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Jo Cox's Family Mourns; Battle to Drive ISIS from Fallujah; Victims Recall the Orlando Massacre; America's Choice 2016; Robot Gets Job at Belgian Hospital. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired June 19, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The family of murdered British MP Jo Cox paid tribute to her legacy, as campaigning for the country's E.U. referendum gets ready to resume.

CNN goes inside the Iraqi city of Fallujah, where fighting rages, despite claims that ISIS has been pushed to the fringes.

And stuck in a ratings rut: how Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are trying to pull their approval ratings into more favorable territory.

Hello. I'm Paula Newton. And this is CNN NEWSROOM.

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NEWTON: A church service to remember murdered British MP Jo Cox is set to begin in about an hour from now. Vigils have been held throughout England since her death Thursday. Cox's parents and her sister joined the Birstall community in mourning earlier Saturday.

Now they remembered her life and heard from many people whose lives were touched by her work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM LEADBETTER, JO COX'S SISTER: There's some things in life you should never have to do. Last night, I had to go and identify my sister's body.

Yes. This was Jo Cox, MP, and she was many things to many people in her too-short life.

But she was my sister, my only sibling, my parents' firstborn child, a wife and a mom.

Our family is broken. But we will mend over time. And we will never let Jo leave our lives. She will live on through all the people in the world, through Brendan, through us and through her truly wonderful children, who will always know what an utterly amazing woman their mother was. She was a human being and she was perfect. (END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Such a lovely tribute to her sister there. Our Fred Pleitgen is now live for us in Birstall.

You know, this tribute, again, another one set to begin in just about an hour from now.

Fred, explain how people there are feeling about this now.

Are they still quite shaken?

The more we learn, the more we hear about how savage this attack actually was.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You're absolutely right. People here certainly still are very shaken, they're obviously very sad. But at the same time, of course, they want to remember Jo Cox as a person who was very important to this community, as someone who showed a lot of empathy also for the weakest, inside this community and of course also very important, Paula, to communities around the world.

And as this church service is set to begin here at the St. Peter Church in Birstall, inside, of course, they are already getting ready. And there's an altar inside with candles, that were lit specifically for Jo Cox. There's a sign underneath saying that they remember this very important and very loved member of the community.

And one other thing that's very interesting inside is that there are letters from children, who are 9 and 10 years old, who thanked Jo Cox for some of the things that she's done. Apparently, she visited a school here only two days before she was killed and explained to many of the children a lot of the things obviously that go on in politics here but also, they say, listened to them and really had an open ear for a lot of the concerns that the children there had.

And it was interesting because in one of these letters, one of the children wrote, "You really made us feel as though you understood us, as though you were one of us, even though you had this position of superiority."

And that's something that we've been hearing throughout the past couple of days, is that Jo Cox was someone who was very much capable and who very much had in her empathy for other people, was able to feel their situations, whether it was refugees, whether it was people in Syria, whether it was people in Darfur or, of course, very importantly, people inside this community.

And of course, it's quite telling that she was murdered as she was having one-on-one talks and listening to the problems of the people inside this community. And that's certainly the gist that we're getting from everyone that we're speaking to everyone here on the ground, is that she was someone who was very personable and certainly someone who understood their concerns and who was very much entrenched inside this community. And that's certainly something that people want to show here,

with this church service and also very much with the many vigils that have been going on in Birstall and indeed around this country -- Paula.

NEWTON: Yes, I was talking to one of her friends the other day. And he described her as a Yorkshire lass. And what that means to everybody there is that that community, that very working-class community has come together in a way to continue to pay tribute.

Fred, I have to ask you, though, there was a very crucial political campaign still underway, the U.K. referendum on Thursday.

How do you think the details of this murder will affect the tone of this campaign in the coming days?

Because we have to say also today that campaign resumes.

PLEITGEN: Yes, you're absolutely right. That campaign resumes.

[03:05:00]

PLEITGEN: And there are going to be campaign events by both the Leave and the Remain campaign. There's a big Leave event that's set to happen in London. But I think that the tone of those campaigns and, indeed, of the entire run-up to the Brexit vote, has completely, fundamentally changed. If you will, something like the reset button has been pushed.

I think many inside this country, also in Europe, really felt that the political rhetoric was really heating up. You had the Remain and the Leave campaign accusing each other of lying and accusing each other of exaggerations, really some very strong things that were being said, that were being thrown between these two campaigns.

And that really is something that has completely changed since the murder of Jo Cox. I think many people were shocked that something like this would happen. Many people were also then subsequently shocked at the very strong atmosphere that was going on, ahead of this vote, at some of the things that were being said.

And so therefore, we expect that, as these events are going to begin once again today, that the tone will be much more subdued, that the tone will be much more respectful between these two sides.

But at the same time, of course, it is a very, very important vote for this nation that is coming up. But, again, the tone will be very different.

But nevertheless, it is still going to be a very controversial campaign and a very controversial vote that is going to take place in a couple days here -- Paula.

NEWTON: OK, Fred, thanks. We'll leave it there, as you continue to observe what will be a tribute in the coming hour there in her hometown of Birstall. Appreciate it. Now Belgian authorities say they've detained three suspects on

terror-related charges following police raids across the country. The raids came amid possible threats to Belgian football fans, gathering to watch the Euro 2016 Games. Now nine other people were also arrested, questioned but later released.

The Belgian prime minister says football-related events will go on as planned but of course with extra security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES MICHEL, BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The message that we want to pass is one of determination, a message of serenity, a message of calm. All the scheduled events in the coming days will go on with added security measures or with adapted security measures.

So the message is that the Security Council as well as the security services are extremely vigilant. We are monitoring the situation hour by hour and we will continue to conduct this battle with great determination, this battle against extremism, radicalism and terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Now earlier, we spoke with terrorism expert Sajjan Gohel. He expects Belgium will see more anti-terror raids over the coming weeks.

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SAJJAN GOHEL, TERRORISM EXPERT: The Belgian authorities are going to keep carrying out more raids in the coming weeks. I don't believe that this is a one-off incident. We will probably see more counterterrorism operations. It will also be linked sometimes to what happens in France because the two countries, France and Belgium, tend to have the same terrorist network connected to ISIS. And as Euro 2016 is ongoing in France, there are concerns that maybe terror cells in France and Belgium could be potentially plotting attacks to disrupt those games, especially the fan zones. We keep hearing that there are terror cells that have wanted to try and target it in the past.

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NEWTON: Now Belgium has been on alert since the deadly terror attacks in Brussels three months ago.

Former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi has been sentenced to life in prison following an espionage trial. An Egyptian court convicted Morsi of leaking classified documents to Qatar. Six co- defendants were sentenced to death. A defense attorney says he expects to appeal the verdict.

Morsi was Egypt's first democratically elected president but was overthrown by the military in 2013.

In Iraq, the battle continues to drive ISIS from the key city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

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NEWTON (voice-over): Iraq's prime minister said in a TV address on Friday the city was liberated but added that pockets of resistance from the terror group remained. The U.N. has said an estimated 50,000 people are in grave danger, trapped in the city, turned now into a combat zone. CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Baghdad.

After witnessing that fighting in Fallujah first-hand, he joins us now with the latest.

Ben, I know you've been following the lead-up to this for months.

In terms of what you saw, was it a surprise in terms of the resistance that ISIS put up or didn't put up?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Paula, I don't think anybody was any illusioned that this was going to be an easy fight, keeping in mind of course that Fallujah has been under ISIS occupation for 2.5 years. It was the first city they conquered in 2014.

So certainly, resistance was expected. What we saw, however, is that despite statements by Iraqi officials, the battle for Fallujah is far from over.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WEDEMAN (voice-over): To save Fallujah from ISIS, Iraqi forces have destroyed --

[03:05:00]

WEDEMAN (voice-over): -- block after block, one flattened building after another.

In military parlance, the city was "softened up" before the push into the center of Fallujah by days of heavy bombardment from land and air.

WEDEMAN: So we are in this Iraqi army Humvee, heading inside one of the neighborhoods in Southeast Fallujah. We have already heard small arms fire crackling inside and also heard the thud of incoming artillery rounds. So we'll see what we find inside.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): I asked the soldiers in the Humvee if daish -- the Arabic acronym for ISIS -- is still inside the city.

"No," responds Jesim (ph), a --

[00:10:00]

WEDEMAN (voice-over): -- 12-year army veteran.

"There is no daish," and then qualifies his statement. "There are pockets, one or two still fighting here and there."

The pockets, we soon discovered, were many and they seemed deep.

WEDEMAN: This is the Naza (ph) neighborhood in Central Fallujah. It was, until day before yesterday, under the control of ISIS.

Now we see lots of Iraqi troops and Humvees in this part of the town. What we are not seeing are any civilians.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): This officer -- he asked to be called simply Abu Merien (ph) -- encountered civilians fleeing the fighting.

"They were in a bad way, exhausted," he says.

"They were suffering from lack of food and water."

Iraqi officials expected stiffer resistance in Fallujah, the first major city seized by ISIS 2.5 years ago. But Iraqi forces have managed to push rapidly inside. Officers insist resistance is, at best, scattered.

"There's still a few snipers and we are dealing with them," says Yasin Badri (ph), "and soon, we will finish them off."

One group of fighters did manage to liberate an ISIS banner; the liberation of the city, however, is still a work in progress.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WEDEMAN: And one mounting concern at this moment is, of course, the fate of civilians in and around Fallujah. Last night, the Iraqi prime minister put out a statement saying that resources are going to be mobilized to try to provide them not only with food and water and shelter and medical treatment but, during ISIS' rule, it's important to remember that there were, for instance, no vaccinations provided to people for things like typhoid and cholera.

So they're also mobilizing resources to try to get people vaccinated because under these conditions, with a lack of food, a lack of water, tens of thousands of people stuck in the fighting, the worry is that they could be susceptible at this point to disease -- Paula.

NEWTON: Yes, thanks, Ben. The U.N. saying they are worried about the health condition of many of those civilians now fleeing Fallujah. Ben Wedeman there, live for us in Baghdad, appreciate it.

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NEWTON: More people are saying their final goodbyes this weekend, the victims of last weekend's shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Now five families buried their loved ones on Saturday.

One victim, Cory Connell, had planned to become a firefighter. So the Orange County Fire Department named the 21-year old an honorary firefighter.

The city of Orlando plans a candlelight vigil Sunday night for the 49 people who were killed.

Now it's been almost a week, down to the hour, since that attack began. For more than three hours that early Sunday morning, dozens of people huddled together, trying to survive as a gunman went on a murderous rampage. Some of them are now sharing those stories.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a great night, no drama, just smiles, just laughter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shots were going all over the place. You start feeling -- you can tell at that moment, it felt like a war room. There was a lady who was shot next to me. And I started to duck and I'm turning around.

As I'm turning around, I see the gun. I don't see the guy but I see the gun because of all of the flare, the fire that's coming out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It went with the beat almost until you heard too many shots. It was just like bang, bang, bang.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we started running. And unfortunately, I was shot about three times in my leg. So I had fallen down. I tried to get back up. But everyone started running everywhere. I got trampled over. And I shattered and broke my bones on my left leg.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all, like, kind of rushed into the bathroom. And there was about maybe 40, 50 people in that --

[03:15:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- one bathroom. And then he told us, he said everybody must come out because everybody is going to die. So people started running out frantically. And he just started killing people right there in the hallway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's when the gunshots got extra close. And at that point you hear everyone just under their breath, praying and crying and trying to be quiet. So if he wasn't going to go into the bathroom, he wouldn't hear us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then he came back and shot into our stall, into the bathroom, over the stall and into the stall where we were, killing more people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is shooting everyone that's already dead on the floor, making sure they're dead. And I'm just there laying down. I'm thinking, I'm next. I'm dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was really hot in there. And people were just getting dehydrated and sweating and bleeding out. We tried to speak as little as possible. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went inside with my other brothers in blue

and just tried to secure the scene as much as we could.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm looking up and some cops, which I wish I can remember his face or his name because I'm -- to this day, I'm grateful for him.

He looks at me and he makes sure that I'm alive. And he grabs my hand and he's like this is the only way I can take you out. I'm like, please carry me because I'm in pain right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And all of a sudden, it was just like dead silence into then -- a few hours, then, that's when you heard that big bomb --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That the police set off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That the police set off a bomb --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And all these cars that then, their alarms, because they were so sensitive at the base, they were all starting, turning on. And it was a big commotion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The police never got to come in the bathroom where we were. They actually blew the wall, concrete wall off and used the SWAT battering ram to make a hole so we can go out through. It was about 30 of us in there. Only like seven of us made it out alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I look over and there's just bodies everywhere. We were all in pain. And we were able to get to the ambulance. They brought us over here. And the way that you guys have taken care of us, this hospital is amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must remain strong so we can continue to make a recovery. And it's a long road. But slowly but surely, I believe we can all make it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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NEWTON: A man in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania is facing sexual assault charges after police found 12 girls living in his home. Now the girls range in age from 6 months to 18 years old. Police say 51- year-old Lee Kaplan admitted he had sex with the eldest girl when she was just 14. They had two children together.

The parents of that 18-year-old girl also face charges. Police say Daniel and Sevila Soulfas (ph) told them they gifted their daughter to Kaplan because he helped them out of financial ruin. CNN has not been able to reach attorneys for either the couple or Kaplan.

[03:20:00]

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NEWTON: Donald Trump says he knows why Bernie Sanders still hasn't dropped out of the Democratic race for president. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee claimed Sanders is waiting for the FBI to indict Hillary Clinton for using her private e-mail server for government business.

Clinton has called the private e-mail server "a mistake" but insists everything she did was legal. Now here's what Trump told his supporters in Las Vegas Saturday.

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DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, he's waiting for really the FBI to do what everybody thinks they are going to do. I mean, I think that's it. I think he's sort of saying, look, let's hang in there because ultimately it's called the FBI convention. And then we'll be the only people and we will have done something like Trump did.

I want to be like Trump. I want to be like Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Now Trump is also fighting back against a group of Republicans trying to block him from becoming their party's presidential nominee. He says he is confident though in the millions of votes he won in the primaries and he says the party should stick together.

Now the race for the White House has been extremely unusual, to say the least, when you consider that neither presumptive nominee is all that popular. CNN chief U.S. correspondent John King has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: Crooked Hillary.

CLINTON: Temperamentally unfit.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF U.S. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you listen to the rhetoric on the campaign every day, it's "Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots," "Crooked Hillary," "Dangerous Don."

But if you're in a battleground state, turn on your TV. Hillary Clinton's on the air and the ads, they're pretty soft.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): For Hillary, it's always been about kids.

And when millions couldn't get health care, this first lady worked with Republicans and Democrats to fix it.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

KING (voice-over): Why is Hillary Clinton doing that?

Well, here's one reason. She knows both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have sky-high unfavorability ratings, record high: 54 percent of Americans in the latest Bloomberg poll say they view Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, unfavorably, morning they don't like her; 66 percent, two-thirds of Americans, say they view Donald Trump unfavorably.

So if you're both of these candidates, five months to Election Day, you need to change this. She is on the air with these soft ads, saying Hillary cares about children, Hillary cares about health care, Hillary is fighting for you.

And she's doing it in important places, places like Colorado, places like Nevada or places like Ohio. Interestingly, North Carolina: Romney won that in 2012. Obama won it in 2008. So Hillary Clinton, with her early advertising, trying to stretch the map. We'd like to show you a Donald Trump ad countering that. But he's not running any.

And that has a lot of Republicans frustrated --

(MUSIC PLAYING)

KING (voice-over): -- 55 percent of Americans right now say they have a favorable view of President Obama. That's pretty good. He's above water, if you will, above 50 percent. If you asked -- if you put him on this chart, it would be 43 percent have an unfavorable view of President Obama.

So these are the two people who want to replace this guy. He's doing OK. That tells you these two have a lot of work to do.

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KING (voice-over): And so if you're watching this election, one of the questions you get a lot when you travel the countries is what about the Libertarians?

What about some third-party candidacy?

Is that possible?

Because as we just noted, these two candidates are disliked so much, it's a problem for her; it's a crisis for him. We're in that very critical phase right now. And again, the Clinton campaign has unity in the party, has resources in the bank. It's beginning to use those resources to try to change these bad numbers. And a lot of Republicans are saying, Mr. Trump? Mr. Trump?

You have to do things differently.

His answer has been, I did it this way in the primaries and it worked for me. I think I'm OK. I don't think I need to spend as much money. He doesn't think normal campaign metrics apply. We're going to find out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John King, breaking it down.

NEWTON: I guess -- and I guess Donald Trump is doing it his way.

(CROSSTALK)

NEWTON: Talking about doing it their way, these tropical storms. And I know you're going to say, look, Paula, it's the same thing every year. It's the season. These storms start to pop up.

(WEATHER REPORT)

[03:25:00]

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: With all this heat, we have had a high fire danger across this region, Santa Barbara county. We have our Sherpa fire taking place right now. When I came across this image, you've got to see this, this is known as a firenado or a fire tornado.

Different from a tornado, because that is when we have warm, moist air that collides with cool, dry air. But this tornado or firenado gets that dry vortexes (sic) that get pulled into the middle of this thing and creates scenes just like this. That is somewhere you do not want to be -- right?

NEWTON: Yes, not, it kind of looks interesting in that picture but, no, quite dangerous.

VAN DAM: Quite ominous, if you ask me.

NEWTON: Derek, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Now a hospital in Belgium is introducing its new tech-savvy receptionist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEPPER, ROBOT: Hello. My name is Pepper.

Can I help you with something?

NEWTON (voice-over): Yes, that's Pepper, a humanoid robot, hired to welcome patients and visitors at Belgium's AZ Damian Hospital (ph). Now Pepper can speak 19 languages and has a calm bedside manner apparently. Zorabot (ph), which developed Pepper, says it's unlike any other robot on the market.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The robot itself is a meter 20 high. So it's not like Arnold Schwarzenegger with a leather jacket "I'll be back" robot. It's a quite nice robot. And the reactions are positive for the moment for as long as it doesn't take jobs. But hat's not the case for Pepper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Pepper was assigned to the maternity ward as the robot's first week on the job.

I'm not sure as you're first entering into the human race that seeing a robot is really what you need. But she's impressive isn't she, Pepper.

Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton. Erin Burnett "OUTFRONT" is next. But first I'll be back with the headlines in a moment. You're watching CNN.