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Iraqi Battle for Mosul Against ISIS Continues; Fears for Fate of 1 Million Civilians in Iraq; Russia, Syrian Forces to Pause Airstrikes Thursday; Trump's Unsubstantiated "Rigged" Vote Claim; Melania Trump Speaks Out. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired October 18, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:09] NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the first village they come to as they move to down the road towards Mosul and they're encountering pretty heavy resistance, returning fire.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes, in Irbil in Iraq. I'll be bringing you the latest here on the effort to retake Mosul.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Sara Sidner, in Los Angeles.
Also ahead --
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SIDNER: The fight against ISIS has finally come to Mosul, the terror group's last foothold in Iraq. The Iraqi-led coalition is advancing towards the city but those forces are encountering heavy resistance, even in the small villages on the outskirts of the city.
Our Michael Holmes is joining us live from Irbil, east of Mosul, with the latest.
Michael, what do you have for us today?
HOLMES: We're seeing a continued push towards Mosul but it is a deliberate one and meant to be that way trying to choke off the city by taking territory and villages around it. The Kurdish leadership said they did take nine villages, 200 square kilometers of land. Those villages were largely uninhabited to try to strangle Mosul before they move in.
Now the fighting has at times being vicious in the early going but it is sure to get worse as Iraqi forces continue their forward march from the south as the Kurds are coming in from the east. ISIS already deploying suicide car bombers.
Now the heavy presence of Kurdish Peshmerga units have raised concerns what will happen if and win Mosul is liberated. But the president of the Kurdish regional government assured the people of Mosul that they are only there to help.
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UNIDENTIFIED PRESIDENT, KURDISH REGIONAL GOVERNMENT (through translation): I would like to reassure the people of Mosul there is a coordination between the Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army. We hope this will be a successful one and we also hope there will not be any revenge and their dignity will be protected and they can go back to their homes safely.
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HOLMES: And my colleague, Nick Paton Walsh, is finding out first hand just how dangerous the road to Mosul is. He's been out with a convoy of Peshmerga fighters in their push to the city. They have been encountering gunfire. There has been a gunfight yesterday and also shelling and suicide bombers as well.
We do need to warn you that Nick's report shows the violent death of an ISIS fighter and some viewers might find that disturbing.
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PATON WALSH (voice-over): They have been waiting years to push through the lines and take on is' brutality. When the day came, it was a dusty, slow grind. Peshmerga into the desert to flank 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 towards Mosul and they are encountering heavy resistant and returning fire with what they have.
(GUNFIRE)
(voice-over): Which have often blunt and old.
(SHOUTING)
(GUNFIRE)
(SHOUTING)
PATON WALSH: They want this over. Fast.
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PATON WALSH: Suddenly, there's panic.
(GUNFIRE)
PATON WALSH: They spot a car, a suicide car bomb racing towards them. It's ISIS.
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PATON WALSH: One, two rockets try to hit it.
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PATON MOSUL: The third is lucky.
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.
[02:05:33] (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 --
(GUNFIRE)
PATON WALSH: Shut the doors.
(GUNFIRE)
PATON WALSH: Stay in the car now!
(GUNFIRE)
PATON WALSH (voice-over): ISIS still everywhere, even in the hills.
They give chase to one man, an ISIS fighter. He shoots a Peshmerga.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pesh is down.
PATON WALSH: Humvees rescue him and they hunt on. An ISIS fighter pops up from a tunnel, shoots. He blows himself up.
(EXPLOSION)
PATON WALSH: A tenacity and desire to die that will surely slow and bloody the fight ahead.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, near Mosul, northern Iraq.
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HOLMES: And our thanks to Nick Paton Walsh for that report.
It's important to also mention the crew, photographer, Scott McWinnie (ph) and Producer Gazi Albalti (ph) also there covering that dramatic scene. Now about a hundred thousand troops or so are involved in the Mosul
offensive in one way or another, some are fighting, some are obviously in support of those doing the fighting, and that includes more than 54,000 Iraq army troops, the regulars, the ISF, as they're known, the Iraqi security forces. 40,000 are the Peshmerga fighters, and they 14,000 fighters from the so-called Popular Mobilization Unit militias. Pentagon officials say about 500 U.S. troops are also in northern Iraq, most of them working in support and logistical roles.
I spoke a short time ago with CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, and asked him how he thinks the fight will unfold in a tactical sense.
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LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, U.S. MILITARY ANALYST: I think this is playing out how the Iraqis thought it was going to happen. It was meant to slow down the advance and that's working. We can see the Peshmerga are pushing through that and having a lot of success. I think this is playing out how we thought it was going to go. But this is nothing compared to what is going to happen went they approach the outskirts of the city. It's going to get much more intense.
HOLMES: Yeah, exactly. And talk more tactically about that. What we're hearing is the eastern side of the city, a lot of people are suggesting that is going to be difficult to hold and they may not try to hold that and instead pull back to the western side of the city where you have the narrow roads and old buildings which makes a bit of an advantage for urban warfare if you are ISIS. It will be harder to fight them there.
FRANCONA: Absolutely. ISIS is made up of former military people. They can read the terrain just like we can. They will fight a delaying action and pull back to the western side as you say. It robs the mechanized forces the ability to maneuver in that area. 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 throughout the city. They can move people quickly and mass forces where they need to. They have ambush sites set up, IEDs and we've seen these suicide vehicles and they seem to have no shortage of people who are willing to die for the cause. So it's going to be very difficult, going very slow. And the air power we're seeing used very effectively out here in the open is going to be much more limited once we get into the city because now you're dealing with a civilian population.
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[02:10:13] HOLMES: And right now more than a million civilians are still inside of Mosul. There is a lot of worry about what can happen to them in the fight to drive ISIS out of that city.
My colleague, Hala Gorani, spoke earlier with Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, about that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LISE GRANDE, THE U.N. HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR FOR IRAQ: In a worst case scenario, a million people might move. And of the million who might flee? Search of safety as many as 700,000 may require some shelter. If that happens, it would be the largest humanitarian crisis in the world this year.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: But I mean, the internally displaced peoples camps in Iraq are set up for, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, 65,000 to 70,000 people. Even if a worst-case scenario doesn't materialize it seems you would need a lot more to take care of the hundreds of thousands fleeing the city when the battle comes to their doorstep.
GRANDE: That's exactly right. Right now as the battle for Mosul starts there is capacity to support 60,000 people in six emergency camps and emergency sites. That's not enough and that's the reason why the United Nations and front line partners are literally racing against the clock to build 20 new emergency sites. There is nothing more important right now than getting those sites up and operational.
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HOLMES: It is an extraordinary situation if all those people inside Mosul decide they have to leave. The Iraqi government, the Kurdish political leadership urged people to stay in place as much as they can. The facilities outside Mosul are not adequate to take too many more refugees.
Back to you, Sara, in Los Angeles.
SIDNER: Michael Holmes, thank you so much. Great work out there.
Now to Syria. A respite this week for people trapped in Aleppo. Russia says the attacks on rebel-held areas will pause for eight hours on Thursday so rebels and civilians can leave the city, and six corridors will be opened for safe passage, and this announcement comes on an especially tragic day in Aleppo.
Our Ian Lee is joining us live with the latest.
Ian, what can you tell us about what happened there in Aleppo?
IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sara, we have new video coming out. I need to warn people, it is graphic. It shows children on the streets, dead children on the streets of Aleppo being laid out in white sheets ready for burial.
Sadly, this is all too common seeing these children as the victims of this war as Aleppo continues to be pounded by Russian and Syrian government air strikes in the eastern rebel-held area that has been besieged for quite some time. In the last 48 hours since the weekend, there have been a number of air strikes and especially in two different districts pounding away. 14 members of one family were killed including 10 children.
And we have this respite that the Russians are calling for unilaterally where you will have these corridors. You have two for rebel fighters who lay down their weapons and cross over. In the past, they have been -- the government has said they will be granted amnesty. And you also have six other corridors for civilians to cross over to as well. In the past the Russians have said they will be given humanitarian aid. But also in the past, when you talk to people, and are hearing the same thing again, inside Aleppo, they are skeptical of these corridors and they will be treated humanely and well, when and if they crossed over. Just to give you an idea, last time this happened in August, about 200 people, according to Syrian government media, crossed over. That is just a drop in the bucket compared to the roughly 250,000 people in that besieged part of Aleppo.
SIDNER: Ian Lee, thank you for that update. Disturbing images coming out of Aleppo. We appreciate your time.
Underscoring the heart-breaking circumstances for children in Aleppo are these images, a boy dangling from the rubble of a building wearing a shirt that says "Don't shoot." A rescue team used a cherry-picker to reach him and bring him down safely. The Aleppo Media Center says that the airstrike that targeted the building killed 30 people.
[02:15:02] And ahead, Donald Trump is once again claiming the election is rigged against him. But experts say that is highly unlikely. We'll look at the facts coming up.
Plus, Melania Trump breaks her silence after the "Access Hollywood" tape. Ahead, who she blames for her husband's comments.
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MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: He never talks about that.
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SIDNER: We are almost there, in the home stretch. The U.S. presidential election and CNN/ORC polls show the nominees locked in a tight race in three key swing states. In North Carolina, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are neck and neck. Clinton has 48 percent and Trump one point behind. In Nevada, Clinton leads by two points, 46 to 44 percent. The Republican nominee is holding on to Ohio. Our poll shows Trump leading Clinton by four points, 44 to 44 percent. Nationwide Clinton gained more ground over Trump. CNN puts her at 47 percent, eight points ahead of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is ramping up accusations the election is rigged against him. Listen to what he said at a rally in Wisconsin.
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[02:20:07] DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They even want to try to rig the election at the polling booths. And believe me, there's a lot going on. You ever hear these people? They say there's not anything going on.
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TRUMP: People that have died 10 years ago are voting. Illegal immigrants are voting. I mean, where are the street smarts of some of these politicians?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They don't have any.
TRUMP: They don't have any is right.
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SIDNER: U.S. legal experts say voter fraud is extremely rare and doesn't happen near enough to rig an election. In elections from 2000 to 2014, an investigation found 31 instances of voter impersonation fraud out of one billion ballots cast. Another study from Arizona State University found 10 cases of impersonation fraud for the entire U.S. from 2000 to 2012. According to the Center for Justice, most supported incidents are clue to clerical errors or incorrect data.
The secretary of state of Ohio, where Trump is leading in the polls, and the director of the FBI are crying foul over Trump's accusations.
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JON 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. The institutions, like the election system, is one of the bedrocks of American democracy. We should not question it or the legitimacy of it. It works well in places like Ohio. We make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. We have a bipartisan system of elections.
JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: With respect to the vote count itself, looking carefully, we don't see any indication of an effort to effort to change votes nor would that be a likely scenario in the United States.
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SIDNER: This isn't the first time that Donald Trump has brought up political conspiracy theories without the evidence to back them up.
Our Dana Bash reports.
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TRUMP: It looks to me like a rigged election.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump is now hitting this note hard and his chorus of surrogates singing backup.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are attempting to rig this election.
RUDY GIULIANI, (R), FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Do you want to tell me that I think the election in Philadelphia and Chicago is going to be fair? I would have to be a moron to say that.
NEWT GINGRICH, (R), FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: There's no question that everything possible is being done to stop Donald Trump.
BASH (on camera): It's not hard to see why Trump's team is doing this. If he loses, he's laying the groundwork for blaming the political system he ran against since day one. He's also following a familiar pattern, peddling in conspiracy theories that don't have facts to back them up.
(voice-over): Remember, Trump first stepped on the political stage five years ago, pushing the mother of all political conspiracies, questioning whether President Obama was born in America.
TRUMP: If he wasn't born in this country, it's one of the great scandals --
BASH: And as a candidate for president, he's promoted some doosies, like Ted Cruz's father being involved in President Kennedy's assassination.
TRUMP (voice-over): His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being, you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right, prior to his being shot and nobody even brings it up.
BASH: Trump uses his famous "many people are saying" phrase as a crutch to road test conspiracy theories from the 1990s, like questioning whether Clinton aide and friend, Vince Foster, really committed suicide. Quote, "There are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don't do that, because I don't think it's fair," he said.
Now Trump is even throwing out that there that Hillary Clinton may even be on drugs, with zero evidence to prove it.
TRUMP (on camera): At the beginning of her last debate, she was all pumped up at the beginning. And at the end, it was like, take me down. She could barely reach her car. So I think we should take a drug test. Anyway, I'm willing to do it.
BASH: Trump's focus on what he calls a rigged system goes beyond unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud. He also claims the press is in on it.
TRUMP: The corporate media in our country is no longer involved in journalism.
(SHOUTING)
TRUMP: They're a political special interest, no different than any lobbyist or other financial entity with a total political agenda. And the agenda is not for you. It's for themselves.
(CHEERING) BASH: Many Trump supporters, like Eddie Hollister, tell us they believe the system is rigged against their candidate. It's why they don't believe sexual assault allegations against Trump.
EDDIE HOLLISTER, TRUMP SUPPORTER: All of the media who's been holding back on a totally irrelevant issue.
BASH (on camera): You think it's totally irrelevant?
HOLLISTER: Totally irrelevant.
BASH: How come?
HOLLISTER: Because it's not the issues. National security, border security, foreign policy, Obamacare, those are the issues.
BASH (voice-over): Some Trump conspiracies echo those seen on conservative sites like "Breitbart," whose executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is on leave to help run Trump's campaign.
It worked for Trump to rally the base in the primaries, but the general election, to be determined.
Dana Bash, CNN, Washington.
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[02:25:16] SIDNER: Now to an interview with Melania Trump, who's blaming just about everyone but her husband for his videotaped comments where he brags about groping women. Several women have accused Trump of misconduct and he denies the allegations. Mrs. Trump says that "Access Hollywood" host, Billy Bush, baited Donald Trump into the conversation, but she didn't stop there.
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MELANIA TRUMP: I -- I said to my husband that, you know, the language is unappropriate, 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 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.
My husband is kind and a gentleman and he would never do that. Everything was organized and put together to hurt him, to hurt his candidacy.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, A.C. 360: Organized by --
MELANIA TRUMP: The opposition, yes.
COOPER: Media, Clinton?
MELANIA TRUMP: Media, Clintons, yes. COOPER: You think they are working together?
MELANIA TRUMP: Yes, of course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: Melania Trump also says her husband has apologized to her for his remarks on that tape.
For our viewers in Asia, "State of the Race," with Kate Bolduan, is coming up next.
Next here on NEWSROOM L.A., new questions arise about the integrity of the investigations into Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server.
Plus, the Mosul offensive is in full swing as the Iraqi-led coalition looks to drive ISIS out of the country once and for all. More on that operation coming up next.
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[02:30:38] SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The battle to liberate Mosul is on as an Iraqi-led coalition pushes toward the city. A diverse fighting force of more than 100,000 troops is taking part, but the terror group is not going quietly, sending suicide car bombers to meet the oncoming forces.
Let's return to Michael Holmes in Irbil for the latest.
The Peshmerga are front and center in this battle, aren't they?
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: They certainly are. We will get to that in a moment but you mentioned they are sending suicide bombers against the Iraqi army and Peshmerga fighters. We have gotten word from the Iraqi army at 9:30 a.m. Here in Irbil, this morning there was apparently several suicide attacks, suicide car bomb attacks on Iraqi military targets. Now the Iraqi army says they fought off those attackers. This was happening 50 kilometers southeast of Mosul. As I say a number of suicide car bombs heading for Iraqi forces. They claim they fought them off, although one Iraqi soldier is known to have died. Two were wounded in these incidents. According to the enemy, 10 ISIS fighters were killed. That news just coming in.
It goes to show you how this is an ongoing battle that we are seeing. You made the point there are several forces advancing towards Mosul. You have got the Iraqi troops, the regulars, if you like, you have the Peshmerga fighters and then those independent groups, Shiite militias, for example. There are Sunni tribes fighting, Turk men fighting as well. The last group, the Shiite militia militias, particularly concerning. Mosul is diversity but one with a large Sunni population.
The Saudi foreign minister spoke about this and told CNN's Nic Robertson he is fearful they would be, in his words, "a bloodbath."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ADEL, AL JUBEIR, UNIDENTIFIED SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER: What we are most worried about is the Shia militias will do bloodbaths as they did in Fallujah. This would further inflame tensions in Iraq. That would be the greatest danger that we see.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: What assurances have you sought that that won't happen and what effect do you think it would have on the region going forward?
AL JUBEIR: I don't know that all of this is in the hands of the Iraqi military. Iran plays a role. The Shia militia sometimes act independently of the government of Iraq. Mass killings of Sunnis by the Shia militias will be a tremendous bonanza of recruitment for extremists and Daesh and a tremendous -- it will provide tremendous fuel to the sectarian fires that are raging in the region.
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HOLMES: While there are obviously a lot of concerns about the civilians, and there are many of them who remain inside of Mosul during the fighting to retake that city, there's a lot of worry about the tens of thousands, some say, could be hundreds of thousands who choose to flee and where they will go. The U.N. and other groups have set up camps but they are woefully inadequate for the numbers that might end up fleeing their homes.
I spoke earlier to Wolfgang Gressman with the Norwegian Refugee Council about that.
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WOLFGANG GRESSMAN, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL: The capacity is 60,000 people, which is insufficient when you compare it to the expected number. The number of people that have to flee Mosul will be in the range of 200,000 the next couple of days and weeks. Humanitarian actors are working around the clock to prepare the sites, to preposition these items, but it's a race against time.
HOLMES: What is the worst-case scenario? The Iraqi government, Kurdish leadership have been saying to people stay there, hunker down. How realistic it for people to hunker down and not flee? To that point, how hard will it be to flee?
[02:35:29] GRESSMAN: We have to see. It's a concern, with Mosul city expects to be soon under heavy fire, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are at extreme risk of being caught in the crossfire or shot at by snipers when they are trying to flee or coming under attack at their homes.
HOLMES: When you talk about what the capability is at these camps versus the numbers of people who could flee, you mention a couple hundred thousand. Other people talk of several hundred thousand that may pour out of Mosul in a worse-case scenario. We saw people in Fallujah, insufficient sanitation and food. The rains aren't far away. GRESSMAN: Absolutely. You really have to see -- obviously, there's a
huge gap between the existing capacity of emergency sites and existing camps and the expected -- about 700,000 people will be displaced from Mosul city. On top of this we must not forget the military operation has been ongoing for a couple of weeks and months. Already more than 130,000 people have been displaced from Mosul area. Most likely you will have to find alternative solutions outside camps when the numbers continue to increase.
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HOLMES: Certainly a concerning situation, depending on how many people do flee Mosul.
For now, back to you, Sara, in Los Angeles.
SIDNER: Thank you, Michael. Great job out there.
A 72-hour ceasefire is due to begin in Yemen Wednesday night. The U.N. envoy says it is to allow humanitarian aid and personnel to reach all four parts of the country. That ceasefire could be extended. The U.S., U.K. and U.N. are pressing for talks to end the violence between Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and Yemen's government
Still to come, is Trump's claim of a rigged election even possible? We'll hear from a man who was convicted for fixing an election. How he did it, next.
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[02:41:19] SIDNER: We're three weeks away from the U.S. presidential election and Republican nominee, Donald Trump, insists the fix is in, even though he's given no real proof of that.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing false allegations and out-right lies.
The process is rigged. This whole election is being rigged.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: OK, you're hearing that again and again at Trump's rallies. And some of Trump's supporters do believe the election could be rigged.
Let's talk to someone who knows a thing or two about this. Allen Raymond served three months in prison for fixing an election in 2002 for the Republican Party. Allan joins us from Washington. He's written a book on this, if you want to get in how he did and what happened.
Thank you for being here with us.
Let's begin with this. We are hearing the word rigged over and over again. Is Donald Trump correct? Is our system rigged?
ALLEN RAYMOND, SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR RIGGING ELECTION & AUTHOR: It's not rigged. The things he's talking about it is impossible to rig it on that scale. Thing he is talking about may have occurred the last century with boss tweed but not today. I would say it is ridiculous to the point of humor except it is it is so dangerous what he is doing it can't be dismissed.
SIDNER: You talk about it being dangerous. Why do you call it dangerous?
RAYMOND: He said his campaign is an existential threat. It is an existential threat, but it's an existential threat because he is inciting people to violence. He's inciting people to go watch the polling precincts in minority districts. These are dangerous things to do to ask people to go where you need to be trained where they won't be and who will disrupt the process in a way that is the type of thing that endangers the Republican institution, our Democratic institutions.
SIDNER: Certainly it's against the law to stop somebody from voting or intimidation at voting areas. There are people that watch these things. I want to talk to you about how you went about what you did. Give us a little background on what you did with this election that was supposedly rigged. How did that work?
RAYMOND: What I did was peanuts compared to what Donald Trump, his conspiracy and what he is alleging. What we did on Election Day, I was working on behalf of the Republican Party in New Hampshire and for the Republican National Committee. What we did in New Hampshire is we prevented the Democratic Party in New Hampshire from being able to make outside phone calls. So we jammed the lines of their outgoing calls on their phone banks on Election Day so they couldn't call voters and remind them to vote and things of that nature.
SIDNER: I want to point this out. This is something that Donald Trump pointed out that is correct. That Hillary Clinton ends up getting some of the questions for one of the debates, for one of the town halls beforehand. That did actually happen. He said, look, guys, here's an example. He hasn't given an example of widespread voter fraud because the election hasn't happened but he did point that out. Do you think that could sway folks who are like maybe he is right? Maybe there is something wrong here?
RAYMOND: Maybe but they should take in to account that Ronald Reagan got the debate book from the Carter campaign in 1980. These things happen in campaigns. That's easily dismissed. Look, it pays to have a good organization that knows what they are doing.
SIDNER: Allen Raymond, thank you for joining us.
RAYMOND: Thank you.
[02:45:00] SIDNER: New developments in the FBI investigation in to Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state. According to newly released FBI interview notes, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy tried to pressure FBI officials in to declassifying one of her e-mails. An FBI official recounts Kennedy offered to help station FBI agents overseas in exchange. Another official says it was the FBI who brought up the personnel issue. The e-mail in question ended up staying 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.
Wikileaks blames Ecuador for cutting off founder Julian Assange's Internet access. They say it happened after the group published stolen copies of Hillary Clinton's Wall Street speeches.
Chief U.S. security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, has the details.
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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the man behind the release of thousands of hacked e-mails from inside the Clinton campaign --
JULIAN ASSANGE, FOUNDER, WIKILEAKS: We are going to publish --
SCIUTTO: -- claiming today he's now the victim of a cyberattack. Wikileaks tweeting, quote, "Julian Assange's Internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party. We have activated the appropriate contingency plans."
Wikileaks soon blamed Ecuador for the Internet cut off. Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London for four years, avoiding extradition to Sweden on charges of sexual assault.
U.S. officials denied any responsibility.
However, with Russia's hacks of this election system expanding, this weekend, Vice President Biden made clear the U.S. is ready to strike back. U.S. officials say the options range from economic sanctions to diplomatic measures to, yes, cyber responses.
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are sending the message. We have the capacity to do it.
SCIUTTO: Biden, speaking on "Meet the Press," says when the U.S. does strike back he is confident that Russian President Putin will know it, to which Putin responded, "The threat only proves the U.S. itself is guilty of cyber warfare."
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): For the first time, the United States has recognized at the highest level, first, that they themselves do cyberattacks and, second, threaten Russia to a certain extent which contradicts the norms.
SCIUTTO: Donald Trump has repeated questioned Russian involvement in the Clinton hacks, pointing his finger at everyone from China to a 400-pound man in his basement.
TRUMP: They always blame Russia. And the reason they blame Russia is because they think they're trying to tarnish me with Russia.
SCIUTTO: However, Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, joined the Obama administration and U.S. intelligence officials this weekend in blaming Moscow on NBC.
MIKE PENCE, (R), INDIANA GOVERNOR & VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think there is more and more evidence that implicates Russia and there should be consequences.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): The U.S. has not blamed WikiLeaks for a role in the leaking. U.S. officials said they suspect that Russia is using WikiLeaks, however, as a vehicle to make public hacked information.
Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.
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SIDNER: Ahead, the Philippine president says he wants to be friends with China. So he is headed to Beijing to make it happen. We will go to the Chinese capitol to see what is on the agenda, next.
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[02:52:14] SIDNER: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has had a rocky relationship with the United States during his first few months in office. Now he is cozying up to a new potential ally, China. He will make his first state visit to Beijing in a few hours.
CNN's Matt Rivers is live from Beijing.
This is unusual because past presidents have not had a close relationship, particularly because of the fight over the South China Sea. This president seems to be taking a different stance, is that correct?
MATT RIVERS, CNN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR: Absolutely right. The main contention point is the Scarborough Shoal, part of the Spratly Island chain that both countries claim to be in their sovereign territory. They took a hard line stance against the Chinese position.
President Duterte takes a softer position. And this in an interview on Chinese state media today.
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RODRIGO DUTERTE, PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT: There's no sense in fighting over a body of water. Of course there are -- really not on insist on it to the point of antagonism. We prefer to talk. Not only because China and the Philippines are good friends but because there are so many Chinese in the Philippines.
(END VIDEO CLIP) RIVERS: What you are hearing there is President Duterte not taking a hard line stance. Many suspect that's because he wants to negotiate with China over other things. He wants to move toward China and tap in to some of that vast economic might that Chinese has and perhaps get more commercially lucrative deals for his country and if the South China Sea and disputes end the way he could be willing to negotiate with his Chinese counterparts.
SIDNER: It seems he is showing he is not getting enough love from the United States. How does the other major player play in to this? The United States a close ally for many years.
RIVERS: Absolutely. It's perhaps the Philippines were perhaps the United States stronger ally consistently in the south, in Southeast Asia. This reversal has been abrupt and really unexpected in a lot of ways. Be I you did hear Duterte talk about this in his campaign rhetoric saying he would chart an independent policy for the Philippines and that clearly seems to be it is moving toward China. It is easy to see it as a zero sum game between China and the United States. Anything that benefits China is likely to be a detriment to the United States. The United States is looking at what's going on in the Philippines, looking at how the Philippines is cozying up to China, and can only see it weakening the United States' position in the South China Sea ongoing geopolitical tensions.
[02:55:20] SIDNER: Matt Rivers, thank you so much for an update there on China and the Philippines, potentially a new, cozy relationship.
We want to end this hour with video of a baby elephant with a big heart. This was shot at a nature park in Thailand. A young elephant thinks one of the park volunteers is in danger. She rushes in to the river after the volunteer. You see it happening there. When she reaches him, she offers him her trunk. The volunteer can be heard thanking the elephant. The rescue shows how strong the bond is between humans and elephants. Isn't that sweet? I love that. Best video of the day.
You are watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Sara Sidner.
The news continues now with Rosemary Church.
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[03:00:10] HOLMES: The fight to free Iraq's second-largest city from ISIS has entered its second day.
