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Mosul Offensive Deals ISIS "Heavy Losses"; Melania Trump Defends Husband after Lewd Comments; Donald Trump: Election is Rigged against Me; WikiLeaks Releases Stolen Emails from Clinton Camp; Trump Calls for "SNL's" Cancellation After "Hit Job". Aired 12-1a ET

Aired October 18, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:10] SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay in the car, now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: CNN cameras and reporters and photographers caught in the cross fire as Kurdish and Iraqi forces fight to save Mosul from ISIS.

Plus a humanitarian crisis -- tens of thousands of civilians flee the fighting in Mosul and new fears that millions more could be displaced.

Also later on, Melania Trump speaks candidly, defending her husband, saying he was quote, "egged on" to make lewd comments in that infamous "Access: Hollywood" video.

Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Sara Sidner in Los Angeles.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Michael Holmes, live in Erbil in Iraq covering the offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS.

NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

Military leaders say the Iraqi-led coalition is making major advances against ISIS in the fight to liberate Mosul. Their troops have already dealt the terror group heavy losses with nine surrounding villages cleared in just the first 24 hours. But the fighting has been fierce even on the outskirts of the city and it will only intensify as Iraqi forces approach Mosul's urban center. ISIS is already deploying suicide car bombers and the coalition is expecting much more of the same.

Our Michael Holmes is joining us now east of Mosul in Erbil with the very latest on what is happening there. Michael -- the stakes are high, the danger even higher. Has there been any more advancement since those nine villages were cleared of ISIS militants? HOLMES: You know, it's after 7:00 a.m. here. The sun has just come

up in Erbil. And overnight you're not going to see a whole lot of action. What the Peshmerga and Iraqi regular forces are worried about at night is IEDs and, as you mentioned there, the suicide car bombs. That's a lot more difficult when you're in the nighttime hours.

You can be assured there are still eyes in the sky, though, U.S. and other coalition assets, drones and the like are up there. They do have the benefit of night vision and they will have been active overnight perhaps pinpointing more targets.

You mentioned those nine villages. Kurdish leaders say that they cleared 200 square kilometers yesterday and those nine villages. But it is fair to give a bit of context to that, a lot of that very sparsely populated areas and those nine villages were largely abandoned.

Now, my colleague Nick Paton Walsh -- he's been out and about. He was embedded with a convoy of Peshmerga fighters. They are trying to make their way closer to Mosul, on this occasion trying to clear one road of militants and they encountered a lot of gunfire. They encountered a suicide bomber and more. And we need to warn you that Nick's report does show the violent death of an ISIS fighter and some viewers might find that disturbing.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They have been waiting for years to finally push through the lines and take on ISIS' brutality. When the day came it was still a dusty, slow grind -- Peshmerga into the desert to plank a main road to Mosul, distinctive American vehicles with Western occupants in their convoy.

Air strikes often hitting the places they were headed to first. Hopes ISIS might not fight for the tiny settlements around Mosul quickly dashed.

(on camera): This is the first village they moved down the road toward Mosul and they are encountering pretty heavy resistant returning fire with what they have --

(voice over): -- which are often blunt and old.

They want this over -- fast. Suddenly, there's panic. They spot a car, a suicide car bomb racing towards them. It's ISIS. One, two rockets try to hit it. The third is lucky.

[00:05:05] They push on towards the main prize, the road itself to Mosul flanked by oil fires, lit by ISIS and air strikes piling in regardless, shells still landing near the Peshmerga -- a casualty taken away.

Down on the main objective, the road itself, ISIS sent two car bombs at them and attacked from both sides.

(on camera): The Iraqi military too, at some point, will have to push down here towards Mosul but this has been an effort with much international support, a lot of coalition planning, American air power.

Shut the doors.

Whoa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's yours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay in the car, now.

WALSH (voice over): ISIS still everywhere, even in the hills. They give chase to one man, an ISIS fighter. He shoots a Peshmerga.

Pesh is down.

Humvees rescue him and they hunt on. An ISIS fighter pops up from a tunnel, shoots, he blows himself up. A tenacity and desire to die that will surely slow and bloody the fight ahead.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN -- near Mosul, northern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And our thanks to Nick for that report. Also important to mention the crew as well -- photographer Scott McWinnie (ph) was there and also producer, Gazi Balquiz (ph).

I want to turn now to CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona for a discussion about this. Thanks for being with us, sir.

First of all, tactically how do you see this unfolding? It really does seem to be a slow but steady, I don't know, squeeze of Mosul before any kind of frontal assault. Is that how you're seeing it?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Exactly. And I think we can see from the footage here how intense this is and how slow this has to be done. It has to be done very methodically.

And I think this is playing out pretty much how the Iraqis thought it was going to happen. We knew that ISIS had fortified some of those villages out there and that was meant to slow down the advance and that is working. But, you know, we can see that the Peshmerga are pushing through that and are having success. I think this is playing right through that and they're having a lot of success.

So I think this is playing out pretty much how we thought it was going to go. But this is nothing compared to what's going to happen once they approach the outskirts of the city. It's going to get much more intense.

HOLMES: Yes exactly. And talk a little bit more tactically about that. What we're hearing is the eastern side of the city, on that side of the Tigris River, a lot of people are suggesting that ISIS, that's going to be difficult to hold and so they may not try to hold that, instead pull back to the western side of the city where you have the old city -- a lot of narrow roads, old buildings, which makes a bit of an advantage, I suppose, for urban warfare if you're ISIS it's going to be a lot harder to fight them there.

FRANCONA: Oh, absolutely. And of course, ISIS is made up of a lot of former military people. They know this. They can read the terrain just like, you know, we can.

So they're probably going to fight a delaying action and then pull back across to the western side as you say because what that does is it robs the mechanized forces that the Iraqis favor from the ability to maneuver in that area. And don't forget ISIS has had two and a half years to fortify the city.

As we talked about these tunnels and we saw this earlier, they have tunnels all throughout the city. They're able to move people very quickly. They can mass force where they need it to push back and attack. They have ambush sites set up, IEDs and, of course, we've seen these suicide vehicles that -- and they seem to have no shortage of people that are willing to die for the cause.

So it's going to be very, very difficult going very, very slow and the air power that we're seeing used very effectively out here in the open is going to be much, much limited once we get into the city because now you're dealing with a civilian population.

HOLMES: Absolutely. And we're hearing the, you know, the Iraqi central government and also the Kurdish leadership are saying that when it does come to Mosul they want to see the Iraqi regulars and the federal police leading the way in there. What they don't want is the sectarian angle to have the Shia PMUs going in there and taking part and perhaps carrying out, you know, actions that we've seen in other places like Fallujah and Ramadi.

[00:10:10] But once the actual action starts, how difficult is it going to be to control who is in there, who is doing the fighting once those bullets start to fly? And how important is that angle keeping that sectarian aspect out of this?

FRANCONA: Well, it's a good plan. But I think once the Iraqi army and Iraqi federal police get in there and they find out how difficult it is going to be, I think they will probably ask the Kurds to support them come in maybe behind them.

I understand what the Iraqi government's trying to do. They want to put an Iraqi face on this. They don't want a Kurdish face, they don't want -- especially don't want the PMUs, primarily Shia militias because they want to keep the sectarian angle out of it.

But once they get in there and it starts getting to be very, very violent and very, very intense and if they slow down at all I think they're going to bring the Kurds in. I think that that plan will have to be modified.

HOLMES: Yes, indeed.

Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona -- as always, great to get your expertise on this.

And Sara Sidner back there in Los Angeles, we'll be coming back here to Erbil a little later in the program and talk about the all- important humanitarian side to this. There are perhaps up to a million people inside Mosul who are going to ill be in the middle of all of this.

SIDNER: Yes, terrifying for the civilians. Thank you so much -- Michael Holmes there in Erbil.

Now, the race for the White House is coming up next. Melania Trump tells CNN who she blames for her husband's comments about groping women. That's ahead.

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SIDNER: The third and final U.S. presidential debate is on Wednesday and both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will likely face more questions about the biggest issues that are dogging their campaigns. For Trump it's his treatment of women and for Hillary Clinton the investigation of her private email server -- all while new polls give a clearer picture of where things stand in the race right now three weeks before the election.

Melania Trump is defending her husband after his lewd comment about women in a 2005 videotape. Several women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct since the audio where Trump talks about grabbing women's genitalia was published. Now, Melania Trump says then "Access: Hollywood" host Billy Bush led her husband into that conversation.

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[00:14:57] MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: I said to my husband that, you know, the language is inappropriate. It's not acceptable. And I was surprised because that is not the man that I know.

And as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on. It was only a mike. And I wonder if they even knew that the mike was on because they were kind of a boy talk. And he was led on like -- egged on -- from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now NBC has officially parted ways with that reporter and presenter Billy Bush after his role in that conversation with Donald Trump back in 2005. The company released a statement saying he was leaving the "Today" show on Monday.

Meanwhile Donald Trump is ramping up accusations that the media coverage of his accusers is all part of an election rigged against him. At a rally in Wisconsin Monday he claimed that even the polling stations are fixed in his opponent's favor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They even want to try to rig the election at the polling booth. And believe me there's a lot going on. Do you ever hear these people -- they say there is nothing going on.

People that have died ten years ago are still voting. Illegal immigrants are voting. I mean where are the street smarts of some of these politicians? They don't have any is right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Despite Donald Trump's claims there has been no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in this upcoming election.

New developments in the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of State. According to newly released FBI interview notes, undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy tried to pressure the FBI officials into declassifying one of her emails. An FBI official recounts Kennedy offered to help station FBI agents overseas in exchange. But another official says it was the FBI who brought up the personnel issue. The email in question stayed classified. Both the FBI and the State Department deny any favors were exchanged. The Trump campaign and congressional Republicans are calling for Kennedy to resign.

With just three weeks to go until the elections, new polls are revealing the current state of the race. The latest CBS News poll shows Hillary Clinton gaining even more ground over Donald Trump with a nine-point lead. Clinton is at 47 percent with Trump at 38 percent in that poll.

But new CNN/ORC poll shows tight races in some key swing states. Chief U.S. correspondent John King has the details for you.

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JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF U.S. CORRESPONDENT: If you look at the national polls, Donald Trump is down and down big. But our three brand new CNN battle ground state polls suggest those races are tight. Trump might still have an opportunity in this race.

Let's look first at North Carolina -- always a very close battleground state and it is close to the end. CNN/ORC polling in North Carolina -- 48 percent for Clinton, 47 percent for Donald Trump, Gary Johnson a distant third, so essentially a statistical tie, a dead heat in battleground North Carolina. A very close race both in 2008 and 2012 there -- shapes up that way this year as well.

Let's move west. Look at Nevada -- this state won big by Obama twice but look at the numbers right now in Nevada. Hillary Clinton can claim a lead but again within the margin of error, so a virtual dead heat -- Clinton 46, Trump 44 in Nevada.

Why is this happening in Nevada? In part because of this -- take a look. Among Latino voters, Gary Johnson is getting 10 percent -- that was critical to both Obama wins, Latino voters going for the Democrat. Hillary Clinton has a big lead but she could use some of these votes to stretch it out a bit heading into the final days. Our third poll in battleground Ohio -- Republicans need Ohio to win the presidency. Trump especially needs it because of his recent troubles and a little optimistic news there for Trump supporters -- 48 percent to 44 percent. Again, still within the margin of error, a very competitive race but a Trump lead in a state he needs to win. Gary Johnson and Jill Stein polling out the pack.

Why is this happening? It's interesting when you look. One of the dynamics we continue to see in all of our polling is an education gap. Look at these numbers. Among white likely voters who are college graduates in all three of our battleground states, Clinton leads in Nevada, in North Carolina and in Ohio. Relatively close in Ohio and North Carolina but this is critical to Secretary Clinton. Mitt Romney won this constituency four years ago -- white voters with a college degree.

But look on the flip side among white voters who do not have a college degree, pull these numbers up -- Donald Trump leads and overwhelmingly so in all three states. Look at that -- 25 points there. Wow, 50 points almost there. A big lead there in Ohio as well.

So close races in Nevada, Ohio, and North Carolina. How does that affect the map that matters most? The benefit for Secretary Clinton even though these polls are close is the way we have the map now, she can afford to lose North Carolina, lose Ohio, and lose Nevada and still win the presidency with the states she already has in line.

[00:20:02] So if you are the Clinton campaign you still think you can win here, you still think you can win here and in fact they think they can still win here. But the benefit of this is Clinton can afford to lose all three of these states and still win.

What are the stakes for Donald Trump? He trails right now. Those tight battleground state polls suggest if he can have a strong debate Wednesday night, if he can move North Carolina his way, if he can hold Ohio, build on that very tiny lead, if he can get back into play in Nevada which is very close right now that would put Donald Trump in play.

I just have to say this. Right now, the map favors Hillary Clinton heavily. But the closeness of those three battleground states suggest if Trump puts in a strong debate performance, there's a chance he can make the last couple weeks interesting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And that is John King -- the last couple of weeks interesting. I think this whole campaign has been pretty interesting --

JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: That's the understatement of the year.

SIDNER: Joining me now Democratic strategist Dave Jacobson and Republican consultant John Thomas. Thank you, gentlemen, for being here with us. THOMAS: Sure.

SIDNER: Always a pleasure to see you.

DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Likewise.

SIDNER: And I love to hash these things out. All right.

Let's start with the claims from Donald Trump of a rigged election. He's mentioned a few things going into this that have made a lot of people nervous, frankly. Is he undermining the democratic process by saying these sorts of things?

I will start with you -- John?

THOMAS: You know, I think he is using too broad of a statement when he calls it rigged. I think what he should say is not rigged in terms of the actual voting booth because we work in elections all the time. It's just simply not the case. But rigged in terms of is the establishment conspiring to make him lose? I think there is some merit to that.

The establishment in the Republican Party doesn't want him to win. The main stream media, the establishment arguably doesn't want him to win. In that sense it might be rigged but I think right now he's is giving a broad overstatement.

JACOBSON: And that's where you are seeing this sort of civil war within the Republican establishment. You're having the Ohio secretary of state coming out yesterday saying that it was quote, "irresponsible for Donald Trump to make these kinds of comments".

And I think he is trying to sort of justify a looming loss. If you're looking at the polling now, like there has never been a candidate in modern presidential electoral politics that has come back from such a devastating deficit. And I also think it underscores the fact that this is a candidate who doesn't have an organization on the ground. I mean for crying out loud, Donald Trump isn't even on the voter -- the candidate statement in the state of Alaska. You have Jill Stein and Hillary Clinton on it but Donald Trump is missing. And I think that really highlights the fact that like he just has no organization on the ground these days.

SIDNER: But he has done pretty well, we have to say that.

You just mentioned the Ohio secretary of state. Let's hear what he actually said about this. I mean it does give you some insight into what is happening with Republicans and what's happening with this idea of things being rigged especially for those who are already in office. Let's hear what he had to say.

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JOHN HUSTED, OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: I can reassure Donald Trump I'm in charge of elections in Ohio and they're not going to be rigged. Our institutions, like our election system is one of the bedrocks of American democracy. We should not question it or the legitimacy of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: We should not question it or the legitimacy of it. Do you agree with that statement?

THOMAS: I completely agree. Yes. No, he's right. Trump is overreaching on this. And for the sake of our democracy, as a Republican, I either hope that Donald Trump wins or he loses by a big margin. Because if it is close, the way he's talking, the Republicans and the Republican Party may burn the system down because they may think that he got robbed.

SIDNER: What happens if Trump wins? I have to ask you both this -- what happens if he wins. Is the system still rigged? Do you think he will still go with that line?

THOMAS: Great point. I mean if he wins by a wide margin, he may say it was rigged but he overcame it. He made that argument in the primary -- that the establishment wanted to rig it in favor of Bush or Rubio. But he overcame that because he won with such sweeping mandates. I think he also would say the Democratic primary was rigged and look, it's not incredibly wrong.

JACOBSON: But doesn't it make him look somewhat hypocritical though if he is saying like the electoral process, like the institutions that like propel candidates to office are rigged. Like this is a guy who like won through that process of the Republican nomination. So like, was that process rigged? Like I get the politics, like the establishment, the endorsements like on the Democratic side. Like some would say the super delegates -- that's a rigged process like I get that. But like the electoral like ballot box politics like that process is not rigged. And I think that's the fine line --

THOMAS: The question is, is Trump using this language or rhetoric as a turnout tool for his base? And perhaps he is. I think it's a dangerous line to walk down but maybe he is trying to use it to turn out those voters to fight against a rigged system that every vote is going to matter in a fight against a rigged system. Maybe that's what he's doing.

SIDNER: Well, generally every vote does matter. We have seen that in past elections where people lose by small margins and you go, well, if you had just come out, you know, maybe it would have been different.

Let's talk a little about what Melania Trump said. She's making news. She's talked for the first time. We haven't heard from her very much ever since we've heard from these comments of Donald Trump back in 2005 and these women coming out one by one.

[00:25:05] She talked about something very specific and when asked about whether or not he had said this sort of thing around her she said I've never heard it before. It's boy's talk.

I'm going to let you respond to that because that is something that Donald Trump himself said, well, it's locker room talk. It's not real. It's just, you know.

JACOBSON: If that's locker room talk then everything that Donald Trump has said throughout the course of this election, is locker room talk. Megyn Kelly, the host at Fox News has blood coming out of her eyes. He made horrible statements about Heidi Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz, his once rival's wife.

I mean this is a guy who called women "pigs" and "dogs". I mean this is the kind of rhetoric. It's no different from what we've seen throughout the course of this campaign and I think it really underscores why he is doing so poorly with women who make up the majority of the electorate.

SIDNER: John -- your response?

THOMAS: Yes. It's no surprise that Donald Trump uses crude language. He has been consistent throughout the primary in that. I particularly like from the interview where she said she has two boys at home. One child and, you know, one named Donald Trump because this is consistent with his personality. But, look, Melania did say he apologized and she forgave him.

SIDNER: Ok.

I do want to lastly ask you about Hillary Clinton. He has this point that is made. And to be fair, what have we been talking about this whole? Donald Trump and his comments and Melania Trump and her comments.

But Hillary Clinton is under the microscope right now because of her emails. Is the media sort of not covering that as much because the other stuff is so salacious and people keep talking about it?

THOMAS: And that's the problem. I think that feeds into Trump feeling that he is getting the bad end of the stick here. It's the classic adage -- if it bleeds it leads.

And in any other environment, the WikiLeaks story would be dominant --

SIDNER: Yes.

THOMAS: -- but in this case, the sex allegations are more salacious and there are human stories to it that they keep bringing out.

SIDNER: Right. Right.

THOMAS: But look, if Trump can keep himself in control this drip, drip, drip of the WikiLeaks there are a lot of questions that have no answers yet from the Clinton Foundation or Clinton.

SIDNER: Both of you -- thank you so much for being here. We will continue this argument in the next hour. Thank you so much.

JACOBSON: Thank you so much.

THOMAS: Thank you. SIDNER: Ahead the battle to liberate Mosul from ISIS. More than a million civilians in the city could be in danger.

We're going to go there live. We're going to show you what is going on now and we're also going to talk to our Michael Holmes who is in Erbil, not very far away.

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[00:30:53] HOLMES: Welcome back to our viewers all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes live in Erbil, Iraq covering the offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS.

SIDNER: And I'm Sara Sidner here in Los Angeles. This is CNN NEWSROOM L.A.

A Peshmerga commander says his forces have already achieved key objectives in less than 24 hours. They have cleared nine villages outside Mosul and extended control over the Erbil-Mosul road. But ISIS is, of course, fighting back deploying suicide car bombers throughout the day on Monday.

Our Michael Holmes, who you just saw, he is rejoining us now from east of Mosul in Erbil.

Michael, can you give us a little bit of an idea. It is now daybreak there. What the plans are for today? What you are hearing from forces on the ground?

HOLMES: Yes. What we're hearing is you've got, of course, the Peshmerga, the Kurdish fighters, and you've got the Iraqi regulars, the Iraqi security forces, the ISF.

Now what Iraqi central government and the Kurdish leaders want, they want them to be on the frontline along with the Iraqi Federal Police. They are the ones who they want going into Mosul. What you're seeing at the moment is the Iraqi regulars, the Iraqi army if you like, coming up from the south. They are sort of pushing up that way.

Kurdish fighters are sort of squeezing in more from the east. They are sharing the battlefield in some areas. Nick Payton Walsh was out yesterday and saw both Iraqi regulars and Kurdish fighters on the road there.

Now what there is a lot of concern about at the moment is the civilians inside Mosul. There is a lot of guess work going on, but there could be as many as a million of them. And there are fears that ISIS fighters in Mosul are going to try to use those civilians as human shields.

Now the United Nation already has five camps ready, but really it's not going to cover enough if too many people leave Mosul. They've got camps that will cover tens of thousands of Iraqis who have been forced from their homes by the fighting, but the battle for Mosul could end up displacing hundreds of thousands, perhaps as many as a million.

Now our Jomana Karadsheh has more now on the dangers that they face.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The United Nations and aid agencies are very concern about civilians in Mosul. They estimate that there are about 1.5 million people in the city. Now they worry that ISIS could end up using people as human shields, or civilians could be caught in the crossfire as they are trying to flee the fighting.

Here's what the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government Massoud Barzani had to say on Monday when it comes to guarantees of safe passage for civilians.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASSOUD BARZANI, KURDISTAN REGIONAL GOVERNMENT PRESIDENT (through translator): I would like to reassure the people of Mosul that there is a coordination between the Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army. We do hope that this is going to be a successful one and we also hope that there will not be any kinds of revenge and their dignity is going to be protected and that they can go back to their homes safely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARADSHEH: The United Nations and aid agencies are very worried about what could end up being a humanitarian disaster when it comes to the number of people fleeing. They say they are preparing for what they describe being as the worst-case scenario, where up to one million people could end up escaping Mosul.

Right now, at this point in time, these aid groups can host about 60,000 people in the sites that they have set up. They say that they have been preparing for months, but they have been dealing with insufficient funding from international donors.

These aid organizations say they are working around the clock to set up these additional sites right now that would host about 250,000 people. Now they believe that within five to six days that is when they will see a significant number of civilians fleeing Mosul and about 200,000 people within two weeks of this offensive.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Amman.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[00:35:00] HOLMES: And the thing, Sara, is that the Iraqi government has actually asked people in Mosul to hunker down, to if possible, stay in their homes and see this through. But it's very easy for them to say that from outside Mosul.

Once the actual assault on that city begins, it's going to be very difficult, I think, for a lot of those civilians to stay put and just hunker down. And the real tragedy is, as Jomana was saying in that piece, is a lot of these aid groups have had months to prepare for this. They just haven't had the money to prepare for what could be a real exodus of people from Mosul.

Sara?

SIDNER: It's terrifying, too, for them to be listening to the bombings happening and getting closer and closer and closer, and anyone can understand them wanting to flee.

Thank you so much. Michael Holmes there in Erbil.

Retired U.S. Marine and Green Beret Chase Millsap is joining us now to talk a little bit about what it's like out there in the sick of things.

You've been on the battlefield. You've been in Iraq. You've been fairly close to Mosul and you understand the terrain. What's the most dangerous thing? Going in now, it's now on, no waiting anymore. There are not troops sort of languishing and worrying about what's going to happen, it's happening.

What's the most dangerous moment now?

CHASE MILLSAP, RETIRED U.S. MARINE AND GREEN BERET: Well, from a tactical perspective, I mean, we're talking about fighting in an urban area. I mean, these are major buildings. These are city streets where people live.

From a military perspective, that's very, very difficult when you talk about identifying the enemy, and then also using the power that we have. So air support, artillery, those things becomes very, very difficult in the urban terrain. And Mosul, specifically, is even more difficult. We're talking about historical landmarks that are involved here. It's going to be a real challenge once you get on the street. In a lot of ways, the defenders really do have the advantage here. ISIS does have the advantage and preparation.

But, you know, in the military, we always talk about key terrain and the residents of Mosul are really the key terrain here. And so the question is as the ISF and the Iraqi forces come into Mosul, are they going to look at the Iraqi government and say, we're with you, thank you, you're here to help us and now let's move on, or are we going to see exodus and people moving on? We really don't know yet. And we will find out until they get on the ground.

SIDNER: It's hard to know the answer, like you said, until it happens. And then it's sort of too late. You're telling people to stay in their homes.

You talked about ISIS kind of having the advantage just because of the urban setting, which obviously Mosul is a very large, large city. When it comes to air strikes and how much is that going to help? I know that ISIS has been using, you know, smoke and fire to try and keeping the U.S. from being able to strike the targets it has identified.

MILLSAP: Right. Well, it's going to be difficult in two ways. I mean, we have the military power here between the Iraqi forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga, the different militias that are involved and the U.S. advisers on the ground.

Militarily, we have all the firepower that's needed. What's going to be the real question is identifying the enemy especially one that could mix into the population. And as the fighting starts, we may even see some of the enemy go underground and exit and flee out of Mosul with potentially some of the refugees fleeing as well. Or they may just go underground and look like ragged civilian and move their way into Syria. So we really don't know how the enemy is going to respond yet.

And if they do decide to fight, it's going to be house to house, street to street and it's going to require an absolute patience on behalf of the Iraqis to really make sure that they are doing this the right way and minimizing civilian casualties as much as they can.

But, you know, on the other aspect, too, from a strategic side, there is a real challenge here with the coalition and myself, personally being on the ground.

I worked a lot with the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi security forces in a time when there wasn't a lot of violence. So that was very, very simple for us to try to get together and it was a challenge then.

I can't even imagine what it is like on the ground right now. It's got to be a real challenge for those advisers. And so maintain that coalition is going to be key.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much. Chase Millsap, he's been there and done it. Now we are watching to see what happens. We'll be right back.

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[00:41: 00] SIDNER: The U.S. presidential race has given comedy shows "Saturday Night Live" ratings gold. Everyone week, its sketches get big laughs as they skewer the candidates. But Donald Trump doesn't find it funny, at least not with the jokes that are at his expense.

Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Maybe it was Alec Baldwin portraying him as jaws that made Donald Trump want to fight back.

KATE MCKINNON, HILLARY CLINTON IMPERSONATOR: And number three.

MOOS: At SNL, Donald called it "A hit job on me. Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks."

MCKINNON: And number four.

MOOS: Baldwin himself must not have been too hurt because he re- tweeted Trump's insult. And to think Donald himself has graced "SNL" over the years...

MCKINNON: Call me on the cell phone.

MOOS: Apparently before it was boring and unfunny.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: A special thing. It's a great honor. You know, it's like a feather in your cap.

MOOS (on-camera): OK. So Trump says Baldwin stinks, but what does Hillary think about how she has been portrayed?

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: When Kate McKinnon came out with the walker, I thought I was going to fall off my chair.

MCKINNON: I'd like to begin tonight by attempting a casual lean.

MOOS (voice-over): Obviously "SNL" won't be saying sorry to Trump.

ALEC BALDWIN, DONALD TRUMP IMPERSONATOR: I deeply apologize.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you trying to say apologize?

BALDWIN: No, I would never do that.

MOOS: Another thing Trump almost never does.

Have you ever seen Donald Trump laugh? We rarely see the Donald genuinely cracking up. We found only a couple of instances from his campaign.

The jolliest was when a screech interrupted a Trump rally.

TRUMP: This is something you should know -- what was that? Was that a dog?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary.

TRUMP: It's Hillary.

MOOS: You won't catch the Donald doing this while watching "SNL."

BALDWIN: Wrong, wrong, wrong.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Sara Sidner. "World Sport" is coming up next. Then we'll be back with another hour of news from around the world.

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(WORLD SPORT)