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Trump & Biden Make Last-Minute Swing Through Battleground States; Police In NC Use Pepper Spray To Break Up March To Polling Place; USPS Reports Another Drop In On-Time Movement Of Ballots; Fauci Unleashes On WH Pandemic Approach Ahead Of Election; Trump Campaigns In Iowa As Part Of Battleground Blitz; Trump Slams Supreme Court Decision On Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballots; Democrats Eye Senate Takeover As GOP Fights To Hold Control. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired November 1, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: We have legal battles still brewing over those mail-in ballots and so the candidates are blitzing the battleground states. Just a short time from now, President Trump will speak in Iowa, the second of five stops he's making today. He's already been to Michigan. Later, it's on to North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. So five different states in one day.

Also next hour, Joe Biden is in the critical state of Pennsylvania. He'll be at a get out to vote event in Philadelphia, one of two events he has planned. Now, in these final hours, it's less about changing hearts and minds, it's really more about getting people to show up, especially in those key battleground states that could swing this election either way.

Because Make no mistake, this is still anyone's race right now. A series of new polls out have shown extremely tight races in Florida, North Carolina and Arizona. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Dubuque, Iowa where the President is holding a rally this hour. So what is the President's closing message today, Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, the President seems to be focused in these final hours of this campaign on continuing to downplay this surge of coronavirus cases that we are seeing across the country. President Trump not only denying that this surge that we have seen with our own eyes that we see in the data, whether it is in terms of number of cases, hospitalizations or even deaths all of which are rising across this country.

The President continues to be in denial and he's also trying to seek out a difference between himself and Joe Biden accusing the former Vice President who's now the Democratic nominee of wanting to lock down the country for the next several years. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Under Biden's lockdown, you will be living in a prison state. That's what it is. They want to lock it down. Let's lock our country down for a couple of years and let it go away. And by the way, those are the people that do the worst. They're the ones doing the worst. Europe impose draconian lockdowns in cases where surging and deaths were surging. But think of it, draconian now they have to do it all over again. What the hell are they doing? I think I'll get to go over and explain it to him, but they're locking down parts of Europe again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: Now, what the President is saying there simply isn't true as it relates to Joe Biden. Joe Biden has not said that he intends to lock down the country. Instead, he said that he plans to listen to the public health experts whose advice the President has recently been ignoring. And as it relates to Europe, Europe, yes, it is experiencing a surge in cases right now. Several leaders are planning to lock down their countries, but they didn't experience the summer surge that the United States in and therefore the U.S. is in a far worse position today than many of those European countries.

Now, the President beyond the coronavirus issue is also been talking about this issue of his supporters who surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus in Texas. Just yesterday the President saying I love Texas and offering no criticism of those Trump supporters who appeared to show up and surround this Biden campaign bus. That prompted the Biden campaign to cancel several stops in Texas, Ana.

CABRERA: Jeremy, you're doing a great job competing with that theatrical music behind you. I feel like I'm on Broadway right now. I have to ask you about this new development. The President's go-to advisor on the coronavirus having to apologize this afternoon for an appearance that he made on Russian state media. What happened?

DIAMOND: Yes, that's right. We saw a Dr. Scott Atlas who we should remind everybody is not an infectious disease expert, not a public health expert, but he has been the primary medical adviser to President Trump on this coronavirus crisis these last couple of months. He appeared on a Russian television network RT just yesterday and he is now apologizing for having done so.

Tweeting, "I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent. I regret doing the interview and apologize for allowing myself to be taken advantage of. I especially apologize to the national security community who is working hard to defend us."

Now, while it may be controversial that Dr. Scott Atlas appeared on that Russian television network, what's far more controversial and perhaps far more dangerous is the advice that he is presenting to the President. We know that Dr. Atlas has been arguing for these policies that essentially amounts to herd immunity, essentially saying allow this virus to run roughshod over young people in this country, protect the vulnerable.

And we heard Dr. Anthony Fauci in an interview with The Washington Post just yesterday say that Dr. Scott Atlas simply doesn't know what he's talking about and that he's wrong in the policies that he's advising the President to follow, Ana. CABRERA: Jeremy Diamond for us interview Iowa. Thank you. The President expected there any moment now. Let's head to Philadelphia where Joe Biden is campaigning hard to try to sew up the state where he was born, battleground Pennsylvania.

Democrats have far outpaced Republicans when it comes to early voting in that state. So far, they have cast 67 percent of votes so far. That's compared to 22 percent for Republicans.

[14:05:02]

How could that balance shift on Tuesday? CNN's M.J. Lee is in Philadelphia, which is one of the bluest cities there in Pennsylvania. M.J., the fact that this is the city where Biden is spending the second to last day of his campaign yet more proof, I guess, that this isn't about changing minds today. It's really about driving voter turnout. So how is the Biden campaign feeling about Pennsylvania right now?

M.J. LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, the Biden campaign could not be making it more clear that Pennsylvania is a critical, critical state for their campaign. The campaign actually just announced what the final 24 hours of their campaign is going to look like tomorrow. And essentially, the entire campaign is going to be fanned out across the state of Pennsylvania.

Just listen to this list of events that Biden himself has tomorrow. He will be in Beaver County with union and labor leaders. And then he heads to Pittsburgh, where he is going to have a drive-in events with African-American community leaders. And then his final election night event will also be a driving event in Pittsburgh, which is notable because you might recall that Biden's first ever event as a campaign candidate was actually in Pittsburgh, as well.

And it is not just Biden who is spending a ton of time tomorrow in Pennsylvania. It is also his running mate Kamala Harris, the campaign says that she will be in Luzerne County, Lehigh Valley and also ending the day in Philadelphia. And both of their spouses will also be spending the time across the state tomorrow as well.

It is just one of the clearest reminders, Ana, that one of the best paths and clear paths to victory that the Biden campaign sees right now runs through the Rustbelt. And that, of course, includes this state of Pennsylvania, a state that Hillary Clinton lost in 2016.

Democrats are still feeling the sting from that from four years ago and just wanting to make sure that they don't repeat the mistakes from four years ago, Ana.

CABRERA: That's 44,000-vote difference there in Pennsylvania in 2016. Thank you very much M.J. Lee. It's not just the campaign's flooding battleground states, so are the voters.

Early in-person and those mail-in ballots are breaking records all across the country. CNN correspondents are on the ground in the key battleground states for us. I want to start with CNN's Gary Tuchman, who is in Cleveland, Ohio and we learned, as M.J. reported just this afternoon, Biden is planning to make a visit there tomorrow, Gary. So just two days out, what are you hearing from voters?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're in Ohio. We actually took a detour, Ana. We left Cleveland. We drove about two hours south and right now we're in Delaware County, Ohio. Population about 200,000, just north of the State Capitol of Columbus and you are looking at democracy in action.

This is Sunday early voting and Ohio is one of only five states of the country that has Sunday early voting. They've had a lot of early voting here in The Buckeye State. This is the 23rd day of early voting and tomorrow there's more early voting before the final day.

And everyone says Tuesday's election day well here in Ohio and most other states, it's actually the end of election season. One more early voting day here in The Buckeye State. We can tell you four years ago Donald Trump won the state by little over eight percentage points.

Now the polls show the race is too close to call and we all take voting seriously for president, but no one takes it more seriously than Ohioans because they have a knack of picking presidents. For the last 14 elections, they have picked the winner of every presidential election. Last time they missed here in Ohio was 1960 when Ohio voters voted for Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy.

Of course, eight years later, Richard Nixon did become president and the Buckeye voters voted for Richard Nixon again. But there is record set of voting here and we talked to the Ohio Secretary of State about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK LAROSE (R) OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: Based on 2016 numbers, the early voting numbers have tripled. The absentee voting numbers have doubled. So we're blowing away any previous numbers that we've seen, and those are a few days old. We're gonna have new numbers tomorrow and what I believe is that by the time the polls open at 6:30 am on Tuesday, November 3rd, I think more than of half the votes may have already been counted or cast rather not counted.

But that's an important thing for people to understand that really Ohioans are taking advantage of early and absentee voting in absolutely record-breaking numbers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: We do want to talk about the precautions because of COVID. As you can see behind me, the ballot boxes, you guys can walk? Come on. We don't want to delay any of the voting taking place in the state or this country, so come on by and congratulations in casting your vote.

COVID precautions, all of the boxes are placed six feet apart. There is constant cleaning going on. Everyone who works here is mandated to wear a mask. So you may be asking what about the people who vote here? Well, the people who vote here are told we want you to wear a mask, but if they insist upon not wearing a mask, people will be allowed to vote here because they say they don't want to disenfranchise voters.

Now, let me go to my colleague in the battleground state of North Carolina Suzanne Malveaux.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Gary.

[14:10:01]

And this morning while many North Carolina voters were either attending church service in-person or by Zoom, we went to a warehouse to track the ballots, follow the ballots that are already being counted and sorted as North Carolina really shatters all previous records.

We're looking at 4.5 million who voted early. That is 62 percent of all registered voters for North Carolina, to put it in perspective, that is 95 percent of all those who voted back in 2016. This is a competitive state poll showing that perhaps Biden just a smidge ahead of President Trump, but still up for grabs and a story that we are following an ugly story out of grand North Carolina, attracting national attention.

This was several hundred peaceful marches on a get out to vote effort, if you will, led by a Rev. Greg Drumwright. They were heading from the courthouse to a polling center when they kneeled and gave a minute of silence, a moment of silence for George Floyd on the street. That's when law enforcement authorities told them to move to the sidewalk.

Apparently, they didn't move fast enough. They deployed pepper spray. You see in social media videos and stories of children throwing up for the impact of that spray as well as a woman who was in a motorized wheelchair. This is a very controversial story of many people who have been paying attention to this speaking out about it.

We've heard from the Governor Roy Cooper who has said this is unacceptable that it was voter intimidation, the NAACP has also gotten involved. And now we're hearing today from the Reverend as well as law enforcement officials who are defending their actions. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. GREGORY B. DRUMWRIGHT, ORGANIZER OF "I AM CHANGE" MARCH: I and our organization, marchers, demonstrators and potential voters left here sunken, sad, traumatized, obstructed and distracted from our intention to lead people all the way to the polls in Graham, North Carolina on the final day of one stop voter registration and voting.

LIEUTENANT DANIEL SISK, GRAHAM POLICE DEPARTMENT: Understand that some people were saying that we pepper sprayed children and disabled folks. Again, I'm going to reiterate, we never directly sprayed anyone in the face. It was all directed towards the ground in an effort to disperse the crowd.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And so voting right activists are really readying themselves, steadying themselves for Tuesday in case there are any problems at all. They are training people to make sure they can still participate and vote. Now, I go to Ryan Young out of Wisconsin.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Suzanne. Look, this room was packed just about an hour ago and then the packer's game started. Voting has been very brisk here in the state of Wisconsin. You can see the room where people have been casting their ballots for about the last few hours or so.

Look, this is a state that really does believe in getting out to vote early but we see record numbers here really 1.8 million people have already voted in the state. But you also have to remember they're dealing with a coronavirus surge. And you can see this plate that's been put in place to make sure the workers here are not close to anyone as they walk up.

They also disinfect anything that anyone might touch in the way of that. Remember 5,000 new cases just as of Friday. But we talked to a family that was definitely excited about the idea of getting out and getting their chance to vote. They're worried about the coronavirus, but they felt like this was their civic duty and they had to be here. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE OLSON, WISCONSIN VOTER: Well, I always think it's important to vote and get your word out there. It's Vince's first time voting, so of course we want to all do it together. So it was kind of more exciting for us this year than it has been any other years just because of this guy here.

VINCENT OLSON, WISCONSIN VOTER: Well, I was pretty - at first I was excited about it. I was pretty happy that I didn't have to go to school, but after a while I was like man like this sucks.

MARY OLSON, WISCONSIN VOTER: Very challenging, very difficult teaching remotely, a whole different stress level. I'm at the end of my career, so I feel like I'm learning how to teach all over again. He's my only son. It was very difficult for me to have him want to walk across the stage. I feel like we need somebody in office who's going to do the right thing, which is to shut the state down, close things up for three months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes. This is the last day of early voting. Like I said 50 percent, almost 50 percent of people have already decided to cast their vote. This is the last day of early voting goes to four o'clock. So that's what we're dealing with right now. Now, over to Randi Kaye in Broward County, Florida.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Ryan. Just about five hours left here of early voting on this final day of early voting here in the state of Florida.

[14:15:04] I'm here in Broward County in plantation and here in the state 8.7 million Floridians have already voted. That's more than half of all the registered voters here in the state of Florida. If you want to take a look at who actually has voted, there is a professor from the University of Florida who looks at this very closely. He tracks it and he says that the independent voters really haven't been showing up very much at the polls, not nearly as much as the Republicans and the Democrats only about 43 percent of them.

So the question is will they show up on Election Day or will they sit this election out the rest of those independent voters. On Election Day in 2016, those independents who did show up on that day did break for Donald Trump. The other question is where are the young voters, according to this Professor, 70 percent of those 65 and older have voted in the early voting process. But as far as younger people, only about 39 percent of those 18 to 23 have voted.

He's also taking a look at the race in terms of the race breakdown in this race. And he found that African-American voters and Hispanic voters are lagging behind white voters so far, in the early voting process by about seven percentage points. We talked to some voters hear about that today and here's what one of them told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's definitely a great excitement amongst African-American and Latinos. It's just hard to say. I think a lot too has to do with absentee ballots, a lot is going in the mail this year rather than seeing a lot of folks here at the polls in this area, but I truly believe a lot of people are still voting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Democratic support certainly seems to be lagging in Miami-Dade County just south of here. It's a big reason why former President Barack Obama heading to South Florida tomorrow. Ana, back to you.

CABRERA: All right. Randi Kaye, Gary Tuchman, Ryan Young, Suzanne Malveaux, my thanks to all of you.

Coming up, Fauci unfiltered, the nation's top infectious disease expert not mincing words about the White House pandemic response and what he really thinks about one member of the Coronavirus Task Force.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:21:05]

CABRERA: Breaking news now just two days before the election, the U.S. Postal Service is announcing yet another drop in on-time movement of ballots. The Postal Service says that on a national level it moves fewer ballots on time on Saturday than it did on Friday and the movement is even slower in critical battleground states including Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina among others.

The worst hit states so far appear to be Colorado and Wyoming where less than half of all ballots are being moved on time. We will keep you updated on that situation.

Meantime, we also have this just in to CNN, the FBI is now investigating the alleged harassment of a Biden campaign bus in Texas. Remember, Jeremy talked about this at the top of the show. Let me show you the video again. You can see a caravan of Trump supporters surrounding a bus as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin.

And according to a source familiar with what happened, people in this so-called Trump train shouted obscenities and blockaded the entire Biden campaign entourage. Now, a Biden staffer later tweeted a picture of her damaged car. And at a rally earlier today, President Trump defended the supporters saying they were protecting the Biden campaign bus.

Let's talk about the pandemic which is worsening. The nation's top infectious disease expert totally unfiltered this weekend just a couple of days before the election. In a new interview with The Washington Post, Dr. Anthony Fauci slams the White House's pandemic response saying, "We're in for a whole lot of hurt. It is not a good situation. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly."

He also went after the President's go-to pandemic advisor, Dr. Scott Atlas, who we should note is a radiologist and not an infectious disease expert. Fauci saying, "I have real problems with that guy. He's a smart guy who's talking about things that I believe he doesn't have any real insight or knowledge or experience in."

Dr. Fauci also saying Joe Biden's campaign is taking the pandemic seriously. White House Spokesman, Judd Deere, firing back at Fauci in a statement to CNN saying, "As a member of the Task Force, Dr. Fauci has a duty to express concerns or push for a change in strategy, but he's not done that instead choosing to criticize the President in the media and make his political leanings known by praising the President's opponent, exactly what the American people have come to expect from The Swamp."

CNN Medical Analyst and Brown University Emergency Physician Dr. Megan Ranney is with us now. So Dr. Ranney, Dr. Fauci has been doing everything he can to save lives and so to hear the White House dismiss him as a member of The Swamp, what's your reaction to that?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, BROWN UNIVERSITY EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: I am almost speechless. Dr. Fauci has been an active member of administrations going back to the time of Reagan. He is one of our country's most well-respected, well-published and truly nonpartisan scientists. His only goal as he has been standing up there next to Trump for the past seven months has been to try to keep the American people safe and to inject some accuracy and some evidence into our government's response to this pandemic.

To see them slam Fauci like this, especially coming on top of Kushner's words about taking back the pandemic response from the doctors that we heard last week, it is just infuriating. And I hope that the American public don't listen, I hope that they continue to trust Fauci because he has never done anything that has not been guided by both science and by public interest, which is more than I can say for those who are criticizing him.

CABRERA: Dr. Scott Atlas is somebody who has the President's ear right now, but he is apologizing for an appearance he made on Russian state TV this weekend. Now, he apologized for choosing that media outlet not for what he said about lock downs which - well, let's play it for you.

[14:25:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT ATLAS, ADVISER, WH CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: Lock downs have been one of the - will go down as an epic failure of public policy by people who refuse to accept they were wrong, who were wrong or who refuse to accept they were wrong didn't know the data, didn't care and became a frenzy of stopping COVID-19 cases at all costs and those costs are massive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Again, Atlas has now apologized for appearing on RT, but Dr. Ranney, do you agree with Atlas that lockdowns were 'epic failure'?

RANNEY: Absolutely not. Back in March and April when the country put lockdowns in place, we literally had no other choice. We knew virtually nothing about this virus or how it spread. We were seeing numbers skyrocket across the Northeast, the Pacific Northwest and California.

And you can actually track week by week after we put those lockdowns in place. You saw the case curves start to plateau and then drop within two to three weeks after those lockdowns were put in place.

Now we have a choice. Now we know that masking, physical distancing, testing tracing and isolation work and we theoretically have the capability to avoid future lockdowns. If we have to put lockdowns in place now, it is only because we have failed to support the public health infrastructure and the very real strategies that could protect us from having to go back into lockdown, while also protecting Americans from infection and death.

CABRERA: Are we there yet, the need for another lockdown? We're seeing it in parts of Europe.

RANNEY: We are close, Ana. I said last week on CNN that we were at the brink. We are even closer to that Brink today. We've seen infections go up by over 40 percent across the country. Deaths are 15 percent up compared to two weeks ago. Hospitalizations are approximately 50 percent up across the country. Those numbers are scary.

And as an emergency physician who works in an ER here in Rhode Island, I can tell you that the mood is grim. We have a little sliver of time to change what we're doing before we do have no choice but lockdowns again. I hope we don't get there. It's not fair to businesses, to kids, to parents or to families. But it's better than seeing our loved ones die. So we have a little time to mask up and physically distance. CABRERA: Yes. That's what I was going to say mask up, everybody. Dr. Megan Ranney, thank you so much for joining us and thank you for all you do. Really appreciate it.

He's won an Academy Award and multiple Grammys, talking about rapper, actor and activist Common. He spent the week visiting the areas that will decide this election and he joins us live with what he discovered. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:30:00]

CABRERA: Welcome back. You are looking at live pictures right now of President Trump's arrival. This is in Dubuque, Iowa. We are awaiting the president to come off the plane and greet his supporters there for the second of five different rally events the president has today in five different states. We, of course, we're monitoring these different events.

Now, Joe Biden is stumping in the key battleground of Pennsylvania today. Meantime, there is an unexpected battle going on in Georgia right now, a state that Democrats would love to flip. And it could be within striking distance for the Biden campaign. Just a few points separate the two candidates, based on our polling average. And that's why Kamala Harris is campaigning there today and President Trump will rally there later tonight.

I'm joined now by someone who is in Georgia to help get out the vote for Democrats, Grammy-winning rapper Common is with us now. His new album just came out on Friday. It's called, A Beautiful Revolution Part 1. Common, it's great to have you here.

I know a lot of people care about what you have to say. You've been on the road in a number of battleground states. You've been listening to so many people trying to ramp up voter enthusiasm and turnout as well.

I want to start there in Georgia, a state that hasn't gone blue since 1992. Based on what you were seeing and hearing, do you think Democrats can flip that state this year?

COMMON, RAPPER AND ACTIVIST: I really do. And thank you for having me. But Georgia was energized. It was inspiring to see the people from all walks of life. I got to actually sit and meet with Senate Candidate Raphael Warnock and Jon Osoff. And they were -- it was a beautiful, like, picture of what America could be. This is a black man and a white man who -- both we're thinking about like all communities, and they were working together thinking about like what is the vision for people in Georgia, but also just America. It made me hopeful.

And I saw people from, you know, like from the most -- some of the most poor neighborhoods still coming out aware, and talking about voting. They were talking about issues. And, you know, of course, there are some people who -- one of the reasons I'm out there is to encourage those who don't feel a part of this process to feel a part of it, to feel empowered voting means. CABRERA: Absolutely. We mentioned that Kamala Harris will be there today. Former President Obama will be campaigning for Biden in Georgia tomorrow. How important is his return to the campaign trail in these days?

COMMON: Well, I think President Obama has truly served as a beacon of light, as a leader, always talked about the demeanor of the country and the aura and the energy of our country was just in a greater place when he had President Obama in.

[14:35:00]

And these past four years have shown something else, the dissension, no matter what party you're from or what your politics, we can all acknowledge these hasn't been the best times for America.

And that being said, President Obama has a lot of presence. He's speaking that truth. He's saying the truth, and he understands -- the one thing I always loved about President Obama is you could tell he cares for everybody and he listened to everybody.

Now, I really do believe that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are on that path. They are taking into consideration, from just being -- talking, having me having conversations with them and just also hearing them speak towards criminal justice reform, hearing them speak towards health care and actually coming up with a plan for our country that's dealing with a pandemic and people losing their lives, and actually coming up with creating jobs for everyday people. I feel like they are on the path of what Obama was wanting to create and working to create.

So, I mean, it's great to see Obama out doing it. His presence and his words mean a lot. And I think he represents the togetherness of this country.

CABRERA: Black voter turnout dipped in 2016, compared to what we saw when they were turning out the vote for President Obama. Based on the early voting though this year, it looks to be surging again. Why do you think that is?

COMMON: Well, I think we saw so many injustices going on from the killings of George Floyd to Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and many other names that I could name. I think we understood that the protests mean something, speaking out means something. But the act of voting is the next step to change the situation. And I think we really started to connect, make that connection, and people just want better. We want better for our lives, and better for our communities, better for our families.

And there are candidates speaking to it, you know, like in Georgia, when I spoke of Raphael Warnock, but then in South Carolina, you have Jaime Harrison. So you have people that I think black voters and brown voters can actually say, oh, this person is actually thinking about, considering us, and speaking to things that we -- that will affect our lives. And I just think there's a charge going on right now, the country just wants better. CABRERA: Well, Common, it's great to hear your perspective. Thank you for what you do too, to try to motivate people to participate in America's democracy and I really appreciate your time today. Thanks so much.

COMMON: Thank you for having me. Blessings.

CABRERA: You too.

After a race like no other, it all ends here. Join us for a special live coverage the way only CNN can bring it to you, from the votes to the critical count, understand what is happening in your state and all across the country, Election Night in America, our special coverage, starts Tuesday at 4:00 P.M. Eastern on CNN.

Both Biden and Trump are using the final hours of the campaign to scramble for any last-minute votes in the key states. But 48 hours out, who has a better path to victory? We'll check in with Mark Preston at the magic wall, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:40:00]

CABRERA: Welcome back. These are live images right now. The president who just landed in Dubuque, Iowa for the second of five events he has today in five different states. He is gearing up to talk to supporters there. You can see it's a chilly day but he's bundled up. We'll listen in and we'll bring that to you here shortly.

Meantime, he's been ramping up his attacks on mail-in ballots with the election now just two days away. In Pennsylvania yesterday, where he had four events, the president appeared to reference the Supreme Court's decision to allow that state to count mail-in ballots that are received up to three days after Election Day, as long as they're postmarked by November 3rd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: If we win on Tuesday or -- thank you very much, Supreme Court -- shortly thereafter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Okay. I want to bring in CNN's Senior Political Analyst Mark Preston. So, Mark, let's say the president doesn't need the help of the Supreme Court here, what does Trump's path to 270 electoral votes look like compared to Joe Biden's?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, let me first start with this, Ana. This is the map, as we see it right here. Look, record number of votes have been cast, they haven't been counted. On Tuesday night, this is going to fill in. There's a possibility we may not have a winner announced on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Everyone needs to just kind of calm down because the map will fill in, election officials will get us there. But where does Donald Trump go from here? Well, he's got a tough road ahead of him. If you look right here, this is his path to victory back in 2016, 306 electoral votes. Now, he's in a bit of trouble right now. Florida no longer a sure thing, Georgia no longer a sure thing, Texas no longer a sure thing, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, where he is right now, and then we go all the way out here to Arizona. So, look where he drops right there, Ana. He drops all the way down to 145 electoral votes.

For the purposes of this exercise, let's give him Texas. Donald Trump is going to win a Republican red state, let's assume that he does, up to 183. Let's go down to Florida, Democrats are bullish on it but they're still cognizant of the fact that this still could be a Republican state.

Let's give him Georgia, where we expect him later on today in a state he shouldn't have to be, and because it is a solid Republican state, now he's up to 220 electoral votes.

Okay. Now, look at the map where we are right now. He got a good poll out of Iowa yesterday, let's give him that as well, still short of 270 votes. So where does he go? Well, where did he go today? We'll see him North Carolina. We saw Mike Pence in North Carolina as well. If he wins that state, 249, again, what's left? Well, what's left is the Midwest right here and over here in Arizona, where we see Donald Trump Jr. who will be campaigning there today. They are spreading all the way out.

[14:45:00]

So, for Donald Trump to cross the 270 threshold, even if he picks up Pennsylvania right now, he doesn't get there. He needs one of these other states. So that is Donald Trump's path, not a very quick path for him, I have to say either.

Where does Joe Biden go? Well, let's give him the same map. Let's give him Florida now, Georgia being on the table, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Arizona. Where does Joe Biden go from here? Look, even if he doesn't pick up Florida and he doesn't pick up Georgia, he still has a viable path. He could pick up North Carolina, he could pick up Pennsylvania, and then here we go right here, if he were to pick up Wisconsin, he wins. If he were to pick up Michigan, he'll win as well, much more paths.

And, by the way, this is not even getting us out west to Arizona, which a lot of people are talking about, Ana.

CABRERA: Okay. Thank you very much for breaking it down. Mark, we'll check back with next hour.

As we go to break right now, live pictures of Trump's rally in Iowa, the second of five stops today. Stay with us, you're watching CNN's countdown to the election.

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[14:50:00]

CABRERA: It is the final push before the election and President Trump has an ambitious agenda. His second rally happening right now, this is in Dubuque, Iowa, before he heads to three other states this afternoon, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida is still to come.

And with all eyes on the presidential race, it's important to remember the stakes are just as high down the ticket with Republicans fighting to keep control over the Senate and Democrats fight and to make sure that doesn't happen.

CNN Senior Political Writer and Analyst Harry Enten is joining us now. Harry, which party has the advantage of these Senate races as we head into Election Day?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Look, it's a close call, but right now, I do think the Democrats have an advantage. The forecast is to get up to 51 seats. There are 47 seats right now. But I will note that this race remains within the margin of error.

CABRERA: Where are the best chances for pickups for each party?

ENTEN: Yes. So, look, Republicans are probably going to pick up that seat down in Alabama, the Doug Jones seat, but Democrats right now are favored in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and North Carolina. They have leads of four points more in all of them, but the most likely pickups in Arizona and Colorado. One state to watch in election night, North Carolina, it could really be the telling state.

CABRERA: And does it look like GOP senators will be able to escape Trump's relative unpopularity? And I said that based on his underwater approval rating, his favorability numbers.

ENTEN: Yes. I mean, right now, what you're looking at, and the four best pickup chances for the Democrats, you can see that. And all the states that they're leading in, you also see Joe Biden leading in, which does tend to me to indicate that at this point, the Republican senators will not be able to escape Donald Trump's unpopularity. Of course, these are all polls. We'll see what happens on Tuesday.

CABRERA: And those are four states you're highlighting. But you say Democrats actually have a chance to pick up more than a bear majority, right?

ENTEN: Yes. There are a slew of seats right now that are either tied or with slight Republican edges, states like Iowa, Georgia. There are two seats up, Montana, Kansas, that are close calls. But these are the reaches. If Democrats are able to win any one of these, they're almost as sure that they're going to get that majority come next Tuesday.

CABRERA: And as we recorded, unfortunately, yesterday, the coronavirus pandemic is raging. We just had the global world record for daily case count. Do you think that might affect the Senate battleground map?

ENTEN: I mean, it absolutely could. Look, in all the states that -- the ten best Democratic pickup chances, COVID-19 cases are climbing, unfortunately. And we do know that there does seem to be some linkage where coronavirus cases are climbing, Democrats do tend to do better in the polls. We'll have to wait and see. But I do think it will have some effect.

CABRERA: Okay, get ready, drink lots of coffee, have it on standby because I think we're going to have a lot of work ahead of us in the next few days and potentially weeks. Thank you, Harry Enten.

ENTEN: Thank you.

CABRERA: I want to get to some breaking news right now from the Texas Supreme Court. It has just denied a Republican-led petition to invalidate nearly 127,000 votes in the Houston area. And CNN's Ed Lavandera is joining us now. Ed, fill us in.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Ana. Well, this case stems from the voting that you see here at one of these ten locations across Houston. What you're seeing behind me, these are the drive-thru voting locations that have been set up in Harris County. In all there, are ten similar locations across the county.

Republicans have been trying to invalidate, essentially, or set aside the 127,000 votes that were cast in these types of locations across the county during the three-week early voting period. But they have been trying to get the vote set aside, kept out of the overall total from Harris County. But the Texas Supreme Court has ruled here this afternoon that they have dismissed this effort by Republicans to set aside these drive-thru votes that have been cast here in Harris County.

This is being celebrated by Chris Hollins, who is the Harris County clerk overseeing elections. He is one of the people who is spearheading this effort that has been, in his words, very popular with voters here in Harris County.

But this isn't the end of this issue right now.

[14:55:00]

Those Republicans have also filed a similar case in federal court. And there's an emergency hearing scheduled for Monday morning, where those lawyers and those Republicans will continue to try to argue their case that they feel that this is an improper way of voting here in Harris County. They're essentially accusing Chris Hollins of breaking Texas election law, but so far the courts have not sided with these Republicans. And as of now, those votes seem to be protected and will continue to move forward.

But there is still a great of concern over what is going to happen with these 127,000 votes that were cast in these drive-thru voting locations. And just to give you a perspective on the numbers here, about a little over 1.4 million people cast their ballots here early in Harris County, so these drive-thru ballots represent almost 10 percent of the overall early vote total here in Harris County. Ana? CABRERA: And the early vote total has just been tremendous there in Texas, already surpassing the total number of votes that were cast in 2016 in that state. Ed Lavandera, thank you for that important update.

Joe Biden is about to speak now in Pennsylvania, a state that could very well decide the election. We'll go there live, next.

And also as we go to break, I want to bring you more live pictures of President Trump's rally in Iowa this hour, his second of five stops of the day.

You're watching CNN's coverage countdown to the election.

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CABRERA: Thanks for being with us. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York, and you are watching special coverage, countdown to the election with just two days to go.

And let's be clear, the time to change hearts and minds in this race is all but over. Now, it's all about getting out the vote and we are seize a frenzy on the campaign trail this week.

At any moment now, Joe Biden is set to speak in the critical state of Pennsylvania, one of two events he has planned there today.

[15:00:02]

President Trump, meantime, is in Iowa right now, one of five states he is visiting in a single day.