Trump's Lead over Biden on the Economy Vanishes; Early in-Person Voting Breaks Records Across U.S.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. In the U.S., two weeks until election day, just one more president debate on Thursday. A record number of people casting their votes early. President Donald Trump is on a campaign sprint across the country holding packed rallies despite a surge in COVID-19 cases. On the campaign call, Trump resorted to name-calling. Labelling Dr. Anthony Fauci and top health officials as idiots. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more now from Tucson in Arizona.</s>JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Trump continuing his mad dash to election day on Monday, barnstorming the state of Arizona with two stumps, one in Prescott and one right here in Tucson Arizona. Now, this is a state that President Trump won by four points in 2016, but now according to the most recent polling averages the president is down, trailing Biden by an average of the same margin, four points once again. And so this is certainly a must win for the president. And again, what we are seeing from him familiar lines of attacks, throwing out red meat to the base and attacking the Biden family calling them a criminal enterprise at this rally here in Tucson by focusing on these unsubstantiated and false allegations against former vice president Biden. So it's clear that while the president is appealing to the base it's not quite clear yet how he's appealing to those voters turned off by him particularly the issue of the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump on Monday really continuing to downplay the pandemic attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci who is the most trusted public health expert and the government's leading expert on this virus and on infectious diseases. But the president seems to have decided at this point that he's just going to focus on himself and on doing what he wants to do as it relates to the virus. And that certainly includes continuing to have these large-scale rallies where thousands of people attended as they did in Tucson, Arizona on Monday. Now, what's interesting here is that the president's advisers, including his campaign manager Bill Stepien and the RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel back in July when coronavirus cases were surging then, they advised the president not to resume his rallies. But now as cases are surging once again, the attitude seems to be that there are just two weeks left until election day and therefore the president just needs to carry on. Jeremy Diamond, CNN -- in Tucson, Arizona.</s>VAUSE: Well, unlike President Trump, the Biden campaign is closely following CDC and other government guidelines including social distancing at rallies and other events as well as wearing face masks. His running mate, Senator Kamala Harris will be holding a virtual rally for voters in Milwaukee on Tuesday, just one day after a drive- in rally in the battleground state of Florida.</s>SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There is so much on the ballot in 2020. Justice is on the ballot in 2020. Economic justice is on the ballot in 2020. Climate justice is on the ballot in 2020. Health care justice is on the ballot in 2020. Reproductive justice is on the ballot in 2020. Criminal justice reform is on the ballot in 2020. Climate reform is on the ballot in 2020.</s>HARRIS: Everything is on the ballot in 2020. Joe Biden is on the ballot in 2020.</s>VAUSE: There is a lot on the ballot in 2020. Ron Brownstein is CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic". Kamala Harris, all fired up there, Ron. Good to see you.</s>RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I remember when there were like rallies and things like that in the presidential campaign.</s>VAUSE: Back in the day. OK. Let's pretend, it's a normal presidential election. Ok. Let's look at some policy issues.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Sure.</s>VAUSE: Let's look at where the candidates stand on some of the big issues. Let's start with the pandemic. We'll hear from the president first at a recent campaign event and then followed by Joe Biden. Here we go.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Under my leadership, we are delivering a safe vaccine and rapid recovery. We are doing things with FDA. They're giving us approvals in weeks as opposed to years. It has been incredible. If you vote for me, prosperity will surge. Normal life --</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm going to work to end the deadly health inequities that COVID has amplified. Building on the Affordable Care Act is the fastest path to universal care. Doubling funding for community health centers on the vital front lines. Making COVID testing treatment and any vaccine free for everyone. And making sure that we are in a situation where we have opportunity for people to have access.</s>VAUSE: Just on the level of detail, what we are hearing from Trump and Biden seems to explain why the polls say that, you know, Biden is ahead when it comes to dealing with this pandemic. Because there's a lot of detail, a lot of meat coming from him. A lot of wishful thinking it seems coming from Trump.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Well, more broadly, John, I mean you know, there was no Republican platform approved at the connection (ph) this summer. There's been no indication of any specifics from the president about what his second term would bring on any issues. Except on the coronavirus I think he has given the public a very clear signal. And in this case the medium is the message. I mean the fact that he is holding these large rallies without social distancing, without mask wearing often in explicit defiance of local public health officials, even in states that are experiencing the worst of the upsurge, is a pretty clear indication that no matter how long he's president, no matter how many people get sick, no matter how many people die, he will not take this seriously. From the beginning he has thought that his best chance of reelection is to protect normalcy at all cost. Whatever the implications for public health that has had enormous implications not only on his own actions but in pressuring Republican governors to close late, open early, override local Democratic ordinances on things like mask wearing. And I think he's giving the public a very clear signal that if you reelect him you're going to get more of the same in this kind of hands off. We've given up. Let it run its course approach to the virus.</s>VAUSE: Ok. Let's go to the economy. Always a big election year issue this year. Mostly because of the pandemic. Again we'll hear from Trump followed by Biden.</s>TRUMP: Next year will be the grandest economic year in the history of our country. That is what's going to happen. We are cutting new taxes. They are raising new taxes. That is an easy one to figure out, isn't it? This election is a choice between a Trump super recovery or a Biden depression.</s>BIDEN: No one who makes less than $400,000 a year will pay a penny more. If you make more than that you're going to start paying at the rate you paid under the administration of George W. Bush -- 39.6 percent. And I'm going to ask the big corporations and the very wealthy to pay their fair share for a change. Trump's more than $2 trillion tax cut, I'm going to roll back $1.5 trillion of that --</s>VAUSE: You know, Trump, the businessman who went broke owning his casino was sort of always ahead of Biden on this issue of the economy. Who would do a better job. Biden has closed that gap significantly. Traditionally in the past, optimism of the economy, if it's heading in the right direction has determined the outcome of the presidential election. Does that gravity apply this year?</s>BROWNSTEIN: No. No. In fact even before the pandemic, as you know, we talked about it. I wrote extensively that something like 20 percent of the voters who said they approved of Trump's performance on the economy, nonetheless said they disapproved him overall and were voting for Biden. Even before the pandemic, we have never seen anything like that in American history. And that is a reflection of how many particularly well-off college educated suburbanites who were doing pretty well in this economy nonetheless thought that Trump was unfit by values and temperament and kind of behavior to serve as president. But more broadly, I mean this really is the kind of the broadest and clearest philosophical divide -- it's true that Joe Biden will not raise taxes on people under $400,000 a year. But he would raise a lot of money and he would spend it to expand the Affordable Care Act, to get closer to the universal coverage. A huge investment in green energy both as a job creation and a carbon reduction strategy. A big investment in education from pre-K to more money for low income schools in K to 12. And tuition free public college for families on $125,000 or below.</s>BROWNSTEIN: They didn't do a great job during the convention. The Democrats were laying out these economic differences. And they didn't get much of a chance in the first debate but he is trying to kind of move more to that argument by kind of Scranton Joe versus Park Avenue Trump. I think this is the biggest piece that Biden still has to kind of nail down, particularly with some of those blue collar voters in the Midwest who tipped the election to Trump the first time.</s>VAUSE: Very quickly at the end, here they are on ending racial divisions and improving opportunities and lives of minorities. Again, Trump and Biden.</s>TRUMP: To combat the toxic left-wing propaganda in our schools, I recently announced that we are launching a new pro-American lesson plan for students called the 1776 commercial. We will teach our children the greatness and glory of America if they don't know it. But you know, they are not being taught that. They are being taught that we are not great. I've also issued an executive order to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in the federal government.</s>BIDEN: The hardest thing for a young African-American to do is get down payment to buy a home. Every first time home buyer is going to qualified for a $15,000-dollar commitment to down payment on a home. I'm going to put $20 billion up front to make sure we take care of rehabilitating existing housing, and then spend the other $80 billion building new housing.</s>VAUSE: Ron?</s>BROWNSTEIN: Look, in a process that people all around the world would recognize, the central fault line in our politics now is not class, it's attitude for the way the country is changing -- demographically, culturally and economically. As you could see in Trump's language, he is ever more explicitly converting the Republican Party into a vehicle of white racial resentment, mobilizing the voters who are most uneasy with demographic change, in effect presenting himself as a human wall to stop it. Biden is consolidating in most respects those voters who are comfortable the way the country is changing. He's going to win the big metro areas in America. For instance by a margin even bigger than Hillary Clinton did. The weak link for him ironically given that he's been more explicit on kind of racial injustice than any previous Democratic nominee are a lot of signs that he is not getting the enthusiasm he needs among younger voters of color, particularly both African American and Hispanic. And again, that is one of the loose ends for him that he has to nail down even as the polls generally show him in a strong position.</s>VAUSE: Ron it's a pleasure as always. Thank you so much. Ron Brownstein for us from Los Angeles.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, John.</s>VAUSE: Cheers. New rules will mean the second and final debate between Trump and Biden scheduled for Thursday will be like no other U.S. presidential debate ever seen. This time when one candidate is answering a question, the microphone of the other will be muted. The change was implemented after the chaos and constant interruptions from President Trump during the first debate. The Trump campaign is already whining about the change saying it's an attempt to Biden's advantage, their favorite candidate but offered no evidence to support the accusations. CNN's coverage of that debate starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, Friday morning in much of the world. You don't want to miss it. The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a Republican challenge to mail-in voting in Pennsylvania. The state will have to count ballots received within three days of the election day, even if they don't have any legible post mark. Meantime early in-person voting is breaking records across the nation. CNN's Pamela Brown has our report.</s>ODALYS PEREZ, FLORIDA VOTER: There is a chance that your voice is not going to be counted. Why risk it?</s>PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just 15 days to go and many voters are taking no chances. Already, more than 28 million votes have been cast nationwide. That number representing almost 20 percent of the more than 136 million total ballots cast four years ago. Ballots are now available in all 50 states and D.C. with in-person voting beginning in several key swing states in the coming days.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.</s>BROWN: Today it started in 52 Florida counties. And rain this morning in south Florida did not stop voters from lining up before sunrise. For those voting by mail, by midday Monday more than 2.4 million ballots have been cast in the Sunshine State. That is only about 216,000 ballots fewer than all the mail-in ballots tallied in 2016.</s>PEREZ: I did have an absentee ballot, but I was not comfortable with everything that you hear in the news. So I just decided to come in myself.</s>BROWN: 30 percent of ballots coming from Republicans. 49 percent democrats. And 20 percent with no party affiliation -- which political experts say is a growing trend in Florida as more voters are turning their backs on both parties.</s>BROWN: In Georgia, early voting continues to shatter records a week in. A massive 653 percent increase in absentee ballots cast by mail over 2016. Today in Colorado, vote counting begins as does in-person voting.</s>TRUMP: This is very incorrect --</s>BROWN: Meanwhile President Trump continues to give Democrats every reason to be concerned about a potential peaceful transfer of power if he were to lose to Joe.</s>TRUMP: Then they say, if you lose, will you have a friendly transition? I say I want a fair election.</s>BROWN: CNN is now learning that Congressional Democrats, the Biden campaign and outside groups are working on contingency plans behind the scenes coming up with a two-part strategy in anticipation of that very scenario, preparing for a postelection legal battle and messaging war aimed at combatting misinformation about voting. Pamela Brown, CNN -- Washington.</s>VAUSE: A Chinese city is one of the first to offer an experimental COVID 19 vaccine to the public. But is it safe even though it hasn't been tested properly? A live report when we come back.