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 far as telling a

rally crowd today, and i'm quoting now, if florida goes blue, it's over. this hour, we'll take a closer look at how that state plays into the path to 270 electoral votes. meanwhile, a record 80 million early ballots have been cast. that's more than one-third of all registered voteers in the united states. that heavy, early turnout due, in part, to the coronavirus pandemic, which as of now has claimed more than 228,000 american lives. and the country is nearing 9 million confirmed cases as the map shows not a single state is trending in the right direction right now. let's go straight to the campaign trail. kaitlan collins is in north carolina. the president was planning to hold a major campaign rally in fayetteville tonight. what happened? >> reporter: wolf, they just postponed it until monday because the last remnants of that hurricane that hit the gulf coast overnight are making their way up here through north

carolina right now. but he is still going to come to ft. bragg, right here behind me in a few minutes. that comes after the president spent the day in florida where he and both joe biden were, only hours apart from each other, speaking both to supporters there. that is a state that is always at the center of presidential politics. even more so now because it's also at the center of the coronavirus crisis and, of course, we are seeing the last days of this pandemic be defined by the one thing the president didn't want it to be, the pandemic. president trump and joe biden crossing paths in tampa, florida, today with, dueling rallies. >> five days from now, we are going to win florida. we are going to win four more years. >> 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! >> reporter: with cases rising, the closing days of the 2020 race are being defined by the

pandemic and two wildly different closing messages from the candidates. >> thank you for wearing your masks, and thank you for social distancing. >> reporter: trump has been eager to point out the differences, bragging about his mostly maskless crowds, as he flauts coronavirus guidelines while biden adheres to them. >> now they try to say it's because of covid. they say the fact that he has nobody at all show up is because of covid. no. it's because nobody shows up. and i think that's the ultimate poll. >> reporter: today, chief of staff mark meadows was pressed by cbs news on why the administration isn't following its own guidelines on the pandemic and, instead, talked about purell. >> i can tell you that i'm following the guidelines, and a number of us are following the guideline. >> a number of us? >> all of you that are watching this morning, if you can carry a little container of purell. i probably have used more purell than any american here in the united states over the last

seven or eight months. >> reporter: dr. scott atlas is the president's go-to adviser on the coronavirus. new cnn reporting goes inside his push to test mainly symptomatic people even as medical experts warn about the dangers of asymptomatic spread. dr. atlas shared those views with governors like florida's ron desantis. during a stop in the state in august said this. >> when you start introducing closure of schools because people have positive, asymptomatic tests, that's sort of not the purpose of testing. >> reporter: the rise of atlas within the task force has coincided with what friends have described as the self exile of dr. deborah birx. she now spends her days on the road advising state officials on transmission rates. today the president focused less on covid-19 cases and instead on the third quarter economic growth number he has been waiting to tout for weeks. >> wait until you see that number in gdp.

i don't know what it is. the fed said it may be a 35% increase in gdp. >> reporter: the economy grew a record 7.4% from july to september, which means at an annualized rate, the growth was 33%. the sharpest improvement on record but far from where it was prepandemic. >> you see the number today? 33.1 gdp. >> reporter: meanwhile the white house press secretary once again blurred the lines between government and politics today, by appearing on fox news, not as a taxpayer funded government official, but with this new title. >> let's bring in kayleigh mcenany, trump 2020 campaign adviser. >> and, wolf, back to that stunning rift between dr. deborah birx and dr. atlas, there was a meeting over the summer in which she grew so frustrated with these misleading claims that she vowed to not go to any meetings with him and

said her time would be more valuable on the road. you see her in montana, wyoming, meeting with state officials. she felt as he was getting more time with the president, she was getting less. she figured she might as well use it somewhere else. >> a smart thing from her perspective to do. i guess dr. atlas doesn't know young people who are asymptomatic, or have minor symptoms, maybe he doesn't know that they can still pass on covid to their parents or grandparents and others very, very easily. maybe he doesn't appreciate that. thank you very much. more on the biden campaign right now. jessica dean is covering the former vice president for us. what's the strategy right now in the key battleground state of florida? >> reporter: wolf, joe biden doesn't have to have florida in his column on election night to get to 270, but if he does, if he wins here on election night, that would be a show of strength for the biden campaign and make president trump's path to

re-election all but nearly impossible. listen to joe biden, what he has to think about it. >> this election is the most important one you've ever voted in, whether it's your first or tenth. 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! >> so straight from the former vice president's mouth right there on what he sees florida's role as on election night. it's worth noting that the biden campaign and democrats are outspending president trump and the republicans here in the ad wars over 2-1 in terms of television advertising, radio, digital. you also have michael bloomberg coming in and dumping tens of millions of dollars on the airwaves here in florida as well. joe biden doing two stops. one earlier in the day right here behind me.

it was a drive-in rally here in broward county. lot of democratic voters in broward county, a lot of black democratic voters, a key part of the coalition that the biden campaign is trying to build here in florida, which includes senior voters, latino voters, among others that they're trying to bring together. we're seeing the trump campaigning relying on people going to vote on election day, the biden campaign is urging people to vote early. they told everyone as they left here if they haven't already voted to please go ahead and vote as they try to get the edge on this critical state of florida. >> ft. lauderdale in broward county. a lot of people there, obviously, our jessica dean, thank you very much. let's get to more on all of this. gloria borger is joining us, bakari sellers is with us. author of the new book "my vanishing country." gloria, both candidates have been on the ground today in florida, vying for those 29 electoral votes. tell our viewers why florida is

so critical in this election, because so many people believe if trump were to lose florida -- he carried florida four years ago. if he were to care florida it would, in fact, be over for him. >> that's why they believe it's so critical. first of all, it's a pot of gold. 29 electoral votes. secondly, the thing to remember is that florida is counting ballots and florida may have a result on tuesday night. and if that result is that joe biden wins florida, then the road to 270 for donald trump becomes almost impossible. and so the biden people will breathe a lot easier. if they should lose florida that night, they have a lot of other roads, but they're going to be a little bit more nervous and the trump people will be really happy. it is a swing state. obama won it twice. obama won it twice. trump won it once. nobody can predict how it's

going to go. i was talking to a vote counter for democrats there yesterday, and he said to me, look, after what happened in 2016, i have pts. i can't even think about it. >> one thing also about florida, they count ballots relatively quickly. >> yes. they're counting now. >> the early numbers as well as the day of numbers fairly quickly on that tuesday night. so we'll watch florida very closely. bakari, i want to show our viewers video of the dueling rallies, biden's socially distant drive-in rally, the president's jam packed, largely maskless event, no social distancing. this clearly illustrates how different these campaigns are, doesn't it? >> it does. one campaign is taking the coronavirus seriously and another one that doesn't. florida is very, very, very important. it's not just the 29 electoral

votes. it's the fact that we all know it's going to be close. any poll that tells you any candidate is going to win this more than two points is a poll you shouldn't trust, in all honesty. barack obama won florida in 2012 by less than a point. donald trump won it by 1.2 points or 113,000 votes. we know it's going to be extremely close. the difference, though, is that joe biden is not just having these rallies where he's concerned about coronavirus, showing you leadership. he's engaging people on the ground, names might not hear on cnn that often. however, these are people who know where voters are, who can pull those voters out of their respective corners and get them to the ballot boxes. barack obama going to florida. these things matter. i remember on election night -- true anecdote. in 2016, myself and gloria

borger were talking to one of our good friends on the phone, trying to figure out what's happening in florida. and he said look, white voters are falling out of the sky. >> right. >> donald trump is going to win this race because democrats have no more voters left. what we're seeing is people are really anxious about what's going to happen. but i do think that joe biden is doing those things that are necessarily to actually increase his voter base contrary to what happened in texas? >> you have to get that voter turnout, get people to show up, either early or day of. let's listen to republican senator's response when asked about president trump's widely reported history of bragging about sexually assaulting women. listen to this. >> you're still not disagreeing with that particular thing that president trump said? you're still not disagreeing with that? >> i'm sorry, what are you referring to? >> you're still not disagreeing with president trump's statements about personal sexual

assault? >> i'm not familiar with that. >> access hollywood tape? >> what does that tell you about the fine line these republican candidates have to walk in order to keep president trump's support? >> first of all, what kind of a rock has kelly loeffler has been living under? i have no idea. that was the definition of awkwa awkward. i have a hard time believing that she didn't know what the access hollywood tape was, had never heard of the access hollywood tape, especially since she's someone in politics. but i think, as she knows, you have to give ultimate, xlaet, 100% loyalty. look what happened to martha mcsally on the stage in arizona yesterday. she didn't give a pledge of ultimate loyalty to donald trump by pointing to things she wasn't proud of the working with him? and he gave her less than a

minute on stage and was rude to her. i think she knows that and is her ticket to victory in georgia. we'll have to see. >> thank you, bakari, gloria. path of electoral votes going right through florida. how that state could make or break the election for president trump and joe biden. plus more on the breaking pandemic news we're following. the u.s. death toll now surpassing 228,000 people as the virus sweeps across the united states in a deadly second wave. we'll be right back. >> tech: every customer has their own safelite story.

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breaking news with five days left, president trump and joe biden campaigned in florida this afternoon. joining us with an update, all eyes clearly on florida right now, candidates holding dueling rallies there today. >> let's remember the 2016 map, wolf. let's take a look at florida in 2016 and how close it was. this is just over 100,000 votes that donald trump beat hillary clinton by, 49% to 47.8%. so we know this is going to be a close race this time around as well. let me show you why. let me go to the road to 270 and the electoral college outlook. why joe biden says if he can win florida, he blocks donald trump for re-election. take a look. if i give donald trump -- if i give him all these toss-up states, iowa, ohio, north carolina, georgia, just for this exercise, give him this congressional district up here in maine.

i'm going to leave florida blank right now? i'm going to give it to joe biden. how do you like that? he says if he gets it. right now, 319 to 219. how does donald trump make up that gap? definitely not let arizona fall to joe biden. where else could he go now that he's at 230? look here, wolf. he would need pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin. he would need all three of those gr great lake states to get to 270. if joe biden is winning florida politically, the way things stand right now, this is almost possible to believe that donald trump could sweep pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin if joe biden is actually winning florida. >> the poll today had biden ahead of trump in florida. >> let me show you our poll of polls, just so you can see. >> yeah. >> most recent state of play. average poll of polls, 49%, biden, 46% trump. it is a toss-up state.

>> certainly is. now to the battle for the u.s. sena senate. i want to show you and our viewers a moment from president trump's rally in arizona last night when he invited republican senator martha mcsally on stage. watch this. >> martha, come up, just fast. quickly. fast! fast. come on, quick. you got one minute. one minute, martha. come on, martha. let's go. quick, quick, quick. let's go. >> all right. i'm coming. thank you. >> i'm nnot exactly a huge, war embrace from the president of the united states. she is in an extremely tough race. >> i've never said anything like that, the president of the united states, they don't want to hear this. be quick about it. how close this race is in arizona, right? running against mark kelly. if he were to win that, you could see the dems would be at 48. they're trying to get to 51.

where else could they possibly look for that? well, i would pay attention to iowa and north carolina and maine. if they can win those four, including that arizona senate race, the republicans can hold everything else that's yellow in this map and the democrats would still be in the majority. >> and if they're in the majority in the senate, the house, as well as the white house, that's a huge, huge difference that will take place over the next few years. david chalian, thank you for that. the former national security adviser susan rice about the challenges and the threat to the upcoming election, everything from getting all the votes counted quickly to worries about cyber crime. [birds chirping]

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in mass incarceration of black and brown communities. the shame is on all of us. i'm working to right the wrongs of injustice. ending cash bail. ending the war on drugs. decriminalizing sex work, and passing major sentencing reform legislation. but until we reimagine community safety and end police brutality, we must keep working to reform our racist criminal justice system that's shameful to us all.

we're following multiple breaking news stories, including donald trump and joe biden in the state of florida. susan rice, who served as president obama's national security adviser, also was the united states ambassador to the united nations. author of the best selling book "tough love: my story and the things worth fighting for." here is the cover. ambassador, thank you for joining us. the president and biden focused

on florida voters today. your former boss, president obama, he's going to join biden once again on the campaign trail this weekend. what do they need to do in these final days of the race in order to make sure that biden wins? >> i think the most important thing is for everybody to get out and vote. and vote in person if you can, with your mask and social distancing. if you already have your ballot but haven't returned it, make sure you put it in a drop box or take it to the county clerk, or the election office in your area, because the mail -- it's too late to rely on the mail. i think their message is that this is the most consequential election of our lifetime and people have to participate. if people turn out in massive numbers, i'm confident that joe biden will be elected, and elected by a substantial margin. >> turnout will be so, so important. u.s. supreme court, as you know, ambassador, ruled that both pennsylvania and north carolina can count mail-in ballots

received in a certain window even after election day. this race is close. how worried are you about the legal challenges tempted to discount, for example, those ballots? >> you know, there will be legal challenges. trump has made clear that, you know, he will contest everything in court to the extent he can. but, look, this is fundamental. if americans cast their ballot, and a ballot is received by the deadline on election day, it needs to be counted. it deserves to be counted. there's no two ways about that. i am hopeful that americans are heeding this message to get their ballot in early, whether in person or dropping it off in a drop box or at an election office. we don't want any opportunity for games to be played. but the fact is, americans, each of us, have the right to vote. and the right for our vote to be counted. and we need to insist on it. it's basic fairness. there's no deadline that is

manufactured that allows people, you know, to have their vote denied if it's postmarked by the deadline. >> another very disturbing development in michigan earlier today. michigan authorities actually charged two men for their involvement in what was described as a white supremacist group. one of the men, the alleged leader even organized tactical and firearms training. how big of a red flag is this as law enforcement is clearly bracing -- we hope it doesn't happen but they're bracing for possible unrest in the aftermath of the election. >> well, that's obviously something that we all, as americans, want to avoid at all costs. you know, the fbi and the department of homeland security have each, in recent weeks, put out reports that make clear that the greatest domestic terrorism threat we face is now coming from white supremacists, by a large margin, in terms of number of accounts and lethality of the

attacks. the plot to kidnap the governor of michigan was quite alarming. we see that these elements are out there. what's particularly worrying, wolf, is that the president of the united states has encouraged them. stand by and stand back. that is absolutely unconscionable. we need leadership that recognizes that we're all americans, that we're in this together, that we have this great thing called a democracy, if only we all can participate in it and participate peacefully and transfer power peacefully. that's the essence of what makes us the united states of america. i'm hopeful that the vast majority of americans are committed to that ideal and will have no tolerance for extremists intervening in any way at all. >> i'm curious, ambassador, when you were president obama owes national security adviser in the white house, were white supremacists groups also, at that time, seen as the number

one potential source of domestic terrorism in this country? >> no, wolf, that wasn't the case at the time. this has evolved. and, you know, we had to focus on home-grown terrorism, but it was usually of a different variety, often foreign inspired. that's a serious threat and we can't take our eye off that ball either in the current context. of course, overseas terrorism, but the rise of white supremacists terrorism as a more substantial phenomenon is a more recent thing and it's one that we need to be very mindful of and guard against. >> last night in a debate, republican senator susan collins of maine said she doesn't believe systemic racism is a problem in her state. your grandparents immigrated to maine from jamaica. you were potentially going to challenge senator collins. what was your reaction to what

she said? >> i was shocked to hear her say that, wolf. there's systemic racism everywhere in this country. the state of maine is no exception. my mother, who lived in maine, drove out and came out of a store to find a ku klux klan flyer for a rally on her vehicle. obviously, that's an extreme version, but that was in mid coast maine. so these things exist everywhere. there are all keends of challenges that we all face. the first step to addressing them effectively is acknowledging that they exist. and so for senator collins to say that there was no concern with systemic racism in maine was not just out of touch, it was extraordinarily insensitive. and it shows that she really has not got her fingers on the pulse of what's happening in her home state and in the nation more broadly. >> she's in a tough race right

now, as we all know as well. we'll see what happens on tuesday. ambassador rice, thanks, as usual, for joining us. i want our viewers to once again take a look at your book cover "tough love:things worth fighting for." >> thank you, wolf. new and very ominous warnings from the experts. our own dr. sanjay gupta is standing by.

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just five days before the election, u.s. coronavirus death toll has topped 228,000 people. and the country is nearing 9 million confirmed cases. cnn's brian todd is working the story for us. simply sweeping across the country right now. >> it is, wolf. two individuals who attended president trump's campaign rally a week ago yesterday at the gaston municipal airport have tested positive for coronavirus. officials there are quick to say that they do not believe that this is any indication of any kind of spread from the rally at this time, but rather cases, just two individual cases of people who tested positive. this comes as the virus climbs to some terrible milestones in the country. and as top health officials are especially concerned tonight about the number of hospitals across the u.s. that are getting overwhelmed. tonight's top health officials are issuing ominous warnings to

americans. the country is getting sicker. and, a month from now, the top voice on the pandemic told cnbc, america will be in an even darker place. >> if they continue on the course we're on, there's going to be a whole lot of pain in this country with regard to additional cases and hospitalizations and deaths. we are on a very difficult trajectory. >> scott gottlieb says that the u.s. will probably climb past 100,000 infections per day within the next couple of weeks and is warning americans to avoid potentially dangerous family gatherings at thanksgiving. >> be tuckly prudent around thanksgiving. if you want to come together, take precautions. be mindful of bringing older people into contact with younger people who may be asymptomatic spreaders. you just need to be careful if you're going to come together. ware not going to be this year. >> reporter: a seven-day positivity rate in wisconsin

that's astron omiccal. out of all the people tested for coronavirus on a given day nearly 30% were positive, 86% of hospital beds in wisconsin are taken. >> icu capacities are getting near capacity in the state of wiscons wisconsin. the situation is dire. >> reporter: reporting record-high hospitalizations and in one of the regions dr. anthony fauci is most worried about when he talks about the hospital crisis in america brought on by this virus. >> there are some places in the heartland and in the northwest that never had the kind of hospital and intensive care facility and flexibility that some of the larger hospitals in larger cities like new york, chicago, new orleans, philadelphia and others. >> and one expert says with hospitals overwhelmed with coronavirus there will be a deadly cascading effect. >> if it's overwhelmed because of a single disease, that means

there are also many other diseases for which we need immediate care like heart attacks, strokes and so forth that will get short. >> reporter: this disease keeps getting more devastating, new cases averaging 74,000 per day with wednesday being the third worst day ever. ohio just recorded its highest daily case count with more than 3,500 positives in one day. >> virus is raging throughout the state of ohio. there's no place to hide. >> and dr. anthony fauci has just said again that he thinks it's time for a national mandate for all americans to have to wear masks in public. dr. fauci had previously been reluctant to call for that. and he said even last night that he didn't think a national mandate for wearing masks would ever happen but he now says this is, quote, an untenable situation. wolf? >> he knows what he's talking about, dr. fauci.

thanks. our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is joining us. as you know, former commissioner dr. scott gottlieb says more than 100,000 new coronavirus infections every day within a week or two. nearly 79,000 cases just yesterday. even states in the northeast are now reporting a spike. is every region of the country potentially, sanjay, at risk for a resurgence? >> unfortunately, wolf, i do think that's the case. we can show the graph of what's happening in these different regions of the country. we any that the northeast had been largely spared over the summer because of this terrible bout in april. the lines are all going in that direction. we anticipated that. we knew that the numbers were going to increase as we go into the winter season. the question has always been two-fold. one is how much will the numbers increase and could you get ahold of it?

could you identify people quickly who are newly infected, isolate them, trace their contacts, all the stuff we've been talking about? it's hard. you've got 70,000 people being infected every day, that makes it a real challenge. i do think as well, know, scott gottlieb said 100,000 people. anthony fauci said that time ago as well. at the time dr. fauci said it, there were only parts of the country that were having these significant surges. if you look at the map now, wolf, as you've been showing, these waves that were going around the country have now consolidated into one larger wave. so, the numbers will continue to increase. it's just a question of how quickly and can we at least try to control it in some of these areas? >> it's getting worse in so many states right now. at least two people, as you know -- you heard brian todd report this, who attended president trump's rally in north carolina recently, tested positive now. you've been looking into the effect these campaign rallies are having on communities where the president is visiting.

what can you tell us about what you discovered? >> this is pretty remarkable, wolf. we did a deep investigation look at these numbers, looked at 17 rallies and found 82% of them were associated with significant increases in the county where the rally was held. and those increases had that county were out of proportion to surrounding counties. the thing is, was it just going to go up anyways, or was it somehow related to these large events? that's the question we were trying to answer. that's why we compared the specific county to the surrounding counties and certainly 8 times out of 10, there was a significant increase in that particular county. so that's concerning. again, wolf, it's hard to contact trace, to definitively say that new infection is related to this because you have 70,000 people becoming infected every day. it would take an entire sector of our society with those numbers to simply contact trace. what we can say right now is when you have any kind of

gathering, especially one that's a few hundred people, there is probably a 95 to 99% chance that the virus is attending that rally with you. and if people aren't wearing masks, they're closely clustered, they're likely to get exposed, wolf. >> we're going to save thousands of lives by doing something that's so-so simple, simply putting on a mask. dr. sanjay gupta. thank you so much, sanjay, for joining us. a record 80 million plus early ballots have been cast. only five days left until election day. we're going to have details of an important supreme court decision that could impact whose ballots are counted. i'm greg, i'm 68 years old.

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we're following breaking news. more than 80 million early ballots have been cast as of tonight, just days before election day. cnn's pamela brown is working the story for us. >> reporter: with five days to go until election day, more than a third of america's registered voters have already cast their ballots. >> it's more sense of security when we vote in person. >> reporter: 28 states have receive in order than 50% of total ballots cast in 2016. and florida, where more than seven million people have voted, the democrats' big early turnout lead has narrowed to just over 200,000. the texas turnout is already massive, with more than 8 million votes cast so far. early voting there is on track to eclipse its entire 2016 vote total. >> we want to make it as easy as can be to make it accessible.

so this location is open 24 hours. >> reporter: there are also new legal battles over whether late arriving mail-in votes will be counted. in two key states, the u.s. supreme court has weighed in. north carolina can count ballots up to nine days after the election if they are clearly postmarked by november 3rd. and pennsylvania, the decision is trickier, allowing ballots received by november 6 to be counted for now, but the court made clear they could be disputed later. pennsylvania officials announcing they will securely segregate votes by setting aside ballots that arrive after election day, setting up a potential nightmare legal battle if late arrival ballots end up being enough to swing the election. >> i know there is confusion about flying court decisions. make plan today to vote. right now do not wait. >> reporter: and each county has a different counting plan.

cumberland county won't begin counting mail-in ballots until wednesday, prioritizing in-person county. dauphin county wants to have it all done by election night. >> we believe that election night will have all the in-person voting done, and if all goes well, 50,000 mail-in ballots completed. >> reporter: new hampshire is already getting started as election official there's begin partially processing absentee ballots today. and in minnesota, a bipartisan message from former governors urging patience, warning the count may not be complete on election night. >> a delay just means our system is working and that we're counting every single ballot. >> but no matter who wins, let's demonstrate the civility and decency that minnesotans are known for. >> reporter: and wolf, the secretary of state in pennsylvania says she is aware of at least five county there's that are going to wait until

after the election, the day after the election to start counting the absentee ballots. she says she is reaching out to those counties trying to start on election day because that could delay the whole process. it could be a while until we find out the results in the all important state of commonwealth of pennsylvania. >> thank you so much, pamela, for that report. there is more breaking news we're following. joe biden makes an impassioned pitch to a critical state, saying, quote, if florida goes blew, it's over. we'll take a much closer look at the all-important race for the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the contest. it's time for sleep number's veterans day sale

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this is cnn breaking news. >> we want to welcome our viewer here is in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." right now we're five days out from the election of a lifetime,

and one make-or-break state is in the spotlight. we're talking about florida. both president trump and former vice president biden zeroing in on that battleground with duelling rallies today. joe biden has another event in florida this hour. he is predicting that if he wins the sunshine state, the election is over. we're breaking down florida's clout in the all important fight for 270 electoral votes. and we're also following the exploding turnout in early voting here in the united states. over 80 million ballots have been cast so far. more than a third of all registered voters. also tonight, most of the country is in the red zone as new coronavirus cases trend up in 41 states. not a single state is heading in the right direction as the u.s. death toll climbs above 228,000. the total case count is now close to hitting nine million. first, let's go to our white house correspondent