is. good morning. i am chris cuomo along with don lemon. it is 6:00 a.m. here in new york city. while you were sleeping, the race for president changed. we have new information about the state of georgia, information about arizona, and the state of the race. counting takes time, but we're getting new batches of votes, don, and they're making a big difference. >> people may just be waking up, but we have been up all night doing this, making sure we got the numbers correct. we wanted people to wake up and get the right information. hundreds of thousands of mail-in votes are still being counted in

key battleground states. the big one including pennsylvania, right? georgia's largest county has about 7,500 absentee ballots left to count. so, they have been counting throughout the night and we have been covering it for you and we'll continue to do it, chris. >> beautiful people doing our work, volunteers, a lot of them. we've been watching them, working, tirelessly, just to get a vote down for us. beautiful demonstration of democracy. so, what do you say? it's time to get caught up on all the newest results this thursday morning. so we begin with a key race alert. all right, we're going to begin with georgia. why? i'm going to go over to the magic wall with phil mattingly in just a moment. we have seen a change in the state of play here. if you went to bed before midnight on the east, you went to sleep, it was 30,000-something votes separating the two men. now 18,540. just as important from that spread is where the change comes from and what it can mean, even with 96% of the estimated vote

in. why do we care so much about this one state and its 16 electoral votes? because the patz to getting to 270 are getting very narrow. every bit matters. takes us to pennsylvania, which frankly may matter even more. and here's why. 20 electoral votes. 89% of the estimated vote is in. the amount out still, again, remember, context. the amount of vote that we're waiting on comes from areas that could swing towards biden so heavily that he could meet or beat the 164,414-gap separating biden and trump. and if that happens, if joe biden wins pennsylvania, the race is over. now, let's take you through a couple of the key race alerts, while i have you. arizona, 11 electoral votes. 86% of the vote is in. now, this is an important opposite dynamic of the other races. which is that donald trump is

making ground on joe biden, okay? it's been happening all through the night. why? well, he won it last time. maricopa county is the whole race. he did well there last time. and it looks like he's doing better with certain batches of votes this time. why? we'll take you through it at the wall. the gap right now stands at 68,390. that is quite a few lower than it was. and every time we've done new votes, joe biden is going the wrong direction there. if he loses arizona, the state of the race changes and so do the pathways. we'll take you through that in just a second. then, nevada, six electoral votes. this is easiest to get through, because nothing has changed, because they're not giving us information until later this morning. very slim lead. it will come down to the biggest county. clark county, which is where las vegas is. biden should be doing strong results there, but we will see. okay, now, let's look at the big wall. 253, 213. but that's going to change today. i'll tell you that right now.

it is going to change today. how? well, i can't answer that. i have to go to phil mattingly. he's at the magic wall. good to see you. thank you very much for being with me. great to be making history with you here and living it. one of the best parts of our job. so when we look at georgia, we just saw a change. where are we and why? >> we started this night at about a 31,000-vote lead for donald trump. and progressively, it has dropped over the course of the last 12 hours. it has dropped even more since we've been on television the last six or so. and why has it dropped? because of where the vote is outstanding and those are generally places of strength for democrats and for joe biden. it has almost been universally the case. when batches of votes have come in, the lead for donald trump has dropped. and that just happened again moments ago. the reason why, fulton county. fulton county is the largest county in the state. it is the home of atlanta. you look at the margin here. obviously, this is a democratic stronghold. and with the batch of votes that just came in, joe biden netted out another 4,400 votes, bringing him to where he stands

now. the big question in the state of georgia, how much vote is left outstanding there, right? 96%. that's not a ton of vote outstanding. 4%. well, when you're talking about under 20,000 votes, when you're talking about where that vote is outstanding, i'll give you a hint. right here, right here, a little bit right here, as well. what's the commonality in all of those areas? those are all blue areas. they're all still waiting for vote to come in. >> what about all of that red action? >> we'll take it down and actually show you what's outstanding. >> 159 counties, right? there are a lot of different little areas. so this is what really the true picture is. >> this is what the true picture is. so you're looking for areas of strength here. and if you're looking for areas of strength, so this is taking it down to what's 83% reporting or less. this is where you look when there's this much vote in, when there's vote outstanding. you go right here to clayton county. this is a democratic stronghold. look at the margin and realize there's going to be a couple thousand votes there given the size of it. you can move outside a little bit, as well. move over into savannah. look at the margin, a little bit tighter, but look at the margin,

87% reporting. there's going to be more vote there. you pointed out, there's some red counties here. what's donald trump's prospects here? what's donald trump's prospects? look at the size of the counties. look at the size of the counties. dodge county the 87th largest county in the state. there's just not a ton of vote here. and one of the big questions over the course of what we've seen over the last two days has been even in red counties, even in counties that donald trump is winning and will win handedly, when the mail-in vote comes in, it is traditionally leaning democratic, even in those counties. so what that all means is joe biden is still, the way things stand, if he continues to win this vote that's outstanding at a rate of around 60 to 62%, he has a chance to overtake donald trump. to give you some context here, the vote that was coming in out of fulton county over last couple of hours has been coming in at a rate of 80% to 20% biden. that is above that 60 to 62% range. will that hold? that will dictate whether or not joe biden ends up overtaking donald trump in the state of georgia, but there's a pathway

right now for joe biden in georgia. >> let's get the flavor of the moment with nick valencia. he is in this all-important county in georgia. nick, we've been watching the women over your shoulder all night long. i think we lost one of them. i still see her coat, though, and her partner in crime is still there. they have been working all night long behind you. amazing they stayed all night. when does this information mean where you are? when three votes came in, what does that tell us about how much action we have coming out of your location? >> it's their important work that shows us that this work is close and only getting closer here by the hour, chris. at 12:00, midnight, we knew there was 20,000 absentee ballots that still remained to be counted by fulton county. they've been able to make a considerable dent in that. as it stands right now, it's 6:00 a.m. eastern, just 7,500 absentee mail-in ballots left to be counted. what we don't know is the raw data. who is this benefiting?

who are these votes going towards? we know just from looking at the data, phil managemently, laying it out beautifully, that these mail-in ballots have benefited, by and large, joe biden. will that continue to be the case? the big question has been the case over the same 24 to 48 hours, are there enough democratic votes on the table here in georgia for joe biden to take this state and be the first democratic presidential nominee to win the state since 1992. we are still waiting for the secretary of state to get back into the office, to upload and have these numbers that they're working on here gathering, reflected in the overrule totals. p before the secretary of state went to bed, they told us there was 90,000 absentee ballots across the state. we don't know if that is the current number. we don't believe it is, because of all the work they're doing here. i mentioned, 20,000 absentee votes they started at midnight with, down to 7,500, doing a lot of work here. at that rate, we should get some more final tallies from this county around 7:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m. eastern, but we are going to have to wait until the

secretary of state reflects that in the overall numbers. chris? >> nick, thank you very much. i want to go back to the wall, but one string of salient thoughts for one second here so you can get some context. one, the people behind nick have been killing themselves and have been doing it for us. they are volunteers. they're just regular people and they're doing these jobs that are crazy tedious and difficult, and nick has been taking us through it all night long. and we appreciate them and we asked them to reach out, we see one is getting ready to leave finally. can you imagine that, leaving your family all night long to do that. why is the count taking a long time? "a," false premise, not taking that long. we don't get results in elections as quickly as somebody suggested to you at the beginning of this process. now, one of the factors here that is new is we have a lot more mail-in vote than we've had before. why? pandemic. tons of organizing. people being worried about going out. and frankly, part of the swing here, republicans aren't adverse to mail-in voting, but it doesn't help when the president

of the united states is telling you not to do it. that will be part of the autopsy here. so what's the other part? none of the states that we're looking at right now counts mail-in votes first, okay? every one of the states we're looking at now, unless i'm wrong, counted day-of votes first. so you are always going to see a change in the count. the president wanted you to believe that that was suspicious. it isn't. and he knew that when he told you. so we're seeing a change in the state of play. and you believe that there are, and nick valencia said the same thing, there are enough votes to make a difference here. so let's now reset here at the top of the hour with fitting this into our understanding of the state of play of the race. >> so i want to bring up kind of the general map. and let's lay out where things stand right now. if you take a look at where things stand right now, every state you see that's not filled in is a state that we have not called, up to this point. you' states that are very tight. pennsylvania, north carolina, georgia, arizona, nevada. we will go ahead and mark off

for president trump north carolina. you made the point, it's a pretty sizable lead right now. it has held, there is no expectation at this point that that will be overcome by joe biden. same with alaska. where does that put things? joe biden, 253 electoral votes. donald trump, 231 electoral votes. let's go through where joe biden is leading right now. he's not leading in pennsylvania, down by 160,000 votes. not lead inniing in georgia. he is leading in the state of arizona and is leading in the state of nevada. if he just wins the state of nevada and the state of arizona, look at the number. 270 electoral votes. here's a caveat. right now, we've been watching this throughout the course of the night, the state of arizona has tightened. it has tightened tremendously over the course of the night. there is a new batch that we are waiting for. it's going to be a bit out of maricopa county, biggest county in the state of arizona. we will see what that batch holds for what the future is for that state. that's a lot of time, by the

way. because time is a coefficient of how many votes they process, right? we have seen anecdotally here that the more time between reports, the more volume of votes when they do eventually report. so if we're talking it's 6:00 in the morning east here to 9:00 at night or whenever when they come, that's a long time. it could be a big batch of votes. is it a fair suggestion to say, when they come out, this could be a dispositive amount of votes. meaning, it could be the state saying, we think this will render which way the state goes. >> state won't make the decision. there's about 400,000 votes outstanding. what we saw over the course of this night, they came out in chunks of 75,000 and 65,000 votes over the course of the night. we will see if they stay on that track or a bigger batch over the course of the night that will allow the decision desk -- >> so we may know tonight. >> it's a possibility we will know tonight. >> and nevada, we will know more definitely today, because that's

what the secretary of state promised us when we started this yesterday. >> there is no longer any time that we can actually count on. >> it was wednesday morning, wednesday morning, the thursday -- >> it is officially blursday. >> wednesday morning, the secretary of state of nevada tweeted that they would have more information later today. and that is because they prefer to do a lot of counting first and then report multiple counties at once, yes? >> we're waiting for clark county, the biggest county, the biggest outstanding vote batch that we're waiting for, which likely decide which way nevada goes. i want to show something else too. >> around noon, by the way. >> around noon, east coast time. 9:00 a.m. their time. so what happens the new batches come in from arizona and they put president trump ahead? the trump campaign has said they believe they have a very real pathway in arizona. what happens if that's the case? democrats dispute that pathway,

but what happens if that's the case? what happens if the new clark county batch comes in, it's traditionally a democratic county, but what happens if that goes to president trump? biden is only leading by 7,000 votes. who knows? where does that leave things. 253 to 248. what happens if donald trump holds off joe biden in the state of georgia? joe biden has a clear pathway there right now. but what happens if donald trump is able to scrounge up enough votes from those republican counties? this is probably the most important thing to pay attention to this morning. donald trump can win north carolina, he can win georgia, he can win arizona, he can win nevada. if joe biden wins the state of pennsylvania, joe biden is above 273 electoral votes. now, there are multiple pathways for joe biden right now, but the straight pathway is winning the state of pennsylvania. that is what president trump absolutely cannot allow to happen. and that is what the biden campaign right now, as they look at the numbers in pennsylvania, which we can get into in a little bit if we have time, that is the clearest pathway to 270.

>> let's take a break, come back to the wall and go through this. and this question i have not asked phil mattingly yet, which is amazing because i have asked him everything i have been able to think of twice. so stay with us and we will figure out, how long are we looking at until we know which way we're going to be heading, hopefully together. stay with cnn. oh humans. listen to what every strain... every twist-oof- and every backache is telling you: you cannot do this. pain says you can't. advil says you can.

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may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your doctor about nucala at home. find your nunormal with nucala. now after a long night of counting, it's clear that we're winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. i'm not here to declare that we've won, but i am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. >> former vp joe biden there. chris cuomo, phil mattingly here

at the magic wall. his campaign team believes that they will win pennsylvania. i just got an email from president trump as a longtime friend and supporter, as it is addressed to me. i don't know how to make it stop. i've tried. i just go with it. and it says there that he has won pennsylvania, and he says this isn't just a rumor, because his campaign manager says it's true. all right. now, that and a token that doesn't exist anymore would get you on the subway. the point is, we have to wait for the votes and the data. there is no question, as phil has been explaining very well for a long time, if pennsylvania goes for biden, the race is over. that's not true if it goes for trump. however, let's talk to the state of play here and why 164,000-vote spread with 89% reporting is not necessarily dispositive of the result. >> let's start with two key factors. one, you go 10 to 12 hours ago, donald trump was ahead by over 700,000 votes. and progressively over the course of hours on end, joe

biden has eaten away a lot. now at 164,000. >> because they counted day-of votes for. if you recall, wisconsin and michigan, similar structure, right? you count day-of vote first. day-of vote has been predominantly, heavily republican. why? president trump's turnout operation was outstanding. i don't think anybody can argue with that. and president trump urged his supporters to vote in person on election day. for those three states, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, they counted election day vote first and then they moved into mail-in ballots. why does that matter? democrats heavily, heavily leaned into mail-in ballots. what happened over the course of the count for michigan and wisconsin? it started off very republican. and hour by hour by hour as they counted the mail-in votes, joe biden made up ground, made up ground, made up ground, flipped the states blue. both of those states have been called for joe biden right now. so the big question, we have

seen a similar scenario play out in pennsylvania, up to this point. however, joe biden has not gotten over the top yet. so the big outstanding question is, can he? 89% reporting. 11% outstanding. 164,000-vote lead for donald trump. what is out there for joe biden in the state of pennsylvania? >> the short answer, a lot. start right here. this is the biggest county in the state. this is philadelphia county. 12% of the voting population lives in county. you look at this margin right now, it's obviously a big democratic stronghold. i'm going to tell you something. that margin is about to grow. the vote total, 457,000, that is about to grow. and it is about to grow by a lot. not 10 to 20,000, we're talking six figures here when the vote actually comes in. that is history. go back to 2016, when hillary clinton had, 584,000. turnout is better this time around. should be somewhere around there, maybe even higher. look at the margin. right now, biden is lower than that. biden will match that or do better. how do we know that? compare and contrast 2016 to 2020.

throughout the state, as the mail-in ballots have come in, as they have been counted, even in republican strongholds, joe biden has made up significant ground. and the margins, even in republican strongholds, have started to drop. they have dropped below what donald trump was putting up back in 2016 throughout the state. so let's take a look at where there's significant outstanding vote. right here, southeast pennsylvania, you include bucks county, which is currently red. there is democratic vote that's going to come in there and likely to come in very big. right here, allegheny county, home of pittsburgh. there is democratic vote there and it is going to come in big. the reality right now, as you look around, you say, okay, there's red counties here, there's red counties here. that's got to be for president trump, right? that's got to be for president trump. look at margins. look at the margins in crawford county. that's huge. >> but not the vote volume. >> but we've seen this play out throughout the state where donald trump, even in his strongholds, as the night has played on, go here to

westmoreland county, huge margin, huge margin running up big vote. earlier in the night, this was at 69% for donald trump. it has since dropped to 63%. why, the democratic mail-in ballots were counted. margin looks a little bit more what we were expecting it to be. move over even to luzerne county. this was a huge win for president trump in 2016. over the course of the night, this margin was much bigger. it has shrunk. 2016, where was it? 58% for president trump. 2020, 56%. you say, that's not a lot, well, when margins matter and margins matter huge for republicans in pennsylvania, especially when you know they're going to blow it out in allegheny, pathways are there for joe biden. the majority of the vote that's outstanding, just because it's vote by mail, is going to go towards biden. the big question now is, one, when is it going to come in? we've been waiting for a while on that one. and when it comes in, what is

the compilation of it? is it 60, 70, 80% biden or somewhere lower. based on our calculations, what we've been working with throughout the course of the night. if the remaining vote comes in between 60 to 62%, joe biden overtakes this. and what we've been seeing, when the vote by mail comes in for democrats, particularly in this state, it is coming in higher than that, regularly. so there's a pathway. we have to wait and see. there's a lot of vote outstanding. it's still being counted. we haven't gotten any updates in the last couple of hours, but that's the reality of pennsylvania right now and that is crucial. if joe biden wins pennsylvania, joe biden is over 270 electoral votes. >> now, here's the question. if things happen and there are projections and somebody wins, okay? it is not going to be over, because there will be a factor of people challenging the count legitimately with a request for a recount. the question is, which of the states that are in play right

now are susceptible to a recount based on what we're seeing? >> every state has different rules. that's why when we're looking at pennsylvania, if joe biden overtakes president trump, the question is, by how much? what would trigger a recount in the state of pennsylvania? we know for a fact that wisconsin is headed to a recount. wisconsin is headed to a recount. it's a 1% rule. if the campaign asks for it, the losing campaign affection for it. president trump either has asked for it or very clear they are going to ask for it. checked out in arizona as well, losing campaign can ask for it. we'll see. a lot of votes still to come in. we know there's going to be at least one recount. georgia is almost certainly headed to a recount, whoever wins. whether joe biden makes up the difference right now or donald trump hangs on, it is going to be razor-thin. georgia could head to a recount. the other factor here is, whoever clears 270 electoral votes, do they clear it to where the recount states don't even

matter, right? you lock in 306 electoral votes or 290 electoral votes and it doesn't matter if there's one state outstanding. you're already above 270 no matter. but definitely a factor because of how close these races are. >> and then it's time and drama. because the chance that the vote comes back different is likely. materially different, unlikely. but different, likely. and then that adds drama. time and drama. so we're going to take a break. i've been waiting three hours to ask him that question, because i think it's going to become relevant. and i want you to be prepared for that. phil, thank you very much. quick break. a lot more content on the other side. we'll be right back. you want immune support you can trust.

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pennsylvania looms large. still up for grabs. the president with a sizable

lead, but there are enough votes outstanding, we believe, for joe biden to meet or even beat the president there. and if he does, this election is over. so how do we fill in the blanks? let's start here. lieutenant governor john fetterman is with us. governor, thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> one simple question. when? >> i mean, it could be as early as today, but i don't want to give your viewers that guarantee. but my understanding is allegheny county is finished and a lot of the counties are doing their best. they're all doing their best, to process this as quickly as possible for sure. and for viewers can do the live feed of philadelphia's voting. they have that available too, so they can see for themselves. i know everybody is working hard and committed to getting a full

and complete vote. >> in philadelphia county, how much do you know about the status of how much wood there is to chop there? >> i know there's enough out there, as you were talking about, in the state, as long as those trends continue, there is going to be, i believe, personal, a margin that will carry pennsylvania for the vice president. >> do you have any sense of the numbers we're hearing, like 120,000 uncounted ballots in philadelphia. does that sound right to you? >> yeah, i wouldn't dispute that, yeah. that sounds like that could be right. and there's other counties that are democratic strongholds like montgomery and i believe chester. i heard you mention bucks. really some of those collar counties are traditionally strongholds for democrats and they trend strongly, more than you would expect, because of the mail-in ballot phenomenon in

this particular election. >> have you encountered any problems or heard about them , b anything that could be seen as an irregularity? >> not at all. not at all. in fact, we had the highest turnout in the state's history, and during a pandemic, and our election just went incredibly smooth. in fact, the governor said it was the smoothest one he can ever recall. and that's the truth. and anyone that says otherwise, that's a lie and that's attached to an agenda that's trying to create and foment more chaos. >> that's why governor, i'm very happy that you took the opportunity to come on, talk to us about the state of play. we're not rushing you, we want it done right and we do know that we're dealing with a blessing of riches here. that there's been such tremendous turnout in pennsylvania and so many of the states that wound up mattering. people have a hand in their own fate. we hope you do it right and when you get it done, we'll be here

to report it to everyone else. good luck going forward. >> thank you for having me on. >> john harwood, lauren barron lopez and david gregory are here now. john harwood, the governor there dismissed out of hand that anything is going wrong there in pennsylvania. they're just taking time to do it right. maybe later today, maybe not. do you believe that this race will come down to pennsylvania or do you believe it will be over before that comes in? >> well, i think if joe biden, obviously, holds the leads that he has accumulated so far in nevada and arizona, he doesn't need pennsylvania. but it looks like the trends are favorable to him. and it looks like he may end up, if these counts and trends are accurate, with more than enough electoral votes than he needs. i think it is striking, as the lieutenant governor has said, that we have had an election

that proceeded smoothly by all accounts, pretty much across the country, which is remarkable given the pandemic that we're going through. that we were able to have a smooth election. and the other thing that i think that is notable is, as we watch the vote counts, say, in philadelphia, in pennsylvania and in georgia, we are seeing a slow and granular demonstration of the change taking place in the united states. we are gradually becoming a more diverse country, a better educated country, a more urban country. that has produced a shift in the power dynamic, which is moving power away from people who have held it in the past to a different set of people. and that is slowly, vote by vote, ballot by ballot, being demonstrated. don't know if that's enough to tip this particular election, but we know where the country is headed long-term. >> laura, it's a sad suggestion but we have to consider it at this point. it sounds like something we would say about a developing

country, but the hardest part of this process may not be the counting, it may be the acceptance period of the coun counting by the players. what do you see as the vashriabs in that? >> as you've said, chris. even if the counting ends today, tomorrow, and we ultimately know the winner, this could drag on for a few more days or weeks, given recounts, given the lawsuits that trump is threatening and has been pushing in certain states, to try to even halt counting. and so, i mean, the president himself forecasted it, that he may not peacefully transition power if he loses in the month leading up to the election. he was refusing to say that he would peacefully leave the white house. and so that as well as any potential pending legal suits that the president and his

campaign pursue are things that we have to keep an eye on and things that we may have to be covering, you know, for the foreseeable weeks. >> hey, david, what impresses you in the state of play right now at this point in the race? >> well, you know, i think it's interesting. i wonder, you know, the republicans led by donald trump had a strategy. get out the vote, make sure it's an election day event. and voter participation has been incredibly high in this election, which is a good thing. democrats pushed for this mail-in voting because of the pandemic. they did that early and now it's created that heartburn for them as the counting goes on. but i'm struck, too. the counting seems to be going well. there's not much evidence at all of irregularities. sure, these are some close races that we're talking about in these states and there may be recounts. but you know, the president and his team talking about, you know, suing because they haven't had access, i don't know what

the evidence is of that. they haven't produced any evidence of any the bluster, people like ben ginsburg, who have been at this for decades, see nothing untoward. and i think the fact that it's taking a while indicates that, yeah, we had a surge in what we normally have. mail-in balloting, mail-in voting is nothing new. it's just that there's a lot. and these are close races. so i think it's appropriate that we have states -- we're impatient, but it's appropriate that they're taking their time and counting the votes and not trying to rush the outcome. >> david, thank you very much. i appreciate it. everybody, stand by. we're going to take a break. today could be the day that we find out who is going to lead this country into what is hopefully a better tomorrow. stay with us. nefertiti: as a young girl

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welcome back, everyone. you know, trump and his supporters have been trying to get states to stop counting where he is winning and keep

counting where he's losing. there's video of his supporters chanting "stop the vote in michigan," as biden was gaining more votes there. i want you to listen to this. [ chanting: stop the vote ] >> okay, but check this out. this is in arizona, where new votes were coming in for trump, while cutting into biden's lead, we heard trump supporters shouting, "count that vote." [ chanting: count that vote ] >> all right, so let's discuss what that means here. joining us now is a former presidential candidate andrew yank, cnn political commentator s.e. cupp and cnn senior political analyst, mr. john avlon. so s.e., which is it? stop the count or count the vote? >> whatever works for donald trump. and that is the, i think, the

whole cake of the past four years. trump's reorienting the republican party around whatever his impulses require and demand at the moment. there's no undergirding, you know, conservative philosophy or principle, it's whatever he needs. and the trick he has pulled off is that he has managed to convince a lot of people that he should win just by saying so. and i remember, i think, i think i called it earlier, the toby keith era of, you know, republican american exceptionalism, when we would look at countries abroad where quote/unquote sham elections would actually happen, where they were real and the authoritarian, the dictator would say, i won because i said so. and there it was. and we would shake our heads in pity and sadness for those countries and now, i think, trump has convinced a lot of people, those countries may have it right. they may have it better. their idea might be the better one.

that's astonishing. >> what happened to the republican party? the constitutionalists, the let everybody vote, this is your sacred right as an american? which is it? should we stop the vote or -- >> some of us are still here. >> well, hold on. what happened? what happened? >> trump happened. >> yeah. >> and trump -- i used to say four years ago, trump wore the republican party like a rented tuxedo to get through the election. and here we are with the dry cleaning bill. that tuxedo is in the corner, it's crumpled up, it's got cigarette butt stains and bodily fluids on it and the republican party has got to figure out what to do with the rented tuxedo. you know, they let him wear it for four years -- >> i can hear people in the control room -- >> i don't know what you guys were thinking i meant. >> no, no, no. >> she's talking about sweat stains -- >> please, please! >> it was sweaty!

>> the reality is any pretense to be a constitution naal conservative was given up when the party decided to trade principles for whatever donald trump's latest impulse controls is. sometimes you see it from staffers who all decided to tweet at the same time that donald trump won pennsylvania, just seeing if they could lie loudly and convince enough people. and you have people like mike lee try to create an intellectual frame wwork by takg power by losing an election, by degrading democracy. it's a full-court press, and when they wake up, donald trump will still have a powerful constituency, but all of the principles they said have been a total sham in pursuit of one person's self-interest and nothing more. >> i wonder what happens. will people go -- i call it with the trumplican party, instead of the republican, because he clearly owns the party. what happens to all of those

people who just sat by. he could be president for four years. what happens after he's president. all the republicans who stood by and let him do whatever he wanted. >> trump has he defined the republican party, not just during his tenure, but ongoing. you're seeing a qanon-friendly new member of congress and it's been a mixed bag, frankly. it looks like joe's on track to win, but the house went a little bit more republican, which was a shock to many democrats. >> and i think the unsurprising part is what we're talking about with trump. the tough part for me is all of the republicans who just a couple of days ago on election day said they were privately disgusted, but publicly silent about trump's preelection threats. that sums up the entirety of their relationship with trump and their experience. and so if post-trump, whether

it's now or in four years they want to turn in their chits for a book deal and talk about how much they were, you know, ashamed of trump at the time, i don't think they're going to have a lot of buyers. >> very concerned at the time. >> you can't pretend you're part of the resistance the whole time. the reality, though, look, we are seeing the county going forward. but don't ignore the fact that donald trump is trying to get his supporters to ignore the results. and that's why all of these votes matter and we should pay close attention to the margins and the way things are going, but the president of the united states is still trying to spread disinformation to try to hold on to power. >> and we want everyone at home to remember, the reason we're talking about this is every single vote should count. you should be able to get out there and exercise your right under the constitution and have your vote count. every single vote in america should count. we're counting them for you as they're coming in and we'll update you on the other side of the break. don't go anywhere. we all have our own journey ahead of us. our own hopes and dreams. we'll pass many milestones.

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so we have a major development in the georgia senate race. we want to get straight to cnn's boris sanchez. he's watching the balance of the

senate and possible shake up. what's the new scenario here? what do you have? >> so overall, this has been a disappointing election in terms to have democrats trying to nab control of the u.s. senate from republicans, from their prospective, they had a very advantageous map. they couldn't capitalize on it, but there is still one path they could take to take control of the u.s. senate. in terms of raw numbers, when we look at the balance of ower, they're essentially at a stalemate, democrats with one pickup in the state of colorado have 47 seats, including noe in two independents. on the republican side, one pick up in alabama, 47 seats. six seats remain undecided. we can take a closer look at all the races, but here are the two keys. you mention ed in election in georgia. take a look at where david perdue stands right now in this key race alert.

he has 50s% of the sproevote. he leads jon ossoff, but there are tens of thousands still outstanding. if he dips to 49.9%, that means there'll be a runoff election come january 5th. and there's already going to be a runoff election because of that special senate election in georgia. the one where the reverend, raphael warnick is leading incumbent kelly loeffler. he's up, nobody there really close to crossing that 50% margin. so potentially, as we take a look at the leading the vote number, right now there's only one democrat leading in a race where a republican holds a senate seat. that's in arizona, where mark kelly is leading martha mcsally. the magic number for democrats is four for them to take control of the u.s. senate.

but that number could change if joe biden is elected. if he's elected and these two georgia races go off to a runoff, there will be an unprecedented amount of spending and attention on these races, because they will lead democrats to potentialliy lcontrolling th senate. >> and if david perdue falls below 50%, an automatic runoff in georgia. thank you very much. we'll check back in with you. appreciate it for us. all eyes are happening in the ongoing counts in the presidential race. we've got our eyes on it. we'll bring you the very latest on the other side of this break. don't go away. find your rhythm.

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america continued. i'm chris cuomo with the legend don lemon and look, we saw changes overnight, but more importantly, we now have the tables set and there's a very good likelihood that we have a pretty clear picture by the end of today of which way this country is going to go. >> and i think everybody, that would be to everyone's satisfaction, because everyone is on pins and needles, chris. but you know what? you've got to do the work, as you and i have been saying, every single vote counts. and counting every vote takes some times, as we know. because we have been up all night, and we'll do this as long as we have to until we find out who's going to be the next president of the united states. we've got new numbers coming in this morning, chris, from the vote count if georgia that went through the night and president trump's lead is eroding there. >> look. the grind is the glory when it comes to counting these votes. it's slow work, it's tedious, it's painstaking, they have to be very exacting. and it takes the time it takes because you want no mistakes.

as long as they have powder, we'll keep going. as long as they can powder our faces. but here's what we know. the state of play has changed in two fundamental ways. don just mentioned arizona. biden's lead there is shrinking. the president is overperforming. is there enough vote in the state's largest county, maricopa, for him to meat or beat biden. this calls for a key race alert. all right, we'll get to arizona, we'll start with georgia. 16 electoral votes. 96% of the estimated vote in and those estimates are just that. they are a close guess, but very often inaccurate. but more important than just how much is out, it's where it's out. we've watched the president's lead slip overnight from somewhere over 30,000 to now, 18,540. this state very much in recount territory, if necessary based on

the outcome of the election. but the tale of the tape here is, where is the outstanding vote and what is the ratio of how that batch of votes is coming in? that's where we see joe biden having an opportunity to meet or beat the president. will he? maybe, maybe not. we'll take you through it at the wall in a second. pennsylvania. this is the ma gillla, 20 electoral votes. about 90% of the vote is in. but the big question, is where is the outstanding vote and that really gives a potential strength for biden. this is the biggest lead we're dealing with. look how far i am ahead in pennsylvania. and then things just stopped. one of the most gross lies we've heard from this current president, why? he knew damned well that pennsylvania counts day-of votes first. they never even looked at the mail-in votes until they finished with that. so of course we had a skewed

sample. and to his credit, the president did very, very well on day-of voting. but now comes the mail-in vote. and as big as that lead is, it started at 600,000 employees, now it's at 164. every time they bring in more vote it, goes down. the question is, is there enough of an outstanding vote for joe biden to meet or beat the president in pennsylvania? if there is, this race is over. onward. arizona, as we were saying, 11 electoral votes, 86% of the vote. this is the opposite story here. biden's lead has been going down. why? trump is strong. he won arizona last time. this was the potential flip state for biden. maricopa county, you win maricopa, you win arizona, by by how much and with what kind of vote? here we see the president overperforming in the late-breaking vote there in batches. are there never votes there for him to meet or beat biden? if there are changes the state

of this race. take you through the details in a moment. nevada, six electoral votes. easy tell, because there's nothing to tell. we were informed by the secretary of state, whenever we started this coverage after the election, that he would come out later today around noon, 9:00 or so our time in the morning, with -- that doesn't make any sense, probably noon their time, they'll come out with more information about what's happening there in the all-important clark county. that's where las vegas is. that is usually a democrat stronghold. will it stay that way? very, very thin margin. very, very thin margin. electoral map, let's look at the state, 253-214. this map is going to change most likely today. by color, that's what it's been picked for. no color means no projection yet. yet. but let's go phil mattingly, breaking down what's happening at the magic wall. good to see you, my friend. we've seen things change

tonight, not like we did last night. >> a little slower. >> the less vote you have, the more slowly it goes. and we've seen people really going through their paces to get us the vote. paths, what are the paths that we're watching now? >> you see the map right now. i want to play things out first before we dig into what we saw over the course of the night. let's start, races that have been called up to this point. every state you see filled in is a race that cnn has called. red went to president trump, blue went to joe biden, gray means we have not called the race yet, there's still vote jounding and they are still counting. so you want to map out how do you get to 270 electoral votes if you are president trump or joe biden. right now, joe biden, 253 electoral votes, president trump, 214 electoral votes. the president trump hangs on to the state of north carolina, he's had a pretty consistent lead there, chris just told you about it and ends up hanging on to alaska, which is expected to some degree. that leaves pennsylvania, georgia, arizona, and nevada. let's talk about pathways. where is joe biden leading right

now? joe biden is leading in the state of arizona. joe biden is leading in the state of nevada. if joe biden wins the state of arizona and the state of nevada, joe biden is at 270 electoral votes. that is one pathway for joe biden. here's the question, though. you mentioned as you went through the results that arizona has tightened. it has tightened significantly over the course of the last 24 hours. went from 220,000 vote, to 60,000 votes where it stands right now. what happens if president trump stays on that track? what happens if in the next couple of matches coming out of maricopa county, president trump is able to flip arizona? biden's team doesn't think that's possible, trump's team says it is. we'll give it to trump to game this out a little bit. we talked about clark county. what we're waiting for in nevada. what if the 7,000-vote lead that joe biden has in nevada disappears when that new batch comes in? give that to president trump as well. who if georgia, razor-thin. razor-thin margin, under 20,000 votes right now, but what if president trump is able to hang on to georgia?

where does that put things? 264, 253. here's the point that i'm trying to make as i game all of this out. the outstanding closest states right now, president trump can win all of those states, including two states where he's behind, two states where it is very, very close, if joe biden wins the state of pennsylvania, this race is over, period, end of story. and why is that important? i want to dig in real quick if we have time to do so, because this is probably the most important thing you're going to watch throughout the course of the day. obviously, we've got georgia and arizona and we're very, very keen on what comes out of nevada. 12:00 eastern time. 9:00 out in las vegas, it's going to pennsylvania and take a look. why when president trump is 164,000 votes -- >> 89% in. >> the biggest margin by far. >> lots of races are projected with a much smaller percentage of vote. >> i'll flash you back no wisconsin and michigan. you laid it out perfectly. it was the early-day vote that

was counted first. in wisconsin and michigan, it started out very, very red as they counted the election day vote. why, president trump had a great turnout operation. they turned out across the country in record levels for republicans and they came out on election day. what were democrats doing? they were voting by mail. they were voting by mail in enormous margins. pennsylvania is very similar. it has been very red. we talked about it, 600,000, 700,000 vote lead for president trump over the course of the last 24 hours, it has been whittled down to 164,000 as you count the mail-in ballots. the mail-in ballots are not just heavily democratic, they are skewing very joe biden and they are a ton of them that are still outstanding. somewhere between 400, 500,000. why does that matter? well, the biggest outstanding county right now, philadelphia county, largest county in the state, 12% of the voting population. still 30% outstanding. if you want to get some context here about why this is important, how much vote is still out there right now, take a look at this margin. 79.4% to 19.7%. more importantly, take a look at

the top-line vote. there has been record turnout throughout the country. there has been record turnout in a lot of pennsylvania counties that we've seen up to this point. joe biden at 457,000 right now. back in 2016, hillary clinton was at 584,000. the expectation is joe biden will be at or go higher than that based on pregnacedent, bas on what we're seeing. the expectation that joe biden's margin will be at least what hillary clinton's margin is. that means there is a lot of vote outstanding in just this one county if grow through the map right now. if you go through what we're looking at. across the board, in pennsylvania, almost county-by-county, even the major president trump strongholds, counties like liuzerne where he runs up a very big margin. 10, 12 hours ago, it was at 65%, 67%. it has dropped. why has it dropped? even in republican counties, as democratic vote by mail has come in, even in republican counties, it has eaten at margins.

why does that matter top line and we can move on? look at margins. donald trump 2016 flipped this county from president obama, crushed this county. 58%. what's he at right now? 2020, 56%. doesn't seem like a lot. when you roll that up, red counties and democratic strength in southeastern pennsylvania, allegheny county where pittsburgh is, that's outstanding vote right now, that's still what's to come in. right now democrats are looking at the map, looking at the outstanding vote and saying, we have a pathway. we have a very legitimate pathway. we'll wait to see. there's still a lot of vote outstanding. still have to count the votes, mercifully, report the votes, take your time, do it right, but that is where pennsylvania stands right now. 20 electoral votes. joe biden is at 253 right now. 20 gets him over 270. >> georgia. >> let's tick down to georgia. this has been the one place where we have seen results throughout the course of the night and throughout the course of the night, this has gone from 31,000 to 39,000, to 26,000, to

18,540. so the question, with 96% reporting, does joe biden have 18,540 votes out there? not total, in net after factoring in president trump as well? the short answer is, he has a path. there's enough vote outstanding. why is there enough vote outstanding? i want to go down to the democratic stronghold. that's the atlanta metro area. you have clayton county, look at the margin, 87,000 to 14,000, 84% to 14%, still about 16% waiting to come in in clayton county. pull out a little bit more, let's flip down over to where savannah is located in chatham county. that vote is right now splitting towards biden. it's vote by mail as well, which is largely splitting towards biden. i'm telling you, even though there's 94, 96% reporting in the state right now, there's outstanding vote in journlg that could go towards joe biden. if you want one really good example, nick valencia who's been amazing on the ground for us has been talking about fulton

county. we've seen batches of fulton county vote come in. there's still some outstanding right now based on nick's last report. when it's coming in in 2,000, 3,000, it is breaking 80/20 to joe biden. that is higher than the current margin that we've seen. what's that mean? vote by mail going at a higher level. in order to win georgia, joe biden needs to win the rest of the outstanding vote somewhere between 62 and 64%. 80/20 is higher than 62 to 64%. bottom line, there is a pathway. we're still waiting to see how much outstanding vote is left, whether or not he can actually meet that pathway, but the bottom line with journal georgi there's an opportunity for joe biden to close it, but it's tight and will stay tight no matter which way it goes. >> every one of these races, even though the current disposition has it at 164,000, that is promising to be tight as well. there is a point of instruction here we can make as we go to

nick valencia, who is in that all-important atlanta seat county there that we've been watching him throughout the night. there was a reference made that he people are finding votes for biden all over the place, okay? that is a misstatement of fact and it is a very malignant characterization. nobody is finding anything. they've had the votes. they counted first the people who came in on the day of the election. they had these ballots. they're postmarked before or as of the day of the election. they are legal and legitimate, okay? nobody is finding them. they're just counting them, okay? and i want to take you to nick valencia so you can see what counting them really is. now he's standing there, he's almost alone, let's go to nick, we watched volunteers with nick

where they came and stayed all night long, since midnight. and phil and i would watch as nick was presenting the information he had there and doing his interviews, and they were just going like crazy, all through the night. they are citizens, they are volunteers, they are doing the job because they believe in this country. they're what we call americans. and it was so big there in fulton county as you were going through it. and now as we get into these early morning hours, what is the state of play there? they're basically done with their job, right? what are you hearing? >> reporter: just really quick on those poll workers, some of them had second jobs. as you saw them leave the door here, they were on their way to their morning job, wrapping up their more than 12-hour marathon shift. with me, iraqi barron, elections director here. donald trump had about a 30,000-vote lead at around midnight. that's almost been cut in half, rick. a lot of it having to do with the votes coming out of this county. give us the state of play here this morning. what's going on? >> we scanned

adjudicated 132 and set the review panel to come back at 10:00 a.m.. >> is that when we'll start to see these tallies here, votes adjudicated here? >> yeah. so once that review panel meets at 10:00, hopefully we'll be done. we have nine trays left to open, that's about 3,600 ballots. there's a few in process that will be scanned before that and -- >> so just 3,600 ballots left. you started the night around 20,000 ballots, is that right? >> yes. so we're close. >> so tell me a little bit more here. because you had an update on your website a short time ago, about an hour ago, 8,300 ballots were upload there had. how many more are expected to be added. where are those ballots coming from and when's the next batch that we could expect to see on the fulton county website? >> it should be, once the vote

review panel meets at 10:00, hopefully that will be it. we should expect to see something up by 11:00 a.m. >> and the 8,300 votes are coming from those absentee that you started with night with? >> yes, and the remaining 10,000 will be that next vote review panel. >> so what we're waiting for is about 10,000 to 11,000 votes to show up on the full conn tton c website, after they're processed here, they'll be adjudicated. that includes the 3,500 you're still waiting to go through here. >> yes. >> so you've got a lot of work here on your hands. >> yes. >> i hate to ask you, but it's so close, half a percentage point means it's an automatic recount. are you thinking about that at all? >> i haven't yet. we've still got provisional ballots to do on friday in e, military, once we get through that, we'll have to do a recount. >> when do you certify?

>> that will be scheduled for the 13th. >> even though a lot of attention is on you right now. we'll let you get back to it. >> rick is jumping in and working himself. we took him away from that process. let you get back to that. we are in the final countdown, just about 3,500 votes left to be tabulated here in fulton county. a democratic stronghold. joe biden trying to become the first democratic presidential nominee to win the state of georgia since 1992 and hand president trump a devastating below to his re-election bid. >> and 11:00 this morning, we expect to have another bunch of information from the all-important fulton county there in georgia. thank you very much, nick. keep your energy up. best to the team. we'll check on you in a second. all right. let's take a break right now. things are going to change today. the shape of the race is going to change. the votes are being counted. it is a beautiful demonstration of our democracy in action. stay with cnn. ♪

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and even in the face of a pandemic, more americans voted this election than ever before in american history. over 150 million people cast their votes. i think that's just extraordinary. and if we had any doubts, we shouldn't have any longer, about a government of, by, and for the people is very much alive, very much alive in america. here, the people rule. power can't be taken or asserted. it flows from the people. it is their will that determines who will be the president of the united states and their will alone. >> well, joe biden's right about that. you know what we're showing you right now? this is the chase center in wilmington, delaware. this is where the biden campaign has prepared, you know, days

ago, for a victory celebration or a potential one, and it still flies wait, because we don't know what's going on. and for all the unanswered questions we have, we haven't answered one big, arguably, one of the most important questions. this country can still bring it. the level of participation is outstanding, especially during a pandemic. at a time that disillusionment and people's desperation is at an all-time high, they still stepped up and voted in a way that i haven't seen in my lifetime. and that is good news for us. and that's why we shouldn't let anybody cheapen the process and say that something's happening that's wrong, it's not legit, it's not as much as it seems. none of that has a basis. and the idea that you guys stepped up and voted is 100% proof of itself as a basis. let's discuss what other

questions may get answered today. let's bring in john harwood, laura barron lopez and david gregory. d. greg, we just heard from that county commissioner in fulton county in georgia, 11:00, they're going to give us another batch. we're expecting numbers later tonight from arizona. also this morning, we're going to hear from nevada. could today be the day that this race really takes definite shape. >> i think it could. i think it could, because we're just getting closer to the finish line of the counting. and it's remarkable. you know, the level of participation is something that i've been thinking about, as well. and it's important. it's also been motivated by fear. and so there's a lot of darkness and a lot of heaviness in our election season because of the fear of four more years for trump. the fear of the left and what biden represents. the rigidity of the differences in this country are really playing out. and what i've been thinking

about this morning, as we take such a granular look at the vote is the obvious point. why mobilization is so important. if you're looking at the outstanding vote for joe biden, it reflects an emphasis on, first of all, mail-in voting, to make sure participation would be high in a pandemic, because there were real fears about the danger for older voters and others to actually show up polls. you have that piece. you look at the level of participation and the mobilization of african-american voters in some of these key areas we're talking about in georgia and in michigan. and you look at biden's ability, not to reshape the map, because the rigidity of our political differences are so striking, but to eat in a little bit into that support in suburban americans and places like wisconsin. among working class white voters in states like michigan and pennsylvania, as well. these are marginal differences that we're spending time looking

at this morning in granular detail that may ultimately tell us the story of the difference between 2016 and 2020. >> laura, things are tight. this race is tight. we could have a recount. we could have two recounts. we may have none depending on pennsylvania, because the other recounts wouldn't matter in if margin there is right. but what is, you think, the story of what the turnout and the tension between the two sides will be? will this be a demonstration of strength in this country or do you think it's goudo you think s going to be a tale of two cities. >> i think it's a bit of both, chris, which is that, look, as you said, turnout is strong. i think it surprised, actually, a lot of people given that there was a pandemic and there were concerns throughout the process about whether or not that would deter people from voting, whether or not vote by mail options would be enough, given also the president's attacks on mail voting that were unfounded

and what that could do to dampen turnout. but despite all of that, we've seen an increase across the board. we also saw an increase among young voters in turning out, especially in the early vote. so that's another story that we'll look into as we see the difference pieces of the electorate that manifested. and then i think there also is, though, the other element. which is that we could very well end up with vice president joe biden in the white house, a republican-controlled senate, and a house controlled by democrats. and so with that split government, what is able to move through? house democrats that i was talking to yesterday really didn't want to totally explore what they could even move through a government made up of those elements because of the possibility that they could face a republican senate and how difficult it could be to get through a lot of the big policy

proposals that biden has been talking about. we know that a president sometimes only gets one big item during their first term, and he has a lot of things that he wants to address, if he is ultimately the winner. so i think that speaks to this tale of two cities, as you said, chris, which is a country that has divided sides, and that's why it's so close. >> yeah. i'm not a big red/blue person, i'm really a have/have not person. and i think class is what's playing out here and you conflate it with color and get the rift between have and have not in this country and it has to be addressed. we really haven't found the right way of doing it and that leads me to messaging. do you think donald trump finally found the wrong thing to bully and disrespect, which is the election process. because he came so strong and so wrong about this being a

fraudulent, you know, way of doing things, a fraudulent process, and it's so demonstrable that he is not just wrong, but lying about it. you think this may be the one that backfires? >> well, chris, he's picked a lot of wrong things to target and told a lot of lies during his presidency. he's paid a price for it throughout his presidency. we know he's the first president in the polling era to never reach 50% approval. i do think as laura and david said, we have a stark demonstration of how divided the country is. we've also had an outpouring of participation. and i think one thing that is true, i've been watching joe biden try to become president for a long time. i was there in the spring of 1987 until wilmington, delaware, when he announced his presidency, his presidential campaign in 1988. it hadn't worked out for various reasons. he wasn't a terrific candidate in 1998 or 2008 when he ran.

but he happens to have arrived at a moment where if the fantastic for the country is to try to bridge the divide in some way. to try to pull the country together in some way, he has the ideal set of what laura said, the president's got a chance to do one thing in his first year, if he's got a republican senate, don't know if he can do that one big thing. it's going to be very tough. republicans have been very unfielding in taking on democratic presidents. but the contrast with donald trump serve to joe biden's benefit in this campaign. that's why he's leading in this race. and if what is needed is a salve or a balm on those divisions, joe biden by virtue of his geography, by his instinct as a person is very well-suited to try to do that.

don't know if he can. >> will the third time be a charm? hurry up, go ahead, david. >> yeah, yeah, i think it's such an important point, because he does have that skill set. and americans tend to get it right. if we end up with divided government like that, it's a real test as to whether we can get back to some kind of politics of the possible or whether the rigidity of our differences are what prevail, because people just want to win the argument. but the prospect of a divided congress is very interesting, because biden has the ability to bridge it. that will be the test. >> david gregory, thank you very much. laura and john, let's stand by for a second, take a break. president trump and joe biden waking up this morning, no idea which one of them will lead this nation after january 20th. but we might all know the answer and not just know it but know it in the next few hours. that's why we're here for you and with you, to stay with i know. find your rhythm.

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you asked phil mattingly to

describe the state of play in this election in one word, i guarantee it will be pennsylvania. why? >> look. well, matt, to start with. joe biden with 253 electoral votes. you don't need to win any other state if you need the state of pennsylvania. that's 20 votes right there. also, the dna of it. it follows what we saw in michigan and wisconsin. starts off red, because they're counting election day votes. when they start counting vote by mail, which leads heavily democratic, the blue starts to catch up. that's what we've seen. the blue has started to catch up. it's 164,000 votes. the question is, can joe biden complete the comeback and actually overtake donald trump? the answer is, there's enough vote outstanding. it's a matter of if that vote is going to go more heavily democratic. what you're looking for right now, you are looking into southeast pennsylvania. most notably, philadelphia county. largest county in the state. most outstanding vote. only 70%. keep an eye on that and allegheny county, as well. also to pittsburgh. the key collar counties,

spooern southeastern pennsylvania. that is where vote is outstanding and that is why democrats in the biden campaign believe they can overtake their campaign. there's a lot of red. a lot of red. the big question is, within that red, is there also some mail-in republican vote that can keep donald trump ahead? that's what we'll be watching for over the course of the day. >> we're waiting, because the time is worth it to get it right. there have been no disappointments in terms of the voting and the counting. let's get it over to don lemon. the only disappointment we've suffered so far, don, is that wave president that tried to disrespect this amazing turnout as a function of something going wrong. no, everything went right. people came out in a way we never imagined. now we just have to count it. >> you don't want to disrespect the process. this is sacred, people's right to vote. you guys talked about, you said the one word that phil will remember and that's pennsylvania. someone who knows all about pennsylvania is pennsylvania democratic senator bob casey. he joins me now. thank you, senator.

good morning to you. >> hey, don. thank you, good to be with you. >> let me ask you. we got our magic wall, i see you have your wall up behind you. and as i understand, you have been keeping close track of all the counts coming out, and you even have your own map. so the question is, do you think the votes are still out there for the former vice president joe biden? will pennsylvania put him over the top? >> i hope we put him over the top, but joe biden is going to win the state, there's no question about it. >> you think he's going to win the state. why are you saying that? >> well, we've still got about 400,000 votes outstanding and most of those votes, as phil just indicated and others have indicated are in philadelphia and the suburban counties. and some in allegheny as well. so that's going to be overwhelmingly for joe biden. some places, 75, 25, and other places, 80 and 85. so he'll be able to overtake

him, especially when we get a much higher philadelphia number. we've only seen with philadelphia about maybe 70 or so percent of the vote counted. a lot's going to come in this morning. and when that comes in. that alone just in philadelphia might be enough to have the margin go in joe biden's direction. >> forgive me, senator, i don't want to make any assumptions. this could just be your decor, your decoration behind you, i see the map behind you, and i see you've got numbers on it. for what reason? what are the numbers up there? >> well, don, this is low-tech john king, okay? >> or phil mattingly. go ahead. >> philly was plus 71 for barack obama, plus 67 for hillary clinton. that was the percentage margin. i think joe biden is going to be

in the middle or even meet the obama number, and that would be significant. president trump almost won philadelphia by 500,000, because the turnout is so much higher, joe biden might get to that. but he doesn't necessarily have to. >> how are you keeping track of those numbers? do you have your own sort of internal? are you watching is news networks, getting it at the state, folks at your office, or talking to the biden campaign? >> it's all memory, don. no, it's -- >> you are john king. >> -- it's a combination of looking at past results, but also relying upon very smart people who do this for a living. in pennsylvania, kevin mack and the voter project have been crunching these numbers, a team of people for weeks preparing and have been crunching them ever since after the vote. so they have indicated and others have indicated that they

think that joe biden can win the state by 100,000 or more. >> the last part of my question was, have you spoken to the former vice president or anyone at his campaign? have they reached out to you? >> i've talked to his campaign a number of times. i spoke to vice president biden on wednesday morning, because it was after midnight. >> okay, go on. >> i'm not going to reveal the content of the conversation. but don, he was very upbeat and he was checking in for that very purpose. what are you seeing in different counties and what are you seeing in the states? he was just checking in. this vote this morning that will commence in philadelphia will be substantial and there's another factor here that you should take a look at. last time in philadelphia, 2% of the vote went to several third

and fourth party candidates. now you have just one third party candidate and she's getting a very low number statewide, like a little more than 1%. so it's possible, because philadelphia is so intensely democratic, that even that would add to the joe biden margin. but it's going to be a big margin. and we haven't even talked about the suburbs yet. >> yeah. so here's the thing. we have been hearing that we're going to get some information from pennsylvania today. are we going to hear who -- because if he wins pennsylvania, he's won it all. are we going to hear anything that could possibly put the former vice president over the line, up to 270 or over? >> well, it's possible philadelphia could be that number. we'll see how much they've counted. statewide, there's roughly 400,000 uncounted ballots.

most of them in the southeast, philadelphia and the four suburban counties. i think the philadelphia vote will be higher than it was last time, not the 7:07. you can't really see that. last time was 7,700 people voting. it's going to be higher than that. the question is, does it get to 800 or stay around 750? this lab big vote. and i think joe biden could get about 85%, at least, of that are 8750 or whatever the number is. you know nothing about timelines and when they may release some tranche of votes -- >> no, we know that. there'll be something, i think, by noontime. i don't know the exact hour, but a lot of philadelphia votes. i don't know if that will mean that philadelphia will be at 95% of the vote in, but today, as of "the new york times," they're only about 70% of the vote in. a lot of philadelphia vote

still. >> you mentioned philadelphia. we see what your magic wall has, right. but on our magic wall, what should we be looking at. philadelphia, allegheny, chester, bucs. you mentioned some of the suburbs. where do you think we should be looking? >> montgomery is mostly in. and i'm sorry, i'm getting my voice repeated to me, so it's hard to concentrate. but hillary clinton won by 21 points. a big win, 90,000 votes i think it was. joe biden, as of last night was at 26% in montgomery. it will be a bigger margin, well over 100,000, just for montgomery county. then you go to bucks county, which i'm still waiting to see the update on that, but joe biden will win bucks county. won't be as big as montgomery, but will win it big. he'll win it. maybe he'll get 55%. then you go to delaware county. that number, he'll get more than 60% there, but they still have

maybe, i don't know, 15 to 20% to count. and chester county, we know, his percentage there is higher than last time. obama was plus 2, hillary was plus 10 in chester. and that joe biden will be in a good position there. so you can see the four suburban counties adding a lot additional to philadelphia. and i haven't seen the final numbers in allegheny county, pittsburgh, but that was plus 15 obama, plus 19. 17, hillary. his margin will be 20 or more. i think to 25. >> so you're quite sure the former vice president will win pennsylvania. look, no one knows for sure until all the votes are counted, but senator, thank you, appreciate it. and we appreciate you sharing your magic wall and your

knowledge with us. and hope to see you soon here on cnn. thanks so much. senator bob casey. >> thanks, don. >> well, there you go. stay with us. we'll continue to count the votes as they come in. you heard what he said, some time by noon today, we could get some numbers that may be determinative in pennsylvania. we shall see. our continuing coverage right after this. at dell technologies, we started by making the cloud easier to manage. but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing.

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so we had a busy night here, we watched president trump's lead in georgia erode and we're waiting to see what happens as more pennsylvania votes continue to come in. therefore, we need a key race alert. pennsylvania, 20 electoral votes, if joe biden wins this state he wins the election. big if. why? donald trump in the lead by

164,414 votes, about 10% of the vote remaining outstanding, however, the good news for joe biden is that there are enough outstanding votes in areas that he could dominate to meet and beat the president. we just had senator casey on, he says we will hear later this morning about the vote in pennsylvania. will it be enough information? we'll see. georgia, 16 electoral votes, also very much in play, this is the state where donald trump's spread keeps getting lower and lower. we now really understand why he wanted voting stopped before it really got started. so 96% of the vote is in, about 5% there, it's very close, certainly in recount territory. if that becomes necessary, don, because we've got to see how all the different pieces fall here. if joe biden wins and it doesn't matter about georgia's count, then the recount becomes

perfunctory, there is no reason to have t but we have a long way to go, however, today seems by all indications to be a very informative day for the american people. >> yeah, it is. i think we should talk about this because we've been paying attention to it hour after hour, hour after hour, here on television, it's our jobs to do it, but people have gone to we had and they are up now -- >> and we're still here. >> -- and we're still here. >> yeah. >> knock on wood. but here is the thing, there are some big things that happened overnight, right, as you and i and phil have been covering it. arizona narrowed, but it's helping the president and the president is complaining about counting of the votes, but maybe he shouldn't be so quick to do that because maybe he's going to win if it allows the votes to be counted. votes are going to be counted any waist, but maybe he's going to win. pennsylvania is tightening, as you said, we just spoke to bob casey. bob casey has been around for a long time, he knows pennsylvania politics, he is a senator there. he believes -- now, again, this

is his belief -- he believes that the former vice president will take pennsylvania simply balls, as we have been stating here, as you've been talking about, where those votes are coming in. and then you have georgia. georgia tightening as well and you had the president come out yesterday and say, listen, you know, pennsylvania, we're ahead, why are not calling this for us. this place we are ahead, why are they not calling it for us? it's because what is happening here, happens in every single election, especially a presidential election, country-wide election, the votes come in at different times. they come in sometimes after election day and sometimes they are not counted until after election day. so this is a normal part of the process. the only thing that's not normal is that we're doing this in the middle of a pandemic. >> you know, the president once mused that he could shoot somebody in the face on fifth avenue and people would still love him. maybe. but if you shoot all of us in the face at the same time there's no one to love you.

if you go after the democratic process in an election, i think he underestimated what putting stink on an election would mean to the american people. they came out strong. you and i have never seen turnout like this before in our lifetimes. >> if joe biden wins -- i shouldn't say if he wins -- as a presidential candidate he's gotten more votes than any -- than any other candidate. >> but just turnout. we're going to see numbers of absolute votes and turnout in areas and demographically the likes of which we have never seen, and that is good. for the president to inject shame into that game, that success of america, is a mistake, especially when he needs it, don. he needs the votes to be counted in arizona and we will be watching. >> one thing you can count on, you can count on us here on cnn covering this for you. if there is a victor, whenever that is, there's going to be one soon or sometime, but whenever that is you'll see it right here on cnn. >> this is what it's all about. the gift of journalism is being a witness to history. there's a lot going to happen this morning, for don lemon, the

man, and me, thank you very much for joining us. cnn election coverage continues with the a team, john berman and alisyn camerota. >> the a.m. team. when you're through with powering through, it's time for theraflu hot liquid medicine. powerful relief so you can restore and recover. theraflu hot beats cold.

john berman here. i want to welcome our viewers in the united states and all around the world, this is cnn's special live coverage of an american presidential election that is still undecided at this hour. it's 8:00 a.m. in the east, 5:00 in the west and votes are still being counted in several key states. razor thin margins in these four states that have been on the move all night long, arizona, georgia, pennsylvania and nevada. either candidate could still