more secure than you think." Glen Gerstell, we so appreciate your voice in this conversation. Thank you, sir.
GERSTELL: Thank you. If I could add one comment --
PAUL: Of course --
GERSTELL: I took my 96-year-old dad to early voting, and he remarked that it was the 19th presidential election that he was participating in, and this was the one that he was most concerned about. So I know this is an important topic for everybody.
PAUL: Wow.
GERSTELL: Thank you.
PAUL: Thank your father for his vote and all of the elections, of course. We know people died so we could vote. So thank you so much.
GERSTELL: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: Let's get into the new statewide polls in these last days of the campaign with CNN political analyst Toluse Olorunnipa, White House reporter for the "Washington Post".
Toluse, good morning to you. We got a lot to get. So, I'm going to hit it. I'm going to start with Iowa.
Let's put up the poll from "The Des Moines Register" this weekend. It shows President Trump with a seven-point lead.
Now, the poll from "Des Moines" showed a tied race earlier this cycle back in September. Reliable poll, but it is just one. Monmouth showed a statistical tie.
Any indications that campaigns think that this lead is cemented for the president, and that this can be extrapolated throughout the Midwest?
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That all of the polling earlier in the summer and over the course of the fall that showed the president behind in places like Iowa and Ohio were sort of just early polls that didn't really reflect what we're going to see on election day, which is that Republicans are going to vote for Republicans. Remember that Trump won Iowa by 9 percent points in 2016. So him leading by seven shows that he continues to have support from a large number of Republicans in that state.
So they are happy about that poll. It is sort of an outlier from all of the other polls that we've seen. And we did see former Vice President Joe Biden go to Iowa. There's a sign that his internal polling shows the race is much closer there than this poll shows.
It is clear that the Trump campaign does believe that Republican voters are going to come home, a number of states, and even if they don't like some of the things the president says, they're going to vote for him based on policy.
BLACKWELL: The president has been predicting a red wave on election day. We know that Democrats, at least from what we've seen from studies, is that we'll -- more likely to vote in early voting, mail-in ballots.
Let's go to Wisconsin and CNN's new polling. President Trump will be in Kenosha Monday night, 1.85 million people have voted early there. That's about two-thirds the number of 2016. Wisconsin doesn't register by party, but our poll shows that -- let's put up the poll from Wisconsin -- that Biden has a 44-point advantage with respondents who have already voted, but the president has just a 25-point advantage over those who have not yet voted.
The numbers would suggest here that that red wave won't overtake what's already happened.
OLORUNNIPA: Yeah. We have heard from the Trump campaign that they relying on a surge of turnout. They need a surge of turnout to make up for the early vote that seems to be leaning heavily Democratic in Wisconsin and a number of these other states.
So, they are really trying to turn out the base. They're catering to the president's most loyal supporters, the core supporters, specifically the white working-class voters that helped him in the Midwest in 2016. They're hoping they will turn out in larger numbers than they did in 2016.
And if that red wave doesn't show up it may not be enough for President Trump to close the gap. So it will really depend on what happens on Election Day. Whether we see a huge turnout for the president.
[07:40:02]
And if not, he may have too much ground to make up in too little time.
BLACKWELL: Vice President Biden is going to spend the day in Pennsylvania. President Trump had four rallies there yesterday. Your paper has new numbers out this morning showing the former vice president is up seven in Pennsylvania. But within hours of the release of this poll, your colleague Sean Sullivan published a story and the headline, "Democrats grow more anxious about Pennsylvania."
Why the anxiety?
OLORUNNIPA: Democrats are incredibly stressed after four years ago, they saw all of those polling leads evaporate on election night in places like Pennsylvania. They are worried that that may happen again. They don't feel as confident in their lead as they would like to. And some of it is just sort of the leftover stress from four years ago when they were shocked on election night. Some of it is the fact that there are fundamentals they're trying to shore up.
Now they're happy that Vice President Joe Biden is up in the polls and that the polling average lead has been pretty strong. But they do worry about some of the mail-in ballots, maybe some of them will be thrown out because of Pennsylvania trying a new form of mail-in balloting this year, and people not being too familiar with it. Maybe the turnout among minorities is not as high as they would like it to be. They are worried about a potential red wave on Election Day. There are
a lot of votes out in Pennsylvania. It's one of the lower early vote states. There are a lot of votes that could still change the trajectory of the race.
And that's one of the reasons Democrats are a little bit nervous going into this race because they feel like if they win Pennsylvania, they will be able to win the race. It's not yet clear that they will be able to do that just yet.
BLACKWELL: Toluse Olorunnipa, always good to have you, sir.
OLORUNNIPA: Thank you.
PAUL: Heading to Europe with you next where some of the biggest economies are about to go into lockdown again.
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[07:46:25]
BLACKWELL: Overnight in Quebec City, Canada, two people were killed, five others were hurt in a stabbing attack.
PAUL: According to CNN partner CBC News, local police say the suspect has been arrested. People there are asked, though, to remain indoors with their doors locked right now as authorities continue to search the area.
BLACKWELL: There's a mixed pictures on the spread of coronavirus around the world. For the first time in months, in Australia there's no report of new COVID-19 cases, but there's a very different picture in England. It's expected to join France and Germany in entering new lockdowns as soon as Thursday.
And those are by no means the only places facing restrictions in Europe.
PAUL: CNN correspondent Melissa Bell is in Paris with more.
Hi, Melissa.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Christi. Hey, Victor. It was a second lockdown that England had vowed to resist. Yet on Saturday the prime minister having to announce that it will take place, parliamentarians will vote next week. By Thursday, it should come into effect.
This as the United Kingdom that reaches the grim milestone of more than a million cases already reached by France, already reached by Spain. It will be a strict lockdown, as strict as the one we're under in France. It's day three. If I want to leave my apartment, I can't do so unless I stay within less than a mile of here and for less than an hour. Unless I have a special piece of paper explaining why I need to go out. We have lockdowns in a growing number of European countries, Belgium,
Germany, Austria, Portugal. And this because of the spread of the virus in this second wave. The virulence has really surprised many here in Europe.
We've got growing number of new cases in several countries, positivity rates of more than 20 percent in some European countries, including here in France. The hospitals are becoming overburdened, the ICU units in some European cities already running out of room. It's the case in Belgium, for instance. They'll have to transfer patients across the border into Germany.
It is really a second wave that has surprised Europe, both in the speed and the breadth of its spread. No one had expected to be worse than the first wave.
BLACKWELL: Melissa Bell for us in Paris -- Melissa, thank you so much.
PAUL: Thank you, Melissa.
So, back in 2008, then-Senator Obama sank a three-pointer while visiting troops in Kuwait. Can he still do it?
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[07:53:26]
BLACKWELL: All right. Before the break we asked if Barack Obama could still sink a three-pointer. See for yourself.
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(CHEERS)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: That's what I do. That's what I do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: That's what he does. Casually dropping a three-pointer at a game in Michigan while campaigning for Joe Biden.
PAUL: Did you catch what he did after? That's what I do. It's not that. It's the way he turned around like I got it. He was just going to walk off. He said yeah.
BLACKWELL: It is in the walk off. Like of course I hit it. Now on to other things.
PAUL: Yeah, exactly.
All right. Listen, they are having a little bit of fun on the election trail.
BLACKWELL: Yeah, will voters be in a similar good spirit when they see the weather forecast for Election Day?
Let's go to Karen Maginnis in the CNN Weather Center.
Karen, good morning. What do you have for us?
KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Victor and Christi.
And It looks like there may be a lot of political turmoil, but at least as far as weather is concerned, we're looking at fairly mild weather conditions. So, if you haven't voted, at least absentee or perhaps you did early voting, well, Election Day, there's your last chance.
Yeah, a couple exceptions. In the Pacific Northwest, we'll see some wet weather expected there from Seattle down to Portland, Oregon and coastal areas there. We'll see some of the heaviest precipitation, also interior sections of the northeast and New England.
And temperatures are looking fairly mild just about everywhere else.
[07:55:03]
So, a lot of real estate across the United States, looking pretty good. And into the Upper Midwest, a lot of battle ground states looking at temperatures 5 to 10 degrees above normal.
All right. Here's Eta, tropical storm. It could become a hurricane. It's sitting in the Caribbean. And will it affect the United States? Right now computer models are suggesting now. It looks like this will be for Nicaragua and Honduras.
We'll keep you updated. Back to you guys.
BLACKWELL: Karen Maginnis, thanks so much.
PAUL: So, human kindness from a group called Chefs for the Polls. They surprised voters in New York with free food as those folks stood in line and -- they were very long, and that cold weather, too.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was not. That was such a sweet, thoughtful gesture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's nice to get a little refresher, a little pick me up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: Here's the back story. More than 30 restaurants chefs and food trucks are participating in this.
The founder of Lolo's Seafood Shack explains why she chose to be part of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LETICIA SKAI YOUNG, CO-OWNER, LOLO'S SEAFOOD SHACK: People are excited to be out here and vote early. A meal means that someone cares.
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PAUL: A meal means you care. Absolutely.
Thank you so much for starting your day with us. We care about that, too, and we hope you make good memories.
BLACKWELL: "INSIDE POLITICS" is up next.
