we have breaking election news overnight. good morning. i'm chris cuomo with the one and only don lemon. if you're just getting up now, it's 6:00 a.m. in the east on this friday, november 6th. getting ready for breakfast. how about a plate of biden took the lead in georgia with a side

dish of, pennsylvania may change hands and very soon. what do you think, don lemon. >> and can you believe that? we just had an election commissioner on from philadelphia who said, we should get some new vote counts maybe within the hour or so. it could happen right on our watch here. and i'm hearing, it could be very significant when it comes to this race. so we will speee. a lot of votes still out there. they're still being counted, but a lot has changed overnight. and you know that's the truth, because we've been here watching it. >> a group of our fellow citizens that can only be described as americans have been working through the night and delivering votes in batches of hundreds that made a difference in georgia, changed the state of the race, and now pennsylvania is on the verge of a big change, as well. let's bring you the latest number. this is your 6:00 a.m. key race alert. all right, let's start with georgia. 16 electoral votes. why does this state matter? if donald trump wants to be our president again, he must win

georgia if he wants to be president through the electoral college. so joe biden overnight took the lead, 1,096 votes. statistical dead heat, certainly in recount territory, but there is enough vote left in the state, and we'll show you in a few moments where, that could pad that lead and maybe keep biden in control. we'll have to see. also, pennsylvania, 20 electoral votes. very important. why? if joe biden win pennsylvania, this race is over. it would be a dispositive move, one and done. right now, though, the president up by 18,229 votes. 95 estimated vote is in. deceptive statistics. why? because the remaining vote that is out is more than enough to change the state of play. we just had one of the local officials on that suggested we may be getting more information and soon. so we are very fortunate to have kate balduan in philadelphia,

where we're expecting news. good to see you, my friend. nice to share a day in history with you. >> reporter: good morning, good evening, whichever it is, it's time to wake up, because today there's a lot of movement that will be happening this morning, friends. they are still counting here in philadelphia. the largest city, county, the largest county in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. the latest numbers here, the key numbers are, there are about 53,000 votes that are still left to be counted. now, we've been tracking increases overnight. there have been increases of something like in the realm of several thousand when they've been uploading new results of more ballots being counted. that's something, obviously, we are keeping a very close eye on. and as one of the city commissioners, one of the people in charge that knows the most was just speaking with you guys a short time ago, they do expect as commissioner al schmidt said, they're expecting some more information to be coming out. it would not -- the way things

are looking, it would not be surprised if they wrap up the count here in philadelphia at some point today. if not even this morning, one person we spoke with, one person involved that we've spoken with quite a bit said as of last night, they are calling it a full-court press to get this done. but, of course, there are a lot of factors that go into that. you have human beings in this space besides me, behind me in this convention center who are doing the arduous task and labor-intensive task of getting the plat out of the envelope to the scanner to get that number uploaded to have the most accurate count uploaded to their website. that's philadelphia. there's a lot bucks county, which is another key area that we've been tracking all along. this is the most competitive of the suburban counties outside of philadelphia. everyone has had their eyes on this. i believe hillary clinton won the county in '16 by 3,000 votes. it has been tight. the latest numbers there is that

they are just shy of 11,000 ballots that they still have to count. a note from a bucks county official yesterday was that they've been tracking the mail-in ballots that are coming in. they have trended to be about 77% for joe biden, as they have been counting them. overall, the commonwealth is looking at about 163,000 mail-in ballots to be counted. 6.2% of what was received. we are expecting to get numbers anytime now. we are tracking that throughout the morning. they have been working hard. they know that today is friday, three days after the election. it is the final day when those mail-in ballots could be received per state law and they're moving. >> boy, let me tell you, kate, you were in the right place and thank you that massive download of information. appreciate it. stand by. let's go to the magic wall with

phil mattingly. here's what's so exciting about what kate is important, to me, give me your thoughts. not only is vote coming from an area in pennsylvania, that philadelphia area, that is rich for the democrats, but there's so much vote left, that not only could it motivate joe biden to meet the president's lead, but exceed nit a way that may put it out of reach. >> let's dig in on that. right now as it currently stands, donald trump hanging on to an 18,229-vote lead. what are you talking about specifically? you were talking about philadelphia, where kate was just speaking from, where we were told there's about 50,000 votes outstanding. with an 18,000-vote lead, let's do the math using this margin. if joe biden wins those 50,000 mail-in ballots, which would be conservative based on what we've seen come in over the last day or two, if he wins those 50,000 votes by 80%, he would end up netting in the city of philadelphia, also philadelphia county, same thing, he would end up netting 30,000 votes, just in

philadelphia. if joe biden nets 30,000 votes, joe biden is in the lead in the state of pennsylvania. >> by over 10,000. >> by over 10,000 votes. >> and that's not at all. what else is left outstanding? look at all the blue. you have philadelphia, delaware county, i am told that i can call it delco. i'm not from there, so i'm not sure if i can use that term. >> i hope it's safe. >> there are about 8,000 votes there. keep ticking pup they' ining up. they're starting to show 100% reporting there. what we know coming out of southeast pennsylvania, there is more outstanding vote. it's mail-in ballots, where joe biden has had comfortable margins. bucks county was by far the closest county, and yet you look at that margin, doesn't seem astronomical. however, bucks county over the course of the last 24 hours has moved heavily in joe biden's direction. why? because they are counting

mail-in ballots. mail-in ballots are leaning heavily democratic, even in republican strongholds, especially in places in southeast pennsylvania. the reality right now in the state of pennsylvania, which i would note is the most crucial state outstanding right now. if joe biden wins this state, joe biden is president of the united states. there's no other way around it. that's 20 electoral votes. he's at 253. the reality in pennsylvania is that it is not a matter of if joe biden is going to overtake donald trump, it is a matter of when. the biggest question right now, two things, one, how much vote in that can joe biden take, that 160,000 left outstanding. and two, is there anything donald trump do to stop a pretty fast-moving train heading his direction over the course of the last 24 hours. >> we know what he's trying to do. he has been up all night, and the more the vote has moved, the more virulent and violent the president has gotten in his tweeting, such that twitter has been flagging every other thing that he says, because it's so

wildly off-base. but clearly the urgency is not missing him. harry enten, what is your analysis of where we are and and where we go and why? >> right. phil was saying, and i have it up object on the secretary of state's website, kate spoke about it as well, that there's a little bit north of 160,000 votes to be counted in the state of pennsylvania, or in the commonwealth. and biden has been winning that absentee vote by around 50 points statewide. if you apply that, you would get biden on the margin with net around 80,000 votes. and given where donald trump's lead is in the state, a little bit south of 20,000, it seems to me if you apply the math and it follows through, biden would be leading at the end of this by somewhere in the neighborhood of about 60,000 votes statewide. >> so at the end of the day, when all the vote is in in pennsylvania, it could be a 60,000-vote margin for joe biden. >> it's a distinct possibility. things would have to track as they've been tracking, but what

harry's talking about here, and i think harry is being a bit conservative in his estimate, based on what we have seen, joe biden hitting 72 or 73% in terms of margin would be undershooting what he's been hitting over the course of the last 24 hours. >> are you guys including the ballots the may be, if we're going to exaggerate probabilities just for the safe part of hypothesis, may be vulnerable to judicial intervention? are you including the ballots that come in after election day until today. >> my understanding, and harry, you can correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe the segregated ballots are separate from -- >> they're segregated, but being counted. i'm wonder if in that number, thai they're included? >> that makes up a very, very small portion. most of the democrats got the message if you want to ensure that your absentee ballot or vote by mail ballot be counted, they got them in very early. from the secretary of state, she essentially said many of the

smaller counties were receiving zero ballots after election day and even some of the large ones, it was basically within the hundreds. that is really inconsequential to the math we're talking about here. >> of course, this restriction doesn't apply to military ballots. every state has their own rules but that would be a different situation. the president wasn't careful about what he was saying about those ballots and seemed to be wanting to disenfranchise military. nobody wants to do that. so then, we are waiting for the vote, and just to remind, wait, what about nevada, what about arizona? absolutely. we haven't been getting the same quantity of information, but remember how big a piece in the puzzle these two states are. where is the president's -- this is a trick question. what path does the president have if he doesn't have georgia. >> let's just talk about georgia first. we've just been talking about pennsylvania. look at this. overnight, if your just waking up, georgia turned blue about an hour ago. joe biden took a lead about an hour ago. about an hour ago ago, he took a

917-vote lead. guess where it stands right now? he's added to it. here's the reality. now he's at 1,096 is the lead. and the biggest outstanding vote, all vote by mail, comes from a democratic county, gwinnett county, somewhere over 4,500 ballots, we believe, are being counted and will be released at some point this morning, the tabulation of it. there are a couple of republican counties that are outstanding. but the reality is that right now, that is a narrow lead. we'll have to see what happens. eventually, there will be provisionals and military ballots as well. but joe biden as a consequential lead with vote outstanding that is likely to lean democrat in this state. and you said, why does georgia matter. why does georgia matter? obviously, we ran through why pennsylvania is so important. joe biden wins pennsylvania, it's ball game. lights out. let's go through the map. everything you see that is blue has been called for joe biden. everything you see that is red has been called for president trump. for the sake of gaming this out, we will give president trump alaska. they'll take a little bit to count, expected to go to

republican. north carolina right now, donald trump has held a pretty solid lead. not a huge lead, 79,000 votes for a couple of days now. we'll give that to him, as well. we'll give him maine 2, the single electoral vote right up here, as well. what does that leave? that leaves pennsylvania, it leaves georgia, it leaves arizona, it leaves nevada. >> give him all of it except georgia. >> we'll give him pennsylvania, we'll give him arizona. right now joe biden is leading in arizona. it has narrowed. we'll see how that plays out when maricopa reports in a couple of hours. we'll give him nevada. clark is supposed to report this morning. should go democratic, but we'll see. joe biden wins georgia -- i no pathway for president trump -- >> through the electoral college. we wind up in constitution land and the country would get a tutorial in a very severe process. all right, let's do this. let's go to break. when we come back, we'll take you through the state of play and what we're waiting for and when. please, have a good morning and

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good morning to you and what a night you missed. although i have to believe, so many of us are awake around the clock because we're dealing with the future of our country here and things are changing in realtime, all the time. and overnight, president trump's path to becoming president again took a huge hit. joe biden made a move. and it is time for a key race alert. georgia is now in the hands of joe biden. will it stay there? we'll see, but overnight, he wound up taking a 1,096 vote lead and there is more vote to come that could add to that. remember, if donald trump does

not win the state of georgia, he cannot get 270 electoral votes. he cannot win this election in the electoral college. pennsylvania, 20 electoral votes. the president still in control there. 18,229 votes. but we have been told there is an offering from philadelphia coming of counted ballots that could make a significant difference. remember, pennsylvania matters, because if joe biden wins pennsylvania, he is the next president of these united states. so what is the reaction this morning to this development? jessica dean is in wilmington this morning with the biden campaign. pennsylvania could make a very big deal. next to jessica is ryan nobles, taking the temperature of team trump. so, jessica, what do we hear? >> well, chris, the biden campaign says that they expect to win pennsylvania by a sizable lead when this is all said and done. they've got their eye on those

philadelphia votes that will be coming in. and remember, pennsylvania, very personal for joe biden. he is scranton joe, after all. he really leaned into that with his scranton versus park avenue messaging that he pitched to working class voters, really specifically in pennsylvania and the upper midwest. and he started his campaign in pennsylvania and he ended it, closed it out there, as well. so pennsylvania incredibly personal to joe biden. georgia, also making a lot of news this morning. the campaign always saw georgia and continues to see it as a true toss up, but they believe it leans towards vice president biden. to that end, they sent vice president biden back into georgia in the week leading up to the election where he gave that closing argument in warm springs, georgia, talking about unity and healing. they sent in kamala harris, and there at the end on monday, on election day, they sent in their most high-profile surrogate, president barack obama to really rally people there in atlanta. so again, they see it as a true

toss- toss-up, but they do think that biden has the slight edge in georgia. will that all come to be? we'll find out once all of these votes are counted up. >> jessica, thank you very much. sometimes, the picture tells the story. if you look at the battleground behind jessica and then behind ryan nobles. she has a beautiful sunset coming up. ryan nobles not that far away, but a much darker dawn where you are. and may he rest in peace, senator john mccain used to have a joke where he used to say, you know, when they say it's not darkest before dawn, he said, yes, it is, it's pitch black. and overnight, some very dark news for the trump campaign. what are we hearing? >> reporter: you're right, chris. the situation in georgia has really changed the shape of this race for the trump campaign. and let's be clear, the trump campaign spent a lot of time and effort in the state of georgia, expecting that to stay in the republican column. and it will come as a shock to many republicans that joe biden has taken the lead there, because the trump campaign

presented such a stance of confidence about their chances in georgia. in fact, listen to what campaign manager bill stepien told me back in july, just after he had been named campaign manager about what was happening in georgia. take a listen. >> again, i would invite the democrats to spend a lot of money in the expensive media market of atlanta. and keep thinking it's for real. because we had the same conversation in 2016. >> reporter: so back in july, stepien almost mocking democrats for their investments in the state of georgia, pointing to what happened in 2018, where democrats narrowly lost the race for governor there, and back in 2016, when president trump was able to win there. that mocking looks very different now in the light of what the results are and what the results are coming in. we should point out, though, chris, even though republicans acted like there was no chance they could lose in georgia, they spent a lot of time and money there, including what they describe as their most precious

resource. president trump himself made multiple trips to the state of georgia. he went there both in official capacity and as a candidate. in fact, he made two trips, two rallies there to macon and rome, georgia, in the closing days of the campaign. chris, at this point, it looks like it may not have been enough. >> ryan nobles, thank you very much. jessica dean, thank you, as well. well, look, they haven't lost anything yet. let's bring in michael smerconish, david gregory, and lauren barone lopez. laura, in terms of the state of play, the headline is obvious. joe biden for the moment is in the lead in georgia. so where does that take us for the campaigns today? >> right, i mean, as you were saying earlier, chris, if biden keeps the lead in georgia, that appears to be the ball game. i mean, what trump's path beyond that, if he doesn't win georgia is questionable. of course, the president, as he

forecasted last night, with his unfounded claims, appears to, you know, be saying that he's not going to go quietly into the night. his team has threatened suits. we see that a number of his supporters are also intimidating election workers in arizona. to a point that it's become dangerous for reporters to even stand outside of places in maricopa county. and so, you know, what happens in a state like georgia is if it's within 0.5%, if it's 0.5 of a percent, that the margin is, then trump could request a recount. so, keeping an eye on that margin, as well as margins in pennsylvania, are going to determine whether or not we see recounts or whether or not the trump campaign actually requests those. >> good points, all. the problem with georgia, michael smerconish, as a narrative, is the idea of having anything taken from you, how?

the governor is your friend. the secretary of state is a republican. the entire infrastructure is. they put this into place. they haven't said anything about any irregularities, let alone some type of gross fraud. so not a great story. the bigger problem, to distract from that, all you have is pennsylvania, and that is one and done for biden if he holds on. you know the state very, very well. you call it home. how do you see it? >> so, pennsylvania reminds me of one of those old s.a.t. questions, where you're going from point "a" to point "b," and you're traveling "x" miles per hour. now, when are you going to get to point "b"? chris, you probably got those questions correct. i always got them incorrect. >> the answer is always "c". >> in this scenario, joe biden is the faster car headed from "a" to "b" and the only question is, when is he going to arrive? bob brady is a former member of congress from philadelphia. he remains the head of the philadelphia democratic city

committee. he sent out a press release at 1:00 a.m. and said, philadelphia's outstanding vote alone is going to close the gap that currently separates the candidates. you had al schmidt on within the last 30 minutes doing his job as a city commissioner, very by the book, saying, here are the numbers that are outstanding, here's when we think they're going to drop. he can't provide you a projection of what it's going to mean, but bob brady's assessment is exactly that, which you got from phil mattingly. it is a question of when, not a question of if. joe biden is going to win pennsylvania. >> so david gregory, now it leaves us with this very scary question. which is, what is the president going to do to stop this from happening? we can't believe he's not going to do anything. and i guess the legitimate route is legal challenge, you know, michael's a counselor also, but david, you know the area of the law very well, not a lot of avenues based on absolutely no claims of problems, except the ones that he had no proof for.

so what do we have to think about in terms of what happens next? >> well, i think a couple of things. first of all, there's path "a" and path "b" to biden's victory. and because there's two paths that he can take, it tends to take some of the steam out of the idea that it's all down to pennsylvania, for example. that's important for biden, because it's important, even for those around trump. i mean, i don't expect anything of the president other than what we saw. lies, accusations, inconsistencies. he's not complaining about the lead for biden shrinking in arizona, but he complains about what's going on in pennsylvania. it doesn't make any sense, of course. and there's no evidence for it. what's the worst thing that they had to negotiate, getting closer viewing for monitors in philadelphia. come on. there's no real evidence there. it doesn't make sense. and there's no real backup by republicans, except the kind of truthers who are around the president, like his children and

rudy giuliani. so these are not serious people who are leading this charge. so i think that's what's important. bidened eis headed to victory couple of different ways. it doesn't mean there was a democratic wave. it doesn't mean that this wasn't a tight election. but for republicans in washington, it's very clear where this is headed. and they're not backing trump up. and that will have an impact. again, i don't expect him to somehow decide to be a statesman, meaning the president. but i think there'll be more pressure to say, this isn't going to be a worthwhile avenue to try to fight this. >> we will see. david gregory, mr. smerconish, miss barone lopez, thank you very much to each and all. michael, great to see you. laura, thank you. now, i'll tell you something very interesting here as we go into break. we are waiting for pennsylvania to deliver votes from the all-important philadelphia that has been hitting so hard for democrats. i know so many are watching.

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a lot changed overnight and it happened in pennsylvania. still, the president still ahead, slightly there by about 18,000 votes. big news coming out of georgia, though, where joe biden pulled ahead overnight, in case you were just waking up. let's talk more about pennsylvania, though, and the former pennsylvania governor, tom ridge, joins us, also. the first secretary of homeland security. good morning, secretary. >> john, chris, good morning. it's been a long night for you folks, so happy to join you. >> i'm glad that you're watching us and joining us. i'm not sure if you heard the commissioner on cnn not long ago. sorry about that.

not long ago saying that he was expecting some vote counts coming out of the philadelphia area. not sure how many. maybe in the tens of thousands. where do you think this race is right now in pennsylvania? >> reporter: well, listen, first of all, i've got to tell you, my stomach has been churning since the president's remarks last night, churning with both disgust and anger. and for me, it's not a political moment. it's about respecting the most fundamental and respected institution in this democracy. and it's electoral process. it's about respecting the millions of people who went to vote in-person or absentee in the midst of the pandemic, that has killed 235,000 people. it's about respecting the republicans and the democrats, who are going to the polls and those elected officials that are working tirelessly to effectively deliver the vote. and for the president of the united states to say that there's fraud attendant to these absentee ballots is a baseless,

bogus, unsubstantiated claim. and it's disrespecting everyone associated with this process. so i'm troubled by it. i'm like everybody else. look, i've got a favorite. vice president biden was the first democratic presidential candidate for whom i've ever cast a vote. i say that proudly. i'm still a lifelong republican, but the bottom line is, i'm prepared to accept the vote once all votes are counted. so let's let the process proceed. mr. president, you don't call the election, i say respectfully, cnn and the networks don't call the election. americans call the election and then the states, not the federal government, certify it. so let's let the game continue. >> i'm so glad that you said that. a lot of people were concerned troubled by those remarks, as we all should be. the president undermining, really, a free and fair election in this country.

since you went there, and i just wanted to be clear, there haven't been any voting issues that you're aware of in pennsylvania? >> none whatsoever. you know, from time to time, whether it's pennsylvania or anywhere else, john, there's some -- it's an imperfect system. i remember, i think it was the heritage foundation, a very conservative, well-regarded think tank, take a look back at 20 years and saw like 200 cases of ballot fraud being identified and prosecuted. but these claims have been bogus. by and large, if you look at what's going on in philadelphia, which seems to be a pivotal point of focus, of the president's attention or ire, you've got poll workers there, poll watchers there, republicans and democrats, you've got cameras all over the place. that may be the most transparent election because of the president's assertion months ago, when he and probably it might even have been part of the strategy, they formulated an opinion that they started

articulating it months ago, saying that if there's a delay post november 3rd, it means there'll be fraud. well, mr. president, there's a delay post november 3rd, not because there's a fraud, but because there's a pandemic. and give credit to governors, both republicans and democrats, to worked tirelessly within their states to provide safe and secure in-person balloting opportunities and absentee balloting opportunities. let the absentee ballots be counted. live with results. let america voices speak. they're the only ones that count anyhow, mr. president. >> listen, i'm so glad you spoke about that. and also, just so our viewers now, you're not just saying this now, you tweeted out earlier, you said the president disrespected every single american who figured out a way to safely vote amid a pandemic that has taken 235,000 lives. absolutely shameful. i'm glad you're speaking out. i'm sure america is glad you're speaking out.

i have to ask you, though, one quick question. as a republican, when you hear these attacks on our democracy, are these the new opening arguments for the new republican party? >> it remains to be seen. i know there's a lot of easeene. i think they'll have to do some real soul searching and figure out whether or not the last four years, the fundamentals of the republican party, the ronald reagan republican party have been projected publicly and whether or not we've demonstrated over the past four years a sense of empathy and humanity and outreach to all americans, not just to supporters of donald trump, that make us worthy of leadership in the future. time will tell. we have some introspection to do and hopefully we'll be more stronger and more robust party in the future. >> governor, secretary, thank you so much. we prooeshappreciate it. we have a lot of people in the studio nodding their heads in agreement with you.

governor and secretary tom ridge, thank you very much. we're watching pennsylvania very, very closely and we expect major news out of pennsylvania very soon. it could happen in minutes. and in georgia, biden is stunning the trump camp this morning because he is ahead. don't go anywhere. with sofi, i was able to condense all of my loans under one account. i was able to lower my monthly payments and feel like i'm well on my way to becoming debt free. and i have sofi to thank for that. ♪

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joe biden took the lead in georgia from president trump. how and can he hold it? pennsylvania is going to give us votes. why does it seem like it will change hands as well and what does this mean for who gets to 270 and when? all good questions for you. thank god for you, because i can't answer any of them. let's start with georgia. how did it change hands? >> we've been digging in on the county level for the past couple of hours. but the big picture here is what's so important. say joe biden ends up winning the state of georgia. what does that mean going forward? we know that president trump is leading in the state of north carolina right now. we know he's probably going to win alaska. we'll give those to him. we expect president trump to overtake president trump's lead

in pennsylvania soon. but what if he wins arizona. what if he wins nevada. trailing in nevada, but for the sake of argument. and he goes ahead and wins maine's second congressional district. look, that's not enough. >> you're in constitution zone of that whole process about what happens here. and it all starts with georgia. and the problem with georgia for president trump, not just because it is this linchpin, but it's a horrible narrative point for him, because this toxic soup that he was ladling out for everybody last night is defeated by the reality in georgia. so it's cheating. so it's fraud. it's not just that you don't have the votes. republican governor, republican secretary of state, republican infrastructure, no claims of fraud. no claims of irregularities, except the once that were made up by our president. so not a great story for him on top of not a great reality.

now, pennsylvania, why do we focus on it as one and done for biden? >> just take a look. say president trump comes back and wins georgia. wins georgia. i don't know why it's not moving right now. >> make it do your will. >> it's finally freaking out on me after all of this time. here's the bottom line, if joe biden wins the state of pennsylvania, joe biden is at 253 electoral votes right now. that is all joe biden needs -- the map is acting up on us right now. it's given up on us after about 30 hours. here's the reality, here's the numbers. joe biden is at 253 electoral votes, pennsylvania is 20 electoral votes. in short order we expect based on what's outstanding that joe biden will overtake president trump in the state of pennsylvania. if that holds bauds on what's outstanding, that is 273 electoral votes. you can give president trump everything outstanding on the map, whether it's alaska or nevada or arizona, maine 2, north carolina, and georgia. if joe biden wins pennsylvania, it's over, that's the ball game.

here's the one wild card i want to throw out there. right now, vice president biden is leading in georgia, leading in arizona, leading in nevada. he will likely soon be leading in pennsylvania. why does all of that matter? that's 306 electoral votes if he's able to old on to all of those. we don't know if that's going to be the case. we talked about this a little bit earlier. given what the trump campaign has talked about in terms of litigation, in terms of what they're looking into, in terms of potential recount, neespeciay in a state like electoral votes. 270 in any way, shape, or form makes you president of the united states, 306 takes out a lot of the options in terms of what you can litigate, what you try to go after. any types of concerns, fraudulent or not, that you try to lay out there. i think the biden campaign wants 207 any way they can get them, but 306 would be a little bit more comfortable based on everything that we've seen. >> there's a good chance that will get ugly early. and i think it's important that people are aware of that.

the president is looking at this through the lens of addition, through subtraction. how can he get rid of votes? remember, this isn't about him. it's about our democracy. let's take a quick break and figure out what phil did to the wall and we'll be right back. new advil dual action with acetaminophen fights pain in two ways. advil targets pain at the source... ...while acetaminophen blocks pain signals. the future of pain relief is here. new advil dual action. ♪ oh, oh, (announcer)®! ♪ once-weekly ozempic® is helping many people with type 2 diabetes like emily lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it.

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we are back now. look at that live shot. that is a live shot of wilmington, delaware. that's where the acceptance speech was supposed to happen on tuesday night, possibly. but it's been this way for three days. just cars -- how long have these cars been out there? they just park? who knows. back now with the group, s.e. cupp and john avlon. think about all the things that have happened overnight. i think this has been since election night, the night that's had or morning that's had the most twists and turns, don't you think? >> yeah, certainly if you're looking at georgia and we're watching pennsylvania very closely. it's been a couple of days of stasis on like a razor's edge. but i think it's really important to point out, this is

all happening the way trump demanded it happen. right? he told his voters to go out and vote in person on election day. they did. he wanted his votes counted right away, not days later. they have been. the fact that the process he demanded isn't like rigging it for him, isn't a conspiracy. it's just like a bad self-own. >> he did it to himself. >> yeah, it's a bad self-own. and also, again, telling people, wait until the day. well, he may have gotten more votes and told more people to get it in early. >> and they wouldn't be coming in disproportionately joe biden at this point. it's in the context of a pandemic that was mismanaged, and this is what you've wrought. and there's also some poetic irony in that it's john lewis' district in georgia and the atlanta metro area coming through. it's john mccain and cindy mccain campaigning for biden in arizona. it's joe biden's home state of

pennsylvania, hard-fought. and everybody better break out the ray charles, because we're going to have georgia on the mind, not just today as these votes come in, but the special election, coming up. >> we were doing lots of analysis last time we were here, about what democrats needed to do. tom ridge, you saw the former governor there of pennsylvania and the firsthome security secretary saying, republicans have to do some soul searching, as well. especially, he was very strong saying, what the president is saying and doing about these fraudulent election and so on, that it's being stolen, it was terrible, he should not be doing. republicans really need to have a come-to-jesus about where their party is going, as well. regardless of who's in the white house. >> they do, but we should get used to saying president-elect joe biden. because the path says that today is going to be a day to celebrate for millions. joe, you did it! thank you, joe! yes! we're back, america! let's call it! >> we got to do the math,

andrew! >> wait a minute! from the guy who has the map. >> the map is heading in a very clear direction. the math guy says that we should get used to president-elect joe biden, the trump era is receding and there is going to be a celebration today. millions of us are going to be -- >> and let's show the stage in wilmington, delaware, if it indeed goes the way that andrew ya yang says or is all excited about. we're going to take away his coffee or red bull or whatever he's drinking over there. a little excited. this is where they'll be giving the acceptance speech. but do you think the occupant of the white house will be giving a condolence -- not condolence, a concession speech if it indeed goes the way that andrew says? >> not anytime soon. but can i just address something that tom ridge said? i thought what he said was really important as a republican of a certain era. when we talk about a fog of war and history, reimagining the way

things look years later, i think the iraq war looks worse than it did when almost every democrat voted for it, for example. there will be no fog of war to lift after this. what the president said last night will not look different or better in five, ten years. what he did was try to break democracy. it looks bad now. it will look bad later. >> i've got to get us out of here and get to the break and get to the top of the hour. chris, it has been an amazing time to spend with you, so i'll see you soon. jake tapper, dana bash, john king, the entire gang, they're going to pick up for us at the election center in washington, d.c., live right after this. i'll see you, buddy! repair your enamel with pronamel repair.

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welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, as we yet again begin another day covering the presidential election. right now, we're watching a very important race between former vice president biden and president trump in a must-win battleground state for the presidency. we're talking about pennsylvania. biden, closing in on trump in pennsylvania. a win there would put him over the top in electoral votes. and that could potentially happen very, very soon. we're standing by for more votes from pennsylvania, at any moment now. biden also gaining momentum in georgia, taking a slim lead over trump in that traditionally red state. at this hour, biden is looking to add to his 253 electoral votes, aiming for the winning number of 270. president trump with 213 electoral votes is seeing his options slipping away right now. let's get a key race alert.

all right, let's start in georgia right now. 16 electoral votes, 99% of the estimated vote is now in. and biden has a lead. a small lead, 1,096 votes over trump. look at that, 49.4%. 49.4%. there are still votes outstanding in georgia. we're watching georgia very closely. in pennsylvania right now, 95% of the estimated vote is in. about 5% remains outstanding. 20, 20 electoral votes in pennsylvania. trump has a lead, a narrow lead, it really has shrunk, 18,229. 49.5% for trump. 49.2% for biden. it's very, very close in pennsylvania, john. these two states, pennsylvania and georgia, that could make the difference in who's the next president of the united states. >> and already, the overnight trends have made a big difference on the map, wolf, if anyone tried to get a little bit of sleep, i don't know why you would try to do that this week. right there, georgia is red.

at sunrise this morning here on the east coast. and that tells you the changing dynamic of this race. pennsylvania remains red. we'll take a closer look at the numbers now. by all indications, perhaps even minutes or certainly within an hour or two, pennsylvania expected to flip as well. let's look at what we are talking about here. number one, let's start with georgia, the big change of the night. vice president joe biden, once down as they counted the election date, votes first by more than 300,000 votes, now has a lead of 1,096. in georgia, there are still about 10,000 ballots to be counted. the president must now win more than 55% of those ballots to eclipse that lead, about 10,000. but we also know and we watched this play out yesterday if you were with us in methodical fashion, those ballots are coming in, they're mail-in, they're disproportionately, predominantly democratic ballots. that's why joe biden caught the president, passed the president, and every indication is he will continue to build what is a very modest, yet still a very significant lead. if you pull back out to the map and look at georgia, if georgia stays blue, the president of the united states cannot get to 270

electoral votes. the best he could do was 269. we'll get through that. that's unlikely, as well. but the president cannot get to 270 electoral votes. he would absolutely not even be able to get even close if pennsylvania flips. the president has a lead of 18,229 votes in pennsylvania. about 163,000 votes still to be counted. most of them in democratic strongholds. about 50,000 of them right here in the city of philadelphia, where you can see at home, joe biden is winning more than 80% of the vote. and as these mail-in ballots are counted, he's winning an even higher percentage, because remember, democrats voted disproportionately by mail republicans voted disproportionately on election day. you pull this back out, that lead, once above 600,000 votes. the president is crying foul. he's crying cheating. this is math. the election day votes were counted first. see all of these red areas in the state. the president did a fantastic job of turning out his vote. they were counted and he built a big lead.

mail-in ballots, state choice counting last. they didn't want to be overwhelmed on election day, so they dealt with that first. now they're counting the mail-in ballots, this has just been methodical and steady and we have watched the president's lead shrink. and every expectation here is that when these come in, some of these other counties around here, they are also nearly 40,000, about 36,000 ballots to be counted out here. allegheny county, pittsburgh, you can see joe biden winning nearly 60% of the votes that have been counted in allegheny county, so far. and again, i don't want to be a broken record, but i want to make sure people understand, as the mail-in ballots as they count them, it's disproportionately higher than that. it's 70%, often approaching 80%. as you pull the map out now, you see joe biden leading in georgia. joe biden coming closer and closer in pennsylvania. we expect that to change. and joe biden still leading out in arizona. we're waiting for these two states to keep counting. joe biden has leads as well. to be fair, the president has closed this lead somewhat.

joe biden's lead at 47,000. the trend in georgia and pennsylvania has been as they count the late ballots, joe biden has been eclipsing the president, closing in in pennsylvania, passing him in georgia. we need to watch arizona. the president has narrowed that lead. and we should keep an eye on it. but just again, if you left last night thinking, where are we? nothing changed here yesterday in terms of, there were no -- we had no states to project yesterday. we remain at 253 for joe biden, 213 for the president of the united states. 270 gets you to the finish line. let's underscore the significance of where we are. if that one stays blue, joe biden gets to 269. joe biden is leading here and leadleads, he is over the top. well, watch. again, the states out west will get more votes later lout the day. if joe biden wins that, it is not only game over, it is game over with an exclamation point. this was the biggest prize, when the president cracked the blue wall four years ago, donald trump won pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. wisconsin and michigan are in joe biden's hands right now in 2020 and pennsylvania, again,

within a matter of minutes could well go blue. the president is saying he is going to sue, alleging fraud. has every right to make his case in court. we have zero evidence as of yet on the public record that any of those allegations are true. >> let's check in what's going on in pennsylvania. if biden were to win pennsylvania, those 20, he would be elected president, even if he didn't win any other state. kate balduan is joining us from philadelphia right now. kate, what are you seeing on the ground. war you hearing? >> well, the sun is coming up, wolf, and we are told from sources inside, the folks in charge, that it has been a full-court press to get this done here in philadelphia. the latest from the commonwealth of pennsylvania is there are 163,000 outstanding ballots. 50,000 of those that are left to be counted are here, in philadelphia, being processed, still in the convention center behind me by some 100 plus workers who are working in

eight-hour shifts to get it done. the updates overnight have been coming in, if i can call them chunks of several thousand. and one of the city commissioners in charge has said that they expect an update to be loaded up in the next couple of minutes and we are definitely waiting for that. also, i do have an update on some of the other ballots coming in that could become key after, as things will be wrapping up in philadelphia and pennsylvania. they have now, they believe, between 15,000 and 20,000 provisional ballots here in philadelphia. those segregated ballots that arrive after election day here in philadelphia, it's been a few hundred over the past couple of days. they do not describe it as a significant number. they are shrink wrapped, i have found out, wolf. shrink wrapped, set aside, time stamped, date stamped when they were received in order to protect their security. those segregated ballots have not been counted yet.

but we should be expects an update on the number of mail-in ballots counted, how many are outstanding, which can tell us a lot about where this race stands and is headed this morning, wolf. >> very quickly, kate, if there are 50,000 outstanding ballots in philadelphia, where you are, will they be released all 50,000 at the same time? or will it be piecemeal? >> reporter: i'm told not to expect in this next update, to not expect the entire 50,000 to be uploaded in this coming update. the way it has gone overnight is an area of 5,000 votes being counted in one update, and something around that regard. it would not surprise me if it's something in the area of several thousand to be uploaded. but i was definitely told not to expect that the entire universe of outstanding mail-in ballots here in philadelphia, 50,000, not to expect that to be the next update. >> kate, stand by.

john, if that 50,000 number is accurate, we believe it is accurate, if the whole thing were to be released at some point in the next hour or two hours or whenever, what would that do to the lead in pennsylvania right now? >> so let's start in on philadelphia. and you see, joe biden is getting 80%, more than 80% of the vote consistently. and as they count the mail-in ballots, that percentage has been higher most of the time when we get those allocations of the mail-in ballots as they count them. so if you think about that, he's getting 80% of the vote. the president has an 18,000 vote lead. if you put 18,000 votes into the system, joe biden one leading in pennsylvania, just on the philadelphia vote alone. 50,000 votes there, kate said. that still leaves about 113,000 other votes coming in. and we just watched this play out yesterday. we're going to watch these votes and count these votes. there are transparent eyes, democrats, republicans, reporters in all of these rooms. if something changes in the president's favor, we'll show it to you as quickly as it happens. but methodically throughout the day, as the mail-in ballots are

coming in. we just said philadelphia. more came in overnight in bucks county. and the mail-in ballots, joe biden is getting higher percentage than that in the mail-in ballots. that's total vote including the president's vote. but we've seen growth there. seen growth here in montgomery county. seen growth for joe biden as they've counted votes in chester county and delaware county. the suburban collar around philadelphia is democrat rich, but an important point, yesterday we were watching votes come in here, in lehigh county, they're up to 93% right now. this was red when we began the day yesterday. president trump was ahead in lehigh county, which is allentown. he was ahead as they started the day yesterday, joe biden eclipsed him, so there are more ballots here. you see they're at 93%. again, your eyes tell you and yesterday tells us that is likely to increase joe biden's vote count by enough to pass that. we'll watch and see if it continues to play out. another place up here, from the southeast corner to the northwest corner of pennsylvania, erie, erie county.

this started the day yesterday late into the night yesterday, this was still red. and you see it's still very close. 49.6 to 48.7. but again, they have some ballots to count here. every update that came from erie county yesterday was lopsided. disproportionately joe biden, democrats voted by mail. the president got his vote on election day, he's getting a small percentage of these mail-in ballots, which is what he wanted. he campaigned several rallies in pennsylvania. told his people to swarm to the polls on election day and they did. the president's overall vote totals in pennsylvania, 3.28 million, 2.9 million. this is not a question of the preside president's vote not turning out. the president turned out a lot of voters. those ballots were counted on election day. joe biden turned out a lot of voters and those ballots are still being counted. we have votes from lehigh valley to come and 36,000 more out here. they've been coming in lopsided for joe biden. simple math tells you the

president's 18,000-vote lead is almost certain to be eclipsed in the hours ahead, perhaps in the minutes ahead as these votes come in. and absolutely no way the president cannot win re-election unless he carries both of these states. georgia has turned blue. pe pennsylvania is on a path to turn blue. that would put joe biden in command for this race. the president refb reserves tht for legal challenges and the like. >> alexandra field is joining us from pittsburgh right now, allegheny county, alexandra, where you are, another key county over there, what are you seeing and hearing over there? >> reporter: indeed. a lot of uncounted vote in allegheny county is in the warehouse right behind me. the county will get to work counting at least some 30,000 uncounted ballots. this is a blue spot in the western part of the state. what we know about these ballots is at least 6,800 of them are

ballots that didn't initially go through the machines since election day, when the county began counting votes. that's because they could include some errors, they could be damaged, they have to be reviewed by hand. shortly, a return board will be sworn in. their job in that factory today will be to manually inspect each of those 6,800 ballots. but the big share of the ballots that are still outstanding, some 29,000, well, the county won't get to work counting those ballots until about 5:00 this afternoon. those are ballots that were set aside, they were originally sent out incorrectly. there was an incorrect ballot that was sent out to some 29,000 people in allegheny county. the county quickly reissued the ballots, but they agreed by court order to set those ballots aside, to wait until 5:00 today, friday, to begin counting them. so, we could get counts of as many as 35,000 ballots when you put those together. the county says they have also received several hundred ballots that were postmarked by election day, that are able to arrive

until today. they haven't counted those yet, so that could add to the total number here. and there are estimates that they could have as many as 15,000 provisional ballots still outstanding that they would need to count as well. so certainly, a large share of votes that are still to come from allegheny county. these are votes that are expected to addition proportionately, of course, favor biden because of all of those demographic trends that john king has walked you through. again, the blue spot here in a red part of the state. wolf? >> very important information, alexandra, thanks very much. so 30,000 outstanding votes in allegheny county, john. 50,000 outstanding votes in philadelphia. that's 85,000 votes in those two areas right there. and they're disproportionately in favor of biden. >> they have been coming in 80% for joe biden. and we will watch to see if that trend changes. we will certainly tell you if the president is doing anything, the president's vote count is doing anything to suggest the moment of the race has changed, but it has been steady and consistent. you see 18,000. that's the lead right.

35 to 36,000 ballots out here. some of them to be counted soon. 50,000 ballots here in philadelphia. more ballots in the suburban collar around it. also some ballots up here in the lehigh valley, allentown, pennsylvania. i'm clicking ining through thi. everything i'm touching is blue and turning increasingly blue. ballots here, ballots here, ballots here, and ballots here. and so you see in these blue areas, that's where we know the overwhelming majority of these 163,000 votes yet to be counted are. but i want to make this point and reinforce it. we were counting ballots yesterday in places like this. luzerne county, they're up to the finish now. even in places where the president is winning. here it's 57%. trump country in pennsylvania, there's a lot of it. but when they're counting the mail-in platballots, joe biden getting 47% of the vote. but in the mail-in ballots, he's getting much higher than that. even in the red counties that in

the end will be overwhelming iir president trump, joe biden is racking up. when you get 500 votes from a place like this now, it's disproportionately biden, because democrats voted by mail. the president's vote has largely been counted, because that was the way he wanted it. he rallied, he said, don't vote by mail, i don't trust it. his people came out to his credit, it's a big vote, but democrats also voted in huge numbers. and as we count those votes, again, an 18,000-vote lead, 163,000 out. the lead for the president here, once above 600,000. as they've counted the mail-in ballots, it shrunk. and when we get those from philadelphia, certainly, it is likely to disappear and joe biden will take the lead and we'll watch it to play out throughout the day. to reinforce the big picture, to go through 36,000 here, 50 here, thousands more spread across the state. you can do that math at home. the big picture is 20 electoral votes. the president cannot -- joe biden can win without

pennsylvania. president trump cannot. >> i'm curious. we can do this, 95% of the vote in pennsylvania is in. where is joe biden overperforming right now compared to hillary clinton four years ago? >> if you look at this state, not a lot changed from four years ago, people just turned out more votes. where is joe biden outperforming hillary clinton? you watch this play out. there are 67 counties in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. 67. one, two, in tiny counties, carried overwhelmingly by president trump. you go back four years ago, hillary clinton got 33% of the vote. so in a couple of these tiny counties, this was not an election where a whole lot actually changed. this was more people came out to vote and democrats came out in the democratic areas. you look here, cumberland county. this is important to the president. 54% to 43% for joe biden. about 2% of the population, 16th largest of the 67 counties. you come back here to 2016, hillary clinton gets 38. there are a couple of places,

but only two, only two. just remember, as you pull this out. you see one, two. now i'm going to come take this off and you come here. look at all of this red. the president is very popular me pennsylvania, especially in rural pennsylvania. joe biden moved the needle a little bit in those rural counties. joe biden did not take a ton of trump votes away from donald trump nor did donald trump, you can say, where did donald trump overperform. let's see where hee ov overperformed. this was not an election where biden made deep inroads into the trump vote or trump made deep inroads into the biden/clinton vote. this was an election where both candidates turned out more people. right now, donald trump is narrowly ahead as we come back to the map here, but we know we're still counting votes 163,000 and joe biden is likely to pass him within minutes. >> where did trump underperform? >> sure, where did the president underperform by five points or more, and this is going to slide

away and the answer is going to be nowhere, as it slides away. trying to reinforce this point. joe biden said, i'm going to make deep inroads. this is his birth state. joe biden, delaware now, born in scranton, pennsylvania. he said, i'm the guy blowho can make deep inroads with those white, rural, blue collar voters. there's actually no evidence that joe biden switched a lot of votes, switched a lot of trump voters. actually, there's evidence that the president turned out more voters. when you look at this, it's actually striking. in pennsylvania -- there are other place we can look and see things that did pivot. but here in pennsylvania, did he underperform anywhere for hillary clinton? again, no, this was a big turnout election in battleground pennsylvania, which we knew could be the decisive state in this election. both campaigns poured tons of resources in it. both campaigns spent the final hours of the campaign, focusing on this state. they both turned out more voters. when you come out of this and look and you go back here, 3.2 million for joe biden right now.

3.2 million. round that up. 3.3. that's going to soon be 3.3. if you go back in time here, 2.9, 2.9. >> a lot more people showed up this time. >> high intensity on both sides. give the president credit. he went in and did his rallies and turned out his people. joe biden spent a lot of time here, resources here, they stressed the sponsor of these 20 electoral votes. it's one of the most competitive states in the united states. you can add florida to that, you can add north carolina to that. we're about to add georgia to that. but in this huge state where the president believes and proves he has a very deep and considerable base, right now he's ahead by a little bit. let's come back to the right here. he's ahead by 18,000. but we have just seen over the last 24 hours, as they count the mail-in ballots, that joe biden has been catching up steadily consistently and when we get these next batches of boats from pennsylvania, from pittsburgh, from the lehigh valley, it's inevitable that joe biden will pass that number. and the question then becomes, by how much, as the president

and his team make all of these allegations. and one quick point as we begin a new day here, what could be a decisive day. we have made a point of saying what the president said at the podium yesterday was reprehensible. there's no evidence in the public record of any widespread fraud. so as we've respected the count, the challenge now for the country will be to respect the president's right to challenge it, but demand that he actually provide evidence, not just allegations. >> what's so impressive in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic, so many more people were voting this time compared to four years ago in part because of the mail-in balloting that was available to them. let's take a look at georgia right now. how many more votes do we anticipate, 99% of the estimated vote is in. let me check with nick valencia. he's on the ground for us in georgia right now, clayton county. what are you seeing, nick? >> reporter: wolf, what happened overnight may have changed the course of the election. clayton county said they would stay here until the job was done

and that's exactly what they did. 20 straight hours of counting, but shortly after 5:00 in the morning, the last ballots were loaded into the machines here and joe biden had a 917-vote lead. that has since increased to 1,096 votes, as those tabulations are slowly trickling in. we should mention, though, these are unofficial tallies, because the secretary of state, they went home for the night and said they would not be officially updating those numbers until later this morning. as it stands right now, georgia still has at least, by our tabulations, 10,000 mail-in votes to get through. that includes 4,800 in neighbors gwinnett county. we have a grew on our way there, on their way there, to see the county. they have 4,800 absentee mail-in ballots to get through. about a total of seven counties altogether, as of midnight still had absentee ballots to get through. but if this pattern continues, wolf, if this trend continues, joe biden will hold on to this lead and become the first democratic presidential nominee to win the state in nearly 30 years. we're expecting those tabulations in gwinnett at

around 8:00. we also have a press conference that we're waiting on -- rather, that we're expected to have at about 10:30 from the secretary of state. wolf? >> nick, stand by. we'll get back to you. we're talking about georgia. a traditionally red state and biden is ahead now by 1,096. gwinnett county. let's take a look at gwinnett county for a second. 4,800 votes. mail-in votes, they're anticipating coming in fairly soon. >> and again, nick is south of atlanta in clayton county. this is to the northeast of atlanta, gwinnett county. come back up. fulton county is in the middle with atlanta. the suburban collar, just like philadelphia, the suburbs that surround philadelphia are the engine of democratic votes in pennsylvania. this is the engine of democratic votes in georgia. and again, in a high-intensity election, the democrats are turning out their vote. this has been a giant challenge. president obama went there at the end. president obama went to warm springs in the end. your eyes can tell you right

there, joe biden is getting nearly 60% of the vote, the total vote. we know we went through this yesterday. nick was just in clayton county. atlanta is here in fulton county. in gwinnett county, in dekalb county, in cobb county, when they count these mail-in ballots, joe biden is outpacing his overall total, because the mail-in ballots are overwhelmingly democratic. you can bet, it's going to be at least 58%. and if it holds true to what we saw yesterday, they come in around 80% for joe biden. these are democrats that voted by mail. that was the issue. you pull that back out, joe biden has a lead of 1,096 right now. georgia, blue. not since bill clinton. not since the bill clinton days has georgia been blue. so if that stays blue, the issue then becomes, what is that final number item and again, we have insisted, we should respect the count and count every vote. this will be hard for democrats because of what the president says and very little of it is true of what he says in public

about this process. watch where the final number is. you know, they are recanvassing. that means they go back and check the machines. any way you're writing this down by hand, you flip the numbers one way or another, they go back. this happens in every election, and occasional, yes, there's human error and 12 votes move here or 50 votes move here. when states are this close, they'll go back through it. but as they respect the process, we have to understand the trajectory. joe biden has overtaken the president of the united states in what has long been ruby red georgia. come back out here and look at the map. 16 electoral votes here. joe biden still leading in arizona and nevada and we expect any moment now pennsylvania as more votes come in. as that one changes, the president just cannot win, cannot win without these two. he cannot get to 270 without those two. if joe biden can get those two and hold those two, he's on his way to 306 electoral votes. 270, of course, is the finish line. >> some 5 million people in

georgia already, we know what their votes are. we're standing by for votes for crucial pennsylvania with ballot counting happening right now in philadelphia. will joe biden take the lead in pennsylvania? we're back in a moment. ♪ ♪

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hello, world. welcome back to cnn's continuing coverage of election night. we're on day four and you're looking right now at live pictures from the philadelphia pennsylvania convention center where the tabulation of ballots continues. there remain more than 1,000,000 outstanding and here are the margins right now in georgia. joe biden overnight took a lead. he's now ahead by just over a thousand votes in georgia and nevada. that vote remains at 11,438. that margin for biden, in pennsylvania, donald trump remains in the lead, although that lead has been winnowed down to 18,000 with more than 100,000 ballots outstanding. and then in arizona, 47,052 votes are the margin right now for joe biden let's check in with our campaign reporters to

see what the status is of the biden and trump campaigns. let's start with jeff zeleny in wilmington, delaware, for us right now with the biden campaign. jeff, tell us the latest. what is the strategy for the biden team today? >> jake, good morning. the biden campaign, of course, is waking up to watching these results, just the same as everyone else is. but they are doing something different. they took note of the president's dire tone last evening in the white house and they are beginning to mount a different type of campaign here at the end of this race. and that is to reach out to old friends from the senate, all allies from a lifetime in public service, and to get them once this race is called to speak to the legitimacy of this election. this is something that joe biden likely could have never imagined after first running for president 30 years ago, that he would, indeed, have to validate his own election win. but that is what i'm told is going to happen. so we will see if this race is called today or when it is, we will see a variety of old

friends. they are looking for republicans as well to speak to the legitimacy of the vote in pennsylvania, in georgia, in other states, as well as the overall sanctity of this process. so even as they are preparing for what's ahead, a transition, if that should happen, they're also trying to prepare to make the argument here that this was a fair process. they are very well aware of what's happening back at the white house, jake. >> that's right. we're hearing a lot of false allegations with no evidence behind them from republican leaders, going on the president's favorite channel, talk about thinks. with a whole bunch of lies and misrepresentations. joe biden taking the lead to rye to beat that back. jeff zeleny, thanks so much. let's check in with kaitlan collins right now at the white house. kaitlan, what is the president's team thinking today, when they wake up, if they went to sleep at all, and georgia is now in. biden has the lead there and the president's lead in pennsylvania has been winnowing down quite a bit. >> reporter: well, and jake, what really gives you an indication of how the president and his team are viewing what

could be the final hours of this race since biden has now taken this lead, i'm told that overnight, the trump campaign attorneys were working at their headquarters in arlington in an attempt to justify the president's so far baseless claims that this election is being stolen from him. and in this statement to do that, i'm told that they've set up a room dedicated to a hot line they created to take calls about voter fraud. though, of course, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, despite the insistence that you were hearing from the president and what you were hearing from his republican allies, who are now spouting his talking points. jake, this is something that we've seen so often in the trump administration, in the trump years of this white house. where the president makes a claim and his aides have to work overtime after the fact to try to justify it. that appears to be what the president's campaign attorneys are doing right now, trying to find any kind of allegation of voter fraud, so they feel like they have a leg to stand on here. but so far, they have not found that and they are trying to do that overnight.

that's why they've set up this hotline, but that gives you a look into the window of how the trump campaign is viewing this and how they're seeing the state of this race. and not saying, let's see if we get this lead from arizona. let's wait and see what the military ballots in georgia say. it's clearly evidence that they believe that this campaign is slipping out of their hands and they are trying to make any kind of claim that they can to try to hang on to it, while they still can, although we should note, no evidence of widespread voter fraud in this race, jake. >> none at all, despite all the false accusations being repeated on the president's favorite news channel. kaitlan collins, thanks so much. we should just underline this again. the nonsense we're hearing from house minority leader kevin mccarthy, senator ted cruz, senator lindsey graham, there's no evidence beyond it. and if you remove that president trump from the election night, the republicans had a great election night. they picked up seats in the house, held on to the senate.

not a single house republican was defeated. republicans kept all of their state legislatures. democrats didn't flip any of them in the entire country. so this vast conspiracy that they are alleging, with no evidence, would suggest that democrats and the media and big tech and everybody did this, but we all wanted republicans to keep control of everything else, it was just about donald trump. it makes zero sense. beyond there being no evidence, it makes zero sense. it just underlines how empty the argument is. >> and a lot of that republican strength was in states where the president is battling. in states that are presidential battlegrounds, not just places where republicans did well on the congressional level. and you know, kaitlan alluded to this, but this is such a typical, classic trump pattern. which is that he makes a claim and then searches for the

evidence. there is no evidence. and you know what? that has worked for him in business, in politics. but it's really hard to get that done in a court of law. because they demand evidence. >> and keep in mind, the campaign actually had had poll watchers in all of these states. they tried aggressively to recruit thousands and thousands of trump supporters to go look for this evidence, as people were voting. so the idea that they're now going back and saying, well, if you saw something, let us know, tells me that in the process of actually voting, they weren't able to find this evidence. they're trying to gin it up right now. and that's not a strong position to be in for a number of reasons. beyond just how it doesn't make any logical sense that we would believe that democrats somehow managed to, you know, give mitch mcconnell more time as senate majority leader and, you know, they did that, but they also

rigged the election. they rigged the election against donald trump, but they kept lindsey graham and mitch mcconnell. not only does that not make any sense, but i think this is going to be a problem for them, when they get into the courts. the trump campaign just this morning announced a legal team in four states. four states. they have to launch a massive legal undertaking to invalidate, frankly, a lot of votes in four states. and that is really an uphill climb for them. >> and let's keep in mind, arizona, republican governor. georgia, republican governor. nevada, republican secretary of state. >> georgia -- the republican secretary of state in georgia, where joe biden is now leading. >> there's no evidence of it. but i think we need to even take a step back here. donald trump burst on to the political scene by lying and pushing forward a conspiracy theory that barack obama, the nation's first african-american president, was born in africa. that was the suggestion, that he

wasn't an american citizen. not true, a complete lie, the last we heard from the president on that, before he started running for president was he was going to send an investigator to hawaii to get the evidence. as far as i know, that investigator is still looking for the evidence. this is a person who puts forward lies, claims that they're true. we can go one after the other, ted cruz, donald trump suggested his dad had something to do with the kennedy assassination. now he's doing it about the election. there was no evidence for that, just like there was no evidence regarding ted cruz or barack obama. >> and now, that very senator from texas you just mentioned is out there doing the president's bidding. and this is just a reminder that no matter what happens at the end of the vote counting, donald trump still has a stranglehold on the republican party. not only was there not an intervention, you had a number of enablers going out on the

president's favorite network, cable network, maybe it's not the favorite anymore now that they called arizona, and claiming that what the president's false allegations are, are true. >> and let's also just take a moment here to acknowledge the fact that joe biden is on the cusp of becoming the 46th president of the united states. he's not there yet. we're still waiting for a projection in pennsylvania, still waiting for a projection of georgia, arizona, and nevada. he's not there yet, but in a much better position than donald trump is, and that's likely going to happen today. >> yeah, and if you're joe biden right now, you're looking over this landscape of a country that is not only deeply divided, but where you have a sitting president who is doing what he told us he would do. not accepting the results of the election. and thinking about how to lead in that kind of environment, i know based on what i'm hearing from democrats, top of mind for joe biden. because this is an important time. we're going to get some more

information this morning about where things land, but then, the country is not going to be all there. the president is steeping his supporters in, as you pointed out, profound falsehoods. and that's not just going to go away just because joe biden gives a speech. i don't know what the answer is to that problem, but it's a real one. >> it is. you know, one could argue that of any of the democrats who ran for president for the democratic nomination, joe biden is the most prepared to deal with this, just because of his very long experience of working with republicans, which got him in trouble during the primary, when he was running. but it's not just rhetoric that he reaches across the aisle, he's done it. we've all watched it in the senate and then in the white house when he was obama's vice president. and so the question is going to be, assuming that this moment happens, in any of these four

states on the screen right now, particularly pennsylvania is the one we're watching the closest, how he's going to immediately go about that and also keep the plans within his own party, because there are a lot of progressives who are not going to be happy if he reaches out too far across the aisle. >> it's a challenge for joe biden. it's also a challenge for republicans, who need to really come to grips with the fact that they need to decide which matters to them, the affection of donald trump or the united states of america. it's decision time now. you can't do both. if there is evidence of malfeasance, the trump campaign should come forward with it, otherwise, they should stop the heated rhetoric, somebody's going to get hurt. and in the meantime, it's time for republicans to grow spines and talk to the president about what is best for the nation. thousands of votes are being counted right now in philadelphia, as joe biden closes in on president trump's lead in pennsylvania. we're standing by for new numbers expected soon as our special coverage continues. stay with us. ore discovering ner

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and i want to show you live

pictures of the votes being counted in philadelphia, pennsylvania, at 7:44 a.m. on the east coast. 163,501 votes still to be counted in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. trump right now up at 18, 049 votes although that lead that be shrinking steadily for the last few hours or so. we should have an answer or a greater indication from pennsylvania shortly. back here with our panel. difficult day for both president trump's campaign and the biden campaign. let's talk about for the biden campaign, it's very likely they will today have a pretty firm understanding of where the votes lead. what do -- how do they go about talking about the vote count, where at the same time,

acknowledging this court battle that's about to take place? >> look, i don't think they should -- they can acknowledge that a court battle is going to take place. i don't think they should necessarily dignify court battle. they should acknowledge that's the right of the president to do whatever he sees fit and the courts are open to him, like any other american. when they get the votes, they should -- when they get the electoral college votes, they should -- i think they should acknowledge that. i thought the reporting that jeff zeleny did was interesting, that biden was going to reach out to old friends and allies, presumably on both sides of the aisle and talk about ensuring a peaceful transition. and i think that's -- it's smart on the substance of it. it's also smart that jeff knew about that and that he's reporting on it. because they're sending a message, which is, this is a new day. we're putting this country back together, we're going to move past this, regardless of what the president does.

and it's time to turn the page. >> and for the trump campaign, there's reporting that attorneys if the president have been working the night at headquarters in arlington. they have a room dedicated to a hotline, taking tips about alleged voter fraud. >> but it sounds to me when they're doing that that they are sort of soliciting stuff. that already, they have told the country, this is an illegitimate election and we've got problems, the president has been tweeting about it all morning, saying, you know, he easily won this election. they're not allowing observers in, which is not true. and it seems to me that it's, you know, they've put the cart before the horse. because this is what donald trump has done throughout his entire presidency. he goes out there and makes these charges and then he sends people scattering all over to try to prove that what he has said is actually accurate. and that's not the way to do it. as chris christie said this morning, you have to have the evidence first.

you don't make the charge and then go out and say to people, come prove it for me! because we've already said this. that is what is occurring. >> i woke up this morning to an email from the trump/pence committee. i'm on their mailing list. >> who isn't? >> and it says, david, the democrats are trying to steal -- in caps -- the election. we'll never let them do it. votes cannot be cast after the polls are closed. so they're not -- they're not standing down. they're raising money off of this. they're going down this path. >> senator? >> no, they're not standing down. and they -- you know, they are -- they are convinced, because you say there's no evidence. so the answer is, to that is, and i'm sure the president has seen it, because people have sent me lots and lots of information about, here, look at this video, look at this testimonial. i mean, there's all sort of things out there across the

interpret. i me we've all seen them. so they're saying, look at all of this out here. >> look at these individual examples. >> but does that mean there's this widespread conspiracy to delegitimize donald trump's victory here? >> this gets back to the issue that van and i were talking about oh, six or seven hours ago, which is, you say, why are they picking on the city of philadelphia. why are they picking on the city of detroit. the answer is sort of, you know, what was it jesse james says. why do you rob banks? because that's where the money is. and we talked about how it's really hard to do fraud in america. one of the biggest reasons it's hard to do fraud in america because they're all locally run elections. every little community runs their own election. so if you want to find massive -- if you want to find a lot of -- a scale of fraud, you've got to go where there's lots of people, where one group is running the election. that's why you -- look, i lived

in pennsylvania for a long, long time. and we always said, oh, in philadelphia, they're doing -- again, we could never prove anything. >> that's but the reason you point to there is because it's really the only place where there is a scale to impact the election. >> these videos you get they can be manipulated. welcome to america. welcome to the internet. >> i understand that. but i can tell you i'm hearing from lots of people saying, look, there's so much out there. look at what's going on. and that's why it's important in my opinion -- >> many people are saying -- >> i understand that. that's why it's important to pause, check this out, walk through it. i mean, i can't tell you the number of things i've gotten -- >> but that's not what the president is doing. >> i understand what the president is doing. >> he's saying it's a done deal, it's illegal, there is a conspiracy out there against me, even though all these republicans, by the way d very well as you pointed out last night and continue to point out, rightly so, but even though all these republicans did very well it's a conspiracy against me.

so that means that what? >> it means that we are really bad at conspiracies because we managed to like -- but i think that what the senator is talking about is important. we are in a crisis of trust now. on our side we feel like there's voter suppression, that you guys don't want us to vote, that this is all sort of ginned up, on your side you feel like there is this evidence out there, some of the stuff gets disproven very quickly but it's out there. this is a moment i think for the country that we have to take a pause and listen. from my point of view we're going to have a lot of democrats who are watching today, their facebook feed is going to be full of this stuff. i want to empower all americans to push back on the worst of it. the reason that this stuff the count is slow is because of anti-fraud measures and frankly the president wanted this thing structured a certain way. some places you have there's more people voting than were on

the rolls, that's caused a same-day voter registration, people are following the law. i think we have to be able to push back on the worst of this stuff. when there are some isolated things, and i'm not saying 100 million people voted and nobody did anything wrong. where there are isolated things we should support the president going and challenging those. i think it's the broad brush that it's completely irresponsible. >> you point out something that's very, very important which is this lack of trust and we are living in divided america and there's different silos and we don't interact with each other so we don't trust each other. i can tell you i've heard this so many times, people say they will do whatever it takes to win. >> that's how we feel. >> because they believe they're right and they are -- and they think anything justifies them winning. i hear you say that about us, we say it about you, and so there is just this automatic they have to be cheating. >> i'm reading this email, i want to make sure that i didn't

misread it, it doesn't say the democrats are trying to steal this election and as soon as we find evidence we will let you know. they said the democrats are trying to steal the election. so if people are not trusting, maybe it's because they're being told that. the president -- >> both sides -- campaign emails on both sides do that. >> wait, rick. the president has spent four years retweeting the wildest conspiracy theories and when you ask him -- and people believe it, they read t he's got a huge following. then you ask him about it and he says, well, i don't know, somebody said it, i'm just passing it along. you can't be casual about these things and then say, well, we don't have enough trust. that does not fullment trust. >> that's right. you want to take these things to the courts. i think that is perfectly legitimate. >> and i think it's appropriate to do that. >> so you have this one track where legitimately they may take some things to the court, which

i think they should, then you have this other track which david is talking about which is the president of the united states saying this is, you know -- i easily won this election and observers are not allowed in, widespread fraud, and, you know, the question is is there widespread fraud that has delegitimized his win, or is this, a, just the way votes are counted and, b, just what the narrative donald trump wants to make sure people don't think biden won? >> the positive thing is that a lot of the allegations -- you know, the videos that are floating out there online, all of that stuff is pretty easily investigateable. if there is a video of a lady taken from above doing something on a panel, put her in jail. it's pretty clear who that lady is to everybody who works there, i'm sure there's, you know, cameras in the room, so all of this stuff -- i just think it's

very easy for everybody, and i'm guilty of this as well, getting carried away with the outrage of things the president says or, you know, concerns about the other side. doesn't it just seem like this is the time you would wish everybody, the president, biden, everybody take things down. >> 100%. the reason this is hard and i think this battle back and forth between me and senator santorum has been deeply educational for me. there is a big split in this country. >> go. >> listen, it's on everything. are rioters the problem or are militia the problem? i have a whole list at some point i want to go through so people with understand why is your cousin acting this way or your ex-boyfriend acting this way? there is a deep split. philadelphia has the potential to put biden ahead in pennsylvania.

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we're back here in the cnn election center awaiting results that could potentially be decisive in the cliff hanger presidential race. i'm wolf blitzer. former vice president joe biden is now very, very close. there is a contest with president trump under way in pennsylvania and biden could overtake him at any moment when we get new results. we're watching the vote counting in philadelphia as we wait for those new totals to be revealed. a win in pennsylvania would be