Obama Delivers Blistering Rebuke Of Trump On Eve Of Debate As He Returns To Campaign Trail For Biden-Harris; Biden Has Substantial Cash Advantage Over Trump In Final Weeks, New Filings Show.
COOPER: Before the break, you hear Josh Dawsey in The Washington Post reporting that the President is again weighing firing FBI Director Christopher Ray. More perspective now, joining us again is that is former FBI Deputy Director, Andrew McCabe. So, we all know, obviously about President Trump's habit of firing people, the FBI. Do you think it? I mean, does it make sense to you that he would fire somebody? I mean, if he loses the election, that he would still go ahead and fire the FBI director?</s>MCCABE: Well, you know, I think with President Trump, you always have to be very careful about using the words does it make sense? I mean, I think that we've seen him do things like this many times in the past, when it's actually makes no sense and probably creates more problems for him, then it resolves, in case in point the firing of Director Comey. The end of the day, this president does not like to hear anyone tell him something he doesn't want to hear. I know that all too personally. He wants -- he doesn't want independent, you know, leaders who follow the rule of law and obey their oath. He wants supplicants who will do his will and particularly his political will. And, you know, my hat's off to Chris Wray, that he seems to be charting a course into rough waters based on the fact that he's standing up for what he believes in.</s>COOPER: The FBI directors term is normally it's 10 years, correct me if I'm wrong about that, is that right?</s>MCCABE: That's right. That's right.</s>COOPER: So, if -- even if he was fired by this president, if Joe Biden was elected and wanted to he could rehire him, I assume.</s>MCCABE: He certainly could. That would be in kind of an unprecedented step, we've never had someone serve two terms, two separate terms as director. But Anderson, it's important to remember that the 10-year term, although it does provide a certain amount of insulation from, you know, politics and the terms of who happens to be in the White House any given time, the real purpose behind a 10-year term, was to prevent a second instance of a J. Edgar Hoover type director, so to limit the time that a director can serve so that they don't, you know, accrue too much power and become kind of out of control.</s>COOPER: If you're Christopher Wray, your head of the FBI, what can you do to protect the integrity of investigations, you know, from the President, if, you know, he does indeed seek to fire him?</s>MCCABE: Well, you know, I can only reach back to my own experience as Acting Director and I knew and the small team that we were working with at the time, we knew that in order to protect the integrity of the Russia investigation, that crossfire hurricane investigation, we had to make sure that everything we knew is committed to documentary evidence that was uploaded into FBI systems that could not easily be removed or discarded. I felt very strongly that if someone were to come in as next director for the purpose of eliminating the Russia investigation, shutting it down in a way that the President clearly wanted us to at that time, but they wouldn't be able to do so without creating a record that would stand the test of time and history as to exactly what happened so. I would expect that Director Wray's thinking along those same lines, now he's preserving his own thoughts, his own observations in some sort of way that will be memorialized in a record that will live on after his term has finished whenever that might be.</s>COOPER: Assuming the President wins the election, and has another term fires Christopher Wray, what sort of a message does that send to the FBI? He's already talked about, you know, not guaranteeing his attorney general will stick around. We all saw what he did to his last attorney general who frankly did nothing but, you know, push through a lot of conservatives on federal to become federal judges doing exactly the President's bidding. Except not recusing, or except he recused himself from the Russian investigation. What kind of an effect would it have enough in a second Trump term to have this FBI Director also fired?</s>MCCABE: Well, I think the biggest concern among that we all should have and certainly FBI people have is if there is a second Trump term, and if he decides to fire Director Wray. The question is, who does he bring in behind Chris Wray? We have seen a steady decline in talent and ethics, quite frankly, of the people who that President Trump has put into positions. I mean, like, case in point is the current DNI, who's an obviously political figures really undermine the effectiveness of that role. So, I am sure that FBI people are very worried right now as to if they lose the director they have. What does the next one look like? And if President Trump follows his typical course, he's going to look for someone who will do his will not someone will live up to the requirements of the job and protecting the American people and upholding the constitution as the FBI mission requires.</s>COOPER: Yes. Andrew McCabe, appreciate it. Thanks. It's been a busy night until the election interference story broke. This was the lead and deservedly so. Former president of United States giving perhaps the clearest demonstration yet there were simply not living for a normal presidency or for that matter, normal times. The fact is, former presidents simply do not criticize sitting presidents the way that former President Obama did this evening. For Democrats what he said this evening and Philadelphia must have seemed like a tall glass of water after years in the desert for everyone of any political stripe, it was also a simple reminder of how far from normal this moment is, namely, one former president just going off on the current line.</s>BARACK OBAMA, FMR PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: I never thought Donald Trump would embrace my vision, or continue my policies. But I did hope for the sake of the country, that he might show some interest in taking the job seriously. But it hasn't happened. He hasn't shown any interest in doing the work, or helping anybody but himself and his friends, or treating the presidency, like a reality show that he can use to get attention. And by the way, even then his TV ratings are down. So, you know, that upsets me. But, the thing is, this is not a reality show. This is reality. And the rest of us have had to live with the consequences of him, proving himself incapable of taking the job seriously. At least 220,000 Americans have died.</s>COOPER: That point the former president is zeroed in on the current president's complacency and at times is boasting about the job he's done.</s>OBAMA: Korea identified it first case at the same time that the United States did. At the same time, their per capita death toll is just 1.3% of what ours is. In Canada is just 39% of what ours is. Other countries are still struggling with a pandemic, but they're not doing as bad as we are because they've got a government that's actually been paying attention. And that means lives loss, and that means an economy that doesn't work. And just yesterday, when asked if he'd do anything differently, Trump said, not much. Really? Not much. Nothing you can think of that could have helped some people keep their loved ones alive.</s>COOPER: Beyond that President Obama went straight to the one thing that's remained constant throughout the Trump presidency, which is nothing or should have nothing to do with partisanship.</s>OBAMA: Our democracy is not going to work if the people who are supposed to be our leaders, lie everyday, and just make things up. I mean, and we've just become numb to it, we just become immune to it every single day. Fact checkers can't keep up. And look, this, this notion of truthfulness and democracy and citizenship and being responsible. These aren't Republican or Democratic principles, they're American principles. They're what -- they're what we -- most of us grew up learning from our parents and our grandparents. They're not white or black or Latino or Asian values. They're American values, human values, and we need to reclaim them. We have to get those values back at the center of our public life. And we can, but to do it, we've got a turnout like never before.</s>COOPER: Well this comes of course, on the eve of the final presidential debate in Nashville, it will no doubt be the backdrop to whatever plays out on stage tomorrow night. Also factoring in breaking news in the President's mindset going into it plus new CNN polling in two battleground states, Pennsylvania, which was so close in 2016, with Joe Biden, now, part of polls holds a 10 point lead and Florida where he's nominally had by four points, which also happens to be the margin of error. So statistically, it's a dead heat in Florida. Vice President Biden spend the day preparing for tomorrow did not do any campaigning. Our M.J. Lee joins us now from Wilmington, Delaware, where the president -- vice president is tonight. So M.J., President Obama, obviously, among the most, if not the most effective surrogates, Joe Biden could ask for what's going on with the Biden campaign tonight?</s>M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, you're right. That there is not a better or more compelling surrogate for Joe Biden, than Barack Obama, who can uniquely sort of make a convincing case to voters on why they should vote for Biden. We saw him do that earlier this year, earlier this summer at the Democratic National Convention. And we certainly saw him do that earlier today in Philadelphia. You think about the case that Biden is making for himself and his candidacy in this campaign, right? First of all, he has fashioned himself this candidate of decency. And then second, secondly, he has run on sort of the accomplishments and the experience that he gained in the Obama White House. And obviously, there's no better person who can attest to that. And we saw Obama do that earlier today, talking about the fact that he has worked with Biden for eight years in the White House, talking about the fact that he knows him personally. He knows his family's story. And I thought Anderson, one thing that was so interesting was that Obama really leaned into this idea, almost warning voters don't even believe in the polls right now that show Biden leading, don't take all of that for granted. Because you all remember what happened in 2016. Everybody expected that Donald Trump would lose, but in the end, he won. And that has been a message that has been echoed by the Biden campaign as well. His campaign manager has been saying in recent days, I want to run as though we are trailing in the polls. And I think Obama actually demonstrated that by choosing Pennsylvania as the first state that he wanted to do his solo campaign stop for Biden, and this is a state as you just said, Trump won narrowly back in 2016. But this time around, according to this CNN poll that just came out and other recent polls out of Pennsylvania, Biden currently has a 10- point lead in the state. But again, Obama choosing to campaign there today just demonstrates that, you know, this is not a moment in the campaign where the Biden campaign wants to be taking anything for granted.</s>COOPER: Yes. M.J. Lee, appreciate it. Thanks a lot to look forward tomorrow. Perspective now, from Reggie Love, a former Special Assistant and personal aide to President Obama. Reggie, I mean, it's obviously not normal for a former president to take to the trail and talk about their predecessor like President Obama did tonight. Obviously, norms, you know, are out the window in the Trump era. Why do you think the President did it?</s>REGGIE LOVE, FMR SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRES. OBAMA: Look, Anderson, thank you for having me on tonight. And thank you for doing such a great job of trying to keep the American voters and the American public informed. And I think, you know, when you look at the remarks that President Obama made today in Philadelphia, I think it was really based around this idea that, you know, wanting to remind people that their voice matters. And that everyone's voice matters, the President's voice, voters in Pennsylvania, voters in Michigan, voters in North Carolina what we do matter, and it has an impact on the country, and it has an impact on our decency as a country. And if you go back and look at 2016, you look at Pennsylvania, look at Michigan and look at North Carolina, you know, the margins were so slim, and with a few additional voices, that may be stood in a longer line that maybe had a better plan around, making sure they had all the things taken care of that they needed to in order to be able to vote and participate. I think those are the things that Barack Obama was trying to highlight by articulating what happens when you don't vote. You know, you end up with Donald Trump.</s>COOPER: Yes. I mean, the President, though spent, you know, more time represent President Trump than he actually, you know, referencing him, then he previously has maybe the exception of the DNC speech even went, as far as, you know, getting a job in about the President's TV ratings, which clearly is something that will upset Donald Trump. And, you know, he talked for the New York Times report about a secret Chinese bank account. It's just -- it is startling, you know, is it do -- I mean do you think it's personal for President Obama? Is it concern about, you know, the country and all the things that, you know, Obamacare has his signature, you know, signature accomplishment, you know, now being challenged in the courts.</s>LOVE: Look, look, I think we you talk about the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, I think that is about the American people. But I think it's also personal, right? I think if you really look at some of the motivating factors that inspired him to fight for it, the way that he did, was really, around this idea that his mother passed from a terminal illness. And when she was in her final days, she spent more time worrying about how to pay her bills than then how to live her final days and decency. So, I do think that is, you know, I think that's really a personal thing. Because he understands that there are so many other Americans that have gone through it, and that are, and have gone through it, and that will go through it in the future. And having healthcare as a basic human right is probably one of the most important things that's happened to this country since the New Deal.</s>COOPER: Do you think we'll hear more from President Obama in the next, you know, two weeks before the election?</s>LOVE: Look, I, you know, for me, and I can't speak for him specifically. But when I look at where this country was, in 2015, and where I look at -- where we've gone today, like I think there's nothing more important, and I can't, I couldn't imagine that there are many people, including the President, that would say that there's something more important than making sure that people are well informed about the difference in choices, that people are inspired and galvanize around making sure and believing that their voice matters. And I think, you know, I think when President Obama was in Philadelphia today, he said to a group of young African-American folks from the Philadelphia community that, you know, a lot of people are saying that nothing has changed. But in actuality, for people were saying that nothing has changed. They didn't live through the '40s and the '50s and the '60s. And so, people have to believe that, you know, this process works when we participate, and we make our voice heard. And when we don't, we end up in places --</s>COOPER: Yes.</s>LOVE: -- like we are today.</s>COOPER: Reggie Love, appreciate it. Thanks very much. We're now on the state of play. So, the Florida and Pennsylvania polling a moment ago. CNN's chief -- national correspondent John King joins us now with a look at the entire map. John, 13 days out, what's the state of the race right now?</s>JOHN KING, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thirteen days out Anderson. Joe Biden has a lopsided advantage. We've talked about this before, 290 electoral votes 263 for the president right now. The big final debate tomorrow night. Think of that as the final crossroads of the campaign and Joe Biden goes into it. Not only with this advantage, let me show you another advantage. Joe Biden has a big lopsided advantage when it comes to money. Campaign cash on hand $177 million to just $63 million to the Trump campaign. Plus Biden has wealthy friends as well, if you will. Biden campaign plus group supporting him has our spending right now $645 million, compared to 388 million for the Trump campaign. In the battleground states, Biden and groups that support Biden 513 million to 326 million. So, lopsided spending advantage right now and money in the bank heading into the final 10 days of the campaign. So here's the scenario. You have a debate tomorrow night. Let's say Joe Biden has a shaky debate, or Donald Trump has a particularly strong debate. The Biden campaign should come out of that thinking all right, we need to protect. If Biden has a shaky debate or Trump is strong. One scenario you think of is the President takes away the toss up states, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida. President could even flip Arizona back to him. He won all those states in 2016, perfectly within the realm of he comes out of a debate with momentum. What's the Biden's strategy then? Then it becomes protect, then it becomes protect, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the three most spoken words in presidential politics of the last four years, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Biden then would protect them. But, Anderson imagine this. What if Biden thinks he has a strong debate? They come out of the debate thinking not only do we have all that money, we had a strong debate. Well then, you start thinking about this. Number one, you think not only do you have money, Michael Bloomberg is spending money in Florida for you, Priorities USA Super PAC money, Future Ford Super PAC money, all these Democratic Senate candidates are blowing the Republicans away in fundraising. So there's a lot of money to spend. And again, then you're thinking if you have a strong debate, then this is still going to hold true. You're going to be leading in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, and guess what you're in play in Arizona, you're even leading a little bit. You're in play in Iowa, you're in play in Georgia, you're in play maybe a little behind but competitive in Ohio, in play in North Carolina, even close in Texas, right, and Florida. So, then if you're Biden, a lot of Democrats are going to be saying you come out of that debate tomorrow night strong. Think big, think bold. Think about making a statement. You take Florida, if you're Joe Biden, game over, the President can't win without Florida and it's 29 votes. If you get North Carolina back to the Democrats again, there is just no way the President can win. Plus, guess what, is a very important Senate race there. Then you're the Biden campaign, you start looking, to Senate races in Georgia, a Senate race in Iowa, a Senate race in Texas and wow, if the Democrats won Texas, what a statement that would be plus a lot of legislative races there. So, if Biden comes out of the debate, feeling strong Anderson, not only is he leading on the map, not only does he have a ton of money, then Democrats start thinking, why don't we start thinking about a blowout?</s>COOPER: John, stay with us. Want to bring back CNN Political Director, David Chalian. Joining us as well, CNN Political Correspondent, Abby Phillip. David, your take on the state of this race right now? Obviously after 2016 there's skepticism about polling. What do you, you know, the new polls of Florida, Pennsylvania, what did they tell you, David?</s>CHALIAN: There is skepticism. But I just want to show you some findings inside that Florida poll, for example, to show you where Joe Biden's strength is coming from. It's actually coming from Donald Trump's coalition in many places. Take a look, if you look at the white vote in our poll in Florida, you see that while Donald Trump is still winning whites, obviously 54% to 42%. That's a 12-point margin there. That is nothing compared to the fact that he won whites by 32 points in 2016. You see the same thing with independence, a group he won by four points in 2016 in Florida, he's losing them by 10 points here 51 to 41 to Joe Biden in Florida and seniors a critical constituency 65 and older, he won them in 2016 by 17 points. He's losing them by eight in this poll. So, Joe Biden isn't just sort of galvanizing the folks that were there with Hillary Clinton and boost them a little bit more, he's actually carving into some of Donald Trump's 2016 coalition.</s>COOPER: Abby, in fact, the Trump campaign is strapped for cash right now. I guess it puts more pressure on him to deliver his closing message. I mean, it's worth noting Hillary Clinton did outrage and outspend then candidate Trump 2016 as well and still lost the presidency.</s>ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's true. She did outspend and outraise and was sort of actually more of an establishment candidate. But this is a president who started with a billion-dollar war chest. He's been raising money for this reelection effort since he was inaugurated back in 2017. So, it is surprising that he's coming into this final stretch, really struggling with the financial part of this. And what it means for him is that he's spending so much time having to shore up these parts of the country that he absolutely must win in order to get to 270. Spending time and money in Georgia, spending time and money even in North Carolina is time and money that can't be spent chipping away at the blue wall. Chipping away at Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. So, that's why it's significant. The President has a lot more holes to plug than Joe Biden does. And so, you know, he's got to win Florida. There's no path without Florida, but instead of focusing all of his money and effort there, he's got to spread it pretty thin across the map.</s>COOPER: John, you know, obviously President Obama spoke in Philadelphia, you know, is for Hillary Clinton in the final days of the campaign. It wasn't enough, he made a very personal appeal back then. He said, you know, do it for me, essentially that, you know, this is really important. This time you're saying do it for you that that it's, you know, it's important for the country. Do you think it matters this time and/or I guess I should say where does the Biden campaign think that Obama's voices is going to help them?</s>KING: Let me switch maps to go through that question from a number of different perspectives Anderson, but you make the key point number one, it didn't work last time. So everybody should have a little bit of skepticism as you do it. But remember, we're in a very different climate now. Donald Trump has been president for four years. So, where was he tonight? President Obama was here in the Philadelphia -- in Philadelphia right here. If he can turn out African-American votes, helped motivate them in Philadelphia, and just as importantly, in the suburbs around it. Joe Biden can when Pennsylvania. If Joe Biden wins Pennsylvania, he's on his way. Another place you can look at that. We can move over to Michigan, right? How many times have we said, you know, Hillary Clinton lost Michigan? Well, one reason she lost it is because turnout was down in Wayne County among African-American voters, down from when Obama won in 2012, down from when Obama won in 2008. So his direct appeal, his popularity with African-Americans is critical. But it's more than that. He's also very popular in the suburbs. Listen to what he said tonight, hustle, don't take anything for granted. That's a turnout message to everybody. But it's aimed mostly at young voters and African-Americans who sometimes say I would vote for this guy if I voted, but then don't show up. What else did he say? He said, this guy doesn't take the job seriously. That's what you hear from suburban women in focus groups, while the tweets while the coarseness while the attacks on people. Why doesn't the President just do his job? That was President Obama talking to the suburbs? Yes, African-Americans in Charlotte, but the suburbs will decide North Carolina, the suburbs around Raleigh, Durham will decide North Carolina. One other thing, we talked a moment ago about how the Biden has a chance if he comes out of this debate tomorrow night, he has a chance for a big race. Well, Barack Obama knows something about it. I'm going back to George W. Bush's win in 2004. I'll show you in a minute why I'm circling these states right here. As you go through them. You come over here, you come over here, you come over here, and you come over here, Barack Obama knows what it's like to be involved in a wave election, because that's what we had in 2008. When you have a wave election, you change the map, that's 2004. You see that red? That's 2008. You change your map. Barack Obama knows what it's like to have the opportunity in a wave election, he will help Joe Biden any way he can. Not all these changes are permanent when they happen. He lost Indiana, North Carolina went back but Democrats do see the potential the combination of Trump's on popularity, the Democrats demographics of the nation, they see a chance to change the map and they think Barack Obama can help.</s>COOPER: David, you know, we saw this very unusual press conference with the DNI and the, the FBI Director, it was very hastily called. Is there -- I mean, is there a possibility that this was hastily called because they were -- the administration, you know, didn't want President Obama's speech directly attacking President Trump to be front and center on the, you know, on the news all night?</s>CHALIAN: I mean, am I being too naive? If I say let's hope not let's, let's hope that's not why this called, let's hope that this press conference was called to inform the American people about foreign activity happening in the election. But does this administration in the way that it's conducted itself, get the benefit of the doubt? Really? No, I don't think they do. I mean, we have no evidence, no reporting to suggest that they were trying to knock Barack Obama off the headlines, Anderson and the message that the that the DNI and the FBI director was putting out is important for voters to hear and be aware of when they're getting this incoming, potentially very fishy information. So, I don't want to undermine that because I think it's important that voters hear that and stay vigilant about it. But it's hard not to ascribe political motives to most everything that is coming out of the administration, especially when you were talking about the Washington Post piece. I mean, this is a president who seems prepared to get rid of his FBI director and his attorney general, because they're not following his orders to investigate his opponents.</s>COOPER: Abby, tomorrow night's debate, how important do you think it is for President Trump and for Joe Biden? I mean, it would have stumbled by Joe Biden have a big impact you think on the race?</s>PHILLIP: I think it is far more important for President Trump than it is for Joe Biden at this point. Remember, the last impression that President Trump left the American people with was that first debate performance in which some people came away from that, basically saying that they believe he acted childishly, that he was unable to control his anger. Those are some of the comments that undecided voters gave us in a focus group directly after that debate. The President needs to change that perception, but specifically in the minds of some of these really squishy Biden, potential Biden voters. People who really don't know that they want to vote for Biden, but they're not sure they can stomach another four years for Trump. He's got to change that perception tomorrow night.</s>COOPER: Yes. Abby Phillip, David Chalian, John King thanks so much. Quick reminder, don't miss the final debate tomorrow night right here on CNN. Special programming begins 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. The news continues. Want to hand it over to Chris for "CUOMO PRIME TIME".</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right. Thank you, Anderson.