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Report: ISIS Under Assault, Battle for Mosul Underway. Hillary Clinton Is Focusing Her Time on Debate Prep; Trump Refuses to Apologize for Statements Made About the Exonerated Central Park Five. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 17, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] NICK PATON WALSH, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He came out of the ground, maybe in a hole, in an attack against the Peshmerga, blew himself up. Their general command announced they've cleared up nine villages in a total of 200 square kilometers and we saw them move through quite a lot territory because obviously is the case, a lot of it is not entirely purged of ISIS.

We say a separate village where intense gunfights were continuing for a number of hours. That was the first place the Peshmerga came across. This is the first part of the assault. Other areas will involve Iraqi military, moving down other roads, as well until they get to the urban sprawl of Mosul, where 1.2 million people are potentially trapped.

Human shields or caught in the crossfire maybe, there are camps around the city waiting to try and give them shelter if they can escape. Aid agencies are demanding they are given safe passage if they want them, but ISIS clearly tenacious, even in these large planes around the city, which many thought they might want to give up without expending many resources to defend it, we are clearly in for some messy and bloody weeks ahead.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Nick, I want to get some more insight. Peter Mansoor, CNN national security and intelligence and terrorism analyst, and retired U.S. Army colonel. Thank you, sir, for joining us. And just tapping into your own insight, talk me through what goes into an operation like this.

PETER MANSOOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY, INTELLIGENCE AND TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, weeks of planning and preparation. Lots of training, rehearsals and coordination. Complicated operation, more than 20,000 Iraqi troops and thousands of Kurdish Peshmerga along with political coordination, as well. The United States, doesn't want the involvement of Shiite militia in the area, and you have Turkish troops in the area, as well. This is a multiethnic, and battle for Iraq's second largest city and will be quite messy and hard to coordinate as we go forward from here.

BALDWIN: So colonel, you have the tactical piece of this, which you just laid out, but I'm stuck on the 1.2 million people that Nick just mentioned who live in Mosul, potentially trapped and could be used as human shields. Aid groups would like them to have safe package. How would even know to believe ISIS, if they said, we'll let them out, how do you get these people out safely?

MANSOOR: You could, for instance, declare a ceasefire, open up a humanitarian corridor, and allow unarmed people out. Of course they would have to be checked thoroughly because when that occurred during the battle of Fallujah in 2004 a lot of the al-Qaeda and Iraq fighters escaped with the civilians, so this is something that is possible, could be done, but it would have to be carefully managed to make sure that the ISIS fighters don't slip through our grasp, when these civilians leave the battlefield.

BALDWIN: Remind us why is Mosul so key here?

MANSOOR: It is one of the remaining two major urban areas in ISIS's control, the other being Raqqa in Syria. If they lose Mosul, they really lose the claim to have established the caliphate, which is their propaganda, that incites the faithful around the world to join them. So, it would show that the Iraqi army has recovered from the losses it sustained in 2014, and that ISIS's days be numbered so this is a pivotal moment in the battle to destroy ISIS as a functional organization.

BALDWIN: Colonel Peter Mansoor, thank you, so much. We'll be watching Mosul carefully.

Meantime, Hillary Clinton staying out of the spotlight. She's been lightning her load as the final debate approaches spending eight hours a day preparing to face Donald Trump on that stage in Las Vegas this week, but is she taking a risk in not getting out in front of voters this close to the election? Let's discuss this coming up.

[15:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Now to some breaking developments in the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server when she was secretary of state. Today the FBI released a batch of new documents. The FBI now denying there was any sort of exchange of favors between its people and the State Department, with me now, CNN senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar, at the Clinton's home, in Chappaqua, New York. And our chief political analyst Gloria Borger is here as well.

Ladies, hello, Brianna, to you first, the FBI says no quid pro quo, no favor in return of a little something. What's the story here?

BRAINNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's what the FBI and the State Department is saying, Brooke,

they're saying there's nothing here, but what Republicans are saying is that you look at these e-mails and you see a request coming in from an under-secretary at the State Department asking the FBI to downgrade the classification of an e-mail, which was -- or the classification of a document that is talking about possible arrests in Benghazi.

And at the time, it had been downgraded as secret. And then there was also discussion about additional FBI posts at -- in foreign countries, which is obviously something that would fall under the purview of the State Department. What the FBI and the State Department is saying, look, there was never -- this document was never downgraded in classification, that the FBI stood by its initial assessment that it was classified as secret and should remain so.

But it's sort of this appearance that certainly Republicans are saying it looks like there is this interaction and the State Department is acting politically, so that is what they are up in arms about. The State Department and the FBI adamant there wasn't actually any quid pro quo here.

BALDWIN: OK. So Gloria, Brianna, is in Chappaqua where Hillary Clinton, she's preparing the debate in Vegas, Wednesday. Why is Hillary Clinton's schedule so light? You have Donald Trump doubling down on the system is rigged, widespread voter fraud. Why wouldn't it behoove Hillary Clinton to be out on the campaign trail, and say, no, he's wrong and here's why?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: There are a few things. First of all, when you talk to the Clinton campaign they will say to you she's been spending a lot of her time doing private fundraisers, that she's doing debate prep, and we know she had that bout with pneumonia. But the truth of the matter is, they also admit there's more strategic issue here, which is when your opponent is in the middle of a political fire storm, you kind of get out of the way.

And you let that play itself out and when the Republican party is forming a circular firing squad when Paul Ryan is arguing with Donald Trump, you get out of the way of that, too, and I think that is what they were doing and also one other thing to keep in mind here, and they won't say, but I will, which is when she goes to some battleground states she can rev up his base because she's so polarizing.

They've made a decision to send in Michelle Obama going to Arizona, we see Joe Biden in Pennsylvania, we saw the president last week. Send in your popular surrogates to those states to speak on your behalf, and it works for you. However, this doesn't help when people say she's distant, they don't really know who she is, they're not quite sure they trust her, because when you don't see her enough, those questions can also linger.

[15:40:00] BALDWIN: Sure. It's visibility. Brianna, I want your two cents. "The Boston Globe" reporting when you compare, Clinton held 52 events, compared with Trump's 88 between August 1 and October 10. President Obama held 74 events, Mitt Romney, 76, during the same time period in 2012, and in 2008, both candidates had more than 100. Clinton at 52. Brianna Keilar, do you think it's a risky strategy?

KEILAR: I mean there's always that possibility, but clearly this is the calculation the Clinton campaign is making and they seem pretty confident. After the "Access Hollywood" tape, there was a consensus in the campaign and I'm assuming it's probably backed up by some polling but certainly they're not sharing that with us, they believed there were people who were maybe now newly open to Hillary Clinton.

Make no mistake, it's not because they were enamored by Hillary Clinton, but because they were turned off by Donald Trump. It's these folks maybe in the middle who don't really like at this point, they dislike Donald Trump more and that may be the -- those could be the folks this really comes down to and so you see that with these -- this very popular ensemble class that is out there instead campaigning.

BALDWIN: Gloria, on the polls, you know, there's been this -- from what we know, this internal debate and I think Robby Mook, campaign manager on the Clinton side was saying we want to do a little bit of both, like focus on the traditional blue states, swing states, but also some potential red states that could turn blue, what do you think the smart strategy is in these waning weeks?

BORGER: It's always smart to say you're going to go into your opponent's territory, because you're -- they can then say they need to spend more money there. You know, if Trump -- if she's within a handful of points in the state of Arizona, and they say they're going to go in there, the Trump campaign may actually have to spend more time and money there.

So what you always try and do is gain this out with your opponent and make them spend money in places they shouldn't have to spend money if Hillary Clinton has anything, she's got f campaign money to spend.

BALDWIN: Gloria and Brianna thank you, so much.

BORGER: And help the down ballot.

BALDWIN: Yes. Don't forget, all important, leads to the Supreme Court. Again let's remind everyone tonight, the interview everyone has been waiting for, Melania Trump speaks to Anderson Cooper 8:00 eastern only here on CNN.

Coming up next a man who says Donald Trump should apologize, I'll be joined live by one of the so-called central park five. A teenager some years ago wrongfully convicted of rape in the '80s, vilified by Trump in the media, even after being exonerated. Hear his take after this nasty 2016 election.

[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It was a crime that shook New York City and the nation to its core. You had these five teenagers convicted of the brutal rape and beating of a jogger in central park. Happened in 1989, teenagers came to be known as the central park five would later be exonerated by DNA evidence.

Back then Donald Trump called for the death penalty in this case, took out this full-page ad in four New York newspapers, said bring back the death penalty, bring back our police. Here he was on CNN's Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Of course, I hate these people. And let's all hate these people because maybe hate is what we need if we're going to get something done. Every quality lawyer that represents people in trouble said the first thing they do is start shouting police brutality, et cetera.

The disappointing aspect of it is 95% of the people agree with me. Probably 40% of the columnists agree. I mean I've had newspaper people, in fact I had some woman the other day stick a microphone in my face from one of the major networks, "but don't you have compassion for these young men that raped and beat and mugged and everything else this wonderful woman."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well, the verdict of these five young men, the verdicts were tossed out as late as last week. Trump, though, doubled down, pointing to the fact that the five had confessed even though it happened after what they claim was 43 hours without food and sleep under duress. The five sued New York over that and in 2014 the city settled for $41 million after someone else came forward and confessed and his DNA was linked to the crime.

Yusef Salaam says he would like an apology from Mr. Trump. He was one of the five. Yusef, welcome.

YUSEF SALAAM, ONE OF ALLEGED CENTRAL PARK FIVE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: You were a teenager when all of this happened. When you were tossed in prison for a crime you did not commit. Before we get to what happened today, tell me what happened for all those years.

SALAAM: It was the worst feeling in the world, here we were thinking that we are going to be able to be the average youngster, the average teenager being able to live their lives in the way that most would. And here we were the outcasts, we were the pariahs. I went from being Yusef to being the guy that, hey, that's the central park jogger rapist.

And as suspects, they are never seen as innocent and having to prove themselves guilty. We're always seen as guilty and having to prove ourselves innocent.

BALDWIN: I know this haunts you on a personal level even after you've been out of prison for a crime, you were exonerated. But this has been back in the bloodstream of the election this year because Donald Trump was asked about the story, so his statement to CNN is as follows, tThey, being you five, they admitted they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact the case was settled with so much evidence against them was outrageous, and the woman so badly injured will never be the same.

When you saw that, when you heard that, how did you handle it?

SALAAM: It was the scariest thing in the world, because what I remembered in terms of my youth and in terms of the history lessons that we were taught in the homes that we came from, you know, we learned about people like Emmett Till. And here we were receiving death threats, we were being threatened in the media, being threatened by this common citizen, a billionaire, calling for our death. Other people began to chime in after he wrote that piece and put it in the papers and basically said, yes, I think we should take the eldest one and hang him from the tree and take the other ones and horsewhip them. Here we were in situation where they were making assumptions about the cover and not going into the actual book.

[15:50:00] BALDWIN: So if Donald Trump, Yusef, were here right now, you could have a conversation with him, what would you say?

SALAAM: You know, it's such a confusing kind of thing. Here it is, The Innocence Project has done tremendous work in getting people off.

BALDWIN: Tremendous.

SALAAM: When you look at people like Donald Trump who -- I don't even want to say Donald Trump. The supporters of Donald Trump, really, are the ones who scare me the most. Donald Trump, for him saying things like, I'll go out on fifth avenue and shoot someone and I won't lose any supporters. For him to degrade and talk about women in such a horrendous way and then to chalk it up. At 59 or 60 years old, he's saying, oh, this was just locker room talk. Donald, have you really looked at the facts in this case? I was one of the only individuals that never made a written or videotaped confession. But all of the confessions that were made were false, and they were found to be false.

BALDWIN: What if he were to apologize to you, to your face, would you consider voting for him?

BALDWIN: I thought about whether Donald Trump would apologize to us and weighed it on the scale and said, would it make a difference? But what I found is that after all of the other things that have come out about this man, after everything else that he said, we don't need this person in the White House. This -- for me to receive an apology, I would say, thank you. But about the other stuff that he's done, about the ways that he's disrespected people, no.

BALDWIN: Okay. Yusef Salaam, thank you for speaking up, thank you for your voice. We appreciate your time.

SALAAM: I appreciate you as well.

BALDWIN: Just ahead, a manhunt under way in the firebombing of the Republican office in North Carolina. Donald Trump is blasting it and blameing it on, quote, unquote, "Hillary Clinton's animals".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: An investigation is under way in Hillsborough, North Carolina where a local Republican office was firebombed. Thank goodness no one was hurt, but investigators say someone tossed a bottle filled with flammable liquid through the office's front window Sunday. You see here several walls, pieces of furniture, election signs totally burned and on the side there in graffiti, someone scrawled out, Nazi Republicans leave town or else. It was on a nearby building. Hillary Clinton called the attack

horrific and unacceptable. Donald Trump tweeted that the suspects were animals representing Hillary Clinton. Republican officials say they don't know who is behind it. They do believe it was intended to scare and intimidate potential volunteers.

[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)