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CNN International: Harris To Hold Full Day Of Events In Pennsylvania; Harris: "We Have Momentum, It Is On Our Side"; One Day To Go: Trump, Harris Target Battleground States. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired November 04, 2024 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- of our country, I'm taking it out of military, and I took it out of the military because I gave them $725 billion. I said, congratulations, fellas, I'm taking out 10. What does it force her? It's called a wall because we're being invaded by Mexico.
But now, we have a new President of Mexico, I suppose, a very, very nice woman, they say. I haven't met her. And I'm going to inform her on day one or sooner that if they don't stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I'm going to immediately impose a 25 percent tariff on everything they send in to the United States of America. And the reason I delayed that is you're the first ones I've told it to. Congratulations, North Carolina. And it's only got a 100 percent chance of working because of that doesn't work, I'll make it 50 percent, and that doesn't work, I'll make it 75 percent for the tough guys, and I'll make it 100 percent, then I'll make it 100 percent, and at some point, they'll have so many soldiers on their southern border, their southern border is, where they come in. They come right through.
And by the way, it has 100 percent chance of working. It's only a question. I'll start off at 25 percent. That's a lot. Do you know? Mexico is our number one trading partner. Do you know what that cost? They make a fortune. They've taken over our country in a way since this Biden-Harris people. They became our number one trading partner, and they're ripping us off left and right. It's ridiculous. They're not going to represent -- they wanted $3 billion to meet with Biden. They wouldn't have said that with me. I would have said, oh, really, you want $3 billion to meet? I'd do the opposite. If you don't give us $3 billion, I will impose the biggest freakin tax.
I've never told you any of this, and I wanted to wait till the day, because I don't want to have her -- she is a low IQ individual. I don't want to have say, I had an idea last night while I was sleeping, turning, tossing, sweating, because I sleep. I turn and I toss and I sweat. I sleep like -- I don't even sleep. You know what? I've gone through 62 days, 62 days without a day off, every single day, every single day. And you know what? She takes her day off every other day. Last week, she makes a terrible little -- these press conferences that last for about two minutes, and then she takes the day off.
When you're running for the President of the United States and you want to do it because you have to fix the country. That's the way I'm doing. Otherwise, I wouldn't. I could at the most gorgeous beaches in the world right now, but I'd much rather be with you people, because you people are -- I like you people better. I'd much rather be with you. No, I would. We're doing something historic. You know what we're doing. So, this has never been done before. They'll never have rallies like this.
We had -- we went to Milwaukee the other night, and we're doing great in Wisconsin, by the way, we could have filled that arena, what, 28,000 seats, including the floor, fully packed, we could have filled that arena three times, maybe four times, the people outside, thousands and thousands of people. There is never going to be that. In four years, you're going to have a candidate, Republican, Democrat candidate, and they're going to come to North Carolina, right? And they're going to say, how many are there? And the consultants back there that make a fortune, because they think they bring these people. They don't break -- nobody brings anything. We bring them. We together bring them. But, you know what they're going to say? The same people that we represent. They're very smart people. They're very good people.
You have to -- can't give them too much niche. We can't give them too much. But, they're going to have 250 people come, and that's standard. See the ladies of North Carolina. They've come, those beautiful, beautiful ladies. They're looking better and better all the time, these beautiful ladies. And I think they're very well to do. I mean, I just -- they're always so beautiful, beautifully quaffed. Look at that. They're just -- but here is what I love. They're great Americans. They love our country. They love North Carolina. They come from North -- isn't it nice where you can sort of be closer? They'll travel to California. If I went to Hawaii, they'd be in Hawaii.
I think they're loaded. You want to know the truth?
[11:05:00]
I think their husbands. The reason I never see the husbands is because they're working like (inaudible) because these wives are traveling all over the place, 257, they've been at 257 rallies, and their husbands are going to be so happy when this ends. But, I don't want, and you know exactly what I'm saying, I don't want -- I didn't want to say this, though, what I'm going to do at the border. I stopped the biggest auto plant in the world from being built on the border. China, and I have a lot of respect for China, look, they're smart as hell. They get angry when I say the fake news. They are smart as hell. They like playing chess and grand masters against playing an average checker player and maybe a less than average checker player.
The people -- the deals, when I came into office, I've never seen such bad deals with Japan, with China, the worst trade deals. I actually said there is only two reasons we could have deals so bad. The people making the deals were corrupt, which I actually believe, or they were very stupid, and I think you had a combination of both. We fixed a lot of those deals. We would have all fixed up, but then we had to fix COVID. But, we had the greatest, think of it, we had the greatest economy in
the history of our country, the greatest. We had the greatest border. That's done by Border Patrol. That's not a Trump special. That's done by Border Patrol, that lovely gorge. I look at it. I get tears in my eyes. And the day of the -- that horrible situation in Butler, it was just about -- yeah, it's weird that you have it almost, because it's usually all over the place. You have no idea where it's coming up. When I say, lift up the side, I usually have to look all over there. I have one over there. But, that graph is so meaningful because -- but even if the numbers were bad, I would still kiss it just equally. But, those are the best numbers in the history of the border.
And then look, it was like an Elon Musk rocket ship went up. They announced they're going to open the borders. I thought they were kidding. I built 200 miles of rail, and this is what Border Patrol wanted. I wanted to have concrete plank like in a parking lot, straight up and down the air, but you wouldn't get vision, and concrete is not as strong in terms of steel. They have very strong specifications. They wanted to have steel, hardened steel, very hard to cut. Then they wanted to have very powerful, high number concrete, so very hard concrete. And then they wanted to have rebar at the highest level of steel strength in the middle, because it's very hard to cut. It's like -- it can be done if you're really good, but it's very hard.
And then they wanted to have a anti-climb panel on top. I hate it. I hate the anti-climb. I said, I don't like it. It's so beautiful without that damn panel. I said, don't make me do that, sir. It's an anti-climb panel, and it's called that for a reason. And we actually had testers. We had guys, two guys that climbed Mount Everest. I said they should qualify. But, you know who were the best? You know who the best were? We had drug runners. These guys are unbelievable. They went up that thing like it was nothing, like I never -- with 75 pounds of drugs on their back, drug runners. They were beating the Mount Everest. Well, it's a different profession, after all.
But, they were right. That anti-climb panel stops them cold. They couldn't get over the anti-climb. So, I said, let's do it. Let's do it. But, we built 200 miles of additional and all they had to do was put it up. The hard work was done. They were built. It was delivered, and the hard work was done. Highest specification. It cost more money than what I would have done, but what I would have done to have acids that actually melt concrete. They have certain acids that you put down, those planks would have come down very easy. These guys are ingenious. If they would spend their brains on --
RAHEL SOLOMON, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": All right. I'm Rahel Solomon. You have been watching CNN Newsroom. And we've just been showing you Donald Trump speaking there in North Carolina on this day before the U.S. election.
Let's go straight to Alayna Treene, who was at that Trump event in Raleigh, North Carolina. So, Alayna, fill us in. I mean, it seemed like initially he started talking about how the economy usually is the number one issue for voters, but he said that he would like immigration to be, and tended to focus more his comments on immigration, on the border. He talked about instituting a 25 percent tariff on things imported from Mexico. Talk to us about a little bit about what we've heard so far.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Right. Well, Rahel, and I apologize, I'm going to be a little bit more quiet, given he is obviously on the stage behind me, but so far, this has been a pretty normal stump speech for Donald Trump.
[11:10:00]
He is staying on message. Now, one of the key things we saw, including with some of the speakers that they brought on before he even took the stage, is the massive emphasis on turnout. That is the main message right now that they are trying to get out to voters. When I talked to the Trump campaign, they tell me that, essentially, there is no card up their sleeve in the next 24 hours or so that they're going to be trying to play. Right now, it is all about convincing their supporters to not be complacent, to not assume that they can sit this one out, and also to try encourage them to bring others to the polls.
This is the same type of messaging we heard them deliver in the lead up to the primaries, and something that worked well for them. Then they're continuing to do that now. And some of those speakers I mentioned that we heard from include Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr. We also heard from Alina Habba, one of his legal advisors, who has been a prominent figure on the campaign trail. But, we also saw some of his other -- we saw his other son Eric Trump. He was waiting in the wings as campaign manager, the RNC chairman, Michael Whatley, all to say they are bringing a lot of the top people associated with Donald Trump's campaign to the series of rallies that he has.
Now, going back to what you asked me, which is about, what is he talking about? The border, Donald Trump has said this repeatedly, he does believe that is the number one issue, even as some of his advisors and those close to him say the economy is the number one issue, particularly that message that Donald Trump often opens his rallies with when he asks, were you better off four years ago than you are today? But, so far, even as he is talking about the border and whatever else, he is sharing similar anecdotes that he has been sharing at most rallies that he is, -- I've been at least attending in the last several days, sharing the same stories.
One good thing I'm going to be watching for, though, Rahel, is whether or not he does end up veering off script at some point. I know that throughout the weekend he had a number of rallies, many of which I attended, he veered off script repeatedly. Yesterday, when he was in Pennsylvania, we heard him talk about going to a lengthy tirade, really, about some bad polls, polls that show Harris gaining ground on him. He criticized those heavily. He talked about his former assassination attempt and then argued that if an attacker wanted to try to get to him, they would have to shoot through the media first, something that he said he didn't mind. And then he also talked about -- and mentioned that he shouldn't -- he doesn't think he should have left the White House back in 2020 despite that loss.
So, those were the topics that were not on message. And I know behind the scenes, many of Donald Trump's top advisors were very exasperated by that. They were saying, stick to the message. How hard is it to stick to that message that Kamala Harris had broken things and that Donald Trump would fix it? That is something they're continuously trying to push. So, we'll see whether or not he can kind of maintain that composure today, stay on script and really kind of finish this out on message. Rahel.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And Alayna, I mean, to that point, is your sense in these last few days that the candidate and his campaign are sort of in lock step here, or is there some division in terms of what he thinks the most compelling message or the most energizing message may be, versus what his campaign thinks the most energizing message may be?
TREENE: I mean, there has always been, Rahel, somewhat of a difference in what his advisors encouraged him to do and what Donald Trump does, and part of that is because he is very unpredictable. He always has been. And often, people who know him best argue that he is a 78-year- old man. He is not going to change. He is going to do what he wants to do. But, at times, his campaign, which has been pretty disciplined, has been really trying to convince him to stick to the themes that they think are working, and one of those themes as well, what I'll say here is, a lot of the times, we talk about Donald Trump's rhetoric all the time, the rhetoric that I just mentioned about whether it was relating to the press or how he shouldn't have left the White House that he made yesterday.
That is the type of rhetoric when I'm -- particularly in recent days, when I've been talking to Trump advisors, that they say that women do not like. We know that Donald Trump currently has a problem with the gender gap, that women are favoring Kamala Harris more than they are Donald Trump. On the flip side, I will say men are favoring Donald Trump more than they are favoring Harris. But, part of the reason when I talk to Trump's team that they think women go for Harris more is because they acknowledge that they don't actually like Donald Trump's rhetoric, but they do think that they should be able to like him and vote for him on the policies.
And that's why that push to really keep him on message is so important, particularly as we analyze this early voting data, which his team is also analyzing very closely, and you've seen that women are outpacing men. Unclear if that's going to be the case tomorrow for in-person voting. But, that's part of why this idea of staying on message has been such a touching point between Trump and his advisors.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Really interesting. Alayna Treene live for us there in Raleigh, North Carolina.
[11:15:00]
Alayna, thank you.
And just hours left until the polls open in the U.S., it is a campaign sprint to the finish in a really topsy-turvy race that may be remembered for decades to come. And the closing messages from the two candidates, well, they couldn't be more different. Vice President Kamala Harris will be traveling across Pennsylvania today, campaigning in Michigan on Sunday. Harris struck a positive tone, not once mentioning her opponent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have momentum. It is on our side. Can you feel it? And we have the momentum because our campaign is tapping into the ambitions, the aspirations and the dreams of the American people, because we are optimistic and excited about what we can do together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: All right. Let's turn now to CNN's Kevin Liptak for more on the Harris campaign. Kevin, clearly, a very busy day for Kamala Harris, as she sort of crisscrosses the state, travels across the state, and really sort of gives us a sense of how important the state of Pennsylvania is to the ultimate election result.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. It is probably the most critical battleground state for Kamala Harris. You can't imagine an easier path for her than through Pennsylvania, if she is to win, and her schedule today very much reflects that. She'll start the day in Scranton, that's obviously President Biden's hometown, and she'll be talking with canvassers, those volunteers who are out doing the hard work of knocking on doors and trying to get her voters to the polls, then heads on to Allentown. The campaign is emphasizing the heavy Latino population in that area of Pennsylvania, trying to consolidate support in that group.
She'll also be in Reading. She'll be campaigning with the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which is interesting. She is one of the most progressive members of Congress. We've also seen this cycle, Kamala Harris campaigning with Liz Cheney. So, you do get the sense of the range of the voters that she is trying to reach. Then it's on to big campaign rallies in Pittsburgh. And then finally tonight at 11:00 p.m., literally the 11th hour, she'll be doing her final campaign rally in Philadelphia. She'll have Oprah there. She'll have Lady Gaga, a host of celebrities to cap off this campaign, which really only began 106 days ago. That's when President Biden dropped out of the race.
This has been an extraordinarily abbreviated campaign for the Vice President, and it's interesting to see what her message is in the final day, you mentioned last night, she didn't mention Donald Trump at all, which, after a campaign that has been so focused on drawing this contrast, trying to sharpen her attacks on Trump is notable. She essentially believes that the time to litigate Trump's rhetoric, his character, his record, is over, and now is the time to really consolidate support among these various constituencies as she heads into Election Day.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It will be interesting to see if it pays off. We will soon know. Kevin Liptak, thank you.
All right. Let's turn to our panel now on this final day of the race. We are joined by Democratic Strategist Chuck Rocha, good to see you, a senior advisor for Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020, and May Mailman, a former Trump White House Associate Counsel. She is also the Vice President of the group "Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections." Great to see you both.
I want to start with this poll, Chuck, in Iowa, Iowa not exactly a battleground, usually reliably red, not expected to be a competitive state, or it wasn't expected to be, and yet, you have this Des Moines Register poll shows no clear leader, but Harris up three percentage points. Chuck, what do you make of that?
CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, & FMR. SR. ADVISOR, BERNIE SANDERS 2016 & 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: I've done a lot of work in Iowa. I was really flat. It's got a lot of corn, and it has a lot of white people. Keep that in mind when I'm going to tell you what I'm going to tell you. Now, Ann is this standard of the industry. She does really good polling. This poll before Biden got out of the election, showed Trump up 11. And then after Trump got out of the race about three months ago, it showed the Vice President closing the gap, where she had made up like six points and was down only four or five.
And then what this shows today, or what it showed a couple days ago when it came out, was what a lot of us, Democratic strategists, thought we were seeing in a lot of the numbers, which you can't prove, which is like this silent woman vote. We know that Democratic women are voting overwhelmingly for Harris but what we didn't know were the independents and Republicans. The only way this poll can be anywhere near right and track in the right way is for her to be overperforming with those two electrics that we were planning on but couldn't prove. This poll really proves that if you dig into the cross tabs.
SOLOMON: That's interesting. May, your reaction to that poll, and also about the perhaps silent woman vote.
MAY MAILMAN, FMR. TRUMP WHITE HOUSE ASSOCIATE COUNSEL, & VICE PRESIDENT, RESTORING INTEGRITY AND TRUST IN ELECTIONS: Yeah. So, I don't buy that there is a silent woman vote. I think that as a woman. It's hard to say actually that you're a Trump supporter, but it's pretty easy to be a Democrat, whether that's a Harris supporter or just whatever generic Democrat. So, I think this poll is an outlier for a reason because I do think that it's wrong, and the reason that I think that it's wrong is because it shows swings from groups that we know are actually swinging toward Trump.
[11:20:00]
So, for example, take non-college educated voters. Those voters are continually becoming more Republican. Well, this poll shows that they're becoming more and more Harris supporters. Even if you look at seniors, the swing for seniors that it shows is like 20 points toward Harris compared to what they voted for Trump. Why would seniors all of a sudden for 20 points want Kamala Harris? I think there is no real basis for that. Trump has said repeatedly, we're not going to do anything with Social Security. Like there is no real message. So, I don't really understand how there could be so many swings that are so radical for so many groups where there hasn't been targeted messaging toward those groups.
SOLOMON: Yeah. I think that's why it raised a lot of eyebrows.
Let me turn to something different, May, and I want to stick with you for a moment. I know you called Trump's final ads optimistic, but take a listen to what he said over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I've this piece of glass here, but all we have really over here is the fake news. Right? And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news, and I don't mind that so much because -- I don't mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Something obviously that follows the comments about Liz Cheney, who he said was a radical war hawk, who should have guns aimed at her. I mean, why do you think he keeps saying these things? Do you think that either he or the campaign see some benefit to making statements like this?
MAILMAN: No. So, the only party that has called half of Americans garbage, has called Trump clearly a fascist, and that people were attending a Nazi rally when they went to Madison Square Garden, is the Democrats. And we've seen the results of that is that Trump has survived two assassination attempts. So, when Trump makes jokes or whatever, or I don't think with Liz Cheney, it was a joke, this is something that has been common talking points, oftentimes from the left, which is, wait till you have guns trained on you, and then you tell me whether you want to send people to war.
It's -- I don't know if it's a convincing argument, but it's something that people commonly say. This is, I think, why people are frustrated with the media oftentimes, is because Trump is just having a conversation and talking the way a lot of people talk, and it is treated as a five-alarm fire. So, this I don't think is negative campaigning. I don't think that this is calling for violence. This would not be eyebrow raising if it came from anyone else.
SOLOMON: I don't know about that, Chuck. What's your reaction? I mean, do you think this is the way that normal people talk, and does it come across as a joke when he says these things? And then, by the way, May, I mean, he does come out later and then try to clean them up. So, I don't know if it's his campaign or him. But, I mean, clearly, there has to be some feeling that maybe it wasn't the right thing to say. I don't know. Chuck, what do you think?
ROCHA: It's not what I think. It's what I know. I'm running campaigns in New York, California and Iowa. My firm is working on 26 competitive House races, four Senate races. I see the polling every single day. Donald Trump should be winning this race 70:30 because three quarters of America thinks that the country is going in the wrong direction. Let me say that again. I'm the Democrat saying that. But, he can't get out of his own way. The reason the Iowa poll looks that way is exactly what May (ph) said, is that people don't like him. They may like some of the things. It's like this little thing and the base, this and that. But, when you talk to people, they're not happy with the way the
country is going, but they think Donald Trump is crazy. And now, she has only been in this race for 100 days, and she has s made her case and she has been optimistic. That's why it's close, and it's going to be close. It's going to be within the margin of error.
But, let's be clear, as political professionals, if the headwinds were going against the Democrats, like they had been going against the Republicans, we wouldn't be in this race. But, Donald Trump cannot stay on message, and he keeps shooting himself in the foot.
SOLOMON: I want to do something a little different, and May and Chuck, I want you both to respond to this, May, but let me start with you. At this late stage, the day before the election, I want you to share two things. What makes you the most optimistic about your candidate and their chances, and what has you the most concern right now? May, let me start with you.
MAILMAN: So, the thing -- it's the same answer for both, actually. So, the early vote numbers make me very excited, because Republicans aren't waiting until Election Day. They actually did get out and vote early, and in places that you even wouldn't expect to see excitement, like New Jersey or Virginia, there is a lot of momentum for Republicans. But, a lot of the people who are voting early, 55 percent are women, and women, of course, are breaking for Harris that -- they've always broken for Democrats, but larger numbers, I think, at least according to the polling. And so, the early vote both gives me some excitement and it makes me a little nervous.
[11:25:00]
SOLOMON: What about you, Chuck?
ROCHA: The thing that worries me is that Kamala Harris cannot win the presidency if she doesn't win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. And the African American male vote that has been slow vote, that has been sliding a little bit on -- based off of past performance, that worries me a lot, and they will still overwhelmingly. And I hate when people are like we're moving to the Republicans. Yeah, they've moved a little bit, but if they just move five points, I don't know if we can make that up. So, it worries me every single day.
The positive thing is these comments from the Madison Square Garden around the Puerto Ricans and the Puerto Ricans in Allentown and Bethlehem own the largest Latino-owned political consulting firm in the nation. There is something happening in Allentown and Reading town, Allentown and Reading, and they're really upsets and they're really showing up in big numbers. And so, that gives me optimism.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Speaking of big numbers, I mean, you have, I think, half a million Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania. I mean, that's a huge group of people. Obviously, we'll have to see how they ultimately vote.
Chuck Rocha, May Mailman, good to see you both. Thank you. Appreciate the time. ROCHA: Thank you.
MAILMAN: Thank you.
SOLOMON: All right. Still ahead for us, fears of possible civil unrest are looming ahead of tomorrow's U.S. presidential election. Just ahead, what law enforcement is doing to step up security across the country?
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLOMON: Welcome back. Police departments across the U.S. are beefing up security for Election Day amid concerns of potential civil unrest. In Washington, D.C., workers installed additional fencing outside the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and the official residents of Vice President Kamala Harris. And National Guard troops are on standby in several states. That includes Washington state and Oregon, where hundreds of ballots were damaged or destroyed after at least three ballot drop boxes were set on fire last week.
Let's bring in CNN's Julia Vargas Jones, who joins us now from Los Angeles. So, Julia, talk to us a little bit about how authorities are preparing for Election Day there.
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're looking at two kinds of sets of factors, Rahel. One of them is these incidents, as you mentioned, those ballot box incidents in Oregon, in Washington, where about 500 ballots were damaged. About the majority of the people that were affected by those have already requested new ballots. Authorities say only about six of them were too damaged for them to be able to know who they belong to. But, they are saying they're still looking for the suspect of these fires, and that he could strike again.
Now, another aspect of this is just a general awareness of risk for tomorrow. Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State called these already election-related unrest, and said that having the National Guard at the ready is, quote, "purely precautionary measure taken in response to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's nationwide warnings regarding threats to election infrastructure and other recent activities that have occurred in southwestern Washington". That is similar, Rahel, to what we're hearing in Oregon, where the governor says that she will call in the National Guard if necessary.
[11:30:00]
In Portland, the city of Portland is telling businesses to try to get furniture or any kind of construction material out of the streets in preparation for tomorrow, anything that could be used as projectiles, barricades or fuel for fire. The mayor there, Ted Wheeler, had a specific warning for people in Portland as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TED WHEELER, PORTLAND, OREGON MAYOR: We will do everything possible to
protect people's First Amendment right to demonstrate peacefully, but we are also prepared to address anything that is related to criminal destruction or violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: And I'll add, Rahel, that Nevada, there the governor is saying that the measures there to have the National Guard on standby are just precautionary. It's something that's been done in elections past, and it's only in case things get out of hand. Now, authorities in all of these states are urging the public to stay vigilant and to contact authorities if they see anything suspicious, as they try to make sure that an Election Day will be secure and calm. Rahel.
SOLOMON: And safe. Julia Vargas Jones, thank you.
Well, coming up, how long will it take before we know the winner in tomorrow's election? Well, it could take longer than you think. We'll take a look at what to expect in the vote counting process. Plus, national polls may make headlines, but a U.S. President is elected state by state. We will take a closer look at the uniquely American Electoral College.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLOMON: Welcome back. You are watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York.
As the U.S. prepares for Election Day tomorrow, questions remain about just how long it will take for votes to be counted and the results to be finalized. This comes as Donald Trump appears to be laying the groundwork to dispute the results, like he did in 2020, repeated -- repeating unverified claims of fraud. Here is what he told the crowd in Pennsylvania on Sunday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: These elections have to be -- they have to be decided by nine o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock on Tuesday night. Bunch of crooked people. These are crooked people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: All right. For more on this, let's go to CNN's Zachary Wolf in Washington. Zach, all eyes, obviously, on the battleground states. We just heard Trump say that he wants the results by tomorrow night. I think a lot of people would like the results by tomorrow night, but it's also important that it's obviously accurate. When will we get an idea of who might win these states?
ZACHARY WOLF, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER: Well, I mean, at nine o'clock on election night, people are still voting in a large portion of the country. So, it's not like we're going to have a winner at nine o'clock Eastern Time tomorrow night.
[11:35:00]
There are some differences this year. Everybody probably remembers, four years ago, it took four days until Pennsylvania was finally called for President Biden, and everybody was kind of in limbo watching the counts over those four days. This year will be a little bit different, the first battleground states with polls closing. You see Georgia and North Carolina. They should be a little bit faster. First of all, there is a lot less mail-in vote this year. So, it should be easier for them to count votes. Also in Georgia and North Carolina, they've been pre-processing those mail-in ballots. So, they've literally been taking them out of envelopes and getting ready to count them as we go further into the night.
Pennsylvania, they're not taking the ballots out of the envelopes, which could slow things down. And it was Pennsylvania four years ago that took all those four days to count, which, ultimately, that was the state where Biden put him over the edge. It should be faster this year, but it all comes down to how close it's going to be. If things are really close, it's hard to project or call a winner. You have to wait for all the votes to be counted. There are provisional ballots. There are ballots from overseas. So, it all gets very complicated, and the easiest way to project something quickly is if it's not close. The polling does not suggest that's going to be the case. So, everybody just needs to be patient.
SOLOMON: So, I mean, safe to say, I mean, you spent some time there talking about Pennsylvania in 2020. Safe to say that most people expect or the consensus is that this may be a few days.
WOLF: It could be a few days. It could be one day. It's probably not going to happen on election night. Who knows what will happen? It's the great surprise. That's the beauty of American democracy. We don't know who is going to win this election, but it could take some time.
SOLOMON: So, buckle up. Hold on and be patient, Zachary Wolf. Wolf, thank you. Good to have you.
WOLF: Thanks.
SOLOMON: And in the U.S., the presidency is decided not by the national popular vote, but instead by a system called the Electoral College. Voters elect the President and Vice President indirectly through their state's electors. There are 538 electors in total, and a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. That's why you hear so much about 270 votes.
To help make sense of this process and why it's used instead of the popular vote, I want to bring in Michael McDonald. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Florida's Department of Political Science. Great to have you today, Michael. Is it an oversimplification to say that the popular vote doesn't matter or doesn't count?
MICHAEL MCDONALD, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIV. OF FLORIDA, DEPT. OF POLITICAL SCIENCE: Well, it certainly matters, because the overall direction of the election will be determined by how much people are voting one way or another. It's just that it's filtered through this Electoral College system. So, there are instances, just as recently as 2016 where the person who won the popular vote was not the Electoral College winner.
SOLOMON: And then also, you think about 2000. That was also pretty controversial, because you see these sort of examples where the popular vote and the electoral vote don't match. Help us understand sort of how this was designed, or the sort of thinking behind the Electoral College, as opposed to the popular vote.
MCDONALD: We have to go all the way back to the founding of the country. And we're democracy for a long time in the United States. So, back in 1787, when our founders were devising the Constitution, there was a lot of distance between states back then, and it took a long time to travel from, say, Maine to Georgia. It would take over a month to travel by boat. There was no road. And so, each state was -- that would become a state was, each had its own political culture and way of doing things.
And so, when the founding fathers were trying to devise a national way of running our elections, they couldn't come to agreement, because all the states had different ways in which they did their own elections. And so, the states -- the founding fathers just sort of punted everything back to the states. They did this on how they run their elections, and that's really important as we understand like early voting going on in different places, and how the votes are being counted. That varies according to state laws. But, it also mattered for the Electoral College, because the founders wanted to balance out the power of the states versus the federal government. So, they allowed this system to be in place so that the states would be given some say on how they were going to select their electors that would then go on to select the President.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And talk to us a little bit about, there has been a lot said about how one of the intentions was that hopefully the Electoral College would sort of diversify sort of the decisions, or wouldn't just be the most populous cities who get a say on who ultimately runs the country. But, Michael, you think about these days, it's still kind of a handful of states. It's the battlegrounds who often determine our next President. And so, my question is it working as it was designed, do you think?
[11:40:00]
MCDONALD: Well, originally, I think the founders thought that everything would go to Congress, that the system was so complex, we weren't going to have national political parties. We were going to have presidential candidates who were more regional in character, rather than national. So, they couldn't conceive of these national political parties at a time when it was difficult to travel a long distance. And so, now we have these national political parties. Things have changed. But, back then, they thought no one is going to win the Electoral College, and then it will be up to Congress to decide who wins the presidency. And by the way, all these people who were designing the Constitution also were like members of Congress eventually as well. So, they really did think that they were going to be the ones making the selection.
SOLOMON: Really interesting. Before I let you go, both camps banking on driving up turnout. This is an area that you focus on quite a bit. You've said that the 2024 pre-election turnout forecast is especially challenging. That said, walk us through what you're seeing in the data and whether either camp, either campaign, can be encouraged by what we're seeing.
MCDONALD: Yeah. So, typically we see, because of the Electoral College, turnout is highest in these battleground states, the key states that are going to determine who wins the presidency, because their votes are up for grabs. Lots of other places within the country that are off the battleground, well, they lean one way or the other very heavily. And so, we know with a great degree of confidence how those states are going to play out. So, the campaigns focus their attention, the voters focus their attention, and of course, the news media focus their attention on these critical battleground states. So, we know turnout is going to be higher there because of higher interest.
But then, how do we figure out like how high the turnout is going to be versus past elections? Then we start looking for other clues, and one of the clues that we have available to us is the early vote. We've had over 78 million people vote so far in this election. And that's a good clip. It wasn't as high as the pandemic, when lots of people were voting by mail in 2020, but it's still a good clip. So, we can kind of use that as some indicators of what's going to happen.
But, we've had some wrenches thrown into the works this time around. One is that what we have fewer mail ballots because of the pandemic, but the other is that Republicans are voting in-person earlier at larger numbers than they have in any previous election, and that's largely due to Trump, who, as you've noted earlier, likes to say that there is vote fraud. Well, he was saying all early voting is fraudulent, but this election cycle, he said maybe that in-person early voting, that's OK. And so, his supporters have been listening to them. And so, using that early vote as a predictor, like how we think the turnout is going to be, has been challenged, because the normal patterns have been disrupted.
SOLOMON: Which means we all just sit and wait. We all just sit and wait. We vote and we watch to see in the days to come.
Michael McDonald, thank you so much for the time and insights today.
MCDONALD: Good to be with you.
SOLOMON: And as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris make that final push for the White House, all eyes are on battleground Pennsylvania. It's a crucial state for either candidate hoping to become the next President of the United States. We are live in the key swing state just ahead. And the world has lost a musical genius whose history and industry and beyond will be remembered for quite some time. Coming up, we're going to take a look back at the legacy of Quincy Jones, who has died at the age of 91.
We'll be right back.
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[11:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLOMON: Welcome back. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are running out of time to court voters in battleground Pennsylvania. With only one day to go, both candidates are hitting the key swing state throughout the day. Now, Pennsylvania is especially critical in the race to the White House because it has 19 electoral votes, the biggest prize of the three blue wall states that include Michigan and Wisconsin. Now, a win in Pennsylvania is critical for both candidates. Trump spent time there over the weekend where he tried to cast doubt on the voting process in the state, perhaps laying the groundwork to dispute the results if he loses on Election Day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They want to -- they are fighting so hard to steal this damn thing. Look at what's going on. Look at what's going on in your state. Every day, they're talking about extending hours and stuff. What -- whoever heard of this stuff? We should have one day voting and paper ballots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: All right. Let's get to CNN's Danny Freeman, who joins us from battleground Pennsylvania. Danny, good to see you. So, talk to us about what the mood is like there. I mean, what are voters telling you? I mean, I know from my family, they are tired of the ads, the text messages --
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.
SOLOMON: -- the calls, the voice mails.
FREEMAN: Right.
SOLOMON: But, what are you hearing?
FREEMAN: Yeah. I was going to say, Rahel, you know Pennsylvania well. Mood is an interesting question. I think all of the moods are being felt in Pennsylvania right now. Right there is anxiety. There is anticipation. There is definitely excitement as well. But, I think the bipartisan thing mostly is for those ads and just the chaos of this campaign perhaps to stop.
But, again, if you need to know how seriously these two candidates are taking Pennsylvania, all you have to do is look at where they're spending their time on election eve, probably the most important day of the entire campaign cycle. Vice President Harris is going to be here. She was earlier in Scranton, going to be in Allentown, going to be in Reading. Then she is going to have a huge rally in Pittsburgh, and then close out her entire campaign in Philadelphia on the Ben Franklin Parkway later this evening.
Meanwhile, Trump, former President Trump, also going to be in Reading today, also going to be in Pittsburgh today. That just shows you how crucial the campaigns feel this battleground state, this Commonwealth really, really is. It is nine million voters up for grabs here, Rahel. 3.9 million Democrats, 3.7 million Republicans, about 1.1 million no affiliation in this state. That's what this tug of war is about.
And listen, we've talked about perhaps all of the counties that viewers will know. We've talked about the Philadelphia suburban counties, Bucks County, one of those purple states, Erie, Northampton counties on the opposite ends of the states. Those are the main bellwethers. I'm here in Lancaster County, though, and the reason that I'm here and looking at this particular county is this is the largest red county in the entire state. So, this is a county that former President Trump is expected to win. But, I'm particularly looking at the margin that Democrats might be able to get. If they can crack that 41 percent, maybe get 42 percent, 43 percent, this could be a bit of an early indicator of where this Commonwealth is heading.
So, again, when it comes to mood, like you know, you're from here, it's all over the place right now, because it's game time.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It is. The day is upon us. It is quickly upon us.
Danny, talk to us a little bit about, I mean, we've heard Donald Trump start to cast some doubt on the ballots in Pennsylvania. For those who remember, four years ago, there was a lot of sort of drama in Pennsylvania four years ago. It took days to ultimately call the race. Talk to us about the concerns there and what you're hearing.
FREEMAN: Yeah. A few different things on that note, Rahel. First of all, I'll just talk to that bite that you just played. That was from Lititz on Sunday. We were at that rally. That particular sound from former President Trump is fascinating, because he was complaining about extending hours. It was the RNC and the Trump campaign that sued Bucks County last week to extend the days and hours that folks could apply for these on-demand mail-in balloting. So, again, a bit of a mixed messaging, to say the least, when it comes from the campaign of the RNC and what former President Donald Trump was saying on the stump over the weekend.
Listen, former President Trump has continued talking about accusations of fraud, continuing to stoke those particular fears. Here is what I'll say, is that elections, people from the top of the state to the county levels, they're saying they're investigating if there are any problems, but as of now, in their perspective, the system is working, and that's what they want voters to remember as we go into tomorrow. Rahel.
SOLOMON: OK.
[11:50:00]
Danny Freeman, good to see you. Thank you, Danny. Coming up for us, you know the music he has written and the many
artists he has helped set on the path to stardom. Up next, the life and legacy of Quincy Jones who died at the age of 91.
We'll be right back.
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SOLOMON: And before we go, music legend, composer and producer, Quincy Jones, has died at the age of 91 at his home in Bel Air, California. Jones was a trailblazer in so many musical genres, including jazz and pop. He also produced Michael Jackson's huge Thriller album.
Our Sara Sidner takes a look back now at his life and his career.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the man behind some of music's most memorable hits, Quincy Jones was one of the most Grammy nominated artists of all time.
QUINCY JONES, MUSIC PRODUCER: When you do it with love, it does not work.
SIDNER (voice-over): Born Quincy Delight Jones Jr. on the south side of Chicago in 1933, Jones found his passion for music when his family moved to Seattle in the late 40s. Jones took a job with the Lionel Hampton band as its trumpet player. He worked steadily with musical greats like Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington and his friend, Ray Charles.
JONES: We didn't think about money or fame ever.
SIDNER (voice-over): During the 60s, Jones began writing film scores for movies such as the Pawn Broker, In Cold Blood, and In the Heat of the Night. He even crafted iconic themes for the TV shows Ironside and Sanford and Son. The in-demand musician even arranged and conducted his friend Frank Sinatra's second album with Count Basie "It Might as Well Be Swing". The 1964 album included Old Blue Eyes hit song Fly Me to the Moon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fly me to the moon.
JONES: And we had the best time. It's like being on another planet with him. Frank would say, Quin (ph), every day like it's the last, and one day you'll be right.
SIDNER (voice-over): Jones suffered two brain aneurysms in 1974 that nearly took his life. He recovered and went right back to work. He produced albums for Aretha Franklin, George Benson and Michael Jackson's first solo effort Off the Wall in 1979.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
SIDNER (voice-over): Jones' successful collaboration with MJ also led to Thriller in 1982. (VIDEO PLAYING)
SIDNER (voice-over): It became the best-selling album of all time. The dynamic duo teamed up again in 1985 with We Are the World.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
JONES: I like to think about the studio as a place that's real sacred, where magical things happen. Hopefully, that's what great records are supposed to be about.
SIDNER (voice-over): He produced his first film The Color Purple in 1985. The drama earned 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Q, as his friends called him, seemed to always have a good idea. He created Quincy Jones Entertainment in 1990. The following year, he produced the Fresh Prince of Bel Air TV series starring rapper-turned- actor Will Smith.
[11:55:00]
(VIDEO PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You never think of retiring.
JONES: Never. When you retire, you travel and you do what you like to do, and I'm already doing it.
SIDNER (voice-over): In early 2013, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honored Q for his exemplary contributions to music.
JONES: I worked with every major artist in the world in the last 60 years. So, it's a blessing. You have to take the light part of your life. Wipe out the darkness.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: All right. Thanks to Sara Sidner there.
We know your time is money. So, thank you for spending some time with me today. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. Stick with CNN. One World is coming up next.
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