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CNN Live Event/Special
Trump To Address Supporters At Campaign Event; GOP Wins Back Control Of The Senate; Election Night in America. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired November 06, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: 1.1 percent of the vote ahead of Kamala Harris who has 47.8 percent of the vote. Trump leads with more than 214,000 votes. That's with an estimated 92 percent of the vote.
In Michigan now Donald Trump in the lead 52.1 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris 46 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a more than 215,000 vote lead. That's with 62 percent of the estimated vote in from the Wolverine State, the Badger State of Wisconsin. Now Donald Trump 51.2 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris 47.2 percent of the vote. Donald Trump more than 113,000 votes ahead of Harris with an estimated 86 percent of the vote in from Wisconsin.
In Arizona now Donald Trump in the lead there. Two, 49.9 percent of the vote. Harris with 49.2 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a more than 12,000 vote lead. That's with only 52 percent of the estimated vote in from Arizona. Still a lot of votes to count in Arizona.
Nevada now. Oh, they've really counted a lot of votes. Donald Trump 50.9 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris, 47.6 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a more than 33,000 vote lead. That is with 70 percent of the estimated vote in for from Nevada. Last time we looked, it was only 2 percent. John King, look at that, your buddies in Nevada reporting their votes there.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, last time it took a very long time. So if they're starting to get some in tonight, that's progress for Nevada. I just want to show this is a conversation you guys were having over the panel table the other day just on the importance of Pennsylvania as we're at this point now where North Carolina and Georgia have gone for Trump.
You see the yellow of the states still on the map. Now we project Alaska is going to come in for the Republican. If that were to change, that would change these paths. But there is no path to 270 for the vice president that does not include the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
So yes, she needs to win all blue wall states to get there. That would get her there on its own as long as she wins Nebraska, 2nd congressional district. But there's no way to get there without Pennsylvania, which is why that is absolutely critical that you win there. I just want to show you what I mean. Let's assume that she came back
and won Michigan. She's trailing now. Let's assume she came back and won Miss Wisconsin. She's trailing now she's trailing here, and she's trailing here. Even if she won them all, if Donald Trump won that, he'd be over the top.
And so, you know, if she is winning this, she can afford to lose something else along the way. But because this is why we talked about this for weeks, and that's why both campaigns spent more money in Pennsylvania than any other state commonwealth by far, the 19 electoral votes, it's -- just 19 versus 16, 19 versus 11, 19 versus 10. It just affects your path to 270 math in such a profound way.
So as you look at where we are now, and you come back out into the latest vote count right there, Pennsylvania is paramount. That does not mean the other ones don't matter. Just winning Pennsylvania wouldn't be enough to get her there either. I'm just saying she can't win without Pennsylvania. Donald Trump can. Donald Trump can, but she cannot win without Pennsylvania.
And so if you look here right now, where are you? That's 219,342 votes with 93 percent of the vote. And this is why, when you heard Cedric Richmond at the Harris event said we would not hear from the vice president tonight and that she wants every vote counted, you did not hear him say, we see a viable path to victory. He did not speak those words.
That doesn't mean it's not mathematical. You know, the states have not been called. But he did not say, we see a viable path to victory. He said, we want all the votes to be counted. And so you look here at 51 percent again, one of the big questions was, could Donald Trump get over 50 in most of these battleground states? In 2016-2020, he was a 47. He was a 48. Maybe he was a 49.
In Pennsylvania right now, Donald Trump is at 51.1. And again, you're looking at a state. The vice president simply. There's a lot of states to count still. But if you want to look at one question, she cannot lose Pennsylvania. She just cannot. The math doesn't work if she does. So you're looking, yes, there are still some votes down to be counted down here.
I think when we get closer to 100 percent in Philadelphia, that's going to settle the math once and for all. It's improbable at the moment. Let's just be honest about it. But it's not impossible. So you keep it on the board right there. And you look 78 percent though. 78 percent estimated in Philadelphia. She's at 78 percent. Look at the 484, you come back here 78 percent to 81 percent, three points in the state's largest city. That is absolutely fundamental to Democratic victory, underperforming Joe Biden by 3 percentage points and at the moment more than 100,000 votes. We're not done with the math yet. That's it.
I mean you can find other places too. You can find, you know, we looked through some of the blue collar counties earlier where she was underperforming Biden and Trump was moving up. Now we can come back and look at that again if you want just Trump
outperforming 2020 by 3 percent or more. This is significant. It's happening mostly in counties he's winning anyway. But Trump's -- she's over performed a little bit in Chester County down there, which you know, again, eight, 10 years ago was a Republican county. But where is in Bucks County, which he's right. It's currently flipped through it.
But a lot of it's out here in places where Donald Trump already runs strong, he's running stronger and that's critical. One of the questions coming into the campaign was, well, Donald Trump got 2016 phenomenon, more votes in 2020, but he lost.
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Are there really more Trump voters out there? Well, yes, apparently there are. And you see them right there and you see them in other states as well. So there's Pennsylvania.
Jake, I just want to go through these quickly to see if the math has changed. We've been stuck there for a little bit. You come down here. Again when you're looking at 224,000 votes, Joe Biden won Michigan by 154,000 votes. Donald Trump said 224,000 votes. And so you're looking and you're saying, where, where is it possible?
Well, the only place you can get that many votes is Wayne County. There are 24 percent. So you see, you know, she's at 58 percent right there. Donald Trump at 39 percent.
Again, you want the conversation that is going to start once these states are called. Assuming we stay on the trajectory we are on, which the trajectory we are on, not there, we're not the finish line, but the trajectory we are on is an overwhelming Donald Trump victory in the Electoral College, the possibility of flipping back all three blue wall states.
But even if he loses Michigan, look at that. That's going to be a conversation in the Democratic Party. How's that happening? How is Donald Trump getting 30 percent in, up to 39 percent? How's that happen? How did he get 30 percent? The Democrats were already debating how did he get 30 percent four years ago?
If that number holds and Donald Trump's above 35 percent, close to 40 percent in Wayne County, Michigan, the Democratic Party has a big conversation on its hand. When I started doing this a very long time ago, it was about the Reagan Democrats in Macomb County. And now it's going to be about the Trump Democrats everywhere.
The Trump Democrats everywhere, including black men in Wayne County, you know, there'll be people saying it's the Arab American vote. Young voters didn't come out. The analysis will start soon as we're done getting someone to 270. But that's a huge problem. And you see it again here.
Again, the foundation of the Democratic Party is urban America and then the closing suburbs. That's where the math is. And that has allowed Democrats, allowed Joe Biden to withstand all of that. Donald Trump's phenomenon in rural America, where he's not only winning those counties, but the math is up. And this time again, he turned out more voters.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is Milwaukee County, the city and the suburbs around it. But the vice president's at 66 percent. That looks impressive except when you go back four years ago and you see the president of United States was at 69 percent.
And so in place after place, especially starting in the foundations, Anderson, the building blocks of the Democratic Party, which is urban America. She's having a problem. We're not done with all the vote counting yet. But she's underperforming President Biden from four years ago in the close.
In suburbs, find some exceptions to this. But in the closest suburbs, she's doing reasonably well, reasonably close, exceeding it in some places. But Trump is doing better in urban America, a little bit better in some key suburbs in battleground states and turning out even more voters in the red rural counties where we have seen the Trump phenomenon in 2016 and 2020. It's with us again in 2024 now.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: John, we'll will come back to you. Kaitlan Collins at Trump headquarters where we expect the former president to speak soon. Kaitlan, do we know a how soon he may get there and any idea on what he may say?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: No and no, Anderson. Obviously we're waiting to see what this is going to look like because this is so new to the Trump campaign as well. They've been watching these numbers carefully all night as John King has been going back and forth on the magic wall. But they themselves obviously were waiting to see were there any surprises in store. They were watching closely. The gut check of North Carolina and Georgia obviously came through for them.
And now we are told Donald Trump is on. He is making preparations to head over here to the convention center. This is where the official watch party is. And Anderson, we saw aides preparing a teleprompter on stage, heightening the lectern and the microphone to make sure it's ready. So a clear sign that we do expect to hear from him when that happens remains to be seen.
And Kristen, obviously, as we've been looking at this, you know, Trump is famously very superstitious. He doesn't like to, you know, start planning things too far in advance, talking too much about who he put in a potential cabinet, much less working on a spot speech, which he said today he did not have remarks prepared.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And even the people around him were hesitant to put anything down. There were some conversations about potentially drafting something either way, drafting two versions of the speeches, but they were still hesitant to even do that.
And a reminder that Donald Trump finished up his rally last night at 2:30 in the morning. When they got on the plane, there were some conversations about what tonight was going to look like, but essentially everybody was like, let's wait and see. Let's go and see. Now, I am told that when Donald Trump gets here, it's not clear if
he's going to go to the stage right away. We know obviously they have called North Carolina and Georgia, which were big wins for the Trump campaign. Whether or not they're going to wait for one more of those big swing states remains to be seen.
We do believe he's going to be here imminently, that he's going to leave Mar-a-Lago head over here. We obviously know that they've bust over all of the people from Mar-a- Lago who have just arrived here. We've seen this room fill out through. How exactly he's going to handle this moment remains to be seen.
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We know what happened obviously in 2020. I am told he's in a very different head space now than he was at that point, probably because of the fact that they are telling him that he could win this.
COLLINS: Yes, you could sense that today when he was voting at his polling place as well. He was talking in more reflective ways about the campaign. He was saying he believed it was one of the best campaigns they've ever run. Talking about in terms of just pure messaging. I mean, obviously some of his allies would disagree from the candidate himself on that front.
But one thing room tonight, obviously it's filled with his supporters who were here, who were invited by the campaign. A lot of his allies were also at Mar-a-Lago with them, people like Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dana White. We've seen Senator Marco Rubio trickling in here. House Speaker Mike Johnson is also on the way. So it's also important to see who's going to be around him.
HOLMES: That's going to matter to Donald Trump a lot. It's going to matter to Donald Trump a lot who actually steps up and shows up here tonight, who left their races early before they were called or right after they were called to come to Palm Beach. And were told that there were a lot of people considering doing that because of the fact that they know Donald Trump cares about loyalty. They were considering coming if it looked like the race was going the way that it currently looks like it's going. So we can likely expect more House members here that we've seen already.
COLLINS: Yes. And we know family members obviously have been around him. We saw -- I was told by someone that Barron Trump was with him and Mar-a-Lago earlier. Obviously, Melania Trump went and voted with him at their polling place just a few hours after y'all got back from Michigan from that early morning rally. Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, I think that's an open question. They do live down here, obviously, in South Florida, but they have not been prominent faces on the campaign trail.
HOLMES: And even during his trials. I mean, one thing to remember is that they came and saw him after he was convicted, but stayed behind closed doors at all times. They were up at Trump Tower. They never made an appearance with him. He has really done this campaign without any of their help. They've been with just -- COLLINS: Yes, obviously. Kristen, thank you. Jake, back to you.
TAPPER: Thanks so much. We have a major projection in the battle for control of Congress. And CNN can now project that Republicans will win back control of the United States Senate. We can make this projection because CNN projects Republicans win the U.S. Senate seat in Nebraska. The GOP picking up enough seats to reclaim the majority that they lost four years ago.
This is a huge victory for Donald Trump's party as we're still waiting the final outcome of the presidential race. And Dana Bash, there were a lot of questions in the air about what was going to happen. Ultimately, what happened with the U.S. Senate is what we generally thought was going to happen. Republicans now have control.
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: It was a very good map for Republicans this time around, a very bad map for Democrats. One of the questions was whether or not these kind of brand name, long serving Democrats would be able to kind of outperform the realities of their states, whether it's John Tester and Montana or Sherrod Brown in Ohio. And the answer is no.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN HOST, THE ASSIGNMENT WITH AUDIE CORNISH PODCAST: Yes, Sherrod Brown is a great example because he came to office in 2006 during a kind of blue wave, survived 2018. Like he was always there for when the -- when it was more favorable for Democrats, and that was not this year.
CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, let's talk about the significance of a Republican Senate. If, and I repeat, if Donald Trump is elected president, it means that they can confirm without any Democratic votes, any appointment he makes to his cabinet, to the government, to the Supreme Court, should there be a vacancy. It's an enormous advantage to a president.
And at this point, we haven't talked about it much. But in the House, although that hasn't been decided yet, the Republicans have flipped three Democratic seats. The Democrats haven't flipped a single Republican seat. So there is the possibility here of a complete, united Republican government with Donald Trump as the president and with a Republican House and Senate, which means that in terms of appointments, in terms of immigration policy, economic policy, environmental policy, you name it, he could have a pretty blank check.
TAPPER: So, for example, on immigration policy, which is something that we think that Donald Trump would, if he wins, want to enact something along the lines of the proposals he's made. Republicans have said, we passed an immigration bill, H.R. 2, which was a --
BASH: A compromise package.
TAPPER: No, no, a tough, it wasn't a compromise package.
BASH: Yes.
TAPPER: It was a tough immigration bill. CORNISH: (INAUDIBLE).
TAPPER: No, no, H.R. 2.
BASH: He's talking about the House.
CORNISH: Sorry.
TAPPER: The House version is what I'm saying. The Senate version was bipartisan. The House version, when you asked Speaker Johnson, what have you accomplished? He said, well, we passed all this legislation, but it just died in the Senate because Chuck Schumer wouldn't even allow a vote on it, assuming that Republicans hold onto the House.
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And we have no idea. But it's not crazy.
CORNISH: But you're getting into a level of detail that I think, you know, I mean --
TAPPER: My point is just that --
CORNISH: -- deporting people. Donald Trump campaigned on mass deportations. So this is what he could do was for.
TAPPER: That's what I'm saying. My point is whatever Donald Trump wants, if they have the Senate now, if they get the White House and if they get the House, if they keep the House, whatever Donald Trump wants will become law. There will not be the backstop of the Senate, but controlled by Democrats.
CORNISH: But voters did not want the backstop. This is what I'm trying to say. We may be looking at a map of voters who weren't looking to give him a backstop.
TAPPER: That's what I'm saying.
CORNISH: Yes.
BASH: Not to get too sort of dorky here, but I think it is still possible if he is president, that some big pieces of legislation could be stopped in the United States Senate because legislation at this point still needs 60 votes. But it is the cabinet who he's going to have in his, not just in and around his administration, but again, the bench that is all regular majority.
WALLACE: Yes. It's interesting when you think about it, because the Supreme Court passed, not passed, they ruled on the Chevron deference and basically said agencies, executive agencies can't have the untrammeled authority to do what they want. It has to be passed by Congress and you could end up with the Democratic minority.
I mean, again, all of this is somewhat speculative. Democratic minority in the Senate being able to block legislation and the Trump agency is not able to enact it on their own.
BASH: Yes. Just one of many things that we would be talking about if Donald Trump does in fact win. We're not there yet. Jake, over to you.
TAPPER: Thanks, Dana. Let's bring you back to the key race alert and where we stand with the battleground states that we have not called yet. Pennsylvania, Donald Trump in the lead 51.1 percent to Kamala Harris is 47.8 percent. Donald Trump has an almost 220,000 vote lead. That's with 93 percent of the estimated vote in from the great Keystone State.
Michigan, Donald Trump up 52.4 percent to Harris's 45.8 percent. Donald Trump with a more than 244,000 vote lead in Michigan with 66 percent of the estimated vote in.
In Wisconsin, Donald Trump 51.2 percent. Harris 47.1 percent. Donald Trump with a more than 120,000 vote lead with an estimated 89 percent of the vote in from the Badger State of Wisconsin, Arizona, Donald Trump in the lead 50 percent to Harris's 49.1 percent. Donald Trump has a 16,000 plus vote lead with an estimated 53 percent of the vote in from Arizona.
In Nevada, Donald Trump in The lead there, 51 percent to Kamala Harris is 47.4 percent. Donald Trump with a more than 37,000 vote lead with 70 percent of the estimated vote in from Nevada, John King.
KING: You're looking at the map and we're watching, we're just trying to see. The only question really now is, well, the first question is, can the Vice President win Pennsylvania? If she does not, Donald Trump is the next President United States. And then from there, if she wins Pennsylvania, Donald Trump still has other paths to 270.
So for the vice president, your priority is here. And you'll notice all three of those states are red. That's the so called blue wall. The blue wall is ruby red at the moment. Not done counting the votes. So let's turn it off and wander through them starting in your home state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Key thing here, these are close battleground states. Look at the size of Donald Trump's lead as we go through them. All right, Joe Biden wins this by 80,000 and change four years ago. Donald Trump is ahead with 93 percent of the vote in by 219,000 votes plus. So that's hard to overcome when you're at 93 percent and statewide so far, you're getting 48 percent.
If you round that up, do the math at home, she has to get well in excess of that, hugely in excess of that when you're at 93 percent to have a chance to catch up. Hugely way overperform where she has been throughout the night. Miracles happen.
So you look here at Philadelphia, you kind of come here. This gets pretty stunning when you go through it county by county. We're not at the final results. Maybe the end will look a little better than this. Maybe the Vice President can come back.
But again, you look at here, Donald Trump getting 21 percent in Philadelphia, the vice president getting 78 percent. You go back when Joe Biden won the state, Donald Trump was at 18, the president was at 81. And you're seeing this over and over again. You go out to Bucks County here, Joe Biden at 52 percent. If you round that up, Trump at 47 four years ago.
You come back here, I said early in the night, if this stays red, Donald Trump will win the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It's still red. Not done, but it's still red. This is the blue collar suburban area. Your cops, your firefighters move out of the city to get a little house with a patch of grass. It gets a little bit bigger out here when you move out. But look at this. She's at 48 percent, 49 percent if you round that up, President of the United States was at 52.
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Again, it's a very competitive battleground county. But to win the Pennsylvania, you want to be on the top end in Bucks County. And at the moment the vice president is on the losing end. Then you move over here to Lehigh County. This was a big conversation, right? Both candidates there in the final days because of the Madison Square Garden event. The debate about is the Trump going to lose the Puerto Rican vote, another Latino votes because of this.
Well, at the moment, Harris 95 percent. So not a lot of room for this to change. 51 percent for the vice president. She's winning the county, but she's not winning the county. Again, look at Joe Biden. Now, this is Joe Biden's birth state. He had a whole field advantage.
Maybe it was in a pandemic. Donald Trump was at his weakest. I guess you come out of that so you can rationalize it away. But we do the math here. And the math is that she's running behind. That's 53 percent for the president and once again the vice president.
So there'll be a lot of conversations about blue collar workers. Is it sexism? Is it racism? Is it because she didn't break with Biden on cost of living issues? This is going to be the conversation if this map continues.
So you come back out again and you look, here's a place. This is Trump country, Pennsylvania, Luzerne County, right? But you always look at sometimes the margins where the other guy's winning or the other gals winning.
You just want to cut into their margins in a close battleground state, Donald Trump at 60, the vice president at 39 percent. And you come back here, Joe Biden at 42 percent. That's the difference. The margins within some of these places, even where you're losing, you have to improve your margins where you're winning, run them up where you're losing, try to cut the other guy's margin some. And she simply has failed to do that across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I could go on, but the point is the point.
And then there's this again. In a big state like this, a complicated state like this is just Trump country. 70 percent here, 51 percent there. More -- a little bit more competitive, but 75 percent there, 73 percent there. That's how he does it. And you have to combat that and contrast that. And even in those counties, again, in most of them, Harris not matching where the president was. So that's the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
You look at the popular vote when you come on out again. Donald Trump lost the popular vote twice. Even when he won the presidency in 2016, he lost the popular vote, lost it by more than 7 million votes four years ago. At the moment, a lot of votes to be counted. At the moment, he's 5 million votes ahead in the popular vote.
And again, you know, Donald Trump would like that trophy in addition to winning 270 electoral votes, which he's not at yet. He's on a path to it, but he's not there yet. He would love that trophy. We'll see if he gets it.
Michigan, we're up to 67 percent now. This has been a slow walk. You're up to 67 percent. But again, 154,000 votes for the president four years ago. Donald Trump's lead is well in excess of that, 224,000 votes. You're at 67 percent. So there's more vote out. A lot of it is right here. This is essentially it. Just like I said, Philadelphia is it -- if the Vice President is going to come have some improbable mathematical comeback in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it must be based in Philadelphia. That's where the most people live. That's where the most votes are out. The same for the Vice President here In Michigan, only 32 percent in Wayne County.
But again, this will be the conversation if we get to the finish line and the result is as it is. Look at Donald Trump at 41 percent in Wayne County. That's Detroit. In the suburbs around Detroit, 30 percent in 2020. 40 percent in 2024.
If Donald Trump has a 10 point gain in Detroit, that's Detroit, that's Dearborn, that's Hamtramck, that's Wayne auto factory, autoworkers here, inner city Detroit here. That's going to be a giant conversation in the Democratic Party. Now, much like this was in the late 1980s when Ronald Reagan flipped Colme County from blue to red, Trump has flipped it back. You see Trump at 57 percent if you want to round that up.
Again, this will be the conversation after. If this race continues where it's looking right now, 41 percent for the Democrat in Macomb County right now, 45 percent for Joe Biden four years ago. So pick your challenge. Black voters in the urban area, cities in general. Blue collar workers in places like Macomb County, blue collar workers in places like Luzerne county or Lackawanna County.
You keep going on, she's underperforming where Joe Biden was four years ago. There can be many reasons for that. I would say one of them was a very effective Trump ad. What she said on The View when they asked her, what would you change? She said, not a thing. Trump campaign, Trump himself. Flawed candidate. Although people are going to say you all said he was a flawed candidate. This looks pretty impressive.
But Trump's message, the ad messaging, the cost of living thing, which she said, not a thing. She tried to amend that answer later, but they turned that around pretty quickly.
TAPPER: It was without question, and we've been saying this all year, the most professional campaign that Trump has had in his three runs for president. I came over here because I want to -- I want you to show me, even in the blue states, what's going on. Let's, for example, take me to New Jersey.
All right, that's a state. I mean, just look at that. 51 -- It's with 88 percent in. So not all the votes in, but 51 percent to 46 percent. How did Joe Biden do?
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KING: Five points. Five points better for Donald Trump. Look at him. More than him. Yes. If you're a Democrat in a blue state, you're trying to figure out what's happening to my party, you know, is it all Trump? And I mean, there's a separate fascinating conversation going because a lot of the people are going to be in that Republican Senate with a President Donald Trump if this continues to go where it's going. You know as well as I do, a lot of them don't like him. They wish he was not the leader of their party, but he is and there's nothing they can do about it. And they know that, and so they're going to work with it.
But again, so the Republican candidate for president four years ago got 41 percent in New Jersey, and the Republican candidate for president this time is getting 47 percent in New Jersey. There'll be all sorts of. Oh, nobody spent any ad money there. Oh, nobody focused on the presidential race there. Oh, make all the excuses you want. That's a problem.
TAPPER: But it was a 16 point spread last time.
KING: Yes.
TAPPER: And it's a five point spread now. What about New York? Take me to New York.
KING: Come back out and come back in the Empire State.
TAPPER: OK, so she's up by 11 percentage points. Not all the votes in, 92 percent. So 11 points. How did Biden do?
KING: Yes, it's a lot more.
TAPPER: 23.
KING: 23.
TAPPER: From 23 points to 11 points. So, I mean, it's not -- and actually, you know what, show me some of the counties. Can you go into, like Queens and --
KING: You can come down here and you can get into Manhattan here.
TAPPER: So Manhattan. KING: And Manhattan is not Donald Trump territory.
TAPPER: Right.
KING: It wasn't then.
TAPPER: I mean, like Queens, Bronx.
KING: You can wander around in here if you want to come over here to Bronx. So 27 percent for Donald Trump.
TAPPER: Yes, 83 percent. So he made inroads in these outer boroughs as well. It's all about the blue wall as we wait for a final verdict in the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin, three potential deciders in this presidential race. We're expecting Donald Trump to speak any moment. But first, we're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: It's ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA. And forget the pundits and forget the polls. It is time to count votes.
Let's take a look at where we are in the electoral math. Donald Trump has 246 electoral votes. Kamala Harris has 187 electoral votes. 270 are needed to win.
There are still a number of states that are outstanding. Let's bring them to you now.
Pennsylvania -- Donald Trump 50.9 percent of the vote; Harris 48 percent. Donald Trump with a more than 189,000 vote lead with 94 percent of the estimated vote in in the commonwealth.
Michigan -- Donald Trump, 52.1; Harris 46.1. Donald Trump with more than 236,000 vote lead, 69 percent of the estimated vote in from Michigan.
Wisconsin -- Donald Trump 51.3; Kamala Harris, 47.1. Donald Trump with a more than 123,000 vote lead. 90 percent of the estimated vote in from the Badger State of Wisconsin.
Arizona -- Donald Trump 50 percent; Harris 49.1 percent. Donald Trump with a 16,368-vote lead with 53 percent of the estimated vote in from Arizona.
Nevada now -- Donald Trump, 51.1 percent; Harris, 47.3 percent. Donald Trump with a more than 38,000 vote lead over Harris with an estimated 71 percent of the estimated vote.
I have two more I want to show you right now because, as you know, Maine and Nebraska award their electoral votes, according to congressional district.
Maine's second congressional district that is, the more rural part of the district. Donald Trump is in the lead there, 53.9 percent of the vote; Harris, 43.9 percent of the vote.
Donald Trump, with an almost 14,000 vote lead there in Maine's second congressional district. That's with just over a third of the estimated vote there.
Then Nebraska. This is actually the congressional district number one, not the more competitive one. But in this one, which has not been called yet Donald Trump has 51.5 percent of the vote; Harris with 46.7 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with an 11,311-vote lead there. That's with 75 percent of the estimated vote in Nebraska's District 1.
Nebraska's district two though we should note, John is actually the one that we're really keeping an eye on.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Keeping an eye on for the miracle trajectory for the vice president if she can pull it off. She would need the blue dot, as they call it. The Omaha area, second congressional district in addition to the blue wall.
I just want to note your eyes aren't playing with you at home. The so- called blue wall is deep red at the moment, and that is the vice president's biggest problem.
She lost North Carolina and Georgia. She's losing Arizona and Nevada, we're not done there yet. But this is a -- watch this map. We'll circle one state. This is where we are now at 1:34 a.m. in the east. It might be 1:33 a.m. in the east if somebody wants to correct me.
And that's 2020. There's a lot more blue there. But this is what I wanted to get to in 2016, this is Donald Trump remaking his 2016 map. And at the moment, if things hold up -- we're not done yet out there -- we've got a long way to go. And sometimes Nevada takes days. It's possible he'll even add Nevada to the 2016 map.
Now we're not done. But this is a very impressive map for Donald Trump.
Uh, I shouldn't have waited until 1:35 in the morning to do this, Jake, but as you know, we're on television. There's a great team of people here that you can't see working the cameras and everything else. I have a great new media team that helps me with the Magic Wall.
I want to show you one of the things the Magic Wall team, the new media team, came up with as we look at these votes. So your challenge in Wisconsin, right. The vice president has to turn around Donald Trump's pretty big leads. I shouldn't say pretty big leads. Big leads 125,000.
Wisconsin, two elections in a row decided by 20,000 votes and change. His lead with 90 percent of the vote in is 125,000. That's a landslide in current day Wisconsin. We're not done yet, but our team has come up with a great way to look
at this. So you're looking at votes over time, right? And what is the challenge for the vice president?
Well, the vice president needs to narrow the gap but go back to the beginning. Trump was ahead early; Harris got ahead of him. They kind of danced together for a while.
[01:34:52]
KING: And you see this flat line as we go. We've moved. We've moved -- you see 1:00 a.m. down here.
The only way for her to win is to close those. Not happening, has not been happening for a long time. That's Wisconsin.
Let's move over to battleground Michigan. Same case. She starts off way ahead. He comes up. They're competitive. He pulls ahead and again you're going, you know, we cross past midnight to where we are now after 1 a.m.
Pretty much a straight line across. Meaning what? She's not narrowing the gap as more votes come in right. Which you're trying to come back. It's pretty simple to look at at home.
So there's those two there.
And let's come over to the biggest of them all, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Closer -- you see it right there, it's closer. But she opened up a big lead early on, that's the early votes.
You see what happens then essentially, welcome to battleground Pennsylvania. They are just running in a straight line across. But the red line has stayed on top all the way across. That's close -- 51 to 48. But you know that's close but she needs it to narrow even more.
Just a different way to look at it is just to see you're trying to find the trajectory. And is there any possibility that it's going to close and at the moment there's no evidence that those lines are coming closer together.
Closest in your home state, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But again Donald Trump at 51 percent 191,000 votes ahead with 94 percent reporting in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
I just want to go back in time at the beginning of the night, I said, she's the variable, her first time on the national ballot as the presidential nominee. He was the constant.
Not in my lifetime. Three elections in a row. The same Republican nominee for president. Well, Donald Trump getting 50 percent, 51 percent right now in Pennsylvania. You know, in 2020, he was at 49. In 2016, he was a 49.
Trump was the constant right. The question Democrats always said Trump can't get to 50 in the battleground states so you have to eliminate the third-party candidates and just get above him. Just get above 49, get 49.5.
Well, Trump tonight blew that part up at least where we are right now because he's above 50 in Pennsylvania. He's above 50 in Michigan where he was at 48 again. And you go back to 2016 -- 48.
Trump was a constant. Except this year he grew, he grew or he's growing, anyway. We don't have the final numbers right now, but he's above 50 there.
And then in battleground Wisconsin. I won't go back and forth again through it again. But he was a 47, 48 -- 2016, 2020. And there he is above 50 percent with, again, this state decided by 20,000 votes, two elections in a row. Donald Trump is ahead by 125,000.
This state won by Joe Biden last time by 154,000 votes -- a big win for the Democrats here. Then the Democratic governor wins in 2022. The Democrats may gain in the legislatures.
Democrats think Michigan is growing in their favor. Donald Trump's 243,000 votes ahead with 69 percent. Still some room there, maybe to see it happen. That's the one with the most outstanding vote.
And Anderson, as I throw back to you the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, so critical to Trump cracking the blue wall, flipping the blue wall in 2016, his biggest disappointment when he lost it in 2020 -- still won't admit he lost it in 2020.
And now you see in 2024 again with an 80,000-vote win for Joe Biden last time. Donald Trump, with 94 percent of the vote counted, Anderson. Up by 191,000 votes in battleground Pennsylvania. That's a blowout.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's amazing to see as you were pointing out in Wayne County in Detroit, he's 10 percentage points higher than he ran in 2020. We're seeing that in county after county.
David Urban, what do you expect him to say tonight?
DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know Anderson. Listen --
(CROSSTALKING)
COOPER: Is it going to be short? He's going to be concise?
URBAN: There's going to be a -- hopefully we see a happy Trump. Happy Trump sells, right. Happy Trump's great for America. I think he'll thank -- I think he'll thank the team. Susie, Chris LaCivita, the people who've been there when no one else believed, those folks believed.
Susie has been on this team since so far back, nobody can remember. Nobody wanted to see Donald Trump. Nobody wanted to go talk to him. He was a pariah. And Susie was there. And this team has been there the entire time.
You know, we've sat here, Anderson through a lot of different trials and tribulations literally and two assassination attempts.
And so I think he has a right at this point to be a little victorious on the stage. And you know, pump his fist and say, you know, damn it we won. Be a little happy.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The trials -- the trials are probably over now and the question is will the tribulations be ours?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Can I just say, by the way, like this isn't the outcome I personally wanted. I'm happy with the decision I made not to support him.
But you know what? I think Americans are going to accept the results of this. I think we're going to move forward. I don't think we're going to be storming the capitol and spreading lies about our elections, because that's what you do if you care about democracy.
I do want to hit on one thing though. Abortion, abortion, abortion. We thought this was -- many people, I should say, thought this would be the driving issue this election. It was going to drive women out in the suburbs.
I warned about a year ago that in the key battleground states, Georgia is the only one that has what would be considered an ultra-restrictive abortion law.
[01:39:51]
GRIFFIN: So if you were expecting voters to be highly animated about the laws of another state, in Pennsylvania and Michigan, I just don't think that materialized.
Also that a significant portion of the country actually did support the overturning of Roe. That is a fact in it.
So I think there was a missed -- there was an over emphasis there in not reading mood that there are other issues that were driving women.
AXELROD: Well, there are two states that had abortion initiatives on the ballot today Arizona and Nevada --
URBAN: and Florida.
AXELROD: Well, but I'm saying that of the battleground states, they were on the ballot and yet we'll see what happens in those states. But he appears to be headed toward it.
But I think look, first of all, let's just note that I hope what he does is stand up and talk about the country and show grace and thanks. Tou know, you say he should take a victory lap, but --
(CROSSTALKING)
URBAN: I mean, David, he's been getting -- he's been getting (INAUDIBLE) -- AXELROD: Yes because he refused to accept the last -- results of the
last election because he helped instigate what we saw on January 6th.
That's why he's been taking what he's been taking. These are things of his own making. But that's in the past.
Now that people have made this judgment, the question is, what does he do now? And one of the things that has not been apparent is the ability to actually put others first and put the country first and not make it all about him.
You heard the whole discussion about he's going to remember who showed up and who left their campaign headquarters to be here, and so on. These are not the instincts of a big leader. These are the instincts of a, you know, these are selfish instincts.
So, you know, can he change at 78? We'll see.
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I just think that I'm still absorbing all this. It's a lot and I -- and I think when he steps out on the stage, we see him as like America's next president. The world's looking too.
GRIFFIN: Yes.
JONES: If you're a soldier in Ukraine looking at Russians being more and more aggressive, you're very nervous tonight. You're very nervous tonight.
If you're if you're a -- if you're a solar farmer in a red state trying to deal with this climate issues, had you know, billion-dollar climate disasters, your financing might fall apart tomorrow morning because you can't now count on the federal government being at the front lines of this fight, the way that the Biden-Harris administration had put the United States government at the front of the climate fight.
So you've got people all around the world whose fates are now in the hands of someone who can either be aggrieved or who can be big, he's usually not big.
And so I think this is a shock, this is a political realignment for sure, the Republican Party can now claim to be a multiracial working- class party. That is a shock. But the policy implications for planet earth are yet to be known.
GRIFFIN: I mean, I think that's the real open question. So are we getting 20 percent tariffs? That's going to be devastating for the economy. Are there going to be mass deportations on American soil?
That's what he ran on. And I believe it's actually the mandate that voters gave him.
URBAN: So I think on the tariff things, as you see tariffs are a negotiating tool, right. That's what it was in the first administration it's going to be in this administration. There are 350,000 criminal aliens here in the United States. I think
it'll probably take four years. Just to find, locate, deport those murderers and rapists that are wandering around, the Biden Department of Justice acknowledges are out there. We need to get those folks off the streets.
I don't think anybody in America is going to be complaining if we lock those folks up and deport them out of here --
AXELROD: You know what?
GRIFFIN: Do you think they'll keep with that level of specificity is what I'm talking about.
AXELROD: You know, I always hear that. During the Obama administration, they actually deported criminal aliens -- more of them than were deported during the four years of the Trump administration.
URBAN: We should keep rounding them up and kicking them out.
AXELROD: Yes, but the point is, what he says to get elected and what -- we don't know, we just don't know because it's basically a vehicle for him. And the question is, does the country benefit?
COOPER: We expect Donald Trump to speak any moment as we await more votes from the key battleground states.
Stay with us. We'll be right back.
[01:44:12]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: It is ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA and Americans have voted and the votes are being counted.
Let's look at the electoral vote math. Right now. Donald Trump has 246 electoral votes; Kamala Harris has 187 electoral votes.
Obviously, 270 electoral votes are needed to win So let's look at those states that remain outstanding.
Pennsylvania outstanding in so many ways. Donald Trump has 50.9 percent of the vote. Kamala Harris 48 percent of the vote. Donald Trump with a 193,000-vote lead there with an estimated 95 percent of the vote counted in that great commonwealth.
In Michigan, the Wolverine State, Donald Trump, 52.2 percent; Kamala Harris 45.9 percent. Donald Trump with a 253,000 plus vote lead with 71 percent of the estimated vote in the great state of Michigan.
In Wisconsin now Donald Trump 51.3 percent; Kamala Harris 47.2 percent. Donald Trump leading by more than 121,000 votes with an estimated 90 percent of the vote counted in Wisconsin.
John King those are the three blue wall states. They remain uncalled as of now, but Donald Trump leads in all three.
KING: Right, blue wall states uncalled but the blue wall states are red as we get to approaching 2 a.m. in the morning.
And we continue to count the votes. And you went through the margins. I mean these are not insignificant margins. This is not 10,000 or 20,000 votes that a big county somewhere can change. 193,000 votes -- again, just to remind you, Michigan was 81,000 votes -- I mean Pennsylvania was 81,000 votes four years ago and 44,000 votes eight years ago. Donald Trump's lead at the moment is 193,000.
[01:49:55]
KING: So the math there is pretty obvious. He is overperforming his 2016 and his 2020 performance in one of the states that is trademark to the Trump movement when you look at all that red in rural areas. So that's Pennsylvania.
And you're looking -- well, let me just -- before I leave it, you're looking at, you know where's the math, right? Where's the math? Is it at all possible?
I would say it's very improbable. But the votes, most of the votes that are outstanding are in Democratic areas. That's a fact. However, the percentages of those votes and the number of those votes that would have to come in to overcome 193,000 again, I'm not going to say impossible, but I'm going to say highly improbable as you look at that.
So then you move over to the next one, the state of Michigan. This one is now up 71 percent. it was 63 percent the last time we looked at it. I think it was right here.
Lapeer county just came in 70 percent for Trump, 69 percent for Trump. Modest-sized county. It's in the middle -- about it's about 23rd of 83 counties in Michigan. You see right there, you know.
So again, the counties, the more votes that just came in that drove the percentage reporting up, right. If you're Harris, you're trying to catch up before that gets to 9,900.
The new votes just came in and helped Trump. 253,601 again in Michigan. This was a big win for Joe Biden in 2020 -- 154,000 votes. It's a bigger win at the moment for Donald Trump, 253,000 votes in battleground Michigan. That's a big deal.
Then we move over to Wisconsin. We're at 91 percent and Donald Trump is 120,000 votes ahead. That is 100,000 more votes than decided the state of Wisconsin in both of the last two presidential elections. It was 22,000 in one -- 20,000 in the other, it's 120,549 at the moment. 91 percent.
So you look again, is it possible for the Democratic votes out there? This is where they're missing, the biggest -- the biggest basket. There's some good Trump circles here too. So if you look at that again I'm not going to say impossible. We have a decision desk that does that work for me -- us, for us, for you. I'm going to say that's improbable just looking at the math again with a lead that big.
And we'll see how it plays out.
I do want to show something. We're looking at Donald Trump above 50 percent nationally. You're looking at Donald Trump at the moment winning the popular vote, which he has not done in his prior two runs for the presidency by 5.1 million votes.
So I just want to show you something. How is he doing that? Well, he's obviously overperforming what he did in 2020. That's sort of a simple duh when you think about it. He's winning. So he's obviously overperforming 2020.
These are states where he's outperforming himself by 3 percent or more. That doesn't matter as much to me. Why don't I get to -- I want to get you to some of these counties.
So you look at these places, Jake, we talked about this earlier. New York, you are looking at that. All throughout New England -- Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts -- he's you know, he's performing better than he did in 2024.
But I want to look -- remember the last couple of weeks in his campaign, where's Nikki Haley? Why isn't she with him? Why is he demeaning the vice president calling her stupid? Why is he beating up on Nancy Pelosi? Why is he so dark on immigration? Why isn't he trying to reach out to the middle, to the suburbs. Why -- he's going to repel people away?
Well, guess what? If you come here. Well, let me start here in Arizona. He's not winning 60 percent of the population in Arizona, lives in Maricopa County. She's leading in Maricopa County. Donald Trump is not overperforming in Maricopa County but look where he is overperforming, in Republican areas.
The big conversation has been you know, well, he got 2016, got more votes in 2020. There are a lot of Democrats saying there can't possibly be more Trump voters out there in rural America. Well, yes, there are.
He's over, you know, smaller counties, Apache County here, only 6 percentage, too. So more votes coming in from here. And then you come over here, you know, Navajo County and down here in the southern part of the state, Yuma County 64 percent of the vote.
Again, you think oh, boy. But, you know, that's double. That's almost double. When you look at the raw vote count there. So how does he do it, right? So that's just -- that's Arizona.
You come up to Nevada. Again, it's not in Clark County. That's Vegas and the suburbs around it. But in these other places that's -- you know, the end of the campaign when everyone is obsessed about why is he only talking to his base?
Well, he was talking to those people and they turned out and he overperformed in a lot -- in a lot of Republican counties. Most of the places he overperformed dramatically. This is by 3 percent. You'll see suburbs where he -- well, that'll be something were talking about in the weeks -- days and weeks after too, by 1 point or 1.5 points. This is 3 percent or more, right?
So when you look at this, don't think about California yet. Let the votes be counted.
TAPPER: So these are all the counties where he overperformed by 3 percent or more.
KING: Over his 2020 number by 3 percent or more. And right now we're over a thousand. Counties and townships mostly up here in New England, but in other places, too. They use the word "townships", not counties.
So if you live in a township, don't take my county, but there're 4,600 counties and townships and in more than a thousand of them, he has overperformed.
[01:54:45]
KING: But the thing is they're mostly red. There are some blue and the Democrats have to study that. But the idea of, you know, we always say are Republicans going to stand up to Donald Trump. Not looking at that, they're not. Because he's increasing the vote that he already got -- he's up over 2016, up over 2020 and now up over 2024.
So you come in here and you look, you know, and it includes Bucks County, very significant close in there and these other counties out here that Donald Trump likely wins anyway. So let's just bring this out now and come back to the real world.
TAPPER: Can I just make one more note about --
KING: Sure.
TAPPER: -- about Bucks County. Can you bring us back to Bucks County?
KING: Yes, absolutely.
TAPPER: That was an area where Kamala Harris made a big play, even though it's a -- it's a -- it's a county that that Donald Trump -- that Joe Biden won. She made a big play there. She did an event with Liz Cheney there. She made a real pitch to the Haley voters you talked about.
KING: Right.
TAPPER: Let's check in with Pamela Brown at the voting desk, who has an update on the ballots left to be counted in Pennsylvania, Pamela.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. I'm getting some information for both Philadelphia and Bucks County. That Collier (ph) County, right outside of Philadelphia, that right now, Trump is slightly ahead.
Let's talk about Philadelphia soon. We were just talking about the fact that 6,000 mail-in ballots came in there, I'm told by an official there in Philly. That maximum left for mail-in ballots -- the outstanding mail-in ballots is 31,000.
But this official says, look, there's going to be some issues with some of these. You know, the signatures don't match up and so forth. And it's too late for them to be cured. So that's the max amount.
Let's turn it over now to Bucks County. Again, this is a county that Biden won in 2020. It's typically a blue-leaning county just outside of Philly.
I'm told by an official there, there are 56,000 mail-in ballots left to count out of 140,000 mail-in ballots cast there, overall. And they're still waiting for 41 out of 304 precincts to report their results of in-person election day votes as well.
I should note these counties across Pennsylvania including Bucks, including Philadelphia, they're going to be continuously counting there until every mail-in ballot is counted. That's per the law there, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Pamela, thanks so much. Appreciate it. I'm sorry to interrupt.
Take me back to the to the place where Donald Trump is overperforming. Are there any places where Kamala Harris overperformed from where Biden did.
KING: I'll show you that. Just one second. I just want to put a button -- just put a button on what Pam was just talking about in the sense that so there's votes out there. Maybe Kamala Harris comes back and, you know, that's close.
TAPPER: He's up by 11,000.
KING: So maybe -- maybe she comes back but again you're talking about the margins, right. He's winning by four right. If she comes back and beats him it's going to be 50-50. You know 50-51 right there again underperforming you know underperforming the president in places.
So you asked are there any places that the vice president is overperforming Joe Biden in 2020. So we could show you that as well. We just bring that out here. Harris overperforming 2020 --
TAPPER: Holy smokes.
KING: There you go. So let this go away and see if there's anything in the east side there.
TAPPER: Literally nothing.
KING: Literally nothing.
TAPPER: Literally not one county?
KING: By 3 percent or more, at least --
(CROSSTALKING)
KING: -- right now. And so you could come into full county there. So there you see that's states. Yes.
So in counties -- in 58 counties, we just showed Donald Trump was over a thousand, over a thousand counties, of the 4,600 counties and townships across America.
So if you do the full county level, there's where you see Harris at the moment, again, there might be more out here in the West Coast. Its possible 1 or 2 more as they finish the count here. But in the states that matter again, I just showed you all those Trump counties in one county in battleground Pennsylvania. He's outperforming president Biden by 3 percent or more.
TAPPER: There were -- there were Biden stalwarts who argued that kicking him out of the nomination was a mistake. Now, I don't know that I buy that, because I don't know that the Joe Biden of 2024 is the Joe Biden of 2020.
But what do you think?
KING: I think that, well, you know, so let's come out of this map to have this conversation just to show where we are at the moment in this race. And let's turn this off here as well.
After the debate, all of the energy collapsed -- the debate you moderated with Dana, the Biden-Trump debate, the air came out of the Democratic balloon. Joe Biden was going to get blown out.
TAPPER: So you think you think it would have been worse because Minnesota and Virginia and New Mexico, Colorado, those would have been --
KING: Would the Democrats have lost those in the end? I don't know the answer to that. But all the Democrats would have broken with the president. It would have caused amazing dissonance in the Democratic Party. Donors were not going to give money. And again, I don't want to be disrespectful to the president of the United States, but have you seen any anything -- the vice president of the United States looks like she's about to lose a presidential election. She was campaigning vigorously from the second she got the nomination up until the votes counting today.
Is there any evidence on the table that the president of the United States could do half of what she did?
TAPPER: No.
KING: A third of what she did?
TAPPER: No. KING: I mean, we could go -- I don't want to be mean --
TAPPER: I agree.
KING: I don't want to be mean to the president of the United States.
TAPPER: No and we saw over the last week him calling Trump supporters garbage, et cetera like --
KING: I can tell you from my first trip 15 months ago, people were saying, where's the president?
[01:59:45]
KING: I think one of the -- one of the legacy conversations about this election is not just going to be the switch from Biden, but the two years before that, you would travel and people would say, where's the president?
He was invisible because he couldn't do events. And he wasn't talking about his record and his agenda and trying to explain that cost of living stuff, trying to explain that, yes, it sucks in a lot of places.
TAPPER: Yes.
KING: But look around the world. The United States is actually doing better than most advanced economies.
TAPPER: Absolutely.
KING: He was missing.
TAPPER: Yes. There's going to be.
