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Syrian Aid Held Up as Mistrust Grows Between U.S., Russia; Former Hitman: Philippines President Ordered Killings While Mayor; Clinton Attacks Trump on Obama's Birthplace; Trump Talks Tax Plan, Physical Health, Not about Releasing Tax Returns; Ivanka Trump Defends Day's Child Care Plan; New U.S. Warnings on Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired September 16, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:00:22] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour --
(HEADLINES)
SESAY: Hello. Welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. And this is a third hour of NEWSROOM L.A.
Tension is growing between the U.S. and Russia over the ceasefire in Syria. For now, the truce is holding.
VAUSE: That doesn't mean that food, medicine and other supplies are getting to the people of eastern Aleppo. It's not. The road in to the rebel-held sector is still not safe. The U.N. is pleading for security guarantees to get the trucks rolling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can grown men please stop putting political, bureaucratical and procedural road blocks for brave humanitarian workers that are willing and able to go to serve women, children, wounded, civilians in besieged areas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Russia is flying a drone over the rebel-held east of the city to look for ceasefire violations.
SESAY: CNN international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, has more from government-controlled western Aleppo.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than five years of civil war have scarred large parts of Aleppo. Neighborhoods like this one controlled by the government in ruins.
Now finally, with the ceasefire, some respite, and seemingly little things become special. For the first time in months, 9-year-old Abdul and his friends can go out and collect firewood for their families.
"We need this wood to cook dinner because we have nothing else," he says.
The neighborhood was right on the front line until recently. Rebels shelled this district from a nearby hill, laying waste to many of the buildings. Meanwhile, government forces used air power to bomb the opposition areas.
Amid the destruction, families continue to live in the ruins. Ahmed has been here for three years and stayed even after the rebels fired makeshift rockets into the flat next door, blowing away the wall separating the two apartments.
"It was very dangerous," he says. "We were too afraid to go out because there was also a sniper covering the street and we couldn't go into this living room."
Now he stays her with his wife and eight children, the kids trying to rest in the badly damaged flat.
By all accounts the situation is even worse in the rebel-held parts of Aleppo. Russia and the U.S. trying to ensure safe passage for U.N. aid into the besieged areas.
(on camera): If the agreement holds and Syrian forces withdraw from this area, then this road, the Costello Road, will be the main entrance road for aid into eastern Aleppo. This is the road the U.N. trucks are going to use.
(voice-over): The ceasefire has brought much-needed calm for the residents of this once so beautiful, now so battered city. While many of them cherish the calm, few are convinced that it can truly last.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Aleppo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: CNN senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance, is live from Moscow.
Matthew, there are other conflicting reports of whether or not the Syrian army has withdrawn from the main road, Costello Road. It's crucial for aide to get into the city. What are the Russians saying?
[02:04:34] MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Russians are close allies with Bashar al Assad, the Syrian government, saying the process of moving military equipment by the Syrian armed forces and personnel away from the Costello Road is already underway, but they say it is a gradual process. Of course, as you mentioned, the rebel groups on the ground they are saying that's not the case, they haven't seen any movement of Syrian forces at the moment. But that's still the main roadblock, if you like that's holding up delivery of these humanitarian convoys from the United States that are still across the border in Turkey and that are awaiting essentially for that road to be secured and, of course, for a letter guaranteeing the safety of the drivers of the trucks into Syria from Turkey to be delivered from the Syrian government. That's not been forthcoming either. A Russian official at the Russian defense ministry says the reason for that is there are concerns in the Syrian government about the identity of the drivers. Apparently, they haven't received, according to the Russians, any identification, haven't got driving licenses, apparently, according to the Russians. That's what they say the Syrian concern is. And that's what held up the permission being given for these trucks to come across the border. In the meantime, of course, there's an estimated 250,000 people inside of Aleppo, desperately waiting for this aid, which frankly should have arrived several days ago.
VAUSE: The ceasefire continues to hold for the most part. But the Russians are accusing Americans of violating some terms. What more can you tell us?
CHANCE: Yes, they are. Indeed, the Americans are accusing the Russians of not putting enough pressure on the Syrian government to hasten the delivery of the aid convoys. They are all accusing each other.
But from the Russian point of view, they say one of the terms of the peace deal was the United States put pressure on the rebels that it calls moderate rebels to separate themselves from the extremist jihadi elements who aren't included in the ceasefire. That needs to happen so the Russians and the United States can carry out the second stage in the cessation of hostilities plan, which is to jointly in a coordinated way bomb the rebel groups like ISIS and the group formerly known as the al-Nusra front. That is not happening, according to the Russians. So they are calling on Washington to keep up its end of the bargain and put pressure on the moderate rebels to separate themselves from the jihadists.
VAUSE: It is a complicated process but a process for better or worse is still underway.
Matthew, thank you. Matthew Chance, live in Moscow.
SESAY: A former hitman says the Philippine president ordered a death squad to kill criminal suspects and personal enemies when he was the mayor of Davao City.
VAUSE: The man says Rodrigo Duterte himself killed a government official with an Uzi submachine gun. The president's officer is denying the allegations.
Let's bring in CNN senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson, live in Hong Kong for us.
Ivan, what can you tell us about this man making these allegations about the President Duterte? IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are
astounding allegations. And there are calls in to the credibility of him. His name is Edgar Matobato. He said he was a police officer in a city where Duterte was mayor for a quarter century and he claims he was part of a death squad that identified themselves as the Lombada Boys. He describes in great detail how he participated in murders that he claims were actually ordered by the Duterte himself when he was mayor there. One of them he claims they actually fed the victim to a crocodile. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDGAR MATOBATO, FORMER HITMAN: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: Really incredible stuff that this man, Matobato, was alleging.
Of course the office of the president, the president's spokesman, Duterte, he's only been in office a little less than three months, has denied the accusations this man has made that the president, when he was mayor, actually ordered killings himself. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You think the president is capable of leading such directives?
UNIDENTIFIED SPOKESMAN FOR PRESIDENT DUTERTE: Do I think he is capable?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED SPOKESMAN FOR PRESIDENT DUTERTE: No, I don't think he is capable of giving a directive like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: This is coming about three months into Duterte's period in office during which he has led a deadly drug war, Isha, that has led to police killing more than 1,000 suspects since he declared this war on drugs and on criminal mafias in the country. At least 1,000 suspects killed, all the police insist, in self defense. And of course, Duterte himself has ordered police to shoot to kill if a suspect resists arrest -- Isha?
[02:10:02] SESAY: Ivan, the Philippines is long known to have a problem with impunity when it comes to the issue of extrajudicial killings. Will there be an investigation to investigate these claims?
WATSON: There have been previous investigations carried out by the Philippines Commission of Human Rights in which it came to one conclusion, urging him, when he was mayor, to do more to investigate this. Questioning why he wasn't investigating the killings taking place in his city during his quarter of a century in office there. There have been reports that more than 1,000 people died in these vigilante-style killings while he was the mayor of that city. Human Rights Watch put out a subsequent call for an independent investigation in to fresh allegations made in the Senate inquiry, arguing that President Duterte himself cannot be expected to investigate himself, and calling on the United Nations to carry out this investigation. This is raising kind of a deadly history from his previous period in office.
But again, as these allegations have been coming out, Isha, the death count continues to grow during the president's deadly first three months in office and with the Philippines government saying it will continue to carry out this deadly war on drugs in the country, which initially, in the first weeks, was receiving high poll ratings from Filipinos surveyed about President Duterte and his controversial tough-guy stance on crime -- Isha?
SESAY: Now, Ivan, have these allegations resulted in any kind of public outrage?
WATSON: You know, we haven't gotten any poll results from any fresh surveys so far. We are waiting to hear how the public will react, not only to the mounting death toll, but also to some other very controversial comments that have come from President Duterte. For instance, when he has cursed and insulted President Obama, the U.S. being a treaty ally of the Philippines. Some of his other comments where he's threatened to perhaps impose martial law when some of his policies have been questioned, for instance, by the top judge in the country. It will be really interesting to see how Filipinos react to this. It has been a rocky, bumpy ride that has led to some unflattering coverage from around the world of this new president and his very outspoken and frankly often expletive-littered rhetoric -- Isha?
SESAY: We shall wait and see.
Ivan Watson joining us from Hong Kong. Ivan, we appreciate it. Thank you.
VAUSE: New York police have arrested a man who went on a rampage with a meat cleaver. They say he slashed an off-duty police officer before he was stopped by two other officers.
SESAY: The incident began when two officers responded to a crime in progress. They chased the suspect who pulled the cleaver from his waste band, but at attempt to tase him didn't work. Police say the suspect swung the cleaver at an officer who tried to subdue him. The suspect and the officer are being treated for their wounds.
VAUSE: Next, Donald Trump and the Birther controversy. What the campaign is saying now about where President Obama was born.
SESAY: Plus, U.S. regulators react after a popular Smartphone catches fire. What they are telling Galaxy Note 7 users to do, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (SPORTS REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:17:41] SESAY: Hillary Clinton campaigned in Washington and New York Friday. The U.S. Democratic president returned to the trail Thursday after taking three days off to recover from pneumonia. Her first stop in North Carolina. At a rally there, she said she kept her illness quiet because she thought she could power through it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I thought I was going to be fine and I thought there wasn't really any reason to make a big fuss about it. So I should have taken time off earlier. I didn't. Now I have. And I'm back on the campaign trail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Clinton also spoke at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington. She went after Donald Trump there, in particular, his refusal to answer a question from the "Washington Post," if he believes President Obama was born in the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Everywhere I go, people tell me how concerned they are by the extreme policies and divisive rhetoric they have heard from my opponent, from the racist lie about Mexican immigrants that launched his presidential campaign, to his racist attacks on a federal judge.
Today, he did it again. He was asked one more time, where was President Obama born?
(LAUGHTER)
And he still wouldn't say Hawaii. He still wouldn't say America. This man wants to be our next president? When will he stop this ugliness, this bigotry?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Trump's campaign released a statement a few hours later. His senior communications advisor said, "The Republican candidate does believe President Obama was born in the U.S." He credited Trump with compelling the president to release his birth certificate back in 2011.
SESAY: We haven't heard Trump himself say he believes the president is a natural-born citizen.
VAUSE: Trump is talking, though, about his newly unveiled, revised tax plan and his physical health.
SESAY: As Jim Acosta reports, there's one thing he's not budging on and that's releasing his tax returns. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(APPLAUSE)
[02:20:05] JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Donald Trump offered his prescription for improving the nation's fiscal health, contrasting his economic plan with Hillary Clinton's proposals.
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only thing she could offer is a welfare check. That's about it. Our plan will produce paychecks.
ACOSTA: In his speech, Trump vowed to slash corporate taxes, guaranteeing robust economic growth and 25 million new jobs. But he didn't offer many specifics on how he would pay for his plan.
TRUMP: An explosion of new businesses and new jobs will be created. It will be amazing to watch.
ACOSTA: But the GOP nominee is sharing more details about his own physical fitness to be president, releasing a new letter from his personal doctor. That physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, finds Trump is in excellent health but on the heavy side, weighing in at 236 pounds. Trump told the "Dr. Oz Show" the only exercise he gets is on the stump.
TRUMP: When I'm speaking in front of 15,000 and 20,000 people and I'm up there using a lot of motion, it is a pretty healthy act. I guess that's a form of exercise.
ACOSTA: In releasing the letter, the Trump campaign made a not-so- subtle reference to Clinton's bout with pneumonia that forced her to cancel some events, saying in a statement, "We are pleased to disclose all of the test results which show that Mr. Trump is in excellent health and has the stamina to endure, uninterrupted, the rigors of a punishing and unprecedented presidential campaign," a theme Trump continued in a talk radio interview.
TRUMP (voice-over): For this, you need tremendous stamina. Tremendous. I'm in three different states in one day.
ACOSTA: Trump is also vowing to be more transparent in his business dealings, promising to cut ties with his company around the world if he is elected president.
TRUMP: I will sever connections and I will have my children and my executives run the company and I won't discuss it with them.
ACOSTA: Where Trump's commitment to transparency gets cloudy is his tax returns. Donald Trump Jr suggested today that his father may opt against releasing his taxes.
DONALD TRUMP JR, SON OF DONALD TRUMP: He has a 12,000-page tax return that's under audit. We don't want to create a story where every want- to-be-auditor in the country is going through and saying, what if, what if. There's nothing there, but if there is, they will try to create a story.
ACOSTA: On a Philadelphia talk radio show, Trump Jr blamed a pro Clinton media that he likened to an execution squad.
DONALD TRUMP JR (voice-over): They have let her slide on every discrepancy, on every lie, on every DNC game trying to get Bernie Sanders out of the thing. If Republicans were doing that they would warm up the gas chamber right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Jim Acosta reporting there.
VAUSE: Trump's daughter, Ivanka, is defending her dad's new maternity leave and child care plan which was unveiled this week.
SESAY: She tried to deflect scrutiny of comments that Trump made years ago that pregnant women are an inconvenience to business owners.
Tom Foreman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF DONALD TRUMP: The cost of child care has become so onerous and crushing and there needs to be a solution for this.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ivanka Trump is leading the charge for her father's new plan and taking heat. When "Cosmo" magazine brought up this 2004 quote about pregnancy --
TRUMP: The fact is it is an inconvenience for a person that is running a business.
FOREMAN: -- she shot back, "I think you have a lot of negativity in these questions. I don't know how useful it is to spend too much time with you."
Shortly before she ended the interview, she called it an unfair characterization of his track record and his support of professional women.
TRUMP: Hello.
FOREMAN: Indeed, the Trump team started the week insisting his company gives eight weeks of paid leave for new parents, but that turned tricky, too. After reports found otherwise, they admitted the policy can vary from one property to the next.
Nonetheless, the campaign keeps ripping away at Hillary Clinton's claim she is the lone champion for women in this race.
CLINTON: If fighting for affordable child care and paid family leave is playing the woman card, then deal me in.
(CHEERING) FOREMAN: So how do their plans compare? Among the main points, Clinton wants to give new parents 12 weeks of paid family or medical leave. Trump says paid maternity leave alone should be six weeks.
Clinton wants no more than 10 percent of income to go to child care. Trump would give them a tax break.
Clinton wants free pre-K for all four-years-old. And Trump wants to give tax deductions for child care savings accounts to spend as they like.
TRUMP: We need working mothers to be fairly compensated for their work and have access to quality affordable child care for their kids.
CLINTON: Thank you.
FOREMAN: The Clinton campaign says that the tax breaks would help the well-off more than the working class. And he won't offer similar help for new dads, leaving gay parents out.
And his words from the past aren't helping, describing child care as his wife's work.
TRUMP: I mean, I won't do anything to take care of them. I'll supply the funds, she'll take care of the kids.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I mean, it's not like I'm going to be walking the kids down Central Park.
[02:25:17] FOREMAN (on camera): Still, Team Trump is taking all the criticism and pushing on. After that rocky interview with "Cosmopolitan," Ivanka took the magazine to task, tweeting, "Your readers do and should care about issues impacting women and children. Keep the focus where it belongs."
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Runs in the family.
SESAY: Apparently so.
VAUSE: U.S. regulators have issued an official recall for one million Samsung Galaxy Note 7s after dozens of reports of the phones bursting into flames.
SESAY: Customers have been urged to stop using the phones immediately.
Our Mary Maloney has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY MALONEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A massive recall for a product some can't live without.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One million Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Smartphones.
MALONEY: People around the world say while they charged their phone it caught fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone rocking the New Note 7, it might catch fire.
MALONEY: Since August, Samsung sold 2.5 million phones around the world. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said in the U.S. Samsung received 92 reports of batteries overheating, resulting in 26 reported burns and 55 reports of property damage due to fires.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because this product presents such a fire hazard, I'm urging all consumers to take advantage of this recall right away.
MALONEY: If you have a Galaxy Note 7, look on the back of your phone. There should be a code etched on the bottom. Call Samsung or go to Samsung.com and enter the code to see if your phone is under the recall. Chances are it is.
Federal regulators say 97 percent of the Galaxy Note 7s in the United States have the faulty battery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now is the time to act.
MALONEY: If under recall, off choice, get a replacement phone or a refund. But it must come from the place you originally bought the phone, your wireless carrier, a retail outlet or Samsung.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want consumers to act to get these phones out of their hands and have a safe replace they can use.
I'm Mary Maloney reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Very scary stuff.
VAUSE: Well, yeah. At least the iPhone 7 doesn't burst in to flames. So get one of those today. They are on sale.
SESAY: I'm sure they appreciate the plug.
(CROSSTALK)
SESAY: Coming up next for our viewers in Asia, "State of the Race" with Kate Bolduan.
VAUSE: For us, a short break. When we come back, 75,000 Syrian refugees are stranded in a desert with no food, no help, and allegations Jordan is violating its international obligations. SESAY: Plus, ISIS losing ground at its stronghold in Libya. We will
tell you how it's happening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:30:42] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Isha Sesay.
The headlines this hour --
(HEADLINES)
VAUSE: More than 75,000 Syrian refugees are trapped in the desert in no-man's land near the border with Jordan with virtually no access to food or other aid. Jordan said they are a threat to security.
SESAY: The group Amnesty International has obtained this video that shows a makeshift gravesite next to the camp.
Earlier, we spoke to Tirana Hassan, the crisis response director for Amnesty International.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIRANA HASSAN, CRISIS RESPONSE DIRECTOR, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Jordan stopped allowing refugees in after a car bomb by the Islamic State group, detonated on the 21st of July. What has happened since then is no humanitarian assistance is coming in and no one is going out. Jordan is saying we are trying to protect our citizens and we have a responsibility do that. While no one questions Jordan has a responsibility, you cannot put safety above your international obligations. It cannot be at the expense of is what Amnesty International is saying. There is no good reason that Jordan cannot start vetting refugees immediately and no reason that Jordan cannot open its borders right now and start allowing full and unfettered humanitarian assistance to go in so people have adequate food, water, stop dying from preventable illnesses such as hepatitis. We have reports from inside the Berm that say there were nine deaths related to childbirth, so women or infants who died during childbirth just in the last month.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: 75,000 people trapped in no-man's land.
VAUSE: They have been there a long time.
SESAY: They have.
Hundreds of other Syrian refugees are stuck in limbo in a migrant camp in Greece, many waiting for a slip of paper, a passport to a new life.
VAUSE: Christiane Amanpour introduces us to one family waiting to join relatives in Germany. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(CROSSTALK)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Their journey from war-torn Syria to here in Europe took them over mountains and across the sea in wheelchairs. Now home is the Ritsona Refugee Camp, an old military base near Athens.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We think it's very difficult because you don't have any ideas about what will be the next step for you just waiting, waiting, waiting.
AMANPOUR: The family, like tens of thousands of others in Greece, are in limbo. They want to join their father and sister in Germany under the E.U.'s family Reunification Program. Now after months waiting for an appointment with Greek authorities, they have a date for an interview, the 26th of September. That means hope.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel I have a chance to be with my father, my sister in Germany. Maybe it will take a few months more, but I still have that chance.
AMANPOUR: Last week, his father finally received his refugee papers in Germany which allows him to stay there for three years. It is a glimmer of hope that people here long for. More than 500 are stuck in this camp. Nearly all of them have fled the war in Syria.
(SINGING)
AMANPOUR: This week they celebrate the festival of Eid. But the children's' smiles hide a grim reality, some have spent years out of formal education, others have never even been to school. So Alyan (ph) is teaching them the English that he has learned.
Ahmed is 15 years old. His family fled Syria three years ago and they, too, are stuck here, hoping to join relatives in Germany. Ahmed has a rare spinal condition and so does his baby sister. Born in a Greek hospital just six months ago, she has a severe case of spina bifida. One day she might have no memory of this hot camp, but she may keep its name. Her nickname, Ritsona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[02:35:55] SESAY: Let's hope so.
VAUSE: That's a tough start.
SESAY: Yeah.
Christiane Amanpour there.
Libyan forces say they are making process against ISIS in the key port city of Sirte.
VAUSE: This is something of a litmus test in the U.S.-led battle against the terror group.
CNN's senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Explosion by explosion, Libya is shrinking. Aided by the U.S. Air Force, government-backed militias are advancing through Sirte. Deadly IEDs left by the terror group are hampering efforts. And suicide car bomb attacks and snipers in the sprawling Mediterranean town are slowing progress, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The snipers usually attack at the spine here. They choose the spine because brain injury.
ROBERTSON: Once the hometown of Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi, Sirte became a hold out for ISIS a year ago, a base of operations none of the country's fractured militias dared tackle alone.
(SHOUTING)
ROBERTSON: The tide turned a month ago. ISIS's defenses were breached. The U.N.-brokered Government of National Accord, or GNA, got international help to stop ISIS growing to Syria-like strength.
ASH CARTER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Those GNA aligned forces have now cornered ISIL in one small section of the city of Sirte and I expect that they'll eliminate any remaining opposition shortly.
ROBERTSON: Libyans, too, they want this war done, tired of battles and the cost they cause.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All want this done today much better than today because we're tired from war, war after war.
ROBERTSON: But the end of ISIS in Sirte will not be the end of Libya's wars.
(EXPLOSION)
ROBERTSON: Many of the terror group's fighters have slipped away and the country is still so divided.
(EXPLOSION)
ROBERTSON: The battle for Sirte may, yet, seem like a side show.
Nic Robertson, CNN, London.
(GUNFIRE)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Quick break now. Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM, Donald Trump calls out a pastor who cut him off when he started to attack Hillary Clinton. We'll explain just ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:41:00] VAUSE: Donald Trump is changing up his tax plan. He outlined the new details on Thursday in New York. Trump has scaled back some of his tax cuts and has promised more benefits for lower income families.
SESAY: He said the plan will cut taxes by more than $4 trillion in the first decade, down from an estimated $10 trillion originally. Faster economic growth, Trump claims the plan will cost $2.5 trillion.
VAUSE: Trump also promises economic growth averaging 3.5 percent which he said would create 25 million jobs. That is ambitious considering the U.S. has never created that many jobs in a decade.
I asked Rana Foroohar about this earlier. She is our global economic analyst.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: To be honest, a lot of this is magical thinking, I've got to say. These numbers, 3.5, 4 percent growth are predicated on the idea that Trump's plan of tax cuts would create that growth momentum. Unfortunately for the last 20 years that's not been the case. It is not bipartisan thing. You can look at the tax cuts under George Bush in 2001 and 2003. These were big cuts. They did not create a big jump in growth. Before the financial crisis, more Bush cuts in 2008 and then everything Obama did afterwards, in terms of trimming taxes, did not create growth. Basically you have 20 years of evidence that this trickle down theory is not working. It makes these numbers hard to figure.
VAUSE: OK. Did you say 3.5 percent economic growth? Because from Donald Trump, wait, here's more. He is promising the economy can grow even faster. Listen to the Republican nominee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's time to start thinking big once again. That's why I believe it's time to establish a national goal of reaching 4 percent economic growth.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And my great economists don't want me to say this but I think we can do better than that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Again, so the question here is, you can put this out there, you can say whatever you want, but if you look at the economic policies, which the Trump campaign is putting forward, is there any explanation how the economy can grow better than 4 percent?
FOROOHAR: There really isn't, John. In fact, you have a lot of economists worried that some of these policies, protectionism around trade, tax cuts, without spending cuts, which by the way, with the Reagan norm. Reagan cut taxes but never cut the budget. That's why at the end of his tenure you had the national debt three times what it was before. All of these things economists are worried will shave growth. In fact, Oxford Economics, the U.K.-based consulting firm, believes if all of Trump's plans are put in to place, including barriers to immigration, which also demographics create growth, and that is one of America's great advantages, they believe it would shave a trillion dollars off the U.S. economy.
VAUSE: That's an interesting point about the immigration policy. It seems to be where the economic policy slams head-on with the population immigration policy. We know Donald Trump said he would like to deport millions of undocumented workers who are currently in the United States. But to achieve that job growth he outlined, some experts have said you would have to double immigration intake. How does that work?
FOROOHAR: Absolutely. If you think of what is growth, it is basically the number of people working and how productive they are. So, as I said before, one of our great advantages in the U.S., compared to in particular Europe, is we have more immigrants, a slightly higher birthrate. If you cut those, things you cut economic growth.
VAUSE: OK. Donald Trump did revise his tax plan. Before, it was costing $10 trillion over 10 years are and now $4.4 trillion and included in that tax plan is a big corporate bonus. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[02:45:05] TRUMP: One of our greatest job creation measures is going to be our 15 percent business tax rate, down from the current 35 percent rate, a reduction of more than 40 percent.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I know that's what you people have been waiting for.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
VAUSE: OK. So if you look at that tax cut, the child care tax rebate, a big boost of spending on defense and infrastructure. This paid for by stronger economic growth. Is there a provision in the Trump plan if the economic growth doesn't materialize?
FOROOHAR: Not that we have heard. Again, cutting taxes and not cutting spending is a recipe for more debt. It's not a recipe for growth.
And by the way, we are entering a new period in the global economy. It's a period when monetary policy is probably going to start slowly tightening. You will not have the same 40 years of easy money that you had in the past. This is not the time to add unproductive debt to the U.S. economy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Actually, a lot of economists from both sides, conservative and liberal, looked at the numbers and say there's a lot of holes there. This doesn't add up and the Trump campaign needs to do a lot of explaining.
SESAY: We shall see. How many days left, 54?
VAUSE: Yeah, 54.
SESAY: 54. We'll see what happens.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
SESAY: Trump is now going off at a pastor who interrupted him during his speech in her church in Flint, Michigan. Trump was criticizing Hillary Clinton when the reverend stopped him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Hillary failed on the economy, just like she's failed on foreign policy. Everything she touched didn't work out. Nothing. Now Hillary Clinton --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED PASTOR: Mr. Trump, I invited you here to thank us for --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Oh, oh, oh, OK, OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Trump spoke to FOX News on Thursday morning and he had this version of what happened according to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP (voice-over): When she got up to introduce, she was so nervous and shaking and I said, wow, this is sort of strange. And then she came up. So she had that in mind. There's no question about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Bother you? Does it bother you?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: It doesn't bother me. No. Everyone plays their games. It doesn't bother me.
I'll tell you what made me feel good, the audience was saying let him speak. The audience was so great. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: That presupposes she knew he was going to do that if she had a plan, which is what he seems to be suggesting.
VAUSE: Yeah, right.
SESAY: Another Michigan pastor says other church leaders in the city were not happy about Trump being there. Some people in the audience seemed to feel the same way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This pain is the result of so many different failures, and I must say that --
(SHOUTING)
TRUMP: No, I never -- never would. Never would. Frankly, "Time" magazine, as you know, they reported this year that the federal government has a long way to go to bring Flint back. And I look at the damage done, and the damage can be taken care of.
UNIDENTIFIED PASTOR: (INAUDIBLE)
TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you, Pastor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Then she disappears behind the curtain. In case you couldn't make out what she was saying, she said, he is a guest in my church and you will respect him. I didn't quite hear her say, "Let him speak." But that may have been another part.
SESAY: A quick break. Sunday is Emmy night here in Los Angeles and a break-out star could win a big television prize.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[02:49:06] SESAY: It's thanks in part to a wildly popular segment called "Car Pool Karaoke." More ahead about James Corden's invasion of late-night TV.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back. Late-night host, James Corden, has defied his critics to become a break-out star in the United States, both in television and online. He has a huge following, mostly because of his "Car Pool Karaoke" videos.
SESAY: They are fantastic. He could win television's biggest prize when the Emmy Awards are handed out on Sunday night.
CNN's Maggie Lake tells us more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(SINGING)
MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Superstars Adele --
(SINGING)
LAKE: -- Elton John --
(SINGING)
LAKE: -- and even First Lady Michelle Obama --
(SINGING)
LAKE: -- are all singing the praises of James Corden.
JAMES CORDEN, HOST, THE LATE, LATE SHOW: Welcome to "The Late, Late Show," everybody.
(APPLAUSE)
LAKE: -- the unlikely break-out star of U.S. late-night TV.
CORDEN: You have been chosen to host the "Late, Late Night Show."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The decision to put James Corden at the helm of "The Late, Late Show" was a head scratcher. People in the television business were surprised given the level of talent that was available and chasing for that job.
(SINGING)
LAKE: It was "Car Pool Karaoke" that put Corden on the map. Episodes have wracked up more than one billion views on-line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the "Late, Late Show's" success is a great example of how time slots are almost increasingly irrelevant in television right now.
(SINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's more about delivering the content that makes people search it out the next morning, the next day. People were jumping for joy within CBS, because TV isn't a hit now unless it delivers viral Internet video clips.
LAKE: James Corden's career has been building toward this moment. Years ago, he starred in a BBC comedy series, "Gavin and Stacey." CORDEN: I'm not being negative. I'm being realistic.
(LAUGHER)
LAKE: He received a Tony for his role. And now Corden is on the cover of "Rolling Stone" and "G.Q," he hosted the Tony Awards. And even though he earns less than other late-night hosts, new deals are sure to boost his bottom line.
[02:55:20] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are working with "Car Pool Karaoke."
LAKE: This month, Apple bought the rights to "Car Pool Karaoke." New episodes will be used to promote the streaming music service. Corden is not expected to appear in them.
CORDEN: We are overwhelmed by it.
LAKE: Success is sweet, but Corden is humble.
CORDEN: We didn't know if anyone was really watching.
(SINGING)
LAKE: Audiences are fickle, but this late-night star could be belting them out for years to come.
Maggie Lake, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: He is such a talent.
VAUSE: Because he has fun, as you can tell.
SESAY: He does. He does.
VAUSE: He is a nice guy having fun.
SESAY: And he can sing.
VAUSE: That helps.
SESAY: Brilliant. Wish him all the best.
(CROSSTALK)
SESAY: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause.
The news continues next with Natalie Allen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:11] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: The Trump campaign confirms Donald Trump believes --
