hello. it's the top of the hour. i'm brianna keilar. right knew the u.s. is losing the fight to contain coronavirus. the seven-day average of new daily cases has reached its highest level ever. saturday topped 83,000 new cases. every single state is not moving in the right direction. hospitalizations are you want, more americans are dying. on sunday the without admitted it's not trying to control the pandemic. >> here's what we have to do. we're not going to control the pandemic. we are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other

mitigation. >> wide aren't we getting control of the pandemic? >> because it is a contagious virus, just like the flu. >> why not make efforts to contain it? >> we are making efforts. >> we are running around the country not wearing masks? >> we're getting into the back-and-forth. what we need to do is make sure we have the proof therapy factors to make sure people don't die from this. >> the white house is on cleanup duty today after that statement. the president denied it before his rally in pennsylvania. >> no, not at all. in fact the opposite. absolutely the opposite. we've done an injob, weer doing a great jo been. other than the fake news that wants to scare everything, we're rounding the corner. just based on these numbers

we seeing, fact check that for us. >> brianna, the first fact check is he has said we're rounding the corner so many times i have lost count. how many corners are there to round? obviously we're not rounding the corner. the states that are in orange or dark red is where the rates of coronavirus are going up, and the states in dark red, they're going up at a particularly high rate, in the past week versus the previous week. the yellow states are where it's holding steady. that's just 13 states, nobody is green nowhere in the country is it going down. if you take a look at case counts, we broke a record this weekend. on friday we broke a record, not the good kind. more cases in a single day, even if you go back to the spring where the rates were so high. brianna? >> there are growing calls for a national mask man dade from some of the biggest medical voices.

let's listen to this. >> if everyone agrees this is something that's important and they mandate it and everyone pulls together, saying we're going to mandate it, but let's just do it, that would be a great idea. >> it doesn't need to be backed up with fines or stringent enforcement. we have other requirement we expect of a civil society we enforce with political jawboning, leadership, give people warnings at first. masks are one thing we could be doing. >> i wonder, elizabeth the, at this point with the way masks have been politicized in a mandate would even work and how challenging it would be to enforce. >> i'm going to have faith in humankind and think when people start to learn how effective masks are and sadly when they see covid spreading in their communities they're going to realize such a simple thing, it doesn't cause any harm, super cheap, that it's useful to save lives. let's look at how dr. gottlieb

broke it down when he wrote he "wall street journal" article maskses can help hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, so when you, god forbid, if you have to go to the hospital, doctors can take care of you. and also businesses and schools can stay open. we all want that. look at what masks can do. forget about how they help everybody. they can help you. your kids could maybe go back to school if everyone routinely wore masks, especially in indoor settings. brianna? >> elizabeth, thank you so much. the dow is down more than 800 points right now as covid cases are surging across the u.s. i want to go straight to the new york stock exchange to figure out what's going on. what's behind this sharp

sell-off? >> i think investors are contending with this growing buffet of uncertainty. we're seeing stocks sink as new covid cases hit record levels, also you pointed out at the top of the show, not helping is the statement from mark meadows telling jake tapper we are not going to control the pandemic. yes, that is making investors nervous. there's a lot to grapple with as the uncertainty grows about how the global economic is being affected by restrictions. we're seeing that happen overseas. restrictions are being tightened across major countries. it's raising the probability of a further pullback in business operations lack create a slowdown of economic activity globally. we're also seeing, brianna, the sell-off accelerating as stimulus talks stall again. there's nothing around the

corner for millions of families to pay their bills, put foot on the table, nothing to help these especially these small businesses that are struggling to survive the pandemic. then there's the election. as we get closer to election day, there's concerns the outcome will be contested. that is making weight very nervous. that could wind up being weeks of uncertainty. brianna? >> alison kosik at the new york stock exchange, thank you. eight days away from this critical presidential election and the white house is in the middle of a second recent outbreak of the virus. at least five of vice president pence's inner circle have tested positive, including his body man, a person who is close to him, and helps with his speech texts or handing him pens for ought or grap autographs. also his chief of staff.

the white house says vice president pence tested negative today, but cdc guidelines said he should quarantine. but he's not being taken off the road. >> reporter: he's cited as a essential worker. he's on the campaign trail. that's what he did yesterday. that's what he's doing today, and what he's going to continue to do this week, despite the fact he's halfback of the cdc task force and its own guidelines say you should quarantine. as you've shown from the graphic, it's not just one aide, but multiple people he's been around. the top outside political adviser also tested positive. they are changing a few things

to the vice president's schedule. we heard him saying he would not miss that vote tonight to confirm amy coney barrett, but we are told he's now going to mitt it. he's not going unless they need to break a tie. >> and essential workers under cdc guidelines are not exempt from the quarantine process, right? >> reporter: right. they're not. it says if you are someone who cannot go into quarantine, you should be wearing a mask at all times. they have changed that in the last few events where you saw yesterday in north carolina he wore his mask up until he got to the lectern, but we have not seen him religiously wearing a mask on the plane and at these or events. the president's chief of staff says they can't control the pandemic. as you heard in kaitlan's report, it's no wonder. they could even control the virus within their own ranks.

doctor bailey, thank you for being with us. first, i want your reaction to the admission saying what we heard from the chief of staff. they basically surreverended to the pandemic. they're instead looking at therapeutics. >> thanks for having me on. it is incredibly frustrating to hear anyone say that we can't control this virus. no, we can't control a virus's behavior, but we can control our own behavior, and as has been mentioned in this segment multiple times, we know you need to wear them properly, wash your hands, keeping your distance and staying home if you don't feel well really do make a difference in controlling the spread of the virus. we don't want to wait until people are sick enough to need therapeutics. a vaccine will trickle out slowly.

we need to work on prevention and work together now. >> i want you to listen to a comment that the president said about covid numbers. let's listen. >> you know, some countries, they report differently. if somebody is sick with a heart problem and they die of covid, they say they die of a hard problem. if somebody is terminally ill with cancer and they have covid, we report them and you know, doctors get more money and hospitals get more money, think of this incentive. >> i want you to fact check this. i have talked to other doctors about this. the reaction from them is that, as they're in the middle of taking care of people, shouldering this burden and taking on risks themselves, they're being accused essential of fraud. this is no small thing they're being accused of, so can you react to what he said? >> it is true that hospitals do get reimbursed alternates more

when they take care of covid patients, because taking care of covid patients is hard and requires more equipment, but drls certainly don't get paid more for taking care of covid patients. indeed many doctors' offices are struggling to stay open. some practices are even closing. the fact that someone would suggest we would violate or code of ethics, which tells us to put our patients first to me is really offensive. >> you know, i wonder what you think about the weeks that are ahead of us. i think a lot of people in the country feel like they're getting used to having covid be out there, but now we're looking at these numbers spike and we're expecting them to go up. can you describe the fear of what the next few weeks will look like? >> we have seen from the beginning of this pandemic that the case numbers rise before the

hospitalizations rise, and the hospitalizations rise before the death counts rise. we do a better job of taking care of covid patients in the hospital, because we have learned an awful lot in the past eight months, but it's a frightening prospect if people don't all stick together and try to keep from getting covid-19 in the first place, so our hospitals don't get overwhelmed. it's also a great idea to go ahead and get your flu shot, because we don't need that piled on top of everything else. >> what i've seen is people might be in an area where cases are not particularly high right now, and they have been taking more risks as weather is driving social gatherings indoors. there's a sense of security them from the fact there may be low case numbers like you said, what would you say to people looking at the case numbers saying, i field okay taking some of these

risks okay right now. >> covid fatigue is real. but the fact of the matter is covid is not tired of us this is not the time to let down our gart. this is a time to double down and stay physically distanced as we go into the hold days. now more than ever i think we need tore extra careful even if the numbers of your individual community may not look that frightening, we're afraid they're going to get frightening real soon. >> dr. bailey, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. next, we are live from maryland on the first day of early voting there, as the nationwide totals break reports before election day. plus a conservative paper in new hampshire endorses joe biden, the first time in over a century. i'll be speak to a doctor on

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eight days to go to election day. that leaves plenty of time for the candidates to make their final push to convince voters. here is what the math looks like with the planned campaign stops so far. there would be additional stops along the way, plenty of visits from surrogates as well, including former president barack obama, who will stop in orlando, florida, tomorrow. so far 60 million ballots have already been cast, topping all of the early voting done in 2016, way ahead of 2008 and 2012. we have a week to go.

there's an interesting surge we're seeing as well among younger voters, from just under 8% of the early vote tally in 2016, to 10% so far this year. the biggest jump is in the 18 to 21-year-old age group. we're in maryland where it's the first day of in-person early voting. pete, what are you seeing here? >> reporter: it's busy. 800 people have voted here at this location alone, especially when you consider it's only been open since 7:00 a.m. the lines have been long not only here in montgomery county, one of the most affluent and educated in the country, but across maryland. when the doors opened, the line was 260 people long. socially distanced out, it was about a quarter mile loans.

they say there's too much on the bald here in 2020, not only when it comes to issues, but also about election security. they're worried about what it would look like november 3rd, and they're worried about the security of the mail. here's what voters have been telling me. >> a lot going on, and we've got to get that fool out. i'm sick of him. he's got to go. >> this election year is very different than in the past. maybe this is my first time voting early. i'm very motivated to make sure that i use my voice heard correctly. >> reporter: those voting early are facing an entirely different experience. you can see the protocols in here, it's operating almost like a dmv. here in marland you can register to vote the same day you vote.

early voting in montgomery county will look like this for the next seven days. >> pete, thank you so much for showing us the scene there in silver spring, maryland. president trump has a triple play in pennsylvania today. he's in the middle of back-to-back-to-back stops right now. joe biden has no outside events outhis home state today. i'm going to bring in gloria borger. you're looking at their travel plans, eight days out. what are they telling you? >> kind of like a rosetta stone, telling you where they need to go, what they think is important to them. you say, trump has three rallies in pennsylvania today. we all know how important pennsylvania is. he's looking to bring out the boat there, talking about fracking, about oil. tomorrow, what else is important to him? michigan, wisconsin.

you know, those states were the key to his victory last time around. he's behind in those states. he's going to nebraska, thinking he could pick up an electoral vote, because nebraska is one of the states that doesn't go winner for all. but tomorrow he's going to georgia. they they that i have a good shot in georgia, which is a tie right now. on thursday biden is going to florida. now he's going to broward county, where there's a lot of older people. you have barack obama going to orlando, where there's a lot of younger people, more minority voters, so you see how they're splitting this up. one thing that is so interesting to me, brianna, reading my rosetta stone here, kamala harris is going to texas on friday. texas. that should be in the bag for the republicans, but it's almost

a tie, it's about a one-point race now, believe it or not, and the democrats right now are going to try to bring out their voters in texas. right now it's all about motivation, not persuasion. >> and the president's latest rallies, we're seeing, gloria, this glimpse of a strategy he has in the final stretch. if we can play this clip about how he talked about covid in allentown, p.a. today. >> by the way, november 4th you won't be hearing so much about it. covid, covid, covid, covid. today let's talk about covid all over europe. right? they don't talk about that. >> we're talking about america, because we're in the middle of an election. he's basically saying, again, this is a hoax, we are going to be hearing about this, gloria. we're in the middle of a bunch

of trouble right now. >> we've always talked about the fact he tried to avoid talking about covid. now instead of say it's going to disappear, he's taking it on, almost as if covid is a democrat, personally attacking him. it's one more grievance. hi grievesian is about covid, his grievance is that it hasn't gone away and that some people have the audacity to continue to talk about it, and continue to tell people that they need to pay attention to it, because his administration has faltered. it's just one more talking point for him that he's decided he's go the to attack head-on. >> we're going to keep talking about it, we're seeing the days numbers rise. gloria borger, thank you so much for being with us. till ahead, illinois's top health official chokes up while

announcing a spike there. she's pleading with people to do their part. >> fight the urge to not do social distancing. fight for your children's opportunity to have in-person school. this does mean wearing your mask.

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the top medical officer in illinois is begging the people in her state to wear masks and social distance, amid a disturbing new spike in coronavirus cases and deaths there. she grew emotional as she was reporting the new number. since yesterday we lost an additional 31 lives for a total of 9,418 deaths. these are people who started with us in 2020 and won't be with us at the thanksgiving table. today we are reporting 3,874 new cases for a total of 364,33 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic -- excuse me, please.

my message to you is to stay strong. i've never run a marathon, but i have the utmost regard for those who train, plan and finish a marathon, but this is a difficult race when you can't seat the end point. i'm sorry that's the message. fight the urge to give up on social distancing. fight for your kids to have safe, healthy opportunity to have in-person learning in school with teachers who are trained to teach them in the classroom. fight to have safe, healthy environments at which we can work, so that businesses can remain open, so that our economies can start to thrive again. this does mean wearing your mask. state officials are threatening to impose new restrictions if the case numbers keep rising. in utah, the surge is so serious that hospitals are reportedly preparing to ration care.

it's said this drastic plan is part of the plan presented to the governor. he's the chief medical operations officer at the university of utah health. thank you so much, doctor, for being with us. tell us how dire the situation has become, and tell us about this idea of rationing care. at what point would this begin to happen? and what would that mean? >> well, thank you for having me. first of all, we are currently not in crisis. we are very strained as a system at the university of utah as well as statewide. our icus are currently 87% capacity. crisis standards of care would essential mean rationing care and prioritizing patients who are most likely to benefit, so that we can care for the most patients and do the most good to the most number of people.

we believe we are a ways away from that. that would happen when the system truly is overwhelmed to the point where we literally don't have enough resources, that being nurses, doctors, ventilator. we think we have a long runway, but that runway gets burnt on both ends -- with patients and our staff getting ill. that's certainly a possible down the road. >> the good news that you can tell us about, dr. vinik, is there's something people can actually do to try to reduce the strain on the system. talk to us about what they need to be doing. >> absolutely. this covid-19 is a preventable disease. we all know what we can and should do. that is making some sacrifices.

first of all, wearing a mask, a very small sacrifice, but a big impact. our staff at our hospital have about half the rate of getting ill in the community. why? because we practice what we preach both in the hospital as well as outside. so number one, wear a mask. number two is a lot more difficult and it's social gatherings. when we look at the data, the majority of cases are transmitted lately within small social gatherings. what can people do? avoid those gatherings, especially if they're indoors. if you absolutely need to be with somebody, wear a mask again. but those are the two biggest things we can do, mask wearing appeared physical distance, try to avoid those large social gatherings, especially as we get close to the holidays and hallowe halloween. >> dr. vinik with the utah university of health.

i know you're in the middle of a challenging situation, and it's important that we discuss what we're going through. thank you. >> thank you. we have breaking news that a suspect has been arrested for allegedly setting a ballot box in boston. details on what happens to the votes inside. plus i'll speak to the publisher of a newspaper who decided to endorse joe biden, the first democrat it is backing in 100 years. it's an important time to save. with priceline, you can get up to 60% off amazing hotels. and when you get a big deal... ...you feel like a big deal. ♪ priceline. every trip is a big deal.

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just into cnn, boston police have arrested a suspect in connection with a ballot box fire allegedly set over the weekend. boston firefighters were tending to smoke from an early voting ballot box. cnn's polo sandoval has the late it's. >> breianna, not much is known about a possible motive. they did call this incident a

disagree to democracy. it was under 24-hour surveillance and contained 122 ballots when it was set on fire. according to the boston elections department, new ballots have all right been sent whose ballots were identified in the box. if you are a boston voter who depotted your ballot at that location, the election office wants you to call them to check its status. "the new hampshire union leader" has endorsed joe biden for president. the editorial board wrote, quote -- building this country up sits squarely in the skill set of joe biden. we have found him to be a caring, compassionate professional public servant. he's expressed hi desire to be a president for all of america,

and we take him at his word. brendan, thank you so much for joining us to talk with us about this. tell us about what push the editorial board to make this decision. >> we have endorsed democrats before, but usually in a prior yam, not a general election. we endorsed amy klobuchar recently. >> we have to look at both candidates. frankly neither pleased us very much. we have never been trump fans and trump has not been our fan since we did not endorse him in 2016. we took a look at what's going on you, and the rile thing up that pushed us over the edge was the $7 trillion in debt that has racked up under the trump administration. >> so talk about that a bit. when you think of, for instance,

new england conservatives, you think of the gop roots of fiscal conservatism. we have not really seen that with president trump. you're saying that factors into the decision here, "the union leader" made it clear they don't agree with biden's policies, and yet in the end biden was the better choice. so explain what this comes down -- is there anything about tone? is it just about fiscal conservatism? >> fiscal conservatism is a big part of it, but tone is also there, the way trump has handled himself i think trump has a lot of very good points and i think a lot of our readers think that trump has good points. i've had a lot of e-mails and phone calls pointing out what trump has done well. we don't disagree. he's done good things in the face of a media that has given

him a rough shake, so we looked at trump overall, and overall we think that biden is the better public servant to serve out the next four years. >> in 2016, president trump lost new hampshire to hillary clinton by less than 3,000 votes. what kind of enthusiasm or engagement are you witnessing from voters there in new hampshire right now? >> there is a lot of enthusiasm for donald trump in 2020. his supporters are diehard. they will not be swayed by anything he does, anything he says, anything anyone in the media says. they're not swayed by our editorial, but we made a point on our opinion page to lay out a case for a voter that is maybe alternates on the edge about how they can look at both candidates the way we did, and maybe make

the same decision. >> how are you seeing voters in their engagement for, say, joe biden versus hillary clinton? >> i don't think we see the same sort of call to personality around joe biden. hillary definitely had a different sort of, you know, grouping around her. there was a lot of excitement around hillary clinton and the potentially for the first female president that we do not see with joe biden, because joe biden is an old white man. >> that is true. brendan, thank you so much. we really appreciate you joining us. brendan mcquaid. >> thank you. cnn is on the ground with a group that's been showing up to protests heavily arm. and live to italy as new

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who's sujoe biden.rop 15? biden says, "every kid deserves a quality education and every family deserves to live in a safe, healthy community. that's why i support prop. 15." vote yes. schools and communities first is responsible for the contents of this ad.

who's supkamala harris.5? harris says, "a corporate tax loophole has allowed billions to be drained from our public schools and local communities. no more. i'm proud to support prop 15." vote yes. schools and communities first is responsible for the content of this ad. cnn is getting an in depth look at an activist group for american black communities. the group is black and includes women and men of various ages and is heavily armed. the acronym is nfac, not f-ing around coalition.

tell us about this. >> reporter: brianna, it really started with who this group was, especially when you started seeing them show up in different cities in large numbers. when you watch this video and you see how coordinated they are, they're moving with heavy guns and they're very armed. you wondered what they were looking for, what they were seeking. quite frankly, what they wanted was to get everyone's attention because they want to move toward social justice. a lot of times you see people singing or carrying signs when they're looking for civil rights, but this group believes the second amendment is the way to do this. every time they come to a new city, it creates a stir. but there is a reason why so many people are starting to join. african-americans are starting to add up to the largest group buying guns since the trump administration. take a listen to grand master jack. >> we're not f-ing around anymore with the judicial system that shortchanged us. we're not f-ing around anymore for the complete lack of respect

for men, women and children. in other words, we're not f-ing around with the status quo anymore. we're going to change it one way or another. other demographics pick up weapons and decide to arm themselves and confront the government over anything from wearing a mask to being cooped up in a house. but when certain demographics arm themselves, all of a sudden people start to act like the constitution does not apply. >> reporter: brianna, when you think about this, there are a lot of white militias across this country. we've never really seen black militias arise. this group is growing in number. when you start asking them questions about how large they are, they won't share those numbers. but as we've seen, as they start growing around country, this group increases in size as they keep showing up. they just made their age 18 of people that can join. there are former military members in this group, a former nfl player in this group.

obviously they're starting to get some sort of traction. we did this story for cnn.com as looking at this group as they start to move forward. they say they're starting to pop up in more places around the country. usually they call law enforcement ahead of time so they can set things up, but when you ask them where they're going next, they don't want to give us that information. obviously by the video and the tone, it's been quite striking across america. >> ryan young, thank you so much for that report. we'll check it out as well. thank you. protests in italy over the weekend as new curfews take effect to stop the surge of coronavirus. we're going to take you there live as cases hit all-time highs. plus the vice president's staff is now the focus of a second recent outbreak amid staff at the white house, but he's still campaigning in person with eight days to go until the election.

a second wave of coronavirus infection sweeping europe is worrying health officials in italy. the country was devastated by the first wave back in march. seven months later, italy just set a new daily record of more than 21,000 cases yesterday. more than 37,000 people in italy have died at this point. this is according to johns hopkins. the prime minister says the country can't afford a second lockdown, but there are stringent new restrictions going into place.

cnn's ben wedeman is in rome, and ben, tell us what steps are to be taken. >> reporter: basically cinemas, gyms and restaurants are closing for a month. bars should quit serving, although they can do takeout and delivery, and schools have to have 75% of their instruction online. we have seen every weekend the prime minister guiseppe compte more hesitant, but he doesn't want to have a lockdown like they did earlier this year because of the damage to the economy. brianna? >> over the weekend, there were protesters who clashed with the prime minister over the restrictions. what happened there? >> reporter: here in rome, about 100 members of a neofascist

political party were protesting over an overnight curfew put in place. in naples, a much larger demonstration. that is a much more economically underprivileged part of the country where these lockdowns really do cause damage to the local economy. but by and large, what we've seen going back to march when the first lockdown was imposed was that most italians, even though they're not happy with these restrictions, understand that they are an attempt to stop the spread of this very deadly virus. brianna? >> i know you recently visited an icu in one of the region's front line hospitals. what did the staff there tell you, ben? >> reporter: they're worried. they're very worried about what they see coming, and, of course, they were at the very forefront of the struggle of coronavirus. i can tell you, i spoke to the same head of the icu down there

back in march and now, and he said, we are very, very, very, very worried about what is coming our way. because they know exactly how dangerous this virus can be, and they're not looking forward to a repeat of this second wave. >> yeah, they know full well. all right, ben wedeman, thank you so much for that report from rome for us. and our special coverage will continue now with jake tapper. and welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. we begin today with the 2020 lead. there are only eight days until election day in the united states, and in terms of the spread of coronavirus, we are right now in the worst phase of the pandemic ever. over the last week, the u.s. has added almost half a million new cases of coronavirus. that's the most this nation has ever seen in one single week. hospitalizations and deaths are