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Iraq Battle for Mosul Against ISIS Continues; Melania Trump Stands By Her Man; Trump Blames The System For "Rigged" Election U.S., Others Have Varied Interests in Mosul Battle; Democrat Raises Money to Rebuild Firebombed Republican Field Office; "World Sport Update. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired October 18, 2016 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00] MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, thanks for joining us. I'm Michael Holmes, live in Erbil, Iraq, where it nests just one 8:00 in the morning on Tuesday.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Sara Sidner, in Los Angeles, where it is now just past 10:00 at night.

Ahead this hour, CNN goes to the front lines in the battle for Mosul, and our crews get caught in the crossfire as Peshmerga fighters, launched their assault against ISIS.

And a bit later, standing by her man, who Melania Trump blames for her husband's raunchy hot mic moment.

This is NEWSROOM L.A.

An Iraqi-led coalition is taking on ISIS on the outskirts of Mosul, fast approaching the terror group's last stronghold in Iraq. Military leaders say they're already making major progress, clearing nine surrounding villages, but the fierce fighting in the early on now, has dispelled any notions that this fight would be short or in any way, easy. I want to bring back Michael Holmes who is live for us from Erbil in Iraq. Michael, give us the latest on what is happening there on the ground.

HOLMES: Yeah. A lot of people thought that this would be a long process, and it could well turn out that way. A lot of unknowns. But I can tell you this, the fighting has already begun in various places, south and to the east of Mosul. In fact, our colleague Nick Paton Walsh has been out. He was with a convoy of Peshmerga fighters. They were facing gunfire. They also faced a suicide bomb, as they tried to clear one particular road of militants. We're going to show you his report now, but we need to warn you, it does show the violent death of one ISIS fighter and some viewers might find that disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They've been waiting years to finally push through the lines and take on ISIS' brutality. And when the day came, it was still a dusty slow grind. Peshmerga into the desert to flank a main road to Mosul. Distinctive American vehicles with Western occupants in their convoy, airstrikes often hitting the places they were headed to first. Hopes ISIS might not fight for the tiny settlements around Mosul quickly dashed. This is the first village they move down the road towards Mosul, and they're encountering pretty heavy resistance. Returning fire with what they have, 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. They pushed on towards the main prize, the road itself to Mosul flanked by all fires lit by ISIS and airstrikes 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. 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 airpower.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shut the doors.

WALSH: It's best they move. This is yours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay in the car now!

WALSH: ISIS still everywhere, even in the hills. They give chase to one man, an ISIS fighter. He shoots a Peshmerga, Humvees rescue him and they hunt on. An ISIS fighter pops up from a tunnel, shoots, and he blows himself up. The tenacity and desire to die that will surely slow and bloodied the fight ahead.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, near Mosul Northern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And our thanks to Nick for that report. But also important to mention the crew, who was there with him. The photographer was Scott McWhinnie and the producer Ghazi Balkiz. Now, there are more than a million, it is thought, men, women, and children, living in Mosul. We're talking about civilians here. Now, the Norwegian refugee counsel warns, they could be in graves danger if they stay in the city, but it can be too dangerous to try to flee as well.

Wolfgang Gressman is the country's in-country director in Iraq and joins us now to discuss. And Wolfgang, thanks for doing so. First of all, when it comes to these camps, there has been plenty of time to set up but not a lot of money to do so. How prepared are aid agencies, yours, others, the U.N. to deal with what could be a big influx?

WOLFGANG GRESSMAN, NRC COUNTRY DIRECTOR IN IRAQ: Good morning, Michael. Yes, camps have been set up, the current capacity is around for 60,000 people, which is insufficient when you compare it to the expected number. We still believe, so that the number of people that have to -- have to flee Mosul, will be in the range of 200,000 over the next couple of days and weeks. Humanitarian actors like the Norwegian Refugee Council are working around the clock to prepare the sites, to preposition relief items, but it's a race against time. HOLMES: So what then is the worst-case scenario? The Iraqi government, also the Kurdish leadership have been saying to people, stay there, hunker down, and the Kurdish situation in particular, they can't take any more in their territory. But how realistic is it for people in the middle of what's going to be urban warfare, to hunker down and not flee, and for that point as well, how hard will it be to flee?

GRESSMAN: Yeah, well, we have to see. I mean, we are extremely concerned that with no safe routes out for civilians and Mosul City expected to be soon under heavy fire, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are at the extreme risk of either being caught in the cross fire or being shot at by snipers when they are trying to flee or coming under attack at their own homes.

HOLMES: You know, when you talk about what the capability is at these camps versus the numbers of people who could flee, you mentioned a couple hundred thousand. Other people talk of several hundred thousand who might end up pouring out of Mosul, in the worst-case scenario. What could be the worst-case scenario when it comes to aid groups? I mean, we saw around Fallujah, people sleeping out in the open, insufficient sanitation, insufficient food and up here, in this part of Iraq, it's a sunny day today, but the rains aren't too far away.

GRESSMAN: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we really have to see, obviously there's a huge gap between the existing capacity of emergency sites and existing camps and the expected case load. Some tiny figures indicate also about 700,000 people will be displaced from Mosul City. On top of this, you must not forget that the military operation has already been ongoing for a couple weeks and months and already more than 130,000 people have been displaced from Mosul area. Most likely, (INAUDIBLE) you will have to find alternative solutions outside camps, when the numbers continue to increase.

HOLMES: Could be a very dire situation. Wolfgang Gressman with the Norwegian Refugee Council. Our thanks to you and thanks for the work that you and other organizations are trying to do in very difficult circumstances. I'm going to have much more from Erbil, a little later this hour. But first, let's take it back to Sara Sidner in Los Angeles. Sara?

SIDNER: Thank you, Michael.

We also have a special guest here, Retired U.S. Marine and Green Beret, Chase Millsap, who joins us here in Los Angeles. And we talked a little bit before that you have been in the thick of things on the battle -- on the battle lines, in the frontlines. Can you give us some idea, how difficult it is to attack? There's sort of -- it seems that they're kind of trying to surround the city and move in.

[01:10:02] CHASE MILLSAP, RETIRED U.S. MARINE: That's right. Yeah, I mean, this is -- you know, we're talking about an urban area here in Mosul. And if you look at the terrain, it's mountainous to the north and to the desert, out to the south and to the east. So you really have to isolate the area first. And that's exactly what they're doing right now. And you have seen the coalition, both with the Iraqi security forces and with the Kurdish Peshmerga, really going through those key cities on the outside and making sure those are locked down, before we move into the city. And that's an absolute key part of this, as we start talking about one, being ready to move in and make sure that those things are in place to help the civilians in there, but also we talk about the ISIS fighters, that may be fleeing. We want to make sure that those safe havens are there, as we saw on the video earlier.

SIDNER: Give us some idea, because, you know, there's regimes that you fight against, like Saddam Hussein and his army, and then there's ISIS.

MILLSAP: Yeah.

SIDNER: What's the big difference? What's the big difference that soldiers need to know in these scenarios?

MILLSAP: Well, functionally on the battlefield, I mean, bullets are bullets. We're not talking about things that are -- that are that different here. But what you really see, is the way we fight things. So the conventional fight, where we see tanks on the street, mechanized infantry, moving street to street, that can only go so far and our enemies are smart enough to know that when they are faced with overwhelming firepower, they're going underground. So, the question really right now, isn't is this coalition between the Iraqis and the security forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga, strong enough to go in militarily, we know they are. The question is, are they strong enough to maintain the peace? So, what happens after the fighting stops and ISIS comes back and starts to try to go at -- back at the population, use suicide bombs and things like that. Are we ready to establish the security measures? They're going to make sure people can go back to their daily lives.

SIDNER: So we're not talking about days or even months, we're talking about a very long time, to try and keep things secure.

MILLSAP: Yeah, that's right.

SIDNER: If and when they move ISIS out.

MILLSAP: Absolutely. So, you know, in --from a military perspective, we always talk about this idea of end state. What are the conditions on the ground, where as a commander, you can look and say, "I have achieved my objective." Well, those objectives in this case, are going to spend way beyond the military side of this. We have to look at, what are we going to the to keep the power on, what are we going to do to keep the lights on, the water, all of those things that required to make sure that Mosul can become a living city again? And that something, it's going to be a real challenge to the Iraqi government and the coalition of the Kurdish partners and the militias that are involved here Not to mention, you also have the Turks, that are going to be watching this close by.

SIDNER: Absolutely.

MILLSAP: So you've got a lot of players here, that we're watching very closely.

SIDNER: I want to lastly ask you. You have a personal story. You fought alongside an Iraqi that saved your life. You've been trying to get him --

MILLSAP: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- here, to the United States. We're going to see more of that. Are we not going to see more people trying to leave and come into countries like the U.S. and into Europe?

MILLSAP: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of the things that we've always seen out of these (INAUDIBLE) we saw it in Fallujah, we saw it in Ramadi recently. There is an exodus that happens after the military operations. We know that's going to happen, so the question is, are the Iraqi security officials planning for that? And are they setting up the camps? Are they setting up the processes? Are they going to make sure that people can get back into their homes. Because if they don't plan for that, then you ran into a scenario like I faced, where an Iraqi soldier call me, say, "I need some help right now." And we hadn't planned for that afterwards. And now, we're scrambling to get him a visa and get his family safe. I think this is a real opportunity for us to look at this and say, "We know there's going to be some outside factors, our enemies go after our partners, especially when they know they're isolated. What can we do to plan for it now?

SIDNER: Chase Millsap, thank you so much for, kind of, digging deeper and letting people understand what it's like, really, to be there on the battlefield. I appreciate it.

MILLSAP: Thank you.

SIDNER: Now, Russia says it will pause its airstrikes on Aleppo, Syria to allow civilians and rebels to leave the city. The attacks will stop for eight hours, Thursday and six corridors will be open for safe passage out of that city. There's been growing diplomatic pressure on Russia, to halt the bombing there.

And we have some disturbing pictures out of Aleppo, on this Monday. 14 family members were killed in a single airstrike, 10 of them were children. Western leaders have been calling for a war crimes investigation into the assault on Aleppo.

The battle to liberate Mosul, as you heard, is just beginning but the fighting is already extremely vicious. How ISIS is defending its last stronghold in Iraq.

Plus, Donald Trump is once again, blaming the system in claiming the U.S. election, is rigged against him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The election is being rigged by corrupt media, pushing false allegations and outright lies. The process is rigged. This whole election is being rigged. And remember this, it's a rigged election because you have phony people coming up with phony allegations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Just three weeks to go until the U.S. Presidential Election, Donald Trump is stepping up his claims that the election is rigged against him and alleging widespread voter fraud. In a rally in Wisconsin Monday, he blasted his opponent, Hillary Clinton about her campaign's hacked e-mails. He says one revealed the democratic nominee was fed questions before a town hall during the primaries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

D. TRUMP: Hillary even got the questions and answers in advance of a major debate. How do you do that? And think of it, nobody made a big deal, nobody even knows about it. She got the questions in advance to essentially, a debate. Can you imagine -- no, no, no, no. Can you imagine if Donald Trump got the questions in advance? You know what they'd do? They'd reinvent the electric chair, that's what they'd do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Meanwhile, Trump's wife, Melania is coming to her husband's defense for the first time since his lewd comments about women on a 2005 videotape were released. Several women have made accusations of sexual misconduct against Trump after the Washington Post released that tape. Melania Trump calls her husband's comments inappropriate but blames then Access Hollywood Host Billy Bush for leading that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: 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. He puts only a mic and I wonder if they even knew that the mic was on, because they were kind of a boy talk, and he was lead on like -- egg on from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Bringing in now Democratic Strategist Dave Jacobson and Republican Consultant John Thomas. Thank you so much for coming back. Nobody got hurt last time, so we're going to try that again. So, you're going to start a couple of things. I do want to go back to what Donald Trump said. He's been talking a lot about a rigged election. He did mention that Hillary Clinton did get some questions for a debate during the primaries, and that turned out to be true. So does he have a point? Because he's using the small details to say this is an overarching problem.

JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: I think you have to separate the rigged accusation in two boxes. The one is the voting system, the actual machines we use, are those rigged? The answer is no. But is the system in terms of the establishment is -- are they coalescing around anybody but Trump, in essence to either get their choice candidate, Hillary Clinton and the democratic primary elected, and to ensure that Donald Trump doesn't win? There are pieces of evidence that point to that direction, so I think the rigged argument he has to be more specific about the establishment and not about the institution that our democracy is founded on.

SIDNER: Is this dangerous to use this sort of language that it's rigged and calling for sort of a revolution if, you know, I suspect if he doesn't win because if he wins I'm sure the story will probably be different.

DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Absolutely, I mean, I think -- look, the reality is he is setting up -- I think he's setting up a justification for failure. Because this is a guy who only talks about winning and he makes fun of losers. And so, he can't be a loser, right? There's no way that he would lose. And so, if he ends up not being the president, then something was wrong with the system, right, that's the justification. And I think he's also setting himself up potentially for some sort of like media empire, some T.V. Station, we saw his son-in-law was reportedly -- you know, going -- I think this was reported in "The New York Times, you know going out saying, "Hey, listen, pitching the idea of like a television station or some sort of media empire. And so, I think he's, perhaps, setting himself up for that. You know, Donald Trump has this sort of hard 40 percent base of voters that like, he can do no harm with, right, like whatever he says like they're not going away from him. And I think he's like setting himself up for giving an answer to those voters, like, "Look, the system is rigged, the system failed and here's what we're going to do if I am not the next president."

SIDNER: It sounds like this won't be over, no matter what the outcome of this election is, even if he is not president that there is still going to be these conversations, correct? And he's still going to be on Twitter and he's still going to be talking about the election.

THOMAS: There's a lot of distrust with the system, with the establishment. And so, as a republican, there's really only a couple of outcomes that I know of. On the one hand, if Donald Trump wins, that's OK as a republican. But if he loses, I hope that it's not close, because if it is close within a point or so, that I'm afraid our base is going to burn down the system. Because they're so angry and I feel that the system robbed it. That means, they're going to go after speaker Paul Ryan and anybody who didn't support the nominee, they're going to go after our actual voting process. So for democracy's sake, I hope it's not close.

SIDNER: What about you -- when you -- when you look at the situation here, these e-mails that have come out from Hillary Clinton's campaign and from her herself, that would be big news. I mean, it would top the news cycle but because of comments made and because of these tapes that have come out, it sort of has been pushed down. Is he right in saying, "You guys are even paying attention to these important points that have come out from Hillary Clinton's e-mails"? JACOBSON: Look, they may be important points in the -- given the fact

that like we're talking about them but there's no smoking gun. And the other issue was like, they're not Hillary Clinton's e-mails and the audio tape was like, Donald Trump's actual voice. Those were his words and the e-mails are emblematic of, like, people who voters just simply don't know. They don't know who John Podesta is, they don't know Robby Mook, the Campaign Manager, right? That's not Hillary or Bill or Hillary, who's running. And I think that's the clear difference. Moreover, like, there's no proven, like, criminal wrongdoing in these e-mails, like, sure you've got that drip, drip, drip but there's no bombshell or October surprise like we saw with the 2005 audio tape. Moreover, it's not just any time, I mean, this is some of the most salacious stuff that we have seen -- rhetoric that we've seen throughout the course of this campaign. And frankly, it's pretty hard to top what we've already seen throughout the course of this race.

THOMAS: And what these e-mails have done -- Dave's right. What e- mails have done is they confirmed our worst suspicions about Hillary Clinton, that she's the most crass politician, that she has a public position and a private position, that she will do whatever she needs to do politically to please a billionaire leftist donor, that there's a million dollar gift to Bill Clinton for five minutes of his time from a foreign government. What's interesting, this sort of on a bigger deal, but the Clintons, smartly are sitting on the ball right now. She's cancelled her public appearances because she knows that you're right, the Trump tapes are more salacious, they're new women and faces have come out. And so, right now, they're sitting on it, but in any other cycle, these e-mails could take down a candidate.

SIDNER: Yeah. Trust issues, they certainly bubble back up with her. I want to mention one more thing. The thing that we have been talking about a lot here is Mosul and what is happening in Iraq. This is a huge movement internationally and in the Middle East and, yet, neither candidate has talked about it even a little bit. I mean, we have heard almost nothing on this subject. Not just Mosul itself, but what's happening in the Middle East and something that's going to affect our country no doubt in the years to come. What do you make of that? Why is that? Is it the public, isn't that interested, are they more sort of self-centered?

THOMAS: You know, it's a great question. If it's not on our soil, immediately they're not concerned. I think what's going on between the WikiLeaks and kind of Trump the reality show, it's just -- it's more salacious. I think Trump would be wise to weave this into his narrative as to how there is chaos and largely because over the last eight years, he's done nothing to stem the chaos and Hillary Clinton has been part of that administration. But --

SIDNER: And that's something that Donald Trump has pushed -- has talked about.

THOMAS: Yeah, but he can't do it in a consistent disciplined manner.

JACOBSON: Well, I think that's the challenge, like there's no concrete, like, specific, like, foreign policy plan, whether it comes to ISIS, or Iraq, or Syria, or some of these other challenges across the globe, he'd rather put his arm around Vladimir Putin and talk about how he's going to be buddies with him, and potentially, CNN, I believe reported, would even, you know, contemplate meeting with Vladimir Putin before the election even took place. And so, like, he's talking about those kinds of things, but he's not coming up with like specific plans on how to tackle ISIS.

SIDNER: All right, gentlemen, thank you very much, great conversation. I love this. We could this all day long.

JACOBSON: We appreciate it.

SIDNER: Thank you. I appreciate you be here.

All right, coming up -- just coming up, the first day of the offensive to drive ISIS out of Mosul. We have seen some of the pictures devastating, but we're also seeing some real advancement there. We'll have more on that live from Erbil. Our Michael Holmes will bring that to us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:50] HOLMES: Hello, everyone. You're watching CNN. I'm Michael Holmes, live in Irbil, Iraq.

SIDNER: I'm Sara Sidner, in Los Angeles.

The first 24 hours of the Iraqi offensive to retake Mosul were marked by gunfire, explosions and suicide bombings. There is strong ISIS resistance. They drove suicide car bombs towards the Peshmerga convoys several times.

Our Michael Holmes is in Irbil and has the latest from there.

Can you give us an update on what is happening there? It is now light there in Iraq.

HOLMES: Yeah, indeed. And you can expect the fighting will continue. The Iraqi regulars, the ISF, they are fighting their way up from the south towards Mosul and the Kurdish fighters are coming in from the east, as we saw yesterday with Nick Paton Walsh, who was with a unit as they tried to move along a road towards Mosul. It's a very slow and methodical process. They're trying to clear these areas before they get to Mosul proper.

You mention the nine villages cleared. Most of them were empty. Kurdish leaders said they cleared 200 kilometers of territory that was sparsely populated but significant as they get closer to the city itself.

Although this is an Iraqi-led coalition that is leading the charge, it has to be said, the U.S. and others have a vested interest in the battle for Mosul.

Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, has that aspect of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

(EXPLOSION)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ISIS drives a car bomb straight into Iraqi forces. This is the new deadly front line of the battle to defeat ISIS in Mosul --

ABU BAKR AL BAGHDADI, ISIS LEADER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

STARR: -- the city where ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, declared his caliphate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Americans are in harm's way as part of this fight.

STARR: But the Pentagon wants to show Iraqis are leading the charge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are Americans that are on the outskirts of the city.

STARR: The whole area is full of bombs, booby traps and tunnels.

The Pentagon refuses to say if U.S. troops will enter the city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not ruling in it. I'm not ruling it out.

STARR: It may be their most dangerous assignment yet.

UNIDENTIFIED MILITARY OFFICER: Iraq is supported by a wide range of coalition capabilities, including air support, artillery, intelligence, and advisers and forward air controllers.

STARR: Iraqi and Kurdish troops backed up by some 200 U.S. Special Forces are working to approach Mosul from all sides. The U.S. has also taken up artillery positions north and south of the city. U.S. forward air controllers on the ground may be calling in locations of ISIS targets for strikes.

Near the front lines today, CNN's Nick Paton Walsh and his team came under ISIS fighter on the road into Mosul.

WALSH: A lot of coalition planning, American air power --

(GUNFIRE)

STARR: The dangerous for U.S. troops will grow.

BRIG GEN. MARK KIMMETT, U.S. NAVY, RETIRED: The real challenge is going to be when they go inside the city of Mosul. How far back are the U.S. troops going to be? Are they going inside the city? Will they be at risk from IEDs and land mines they see along the ground?

STARR (on camera): The fight for Mosul could be the largest humanitarian operation so far this year. The United Nations is now estimating perhaps one million people will be on the run from that city as the fighting intensifies.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, joining us to talk more about this.

When you listen to Barbara's piece there it's undeniable what advantage the coalition has in this fight when they have that aerial power, the forward observers making the artillery strikes more accurate. But how different is the fight going to be once it is inside Mosul? Air power will be important but it will much more difficult, isn't it?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Absolutely. Right now they are fighting in relatively open terrain and they can use air power quite effectively. But once they get into that city and the ISIS fighters pull back to the Western side of the city, which is a much more constricted area, it's going to be difficult to get vehicles in there. It's a compacted area. You have to make sure you are hitting the exact targets.

The Americans have a small diameter bomb but still you are going to have civilian casualties. They want to avoid that at all costs. So getting to the cities ameliorates all the advantages that a mechanized force has.

[01:35:50] HOLMES: Yes, and to that point I was going to ask you about that, you mention the density issue. And there are reports that the eastern side of the city on the eastern side of the Tigris River, Mosul is divided by the Tigris, ISIS will not defend that with any great deal of passion because of how it is geographically. They will move to the Western side of the city because that's where the old city is. The streets are more narrow. What advantage does that give is?

FRANCONA: It limits the effectiveness of the air power and the ability to move armored vehicles. The Iraqi force is a mechanized infantry force. Once they get in that part of the city they won't be able to use anything larger than Humvees. The problem with that there are only so many roads you can go down that are wide enough. ISIS knows that. They are going to have mine fields and oil field trenches. They have had two and a half years to prepare the defense of the city. It is going to be block by block, almost house by house. We can expect to see a long, drawn-out campaign.

HOLMES: Yeah, yeah, much as we saw many years ago in Ramadi, with American troops doing that house by house.

Rick Francona, our thanks to you.

I'll be back with more from Iraq in the next hour.

First let's take it back to Los Angeles and Sara.

MURRAY: Thank you so much, Michael. We appreciate it. A Republican field office was firebombed in North Carolina over the

weekend. We'll hear from a Democrat who raised thousands of dollars to help them rebuild.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MURRAY: A Republican field office was firebombed in North Carolina over the weekend, a clear display of the intensity surrounding the final weeks of the U.S. presidential race. And intense, right now, seems an understatement. Heated rhetoric has shaped the election. But Governor Pat McCrory says no one benefits from vandalism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[01:40:05] PAT MCCRORY, (R), NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR: This is the last thing we need. This is the type of intimidating violent act that is an assault on our democracy. I want to make sure it doesn't happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: A Democratic campaign office was also vandalized. The phrase, "Death to capitalism" was found scrawled on the building in North Carolina.

But no matter which way people lean politically, most Americans condemn these types of acts.

We have David Weinberger, who is reaching across party lines, who is a Democrat, who raised thousands of dollars to help rebuild the firebombed Republican office. He joins us from Brookline, Massachusetts.

Thank you, David, for being with us today.

Interesting what you did. Tell me why you did it.

DAVID WEINBERGER, DEMOCRATS RAISES MONEY TO REBUILD FIREBOMBED REPUBLICAN OFFICE: Because some things -- while Democrats and Republicans can deeply disagree and I know I deeply disagree with many Republican positions, we have to agree, I think, that the processes of democracy need to be kept safe and open and respectful and dignified if our democracy is going to survive.

MURRAY: How much have you raised and have you stopped raising money?

WEINBERGER: So we raised $13,000. And we stopped after the first 40 minutes. We had a $10,000 goal initially. We after 40 minutes had reached it and by the time I figured out how to press pause, another $3,000 had come in. There seems to be a genuine and deep appetite for people to get past this dangerous rhetoric and dangerous actions and to at least engage in a gesture that says that even though we deeply disagree with some of your policies, nevertheless we are all Americans and we want and we need this system to work.

MURRAY: People are literally putting money where their mouth is instead of spewing rhetoric. This is one of the ways the people and candidates are communicating with the populous now. Let's start with Hillary Clinton's tweet after this terrible incident in North Carolina. She said the attack on the headquarters is horrific and unacceptable very grateful that everyone is safe. Fast forward to Donald Trump's tweet, which came after that. He has a different response to this, saying "animals" representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning. What are your thoughts on those two tweets? They are different in their tone and in their language.

WEINBERGER: We don't know -- we just don't know who did this or what their motives were. And so first of all jumping to conclusions about who did it and assigning the blame to your political opponent who as far as I know has shown no inclination to encouraging her followers to engage in violence is not helpful. And one reason we wanted to do this gesture to raise some money to try to keep -- to reopen a headquarters that had been bombed, was precisely to enable people to -- who reject that sort of violent rhetoric to recognize one another.

MURRAY: David Weinberger, thank you so much.

A lot of people responded to what you did in a short amount of time because they, too, want to see the country come together at least after the election, if that is possible.

Thank you for joining us.

WEINBERGER: Thank you.

MURRAY: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Sara Sidner.

"CNN World Sport" starts after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:45:42] (WORLD SPORT)