Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Record 74-Plus Millions Early Ballot Cast Six Days Before Election; Now: Trump Fighting To Hold On To Arizona; Biden Spends Day In Home State Of Delaware, Casts Early Ballot; White House Tries To Clarify After Listing Ending Pandemic As A Trump Accomplishment; U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 227,000, 8.8 Million Cases As Infections Are On The Rise In Nearly The Entire Country; CNN Obtains Recording Of Bob Woodward And Jared Kushner. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired October 28, 2020 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right, Jessica Denson, thank you so much for your time today. Appreciate it.

You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @jaketapper. You can tweet the show with @leadcnn. Our coverage on CNN continues right now.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

We're following breaking news. With just six days to go until the final ballots are cast, President Trump is in Arizona right now fighting to hold on to the state he went four years ago. State that's now reeling from a surge of new coronavirus patients.

Meanwhile, his rival Joe Biden, in his home state of Delaware today, he's slamming the Trump team for a White House claim that the President's accomplishments include ending the pandemic. Biden says Mr. Trump's handling of the crisis is, "an insult to those suffering and to those who's lost loved ones to COVID.

We're also following the candidates past to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win. As of this hour, a record 74 million early ballots have been cast. That's more than half of all the ballots cast back in the 2016 election.

Despite that, at this time next week, we still may not necessarily know all the results.

And there's also breaking pandemic news we're following, the coronavirus death toll now in the United States has topped 227,000 people as the country faces more than 8.8 million confirmed cases.

And as the map shows new infections are on the rise in almost the entire country right now. Only one state is seeing a decreasing trend as the positivity rate and hospitalizations are surging nationwide.

Let's begin our coverage this hour with our Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. He's out on the campaign trail with the President in Arizona right now.

Jim, the President very much on defense right now.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Oh, that's right. Wolf, President Trump is predicting a red wave next Tuesday. But looking at the latest poll numbers, he may be getting the color wrong. But we are right now at the President's upcoming rally in the Phoenix area. You can see as we've seen time and again at the President's rallies hundreds, if not thousands of Trump supporters not doing any social distancing and not many of them are wearing masks.

But the President is sounding bitter about his prospects next Tuesday. He's gone from complaining about fake news to fake polls.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): Down in the polls and fighting the hang on to Arizona a traditional GOP stronghold he won four years ago, President Trump is sounding more desperate, escalating his attacks.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ABC, "Washington Post," they're fakes. Trump 17 down in Wisconsin, 17. Thank you.

And they tried it last time four years ago too and that didn't work out to well.

ACOSTA: He's found a new conspiracy theory to ride to Election Day that the media are somehow going to stop covering the coronavirus after November 3.

TRUMP: On November 4, you won't be hearing as much about this. It's going to be -- right now it's COVID, COVID, COVID.

ACOSTA: Part of an ugly closing message that Mr. Trump has adopted on the trail that includes raising doubts about the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

TRUMP: I mean, we'll have to see if it's a problem, right? People are entitle to say maybe it was a fraud maybe --

ACOSTA: But the distractions aren't working as there are daily reminders of the administration's bungled response to the coronavirus including this press release from the White House Office of Science and Technology that cited ending the COVID-19 pandemic as one of Mr. Trump's achievements.

ALYSSA FARAH, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: No, absolutely not. I think that was poorly worded. The intent was to say that it is our goal to end the virus.

ACOSTA: The administration's top health experts are contradicting the President like his false claim that new cases are soaring because of an increase in testing. Mr. Trump's testing czar said that's not true.

DR. BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: We do believe in the data showed that the cases are going up on it's not just a function of testing. Yes, we're getting more cases identified. But the cases are actually going up. And we know that too because hospitalizations are going up.

ACOSTA: And Dr. Anthony Fauci is knocking down the President's bogus claim that the U.S. is turning the corner in the pandemic.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I think it will be easily by the end of 2021 and perhaps even into the next year before we start having some semblances of normality.

ACOSTA: Besides the potential for a super spreader at his rallies, Mr. Trump had one other major health concern to deal with when hundreds of his supporters were stranded in the cold after his rally in Nebraska with some needing medical attention. Democrat Joe Biden seized on that.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people deserve so much better than this. Just look at what happened last night in Omaha, hundreds of people including old American and children were stranded in subzero freezing temperatures for hours.

ACOSTA: Still, the President is complaining about being rained on at his rallies.

TRUMP: I probably wouldn't be standing out here in the freezing rain with you. I'd be home in the White House doing whatever the hell I was doing. I wouldn't be out here.

[17:05:08]

ACOSTA: Six days until the election and there are still entrepreneur surprises shaking up the race. The latest bombshell, Miles Taylor, an ex-top eight at the Department of Homeland Security has revealed himself as anonymous, the same former administration official who mysteriously penned an op-ed in "The New York Times" more than two years ago, stating that he was among a group of aides attempting to act as a check on President Trump.

At the time he wrote, "We believe our first duty is to this country and the President continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic."

Earlier this year, the President claimed he already knew the identity of anonymous.

TRUMP: Not so much concern. I know who it is and it doesn't matter.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And as coronavirus cases are soaring across the country, Wall Street investors are getting nervous. The Dow Jones drop big time today. Down 943 points.

Wolf, as investors are getting nervous that potentially this country may have to go into another round of lockdowns as the coronavirus seems to be getting out of control.

And I can tell you from being at these rallies, Wolf, the President is not doing much to help as he is once again holding another rally just a few minutes from now where his supporters are not social distancing. And many of them, nearly all of them are not wearing masks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, I did some checking 943-point drop from the Dow Jones today, 222 point drop yesterday, 650 point dropped on Monday. It's gone down in the last three days alone. More than 1,800 points, 1,800 points, we know the president loves to talk on the stock market is doing.

Well, the last three days it's gone down because the escalation of the COVID crisis and the opportunity for some sort of compromise on an economic stimulus package looking also bleak. Right now it doesn't look like that's going to happen either.

All right, Jim Acosta, thanks very much. And by the way, Miles Taylor will be a special guest of Chris Cuomo later tonight 9 p.m. Eastern, the anonymous author will speak out. He's also, by the way, a CNN contributor right now.

Let's get some more in the Biden campaign. CNN's Jessica Dean is covering the former vice President for us.

Jessica, we saw Biden vote earlier today in Delaware where he's continuing to slam the President on his COVID response. So, tell us the strategy that's unfolding.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well look, Wolf, we just saw the Trump rally there with Jim, all of those people together, no social distancing, a lot of people not wearing masks. The Biden campaign seeking to really draw that sharp contrast today and it speaks to how importantly they believe this figures into their closing message that Joe Biden would spin this day so close to the election, getting briefed by experts on the coronavirus pandemic and then presenting remarks.

And really the Biden campaign betting that the American people want a difference in leadership when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. They really trying -- were trying to show voters what a Biden administration would look like.

He also took a moment to talk about his response to this memo that came out of the White House Science office claiming that the Trump administration had ended the coronavirus pandemic when we're seeing record numbers. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The White House Science office, this stunned me, put out a statement listing ending the COVID-19 pandemic as a top accomplishment of President Trump's first term. Top accomplishment of Trump's first term.

At the very moment when infection rates are going up almost every state in our union. Refusal of the Trump administration to recognize the reality we're living through at a time when almost 1000 Americans a day are dying every single day is an insult to every single person suffering from COVID-19. And every family who's lost a loved one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And buying going on to say that he has a plan that if he's elected, he will begin an acting on day one of his presidency reiterating a message we've heard from him again and again that science, experts, doctors will be leading this plan and leading his way if he's elected president, Wolf. A very stark contrast that they're trying to draw here in these closing days.

BLITZER: Indeed they are. All right, Jessica, thank you very much.

Let's get some more on all of this. Our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash is with us. Our CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman is with us, she is the White House Correspondent for "The New York Times."

Dana was just six days to go until Election Day, how would you describe the state of the race at this point?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Stable. And that is coming from sources I've been talking to on both sides of the aisle in both parties. It's obviously not just what we're seeing publicly but this is what I'm hearing that is going on with private polling private modeling across the board in the states that matter the most. Florida is still razor thin.

Pennsylvania, Joe Biden looks like he's a little bit ahead. But it is not that far off from the margin of error. And so, in the Great Lakes states, we saw today in Wisconsin and Michigan, Joe Biden seems to be going towards the notion of trying to build back that blue wall that the President smashed through four years ago.

[17:10:23]

There are lots of differences between now and 2016. But we should also say, I'm sure Maggie is hearing this also, Democrats have a lot of PTSD, understandably, from four years ago, where they thought things were looking good for Hillary Clinton. There are a lot of differences.

I'll just give you one example, one big one. And that's what you just showed when Jim Acosta was doing his report. Right now, things are bad in the economy, the stock market is going down, people are feeling very, very anxious. That maybe that may be something that is changing the stability of the race, and not in a good way for Donald Trump.

Four years ago, what changed the stability of the race was Jim Comey, and the surprise announcement that he was reopening an investigation into her. That's just what -- those are two examples of the differences between now and then.

BLITZER: Yes. The President keeps talking about the 401 Ks, you're going to love me. I'm doing great for you in the last three days. Not doing that great.

You know, Maggie, the President about to hold a rally in Arizona. He won that state four years ago, but polls show he's actually trailing Biden there right now. What are you hearing from your sources inside the White House? Are they still confident that the President has a path to victory?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So look, Wolf, they say they are confident that the President has a path to victory. The person who is the most confident is the President because the President tends to base these beliefs more on good and feel in what he sees in front of him in terms of campaign rally size and crowd size than he does based on data. That is just how he operates.

People who do pay closer attention to the data will acknowledge that it is a close race.

You know, that some members of the Trump team feel good about Arizona, some feel less good. Some Democrats feel good about Arizona, some Democrats feel less good. But I would say that I hear more confidence from Democrats about Arizona right now than I do from Republicans.

Look, Trump folks are aware of that they are on defense. They are on defense on a range of states and they seem to be trying to keep open a couple of different pathways to 270.

In their more honest moments, some members of the Trump team will concede that he is not likely to get 306 electoral votes again if he wins, it would be something closer to 280, maybe 290. But it will look different. It will be tighter.

And the country needs to be prepared that if Trump does win, he will likely lose the popular vote by a wider margin than he did last time.

And so, I just think there are a couple of factors to factor in. It is not, as Dana said, 2016, Joe Biden is a different candidate. And he is, and this is something his team has said for a while, and I do you think it's important. If he wins, it will be in part because he was the right candidate for this moment in time.

BLITZER: Yes. They did lose the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by some 3 million votes last time, but he won, the all-important, Electoral College.

You know, Dana, Joe Biden, spending the day in his home state of Delaware today, not exactly a battleground state. He was out giving a speech he was voting there, holding a coronavirus sub briefing with his medical advisors. His campaign did announce plans to be in Michigan this weekend with the former president. But is it mistake for him not to be out there in key battleground states on a critical day like today?

BASH: Well, we'll know at the end of the day, whether he is making a mistake that, frankly, Hillary Clinton made four years ago. Obviously, I totally agree, as I said before, they are different candidates. This is a very different campaign. But a candidate's time is the most important, most valuable asset at this point in the campaign. And the fact that Joe Biden isn't going to any of these the states, he's in Delaware, which is obviously safely in his column.

And instead, as you see on the screen there, using just the podium and just using earned media, as we call it, getting talking to the press. That is their strategy. Obviously, they're also going to battleground states, but nothing like the breakneck pace of Donald Trump.

And one of the reasons is what Maggie said, the President and his team are convinced that rallies help, not only because it's a way to collect data from the people who come to the rallies, but it's also because people who like Trump and are leaning towards Trump like to see him. They like to feel that he cares enough to go to their states or go to their town. And that's a major difference between the two campaigns, the two strategies but also probably a big difference between the two constituencies that each candidate is trying to appeal to.

BLITZER: Maggie, do you think by next Wednesday, the election is next Tuesday, by next Wednesday we will know who is the winner of this contest?

[17:15:01]

HABERMAN: Boy I'm really reluctant to predict when we will have a winner, Wolf. I mean I think that, look if it's a landslide in one direction or another we are likely to know on Tuesday night, almost certain to know on Tuesday night. If it's not, I don't know. And a lot of it is going to come down to how close vote totals are in states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina.

We may not know until a few days later, we may know that night. I mean, I think that one thing that the public needs to be mindful of is that there will be an incentive on the part of the President to declare a victory based on a high turnout on Election Day if that's what he gets.

And it does not mean necessarily that when all of the rest of the votes are counted, that he will be victorious. So I just think that we are entering into a bit of an unusual situation next week.

BLITZER: Yes. We will watch it every step of the way. And remember, it took more than 30 days in the election in 2000. Bush-Gore to find out --

BASH: Maggie's too young to remember that, Wolf.

BLITZER: She was in elementary school at the time. I actually covered that contest.

HABERMAN: Oh, it's comedy hour. That's good. Thank you. It's wonderful.

BLITZER: And we got in telling fancy (ph) for that one. All right guys, thank you very, very much, Dana, Maggie, good work.

There's breaking news, next, COVID cases surging across most of the U.S. as the positivity rate soars in many areas. And hospitalizations hit record levels.

Plus, an update on the race for a winning margin of 270 electoral votes. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:20:43]

BLITZER: The breaking pandemic news this hour, the U.S. coronavirus death toll now topping 227,000 people and more than 8.8 million Americans have been infected.

CNN's Nick Watt is in Los Angeles joining us now.

And Nick, Dr. Fauci has said just a little while ago that the United States is not in a good place right now.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, a lot of straight talking from Dr. Fauci today. He also said, forget this idea of herd immunity, for goodness sakes, take a look at the data. That's a direct quote.

On masks, he also said they've become almost a political statement. And we have to get past that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: We're rounding the curve. We're rounding the corner. It's happening.

WATT (voice-over): What actually happened yesterday in Wisconsin where the President said those words, more people were killed by COVID-19 in a single day than ever before, and record numbers in the hospital.

DR. NASIA SAFDAR, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, INFECTION CONTROL UNIV. OF WISCONSIN HOSPITAL AND CLINICS: It's a trajectory continues the way it is now. It's almost certain that we will find ourselves in a place where we will have to decide who gets the care.

WATT: Staff shortages for cost and feared.

GOV. TONY EVERS, (D) WISCONSIN: There's no way to sugarcoat it. We are facing an urgent crisis and there is an imminent risk to you, your family members.

WATT: Right now 40 states are seeing their average daily case counts rise. Nationwide, we just added more than a half million new cases in a week. The President still says it's just more testing. His own testing czar, once again, says he's wrong.

GIROIR: We do assess that the cases are actually going up. They're real, because hospitalizations and deaths are starting to go up. WATT: The average daily death toll just topped 800 for the first time in more than a month.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: If we continue our current behavior, you know, by the time we start to go down the other side of the curve, a half a million people will be dead.

WATT: Reintroducing restrictions now a very real possibility in many places.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY, (D) NEW JERSEY: Now it's pretty much up and down the state. I continue to think it's more likely scalpel community focused, surging of capacities and enforcement. But we have to leave all options on the table.

WATT: Record COVID-19 hospitalization is now in 13 states. Ohio, among them.

GOV. MIKE DEWINE, (R) OHIO: The current increase in utilization is noticeably sharper, steeper than the increase we saw during the summer peak.

WATT: This is life, but not as we knew it.

FAUCI: I think it will be easily by the end of 2021 and perhaps even into the next year before we start having some semblances of normality.

WATT: This baseball season was very far from normality. To the Dodgers, a 32-year wait for a World Series is over but COVID tinged, there's third baseman Justin Turner celebrating postgame. In the seventh inning, the team learned he's tested positive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously incredibly unfortunate, but you know, kind of speaks to you know what all of us are going through in 2020.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: And anyone who was at celebrating that win last night in Los Angeles without a mask is being advised to quarantine for 14 days.

Wolf, this city waited 32 years for a World Series. It's going to have to wait a little bit longer for an official victory parade. The Dodgers saying they're going to have to wait until it's safe. Wolf.

BLITZER: Better to be safe than sorry. Nick Watt in L.A. for us. Thank you.

Let's get some more in all of this. Dr. Peter Hotez is joining us, professor and Dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Hotez thanks so much for joining us.

And as you heard, the White House is trying to do some cleanup after saying that one of President Trump's first term accomplishments was, "ending the COVID-19 pandemic," ending it. How do you explain that mistake when nearly 1000 Americans die just yesterday, we just checked, 985 Americans died yesterday?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Wolf, there's no excuse for this. We are -- our nation is plunging into a terrible darkness from COVID-19. The numbers will be probably up around 80,000 new cases a day by the election, which is the worst ever and we're headed towards 100,000 new cases, we're headed towards a doubling of the number of Americans who've perished in this epidemic by the end of the year, early January.

[17:25:24]

Hospitals are surging, and it's not only new cases that are going up, it's of course, hospitalizations, positivity, all directions point to a horrible, horrible winter for us.

And then the ridiculous statement from one of the, you know, crowning jewels of science in America, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. I've worked with that office, I served as U.S. Science envoy in the Obama administration 2015-2016 with State Department in that White House Office. It's an extraordinary group of committed scientists and those who work in science policy.

It used to have 135 staff under Obama, it's down to I think 40 in the Trump administration. So, you know, he's trying to meddle with it in the same way that he meddled with the CDC and other aspects of our COVID response. So it's really tragic.

BLITZER: Yes. So sad that they politicize an operation like that.

On average, as you know, Dr. Hotez, more than 70,000 Americans are being infected with the virus every single day, 73,240 just yesterday. That's the highest average, by the way, we've ever seen. Does that spell disaster heading into this holiday season?

HOTEZ: Yes, it's going to be a pretty awful winter, I'm sorry to say.

Before I go into details about that, I always like to preface it by saying, life will get better as vaccines come along. By this time next year, we'll be in a much better place. And I think earlier than that, by the summer, won't be entirely normal, but we'll be in a much better position as a significant percentage of the country, of the adult population of the country gets vaccinated. In the meantime, we've got to get ready.

As I mentioned, I think we'll head towards 100,000 new cases per day as we go into December. Deaths will go up. And we're going to have to figure out a family by family who we're going to social distance with, get ready to prepare for mental health counseling on have access to that. It's going to be a really rough time as we move into end of November and into December,

BLITZER: Yes, despite what the President says we're rounding the turn, rounding the corner. Clearly, we're not. We're going in the exact opposite direction. Dr. Hotez, thanks as usual, for joining us.

HOTEZ: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Coming up, I will speak to the governor of one of the states that was hit hard by the pandemic early on, the Washington State Governor, Jay Inslee, he's standing by to join us live.

And we're also following the candidates' path to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win. We'll take a closer look at where President Trump and Joe Biden each stand, with only six days left before the election.

[17:33:02]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're following breaking news in the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. death toll now surpasses 227,000, 40 states are reporting an increase in cases compared to just a week ago including the state of Washington. We're joined by the governor of Washington State Democrat Jay Inslee. Governor Inslee, thank you so much for joining us.

As you know, the country added more than a half a million new cases of the virus in the past week alone. But in a press release, the White House listed ending the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the President's accomplishments. What's your reaction to that?

GOV. JAY INSLEE (D-WA): Well, he has accomplished a lot. He has totally disabled the national government from being a really a partner in the war against COVID. And as you know, both Republican and Democrat governors for months and months, we're asking him to be partners so that we can move forward. What he has accomplished is a total break of faith between our states and his administration due to his abject failure to confront this COVID crisis.

Now, I have to say this, and it's hard to recognize the reality of this. But it has become clear that he is much more interested in how COVID is hurting his reelection chances, than he is interested in how COVID is hurting American lives. And I say that advisedly. And if you doubt that, take a look at what Kushner said to Bob Woodward, where he basically said Donald Trump is a political genius. His goal was to try to shirk off responsibility of this on the governors, so he wouldn't have any. And that explains it to a tee.

So he has accomplished a total failure of national leadership on this. And I am very looking forward to working with Vice President Biden as a president who will tackle this, who understands that we haven't turned a corner or the only thing is turned a corner than ambulances that heading to our ambulances right now. So I know vice president's going to be a stand up leader on this and I look forward to working with him.

[17:35:05]

BLITZER: We're going to have much more on those conversations between Jared Kushner, Bob Woodward later this hour. So we'll update our viewers on that.

Meanwhile, as you know, Governor the White House testings are Admiral Brett Giroir, he contradicted the President and his White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows today saying in his wise words, we can control the virus. What's going to -- what's it going to take for the federal government, from your perspective as a governor to do that?

INSLEE: Well, number one, we still need additional supplies for increasing testing. Number two, we need national leadership. Look leadership is not always passing a statute or an appropriation. Leadership is a call to action of our fellow Americans to do what is necessary to win this war. We have totally lacked that leadership. Now, here's the one thing the admiral I think alluded to, we do have the weapons available to us to restrain this pandemic. And they basically are a piece of cloth.

Look, these masks are incredibly effective. Our research at the University of Washington and internationally have shown the effectiveness of mask. I was the first governor to impose a mask mandate so that when people go shopping, they make sure people are wearing masks. This is one of the reasons we have been relatively successful in my state where 45 other states, unfortunately, have higher infection rates, some 10 times higher, is our state. So we've demonstrated the things we can do, including social distancing.

And the message we could use from the President is now, look, as we had the holidays, finding ways to be safe in our own homes, to distance, to have smaller gatherings, to wear masks, even in our own homes. These are tools available to us. And we need leadership to call us to action on that. I look forward to having that from Vice President Biden.

BLITZER: Today, President Trump said that if states want to take his words, a lot of time counting ballots after Election Day, that won't be allowed by the courts. How do you interpret that? Because for years, your state Washington State, you've had mail-in balloting for years, I think 100 percent of your ballots are early, early voting along those lines, and you've had virtually no problems, right?

INSLEE: We've had no problems we have counted the ballots, it's taking days to count the total balance. But guess what life is going on here. It's going on very, very well. We count everybody's ballot, Republican, Democrat, Independents, we count everybody's ballot. And it works.

And we've got to understand where Donald Trump at this moment is doing two things. Number one, he's looking for excuses for a potential loss. And number two, he is trying to set up our great country of the original democracy in modern times for a great fall by not counting the ballots, and he will make a run and you can predict this.

Two, the Supreme Court in an effort to subvert counting these ballots, a ballot that is cast on Election Day, that isn't quite counted for a few hours or a few days is just as important. That American who cast that ballot, their voice is just as important is a ballot cast in person three days before that date. And they ought to be counted according to state law. So I'm going to

be a little bit like Paul Revere, Donald Trump is coming for your ballot. And he may try to prevent it from being counted. This country needs to stand up against that and not allow that subversion of democracy and our voices count here.

Look, this is a moment where politicians, Republican and Democrat have to stand up for the integrity of let these votes be counted.

BLITZER: Yes.

INSLEE: That's the American way.

BLITZER: All right, Governor Inslee, good luck next -- to the next several days. We'll be in touch with you. Thanks so much for joining us.

INSLEE: You bet. Be well.

BLITZER: You too, please. Stay safe out there.

[17:39:02]

Coming up as President Trump campaigns in Arizona, we'll take a closer look at where it and the other battleground states stand in the crucial race for 270 electoral votes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Breaking news, a just released CNN national poll shows Joe Biden leading President Trump 54 percent to 42 percent among likely voters. Despite the double digit lead, it's the state by state Electoral College results that will determine the winner CNN's Phil Mattingly is joining us right now. Phil, take us inside the state of the race right now. Has the political landscape really shifted at all since the final presidential debate?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, you make a key point, everything that matters is on the state level. But we'll start with the national polls, because that's what we have out of CNN right now. And that's what we have post-debate. It's interesting when you try to get a state of the race right now, it's clear that while President Trump's pathway may be similar this time around to reelection, the race is very different.

Take a look six days out back in 2016. Hillary Clinton led President Trump by five points, that margin narrowed to three or two towards Election Day. Right now, as you noted, CNN polling has President Trump down by 12 points. But Wolf, as you noted, it's all about the states and whether President Trump can replicate this map or some version of this map. Obviously, the President very focused and his team on the Midwest where he punctured the blue wall was how he basically found his pathway to 270 electoral votes in 2016.

But where was the president today? The President was here in the state of Arizona. A state that he won by about 4.5 points back in 2016. Now, people might remember Hillary Clinton and her campaign made a late play to this state because of what they thought they saw on the data, data that has since 2016 started to play out in Democratic favor.

They want to Senate race here in 2018. And right now, if you look at the Arizona polling polls that CNN has put together, Joe Biden with a four point lead not astronomical, but a lead and a state that has traditionally gone Republican. Why does that matter?

[17:45:27]

Let's take a look at the CNN race to 270. And you get a sense of what Arizona would mean for Joe Biden based on that polling, you see that right now. This is light blue, the state of Arizona. It's leaning Biden's way. And if you take solid Democrats plus leaning Democrats, Joe Biden is already up over 270 electoral votes.

But Wolf, here's where Arizona really kicks in, say President Trump wins every single gold state here. These are all the toss up states. Give them every single one of them he's still under 290 electoral votes. That includes the major state toss up state of Florida. Now go ahead and give him Pennsylvania as well.

Another crucial state Joe Biden, if he wins Arizona and wins everything else on this map is still 270. Pennsylvania, Florida go Donald Trump's way, if Joe Biden holds Arizona that is another pathway to 270 that's why the Trump campaign is focused there. That's why Democrats hope, think they can put in a play this time around, Wolf.

BLITZER: The battleground states are so, so critical. Phil Mattingly, thank you very, very much.

Coming up, you're going to hear what Jared Kushner told Bob Woodward about the power struggle between the President and his medical experts' right at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. And there's also breaking news along the Gulf Coast right now. Hurricane Zeta is making landfall over Louisiana right now. And New Orleans is right in the path of the storm.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:52:03]

BLITZER: Breaking news, we have new insights into President Trump's coronavirus response from none other than his son-in-law and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner. Back in April of Kushner spoke with the legendary journalist Bob Woodward, who recorded the interview as while working on his book "Rage."

CNN Special Correspondent, Jamie Gangel obtained some of those recordings is here to walk us through them. Jamie, in this new audio Kushner reveals a power battle between the President and the medical experts advising him on the pandemic. What are you learning?

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: First of all, Wolf, I just want to say these recordings were done with Jared Kushner's permission. It happened as you said back in April, at that time for context, about a 40,000 Americans had already died. And what the audio shows is really a pattern of callous disregard for the health and safety of the American public. Listen, as Jared Kushner admits their political strategy was really to foist the responsibility of the guidelines onto governors and then to sideline the health experts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The last thing was kind of doing the guidelines, which was interesting, and that in my mind was almost like, you know, it's almost like Trump getting the country back from the doctors, right? In the sense that what he now did was, you know, he's going to own the open-up.

There are three phases, there's the panic phase, the pain phase, and then the comeback phase. That doesn't mean there's not still a lot of pain and there won't be paying for a while. But that basically was we've now put out rules to get back to work. Trump's now back in charge, it's not the doctors, they've kind of -- we have like a negotiated settlement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GANGEL: A negotiated settlement, Wolf, that sounds like they saw the doctors as adversaries. It also underscores their political strategy. They had one concern, Election Day. Instead of doing the hard work at the federal level testing, tracing, Trump just wanted to be the open up President, Wolf.

BLITZER: You know, it's really interesting, because Kushner also attacks Republicans. Tell us about how we've used the President's leadership of the party.

GANGEL: I don't think this is going to sit well with lifelong Republicans. Jared Kushner is dismissive of the party, the Republican platform. And listen as he credits his father-in-law with, quote, a hostile takeover.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KUSHNER: I learned this early on that neither party is really a party. They're collections of tribes, right? And so the Republican Party was a collection of a bunch of tribes. And then, you know, parties as they grow tend to be more about being exclusive than inclusive. And so, you know, you look at like the Republican Party platform, it's a document meant to like piss people off basically more, you know, because it's done by activists.

BOB WOODWARD, AMERICAN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Yes.

KUSHNER: So you have a disproportionality between what issues people are vocal on and what the people, the voters really care about. And what Trump's been able to do is I say he's basically did a full hostile takeover of the Republican Party. And I don't think it's even as much about the issues. I think it's about the attitudes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:55:16]

GANGEL: As we know, Wolf, there was no platform this time around. Again, some of this isn't a surprise, but to hear Jared Kushner be so dismissive is not good the week before Election Day, Wolf.

BLITZER: Absolutely. All right, Jamie, good reporting. Thank you very much.

We're also following some breaking news along the Gulf Coast where Hurricane Zeta is making landfall right now across southeastern Louisiana. It's a powerful storm with 110 mile an hour sustained winds, nearly a category three. Forecasters are warning of life- threatening storm surge. Waves above to 50 feet have been observed just off the coast. Also alarming New Orleans is in the storm's path. Extremely dangerous hurricane conditions will spread from southeastern Louisiana and to Mississippi tonight. We'll have much more on this coming up.

Also coming up the anonymous administration insider who warned about President Trump in a shocking op-ed in the New York Times in later in a book reveals himself.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)