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Record High Floodwaters Receding in St. Louis Area; Israel Has Named Suspect In Deadly Tel Aviv Attack; Bill Cosby's Wife Being Forced to Break Her Silence; New Terror Video Features Donald Trump; Claims by Iraqi Government That Ramadi Has Been Retaken May Be Premature; Merchandizing Has Important Role In Election. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 02, 2016 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right. What a year 2015, goodbye. Hello, 2016.

Hey, thanks so much for spend something the time with me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now with Brianna Keilar.

[15:00:21] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Thank you, Fred. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brianna Keilar in Washington in for Poppy Harlow.

On our top story this hour, record high floodwaters are receding in the St. Louis area uncovering catastrophic damage to entire communities. But as the flooding eases, dangers persist downstream. A short time ago, the governor of Illinois toured this flood wall right there along the banks of the swollen Mississippi River. Water has already topped one levy in southern Illinois and a second is in danger of breaching.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BRUCE RAUNER, ILLINOIS: Some communities have actually been hit harder than the 93 flood. Most, fortunately, is not quite as bad, but this is one of the worst. And that's the reason we declared 12 counties disaster areas. We want to try to free up federal resources to get reimbursement from the federal government. We also want to make sure that we have state personnel here, supporting local responders and make sure we have equipment and supplies and sandbags as need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, back in Missouri, dozens of residents pushed from their flooded homes are beginning to return. And with some have come back to is nothing less than shocking.

CNN's Dan Simon is live for us in hard hit Eureka, Missouri.

Tell us what you've been seeing, Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brianna. This is what you call one very large pile of debris. This is sort of a dumping ground for this town of Eureka, a suburb of St. Louis.

This gives you an idea of how much damage and destruction there was in this small community. You have dozens of homes that took on significant damage. You can see sorts of the mattresses and all these sandbags that can't be used again. We are expecting the governor actually to come to this location in just a little while. This is a community center complex. He is going to give us an update on basically the clean-up response and how all of that is going. But in the meantime, as you can imagine, this a very difficult day for residents of this community who are grappling with this situation. Fortunately, the floodwaters have receded. But what you're left with is the aftermath. And that's what folks are dealing with today.

So what they're doing is they are basically putting all of their damaged stuff in large dumpsters and then bringing it to this community center where eventually it will be collected and taken to I a landfill.

But in the meantime, it is just -- you're dealing with the aftermath, Brianna. So hopefully the governor is going to give us a sense in terms of how this is cleanup is going and when it will get back to normal -- Brianna.

KEILAR: One of the big issues, Dan, has been waste water treatment plants that have completely flood. And so, then, you have sewage going into the rivers. Do people in Eureka have safe drinking water?

SIMON: Well, that was certainly a concern, because you did have two waste water treatment plants that were damaged with the flood water and there was some raw sewage that seeped into some of those floodwaters. But fortunately, we have not gotten any reports of contaminated drinking water. Perhaps that's something that the governor will address. But for now, residents don't seem to have any concerns with that.

KEILAR: All right. That's good news. Dan Simon, thank you so much.

Millions more people are bracing for flooding as high water are surging down river now. We have meteorologist Allison Chinchar with the timeline of this.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, METEOROLOGIST: We still have 16 states that are dealing with flood watches or warning. And the reason for that is all of the rivers locations that we still have that are either at or above their flood stage. That number over 270 of them. And you can see, it is spread all across the Midwest and also parts of the southeast.

Now, this entire gray shaded area is the basin we have talked about for days now. All of the rain that has fallen in this area has to go somewhere. And it ends up in the Mississippi river. Whether it comes from Missouri river, the Arkansas or even the Ohio rivers, they all at some point funnel back into the Mississippi.

Now, St. Louis crested yesterday, which is good news. The water has started to recede. But it's a different story, a little bit farther south. Take a look at Cape Girardeau. Not expected to crest until January 3rd. And Cairo, not expected to crest until January 4th. We already have one levy that overtop near Miller city just on the east side of the Mississippi river. That's south of Cape Girardeau. And again, it's possible we could see more levies that get over top over the next several days.

And again, as we notice, a lot of these areas aren't expected to crest for several more days. Greenville and Vicksburg not for another 10 to 14 days. The problem with that is any rain fall that we get the next 10 to 14 days could make these crests even higher, depending on that amount of water. One good news is we do expect the (INAUDIBLE) spillway to help alleviate some of the problems downstream in New Orleans.

[15:05:05] KEILAR: Allison Chinchar, thank you so much for that.

And ahead this hour, a manhunt underway for this man. The gun man who walked into a pub and opened fire. We have a live report straight ahead.

Plus, for decades, he weighs America's dad. So how do you seat an unbiased jury in the sex assault case against Bill Cosby? We're going to talk to a jury consultant who has been a part of some of the most infamous celebrity trial in history.

And then later, Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin, puts out a must-see 2016 calendar. So can the presidential candidates here in the U.S. perhaps learn something from the Putin brand? We will discuss. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:08:19] KEILAR: Breaking news from overseas this hour. Israel has named a suspect in that deadly attack at a pub in Tel Aviv. He is 31- year-old, Nasha'at Melhem. He is an Israeli Arab. And this is a picture taken from a previous arrest. The surveillance video that we saw from yesterday shows a lone gun man pulling an assault rifle from a bag spraying bullet into a crowd, killing two people. Eight were wounded. And after seeing this video, the suspect's own father called police to identify him. Right now, investigators aren't sure if this is terrorism or if it is just a violent crime.

CNN Ian Lee joining me now from Jerusalem. What more do we know about this suspect, Ian?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, in the past couple of hours, we have been learning a lot about him, starting with the father. The father recognized him from that security footage that was taken from the shooting. He went to his safe. He looked for a gun that he had stored there. He found it missing. He then went and called authorities and said my son was responsible for the shooting. You need to arrest him. His father is a volunteer for the local police.

Now, after that happened, the police were tipped off. They say -- the family says that their son, the nephew has not been back since that incident took place. He's at large. But really, right now, Brianna, the police, their main goal is to neutralize him as they say, to make sure that he cannot carry out another attack. Every security agency, internal agency is working on this case. They have road blocks around Tel Aviv. They are searching other places as well, making sure that they can stop him before he could potentially carry out another attack.

[15:10:03] KEILAR: Are they leaning towards this maybe being a terror attack versus a violent crime?

LEE: This is the interesting thing. I was talking to police, they are using words like radical, complex, unique. Really, this is a bizarre case that they haven't really seen before. It doesn't fit the mold of either being a criminal or a terrorist case. A terrorism case is usually the suspect is either killed or arrested at the scene of the crime. They haven't seen someone flee like this, and really be quite effective in fleeing. Usually, they're picked up fairly quickly.

This person has been on the run for over 24 hours. It seems to be a well-planned escape. They're also investigating another death that took place about 20 minutes after the shooting, to see if it is related. But right now, again, they are saying their goal is to neutralize him. They are urging anyone who has information or sees anything suspicious to notify police, Brianna.

KEILAR: Tell us about that other death that took place not too long after this one.

LEE: Well, this one is also under a gag order, but what we can say is that it happened near a hotel about 20 minutes afterwards. It has been reported it was a taxi driver. The police are not saying initially right after the shooting happened in Tel Aviv, this was also reported. That's why we can talk about it. But the police aren't saying if the two are related. They're just looking into it to see if this could be the case.

But the one other thing that they have going for them is security footage. They have released their -- some has been released, but Israel is a country full of security cameras. They are going to be looking for any clues following his path trying to figure out what vicinity he is in. But 24 hours later, he's still on the run. It could be sometime before they capture him. If it is, it really shows that this possibly could have been a well-planned attack.

KEILAR: All right, Ian Lee in Jerusalem. Thank you for those details.

Coming up, the secrets to sitting a jury in the criminal case against Bill Cosby. Inside in the how legal team could navigate the case against the legendary comedian.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:05] KEILAR: Bill Cosby's wife, Camille is being forced to break her silence on charges against her husband. A judge has ordered Mrs. Cosby to testify in a defamation suit in which seven women say Bill Cosby portrayed them as liars and they accused of him of drugging and sexually salting them.

Mrs. Crosby's attorneys argued that the couple's private conversations are privileged. But the plaintiff says they subpoenaed Mrs. Cosby because she was her husband's business manager. In addition to the civil suit, there was a criminal bombshell this week. Bill Cosby could face up to ten years in prison on sex assault charges in Pennsylvania.

CNN's Jean Casarez has details of that case - Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the year is starting with a legal bombshell. Criminal charges for Bill Cosby.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ (voice-over): Bill Cosby out on $1 million bail. His legal team vowing to mount a vigorous defense after Cosby was arraigned on criminal sexual assault charges.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mrs. Cosby, anything to say.

KEVIN R. STEELE, FIRST ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: His charges stand from a sexual assault that took place on an evening in early 2004 at Mr. Cosby's home, (INAUDIBLE), Montgomery County.

CASAREZ: The 78-year-old comedian charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault of Andres Constand. Constand worked at Temple University's athletic program and considered Cosby, 37 years her senior and a Temple alum, a friend and mentor. She accuses Cosby of drugging then assaulting her when she visited his Pennsylvania home.

STEELE: Mr. Cosby made two sexual advances at her that were rejected. On the evening in question, Mr. Cosby urged her to take pills, that he provided to her and to drink wine.

CASAREZ: According to the criminal complaint, the pills and wine left Constand feeling dizzy, noxious, frozen and paralyzed, but aware of Cosby's fondling her breast and putting his hands into her pants. Constand went to the police about a year later, but the district attorney did not file charges, citing lack of evidence. She filed a civil suit against Cosby forcing him to be deposed. He settled the suit with her, the terms of which were sealed.

That deposition was unsealed in July. In it, Cosby admits to giving women Quaaludes, but never without their knowledge. Constand is the first of at least 50 women who had come forward with similar allegations over four decades. Some of them women now sharing their reactions to the news.

VICTORIA VALENTINE BILL COSBY'S ACCUSER: When I saw the mugshot, I started to cry. It was -- it just hit me so hard. I really didn't anticipate that I was going to react that way.

CASAREZ: An attorney representing some of the accusers says she believes other alleged victims may be called to testify against Cosby at the trial.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're going to demonstrate that kind of courage. They're going to tell what they say is their truth.

CASAREZ: The comedian has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. And even filed a countersuit against seven women earlier this month. He has yet to directly answer questions about the allegations.

In interviews last November, Cosby refused to comment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shaking your head no.

BILL COSBY, ACTOR: There is no response.

CASAREZ: In a statement, his attorneys called the charges quote "unjustified and vow that he'll be quote "exonerated" by a court of law.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: And on New Year's Eve, Bill Cosby tweeted, friends and fans, thank you.

His preliminary hearing continues to be set for January 14th, in Pennsylvania -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Jean, thanks so much.

And joining me now is trial consultant, Richard Gabriel, who has worked on cases ranging from Casey Anthony to (INAUDIBLE), O.J. Simpson to White Water. He has done it all. And he is also the author of "Acquittal, an insider reveals the stories and strategies behind today's most infamous verdicts."

Richard, thank you so much for joining me. This is really a fascinating conversation, I think we're going to have. You have Bill Cosby in this case. He is a legendary entertainer. There has been so much pretrial publicity. You have more than 50 accusers here. How hard is it going to be to pick a jury that isn't biased?

RICHARD GABRIEL, TRIAL CONSULTANT: Well, the short answer is it's impossible. And this poses one of the biggest challenges in any of these cases. The truth is, we have got these conflation of cases, we got the court of public opinion, which has already convicted Bill Cosby. You have got his civil cases and you got this criminal case. The truth here is that the jury will have heard already tremendous amounts of publicity and whether the judge rules that some of these women can testify or can't testify, they have already heard it. So the system provides us supposedly with an impartial jury. A jury that is disinterested in this.

Well, we have this little thing called constitutional rights and due process, which we have to obey which makes it difficult for jurors to somehow to try to somehow put aside or disregard things that they have already heard about sometimes in volumes. It makes it very difficult for both the defense and quite frankly, the prosecution in this case. [15:20:00] KEILAR: OK. Even for the prosecutor, who is it more

difficult for, the defense or prosecution?

GABRIEL: Much more difficult for the defendant in this case, because there is no presumption of guilt and which is obviously not how our system works, this presumption of innocence. But the truth here is that when jurors and everybody has heard about all these other women that made similar charges, there is this presumptions that he is already guilty. So then go ahead and try and prove that you are innocent which is again, counterintuitive to our system. So it is more difficult for the defendant in a case like this, but it also raises the bar for evidence for the prosecutors. The jury expects kind of a high bar from them because they have seen so much about the case.

KEILAR: Now, that's a really interesting point. What is the defense looking for in a juror? What is the prosecution looking for?

GABRIEL: Well, defense is looking for a jury, quite frankly, who somebody who doesn't want to convict Dr. Huckstable. Somebody who is really sort of attached to that imagine of bill Cosby as that fatherly paternal figure and remembers him fondly. Someone who is skeptical of all these women. Somebody who might be skeptical of the district attorney who quite frankly ran a political campaign on this case, and also, might be skeptical about that yearlong delay before the woman went to the police and posed the charges against Cosby.

That's the -- that kind of skepticism I think is what the defense is looking for. Prosecutors want people who, quite frankly, already believe that Cosby is guilty, who will give a great amounts of weight to all of these women who have similarly charged it, people who are quite frankly appalled by the behavior by his strong moral stand in yet his behavior behind closed doors with Quaaludes and allegedly assaulting these women. So that kind of moral indignation is what quite frankly the prosecutor is going to be looking for in this case.

KEILAR: Is there do you think a certain type of juror, maybe a woman or man or someone who is older who would be more likely to say, no, this is the Bill Cosby that I've always known and loved. I don't believe he would have done this?

GABRIEL: Well, that's why I think both sides have to very closely talk to the jurors about this, you know. If people just have such fond memories of him, you know, from his recordings and from the Cosby show and from his specials, and they just -- from Fat Albert, they just have this image of him as this really quite (INAUDIBLE) or a fatherly figure, they are just not going to want to believe that these women, especially this woman's case is true. The prosecutor has to look very keenly at that.

The gender issue is kind of an interesting one because sometimes women can be more harsh judges of other women. Sometimes men are more harsh judges of other men. So they have to talk to these jurors to find out, really, on which side do they fall? Are they going to be a man? Is it going to be a man who is protective of women? Is it going to be a woman who is more critical of women? And that's how gender, I think can play out in an interesting way in this case.

KEILAR: The truism. So we've just learned that Camille Cosby is going to be testifying this weekend in a defamation case. This a civil case against her husband, not to be confused with this criminal case in Pennsylvania. But could her testimony impact that criminal case in Pennsylvania?

GABRIEL: Well, it definitely could. Because you know, the difficulty is that if it does come into the public record, then the prosecutors, depending on what they want, they may want to use that or Cosby's attorney may want to use that. Then it becomes a legal battle as to whether that is relevant to the case of Him. Of course, it's going to all enter into the court of public opinion. And that can obviously have an effect on jurors prior to them being seated. But her testimony can be key, depending on what she says or what she doesn't say in the case, and can be potentially harmful to Cosby. It really is not particularly a good thing for him in this case.

KEILAR: That we will hear her voice finally.

All right, Richard Gabriel, fascinating discussion. Thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

GABRIEL: Thank you.

KEILAR: And in a new terror video features one of Donald Trump's most controversial remarks about Muslims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Coming up, we will tell you which jihadist group is using Trump's comment in an effort to recruit new terrorists.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:04] KEILAR: Now to the race for the White House. Donald Trump's proposed ban on Muslims travel to the United States is being used in a terror recruiting video. The Republican front-runner announced that plan if he was president he said in the wake of the San Bernardino shootings nearly a month ago. This new video was apparently released by al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia. The video labels the U.S. as racist society that will eventually turn against its own Muslim communities, and it features audio of Trump's proposed Muslim travel ban. At the last Democratic debate, you may recall that front-runner Hillary Clinton warns that Trump's image in rhetoric is being used to recruit want to be terrorists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We also need to make sure that the really discriminatory messages that Trump is sending around the world don't fall on receptive ears. He is becoming ISIS' best recruiter. They are going to people, showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The new terror video shows footage of police shootings and violence in Ferguson, Missouri as well as in Baltimore. And Donald Trump at this point is hours away from an appearance in Mississippi. Thousands of supporters there are expected to attend his rally tonight in Biloxi. Trump is forming a Mississippi campaign team, ahead of the state's presidential primary that is on March 8th.

And I want to bring in now Phil Mattingly. He is live for us from Biloxi, Mississippi.

Phil, tell us. Any indication that Trump might respond to this al- Shabaab video at tonight's rally?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Brianna, at this point, the campaign has not responded to comment when it came to this video. You don't actually know, obviously as you know quite well, whether or not Donald Trump is going to respond to one thing or another. So far, his twitter feed, the often preferred mode of communications to him has relied on two primary targets, Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bus who has remained silent on this video.

As you noted, Brianna, one of the interesting elements here is Hillary Clinton bringing this type of thing up in the debate in December. At that time, there was no evidence that any type of recruiting videos actually existed. What this creates is that concrete evidence with him in this video, or being used in this video, it's almost certain this will be coming up in the weeks ahead. Something he will likely have to address.

[15:30:21] KEILAR: So you're there in in Mississippi. How is he resonating with people there?

MATTINGLY: You know, it's interesting. Mississippi for the most part in presidential campaigns is not something - is not a place candidates play a lot of attention to. It's later in primary calendar. More focused on the early states. But when you talk to local officials here, Brianna, while they don't have any great polling, they say anecdotally, Donald Trump is doing like he is doing in most southern states. Very, very well.

And why that matters this time more than others is over a three week period in March, starting with the so-called SEC primary of states where you have more than 800 delegates available, the south not only matters, it could actually decide the race. And not only in Mississippi, but in other states around the south over the last couple of months, Donald Trump has started to create an organization, really start work on the states. This visit today will be his first public visit to Mississippi when

since the mid-90s when he had a casino project going here. The expectation is these visits down south will not be few and far between, but more than norm as they prepare for those big delegate weeks.

KEILAR: All right, thanks so much for that report, Phil. And I tell you, I would feel remiss if I did not say welcome to CNN and acknowledge this is your first live shot for us. So many of us who have worked sort of near you for years now. And it's exciting that you are apart of CNN family.

MATTINGLY: Thanks for putting up with me, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Thanks, Phil.

And tomorrow, you can hear from two of the top candidates on "STATE OF THE UNION," Bernie Sanders and Carly Fiorina. They are going to be on live tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. eastern only here on CNN.

Coming up, we will examine the situation in Ramadi. The Iraqi government said it has retaken the key city but the situation on the ground raises questions. We'll get the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:14] KEILAR: We are heading back now to Missouri where Governor Jay Nixon is joining me now live to talk about what his state is dealing with. They are really just beginning down a long road to recovery following the record flooding that they have seen in recent days.

Governor, thanks so much for joining me. We have been looking at pictures and talking to residents from Eureka, Missouri all day today. You were there seen the damage firsthand as you have been doing in communities in Missouri for days now. What are you learning?

GOV. JAY NIXON, MISSOURI: Well, up here in this region, what we are seeing is the water dramatically drop. And the river here went up 35 feet, Merrimac River attribute to the Mississippi is now going down and there is a lot of debris. So we are here with the locals, working through a program, in which we are going to get a disaster declaration and get this long debris field cleaned up over the next few weeks.

KEILAR: Are you getting or do you expect you'll get the federal help you need? What do you need?

NIXON: Well, we are asking for expedited disaster declaration so that we can access folks who are already on contract after much like we did down in Joplin so that we cab debris real quickly. It's hard to rebuild while you still have all of this stuff here. And in order to get out the damaged stuff, we need to move very quickly. So we will be working with FEMA, as well as (INAUDIBLE) engineer, and our National Guard to make sure we get a program to move this out of here quickly. KEILAR: So that is really the first step, this debris removal before

you rebuild. Once you get past that first step, then where do you go from there?

NIXON: Then you have to rebuild public infrastructure. We will have teams in here starting next week to get those analysis of what sort of public infrastructure has been damaged, and how we can get it sequence to be rebuild, roads, bridges, things of that nature, schools to make sure what damages we have are fixed up quickly.

KEILAR: Do you have an idea at this point of the amount of damage when it comes to dollars that you're dealing with?

NIXON: I mean, clearly in the tens of millions in some of these regions. Overall, I'm not sure what the numbers will be, be far over. Any sort of amount that allow for federal reimbursement. With this to say, this is the storm that all went in a western side of our state, down south touching the Oklahoma border, all the way to the Illinois border, and all the way down to Arkansas. And quite frankly, water is still rising in southern Missouri. So the massive nature of what we are dealing with here, concentrated significantly some of the worst damage here in the St. Louis area. But it is a storm we are still dealing with in emergency management side.

KEILAR: Tell us about this issue that I think a lot of people paid attention to when you had waste water facilities that were flooded and you had sewage flowing into rivers. How big of a concern is that, this issue, or is that just something that people have been zoning in on? Tell us how big of an issue it is when it comes to drinking water for instance?

NIXON: Well, it is a significant issue, but we have kept the drinking water clean. We have the National Guard cleaning that is cleaning out water, for example, on high ridge in northern part of the county, just south of here. We want to make sure that we can guarantee the water is clean. So our focus has been on making sure we got clean water. We'll get those plants up and operating soon. But we have had to bring in assets to make sure that water is clean.

KEILAR: All right, Governor Jay Nixon, we certainly do appreciate the update. He is joining us there from Eureka, Missouri. Good luck to you. We certainly are keeping all of those in our state dealing with these floods in our thoughts as you move toward a recovery here.

NIXON: Thank you very much.

KEILAR: And up next, the fight for Ramadi, why is the city so important, and what does today's is attack mean for the Iraqi army? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:41:39] KEILAR: Confident claims by the Iraqi government that key city of Ramadi has been taken back from ISIS may be premature. The terrorist group attacked an army post killing three and wounding 17. Tribal leaders say ISIS still controls as much as a 4th of the city. Here's CNN Nima Elbagir.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Almost a week after the Iraq Prime Minister jubilantly announced the liberation of Ramadi. Fighting continues to part where Iraqi officials are characterizing as pockets of ISIS militants presence were inside the city. In some of the most intense fighting yet.

Overnight on Friday evening, ISIS militants attacked in a complex attack. The tenth division is on the outskirts of Ramadi City, just 35 kilometers from that crucial central government district. Iraqi officials say that their losses in this attack were limited. But it gives a sense of how difficult it is in street by street fighting to push the militants entirely outside of Ramadi City limits. And almost as if the Iraqis are attempting to extract the hundreds of families still remaining within the city limits. Many of whom Iraqi officials are being used as human shields by the militants. This year, 2016, the prime minister has promised will be that ISIS is driven out of Iraq. But it is clearly still a long road ahead.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: The situation in Ramadi could be a prelude for the coming fight from Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. The battle for Ramadi was destroyed 80 percent of the city. Most of the people there have fled. Those left behind reportedly have no water. They have no power. And making the city livable again is going to be a huge part of its job.

CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier is joining me now from Washington to talk about this.

This is a really crucial city. And the question now as we hear this news today, Kimberly, has the government overstated really their progress there?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, even when the announcements came out that the city had fallen to the coalition and Iraqi forces, if you read them carefully, they said things like congratulations on taking the government center of the city. And a map that the coalition put out showed that about 25 to 30 percent of the city was still shaded that color that meant it was quote-unquote "contested," meaning that they hadn't driven ISIS out.

And you can see what has happened in the areas that they did take with more than 600 coalition airstrikes and a lot of local artillery being used. They have almost lost entirely destroyed the city that they won back.

It brings to mind that phrase from the Vietnam War, we have to destroy the village in order to save it. There is going to be really long rebuilding process to come. And eight agencies in the kind of organizations that do this work can't even get there until that fighting stops.

KEILAR: Well, let's say the fighting does stop. How long would it take to not only rebuild, but then just convince people to come back?

DOZIER: Well, even in the small city of Tikrit, it took several months, more than six months, to get a lot of the services back on. And they are not really good figures on whether all of the residents returned.

Right now, you have something like three million people displaced internally inside Iraq according to the international Red Cross. They say that in 2015 was the greatest number of people displaced in any country in the world. And about 70,000 of them did go back to their homes, but were being displaced every day.

So what they have, what they are looking at is to try to get people to get to move back in to place like Ramadi, a massive multi-year rebuilding program ahead. I spoke to one aide official who said, you know, we were designed for short-term temporary solutions, but the way these wars are destroying everything and setting in and staying for a long time, they actually need us to do stability operations. We have got to think about redesigning what we are doing to help people.

[15:45:56] KEILAR: Do you think Ramadi is the template for going out for other large cities that ISIS is taking over or is it really just too soon to tell?

DOZIER: Well, the U.S. military officials we speak to have been saying that, look, this is how you do it. You en circle a city, you cut off the fighters from their resources and then you start seeing where they're massing. And that's where you hit with the airstrikes. It' it's a long slow process.

It also takes a long time to move forward to take out the rings of improvised explosive devices that they've left. Sometimes they take an entire building down. So perhaps, some of that building destruction we are seeing caused by ISIS bombs left behind.

But yes, this is the template to slowly choke the fighters out and hope that they will release civilians. But in this case, we can see their reports of some 1,000 families still inside parts of Ramadi that are held by ISIS. They are probably going to the same thing in Fallujah and Mosul. That means a lot of civilian trapped by this fighting.

KEILAR: Do we have a sense of this human toll that this fighting in Ramadi has taken?

DOZIER: You know, not being on the ground, I'm having to rely on estimates from U.S. and aide officials over there, but it is several thousand people that are thoughts still to be trapped. Some of them being used as human shields, and some of them simply hiding, afraid to move.

KEILAR: All right, Kimberly Dozier, thank you so much for that update. Just ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Says that is smells of citrus fruits and pine needles. A mixture of hard and soft, just like the president Putin himself, so I suppose I should give it a try.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What do you get the person who has everything? How about a cologne that captures the essence of Russia's president? We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:49] KEILAR: Last minute bargain hunters, listen up. It's not too late to get your hands on some merchandize featuring Russian president Vladimir Putin. Maybe some cologne, maybe a calendar featuring him working out.

CNN's Matthew Chance has a virtual shopping list of ways that Russians are adding some more Putin to their lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For fans of Vladimir Putin, there is no shortage of stuff with the Russian president's image all over it. These Putin t-shirts have been around for a while. But they are still popular New Year's gifts.

All right. So this is the most popular one. It's a (INAUDIBLE) t- shirt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice.

CHANCE: OK. So how well do the t-shirts sell?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They sell really well. Mainly tourists buy them. But come patriots buy them as well. They love Putin.

CHANCE: Despite a deep economic crisis and international isolation over the wars in Ukraine and Syria, Putin's rating is doing well too.

So what about spending the entire year with president Putin? Well, that's what this 2016 Putin calendar is promising. With every month revealing a carefully chosen image of the Russian leader. This one has him in Siberia with a horse in the forest. Here, he is smelling a flower and this third one over here, he is working out in the gym.

But photographs aren't all you get with this calendar. You get Putin's words of wisdom too. Some a characteristically hardline like this one for the month of October. No one will succeed in gaining military superiority over Russia, Putin says.

Others hint at a softer side. Dogs and I have very warm feelings for one another, says the Russian leader from November.

One group of Putin's supporters has put together an entire book of Putin's best known remarks and one liners. Publishing a limited edition set to go on sale next year. The book is called "words changing the world." And the publisher say it makes the perfect holiday gift for patriotic Russians.

And if reading Putin isn't enough, you can smell him too with a new men's fragrance that's just hit the shops here in Russia.

Well, here it is. It's called leaders number one. But make no mistake with the profile of Vladimir Putin on the side and the words inspired by Vladimir Putin. And it's pretty clear which leader they are referring to.

Now, the appetizing -- it says it smells of citrus fruit and pine needles, a mixture of hard and soft, just like the president Putin himself. So I suppose I should give it a try, shouldn't I? Let's have a smell.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you like it?

CHANCE: I'm impartial on it. But I can see how it wouldn't be to everybody's tastes.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Impartial, that's hilarious.

OK. So while Russians are snatching up all things Putin, what can some of the U.S. presidential hopefuls learn from that to help sell their brand to the American public?

Branding expert Martha Pease is joining us now to talk about this. And Martha is the author of "Think Round" and she is the CEO of DemandWorks.com.

OK, Martha, thanks for being with us. This is a really fun segment to do with you. And we wanted to start with Donald Trump. He seems to have a bit of a Putin like branding edge. He has got a lot of products on the markets, ties, cologne as well. How do the other candidates compete against his brand?

MARTHA PEASE, BRAND EXPERT: Well, you're absolutely right, Brianna. Nice to be here.

Trump has a lot -- a lot in common I think with how Putin is approaching his electorate. Now, you know, what Putin's doing, it's such an interesting piece you just showed with what Matthew was describing in Russia. Putin is really getting to something very important in the Russian psyche which is this, you know, a feeling of the hangover from the cold war and that humiliation from it may relate to the economic troubles of today and their lack of presence on the world stage that they perceive. But Putin is really being kind of the leader or the front man for

reasserting a very defiant and strong and hardy attitude for Russians. At a time when they feel -- they probably are feeling the need to have that kind of leadership both internally and on the world stage.

So I think that there are a lot of interesting similarities actually between Putin's branding and the strength of his branding and what Trump is trying to actually communicate to the American people. In slightly different terms, but Trump is equally as defiant. He is certainly projecting a strong man image and he's talking to Americans at a time when many Americans feel that their leadership in the world and the value of the American brand so to speak is not as strong as it's been in the past. So there are some similarities. And I think that the Putin example is a strong one.

[15:56:12] KEILAR: How -- so I wonder, we see some is of the candidates and they're certainly merchandising. Hillary Clinton has a lot of merchandise that is available for purchase that is pushed out by her campaign. Does merchandising really help build the brand? Do you see any candidates who aren't taking advantage of it enough or is it just sort of -- maybe it's not that big of a deal, it's not that important?

PEASE: Well, if merchandising is a piece of a larger strategy, a larger branding in communication strategy, then merchandising can play a very important role in helping to keep the brand visible and present. I mean, as soon as you are not in the public eye, you start to run the risk at least of losing ground with voters, with people. And so, the merchandising component of an overall brand strategy can be very critical.

And today, the merchandising component is not just about a t-shirt or a hat. It's also about what happens digitally. It's about what happens with content. And so, merchandising can actually take on a more important role than it has in the past. So the fact that both Trump, Clinton and some other candidates have been using merchandising well, I think is an important -- I think it speaks importantly to what they're trying to accomplish with the brand.

KEILAR: It's pretty simple when you talk about a brand, you think of Donald Trump, he has the make the America great again hat. You think of President Obama back in 2008, there was the hope poster. These are pretty simple concepts that get across to voters. Are there any candidates that you are seeing maybe Hillary Clinton, maybe Jeb Bush, who aren't really creating a brand where if you said to voters, hey, what do you identify this candidate with, they wouldn't really be able to kind of give that one liner?

PEASE: Right. Well, I think the polls are giving us some of that answer which is the strongest brand is certainly Trump's brand. And so, I would say that the other candidates are not grabbing that opportunity as strongly or as wisely maybe as Trump has. And there's been -- I mean, it's self-evident that Trump understands branding in a way that probably most other candidates don't.

But beyond that, the make America great again and certainly Obama's message of hope, what they share in common is a very aspirational and emotional connection to what's going on with the voters. Those branding platforms and tag lines are very much about the people, they are not as much about the candidate. And I think the power of really sophisticated branding comes from making a connection with people that relates to what their emotional drivers are in whatever the arena is. In this case, we are talking about the election.

And I think the other candidates are not doing that as well. We talked last week about, you know, Jeb Bush and Ben Carson and a few other candidates just not having a strong positioning around what it is they want to connect to with voters.

KEILAR: All right, Martha Pease, thank you so much. That was fascinating to discuss that.

PEASE: A pleasure. Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brianna Keilar in Washington in today for Poppy Harlow.

President Obama is starting his New Year with some ambitious plans to take executive action on gun control. Right now, the president is wrapping up a holiday vacation with his family in Hawaii. He is going to board air force one tonight to head back to Washington. And sources tell CNN Obama's plans for gun control is not yet finalized. He is still discussing some of the possible option. Gun control advocates though are expecting an announcement before Obama's state of the union speech. That comes a little early this year on January 12th.

I want to bring in senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta in Honolulu.

And Jim, you are hearing more about the details on the president's plans. Tell us about them.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right.