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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Harris & Trump Barnstorm Swing States In Final Stretch; Nearly 79 Million Americans Have Already Cast Ballots; Parties Battle For Control Of House And Senate. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 04, 2024 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: -- allowing a free rental day if you can snag a car before tomorrow.

[16:00:03]

And if you want to satisfy your sweet tooth, you can head into Krispy Kreme which is giving away a free glazed donut in honor, of course, of dough-mocracy.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: It's good to hydrate on Election Day, also good to bring snacks with you get to the polls and exercise your rights as a citizen. Thank you so much for joining us.

THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts right now.

(MUSIC)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

And we are down to the final hours of this historic presidential campaign season. Tomorrow, election day, polls will be open nationwide and millions more Americans will cast their vote, nearly 79 million of you have already cast your ballots.

You beautiful people, look at you voting. You've done it through mail or through early in-person voting and good for you.

Right now, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are closing out their campaigns with sharply contrasting messages, urging people to get out and vote. Trump urging his supporters to, quote, save the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Kamala, you're fired. Get the hell out.

With your vote in this election, you can show them once and for all that this nation does not belong to them. This nation belongs to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: Trump earlier today in Raleigh, North Carolina, Harris for her -- her part is emphasizing unity and this is her talking to volunteers at a canvassing event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's be intentional about building community, about building community, about building coalitions, about reminding people we all have so much more in common than what separates us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, Harris and Trump's messages seem polar opposites. It's also notable both of them are spending their final campaign day in Pennsylvania, the key battleground that could determine in who wins the presidency. Trump has also added stops in North Carolina and Michigan.

In just a few moments, we're going to hear from Kamala Harris in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Let's go straight to our reporters on the campaign trail.

CNN's Eva McKend is covering the Harris campaign in Allentown, where Harris is about to speak. CNN's Kristen Holmes is covering the Trump campaign as she's in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Trump will hold his final event of the night after hitting North Carolina, and Pennsylvania first.

Eva, to you. Harris spending her entire day in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, multiple stops, I think five stops in Pennsylvania today alone.

How is the Harris campaign feeling about the chances of Pennsylvania?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, I can tell you that they are confident in the strategy that they have employed here. I just spoke to the Allentown mayor, and he says that this is all going to come down to the ground game and that they have a strong operation in Pennsylvania.

You know, they started out in Scranton. They'll be here in Allentown shortly. Then they head on to Reading, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and as you well know, these are places with all very different cultures but places that they think that they can capture nonetheless. The vice president training her final argument on unity, not even mentioning the former president by name.

I was struck by the comments that Governor Josh Shapiro just made on stage. He said that this election is not going to come down to differences on policy or a single bill issue that it is about the character and the soul of this nation. What you see the campaign doing in Allentown is trying to capture the affection of Puerto Rican voters, more than 30,000 of them in Allentown. Fat Joe is up on stage as we speak and they are trying to uh capitalize on that recent episode at Madison Square Garden.

So the vice president trying to characterize herself as a new way forward, a difficult argument to make given that she is currently in the administration, but one that she is making nonetheless. And now, it is time for voters to decide if they believe her -- Jake.

TAPPER: Right. It's up to them now.

Kristen, how is Trump handling his final hours on the campaign trail?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, it depends if you mean mentally or physically. Physically, as you mentioned, he's in North Carolina, two stops in Pennsylvania and here in Michigan, all of those battleground states. And mentally, I'm told by senior advisers that everyone on the campaign including the former president is ready to wrap this thing up.

Now, those same senior advisers spent most of the day yesterday fielding calls from various allies, former aides, all imploring them to try and keep the former president on message, particularly after his rally yesterday in Pennsylvania, where he essentially spent 20 minutes trying to cast doubt on the 2024 election. He said he should have never left the White House and at one point, he suggested that he wouldn't really mind if someone shot through reporters in order to get to him.

After that, both Trump and senior advisors were hearing from people just asking him to stay on message.

[16:05:05]

They believe that, yes, most of these people who are casting their ballots on Tuesday, they have already made up their minds. So, people are going to vote for Donald Trump. They're going to vote for him.

But there's also a belief that if he says anything severely inappropriate, which he is known to do, or off the cuff, that there are people who might just stay at home. They believe that every single ballot counts and a lot of these is going to be dependent on how Donald Trump comports himself.

Now, he seems to have gotten that message at least somewhat. We know we saw him at two rallies yesterday, another two today, before -- afterwards and he seemed to stick with his general talking points which of course are all over the map for Donald Trump, but they're far less insulting, than what we heard earlier in Pennsylvania. There are a lot of people who are concerned that Donald Trump could do harm to himself, particularly as everyone right now is tracking that this election is going to be decided in the margins and every single vote counts, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Kristen Holmes in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eva McKend in Allentown, Pennsylvania, thanks to both of you.

Let's bring in the panel. David Chalian, since Kamala Harris became the nominee, the

presidential contest has been incredibly close and basically static. We're now just hours away from actual exit poll data. What will you be looking for?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, two things off the bat. I'm going to look at the mood of the electorate sort of the -- in this environment, can Kamala Harris overcome the hurdle of an electorate that may be dissatisfied with the economy and the direction of the country and low approval ratings for the incumbent president? That's a lot for a candidate to overcome.

So sort of where does that mood of the country sit and how high a hurdle does she have to jump on that. That's one thing. But then there's going to be the composite of the electorate, of course, that we'll look at right away. You know, are we seeing Donald Trump making some progress with young male voters of color. We saw actually, we have election results from '16 and '20, where we did see Donald Trump make progress in some communities of color. He would still lose these communities but lose them by less like in Philadelphia County.

TAPPER: Right.

CHALIAN: Right? So I'm going to look to see, is that progress that Trump made from to with those kinds of voters, does that continue? Is he bringing some more of those low propensity voters out or does Harris's presence actually slow that progress and push it back in some way.

So those are the two things I'm going to look for sort of out of the gate.

TAPPER: Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger, yesterday, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump was speaking about immigration and the progress that he had made and he said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But my world's favorite chart done by the border patrol, it said, we had the safest border in the history of our country the day that I left. I shouldn't have left. I mean, honestly, because we did so -- we did so well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: You were on the January 6 Committee. I mean, obviously, it's not just jokes when he says I shouldn't have left.

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And that's the problem is people will say, well, he was joking when he said that, and I mean, every day, there's a new having to describe something that he said as a joke. The reality is when you convince a significant amount of people that the election was stolen or that the president could just decide to stay, they cannot necessarily see what he's saying as a joke and I think he doesn't mean it as a joke. But then they will actually take action. And that's what you saw in January 6. Look, I've often said this if I

truly believed that the election had been stolen, I would have been there in a different capacity not as a congressman I would have been on the steps of the capital if I thought legitimately the election was being stolen. So when leaders say something, especially somebody with authority who people trust, it has an impact on stability of democracy.

And that's where it's the reason I'm so much for Harris is because I think our democracy and the stability of that democracy is really the thing on the ballot and really so important at the same rally in Pennsylvania Trump also said this about the bulletproof glass behind which he was standing. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don't mind that so much, I don't mind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, not to put to stark a point on it, but like a lot of people in the news media have -- who have covered critically Donald Trump have gotten death threats.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, they have and they've had threats in their homes where their children are. I mean, it's -- and it's not funny actually to what the congressman just said. I mean, there are people we know who don't take it as jokes and being a leader means understanding that words have meaning, words have impact and understanding the potential impact of what you say and how people will react.

But here's the other thing, Jake, that's been striking me. He's really been -- his rhetoric has been disintegrating even for him.

[16:10:00]

I mean, the way he was talking about Liz Cheney, last week and just the things that it's be getting more violent, it's getting more harsh, even for him.

And I think it's a reminder to people, if you get just a few seconds of it, what it was like when he was president when you felt like, you know what, I don't want my kids in the room, because I don't know what he's going to say, and just that sort of feeling in your stomach like, oh, god, what's he going to say, which has given a lot of space for the vice president to just stay positive.

TAPPER: So one of the things that is interesting is that unlike in 2016, and I think to a degree in 2020, he is not on message this time around.

MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: The campaign is, but the candidate is not. TAPPER: Right, yeah. But I mean, Donald Trump -- I mean, there are -- he's able to be on message or he has been on message, in the past, he does not -- he's not projecting like he thinks he's going to win, honestly, like -- I mean, I'm not saying he's -- I'm not saying he's not going to win.

DUBKE: Or it's the exact opposite, that he is convinced, either Tony Fabrizio, or somebody has convinced him that he is going to win, that he can say whatever he wants to at this point. I -- I've been thinking about this. This -- this to me is a vibe versus issues election.

TAPPER: Right.

DUBKE: And weirdly, the vibe election part campaign is on the Harris campaign, and the issue election is the Trump campaign. They keep pressing immigration. They keep pressing inflation, insecurity around the world -- those are the issues that the campaign of Donald Trump has been pressing.

And vice president Harris has been pressing this vibe. You know, he's too dangerous --

CHALIAN: I would just say the abortion issue and the democracy issue.

FINNEY: Yeah.

DUBKE: Yes, but the even the democracy issue is more of a vibe thing that he's dangerous for democracy and I -- and I'm -- I'm going to -- I'm going to say something that will totally get me into trouble here.

TAPPER: Uh-oh.

DUBKE: Yeah. Well, I --

TAPPER: Let's do it.

DUBKE: I do agree on the -- on the -- on the -- the joke, non-joke on the -- on the media and the fake news and all of that, he's also the only person that's had two -- two attempts on his life.

TAPPER: Sure, and it's horrible but -- but you don't see people in the news media joking about it.

DUBKE: No, you don't -- you don't, but I also didn't see the -- there's been a -- when you look at the coverage that Donald Trump has received versus Vice President Harris, and I know you know Media Research Center did this and we can discount them as that, but the level of negativity towards Trump in the media versus the level of positivity in the media towards Harris is stark. And think some people are seeing that.

I'm -- I don't in any way condone this --

TAPPER: Yeah.

DUBKE: But I think it's all part of the entertainment at the rallies. TAPPER: Let -- let me bring in the congressman.

DUBKE: Yeah.

KINZINGER: Shouldn't -- I mean, you're right, the former president had two attempts on his life. And I think we -- every time we talk about that, we should condemn that.

TAPPER: It's horrible.

KINZINGER: There is no -- right. There's no place for violence.

But he shouldn't -- that makes me -- he should know better, like the words have act -- I mean, I was told by some people that I cannot call Trump fascist, fascist adjacent, or I can't say he's a threat to democracy because that is -- I had a friend actually that texted me and said I'm responsible for the assassination attempt on Donald Trump because I'm saying that. Obviously, I fully disagree.

But if you're going to put on us -- if the Trump campaign is going to say you can't say anything harmful to Donald Trump, then how does he get a pass by saying, even if it's a joke, you know shoot through the reporters, or you know beat that guy up or you know nine barrels pointed at Liz Cheney? I mean, that -- it's just -- you've got to be consistent in it.

CHALIAN: It also shows I would just say a totally different rhetorical political choice that he made from how he was in the immediate aftermath of that first assassination attempt at the Republican convention to where he is now so he has tried two different ways of how to behave after that, and he's landed on this one.

FINNEY: Can I just make one other quick point?

TAPPER: Yeah.

FINNEY: Which is let's also not forget in addition to this horrible rhetoric, we are hearing him lay the foundation to -- to call for to say, it's chaos and that there was something wrong with the 2024 election. A lot of what he's saying, it's very similar to what he did in 2020, very similar to what he did leading up to the 2016 election. You know, making all kinds of wild claims that are just not true on the -- on the campaign trail.

And so, you know, that also adds to this feeling of dis-ease because people are not just concerned about election day, we -- in our own, we've had a piece on the concerns that sheriffs across this country and battleground states have for the days following.

TAPPER: Yeah. Well, and we're going to keep an eye on all of the ballot watch issues, some of which are real, and some of which are not and those are going to be something that CNN continues to cover throughout the election.

Thanks to all of you. Appreciate it. Will the candidates say anything new that might sway new voters before Election Day tomorrow. We're watching for that as Vice President Harris gets ready to take the stage in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Donald Trump is in the same battleground right now, he's about 40 miles southwest in Reading, Pennsylvania, home of the Reading Phillies.

[16:15:03]

More of his message on this final day in the race, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Vice President Harris speaking now in Allentown. Let's dip in.

HARRIS: And we're exhausted with it. America is ready for a fresh start.

And America is ready for a new way forward, where we see our fellow American not as an enemy but as a neighbor. We are ready -- we are ready for a president who understands that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it is based on who you lift up.

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: And Pennsylvania, you know me. I am not afraid of tough fights, evidently.

For decades as a prosecutor and the top law enforcement office of our biggest state, I won fights against the big banks that ripped off homeowners.

[16:20:06]

I won fights against for-profit colleges that scammed veterans and students. I won fights against predators who abused women and children and seniors and cartels that trafficked in guns and drugs and human beings.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We're not going back.

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: We're not going back.

And it is my pledge to you, it is my pledge to you, if you give me a chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: And it is my pledge to you that when I walk -- with your help, it is my pledge to you that when I walk in the White House, instead of stewing over an enemy's list, I will spend every day working on my to-do list on your behalf. (APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: Full of priorities that are about improving your life, about bringing down the cost of living, about banning corporate price gouging on groceries, about making housing and child care more affordable.

My plan will be about cutting taxes for workers in middle class families and small businesses, lowering health care costs, including the cost of home care for our seniors.

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: Because here's where -- here's where I'm coming from on this. I believe access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.

And to those certain individuals who still want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act --

(BOOS)

HARRIS: -- trying to take us back to the days when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions, well, to them, we say we are not going back. We are not going back.

And we are not going back --

(CHANTING)

HARRIS: And we are not going back because ours is a fight for the future, ours is a fight for the future.

And it is a fight for freedom, like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions of about her own body, and not have her government tell her what to do.

And when Congress with Bob Casey's help passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: So, Pennsylvania, I'm here to ask for your vote, I'm here to ask for your vote, and here is my pledge -- and here is my pledge to you, as president, I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to the challenges you face. I am not looking -- I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress, and I pledge to you --

(CHANTING)

HARRIS: And it is my pledge to you to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make, to listen to experts and to listen to people who disagree with me, because I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. And you know what? By the way, listen, we are fighting for a democracy right now, and we love our democracy, and democracy can be a bit complicated sometimes.

[16:25:03]

But that's okay, we are fighting for a democracy, which is why I say that I am not going to be a lead --

TAPPER: You have been listening to Vice President Kamala Harris speaking in battleground Pennsylvania. Both Kamala Harris and former President Trump crisscrossing that critical commonwealth today.

Joining us now, Democratic Governor Jared Polis of Colorado.

Governor, what is your prediction in this very, very difficult, very tight race? What's going to happen tomorrow do you think?

GOV. JARED POLIS (D), COLORADO: Well, what -- what a -- what a great closing argument in Allentown and later in Reading and Rankin and, of course, she'll be at midnight past midnight in Philadelphia because who needs to sleep the day before the most important election of our lives.

Look, I think that she's put all the pieces in place to win tomorrow. It's really up to the volunteers on the ground the voters that haven't voted yet they get their ballots in. It's time for the country to turn the page, turn the page on the divisive politics of the past. We have a former president trying to run again or a chance to go in a new direction with policies that really make a difference in our lives, from lowering the cost of groceries to putting money in the pockets of the middle class.

TAPPER: One of the reasons why this race remains so competitive is because at least according to polls, voters think more highly of Donald Trump's position when it comes to the economy and immigration. Immigration -- let's talk about immigration for a second. Donald Trump brought on stage this weekend the mother of a murdered Georgia woman, Maylene Rodriguez Ramirez. She had a following on TikTok, and ICE says the man arrested for killing her is an undocumented Mexican immigrant.

Trump has also repeatedly used Aurora, Colorado, in your home state to highlight his message that there are too many violent undocumented migrants in this country, causing wreaking havoc, he called it a war zone, and he said this today.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Aurora in Colorado, you have a radical left lunatic governor that has no idea what the hell he's doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Okay, the personal insult against you aside, do Democrats need to be more aggressive when it comes to getting violent criminals who are not American citizens out of the country?

POLIS: Well, first of all, I'm flattered that he's focused on attacking me 24 hours before the election rather than his opponent. I'm happy to take that on my shoulders.

But, look, this is the fundamental difference between Donald Trump -- Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Donald Trump wants to talk about and complain about the problems with the broken border and failed immigration policy, Kamala Harris wants to roll up her sleeves and solve it. Secure the border, she supported the bipartisan bill that would have hired thousands of additional border security agents and put real security in place.

Donald Trump opposed that because fundamentally he likes to complain about it being broken rather than do the hard work of fixing it, which Kamala Harris will do to keep us safe.

TAPPER: But just to -- I don't want to belabor this issue, but that bill came rather late in the Biden-Harris administration and this issue of -- look, there are always dangerous people in the United States, but the ones who are not supposed to be here the American people have every right to think that they should not be here, if they're -- they're undocumented, if they're members of gangs, et cetera.

I understand that that some people in the Republican Party overhype and try to scare people, but there are also legitimate fears about this and I'm wondering if the Democratic Party needs to explain -- I get the -- you know, the idea of a -- of a bipartisan, wide-ranging immigration reform bill, but I'm not talking about that right now. I'm just talking about the issue of dangerous people who shouldn't be in this country.

POLIS: Look, I think the Democrat's message is very simple. If you're an immigrant and you're law abiding and you're contributing to our country, you're welcome here. Legal immigrants make our country strong. If you're violating our laws, you're committing crimes you got to get out we whether it's through extradition or whether it's in our prisons, there is no place for you here.

Kamala Harris has put criminals behind bars, both criminals who are born in foreign nations and criminals were born in their own country, and the law makes no -- doesn't distinguish between them. When you violate our laws you belong in jail, Kamala Harris has put people in jail. And, of course, she's running against a convicted felon this cycle.

TAPPER: All right. Democratic Governor Jared Polis of Colorado, who Donald Trump name checked not long ago. Thank you so much. Good to see you, sir.

Even now, we know what battleground states will likely be slower to turn results in on election day, and which states may see a fast -- faster process. We'll break that down, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [16:33:38]

TAPPER: Back with our 2024 lead, CNN keeping a close eye on the early vote with tens of millions of Americans having already cast their ballot, your ballots. Now, we're learning more about who exactly cast those early ballots, which states will report votes quickly, which ones will keep us waiting, perhaps all night and into the next day if not beyond that.

CNN's Pamela Brown's at the ballot watch desk, the voting desk.

Pamela, what can we read and not read from these early voting numbers.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT & ANCHOR: That is a key question let me help you try to make sense of this, for all of our viewers taking them this information. In some places like the key battleground state of Georgia, there have been a record number of early in-person voters. So what does that mean? Well, let's dive in first to the overall numbers here, for the early votes.

There are nearly 79 million votes already cast across 47 states of the District of Columbia, now this is lower than pre-election numbers from 2020, during the pandemic. But as of this afternoon, that number accounts for 50 percent of the total turnout of 158 million votes that were cast in 2020 overall.

Now, we don't know who people are voting for right, but we do know that registered Republicans are outpacing registered Democrats in early voting in a few key states. That's Arizona Nevada and North Carolina and we do know that female voters are actually outpacing male voters in all seven battleground states, but at a slightly smaller rate than the outpaced male voters in 2020, Jake.

[16:35:02]

TAPPER: Interesting. And as we look ahead to tomorrow, which states do you think are going to keep us on the edge of our seats the longest?

BROWN: That is a key question as well. I'm keeping my eyes on Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania. Let me explain why that is. These are three that we could be in suspense for a while.

Nevada for its part has to wait for every poll location in the state to close before it can even transmit results. If voters are still in line, when polls closed at 10:00 p.m., they have to stay open until every voter votes. Plus, Nevada will continue to accept and count mail-in ballots until Saturday as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

Arizona, two things to keep in mind here. One, they have a two-page ballot there and an official in Maricopa County tells me that could really slow things down. Two, they expect a large number of mail dropped off to polling places tomorrow, potentially hundreds of thousands. The envelopes have to be hand counted at the polling place before they are even processes and tabulated. So, until we're going to get the first release, in Maricopa around

10:00 p.m. Eastern Time, of early ballots, and then we'll find out election day votes overnight, and then the remaining early ballots will come in the following days.

Pennsylvania, key battleground, the lynchpin in the 2020 election, it can start even processing the 1.7 million pre-election ballots until tomorrow morning, although officials there have put a lot of new technology and efforts in place, lots of lessons learned from 2020 to speed up the count, until we're going to get our first look at a big portion of mail-in ballots in key counties there right around 8:00 p.m. tomorrow night, Jake.

TAPPER: Which states do we expect to count relatively quickly?

BROWN: Well, officials are optimistic. I'm going to say cautiously optimistic in these states that they think things will go quickly in Georgia and North Carolina.

Georgia is required to report all pre-election ballots by an hour after the polls schools tomorrow, that's 8:00 p.m. Eastern, assuming polls closed on time. A Georgia election official tells we can see about 70 percent of Georgia's totals by then.

North Carolina has more than 4.4 million early in person votes cast. We don't expect that record number to have a big impact on slowing things down there and estimates that 98 percent or so of the state's ballots will be out to the public on election night -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Pamela Brown, thank you so much.

I want to drill down more on battleground Pennsylvania right now and what could hold up the vote counting tomorrow night. Plus, the choice words from the district attorney of Philadelphia today for anyone who tries to mess with the election or the voters in that great city.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:41:54]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KRASNER (D), PHILADELPHA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Anybody who thinks it's time to play militia, F around and find out. Anybody who thinks it's time to insult, to deride, to mistreat, to threaten people, F around and find out. We do have the cuffs. We do have the jail cells.

If you're going to try to bully people, bully votes or voters, you're going to try to erase votes, you're going to try any of that nonsense, we're not playing. F around and find out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That's said, they do it in Philly. That was Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, on the eve of the election.

All eyes on the commonwealth that could very well tip the election for either Trump or Harris.

Joining us now the secretary of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Al Schmidt, a Republican nominated for the job by Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro.

Mr. Secretary, good to see you as always.

So what is your biggest concern about tomorrow, about voting in Pennsylvania?

AL SCHMIDT (R), PENNSYLVANIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, there we have more than 9,100 polling places in Pennsylvania. I ran as you mentioned elections in Philadelphia County for a decade. There are so many moving pieces.

But even Election Day in 2020 went pretty smoothly. It was really the aftermath that I think is typically the cause for concern.

TAPPER: So every election, we should note, just for anybody watching, every election, there are mishaps, every election, there are problems, every election, things go wrong. The question is not whether it's going to happen, it's what's going to happen and how are authorities going to deal with it.

Let's talk about Lancaster County right now. Trump falsely claimed officials found 2,600 fraudulent ballots. That's not true. County officials say that there were approximately 2,500 voter registration forms that seemed fishy and have been contained and segregated and those applications again registration forms, not -- not ballots themselves they're going through an extensive multi-step review process. So they're not ballots as Trump claimed voter registration forms.

CNN just heard from county officials who say only 17 percent of the 2,500 voter registration applications that were segregated were in fact found to be fraudulent. So what more can you tell us about those applications who might be behind it and why there would be 17 percent of these that would be fraudulent.

SCHMIDT: Yes, it does turn out that it is -- what appears to be a small fraction of the total number but whenever you do have something amiss when it comes to elections, it's always important to take it seriously and that's what Lancaster County did and all our counties do and they set them aside. They scrutinized them when necessary. They refer them to law enforcement for further investigation.

When things like this occur it really should give us confidence that our system works and the checks and balances built into it, prevent any -- any attempt to interfere with voters casting their vote or are votes being legitimate.

TAPPER: In June 2022, you testified before the House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection and Trump's efforts to overturn the last presidential election and you said that a tweet by Donald Trump one that called you out by name spurred some very specific threats to you and your -- and you said that a tweet by Donald Trump one that called you out by name uh spurred some very specific threats to you and your family.

[16:45:12]

What -- what are you doing to prepare for any sort of possible repeat of that?

SCHMIDT: Well, and unfortunately the environment has changed a lot starting in 2020, whether you're a poll worker or a county election official. In Pennsylvania, the Shapiro administration organized an election threat task force, so if there are any threats of violence or intimidation targeting our voters or our poll workers or our polling places or our county election officials, you have open lines of communication between law enforcement and election officials so everyone knows what everybody else's responsibilities are and law enforcement can do their job and our election officials can do their job, which is a sacred responsibility of counting votes in our representative democracy.

TAPPER: Obviously, Donald Trump's been out there falsely alleging that Pennsylvania is stealing the election, massive fraud, all this stuff. Not true. We've seen this movie before, it's not true.

What is your response to anybody out there who might uh wonder if Donald Trump uh is talking about something that might be based in reality and whether or not there's -- there's anything there that they should be concerned about?

SCHMIDT: Well, we have a court system and a law enforcement system to adjudicate whenever there are claims or accusations to determine whether they are legitimate or not, but what I can commit to is a free fair safe and secure election in 2024 in Pennsylvania, just as we had in 2020.

TAPPER: The Pennsylvania secretary of the commonwealth, Al Schmidt, good to see you, sir. Thank you so much. Best of luck tomorrow.

SCHMIDT: Thank you, sir.

TAPPER: In addition to the race for president, of course, there's also a big fight happening for control of Congress. The most hotly contested races as those results come in tomorrow, that's next.

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[16:50:55]

TAPPER: With most eyes on the presidential contest, a reminder that all seats are up for grabs in the House of Representatives, all 435 of them and 34 seats in the U.S. Senate. Right now, Republicans control the House, and the Democrats narrowly control the Senate. But the margins are pretty slim heading into Election Day.

Here to help me to break it all down are CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju and Lauren Fox.

Manu, let's start with you. In the Senate, 34 seats total for election tomorrow. There are about, just a few state that are really signaling that they might flip. Tell us about this.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, let's start with the states that Donald -- states that Donald Trump won back in 2020 and 2016, states of West Virginia, in Montana, and Ohio, all Democratic that had Democratic seats right now. West Virginia seat is almost certainly going to flip because Joe Manchin is now independent. He's retiring. Everyone expects -- pretty much everyone expects Republicans to pick up that seat.

Then you have Montana and Ohio. That's where Jon Tester, the incumbent senator in Montana. He's going to have to run significantly ahead to the topic of his ticket to hang on to his seat.

Sherrod Brown, the Republican -- the Democrat running against Republican Bernie Moreno in Ohio, also in a very difficult race. He runs 6-8 points ahead of Kamala Harris in order to hang on to his seat. That could be a little tighter.

And also in the blue wall states. We talk about a lot of the presidential blue wall. Well, there's a blue wall in the Senate as well. Wisconsin, where Tammy Baldwin, the incumbent Democratic senator against Republican businessman Eric Hovde, there are two other blue wall states.

Of course, Pennsylvania, all three of those blue wall states, including Wisconsin, you see on your screen, all within the margin of error, Jake, but Republicans have so much opportunity to take back the Senate because they can pick up any of those seats, in addition to the West Virginia seat and they're the majority, and if Donald Trump wins, a 50/50 Senate means Republican majority.

TAPPER: And, Lauren, tell us what the House first of all, how narrow is the Republican one seat, two seats? I don't even --

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's three in this current moment, right?

TAPPER: Three seats?

FOX: But, obviously, that is fluctuated over the course of the last two years, and you can see why the house races matter so much. No one Democrats nor Republicans expect to handedly win the House.

Instead, they are really fighting over just the handful of seats, and some of those are in California, I'm talking about, you know, California 13, as well California 23. There's also races in New York, in Long Island, and there was a special election earlier this year.

Democrats feeling very confident about their chances, especially in New York 4. That's Anthony D'Esposito's district. Obviously, he's been plagued by controversy over the last several months over his employment practices. We also are going to be watching Michigan that's because these are states where you have a competitive Senate race. A competitive presidential campaign and Michigan 7 and 8 are also both races now where you have Elissa Slotkin who is running for Senate. It's open seat in Michigan 7 and Michigan 8. Dan Kildee is retiring. So, another open seat. That's a really good test case for Republicans and Democrats tomorrow night to see how they are fairing in their message.

TAPPER: Lauren, let me start with you and Manu.

And would surprise you the most tomorrow?

FOX: I would be surprised if we know the outcome of the House majority tomorrow night. I think California is going to take sometime to count ballots. I also would be surprise if that margin was bigger than just a handful of seats.

TAPPER: Yeah, it took days in 2022.

Manu, what about you? What would surprise you the most?

RAJU: If the Democrats keep control of the United States Senate, that would be a huge surprise. Just the map favors Republicans. It's one of the best maps of any party that they have had really in really many years because the Democrats are defending so much terrain in purple states, even a blue state like Maryland.

I favor to hold on to Maryland but there's so many other states that things could wrong and there are so few pick up opportunities for Democrats, really just two, Florida, Rick Scott, an incumbent, Republican senator, favored to hang on to his seat.

And then in Texas, Ted Cruz, a little bit more vulnerable than Rick Scott, but still a seat in which would be consider an upset, significant one, if the Democrat Colin Allred were to defeat Ted Cruz in that red state.

[16:55:04]

So just many opportunities for Republicans to simply pick up one seat if Donald Trump wins, two seats if Kamala Harris wins and they have those red states that Democrats are defending, which means it's so difficult for them to keep control of the chamber, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Manu and Lauren, thanks to both of you. Really appreciate it.

In this final day of 2024, campaigning is all battleground Pennsylvania. Kamala Harris just wrapped up her rally in Allentown and Donald Trump, he just walked off the stage in Reading, Pennsylvania. Both candidates both now headed to Pittsburgh. The Trump advisors are giving him as this race winds down. That's next.

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TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. And we're almost there, folks. It is election eve in America. This time tomorrow, we will be just one hour from the very first polls closing --