tv Erin Burnett Out Front CNN October 21, 2020 4:00pm-5:00pm PDT
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and may their memories be a blessing. i'm wolf blitzer. thank you very much for watching. you can always follow me on twitter and instagram or tweet the show. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. news, the closer. president obama making his case for his former vp, taking president trump head on point on point. and president trump about to rally supporters in north carolina, a must-win state for him. will he respond to obama? and a new cnn poll tonight on two crucial states and how they impact that all-important race to 270. let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, obama's blistering takedown of president trump. for more than 30 minutes, delivering a scathing speech, tearing into president trump and it got personal. >> what we do these next 13 days will matter for decades to come.
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keep their loved ones alive? >> as you can see, the strongest and most passionately we have seen him speak of all this. also, then bringing up president trump's finances and a "new york times" report that president trump has a chinese bank account. here's president obama. >> as it turns out, this was just reported in the last 48 hours. we know that he continues to do business with china because he's got a secret chinese bank account. how is that possible? how is that possible? a secret chinese bank account. listen, can you imagine if i had had a secret chinese bank account when i was running for re-election? you think -- you think fox news might have been a little concerned about that? they would have called me beijing barry. >> well, the former president turning to the importance of this election and its effect on america's democracy.
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>> our democracy is not going to work if the people who are supposed to be our leaders lie every day. and just make things up. i mean, and we just become numb to it. we just become immune to it. every single day. fact checkers can't keep up. and, look, this notion of truthfulness and democracy and citizenship and being responsible, these aren't republican or democratic principles, they're american principles. they are what we -- most of us grew up learning from our parents and grand parents. they're not white or black or latino or asian values.
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they're american values. human values. and we need to reclaim them. we have to get those values back at the center of our public life. and we can. but to do it, we've got to turn out like never before. >> jeff zeleny is in philadelphia where the president just spoke. jeff, that was the toughest assessment of president trump yet from obama. you could see it building. he's talking about coronavirus, you could really feel the anger and the passion. >> reporter: erin, there's no question that was the most at once blistering and mocking assessment president obama has ever delivered on his successor. this was building as a kri shenld -- crescendo of the speech tonight.
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for the first year or so barack obama didn't say much. but this year, certainly this summer, he has raised his voice. and this certainly now is as forceful as he's ever spoken. this was not a speech to sell the strength of joe biden. this was a speech designed to specifically say that president trump is not fit for the presidency here in the united states or around the world. this was targeting democrats particularly. this was not trying to necessarily reach someone in the middle. this was saying that democrats need to not be complacent. he went back to this point four years ago, saying look, hillary clinton was leading in the polls as well, but some democrats got lazy. so he was also showing some tough medicine to democrats here to come out and vote. and he certainly gave a litany of reasons why. i'm told this is the first of several speeches that the former president is going to give. he's going to be targeting these
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battleground states, going where people are voting, like here in pennsylvania. he's going to be looking at florida and other key states. you know, there's so much on the line here, but no mistake why he started in philadelphia. before he arrived here, he spoke with some black community leaders, also making the case why it is important to vote. so going after young voters, black voters in particular, and latino voters. that is his overall message. today, this was a broader message. i'm told he wrote many of these words himself earlier today as he flew here, was sort of weighing how tough he was going to be. he decided to go all in for this. the question is, what effect will it have? but, again, so much more about where donald trump shouldn't be re-elected than why joe biden should. >> that was it. he was also clearly proud of his beijing barry line. >> reporter: yes, he was. >> i want to go to michael smerconish, host of cnn's
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smerconish, and john harwood, white house spomt who also covered the obama/biden administration. michael, we wanted to play each of those segments there just to give everyone a flavor for how passionate this speech was, how detailed it was, how personal it was. and i think jeff zeleny summarized it so well. it was at once blistering and mocking. this, you know, how important is a speech like this in the middle of early voting for turnout? >> so a comment first about style before substance. i thought it was remarkably well staged. i pay attention to these things because i did advance work for george herbert walker bush. not easy to pull off a live event that is socially distant and incorporate, as you referenced, the honks of the horns. >> no applause but horn honking. >> reporter: exactly. old drive-in days. he also was very polished as he
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always is, in his delivery. as a pennsylvaniaen, i took something else away beyond the clips that you have played, and it's this. he began with instructions as to how you vote by mail in pennsylvania. see, we've never had absentee voting without cause before. and if the so-called secret envelope isn't inside the exterior envelope, your envelope doesn't count. and there's a great deal of concern in pennsylvania that folks on this first time around in a presidential race won't get it right and will have their ballot discounted. so i thought it really significant that he wanted to be first in explaining how you vote in the commonwealth by mail. >> and to the point that jeff is making, he's going to go to these crucial states, pennsylvania, florida, and he was targeting it, specifically at those voters. he knew there's a national audience for this, but he did have that specific point, as
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well. what about -- there were just a few points in there that the whole mocking tone of certain parts of it is going to get under the skin of the president, for sure. the whole anticdote about -- he called him out on his tv ratings. you know, it was designed to get to the president. >> i think that's right. at a time when the president is about to have a huge audience tomorrow with this debate. you can imagine that this president watched president obama, hate watched him i'm sure, because he has not liked this president for years and years and years and launched his candidacy for the presidency on a lie about obama. so in that way it was perfectly timed. it was mocking, it was trash talking but elegantly delivered. he was incredibly loose on stage.
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he looks very tan and very fit. and we know that president trump himself is sort of superficial in that way where he thinks about and cares about the way people look. and so there was obama with that 1,000 watt smile, a really trash talking president. he did some work for biden, even though much of it was about tearing down president trump. he said something to the audience in pennsylvania, but obviously the broader audience. he said about joe biden, you know him and he knows you. it's a familiar line, if you remember jim clyburn used a similar line in south carolina in those closing days, leading up to the south carolina primary. i thought that was a really nice touch in this speech. i think this was one of the best speeches that barack obama has ever delivered in his career. there are a few in the top five or so in philadelphia, in this crucial state for joe biden. >> and john harwood, he did make a very specific decision.
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most of it was about not just, you know, things to get under president trump's skin and he did that, and had the funny parts as well with beijing barry. but he did get into policy. but it really was about president trump. it was a case against trump more than anything. that was purposeful. >> yes. i think it was purposeful, and by getting under president trump's skin, that is specifically valuable, first of all to see how the president reacts tonight at his rally in north carolina. how he reacts on the debate stage tomorrow night. one of the problems for president trump is that he's shown no interest in sustaining a message to the american people about what he's going to do for them. he's been venting his grievances of all the people that he thinks have been unfair to him, whether it's anthony fauci or leslie stall or the media or bill barr or members of his cabinet. all of that stuff is not about
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what the american people want to hear in terms of the president's agenda, and that has prevented the president from making a comeback. i do think there was a second message from president obama, which was very significant. and that is the argument to many of these marginal voters, people who might not think it's worth it, to say no, it's not -- everything is not going to change or be solved overnight, but we can make it better. we remember four years ago that there was a dropoff in voters of color, especially younger voters of color, especially men who did not turn out for hillary clinton. that made a difference in places like philadelphia and milwaukee and detroit and other places where president trump narrowly defeated her. so trying to sustain that motivation for a group of people who might either not vote or some of them might be tevenmpteo vote for president trump, that was part of the strategy, as well. >> michael, i want to play a
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little more of president obama. here he is. >> joe and i actually protected your policies to make sure people with preexisting conditions could get health coverage. we did it through the affordable care act. aka obamacare. and republicans tried to repeal or undermine it more than 60 times, and when they've been asked about it, they keep on promising, we're going to have a great replacement. they said, it's coming. it's been coming in two weeks for the last ten years. where is it? where is this great plan to replace obamacare? they've had ten years to do it. there is no plan. they've never had one. with joe and kamala at the helm, you're not going to have to think about the crazy things they said every day.
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and that's worth a lot. you're not going to have to argue about them every day. it just won't be so exhausting. you might be able to have a thanksgiving dinner without having an argument. you'll be able to go about your lives knowing that the president is not going to retweet conspiracy theorys. about secret kabials running the world or that navy s.e.a.l.s didn't actually kill bin laden. think about that, the president of the united states retweeted that. >> michael, there was a lot of detail, and detail about stuff president trump cares about. obviously detail on the affordable care act. that was the policy, the substance. but specifically mentioning things like the qanon reference and the osama bin laden conspiracy theory, also very specific, very purposeful.
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>> i think it's important to remember, and the comment i'm about to make doesn't apply to those of us right now having this conversation nor frankly a lot of your audience, erin. but many americans just haven't paid attention until now. those lower information voters. we tend to be the junk ijunkies. we pay attention to this stuff. what i thought president obama walls successful in doing was bringing into the loop someone who may not have been paying attention to all the trials and the tribulations of the last four years and is now playing catchup as they are getting ready to cast their vote. >> all right. thank you all very much. so literally as president obama wraps that, detailed, passionate, blistering and yet mocking speech, the president of the united states is about to take the stage in north carolina for a campaign rally in g
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gastonia. we'll see how he responds to that speech by president obama. north carolina is where the president is, because he must win that state to win. he did win it in 16 points by nearly four percentage points. it was an easy win at that time. president trump is spending time here now with only 13 days to go, because polls show north carolina a dead heat between biden and trump. just to show how important that state is, joe biden's running mate kamala harris is actually there as well. there he is in charlotte. ryan nobles is "outfront" at the trump rally. so ryan, the president -- there were so many things in president obama's speech that was designed for the audience of one in some sense. the references to ratings. do you expect president trump to respond to him at all? >> reporter: well, erin, if past practice is an indication of what will happen in the future, it would be a big surprise if president trump didn't respond to president obama's commentary of the trump presidency.
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there are plenty of televisions on air force one, and he's often watching those televisions as he makes his way to these rallies. you have to look to who president trump is focused on. everyone he perceives to be his enemy. he continues to hammer the press. he's put dr. anthony fauci in his cross hairs. he continues to attack joe biden, kamala harris, brings up hillary clinton. so the idea that he wouldn't go after barack obama after barack obama so harshly criticized him tonight, would be a surprise. now, the president just started his speech. it's just under way here in north carolina. you mentioned this is a crucial swing state for the president. so far he's largely stayed on script. but as we know, erin, these speeches go in directions that no one, including campaign aides, can predict. so the president is here with a captive audience that loves him. an audience that is not a very big fan of president obama. it is very likely that president obama's name will come up at some point tonight. erin? >> thank you very much, ryan. and let's go now to bakari
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sellers, a democratic member of the south carolina house of representatives and joining me as well scott jennings, special assistant to president george bush. so scott, if you're advising president trump tonight, is going after president obama a smart thing to do to shore up support in a -- for him -- a must-win state? >> well, i think to the extent that he was attacked on certain issues that they feel are germane to winning a race, sure, you want to rebut something from barack obama. at this point in the campaign, though, if i were the trump people, persuasion is not really a swing at this point. you've got virtually nobody is persuadable. if you're still undecided, let us welcome you to earth. there's no ambivalence in the electorate out there. what the trump campaign could do is persuade some people to vote who didn't vote in 2016, two maybe they just registered or never voted before, but they fit
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the demo that low info flow voter, not engaged in politics, not following it that closely, but maybe they fit a demo that -- like male, noncollege degree that is going to break for the president. so i would expect and advise the president to talk to an audience that might actually respond to that. because at this point, a persuasion game probably ain't going to cut it. >> bakari, earlier today on twitter, the president was focusing on the economy, which republicans had been telling him to do, focus on that. in part he tweets, remember biden is going to raise your taxes at a level never seen before. this will not only be very costly for you but will destroy our economy which is coming back rapidly. your 401 k 1(k)s will crash and that you have built will be destroyed. do messages like that resonate in crucial must-win states for this president?
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his path to 270 includes north carolina. does that help there? >> i think it does help. i think that scott and rick santorum and all my friends further right than i have been coming on the tv telling the president to hammer home that message. that's probably the only message that works for him. but just as the president does, kellyanne conway or the press secretary, or mark meadows or -- the list goes on and on and on. he doesn't listen to him like he doesn't listen to scott jennings either. so he's in the bad state that he is today. look, the message on the economy is probably the only message he has that will resonate. but we're not in a try to woo voters to your side stage any more in the campaign. you have to get your voters to the polls, because we're going to get out the vote, it's a little late to convince people.
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if you're undecided right now, then you ain't paying attention. and i don't know too many undecided voters. he has to be speaking to people to get them to the polls. and fauci, stall, cnn, those things, they're not getting people to the polls. the economy may work better. >> so scott, one person not at the rally tonight is the first lady. she has not set foot on the campaign trail once this year. that's a historic break of precedent. in fact, she was supposed to join him last night in pennsylvania. that was the plan, she backed out because of a lingering cough from coronavirus. her not being there, though, is a reminder of the thing president trump does not want to talk about the most, coronavirus. he doesn't want to talk about that. >> of course. the job approval on it is bad and costing him support among a lot of voters and senior citizens. it's unfortunate that the first lady can't campaign. i hope she feels better and
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fully recovers. because first ladies have really helps incumbent presidents. michelle obama, laura bush were great helps. first ladies can often soften the edges around a candidate who is feeling under attack. so it's unfortunate for president trump she can't be out there. hopefully she can make an appearance or two before the election. >> i want to play this. our producer, this is an amazing thing we have. the names may have changed from where we were four years ago today. four years ago today. but the story is the same. so here is president trump last night after -- and four years ago on the exact same day. here you go. >> hillary clinton is the most corrupt and dishonest person ever to seek the office of the presidency. joe biden is a corrupt
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politician. she's going raise your taxes. he will massively raise your taxes. mexico will pay for the pal. mexico is paying for the wall. we're going to look back at this election and say this is by far the most important vote that i've ever cast for anyone at any time. this is the most important election in the history of our country. >> okay. so nothing's changed. i mean, a hell of a lot has changed, yet here we are with the same message, scott. >> yeah, look, he's trying to run the same race that he ran before. the structural problem and the polling on this race is, the voters just don't hate joe biden as much as they hated hillary clinton. so trying to run the same playbook against a dramatically different kind of opponent doesn't often work. the correct framing of this race for him would have been to have a choice election, my policies versus yours. in the last campaign, he could afford to run that kind of race because hillary's numbers and
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personal image were so bad that people were willing to buy into that theory. this time around it doesn't look like it's working, which means a choice on policy would have been better. instead we're getting a referendum on trump's job approval, especially on coronavirus, and that's not working for him, but it is working for joe biden. >> it is stunning to hear that, bakari. it's word for word, and what our extemporaneous ad libbed environments. >> i mean, i don't know how surprising it is. it's donald trump. he has one sheet of music. he is a blunt force object. you don't really change the trajectory of blunt force objects. what i'm about to say is more so to my proverbial bed wetting democrats than anybody else. but 2020 is not 2016, and people want to analyze them as the same thing. i think scott was correct in saying that in 2016, you had the candidates running for president with the two highest unapproval
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rates, you don't have that today. you had a third party in jill stein that didn't help hillary clinton. she gave those left leaning voters a place to go. you had combi comey 11 days out his investigation of the anthony weiner laptop. things have changed, and i think you saw tonight who is well liked and barack obama and the colloqui colloquialism, i felt like barack obama was listening to hit up tupac. he was focused and ready to go. you just now see all of this fire aimed at president trump, and he cannot get out of his own way. >> thank you both very much. next, 24 hours until the final presidential debate. we'll go inside the campaign strategies, and a new cnn poll shows joe biden with a ten-point lead in pennsylvania. now, what does a poll really say and what does that mean for the race to 270? live tonight at the magic wall.
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♪dy-na-na-na, na-na, na-na, eh♪ ♪light it up, dynamite ♪shining through the city with a little funk and soul♪ ♪so i'ma light it up like dynamite♪ ♪'cause, ah-ah,♪ ♪shining through the city with a little funk and soul♪ ♪i'ma light it up like dynamite, whoa♪ tonight, president trump getting a stunning answer to a simple question on sinclair television. >> with covid, is there anything that you think you could have done differently, if you had a mulligan or do-over on one
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aspect the way you handled it, what would it be? >> not much. it's all over the world. there's a lot of smart people, it's all over the world. it came out of china. china should have stopped it. >> right now, not a single state in the country is seeing downward trends. 42 states seeing hospitalizations increase by 5% in the past two weeks. hospitalization level s at reco levels. and the surgeon general tweeting this saying herd immunity, so mar there's no example of a large-scale successful, geneva convention -- >> it a not just the surgeon general, saying president trump's ideas about the coronavirus don't add up. here are other members contradicting president trump on policy decisions he made that
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cost american lives. >> you don't get a pandemic that kills a million people, and it isn't even over yet. >> the people who want to attend rallies and want to participate in the political scene, wear masks and socially distance. >> facemasks, these are the most important powerful public health tool we have. >> things the president could have done differently. kaitlan, 80% of voters said the coronavirus was important or important to their vote, yet the president still trying to minimize this, given a very simple anything you can do differently, not much. >> reporter: yes, that's right, erin. it's something he's repeated several times. a poll broke it down and asked if you're a likely biden or trump voter, how do you prioritize the pandemic. the gap was wide. it was about 60% at least likely
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biden voters said it was the number two priority for them. but likely trump voters, only 22% said it was a very important issue in their vote. so you see how the president's own voters are viewing this pandemic differently than many other people are. and it comes, of course, as the president is say thing is nothing else he would have done differently when it came to the pandemic or he said not much else and didn't elaborate on anything he would have done differently. as we continue self-months into this pandemic, here it is october, still seeing mixed messages come out of the white house, mixed mess ajts that members of the task force are being pressed on. alex azar is insisting there isn't a mixed message, but we can see it play out with what the president is doing tonight at this rally in north carolina. a state that's seeing record numbers in the last week, but the president is holding a large rally, where people are not wearing masks, close together.
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it's probably one of the largest events in the united states in recent weeks. so it just does to show that there are actually contradictions and it's several months in and we're continuing to see it play out between the president and his own health officials and the federal government's own policies when it comes to covid-19. >> thank you very much. i want to bring in the deputy sccampaign manager for t biden campaign. the coronavirus is something the president has put front and center and would listen to the scientists and wear masks. but here we are at this point. what would vice president biden do differently on coronavirus right now? >> well, first and foremost, he would lead. i think president trump has politicized this virus. you were just talking about polling showing people take the virus seriously, depending on
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which side of the aisle they're on. i think vice president biden thinks that's a travesty. he would encourage mask wearing. he would put in place a plan to ensure that small businesses had the resources that they need to protect themselves, to put up the material that they need, to make sure that they're safe. he has a plan to get kids back in school safely again to provide the resources, to make sure that kids and teachers are safe. he would take meaningful action in this moment. he would treat this incredibly differently than the way president trump has. joe biden would tell the truth and lead. >> so president trump is trying to make it into, he wants to get people back to school and work and reopen and that biden is going to shut things down and lock things down if elected, canceling christmas. here he is moments ago at his
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rally in north carolina making just this case. >> it's between a trump boom or a biden lockdown. he wants to lock you down. >> how do you respond? >> that's not true. joe biden is not looking to lock down the country. the only reason that we're in a situation like this is because president trump has failed to lead. he has failed to keep us safe. the first duty of an american president is to keep the american people safe. as a result, we have over 220,000 americans dead from this virus. we have kids unable to go to school. we have tens of millions of people out of work. we have small businesses as i said all over the country that are closed. so, you know, i think that this is a completely false argument from president trump, and what he's doing is not taking ownership, he's not taking responsibility for the fact that we're now eight, nine months into this crisis. he doesn't have a plan. he doesn't have a plan to get the economy open and moving
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again. and so we're hearing him try to attack joe biden. that's not what people are looking for. they want a plan from him, what @ is going to do to get these businesses open. he doesn't have a plan. joe biden does. >> so the president has been lashing out at the debate commission rule on muting microphones at the debate. he said -- i think it's very unfair. it's very bad that they're not talking about foreign affairs. what is your take on the mute button? paul begala, democratic strategist for many years, he said the mute button could be bad for joe biden, because he may hear president trump speaking, but we all won't. so it would make it hard for him to focus and finish his thought, but the viewer might not know why, that it night be bad for biden and not for trump? how do you see it? are you okay with the mute button issue? >> well, look, we're all hoping, and i would imagine that the viewers at home are hoping that the back and forth is a little
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more civilized and managed in this debate that it was in cleveland. but ultimately, this isn't really about the mute button and about, you know, how they go back and forth. it's about the fact that debates are a test of presidential temperament. so the question is, is president trump going to show up to actually depend his record and make a case for his re-election, or is he going to be there lobbing personal attacks and interrupting and trying to create chaos. that's a question. either way, joe biden is going to be there ready to talk about his plans and ready to talk directly to the american people about his belief that we can get through this crisis. but i think the other important thing i would say, erin, which ever version of president trump shows up, that doesn't change the kind of president he's been for four years. that doesn't change the chaotic, erratic impact he's had on people's lives. so whatever transpires on the debate stage tomorrow night, people know who president trump is and they know who joe biden
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is. >> kate, thank you. i appreciate your time. of course, that debate tomorrow night. >> >> up next, how long will americans have to wait before getting a clear answer on who won the election? a few key clues in states that you should be watching at what time on election night. breaking news, the fbi holding a press conference. tonight, what they call election security issues. darrell's family uses gain flings now so their laundry
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tonight, new cnn polls from two battleground states that could decide the election. in pennsylvania, vice president joe biden with a double digit lead. 53% of likely voters say they bike biden. 43% for president trump. and in florida, biden and trump mathematically tied. 50% support biden, 46% support trump, that is within the margin of error. phil, look, these are crucial states. and it could make all the difference on election night. so what are these polls, you know, combined with the other information we're getting coming out of polls in these states tell us about the race to 270?
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>> i'm going to start with florida. florida is close but one state that the current president, president trump, cannot lose. i want to demonstrate why. this is based on cnn race ratings. if you look, dark blue, light blue means comfortable for joe biden or leaning joe biden. he's already over the 270 electoral votes that he needs. say you give president trump every gold state except for florida. you give him georgia, north carolina, ohio, iowa, maine too as well. and why not just give him arizona? which is leaning towards joe biden as well, because that's traditionally a republican state. but you give joe biden the state of florida. you could then give president trump pennsylvania where joe biden currently has a lead according to polling, even give him wisconsin as well. and joe biden is still over 270 electoral votes. why this matters is a couple of things. why this will always be a razor thin margin, if the biden campaign can win florida, there's a decent chance you're
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going to have a sign this will be over election night. florida knows how to do mail-in balloting. there's plenty of stories where florida has gone haywire on the voting. but the expectation is, we're going to start seeing results from mail-in balloting early in the night once the polls close. so florida is crucial. if the biden campaign can close out florida, they will know they're on path. the other thing the polls show, if you look at this part of the country, if you look at north carolina, georgia, and florida, all razor thin margins. if you look at the midwest, places where president trump punctured the blue wall in 2016, the biden campaign is showing strength. showing some strength. the biden campaign can sweep pennsylvania, wisconsin, can sweep michigan. they're also in good shape up there as well, erin. >> so you know, you're going to pennsylvania in a poll with a double digit spread right now. we know ohio, obviously is right next door.
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you look at counties there, a very similar tale. no republican president has ever won the presidency without ohio. we all know this. you have to win ohio. so what do you see there? >> look, if the trump campaign is having problems in ohio, they are not going to win november 3rd. that's just a reality. one, if you look at the margin back in 2016, donald trump won by 446,000 votes, it was a blowout. what changed is a couple of things. one, the expectations of democratic strong holds in the urban areas, in cleveland, toledo, as well. the voter turnout was way down. african-american turnout was down. but also in the northeast part of the state, the younstown where he may have won the city, he didn't win up in that area. you talk about the bleedover in pennsylvania. president trump was in erere, pennsylvania last night. those were traditional democratic strong holds, union strong holds.
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there's no necessary sign right now, erin, those are all flowing back into the democratic column. when you talk to democrats on the ground, i spoke to sherrod brown. i said is president trump going to win ohio? he said not a chance. he started talking about the places where democrats feel like they have a chance. they think it's in play. if it's even close to many play, donald trump has a problem. >> phil, thank you very much. so i want to go to two people who know these states the best. john kasich, former republican governor of ohio, and the former republican senator from pennsylvania, rick santorum. both of you have run for the white house. so senator santorum, i just want to talk about that poll that we have now in tonight from pennsylvania. double digit. that's just one poll. but that's the latest poll. do you think that the spread could be that wide? >> no, i don't. i mean, if you look at the real clear politics average, it's
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4.9. i think that's probably more realistic. and i've always said that if -- looking at the public polls, if we could be within three points, you've got a shot. because if you look at the ground game, it's clear we've been outregistering the democrats. a lot of demographic changes occur in pennsylvania that pro-trump. i think this race is a lot closer. >> governor kasich, what do you see in ohio? do you believe sheriff brown? >> i don't. ohio was a hockey stick. on the western part is strong for trump and the bottom of the state is strong for trump. the middle of the state, everything else that's left is going well for biden.
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i am surprised, i thought it would be easy for trump to win ohio. i am not so sure now. what's the african-american turn-out going to be? i think it is going to be bigger and not just ohio, all across the country. rick was talking about pennsylvania. the reason why barack obama was out today, he was in philadelphia trying to drive that turn o-out. you have to look at suburban voters and now ex-urbans. people who are away from the suburbs. they were not trump people like they were. working men had been moving away from trump. i have to say right now is extremely close. my gut tells me that trump still wins but i am not shock at all if biden wins ohio. >> with the 400,000 margins last
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time, it is significant to say. you this i nk of ohio. let me ask you first, governor, in ohio you have the highest number of new cases since the pandemic began and that's not just testing. that's also a real surge spread that we are seeing across. deaths are going up. axios says 37% of americans say the president's diagnose with coronavirus made them trust him less. we are 13 days from the election. >> sure, it does. you know i am not trying to promote biden or whatever. you are asking me questions and
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i am giving you my honest analysis of this. what coronavirus has done two things, taken trump off his message of jobs and economy. that matters the most. secondly, it is a great concern to our senior ys to our senior yeniors. one of the things that has to be done is for joe biden if he can convince the senior people. senior are nervous because they are vulnerable. they don't like what he's done. there are partisan division over how they see this virus but overall it has not help the president in the least. >> i want to ask about voter registration. you mentioned pennsylvania, we have seen this spike in republican voter registration. how much do you read into that? >> well, i just saw a report out
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of the the eerie rally that 21% of the people in the rally did not vote in the 2016 election. the campaign knew donald trump was not going to change stripes. they had to get more people like donald trump who didn't vote to vote and get them out of the polls. that's what he's doing. they have done a great job in western pennsylvania which is similar east ohio. they're really two sides of the same coin. they have done a great job getting voters out. last minute news conference happening here, the president's director national intelligence announcing iran and russia have interfered in this presidential election including "specific actions" to influence public
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opinion. the director of fbi mentioning iran being behind a series of threatening e-mails to democratic voters this week. our senior correspondent, evan p perez is with us. what can you tell us? >> this indication of how worried the officials are about the next couple of weeks and the fact they are expecting interference not only from iran and russia but other country as well. iran is the country behind these series of e-mails and thousands of them have been received in states around the country threatening democratic voters saying that it is coming from a group called the proud boys who are associated with spoupporter of president trump.
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we'll watch to see how you vote and if you don't we'll come after you. that's the threat that's been sent to voters around the country. according to ratliff and the fbi, none of that is true. the iranians were able to get into election system, they were able to get some data. they can't do anything about your vote and change your vote. that's the reason why they held this press conference to reassure voters that even though they clearly did were able to get into the system, both iran and russia, they're trying to reassure voters that your vote will not be interfered with them. >> evan, stay with me here, i want to bring in steve hall with the former cia bureau of chief for the cia. carrie cordelia, let me start with you here. what's the significance of this. i want to start with why you
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think they chose to do it in primetime to come out with this announcement. they thought this is something unusual and more significant than they would ordinary do. >> absolutely. i think what's interesting about it erin, is what a change this is from 2016. there has been a lot of lessons learned for the intelligence community in terms of information that was held back and concerned of revealing publicly and this year especially in days and weeks leading up to the election, the intelligence committee are working collaboratively. it is important that there were several of them appeared jointly because they give each other credibility that this was not one actor. ratliff, other leaders were there and the fbi director was there and the assisted director was there from dhs and assistant attorney general, these joint statements together show they
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are working collaboratively and they're trying to warn the american people in realtime about foreigner interference of the election. that's a significant change in the transparency from the intelligence community verses the last major election. >> it is an amazing point. steve hall, you have this campaign threatening voters, change your voter's registration, the proud boys. most americans have not heard of the proud boys until then. >> they have not heard of that group. so this would appear that this was scrambled together quickly. did you think they can do better than that or is this the tip of the iceberg? >> i think it is a much larger -- the russians and iran
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are also involve in and what surprises me is the amazineamaz of how grandeurly -- before the russians and the iranians were involved in a much smaller sense and now it gotten bigger. the russians had to establish these accounts and make it realistic. now, they understand the word amplify and does not matter which side of the spectrum, the russians and the iranians will jump onto it and we ourselves will do a heck of a job amplifying that. it is concerning to the intelligence committee because there isless efforts for it to
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be done for it to be efficient this time. i appreciate your time so much. the significance of ratliff who has been accused of acting politically joining with christopher wray doing it together. thank you for joining us, anderson starts now. >> thank you, erin. i want to go back to cnn's every van perez to go deeper into this. evan, if you can talk about what came out of this press. can you hear me, it is anderson? can you go into details of what we heard from the dni and chris wray? >> we heard from john ratliff that both iran and russia have gained
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