altogether, participated in hundred of raids. you've got to look at this and look at it very, very closely to make sure that everything is above board. that's a huge piece of this. and the feds right now have that. >> chief ramsey, as usual, thanks very much. joey, thanks to you as well. to our viewers thanks for watching. "erin burnett outfront" starts "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com "outfront" next trump for the second time in less than 24 hours casting doubt on the election results and not committing to a peaceful transfer of power. will he try to use the military the chairman of the armed services committee says yes and he is "outfront." plus the mayor of louisville, kentucky extending the cure few tonight, calls calling for the attorney general to release the evidence in the breonna taylor case that he says exonerated those police. the woman behind the #sayhername is "outfront." the cdc projecting up to 23,000 more coronavirus deaths in the next three weeks, this as one of trump's top health officials

says politics will play no role when it comes to a vaccine. let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, an assault on america's democracy. for the second time in 24 hours, the president of the united states casting doubt on whether he will accept the results of the election. >> mr. president, are the election results only legitimate if you win? >> so, we have to be very careful with the ballots. the ballots, that's a whole big scam. we want to make sure the election is honest, and i'm not sure it can be. i don't know that it can be with this whole situation, unsolicited ballots. there are unsolicited, millions being sent to everybody. >> all right. this fear mongering comes after president trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses to joe biden. and his press secretary today, kay leigh mcenany did nothing, nothing, to clarify these

alarming comments. >> are the results legitimate only if the president wins? >> the president will accept the results of the a free and fair election. he will accept the will of the american people. he will accept the results of a fear and fair election. >> free and fair according to whom? according to donald j. trump who has already said the answer to the question. he has clearly said that the election is not free and fair if he is not the victor. >> the only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged. remember that. it'll end up being a rigged election. the democrats are trying to rig this election because it's the only way they're going to win. >> okay. so, he's saying there's no way he can lose unless the election is rigged. kayleigh mcenany's point is farcical. he said he won't accept them unless he wins. but what will he do if he loses?

well, let's go and check the tape. >> will you commit here today for a peaceful transferal of power after the election? and there has been rioting in louisville. there has been rioting in many cities across the country, if your so-called red and blue states. will you commit to making sure there is a peaceful transferal of power after the election? we're going to have to see what happens you know that. i've been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster. >> i understand that, but people are rioting. do you commit to making sure there's a peaceful transferal of power. >> get rid of the ballots and we'll have a very peaceful -- there won't be a transfer, frankly. there will be a continuation. >> are you suggesting you might not accept the results of the election? >> i have to say -- >> again, get rid of the ballots, there won't be a transfer. again, if he wins, he accepts it. and to those out there -- i'm

sure there are plenty of you that say come on, come on, don't take him literally on this, he's just stoking the flames. well if that's you or if you are republican senator mike braun of indiana telling politico trump stokes the fires sometimes. if you took it seriously, it would be alarming and i don't think that's the case. senator brum, listen to trump's supporters who are taking trump seriously. here are two. boris sanchez just went for the purposes of what we're laying out here to ask them what do they think. here is what they told him. >> do you think that we get to election night or the following days if biden winds up somehow becoming the winner, do you think it's rig snd. >> oh, yes, very much so. >> what are the chances you think this election might be rigged? >> i'll tell you with the mail-in ballots we don't like. there's been a lot of cheating that's been exposed, especially over the last four or five years.

our president brought this to our attention. this stuff was going on and nobody really knew about and it happened and happened and happened. >> if it shows up that joe biden won -- >> yes. >> -- in your opinion would that be the only way trump could lose is it would be a rigged election? >> absolutely, i agree with that. there's no way in heck our president is going to lose. but yes, it would be a rigged election. there's some type of cheating went on, what have you. and i firmly believe that. >> i wanted to play that whole exchange because that last gentleman there says the president brought all of this to his attention. yes, they take the president seriously. they believe him. they think if he loses, it's rigged. i have to be clear there is no evidence of fraud, of rigging, none. and by the way, one of the best people to listen to on that might be president trump's own fbi director chris wray. he spoke about it today.

here's what he said. >> americans must have confidence in our voting system and our election infrastructure. now, we have not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it's by mail or otherwise. >> and yet trump's ardent supporters listened to him, and yes they take him seriously. so, yes, senator drawbrawn, it alarming. ill kait lan collins is live "outfront" the white house. you just heard two of them there believe that if biden wins, it's rigged. >> reporter: yeah, and that's part of a months-long effort by the president, erin, to sow doubt about the outcome of the election. what he said yesterday was provocative and rehe peted it, of course, today as you noted. it is not new. as far as this pattern of the president eventually working his way up to this comment where he will not commit to a peaceful

transition of power if it comes to that. today he's saying the reason he won't is he's not sure the results of the election can be legitimate and can be honest was the word he used when he was asked would you actually accept the results of the election if it's determined to be legitimate. that is not repeating what his press secretary told reporters earlier today, as you showed. she said if it's a free and fair election, the president will accept the results. that's not what he said when he was pressed by reporters for a second time today on his comments from yesterday. so, of course it is calling into question what does the president view as a free and fair election. if joe biden win, it means the election is rigged. he is setting himself up for a showdown that you saw play out on capitol hill today, republicans don't want to deal with. you saw them criticizing what the president said without naming him. the senate went so far as to pass a resolution reaffirming their commitment to a transition of power because the

constitution mandates it. we have ann unusual announcemen saying they have found nine discarded ballots, seven marked for president trump, two not sure who they were for. the justice department had to direct their statement because after they initially issued it, it said 9 ballots were for trump. they said only 7 were for him, two we don't know. this is all in pennsylvania. 6 million people voted in pennsylvania in 2016. but it is notable that the justice department is going so far to put some statement like this out on their investigation even though it was only 9 ballots. >> kaitlan, thank you very much. i want to go to the chairman armed services committee, adam smith. i appreciate your time, chairman. so, you know, you hear what the president says, kayleigh mcenany says he'll accept a free and fair election. he's laid out that it is rigged

if he is not the victor, therefore not free and fair. what do you think he'll do if he loses the election? >> well, i think, you know, i can't imagine him conceding. i mean, this is a person who, you know, basically a narcissist, so everything he says, everything he does is perfect, as we've heard. he's not wrong about anything. he never makes a mistake, so he could never stand up in front of the american people and say i lost. so, he won't say that. now, that isn't the important part. the important part is what does his campaign do and what does his supporters do? they will challenge ballots. in a close election -- we had an election in the state of washington in 2004 where our governor won by 170 votes, i think. so, they're counting every ballot, looking at every ballot closely. those close elections, it's difficult. i don't think this election's going to be close. but i think the president is still going to make up whatever number he has to make up and claim it was rigged. i think that really undermines

our country. >> when he doesn't concede, what does that look like to you? >> what the president does or does not say is irrelevant. the states certified the election. and if the states do what i fully expect them to do, which is to certify the election, and the results show that joe biden has won, the president loses. and you know, he can challenge a ballot. he can go on a bunch of different places. the courts are highly unlikely to agree with that, highly unlikely to just on a whim say, yeah, okay, we're going to buy into your imaginary voter fraud argument. by the way, the state of washington has been voting by all mail-in ballots and automatically sending ballots to every registered voter for i think at least ten years now, and it works perfectly. so, what he says or doesn't say doesn't matter. it's what do the state election boards certify. >> and it's also what his supporters do. you just heard two of them. they believe this whole conversation he's put out there. they believe it. >> yes. >> they are taking it seriously.

>> absolutely. >> senator brawn i hope heard that. he said if they take it seriously, it would be alarming. well, that's alarming. what happens though? they believe it's rigged and he's saying it's rigged. then the states tell him to go and he just goes? it just resolves itself? >> well, there's a couple of layers of concern. number one, what do his supporters do? there were people who were complaining that barack obama was not legitimately elected president. but they didn't really do anything about it. but the alarming thing is the degree to which the president is actively supporting militias. we saw the individuvigilantes i wisconsin who killed two people and the president expressed support for them. what happens with these armed militias and vigilantes? do they take matters into their own hands? i think we're going to have to work very hard to calm that. and then there is the mechanisms of government. i have spoken to our defense leaders about the issue. >> you have, the military

leaders? >> yeah. there's two important points. first of all, they serve one president at a time. no matter what, president prufrp is going to be president until january 20th. there's a whole manner of mischief he can do. he can't unilateral overturn the election. so, come january 20th, he's out and all the layers of government will no longer serve him. they will serve joe biden if he wins and if he's sworn in and there's nothing he can do about it but complain about it. the second thing is does he try to order the military to defy that? what the military has made clear to me is they will not follow an unlawful order, period. for instance, if the president had ordered them into a threat were prepared to say no, that is not a lawful order. we have no lawful reason to go there. and their oath is to the constitution, much to donald trump's chagrin, it is not to him. it is to the laws and the

constitution of our country, and they will uphold that oath. >> thank you very much. >> thanks erin. "outfront" next, lawrence douglas, author of "will he go," also professor of law at amherst. okay. williams. and laura coates, former federal prosecutor. thank you both very much. lauren, the title of your book says it all, "will he go, trump and the looming election meltdown of 2020." what do you see happening here if the president worry about is we need to connect two points. back when trump issued this tweet raising the possibility of delaying the election, a lot of people faux kusd on that. they observed that that's kind of a preposterous notion. the president can't delay the election. but on that very same day, he issued another tweet that got very little attention. and he tweeted the following. he said, must know election

results on the night of the election, and not months, or even years, later. and i think if we connect that point with his relentless attacks on the integrity of mail-in balance t los, these kind of baseless attacks, we have to worry that what he's trying to do is trying to take whatever lead he might enjoy on november 3rd itself. and i do think, again, it's possible that he would have a lead on november 3rd because of the millions of mail-in ballots yet to be counted. and he would try to then leverage that lead into a claim that he's been re-elected. and then in the subsequent days, as that lead vanishes, as these mail-in balance t l mail-in ballots become counted, then he says this is simply everything coming true that he has predicted, that is that the mail-in ballots are going to be contaminated by fraud and we have to go with the november 3rd results. that's what i think is the deeper and disturbing politics behind some of his most recent claims. >> that is deeply disturbing

because that's going to sow doubt. the numbers start to change. your scenario is alarming but makes a lot of sense. and laura, to the point that lawrence is making, the president's key focus now is on mail-in ballots. we all know those ballots, at least at this point, are going to be cast by biden voters. they are the ones that say they're going to vote by mail. republicans overwhelmingly in person on election day. the president has been saying this is a scam over and over. here he is. >> do you know that i've been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster. ballots are missing, there's fraud. when you see them cheating with those ballots -- there's going to be fraud. it's a disaster. >> and laura, his supporters, we just heard one of them. one of them i wanted to play the full exchange so you could hear it. they believe him. this is not they take him -- you know, that they get the joke. they believe this.

>> they in fact are complicit if they believe it, right, the idea that our integrity or the democracy is in jep if people exercise the right to vote in a way that many of our military members and overseas citizens have done and many states across this country have done. and particularly at a time when we have the pandemic looming overhead making people have to make the decision between voting in person or potentially being proactive about voting early if it's available in their state. this is also part of his general plan when it comes to replacing a supreme court justice. as lawrence is talking about, he anticipates there being some discrepancy between the election night count and later on. i believe he's hoping, and he hasn't been very quiet about this, that he will have nine justices seated to duplicate what he interprets as what happens in bush v. gore. that was not about whether mail-in ballots were valid, whether ballots had been

counted, it was about recounts. it's a self-fulfilling prophecy that the former doj, we have never seen this level that he claims to have about fraud. it's just not present. >> and christopher wray, trump's own picked fbi director made it very clear, right? and you're going to have instances of maybe some fraud, maybe some mistakes, that pennsylvania case with things getting thrown away. who knows what that is. but they're investigating those. they're very small instances. no mass fraud ever in history in a p presidential or other election. lawrence, the pennsylvania republican party is now pushing back against a report from the atlantic, and it basically said the gop run legislature there is trying to strategize already how to overturn the state-wide results if trump is the loser in pennsylvania. if biden is certified as the winner, democratic governor approves that and get the biden slate of lek trors. they're looking at all kinds of

ways to declare the results tainted to get trump electors. that sends the whole thing to congress. this is not the supreme court. this goes to congress. explain what happens then, professor. >> so, again, the scenario would be it's kind of like a repeat of what happened in 1876, back in the catastrophic election which you could have swing states such as pennsylvania submitting conflicting electoral certificates to congress, that is it's possible, particularly if the election turns on relatively late outcomes. you could imagine that a republican-controlled ledge slaw ch legislature in pennsylvania recognizes that trump has won and that the democratic governor insists, no, of course biden has carried the state. now you have these conflicting certificates that are submitted to congress, and it is congress

on january 6, 2021, which will actually open the electoral certificates in a joint session. it's meant to be a relatively ceremonial function in which they count up the electoral votes and declare a winner. as in 1876 if you have these conflicting certificates and if you have a divided congress as it is now with the republican-controlled senate and a democratic-controlled house, then basically you have a sta stalemate. then you basically have congress unable to decide who has won the election. then we're really in a world of hurt. >> all right. fascinating scenarios and incredible that we are in a position here where some of these may be on the table. we are now looking at states where you have the governor and the legislature split. thank you both very much. next, protesters gathering across the country at this hour over the breonna taylor case. these are live pictures. this is view little, kentucky, and we're going to go there in

just a moment. plus the fbi director disputing trump's claims that attorney fashions are also a poofrts and committing large scale voter fraud. >> that kind of fraud at scale would be a major challenge for an adversary. and the president booed and jeered while paying his respects to the late justice ruth bader ginsburg. i was sworn into the united states senate in a hospital. my wife and daughter had been killed in an automobile crash, and lying in the bed were my two little boys. i couldn't have imagined what it would've been like if i didn't have insurance to cover them immediately and fully.

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the breaking news, protests growing in louisville. that is what you're looking at right now. the mayor has extended the city's curfew all the way through the weekend. protesters are continuing to express anger over the lack of charges in the police killing of breonna taylor. it comes as officials say the two officers shot during protests last night are expected to recover. shimon prokupecz is "outfront" from louisville. shimon, as obviously here we are. you' you have a curfew. you've got dusk coming. what's the latest. >> reporter: i want to take you to the scene behind me. we were walking with these marchers. they were coming to this area. i'm going to step out of the camera here because they found what appears to be militia members who were parking here, staying at a hotel parking lot. and there was a confrontation between the protesters and these

members. they don't appear to be law enforcement. but they are wearing, as you can see, military fatigues. they have long guns. all of them are carrying these long guns. they're wearing bullet proof vests. the protesters were coming here to confront them, and when they got here, they became -- they got into a confrontation. obviously we've been standing back because of the volatile situation here and out of concern for our safety. but things have now, as you can see, they're now leaving. the protesters are leaving. some of the people who were standing here behind this fence were telling the protesters to leave, to walk away, because there was concern -- there's a lot of gun power behind us. and there was concern that perhaps someone would use one of those weapons. of course kentucky is an open carry state. so, you have the militia members who have weapons here and you have protesters who are carrying

their own weapons. certainly it seems like for now things have quieted down here, erin. >> shimon, thank you very much. and i want to go now to the former secretary of homeland security under george w. bush. i want to talk about what we're seeing with the election but because of what we saw there in the live shot from louisville, i wanted to give a chance for you to give perspective here. you have these sort of tinderbox situations going on now at various places across this country where you have protesters there, militia with long guns. how concerned are you that a spark goes off here that could become much more serious? >> well, i'm very concerned that you could have an outbreak of gun violence. we've seen a little bit of that in the past. i think it would be wise, and i think they're doing this. there are protesters who are focused on the taylor case in kentucky to step back and avoid

direct confrontation. otherwise someone's going to get badly hurt. and as far as the police are concerned, having a curfew and keeping the two sides separate i think is a very, very important part of your mission. >> i mean, it's just -- you see moments like those and you just realize how -- look, how these situations are and how on edge the country is. part of the reason the country is on edge, also, secretary, is what we're seeing from the election. the fbi director, christopher wray, at odds with the president. at first he said very clear there's been no large scale fraud in voting in this country, continued to then say foreign adversaries, talking about foreign adversaries committing large scale fraud in the presidential election, again on a different page from the president. here is the director.er election outcome by mounting that kind of fraud at scale would be a major challenge for an adversary.

>> all right. he's talking about whether russia or someone else, right, would be able to commit large-scale voter fraud on mail-in ballots. he's saying he doesn't -- he doesn't see that that is a legitimate thing. the president, though, of course has again and again -- here's what he said. >> will they be counterfeited by groups inside our nation? will they be counterfeited maybe by the millions by foreign powers who don't want to see trump win? >> the fbi director is saying large scale intervention in mail-in ballots from a foreign adversary doesn't make sense. the president is saying maybe by the millions, counterfeit ballots run by a foreign adversary. does it disturb you to hear the president and his fbi director saying such polar opposite things? >> director wray is exactly correct. it would be impossible at scale to alter mail-in ballots.

you have to have millions of people grabbing balancelots out mailboxes and changes them. they're investigating nine ballots that were somehow disposed of and that's vif y'all. what foreign powers will try to do is do what president trump has gun, create gap skepticism and even cynicism about the outcome of the election because the game plan for russia and other adversary power social security is to shake american confidence in the result and put us into a state of disarray and disorder. so, when the president says, well, we shouldn't count the ballots, we just have continuity and i'll continue, that's exactly music to putin's ears. and that's the kind of message the russians and other foreign powers are going to be amplifying going forward in this election. >> so, again, this is where we see this alarming difference, right?

director wray saying what you're saying, right? no widespread voter fraud, and very clear that americans should have confidence in the system. here's the fbi director today. >> americans must have confidence in our voting system and our election infrastructure. now we have not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud ef effort in a major election, whether it's by mail or by otherwise. >> okay. so, that comports with what you're saying and it comports with the facts. but here's the president -- and by the way, also his attorney general -- saying the opposite. >> you could be talking about large percentages of these ballots are going missing. there's going to be fraud. it's a disaster. >> elections that have been held with mail have found substantial fraud and coercion. >> so, that doesn't comport with the facts. i don't know if you heard a few moments ago we spoke to a couple

of voters at the jacksonville rally the president is having tonight. they believe what the president has said, that if he loses, the whole thing was rigged, that it was fraudulent. how worried are you about this? >> well, i'm certainly -- i think it's outrageous that we have a president and attorney general simply making up nonsense about the validity of our e leks. even common sense tells you you can't alter the election results at scale. what i worry is this is an effort to lay groundwork for two things, one to discourage people from voting because they figure, what's the point, and second to create an atmosphere of resistance to the outcome, if, as i think he probably believes, trump loses the election to joe biden. we have to be very careful to make sure that we reinforce the message, that there is no remotely realistic possibility of large-scale tampering, that

this is in the hands of state election officials, will be impossible to suborn them all in 50 states, and that this is really just what a magician does. you know, look over here while i perform my magic trick. it's performative, but it's not honest and realistic. >> secretary, i appreciate your time and thank you. >> thank you. and next, an alarming new projection from the cdc, 23,000 more americans could die from coronavirus in the next three weeks. so, what is the president doing about it? well, possibly something, holding a rally with few masks and no social distancing. we're watching the live pictures out of louisville, kentucky. protesters moments ago facing off with apparent militia members. the curfew is set to take effect in louisville shortly. we'll go back on the ground nay moment. fights pain in two ways. inay moment. nay moment. anay moment. ay momen. . a moment. ...while acetaminophen blocks pain signals. the future of pain relief is here.

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more dangerous and corrupt president than trump. he's harming our basic values, giving rise to hate, and he's selling out america to big corporations. i'm working to protect immigrants, women, communities of color, and lgbtq people. and i'm making corporations like pg&e and insurance companies play by our rules. we need experienced leadership to wipe away trump's stain on america for good. you're looking at live pictures there on the screen. that's president trump. he is in k gentlemjacksonville, right now holding a campaign rally. you can see no social distancing. and our reporters see few masks

in the crowd except for the people right behind him who presumably know they would be on camera because of their position. this as the cdc projects up to 23,000 more people will die in the next 23 days. that means this average of 1,000 americans dying a day continued unabated. boris sanchez is "outfront." he's in jacksonville. boris, the pandemic and the enormous moss of life, not something you've heard anything about from the president tonight. >> that's right, politics taking precedent tonight for president trump. this crowd, enormous, very large, as you noted very few masks in sight, and the trump campaign giving up any semblance of following cdc guidelines coming from people appointed by this president. i'm going to step out of the way so you can get a full appreciation for the size of the crowd. people have been waiting outside

for hours in line. again, not wearing masks, shareholder shoulder sho shoulder. there's an immense crowd wrapping around the hangar. there's a large crowd outside trying to get in but couldn't. something important you don't see in the cameras, a very sizable portion of this crowd are older folks, senior citizens, people that are more susceptible to coronavirus. many of them become ill. in fact, within the last hour alone, standing not far from us, not wearing a mask became so sick she threw up on the ground. she had to be escorted out of here. she's not alone. a lot of people get ill at these rallies. nearly 30,000 coronavirus cases, not many when you compare it to other parts of florida that have been hit harder. but i've spoken to several people who have driven hours and hours to be here. it is not a situation that is comfortable or safe to be in, erin. >> thank you very much. you know, as boris says they

really have given up on any semblance of pretending to follow the cdc guidelines. the rally where boris is is just taking place hours after trump's own hhs secretary said people should avoid settings where not wearing masks and social distancing is impossible. nick watt is "outfront." >> i want to reassure you and the american people politics will not play any role whatsoever in the vaccine. >> reporter: same interview, secretary azar falsely accused us the president has always promoted masks. and offered unflinching praise for the president. >> thanks to president trump we're in such a better place than we were five, six months ago. >> reporter: last night, president trump said this about possible strengthening of fda criteria for a vaccine. >> are you okay with that this. >> well, i tell you what, we're looking at that. that has to be approved by the white house. we may or may not approve it.

>> apparently the fda or hhs would normally sign off. >> under normal circumstances, that decision is theirs. the secretary approves it, and that's it. something that comes from without, that is not a scientific consideration, would be troublesome. >> reporter: meanwhile, in our actual life and death fight against this virus -- >> we squandered our summer. we went into the summer with 20,000 new cases a day and we're now at double that. >> reporter: yesterday, more than 1,000 lives lost to covid for the first time in over a week. and average new case counts are rising in 21 states. look at that huge red chunk of the country. >> as you look at that map, what you're seeing is an inconvenient truth, which is that many states allowed schools and colleges to reopen when they had not gotten their disease under control. >> reporter: cdc data shows this summer people in their 20s accounted for more than 20% of infections. >> right now, the infections in

the country are driven more by young people, 19 to 25. >> reporter: the virus appears to be mutating to become more transmissible but mercifully not more deadly, according to one new pre-print study. now, today the governors of new york and michigan have called for a congressional oversight investigation into the trump administration's politicize zags of the response to this pandemic. they say that the scale of this tragedy is the direct result of president trump and the federal government's deceit, political self-dealing and incompetence, erin. >> all right, nick, thank you very much. i want to go to dr. william schaffner. he is a liaison to the committee on immunization practices and former service officer at the cdc. dr. schaffner, when you hear what nick just said there, what he concluded with about concern about deceit, politicization,

secretary azar says politics will play no role in the approval of a vaccine. are you worried about this? >> oh, for sure, erin, of course i'm worried. both the reputation of the fda and the cdc, unfortunately, have been tainted because of political interference. and even just this recent fda wishing to change the ground rules for the development of the vaccine has to go to the white house for approval. that's totally inappropriate. it's never happened before. it should not happen. that's evidence of political interference with a basic scientific process. >> and i just want people to understand the possibility of -- which is the potential of what damage is happening here, right? it's not just the damage to these institutions, which is serious and perhaps going to heamicans will take it.ne itsel so, in the spring, 72% of

americans said they would probably get a vaccine if available. now it's only 51. that is a plunge. and that is -- i mean -- and by the way, if only 51% of people