plans, have enough vaccine to immunize the u.s. population by the middle of 2021. >> reporter: joe biden says he will trust the scientists, not the president. >> a president who by his own admission downplayed the threat of the virus, leaving a staggering number of americans to die. >> reporter: tonight, the cdc projects 218,000 americans will have died of covid-19 by october 10th. but the president has been trying to convince voters he has done a good job handling the pandemic, saying the death count would be much lower if you don't count states controlled by democrats. >> if you take the blue states out, we're at a level that i don't think anybody in the world would be at. >> reporter: it was a comment roundly condemned, including by new york's senior senator. >> what kind of demented person would say that those american lives don't count? >> reporter: and joe biden