U.S. With Record Breaking COVID-19 Cases; Biden Wins Last Night's Debate
LEMON: So here is the breaking news. I have the numbers right here. The U.S. is reporting more than 77,000 new COVID-19 cases today. As of right now, 77,289 cases, of course, a day is not over yet. So, the second highest single day since the outbreak of the pandemic and just under the highest day of recorded cases back during the summer spike in July, July 16th. And with only 11 days until election day, the worsening crisis, the key issues on voters' minds right now. So, I want to bring in Jim Messina, he's a former Barack Obama campaign manager, and Stuart Stevens, former Romney campaign adviser. I appreciate both of you joining me, gentlemen. Thank you so much. You're taking us back to a much more civil time than what's happening right now. Jim, listen, I'm going to start with you. This is a home stretch. You've run a reelection campaign for a president. Give us the state of the race, what do you think?</s>JIM MESSINA, FORMER OBAMA CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, look, right now, the president is trailing in every single battleground state and by a bunch nationally, and so he's got to turn this race around. And last night, Don, just didn't do what he had to do. And so, you know, you're going to start to see the president continue to play around. The other problem he has, is everyday he's trying to say, hey, we're turning the corner, COVID is getting OK because incumbents need to say everything is OK. But the problem, everyone in these swing states are seeing these numbers every night and are seeing the cases go up in 49 of the 50 states. And it's exactly the opposite of what the President of the United States is doing. The other thing is, this isn't just like, look at the polls time. Right? Look at the early vote numbers. I mean, I just got the new numbers about 10 minutes ago, 53.4 million people have already voted, Don. And we know how those people are voting because we run both campaigns, run it through a model, we'll start to look at these things. And Democrats have some very big leads, like in the state of Florida where 464,000 Biden voters have voted more than Trump which is why President Trump in a smart move in my opinion, Stuart, is in the villages today. I'll know who is going to win Florida when I see the village numbers come out on election day. And so, you know, Trump attempting to come back and start to cut into that Biden lead.</s>LEMON: Before I go to Stuart, let me just ask you who's winning then on outlining a plan for how to fight this virus? The president says we're rounding the corner. Joe Biden last night saying, you know, we need to have a mask mandate in the country, that it's going to get, you know, worse before it gets better, so who's winning this argument?</s>MESSINA: Well, look. I watched swing focus groups last night of people watching the debate and when Donald Trump now talks about the coronavirus, people roll their eyes and stop listening to them. They like that he was a little less confrontational, they like his new tone but the moment he starts talking about coronavirus, he just has no credibility left. And CNN's focus group showed that as well.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>MESSINA: At the end of it, not one of those swing voters went to Donald Trump. Not one.</s>LEMON: Yes. OK. Stuart, let me bring you in because I want you to respond what Jim said about Florida. He said it's a must-win, Florida is, today and for the election. The president is out there campaigning at the villages. He's going to be rallying there tomorrow there as well. So, what do you think? Is he right? Is it a must-win?</s>STUART STEVENS, FORMER CHIEF STRATEGIST, ROMNEY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: I don't think, it is a must-win for Trump. I don't think it's a must- win for Vice President Biden. Right now, I think Biden is going to win that race. The key number I look at is senior citizens. You know, no Republican can win without winning senior citizens by a good margin. And right now, it's the big story in this race, I think, is that Republicans are losing senior citizens. And it's dragging down all the Senate races as well. I mean, why are they losing them? Well, they are losing them because like, they know they're going to die if they don't have a plan out there. It's a pretty compelling message, you know, when you sit there and campaign, you try to come up with dire messages like, we're going to cut your Medicare or we're going to cut this, that will have some impact on you 20 years from now. This is pretty direct. You can't see your grandkids. You've planned your whole life for this age of your life. If you're lucky. You can't travel. You can't go to Canada. You can't go to Mexico. The only place you can go in Europe is Serbia, like, great. And a complete disruption in what they thought was going to be some of the best years of their lives.</s>LEMON: OK. So, listen, Stuart, you seem that -- you seem to be, you know, really certain about it. Jim says, you know, he's doing -- they've been doing some modelling and they know it's Democrats, but listen, if you look at the polling, there's no clear winner. Let's put it up. In Florida, there is no clear winner. It is neck and neck. I mean, Joe Biden, it's 50 percent. Forty-six percent for Trump but that's within the margin of error.</s>STEVENS: Yes. I mean, we call this battleground states because they're battles. And I wrote a piece of the book (Ph) a couple of days ago, just telling Democrats. Don't be tempted here. This is your moment. There's a lot more of you than the other side and I would get out there if I was running the Democratic Party, I would say don't worry about being overconfident. Let's turn a victory into a route. And expect this to be hard. Expect this to be close. Don't be shut, don't be disheartened. They're not give me states. The battle ground states. So, fight. And that's Florida is always close. I mean, I was a Bush guy, 535 votes, you know? I mean, it's always close.</s>LEMON: Wow.</s>STEVENS: Don't be shocked by this. Just work harder.</s>LEMON: Yes. Jim, more than 63 million people watch that the calmer Trump, I mean, for him, at last night's debate for a comparison. Seventy -- here's the comparison. Seventy-three million people watched the out of control of first debate. The first debate widened Biden's lead. Did anything about last night change the trajectory of this race? I know you said earlier that he didn't really help, but do you think at all, so many people may have watched and some of those squishy people in the middle, no help at all?</s>MESSINA: No help at all. I mean, if you just look at these voters, look at every poll, there's three really good polls out that looked at these people who watch the debate. And remember, most of the swing voters won't have seen the debate. They're going to get the coverage of it and they've seen the clips and the back and forth. You know, I think the president just no question, and I think Stuart would agree did not have the kind of night he absolutely needed to change the trajectory of this race when people are voting all the time. In fact, I think he really damaged himself. I thought Biden's strongest moment was when he went justifiably very angry about the kids and about the DACA kids being taken away from their parents.</s>LEMON: Five hundred forty-five of them.</s>MESSINA: And I was watching swing --</s>LEMON: Can't find their parents.</s>MESSINA: Yes. I was watching swing voters. I was watching swing voters cry during that exchange. You know, all these people kind of sit there and said, I have kids, that could be my kid. And that was one of -- there are moments in a presidential race where it really tells you who these people are. The first debate was that for Donald Trump and I think last night, I think there's a couple of moments where Biden literally looked like the guy who could bring us together and remind people who we are as Americans.</s>LEMON: Stuart, I'm out of time. If you can quickly, do you agree with everything he said or no?</s>STEVENS: Yes. What Donald Trump needs to do is ask for a second chance. you'd only get a second chance if you admit that you've made a mistake. He can't do that. So, he's just on the same blood path, it won't change.</s>LEMON: Yes. Thank you, gentleman. Have a great weekend. I'll see you soon. Thanks.</s>MESSINA: Thank you.</s>LEMON: Another major court challenge over mail-in votes. Pennsylvania's Supreme Court dismissing a push by the Trump campaign to reject ballots because of mismatched signatures. Pennsylvania's attorney general is going to fill us in, next.