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CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL

Biden On Verge Of Victory As Counts Continue In Key States; Soon: PA Ballots That May Put Biden On Top In U.S. Election; Biden Makes Appeal For Unity With Victory On The Horizon; Twitter Flags Trump's New Baseless Claims About Vote Count; Biden On Verge Of Victory As Counts Continue In Key States; Biden Closes In On Presidency As Lead Grows In Pennsylvania And Georgia. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired November 7, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kyung Lah in Arizona and this is CNN.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: John Berman here along with Alisyn Camerota. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. The nation's wait may soon be over, may, but we think probably as Joe Biden closes in on winning the presidential election.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Biden's lead over President Trump continues to grow in key battleground states and we do expect a new round of counted ballots this morning that could put Joe Biden over the top, but president Trump is vowing to fight on in court while Biden is urging unity.

BERMAN: All right. The count in terms of electoral votes at this moment? Joe Biden has 253. The president has 213. Biden is potentially one state or, in this case, one commonwealth away from the magic number and that is where we begin with a CNN Key Race Alert.

It is the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with 20 electoral votes that could put Joe Biden over the top. If he wins that, he wins the election. Currently, he leads there by 28,000 votes. That number has been growing. Tens of thousands of votes remaining, many of them from heavily Democratic areas. We are expecting some information from Pennsylvania soon and some new votes to report to you soon.

Other states we're watching, Georgia. Overnight, Joe Biden's lead there grew from 4,000 to more than 7,000. Doesn't sound like a lot, but each vote there counts in a race so close. Sixteen electoral votes up for grabs. They don't have much vote left to count there. That state going to a recount for sure.

Let's also talk now about Arizona. Eleven electoral votes. Joe Biden's lead there has been shrinking. He now has a 29,000-vote lead. Republicans will tell you that Donald Trump needs to be winning about 60 percent of the remaining vote to overtake Joe Biden. That hasn't been happening. We're waiting to see what happens with the next batch of votes from Arizona later this morning.

Finally, let's talk about Nevada. Six electoral votes. Joe Biden leading by 22,000 votes. A lot of ballots left there, more than 100,000, but most of them come from Clark County which is the Democratic area of that state. There is the expectation that Joe Biden's lead will grow. Again, waiting for more information from the state of Nevada. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Go to (ph) Pennsylvania where we are told more than 80,000 mail-in ballots remain to be counted. CNN's Kate Bolduan is live in Philadelphia for us this morning. So what is that status report, Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So you talked about the 80,000 across the commonwealth, Alisyn. It's 20,000 is the key number here in Philadelphia, 20,000 mail-in ballots. That is where all of the focus is this morning. These are ballots that -- the mail-in ballots that require extra review, they require a second look, hence why they're being dealt with kind of later in the process because it takes more time. The process slows down slightly.

They actually call them problem child ballots here because that's exactly what they are. They need a little extra review. Things like dates are missing. Some people put their birth date where they're supposed to be putting the current date on their mail-in ballot. They signed the wrong envelope. There is a variety of reasons for these ballots to require extra review and that is what they're going to be getting at this morning.

The last update that we had from Philadelphia was yesterday evening when they uploaded an -- results for a little over 2,000 more ballots. We're waiting to see how many more they will be getting this morning. We're told there will be updates and uploads to the city website that gives the official -- the unofficial, but the official count of where they stand.

We're expecting updates, the count will change, but it is not clear at this moment when that will happen and by how much because overnight, they had 60 workers in the facility beside me and behind me preparing these problem child ballots for review. That review has started up this morning and it's just the process of getting through them, how many they can get through and when that update happens. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Kate, thank you for explaining all of that and we will await updates from you. Thanks for all of that. John?

BERMAN: All right. I'm with Phil Mattingly at the Magic Wall. We're going to stick with Pennsylvania. We're not ignoring Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, but we're sticking with Pennsylvania because this alone could give Joe Biden a victory and this right now alone is where votes are being counted this morning. So let's take a look at Pennsylvania ...

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BERMAN: ... where the votes are and what we know about them.

MATTINGLY: I'd add another additional element to it. This alone has a very, very clear trend line that is heading in Joe Biden's favor. Everybody has had all eyes -- I think the entire world right now is staring directly at Pennsylvania maybe just through this wall or through a Google map or something along those lines to try and get a better sense of what's outstanding right now.

[09:05:07]

Why has this race not been called? Why, for the time being, is Joe Biden leading by 28,000 and is that going to stick? And the answer is it's probably going to grow, and we'll start with Allegheny County. It's the home of Pittsburgh. We had a discussion with an official earlier kind of walking us through what was outstanding there and if you're the Biden campaign and you listen to that conversation. You feel very good about what's in Allegheny County.

There's about 20,000 outstanding mail-in ballots and the reality for the entire state of Pennsylvania, not unlike Michigan, not unlike Wisconsin, is the mail-in ballots have been leaning heavily Democratic over the course of the last several days. That has been the crux of why Joe Biden has had a lead in this state.

There are 20,000 ballots here and the expectation was spread, we were told, as about 80 to 20. You look at the ratio here, you look at the margin, 59 to 39, that's different. That's lower and yet, because of the mail-in ballots that are coming in, about 20,000 in that area of margin right now, it underscores the advantage that Joe Biden has and it's not just Allegheny County. It's also the other Democratic stronghold in the state. That is Southeastern Pennsylvania. That ...

BERMAN: You know what? Circle Philadelphia for us.

MATTINGLY: I'll just bring it up.

BERMAN: Right. Let's pause.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

BERMAN: All right? We're going to bring in Philadelphia City Commissioner Omar Sabir who we just got on the line here to get a sense of what vote is outstanding from Philadelphia. Commissioner, thank you so much for being with us. John Berman here along with Phil Mattingly. Can you tell us how many votes and what kind of votes remain from Philadelphia?

OMAR SABIR, PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISSIONER: Again, you know, we have approximately about almost -- approximately about 40,000 or so votes. Again, we have, you know, 20,000 of those ballots and then we have roughly around 18,000 or so of the provisional ballots. And so again, so we're going to try our best, you know, to get through the problem child, as they call them, problematic ballots. But again, I just want to be clear to everyone, you know, that it's not like, you know, a microwave dinner. It's not like you can just throw it around and get instant gratification. You know, again, it takes time. We're going to be meticulous, we're going to be accurate and believe me, I want to go home just as much as everyone else wants to go home, but we have to take our time, we have to do it right.

BERMAN: Omar, Commissioner, we are so appreciative of the work you are doing there. We really are and we know it's not easy and we want you to thank each and every one of the workers for the work that they're doing, Twenty-thousand mail-in ballots, 18,000 or so provisional. When do you expect, Commissioner, that you will announce or release the next batch of results?

SABIR: OK. So, it'll be at some point today. Again, stay tuned. I'm getting ready to go and I just had my coffee, just took my shower and everything. I'm going to go into the convention center and see exactly what's going on, but again, it's going to be at some point today, but again, I can't stress how much important it is -- we're talking to America, we're talking around the world -- to be patient, OK? There's a lot of tensions, there's a lot of, you know -- everybody is just going crazy right now.

BERMAN: I ...

SABIR: So again, I'm asking everybody to take a deep breath ...

BERMAN: Yes.

SABIR: ... and calm down and we're going to get through it accurately as possible. Again, we want it rapidly, accurately and we're going to do it with transparency.

BERMAN: And I think everyone is calm and everyone is patient and understands the work you're going through. When you say at some point today, I think people just want to know, Commissioner ...

SABIR: I know. I know. I know. It's disturbing (ph) ...

BERMAN: ... can they go get a cup of coffee? Can they -- can they walk around the block? Are they -- are you talking before noon at this point for another batch or after noon?

SABIR: Again, at some point today. Again, remember the words that I may say out of my mouth affect the world and I just -- someone just called me and said, hey, you know, I'm in another country around the world and we want to know what's going on. You know, there could be potential war based on the results of what happened at this election.

So again, we're going to take our time. Again, at some point today, you will get the updates again. I like CNN. I love CNN. We're going to give you the information as soon as we get it.

MATTINGLY: Commissioner, Phil Mattingly here. Again, thanks for what you're doing. Thanks for what the entire team is doing there. I wanted to know if you had a sense of the universe of where the 20,000 problem child ballots actually come from? We've all kind of noticed, looking through the data, there's a number of precincts that seem to have very low reporting right now in the city of Philadelphia. Is it fair to assume that the bulk of what's outstanding right now comes from those precincts or do you have any sense of that right now?

SABIR: Not right now. Again, I mean, we had meetings -- again, I just -- I'm on 30 minutes' worth of sleep. So again, let me just go and just evaluate to see exactly what's going on. We had meetings last night and again, we're going over, we're trying to evaluate and we're trying to get this done for everyone ...

BERMAN: Is there any ...

SABIR: ... and again, we'll give more information as soon as we get it.

BERMAN: And to Phil's point, is there any in-person Philadelphia vote left to count? Because there's been some speculation that that might be part of the overall pot we're looking at also.

SABIR: OK. So, there are -- I think we're up to about 97 percent.

[09:10:01]

It's on our website. Again, I can't see it, but we're almost there. We're missing a couple divisions. So we have over 1,700 divisions. Maybe be about two or three divisions or so that we're missing. Again, I'm not -- I'm not looking at the website right now, but we're almost there. We're missing a couple divisions. It's not that much which is typical, you know, in an election. This is not uncommon.

BERMAN: Commissioner, how many votes are you getting through? Roughly speaking, how long does it take to process each vote or each hundred votes or each thousand votes? Give us a sense of the process.

SABIR: Again, there's no real sense in time. Again, as we identify all the problem child, we'll come back to the return board and then, you know, once they all get segregated, you know, we'll come, as a -- as a return board and then three commissioners will vote on the problem child, you know, whether or not we'll accept them. So again, it takes time. It's tedious work, it's meticulous work and again, I'd like to thank the county board of elections for doing this work that they do. It's phenomenal.

But again, as soon as we get the information -- again, it's a public process. You know, when we vote, we'll do it right at the convention center so everyone will be able to observe us, you know, making the votes on these problem child.

MATTINGLY: And Commissioner, I know you're busy and we'll let you get back to it, but kind of along those lines, Philadelphia has been attacked by the President pretty acutely over the course of the last couple days. What's kind of your response to that? What's your view when you hear that based on what you've seen and what you've been involved in? SABIR: Well, I mean, listen, it's America, right? Everyone has freedom of speech. So again, he has his opinion. I mean, that's his opinion, but just because he makes an opinion, it doesn't necessarily make it fact, it doesn't make it the truth. Again, just to reiterate, you know, in Philadelphia, you're going to get a safe, you're going to get a secure and you're going to get an accurate election. Again, we want it rapidly, accurately and we're going to do it with transparency.

BERMAN: Omar Sabir, Philadelphia City Commissioner, we thank you so much for being with us and shedding some light on the process, where we are right now. More importantly, we thank you and the people you work with for counting those votes, for helping everyone make their voice heard.

SABIR: Thank you.

BERMAN: So we'll get you a cup of coffee when we can. We owe you. Thank you, sir.

SABIR: Thank you. I appreciate that.

BERMAN: All right. Now to the nuts and bolts. What did we just learn? Well, not much about the time.

MATTINGLY: Right.

BERMAN: He said at some point today. That's going to be frustrating for people. Pittsburgh, Allegheny County earlier today told us sometime late this morning, early this afternoon they're going to begin releasing more counts. Philadelphia, a lot less clarity. What we do know, 20,000 mail-in votes still to be counted. So let's do some math on just the 20,000, Phil. Twenty-thousand mail-in votes. Joe Biden's been getting 80 percent conservatively ...

MATTINGLY: That's conservative. Yes. But we'll go with that. We'll be conservative with it. Yes.

BERMAN: ... conservatively 80 percent in Philadelphia. I've done the math. That would be 16,000 votes in Philadelphia for Joe Biden, 4,000 for Donald Trump, that would be a 12,000-vote margin that you would be able to add to the overall total. It's at 28,000. That would put Joe Biden at 40,000 roughly.

MATTINGLY: Right.

BERMAN: Allegheny County, 20,000 mail-in ballots, 75 to 80 percent. Let's just do the same math so we don't have to do it again. Maybe another, you know, 12,000 votes. That would put Joe Biden over 50,000. This is without even counting the provisional ballots which we think have the same rough shape, so you start to see how this adds up very quickly.

MATTINGLY: It underscores the reality that I think both campaigns have seen. The Biden campaign is willing to talk about it publicly, but we've also been talking about it pretty routinely over the course of the last 24 hours and you also have to underscore the fact that there are other counties in Democratic strongholds. You can just kind of move around and you see Montgomery County, still 95 percent reporting. You look at that margin.

You've got Chester County, a Democratic stronghold for the most part if you push out into the collar counties, still 95 percent reporting. So not huge -- not as big of batches as you have in Allegheny and as you have in Philadelphia, but everything you're looking at right (ph) ...

BERMAN: In the meantime, we know President Trump is watching. We know he's awake because he has spent the last hour lying on Twitter about the vote around the country.

[09:15:04]

Four of his tweets already labeled inaccurate. Next, a Republican election lawyer joins us to talk about how this will play out in the courts.

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CAMEROTA: Ballot counting underway in Pennsylvania. You can see it live happening there on the side of the screen in Pittsburgh right now. Joe Biden is appealing for unity and patience as the nation awaits the election results. CNN's Jessica Dean is in Wilmington, Delaware near Biden headquarters. So what are you hearing about what's happening behind the scenes there?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Alisyn. The Biden campaign and Joe Biden himself waiting like the rest of us.

[09:20:00]

You see the stage that's been set up for days. It's still set up behind me. The question is will it get used today? How will that all pan out? Everyone waiting for this race to be called, everyone waiting for these ballots to be counted.

Meantime, we did see Joe Biden late last night as he addressed the nation and you mentioned he called for unity. He also believes firmly that when all of these votes are counted and when this race is called, he will prevail, but he's already started with that message of unity, of trying to bring Americans together and turn down the temperature. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We may be opponents, but we're not enemies. We're Americans and no matter who you voted for, I'm certain of one thing -- the vast majority of almost 150 million Americans who voted, they want to get the vitriol out of our politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Biden went on to say that there's no time to waste on the crises facing the nation. He's continued to get his COVID briefings, for example, Alisyn. We saw him earlier this week going into one of those briefings and they're trying to get ready to put their plan in place should he become the president-elect of the United States. We also know that like so many Americans, he's been at home watching these results come in with family and also senior advisors, but right now, Alisyn, we all just wait.

CAMEROTA: It is hard to live in limbo, Jessica. We know that, but that is where we are at the moment. Thank you very much.

So moments ago, Twitter flagged four of President Trump's latest tweets as misleading. They include multiple baseless claims about voter fraud, but as far as we know, none of his claims in the key battleground states are supported by evidence. So still they're launching legal challenges. Will those gum up the process? Joining us now is Ben Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer who was central to the 2000 Florida recount battle during Bush versus Gore. Ben, great to see you.

BENJAMIN GINSBERG, REPUBLICAN ELECTION LAWYER: Great to see you.

CAMEROTA: I don't want to read the President's tweets because they've been labeled as misinformation, but I will try to summarize them for you.

GINSBERG: OK.

CAMEROTA: He is very upset, he seems very upset, about these ballots in Pennsylvania that were postmarked after -- no, they were postmarked on Election Day or by Election Day but received in the three days after. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court already ruled that that was totally legal and legit. So is there a chance that the U.S. Supreme Court, since the President keeps complaining about it as to his lawyers, could reverse that?

GINSBERG: Look, there's always a chance, but I think it's unlikely because that would result in the disenfranchisement of a large number of voters who simply followed the directions, they were given by election administrators. It would be a valid case for the Supreme Court to consider the whole idea of extending deadlines past Election Day, but not involving this election. And for Pennsylvania, there's also a interesting legal, but somewhat obscure question about whether the legislature or the state Supreme Court is the final decider on elections cases.

CAMEROTA: And what's the answer to that one?

GINSBERG: It's a good question. So, the literal words in the Constitution are the legislature, but it isn't clear that legislature's not a more expansive term.

CAMEROTA: And ...

GINSBERG: You can flip a coin on it.

CAMEROTA: So, who's -- so the U.S. Supreme Court's going to have to decide that one?

GINSBERG: Yes. They can decide it. They don't have to decide it, but it won't -- I think it's unlikely that that would impact this election. It is a valid ruling for the people of Pennsylvania to know for their state and legislative races in 2021.

CAMEROTA: Another thing the President brings up, and again, I'm going to paraphrase it rather than read it because we don't have any evidence of it, but I do hear his surrogates and allies talking a lot about this and ginning up or trying to gin up a lot of outrage about this, it's the so-called observers of the counters.

So as far as we know, there's an equal amount of Republican observers, Democratic observers. They were supposed to stand 10 feet away from the vote counters. They, I think, won in court to be able to move closer to six feet. Is there anything going wrong with this as far as you know? Is there any legal legitimacy to this?

GINSBERG: Well, no. I mean, there have been observers. That's not been a question. They want more access, closer access. They've been given that. The important thing to remember is that there are no allegations of fraud involved in this. There are no votes involved in it that would impact the ultimate count in the state. So it's a bit of procedural complaining, maybe even whining. Let the people stand closer if they think they need that, but again, this isn't going to affect the outcome.

[09:25:03]

CAMEROTA: So, Ben, what about these legal challenges? There's a slew of them, not just in Pennsylvania, but the President's team has launched them in various battleground states, and I believe we are already headed to a recount in Georgia and so will that slow down the process? I mean, let's say that Joe Biden is declared the winner. Will that -- will any of that slow down the transition?

GINSBERG: So that's a good question and we should separate out recounts, which any candidate is entitled to and takes place under state processes, with any number of the lawsuits that have been filed which don't seem to be outcome-determinative and probably not well- founded. So, each state has a process to conduct its recounts and timelines in which it should finish up and not delay the process.

But, and here's the but, none of these states have really road-tested their recount laws under the stress of a Pennsylvania contest and so in Florida in 2000, for example, it took a long time and came right up on the deadlines. So you do need certified results of the election before the Electoral College is supposed to meet, December 8th safe harbor, December 14th the actual meeting of the electors in the state capitol. So that is a deadline to keep -- to keep involved.

Think of poor Georgia, 159 counties. That's 100 more than we had to deal with in Florida. They have two Senate runoff elections at the same time. All that activity in Georgia is a sign that the political gods do have a sense of humor.

CAMEROTA: That's one interpretation and I like it. Ben Ginsberg, thank you very much. Great to talk to you.

GINSBERG: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's go back to John.

BERMAN: All right. We do have reporting that Joe Biden and his team are already in the planning process for the transition. We're going to speak to the man who was in charge of the Bush transition team in 2000. That transition took place during controversy. We're going to get his take on what the Biden folks and, frankly, the White House should be doing right now. Stick around.

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[09:31:33]

BERMAN: We know they are counting votes in Pennsylvania. We've been told that Allegheny County, home of Pittsburgh, could release some results later this morning. We are watching that very closely.

Now, even while they are counting there is planning in place for the presidential transition. Either for a second Trump administration or what seems more likely now a Biden administration.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, for more on this, we're joined now by CNN political commentator and former adviser to President Bill Clinton, Paul Begala, as well as the executive director of the Bush 2000 transition team and former assistant to President George W. Bush, Clay Johnson.

Mr. Johnson, I want to start with you, because there are similarities in that there are also legal challenges this time around. President Trump's legal team are launching lots of sometimes meritless legal challenges, according to the judges but still there is a slew of them. And I'm wondering if what happened in 2000 ended up bogging down the transition and stalling it somehow.

CLAY JOHNSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF BUSH 2000 TRANSITION TEAM: A little bit, but not much. Most candidates for president back then did not even want to utter the word transition until the election was over. They thought it was bad and caused them to get unlucky which is sort of silly.

Bush challenged me in 16 months before the election when he asked me to be his chief of staff in Austin, and besides being chief of staff, Clay, I want you to develop a plan for what we do when I win the presidency 16 months from now. So, he challenged me to take the next 16 months and plan a transition.

My understanding is that candidate Biden has brought -- I read this morning has brought a good close friend of his and a very knowledgeable Washington person on board to start organizing his transition four, five, six months ago. That has to happen. You have to assume you are going to win. And it's just a matter of when you start putting people into place.

And so, we were -- Dick Cheney said, we can't wait to find out what the courts are going to rule. We have to assume that we are going to be the president-elect. And so we opened up an office early before the votes were made official. And went up there and raised some private money and established a transition office.

And so -- and went until -- after the courts ruled that we moved into government offices and we could expand our staff but we were working hard. You can't wait until someone says, OK, it's ready to go because it's very -- there's a lot of work that has to be done before noon on January 20th and you got to start early. And you got to work through hectic times. You're deluged with a lot of input and you just have to manage it and be prepared to govern by the time the new president is sworn in.

BERMAN: Look, I remember this, because I was there. I was in Austin and George W. Bush announced his senior White House staff in the middle of the recount. George W. Bush announced cabinet selections in the middle of the recount for a couple reasons. One, because you have to, because you need to start -- to get the ball rolling. But the other reason is because it lets the world know that you think you've won. And it gives a sense of finality to it all.

JOHNSON: Yes.

BERMAN: The question is, is the Clinton administration wasn't uncooperative with you. The outgoing Clinton administration didn't shut the door in your face when you were transition planning.

[09:35:03]

What happens if the Trump administration does shut the door in the face of the Biden team in the transition?

JOHNSON: Well, there's not a whole lot that the Trump -- the outgoing administration -- current administration can do to significantly impair transition planning for an incoming administration. There are some things they can do to make it nice. Like the first time that a new administration sits down in the situation room to deal with some major international matter should not be when the meeting is for real.

I mean, the people who are going to be in there making huge, the important decisions, should have had some prior experience with sort of informal briefings and so forth, just to get used to the ambience of the place and what it looks like and what a typical military presentation looks like and so forth and so on. And so, that can be facilitated by an outgoing administration, but if that isn't facilitated by the outgoing administration there are other ways you just -- can play catch-up in the first few days back.

But you can do -- make decisions about who your appointees are going to be. You can do informal background checks. In our case, we had a prior -- a general counsel for I think it was President Reagan, Fred Fielding was his name, who would meet with people that we were most high on to be the secretary of this and that.

And would ask him the important questions about potential conflicts of interests and improprieties and so forth and say, they tell us now what's there and proceed forward. And if something comes up in the background check later that we're not aware of, we're going to drop you. But otherwise, we're going to stand behind you.

And so we can do all of the things you could do informally that you had to do -- wait until you're officially the candidate to do it formally.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Makes sense. Paul, of course, former Vice President Biden knows his way around the White House and the West Wing. Will that make the transition easier?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, I think it definitely will. He has -- Ted Kaufman is the guy, Clay, that he's -- he's so close to Joe. He was Joe's chief of staff for decades in the Senate. When Joe became vice president, the governor of Delaware appointed Ted as the interim senator to fill Biden's seat. That's how close -- he's the closest person --

JOHNSON: Yes.

BEGALA: -- to Joe whose last nature is not Biden. And with rich experience.

They're operating as Clay knows under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. That was beefed up in the funding increase by a bill written by interim Senator Ted Kaufman. So they don't have a choice. They by law must allow agency review teams, for example, these landing teams, we used to call them landing parties, go into each agency to review what's going on there and changes that you might want to make.

There are background checks that must be done. There are legal requirements. Of course, this president thumbs his nose at all norms and legal requirements. The first call is made actually by the head of the GSA, General Services Administration, who by law can release the funding. It's about six and a half million dollars right now for the -- if there's an incoming president and if there will be.

She makes that call. Erin (ph) Murphy is her name. She was in the Bush administration. She's a Republican but was confirmed unanimously so the Democrats really have had no complaints with her. But she has not released the funding yet and I don't blame her. But very soon she should. She's not waiting on the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court is not going to be in the middle. So I heard Ben Ginsberg's interview. I suspect she's waiting for Chalian in the decision desk to make the call just like all of us.

CAMEROTA: Who isn't? Paul Begala and Clay Johnson, thank you very much for walking us through all of that. Really interesting.

BEGALA: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, moments from now, John, we are expecting a new batch of vote counts to come in from Georgia and Pennsylvania. Of course, that could put Joe Biden over the top. So, stand by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:43:09]

BERMAN: All right. This is CNN's special live coverage.

Let's take a look at where things stand in the state of Georgia. As of now, Joe Biden leads by 7,000 votes. Sixteen electoral votes up for grabs. Biden up by 7,000. That group, relatively speaking substantially overnight from 4,000 to 7,000. And the size of that lead might play into the ultimate outcome there. So, we're watching that very closely.

We are still waiting for votes in Georgia. Some of those votes are the military and overseas ballots. CNN anchor Brianna Keilar knows a ton about this and has been following it very, very closely, not just in Georgia but around the country. But let's start with Georgia. What do we know about this vote, Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Let's start with what is new. Which is that we know about 900 military and overseas ballots came in by close of business yesterday which was the deadline in Georgia to receive those. Now, that 900 came in Fulton County which -- yes, is the most populous county. What about the other counties? We don't actually know at this point in time.

But you would add those to the 18,008 military and overseas ballots that have already been received and counted in Georgia. These are the ballots of service members, of their spouses and their family members of other Americans who are overseas. And what we knew as of yesterday afternoon from the Georgia secretary of state, John, was that there were about 8,400 outstanding ballots.

It would be very weird for all of those to have come in. Those were the ballots that were sent out and had not been received back. Some of them would have been in transit. We know that from the 900 that came into Fulton County. But some of them just aren't going to be cast. That's just what happens.

In 2016, about one-third of the absentee ballots sent out to military and overseas did not come back. They were not cast. So that is not unusual.

BERMAN: Again, it makes up military ballots and overseas ballots.

[09:45:01]

And there's every reason to think that they might behave differently, but people sometimes make assumptions about military ballots. President Trump says there are missing military ballots, there aren't. But he seems to be implying or thinking in his head that there'll be some huge advantage for him among that group. What do we know about that?

KEILAR: That's right. That might be an outdated assumption. Back in 2000, during the recount in Florida, it was probably a safe assumption as Republicans wanted military ballots there to be counted that that would favor them. I think that is something that would be accepted looking back by Democrats and Republicans.

But there's actually a recent poll by "Military Times" of active duty military, this is something that was completed in August. It was done in July and August which I should also note was before the "Atlantic" piece came out that showed the president referred to war dead and wounded as suckers and losers. That maybe impacted this, we don't know, but this poll was done before then.

And what it showed was actually that active duty service members were trending towards Joe Biden. I know a lot of people maybe aren't putting a ton of faith in the polls right now, but the apples to apples numbers in that "Military Times" poll showed that from 2016 to 2020 there was an erosion of support for Donald Trump among service members.

So, he shouldn't bank on the fact that this is something that would help him. But also there are no missing ballots. Just to be clear. That is what I outlined was the outstanding ballots.

They are ballots with military folks, with overseas folks and with regular Americans who vote absentee, that they just don't always send everyone back. That would be weird if they did, actually.

BERMAN: Yes, it would. And in terms of military and overseas ballots received after Election Day what does the law say about this, Brianna?

KEILAR: Well, they are protected. So, when President Trump is saying that ballots received after Election Day are illegal, he's actually calling, John, for a scenario, where you would have service members and their families and other overseas Americans casting ballots that by law should be counted but he's saying that they shouldn't. So, you could actually have a situation where there are military members who are actively defending a country that they can't vote in if you took what the president said to the bank.

Now, that's not what election officials are taking to the bank, because these are protected votes, right? Just like all of our votes are protected. And while Georgia had until close of business for them to come in yesterday, other states are actually giving longer, by law, right? Nevada and Pennsylvania.

These votes can come in until Tuesday, November 10th. When you look at North Carolina, it's even longer, Thursday, November 12th.

So, again, they have to be counted by law, right? They have to be counted.

BERMAN: Your vote counts. Brianna Keilar, really important information. Thank you so much.

KEILAR: You bet.

BERMAN: Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, John, Joe Biden is up by more than 22,000 votes in Nevada right now. So, we'll take you there live to find out when election voters might finish the count. That's next.

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[09:52:34]

BERMAN: Welcome back to CNN's special live coverage.

Let's take a look at the crucial state of Nevada. They are still counting there. Six electoral votes up for grabs. Joe Biden leading by 22,000 votes.

Now, more than 100,000 votes remaining in Nevada. What do we know about them? They mostly come from Clark County, a heavily Democratic area. It's very possible Joe Biden will expand his lead there. We're still waiting for some new numbers -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, John. So, those are the numbers at the moment. Let's get an update on what's happening on the ground. CNN's Erica Hill is there. So, Erica, tell us the status. What is the timeline?

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

So we will have another update at noon Eastern, 9:00 a.m. local time here today. We're getting these updates now twice a day from Clark County, which is good news. There have been some grumbling about not getting information quickly enough.

So, the secretary of state will update the latest numbers this morning and then we're going to hear directly from the Clark County registrar about an hour after that, and then we're going to get a second information dump now here in Clark County. That we should have sometime before 7:00 Eastern time, 4:00 Pacific. They're not giving us an exact time on that.

What we do know though as John pointed out more than 124,000 ballots that still need to be processed in this state, just under half of those are mail-in ballots. Remember every active voter in the state was sent a mail-in ballot this year and 70 percent plus of voters in the state of Nevada are right here in Clark County. Ninety percent of all outstanding ballots also here in Clark County, according to the secretary of state.

So, we're hoping for some more numbers today on those 58,500 mail ballots that we know of. There are also these same-day registration provisional ballots that need to be processed, so we're looking for some more information on those. Some of them can't start to be processed though until all the mail-in ballots are processed.

So, we're told that in Clark County mail-in ballots that are in-house should be processed by tomorrow. We know another 241 came in yesterday morning's mail. More can come today. In fact more ballots can arrive up until Tuesday, November 10th, because here in Nevada, as long as the mail-in ballot was postmarked on Election Day, November 3rd, it can be received until the 10th and then processed.

So, we're not done yet. That's the short answer in a long way. CAMEROTA: OK. We'll stand by to stand by. Erica Hill, thank you very much.

HILL: Perfect.

CAMEROTA: OK. On the other side of your screen, you're watching live pictures out of Pennsylvania, I think we can pull those back up, and Georgia, we have for you.

[09:55:04]

Vote counting is under way for a fifth day and soon those states are expected to release a new batch of results. Stay with us for CNN's live special coverage.

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