arguments to voters during a surge across the nation in new coronavirus cases. the difference in the candidates' events reflecting the deep divide over coronavirus and whether or not it's important to heed the advice of medical experts. drive-in rallies for biden and trump is holding packed rallies with no masks required, no distancing and continued evidence that his rallies spread the virus. as ryan nobody else reports for us now, more than 7 million ballots have been cast in florida's early voting. >> reporter: in florida, president trump facing a battleground on two fronts. >> i'm thrilled to be here in m m my/our home state, florida. >> reporter: a pivotal swing state where polls show a neck and neck race and 29 electoral votes up for grabs. >> when we win, florida wins and america wins.

it's very simple. >> reporter: in a state where coronavirus cases are surging with both federal and state government leaders giving mixed messages on how to handle the virus. >> as we try to make sure that we come into contact with other people, making sure that we socially distance as much as possible, wearing those masks when we can, we strongly encourage that. >> reporter: white house chief of staff mark meadows continuing to encourage americans to wear masks and social distance, but at the same time, the trump team continues to ig north threat posed by the campaigns' massive rallies with no attempt to social distance and few people wearing masks. sending press secretary kayleigh mcenany out. >> you can vote on joe biden, where you will be locked down. your schools will be closed. your churches will be closed. you won't have social gatherings. it will be a lockdown. versus president trump, where we are safely reopening this country. >> reporter: meanwhile, the

president himself seemingly ignoring the rising case count, still downplaying the threat and blaming the media and democrats for hyping the reality of more than 200,000 americans who have died. >> it would have been 2 million lives. it's incredible the job that we've done and that the american people have done. >> reporter: but it is florida, where top covid adviser dr. scott atlas was pushing governor ron desantis to slow down testing as cases surged here. governor desantis recently lifted allstatewide restrictions related to coronavirus. this, as president trump continues to promise a new vaccine will be ready soon. >> a safe vaccine is coming very quickly. you're going to have it momentarily, that erradicates the virus. we're rounding the turn regardless. >> reporter: the president's optimism is not shared by many experts, including dr. anthony fauci, who has a different view to containing the virus. >> where are we, tony? >> we're not in a good place.

>> reporter: and as has become practice with the president at these rallies, he's once again touting his administration's response to the pandemic, telling the crowd here that the country is rounding the corner. but the stark reality could be seen a few hundred yards from where the president was standing here in tampa bay, on the campus of the tampa bay bulk near stadium, covid drive-through site, as florida record s recor record day of cases. >> no medical expert is saying we're rounding the corner. joe biden said if he can win florida next week, he will win the presidential election. arlette saenz is there. we heard biden gave a targeted speech clearly targeted to voters he thinks he can sway in

florida. tell us more. >> reporter: yeah, jake. joe biden really targeting that democratic stronghold of broward county but also trying to appeal to latino voters. a critical voting bloc in this battleground state that he's trying to improve his standing with. in fact, his campaign is planning on holding about 40 events between today and election day, geared toward latino voter turnout. biden, in some polls, has underperformed where hillary clinton was with lat ooinos here in the state. that's something that his campaign is trying to work on in this final stretch. you heard him in broward county, appealing directly to cuban and venezuelan voters, saying he is someone who will fight for democracy across the board. and biden also there in that democratic stronghold really focused on driving up that voter turnout. trying to run up the score in an area like broward county. he talked about how important florida will be in this year's election. take a listen. >> ladies and gentlemen, the

heart and soul of this country is at stake right here in florida. it's up to you. you hold the key. if florida goes blue, it's over. it's over! it's time to stand up, take back our democracy. we can do this. we can be better than what we've been. we can be who we are at our best. as i said, the united states of america. there's nothing beyond our capacity, i promise you. >> now biden will be here in tampa in just a short while, a little over ten miles from where president trump held his rally earlier today. these events are starkly different in how they are held. the president has those not socially distanced, maskless rallies here in tampa. biden will be holding one of those drive-in style events, as he is once again trying to present that contrast when it comes to the coronavirus

pandemic. here in florida, this is a state that joe biden doesn't necessarily need to win, but a win for biden here in florida, will make it much more difficult for president trump to get re-election in november. jake? >> all right. arlette saenz, appreciate it. let's bring in journalists to talk about this. sung win kim and melanie mizuna. 48% say they trust biden better to handle the pandemic. 38%, trump. 10% equally. might this be a determining factor as to who wins the state? >> oh, certainly. not only this state but so many other states throughout the nation that are these key battlegrounds. we know that the coronavirus pan dem ic, particularly the president's handling of it has been the major issue of the campaign. it is why it has been hard for the president to turn this into kind of a dueling campaign of

two campaign visions, because so much of this campaign season has been a referendum on his handling of the pandemic. and what's interesting about the polling is that biden has kept a steady lead with seniors in the state of florida. the senior demographic, particularly in florida, is something that's broken for president trump in the past, but biden's strength in florida is being buoyed by the senior support. you have to imagine the coronavirus, which we know, disproportionately affects the older population, may have something to do with that. >> that's right but biden also has struggles, melanie, with latino voters in florida, underperforming in polls where hillary clinton did better with latino voters. she still lost florida. as seung min notes, he's doing better with tseniors.

>> privately been addressing these concerns, saying was the outreach a little too late? there's a telemundo poll that shows yes, trump is behind the polls of hispanic voters when it comes to biden, but biden is underperforming when it comes to hillary clinton. that is a huge problem for him. trump is trying to eat into these margins, not necessarily trying to win the hispanic vote in florida but trying to take those vote as way from biden. he can juice out turnout, hunt for the vote and every vote he can. hispanic voters make up 20% of the electorate in florida. >> they're all over the map in terms of their ideology, in terms of the american voters in the south, venezuela-american voters and the puerto rican voters in the center of the state. seung min, he promises to sign an executive order to form a

task force focused on reuniting 500 migrant children separated from their families and have not been united with them. this seems to be trying to play into this message of empathy. >> definitely. roundly denounced and noting more than 500 children still have not been reunited with their parents. and biden is pointing out something that he can do on day one. you can't repeal a law day one. you can't pass a law day one, but you can issue some executive orders. you see how the former vice president is prioritizing this issue. this came up in the debate, final debate between biden and trump where vice president biden really went after the trump administration on the child separation policy. and what was interesting, to me, too, in that same debate, biden

acknowledged the shortcomings of the obama administration. he acknowledged that they did not get immigration reform done. he has come under criticism for obama being the so-called deporter in chief. biden has had to make up ground with that critical latino vote. >> melanie, democratic super pac funded by new york city mayor michael bloomberg is pouring $10 million into texas and ohio. a week ago, top adviser said they had no plans to invest money into that state. but that adviser says, quote, biden has a shot in both places. it's too compelling not to. do you agree? >> i mean, democrats have been really putting pressure on the party to spend more in texas. and, absolutely, it is in play. not only is the presidential race tightening, but there's a senate seat up for grabs. there's about a dozen house races. democrats also have a chance to

take the texas house, which could be a major deal. and the state has really been undergoing a admital evolution the last few years, not just because of changing demographics, but distaste for trump in the suburbs. there's been an influx from states like california and other states moving into texas. democrats really see their political fortunes improving. that being said, there's still a lot of reluctance by some democrats to invest too heavily in there. biden is not campaigning in the final stretch. i think a lot of democrats are still haunted by 2016, and they don't want to take those critical must-win states like michigan and wisconsin for granted. >> seung min kim and melanie zanona, appreciate it. a lot of cheering and yelling at those trump rallies really put people at greater risk for coronavirus. a cnn investigation with dr. sanjay gupta, that's up next. >> plus, u.s. hospitals at a breaking point with doctors in one state preparing to start rationing care.

stay with us.

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we are going in the wrong direction. >> this is the hardest point in this pan ddemic right now, the next two months. we'll cross 100,000 infections at some point in the next couple of weeks probably. we might do it this week. >> he's talking 100,000 new infections a day. averaging well over 70,000 new cases. record territory and climbing higher. >> by 14% which is great. it's not just testing. it's a lot more virus. and this virus is everywhere. >> we continue to see unrelenting broad community spread in the midwest, upper midwest and west says the white house coronavirus task force's latest report. kansas and south dakota has logged record daily case counts and four days in a row.

wisconsin has broken its record for most covid patients in the hospital. now forced to use overflow facilities. >> the hospitalizations have more than doubled in the last month. we've got this situation that is clearly out of control right now in the state of wisconsin. >> better news? immunity post infection might last at least five months, according to a new study, which found that 90% of the recovered maintain a stable antibody response. this is essential for effective vaccine development says the author of that study. and now, we're told, medicare and medicaid will cover the cost of a vaccine if and when we get one. meanwhile, unrelenting spread of the virus and a president still not taking it seriously. >> you have to eat through the mask. >> this is the greatest political failure since the vietnam war probably, and we've killed five times as many people. i mean it's unbelievable. the virus is no longer the

enemy. we are the enemy. our friends, our neighbors, our politicians. >> reporter: right now, not a single state in the nation has fewer new cases this week than last. not even one is headed in the right direction. i mean, take florida. about a month ago, it was doing great. the governor was saying we expect to do a full super bowl in february. now the nfl is looking at perhaps just 20% capacity in that stadium in tampa, and masks all around. jake? >> all right, nick watt, thank you so much. >> joining me now is chief medical officer at utah hospital dr. tom miller. thanks for joining us. utah just reported its highest weekly average of new cases. what are you seeing in the hospital? >> we're seeing rising cases in the hospital, about double the rate we saw at aour last peak. thanks for having me back on

again. when we last spoke we were at our first peak back in july and it's double where we were then. we expect rates to continue to rise over the next couple of weeks. we're safe and have enough beds and staff to manage the patients currently. >> there are some utah hospitals that have warned this week if covid hospitalizations continue to rise at the rate they're rising, they may have to start rationing care. your hospital hit icu capacity almost two weeks ago, i think. how is capacity now? >> we are at about 90% capacity. we've never run out of icu beds. i would make the point that an icu bed is only as good as the staff, doctors and nurses that are helping the patients. so we have enough doctors and nurses. we're doing okay. we're managing right now. we're not at the level of crisis standards of care. we would need to have another doubling of our cases right now. we've prepared. we have plenty of equipment. we have bed space available and staff to new icu beds. we're doing okay. but if we get beyond double where we are now, we'll be in a

little more trouble. that's down the road. we're okay right now. >> we're over seven months into this pandemic. obviously, most models have predicted that there would be a second wave about right now. do you think your hospital and local leadership, your governor, the president, do you have enough to prepare you? was enough done to prepare you and other front line workers for the surge? >> jake, we took it very seriously back in march when we started and saw all the things happening on the east coast. we collected and prepared by having enough protective equipment, we actually built protective equipment on campus here with a great innovative medical team that helps us build equipment. we are staffed. we have enough equipment and enough beds and ventilators and enough nurses and physicians to get us through to about double where we are now before we really have to start bringing in the other health care providers from other settings.

>> dr. miller, what do you want ut utahans, american people and any political leader who is listening, what do you want them to know, what do you want them to do so things don't keep getting as bad as they have been getting? >> if people will take the masking seriously, especially when indoors, when together in groups, when going out to do things, shopping, whatever we need to do to fulfill our lives, to stay at work, to stay employed, wear masks. being employed, being out in the public is not camera indicated at this point. if we wear a mask, we will cut the rate of infection and we'll get through this. if we are not wearing masks, we will continue to see these cases rise and our hospitals reach capacity. i'm confident that the citizens of utah and the united states working together can enforce each other's willpower to wear masks protective equipment and we'll get through this. that's the message we continue to push.

>> all right. that's an optimistic message. i think we can. i don't know that we will. dr. tom miller, thank you so much. i appreciate it. >> coming up next, cnn investigation, coronavirus and president trump's rallies. do these rallies lead it a greater risk of infection? stay with us. now is the time for a new bath from bath fitter. every bath fitter bath is installed quickly, safely, and beautifully, with a lifetime warranty. go from old to new. from worn to wow. the beautiful bath you've always wanted, done right, installed by one expert technician, all in one day. we've been creating moments like these for 35 years, and we're here to help you get started. book your free virtual or in-home design consultation today.

sofi made it so easy to pay off my student loan debt. they were able to give me a personal loan so i could pay off all of my credit cards. i got my mortgage through sofi and the whole process was so easy. choosing sofi was literally one of the best decisions i could have ever made because it gave me peace of mind. we knew that this wase really, really bad. we had ample forewarning. but we did almost no testing, almost no contact tracing. completely ignored the science, completely ignored the warning signs. there were things that could have been done. a lot of people have died needlessly, and there's nothing more frustrating than feeling like you're fighting against someone who should have your back. we are not going to stamp this out unless we have a change of leadership. ff pac is responsible for the content of this ad. gimme five, good job!

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two people who attended president trump's rally in north carolina test positive. he has been continuing to hold rallies as if the virus didn't exist with no masks required. he has continued to hold rallies in michigan, wisconsin, nebraska, today in florida. dr. sanjay gupta reports for us. these cases in north carolina are hardly an isolated event. >> all you hear is covid, covid, covid, covid, covid. >> reporter: at rallies like this, this doctor is mo less focused on the speaking and more interested in the crowd. >> hundreds of people closely standing together for a prolonged period of time without masks, largely yelling and shouting. >> reporter: he's concerned about the rallies. >> the rallies really do pose high risks for transmission. >> reporter: i wanted to better understand what that meant.

so cnn investigated what happened at 17 recent trump rallies, specifically look at infection rates in the counties where the rallies took place four weeks before and four weeks after. and then also comparing them to the corresponding rates at the state level. the results were starting. 82% of the time the rate of new cases in the county jumped after president trump's visit. more than half the time, the county rate of new cases grew faster than the state's rate. for example, september 12th, nevada. the month going into that rally, cases had begun to fall. fast forward four weeks and the rate of new cases in the county skyrocketed by 225%. far outpaying the 74% increase the state experienced. or september 18th, minnesota. rates of infection were already climbing in the month before the

rally. by the day of the rally, the rate of infection was 6.36 for every 100,000 people in the county. about half the rate of minnesota. but a month after the rally, rate of infection had jumped 385% and quickly bypassed the state's rate of infection. >> those places are already going to be concerned about rising rates of hospitalization, increasing risk of community transmission. >> we have had no problem whatsoever. it's outside. >> it is true being outdoors is far safer than being indoors. take a look the how the virus leaves the nose and the mouth, like a puff of smoke, sitting so close, no mask, and the risk rises dramatically. >> none of these, in and of themselves, are a strong barrier to spread, but if you take them all together, they would help to decrease the risk. >> here is another way to think

about it. if you attend a gathering like this, according to new research, most places in the united states there's now a 99% chance the virus is attending right alongside with you. and now at least 70,000 times a day, the virus is finding a new home, inside one of us. >> dr. sanjay gupta joins us now. it's remarkable that you found 82% of the time the rate of new case jumped after president trump's visit to any specific county. did this surprise you? >> well, we knew the numbers were going up in many of these places. i think what surprised me was just how out of proportion the numbers went up in those particular areas, those particular counties, even prepare to the surrounding counties and the rest of the state. that's the thing. it's very hard to contact trace right now, jake. you have 70,000 newly infected people every day. looking at this sort of data at a hyper local level, i thought, was quite revealing, just the

impact of these types of large gatherings. >> yeah and, of course, just in terms of contact tracing, we were talking months ago about all the unemployed people and wouldn't it be great if the trump administration launched a manhattan project to put people to work by doing the contact tracing that they're not doing? when the cameras pan out to these crowds at the trump and pence rallies, you see so many people not wearing masks. a vast majority. how would these numbers theoretically change if they were all congregating, but everyone was wearing a mask? >> first of all, there's no question that masks are very beneficial now. there's all sorts of data. we've sewn data on your show so many times, look at different models. project forward the model that the white house often cites. they say 100,000 lives could be save bid february if 95% of the country wore masks, no question. the second part of your question is really important here. these rallies should not be

happening. a lot of times people say we wore masks and that's all okay. the mask is not a panacea. let's show the video of what the virus looks like. if we could see the virus, i think we would behave a lot differently. say you're in the rally, the mask helps a lot. but if you're clustered closely together with people, sitting there for a long period of time, you imagine that viral thing like a puff of smoke, it's still a problem, jake. it helps a lot but not as an excuse to still bring thousands of people together in the mifld a p middle of a pandemic. >> we have seen specific trump rallies linked to specific cases of coronavirus, especially minnesota, where the contact tracing, department of health there seems to be pretty good. we know, according to the washington post, the trump campaign lied to officials in duluth about what they were going to do in terms of

following state coronavirus guidelines. they didn't abide by them. now that rally has been linked to at least three cases. we know a previous rally in that state got 20 people sick, two hospitalized. as the president continues these rallies at this phrenetic pace five days before election, what's your message to those attending? >> don't go. don't go to these rallies. look, just about anywhere in the country now, if you go to a gathering that's several hundred people, it's without a doubt the virus is attending that rally with you. if you are clustered close together, you don't know who is carrying the virus. you don't know how many people are carrying the virus. if you're not wearing a mask. all the things we're talking about. you're putting yourself at risk. if you've already attended these rallies, my advice is you have to assume you've been exposed at this point. i would say you should quarantine yourself for 14 days. you're going home to why your family, your friends, you may

infect community members, whatever it may be. if you go to an event like that right now with the amount of virus spreading in this country, you have to assume you had some sort of exposure and take the appropriate action so you don't subsequently spread the virus to others. >> we had dave matthews on in the last hour. he was talking about how, as somebody who makes his living going to concerts, going to venues performing for thousands of people, he sits there and can't even believe it because, a, he would never subject his fans to such a risk and, b, he wouldn't be allowed to even if he wanted to. the venues wouldn't open for him. obviously, president trump gets this special exemption. >> that is pretty remarkable. all these things, all these hypocrisies, right? dave matthews can't do this but minnesota, the one you were just

talking about, they agreed there would be no more than 250 there. there were 2500. more than ten times that. we're telling people they should not be with their families for thanksgiving this year because of the potential risk and the white house is having events at their house. there's a lot of hypocrisies here. it's sending the wrong message. i still get tons of emails saying hey, it seems like it's okay. it seems like this thing is over. we're seeing what's happening at the white house. why can't we do the same thing? >> white house coronavirus task force said, quote, we continue to see unrelenting community spread in the midwest, upper midwest and the west.

this will require grifs mitigation to control both the silent, asymptomatic spread and symptomatic spread. how did things get so worse? >> many places thought we dodged this. they didn't. the virus is still spreading, people are moving from other parts of the country. then the weather got cooler. people started migrating increasingly indoors. again, i wish people could see the virus. imagine that puff of smoke in an indoor area, poorly ventilated if people aren't wearing masks, that's when it can start to spread more rapidly. extended family gatherings, bringing neighbors inside your home. people let their guard down. the cold weather is not going to help. it's going to make this more difficult as we go forward. right now you're seeing hospital problems more so in the north than the south. but as the weather gets cooler around the country, you'll see that migrating to the south as well. >> sometimes i think about the virus as being in a restaurant and somebody in the far end of a restaurant lights a cigarette

and a minute or two later you're like, is somebody smoking in here? because it's worked its way all the way over to you. that's,000 works. >> right. that airborne transmission that you sort of just described, that wasn't clear in the beginning. we learned a lot over the last several months. mostly respiratory drop lets. the science became clear this can spread airborne. that means it can suspend in the air. it can linger longer. it can travel further. just like you say, cigarettes, campfire. that puff of smoke, however you want to envision it. if you envision that in your mind, i think you will automatically, hopefully, do things to protect yourself. >> wear a mask, people. dr. sanjay gupta, thank you so much. the trump administration accused of using millions of dollars meant for a covid ad campaign help the president's re-election. raja krisnamoorthi joins us to talk about that next.

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in our 2020 lead today, new documents reveal the trump administration's $250 million ad campaign to rebrand the coronavirus and that that money was actually being used in part to help president trump's re-election campaign. documents released by house democrats on the oversight committee found michael caputo, top health and human services official who oversaw the ad blits blitz, who has since

resigned, framed the ad campaign to boost the president's chances of re-election, according to democrats. with me now congressman krishnamoorthi. what did you find? >> the trump administration tried to use $250 million of taxpayer mother otherwise dedicated to the cdc for educati education-related purposes to deal with the covid pandemic. basically what amounted to a slush fund for the campaign of the president to get re-elected. and then the second thing that we found is that they basically compiled a joseph mccarthy-esque list of celebrities, 274 of them and they evaluated them based on their political preferences. for instance, about christina

aguiluera an obama-supporting democrat and gay supporting liberal. something i've never seen in a government contract. >> that is an accurate description of christina aguilera. that's not an insult. how do you see this as being used for the president's re-election as opposed to an education campaign about what needs to be done in order to help defeat the pandemic? >> well, these particular ads were not meant to, for instance, encourage mask wearing, social distancing, but rather to promote the theme, quote, helping the president will hept country. that's a slogan that you might see in the former soviet union or even russia today, not in the u.s. certainly not in a public service announcement. with regard to agui lechlt ra and the others, adam levine,

justin timberlake and so forth, those comments were meant to denegrade them as people that could be used in public service announcements. typically you would evaluate them based on whether they would be an effective spokesperson to the target audience in question. >> right. >> not whether they support donald trump. >> absolutely. i don't disagree with you. it's not denegrading necessarily to say somebody is -- i understand what you're saying. you're also accusing alex azar, secretary of the department of health and human services, of a cover-up. how so? what do your documents suggest that he knew about the plans for this? >> well, this particular campaign of television advertisements was essentially supposed to start in the run-up to the re-election which, as you know, is happening next tuesday. we, early on, working with jim clyburn and carolyn maloney of the oversight committee brought

this to alex azar's attention very early on in september and basically demand documents from him related to this particular contract. he refused to comply to those requests for documents. instead we had to go to the contractors to get these very documents and now we know why secretary azar did not produce the documents, because they have such inappropriate material in them that i don't think they wanted to turn those over to us. >> so this was $250 million for an ad campaign. you said it was out of a specific budget for educational campaigns for the public, right? this money could not have been used for testing or contact tracing? it was designated for this. was it ever used? they didn't do this ad campaign. did they ever use it for anything else? >> fortunately, we were able to stop the campaign in its tracks. however, the contract has not been killed. and so it is possible that the money could be used after the

election. as of right now, it's been paused. we hope to terminate it. actually, i've introduced legislation to prohibit the use of taxpayer funded money for this type of purpose, this type of political purpose. obviously that's not what the taxpayers want. >> did you have a script of the ad? what were they supposed to say in this ad, as opposed to the messages that would be good, such as wear a mask, practice distancing, wash your hands, that sort of thing? >> well, they were meant to, quote, inspire hope and defeat despair. that was the general theme. and those words would repeatedly, presumably, appear in these commercials. however, as you know, right now we need to defeat the coronavirus pandemic, and that means adopting mitigation measures, such as wearing masks and socially distancing. it kind of is part of the theme that the president is sounding his re-election campaign, which is, you know, trying to diminish

what's happening with the pandemic, diminishing the scale of the loss economically or from a health standpoint. and trying to distract attention away from it to other themes. and that's what's happening with this particular campaign. one other thing i want to mention -- two other things i want to mention briefly, which is this also seems to coincide at a time when the president's fund-raising was flagging. he didn't have the resources necessarily to run the campaign that he thought he would. and so this advertising campaign seemed to start at the same time using taxpayer-funded programming to basically further a political end. and then the second is, you can go to our twitter handle to see all the other comments made about the 274 celebrities on this list that they compiled. >> it sounds like the ad campaign being proposed sounds

like everything is awesome from the lego movie, that kind of cognitive dissidents. congressman krishnamoorthi, thank you for your time today. it may not be all that it seems in context. stay with us. ohn's disease. until i realized... ...something was missing...me. you okay, sis? my symptoms were keeping me... ...from really being there for my sisters. so i talked to my doctor and learned... that's us. ...humira is for people who still have... ...symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications. the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief in as little as 4 weeks. and many achieved remission that can last. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma,... ...have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems,... ...serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common

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moments ago, the dow closed up 139 points, the economy grew, the fastest third quarter rise on record. of course, the context is important. it comes after the biggest

economic contractions on record, too, because of the pandemic, and more than 10 million americans remain out of work. there is still no stimulus deal to help the unemployed or small business owners or state and local governments to get through the rest of this pandemic. julia chatterly, sure, this report is good news. the record growth is in the middle of a pandemic. we are climbing back but have gone down to a very low point. >> you said it. this is a record growth number that follows a record collapse in the second quarter. and the truth is that we're still not back to levels we were at before the covid crisis hit. you also have to remember this is an annualized number. what this means is it looks at growth and how it would be if this rebound continued for an entire year. i wish it would. it simply won't. the fact is, you have to look at the quarterly growth number, which is around 7.5%. it's still great but it's a lot smaller in terms of the number than you would think. we bought this recovery ultimately with stimulus checks,

with unemployment benefits, none of which was agreed by congress in time. the truth is, we pushed through the fourth quarter. the risk is that this quarter's number looks a lot, lot weaker than that. >> julia, we also got new unemployment numbers today, 751,000 americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time last week. that number is trending down. that's good news, but it's still incredibly high versus before the pandemic. >> it's true. and it's just not the full picture. this 750,000 people is the number we talk about on a weekly basis. what you also have to add in here is a further 359,000 people that got pandemic unemployment assistance. it's a different program. bottom line, over 1.1 million americans asked their government for help in just the last week alone. here it is. we have recovered two-thirds of the growth that we lost in the first half of this year, jake. but we've only recovered half of the jobs. we go into now the winter

months. the pandemic is accelerating, and we are in a far weaker position than we were this time back in march. that's what the next government has to contend with. >> all right. julia chatterly, thank you so much. president trump is taking credit for the economic growth. he says next year will be fantastic under him, while joe biden says we are head for the worst economic downturn in decades. cri cristina alesci has details as we continue our series with the candidates and where they stand on major issues. >> i was look at those big, once incredible, job-producing factories, and my wife, melania, said what happened? i said those jobs have left ohio. they're all coming back. they're all coming back. >> in 2016, trump ran on an america first platform to revitalize u.s. manufacturing and bring back jobs.

today, in the battleground state of ohio where the unemployment rate is higher than the national average, job growth and manufacturing has been anemic, and the pandemic has wiped out even those small gains. now, voters are weighing whether trump -- >> our economy is booming. wages are soaring. >> reporter: or former president joe biden. >> to the top is where things go up and the those in the middle or lower see things go down. >> reporter: will create jobs in all sectors, more pressing because the country still hasn't recovered almost 11 million jobs that were lost as the pandemic slammed the economy. trump has promised spending a trillion dollars on infrastructure. >> better roads, bridges, tunnels, highways. >> reporter: and keeping his tax cuts which largely favor the wealthy and corporations. >> more regulatory rollback will be in store, payroll tax cuts,

income tax cuts for the middle class. >> reporter: they will cost an estimated $1.9 trillion over a decade and even more if he makes them permanent, as promised. >> corporations, well-to-do households. >> reporter: biden wants to raise taxes p on those make morgue than $400,000 a year. >> paying the price for this administration's incompetence. >> translator: former vice president is proposing $7.3 trillion in spending, including on infrastructure, which calls for creating 10 million clean energy jobs as well as education, health care and housing. >> president biden, benefits go right to lower and middle-income houses, minority groups. >> reporter: jake, trump and biden's economic agendas could not be more different. mark zandy, that economist that spoke in the piece tried to estimate their impact on job

policies in job creations and found that biden would create 18.6 million jobs over his four-year first term while trump would create 11.2. that 7-plus million difference is a big difference. that also assumes that congress would be controlled by their own parties and they can get those policies executed. jake? >> cristina alesci, thank you so much. our coverage on cnn continues right now. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. president trump and his democ t democratic rival joe biden are both campaigning in the battleground state that could make or break the election for them. we're talking about florida. biden going so