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ISIS Resists Iraqi and Kurdish Advance Near Mosul; Villagers Tell Horror Stories of Life Under ISIS; Iraqi Forces Ready to Take in Fleeing Civilians; Trump and Clinton Face Off in Final Debate Wednesday; UK Working to Bring in More Child Refugees; Trump's Female Supporters Standing By Their Man; Melania Trump Remembered in Slovenian Hometown; Pot Potency on the Rise in Colorado; Aired 2-3a ET

Aired October 19, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:16] MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: The fighting intensifies as Iraqi and Kurdish forces close in on Mosul amid fears for the safety of civilians in the area.

Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes in Erbil, northern Iraq.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Vause in Los Angeles. Also ahead, fight night in Vegas. What to expect at the third and final debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Iraqi and Peshmerga forces say they're making good progress in the battle to retake Mosul from ISIS but they are facing some strong resistance.

One commander says it could take two months of tough urban fighting to liberate the city and they could be weeks away from reaching the city's outskirts.

Let's go back now to Michael with the very latest developments. He is live in Erbil.

And, Michael, we've heard so far about 20 villages have been cleared of ISIS but there is still a long road ahead.

HOLMES: There is. The progress, though, with the Iraqi Security Forces and also the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, their leaders are all saying that progress has been good there, at least on schedule if not ahead of schedule.

You mentioned the villages they are taking. Most of those villages have no civilians in them. They have had some encounters, though, with ISIS fighters. And of course they're being very methodical about it. They have to clear those villages of IEDs and booby traps and the like before moving on.

It is a process, a very deliberate one, and they are on a schedule. It could be two, maybe three weeks before they do go into Mosul. They're about 30 to 40 kilometers outside. But as I say, it's a very deliberate process. We saw the Kurdish regional president, by the way, Massoud Barzani, he was out visiting troops. His men on the front line who hope to be in Mosul in the next three weeks fighting ISIS.

Now we've got some video to show you that supposedly shows ISIS militants fighting back against Peshmerga forces. One Iraqi soldier was killed in a car bomb attack. We've heard of at least a dozen car bombs being deployed against Iraqi Security Forces and Peshmerga fighters. The militants reportedly getting oil and lighting it to hide their positions from warplanes trying to target them. And around Mosul we've heard of that, too. Building of moats of oil.

Peshmerga forces we're told have found tunnels built throughout several houses that they've cleared in surrounding villages. Those tunnels all connected to a very long pathway. Their way of getting around underground trying to stay undetected from those warplanes circling overhead.

Now those forces found weapons, ammunition, food, left behind, and incredibly some of that food apparently we're told was still warm. So they hadn't been gone for long. A Peshmerga commander says his forces are ready to take in and protect civilians who are fleeing the front lines.

Meanwhile senior international correspondent Arwa Damon spoke to some villagers recently freed by the Iraqi Army but who are still very much afraid of ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): We just came across this group of people. They're from one of the villages nearby. We were actually on our way towards one of the Iraqi Army Ninth Division position.

According to what these gentlemen were saying, and we can go now and talk to some of the women as well, their village was liberated by the forces about two days ago. All these people were actually living under ISIS. And then today they heard a rumor that ISIS was returning. So they all actually fled their village and have now ended up here and are waiting for permission to go back home.

And so what these women are saying is that ISIS actually reemerged from some of the orchards, some fighters did.

And so we ran out. She doesn't even have her shoes on as you see this. They lived under ISIS. They now have to flee. I mean, this is just one of the ongoing catastrophes of this war.

[02:05:07] They're talking about the fact that the children are hungry. And she's saying every day they used to come to us. They would say, do you have guns? Do you have mobile phones? Give them over. Whoever they found a mobile phone they would kill. They starved us. They killed people that would smoke. And they were so happy then when the army came in. And then ISIS reemerged.

They're saying come on, let's go, let's go. And they're going back to their village. Most of the families are returning. And the Iraqi and Kurdish commanders who we spoke to say that there was no ISIS counterattack. But you heard what they were saying to us. You saw how scared they were. And this just shows you the psychological and other trauma that they have been through where just the rumor that ISIS has returned sends them running for their lives.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Kanesh (PH), Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now we're saying that a lot of those villages that Iraqi and Kurdish forces have been going through have been empty of civilians, but not all of them. Iraqi police say they have freed more than 100 families held by is in one village south of Mosul. An estimated million people are still living in that city as the offensive pushes forward. Refugee camps and emergency sites being set up to help those who do flee.

Our Jomana Karadsheh is live for us in Amman, Jordan. And let's talk a little bit about that, Jomana. One we've been hearing for some time is that while preparations have been made for people displaced by this conflict. Those facilities are not up to what could be huge numbers.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Michael. And we've heard from the United Nations and aid agencies. They say they're working around the clock right now to prepare more sites for this flood of humans that they could be seeing in the next several weeks.

One of the main issues they have encountered has been insufficient funding by international donors and that's why at this point in time they have enough to accommodate about 60,000 people. That is a fraction of what could be -- what they're describing as might be the worst case scenario of up to a million people fleeing.

But right now, Michael, we haven't seen as you mentioned a large number of people fleeing. It could be for several reasons. Like they have not reached, this fighting hasn't reached the populated areas. We've also heard from the Pentagon yesterday saying that basically they believe that ISIS is forcing people to stay, essentially to use them as human shields.

One other issue could be, Michael, that there's that fear of retribution. You're talking about that Sunni population. There's a large number of Shia forces taking part in this operation. And in other areas that have been liberated some of these Shia forces have been accused of human rights violations and abuses. Basically accusing Sunni populations, the civilians, of supporting ISIS. But we have heard so much reassurance from Iraqi leaders, from Kurdish leaders.

Here's what the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, had to say about these allegations of human rights abuses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAIDER AL-ABADI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER (Through Translator): In any case that there are violations for human rights violation, we will bring justice to those who commit these violations. But there are no human rights violations at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARADSHEH: And Michael, it's going to take more than words and promises to reassure this population that has gone through so much. And according to aid organizations they say one key test, a very important part of this whole thing is going to be how people are treated when they are screened. As you know, as these civilians flee they will be going through a security vetting process before they are allowed to enter the camps. This is mainly for the boys and the men. And this process according to agencies has to be a transparent one. People have to be treated well so they feel safe enough to flee ISIS.

HOLMES: Yes. And that was a concern after the liberation of places like Fallujah as well. How people were treated as they left.

Now, Jomana, Mosul of course is a predominantly Sunni city but it is a diverse place as well. Many groups represented in the city. And you've been looking into cases of Christians from Mosul who were driven out by ISIS in 2014 and went to where you are, Jordan.

[02:10:05] What have they been telling you?

KARADSHEH: Well, remember, Michael, in 2014 when ISIS drove into Mosul, within a few weeks the Christian population was forced to leave their homes. A lot of them, thousands of Christians, ended up coming here to Jordan. And in the capital Amman a lot of churches here opened their doors to accommodate these Christian refugees. And we met some of them two years ago.

We went back this week and we met these families, same families that we met two years ago, still living in that limbo not knowing what is going to happen to them, waiting to be resettled somewhere else.

And you know, Michael, when we met them in 2014 these families were so emotional. All they wanted to do is go back to Mosul. And when we spoke to them this week they say they will never go back. For them they say Mosul is finished, it is done, and they really are two -- they say they've been through so much. They've gone through al Qaeda as you know and then ISIS and they feel that their children have put up through so much that they don't want to put them through this again. So for them Mosul is just history right now.

HOLMES: Yes, unbelievable. Jomana Karadsheh, Amman, Jordan.

John Vause, in Los Angeles, back to you.

VAUSE: Michael, thank you. We'll get back to you in a moment. In the meantime, it could be Donald Trump's last best chance to turn around his flagging campaign. In less than 24 hours he faces Hillary Clinton in the third and final presidential debate, and once again Trump has invited a number of controversial guests, including Malik Obama, Barack Obama's half brother and critic of the president. And Patricia Smith, who blames Hillary Clinton for the death of her son Sean Smith. He was killed in the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Hillary Clinton has invited two billionaires, Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg

Whitman, a long-time Republican turned outspoken Trump critic, and Mark Cuban, who's been feuding with Trump and was a Clinton guest at the last debate.

Meanwhile, Trump is ramping up allegations the election is rigged. Anderson Cooper pressed the Trump campaign manager for evidence of voter fraud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: I want him to prosecute the case that this election is still with three weeks to go but it's always been past versus future.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you want to hear tomorrow during the debate him continuing this line about rigged elections? I'm talking about rigged media --

CONWAY: Well, he is.

COOPER: I know. But actually rigged elections including voting rigging.

CONWAY: I think there are a couple of things that go into his definition of rigged and corrupt. It certainly is collusion between many in the media. We just had the Journo donations yesterday. I mean, you're talking about 96 percent of the presidential campaign donations coming from working reporters, Anderson, went to Hillary Clinton. Those numbers don't lie. 96 percent is -- it's really close to 100 percent. It's a 27-1 difference.

COOPER: And you're talking about the media. I mean, what about ballot irregularities? I mean, he's talking about a rigged system not just media. He's talking about the actual -- I know a lot of these states are Republican -- you know, Republican governors, Republican secretaries of state who have come forward. The guy in Ohio came forward and said look, there's nothing irregular here.

CONWAY: Well, he did. But in Colorado we noticed the CBS Denver affiliate found out that dead people were voting, somebody who died in 2006 was still voting. You see right here, dead people are registered to vote in Virginia. We know that goes on.

COOPER: Right. But you know that a Loyola study which shows like a couple of dozen examples out of billions of votes cast.

CONWAY: We can compare our studies but I think Mr. Trump's point is the same where if you already feel like the system is against you because you're trying to challenge the --

COOPER: Right. But what study do you have that shows otherwise?

CONWAY: Well, e have a bunch of studies where he -- where -- they're right here, actually. I can hold them up or I can read them. But his point is the same which is that in a country -- you know, a government that was supposed to deport 800 criminals who were here illegally hit the wrong button and gave them citizenship instead of being deported. The same government that runs ridiculous --

COOPER: No, no, there are certainly --

CONWAY: Malfeasance like that.

COOPER: Right. I mean, there's a famous Pew study which has shown a lot of, you know, people around the rolls who are deceased, things like that.

CONWAY: Right.

COOPER: But that doesn't mean that those people are being used to vote, that it's actually resulting in voting irregularities.

CONWAY: It doesn't mean that they're not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And the daily e-mail embarrassments keep coming for Hillary Clinton. But with the last debate now less than 24 hours away the Democrat nominee is keeping a low profile, leaving the campaigning to President Obama.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hillary Clinton arriving in Nevada tonight for her final face-to-face showdown with Donald Trump. Staying off the campaign trail and above the fray, President Obama weighing in from the Rose Garden taking aim at Trump and his talk of a rigged election.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'd invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to make votes.

[02:15:01] ZELENY: On the eve of the third presidential debate aides to Clinton tell CNN she's bracing for the toughest tangle yet. They believe Trump is becoming increasingly desperate. An uncivil tone in St. Louis starting without a handshake could escalate in Las Vegas Wednesday night.

Since their last meeting Trump spiraling among Republicans. But new questions for Clinton, too. On hacked campaign e-mails revealing one calculation after another. And paid speeches to Goldman Sachs showing a friendly approach to Wall Street. And whether the State Department pressed the FBI to return e-mails retroactively classified to their original unclassified setting.

It was here in Las Vegas one year ago when Clinton breathed a sigh of relief on her e-mails.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Enough of the e-mails. Let's talk about the real issues facing America. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, Bernie. Thank you.

ZELENY: Yet three weeks before Election Day it's hardly behind her. Advisers tell CNN that Clinton devoted considerable time and debate practice once again to put to rest the lingering controversy over e- mail and serious questions about her honesty and trustworthiness. But those questions have been overshadowed by Trump's own talk.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a rigged system. Didn't they? But you have to say we figured it out. Right? We figured it out.

ZELENY: The president stopping just shy of mocking Trump. Seemingly trying to provoke him on the eve of the debate.

OBAMA: Whenever things are going badly for you and you lose you start blaming somebody else? Then you don't have what it takes to be in this job.

ZELENY: To extinguish Trump's talk of a rigged election Democrats are trying to run up the score, making new investments in red states like Arizona, Georgia, and Utah, and trying to capture control of the Senate by winning seats in Indiana and Missouri.

All this as Democrats are still dealing with the fallout from campaign chairman John Podesta's stolen e-mails. Another batch published today on WikiLeaks reveals House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi's reluctance to back Clinton. Top aide Huma Abedin wrote campaign manager Robby Mook. "HRC asked for her endorsement and she didn't say yes. HRC said she felt it was a non-answer." Mook replied, "That's frustrating but I think she will get big kudos for asking." Pelosi's endorsement came nearly a year later after Clinton's primary fight with Bernie Sanders.

The hacked e-mail shows Sanders is also the subject of scorn. Podesta displaying his contempt for Sanders after the Paris climate agreement, writing, "Can you believe that doofus Bernie attacked it?"

(On camera): Senator Sanders for his part was actually feel playing the role of good soldier, still out campaigning for Hillary Clinton in Arizona trying to help her turn that state blue. Advisers to Senator Sanders said they were not fazed by this. One told me they're surprised that he didn't call Senator Sanders even something worse during the heat of their Democratic primary fight.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Las Vegas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Please stay with CNN for the final presidential debate. Our live coverage starts 11:00 on Wednesday night in London. That's 6:00 on a Thursday morning in Hong Kong. Don't miss it. Coming up next here on CNN NEWSROOM, why the U.N. says it can't bring

aid supplies to the desperate people in the Syrian city of Aleppo despite an apparent pause in the airstrikes.

Also ahead, the refugee children getting a second chance at life in Britain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(SPORTS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:22:14] VAUSE: Russia and Syria appear to be making good on a promised pause in their military offensive on rebel-held eastern Aleppo. Moscow announced airstrikes would be suspended ahead of an eight-hour cease-fire set to begin on Thursday to allow civilians and rebel fighters to leave the city. But for now the U.N. says it cannot begin humanitarian operations because it has not received any security guarantees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS LAERKE, U.N. HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS SPOKESPERSON: A cease-fire or pause, cessation of hostilities, call it what you will, when the weapons fall silent, we need all weapons to fall silent. We need to have insurances from all parties to the conflict, not just a unilateral announcement that this will happen. We need everybody to give us those assurances before it is really immediately useful for us to do anything meaningfully on the humanitarian side such as urgently evacuating the sick and the wounded, but also provide assistance into the city which has been under siege for more than 30 months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Hundreds of children have been left to fend for themselves in France's infamous jungle refugee camp in Calais. And now after years of living apart a few have been reunited with their families in the UK.

CNN's Hala Gorani has their story. And we should note this. We are blurring the children's faces because authorities have asked us to protect their identity.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bags packed and a final shy wave good-bye. 14 children, the second group of teenagers this week leaving France behind, making their way to the UK. As French authorities in Calais prepare to dismantle the notorious jungle migrant camp, Britain has rushed to process asylum plans for unaccompanied minors living there.

These boys from countries including Syria and Afghanistan brought to be reunited with family members already living in Britain. Relatives gathered outside the immigration center in London described the pain of waiting for their loved ones to reach safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I spoke to him and he was in Iran, he was crying. My heart was -- I wish I was with you, you know, to help you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so excited, so happy. I think it will be a lovely day after 11 years for me.

GORANI: While there's been joy for some, the process of identifying children eligible for transfer from Calais has been criticized as chaotic.

GEORGE GABRIEL, LEGAL ORGANIZER, CITIZENS UK: What we've seen over recent days was officials working on behalf of the government wandering around camp with megaphones shouting if you have family in Britain please do come and see us, which is an incredibly weak process to identify children at risk.

[02:25:07] GORANI: Fears among aid groups that some of the most vulnerable will be missed in the rush to close down the camp.

Hala Gorani, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Syria's first lady, Asma al-Assad, has made a rare television appearance telling Russian state-run TV she turned down multiple offers of safe passage out of the country because, she says, it was an attempt to undermine her husband.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASMA AL-ASSAD, BASHAR AL-ASSAD'S WIFE: Yes, I was offered the opportunity to leave Syria, or rather to run from Syria. These offers included guarantees of safety and protection for my children and even financial security. It doesn't take a genius to know what these people were really after. It was never about my well-being or my children. It was a deliberate attempt to shatter people's confidence in their president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Asma al-Assad did not reveal which countries offered her asylum.

Well, now to the brutal and shocking execution of a federal judge in Mexico who was involved in the extradition process of drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. A security camera recorded the moment when Vicente Antonio Bermudez was shot point blank in the back of the head in broad daylight. Authorities have not said if the hit is related to El Chapo, but earlier this year the judge blocked El Chapo's extradition to the United States.

Well, "STATE OF THE RACE" is up next with Kate Bolduan for our viewers in Asia. For everyone else we'll take a short break. It is early in the Mosul offensive. And when we come back, we'll take a closer look at what might happen when the fighting ends. Also, what some of Donald Trump's loyal female supporters think about

the explosive tape and those allegations of sexual misconduct.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:13] HOLMES: Welcome back. I'm Michael Holmes in Erbil, Iraq with the latest on the Mosul offensive. And after two days of fighting now Iraqi and Kurdish forces say they have made progress to the east and the south of the city. A Peshmerga commander says it will probably take at least two weeks before they are in position to try to enter the city.

Now earlier I spoke with Ranj Alaaldin who is a visiting fellow at the Brookings DOHA Center about what needs to happen in Mosul when the offensive ends.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANJ ALAALDIN, BROOKINGS DOHA CENTER: At the moment there is some element of inception to the whole operation. The villages, for example, and the towns that are being recaptured from ISIS have been largely without any significant populations. There is a very significant political dimension to this because in order to prevent ISIS from resurrecting itself, from reorganizing, you have to address the kind of conditions you've alluded to. That includes things like rehabilitating Mosul, rehabilitating places like Fallujah and Anbar that have been destroyed.

You have to integrate the people that have left back into their local communities, back into their homes, back into their local economy. You've got give them jobs, basic services because these are the conditions that gave rise to ISIS in the first place, of course.

HOLMES: There are so many interested parties in this battle literally on the battlefield. And many of them do have differing agendas. I'm curious what your take is on the fragility or otherwise of the Iraqi state at the moment.

ALAALDIN: Well, the humanitarian and the political interact significantly. There is a massive problem when it comes to administration in Iraq. You've got a fragmented security environment. And this operation itself, you've got forces that are loyal to and answer to the Baghdad federal government. You've got an array of Shia militia groups. You've got the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the north.

So what's missing is the political structures and the political agreements and frameworks that could enable any military gains to count in the short and medium term. What Iraq really needs is a serious effort to mend and reconcile some of the divisions and the problems because you've got a host of actors involved in this operation that have had conflicting agendas. They've had disputes over the past 10 years.

These are the problems that have enabled groups like ISIS to thrive over the past 10 years, of course, because the organization has come in different forms in the past. And even after the initial operation, they could splinter into different groups and still make use or exploit those kinds of political disputes and disagreements.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And that'll do it from us here in northern Iraq, in Erbil, for now. We'll take it back to John Vause in Los Angeles -- John.

VAUSE: OK, Michael, thank you. We'll see you again next hour.

For Donald Trump the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct are all part of a grand conspiracy, all politically motivated, but now one of his accusers has responded to that. Natasha Stoynoff says back in 2005 at Trump's Florida resort the Republican nominee forced his tongue down her throat and pushed her against a wall. She was a reporter for "People" magazine at the time and in that same magazine she now writes this, "Women are talking about this and they need to. We cannot be silent anymore. I didn't tell my story for politics. I did it for women."

Trump says Stoynoff along with at least eight other women, they're all lying, but he's yet to provide much evidence to refute their claims.

Civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred joins us now live from New York. She is representing Summer Zervos, a former contestant on Trump's reality TV show "The Apprentice" who says she was the victim of unwanted sexual advances by Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Gloria, thank you for being with us. Very quickly about the Natasha Stoynoff case because in the last 24 hours at least six other people have come forward to say she is telling the truth including her former journalism professor. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL MCLAUGHLIN, TRUMP ACCUSER'S FRIEND: I know that what she told me was true. She wasn't in 2005 calling me in anticipation of doing something negative to him in 2016 during a presidential campaign. That's preposterous.

VAUSE: So legally how does all this support her case?

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY FOR TRUMP ACCUSER: Well, I think when someone describes an incident that is troubling to them to people who they trust, whether it's members of their family, whether it's co-workers, whether it's a rabbi, minister, priest, health care provider or a professor, they're generally doing so because it's been disturbing to them and they just want to share what happened and maybe even have someone help them make sense of it.

[02:35:16] It's not because they're trying to go out and get or do something to that other person. And especially if they've told them at or near the event and not during the political season I think that many people would say that there's an aura of corroboration and credibility to what they said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Gloria Allred there speaking to me a little earlier.

And despite multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, despite a recording with admissions of groping women in the crudest possible terms, Donald Trump has some very loyal female supporters. Some of them spoke to CNN's Martin Savidge. And be warned, get the kids out of the room right now. Some of the language you're about to hear is graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let me ask for a show of hands. How many of you still support Donald Trump?

CRYSTAL JUNIOR, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I really do in my heart of hearts feel that he is a good man.

BROOKE STECK, TRUMP SUPPORTER: He has a plan for our country that is in line with the way I want to see our country go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel I can believe everything he says.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): What about when he says things like this about kissing and grabbing women?

D. TRUMP: And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever you want.

D. TRUMP: Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.

EILEEN EAGAR, TRUMP SUPPORTER: It was kind of like the braggadocio that men do when they're together talking about their conquests.

JUNIOR: He has spent the 30 years of his life surrounded by beautiful women. He's bound -- he's an alpha male. He's bound to have said a few off-colored things.

SAVIDGE (on camera): Could you imagine your husband saying those words?

JUNIOR: He would never say those words.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Melania Trump breaking her silence speaking to Anderson Cooper said she too was taken aback by her husband's words.

MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: 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.

SAVIDGE: And what about the women who have come forward accusing Trump of everything from unwanted contact to sexual assault?

STECK: We have no proof. Who has the proof? Show us the proof. There is none.

SAVIDGE (on camera): You do not buy them or believe them --

(CROSSTALK)

JUNIOR: All that is happening three weeks before the election when -- I mean, why didn't they come out before?

ROSALIE WRIGHT, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Totally.

EAGAR: It's organized.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.

EAGAR: It is organized.

STECK: The media is backing Hillary.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): We spoke to this same group of Trump supporters during the primaries when Trump was leading most polls against fellow Republicans. Seven months later their support hasn't wavered. And when I keep pushing, Rosalie says enough already.

WRIGHT: OK, so maybe it bothered us but not to the point that I think some of the media would like it to bother us. Because we're still voting for Trump.

SAVIDGE: We move on to the conspiracy theory of media bias.

(On camera): Do you believe that we are working for Hillary Clinton, that there is actually some deal struck?

STECK: Yes. I believe that there are deals struck. Benghazi and e- mails. Why are we not addressing that? That to me should be front and center.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): They see all the focus on Trump's faults as a distraction from important issues such as future Supreme Court nominees, immigration, religious freedom. And for them the stakes couldn't be higher.

JUNIOR: For me it's a battle between good and evil. I think Hillary is evil. I think Trump is good. Is he perfect? No.

SAVIDGE: This good and evil thing is something they believe absolutely. They describe themselves as warriors for Trump, that almost nothing can change.

(On camera): You literally do pray for him?

JUNIOR: I literally get on my knees and I pray that Trump will become the president of this United States. Yes.

SAVIDGE: Martin Savidge, CNN, Tucson, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Melania Trump has kept a low profile throughout much of this campaign, appearing at the Republican convention and only recently to defend her husband against those accusations of sexual misconduct. But as Phil Black reports, in her hometown in Slovenia many say the man who wants to be leader of the free world should listen to his wife a little more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sevnica lies in a beautiful green valley next to the River Sava. There's industry here. A centuries-old castle on top of a hill and buildings from its more recent communist past. Among these concrete blocks once lived a young girl who would grow up to be an international model, marry a billionaire, and just maybe become the first lady of the United States.

[02:40:03] M. TRUMP: I was born in Slovenia, a small, beautiful and then communist country in central Europe.

BLACK (on camera): You lived in that block and Melania lived where? Melania lived over here?

MIRJANA JELANCIC, SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: Yes.

BLACK: Mirjana Jelancic and Melania Trump, or Melanija Knavs as she was then, were neighborhood. Childhood friends who used to exchange notes across a line of wool strung between their homes. Mirjana is now the principal of their old school. She tells me she remembers Melania as sophisticated, mature, well spoken, a peacemaker between fighting children, and from an early age someone who dreamed of leaving Slovenia to pursue a career designing fashion.

STANE JERKO, PHOTOGRAPHER: At first I saw her silhouette.

BLACK: Stane Jerko showed her another way. The photographer says he approached teenage Melania on the streets of the capital Ljubljana and asked her to model for him.

(On camera): She was a little bit shy on that first day?

JERKO: A little. But she learned very quick.

BLACK: She learned quickly.

JERKO: And she was very good. Second time she was very good. Like a model. The first time and the second time.

BLACK (voice-over): Peter Butoln says he knew Melania as her modeling career was taking off. He says they cruised Ljubljana on his blue Vespa, fashionable transport in what was then communist Yugoslavia.

PETER BUTOLN: Still the original color. The original -- also the original leather seat.

BLACK (on camera): Yes. BUTOLN: Yes, and she was here.

BLACK (voice-over): He's now trying to sell it to raise money for charity.

(On camera): So you hope the Melania connection will get you how much for this?

BUTOLN: No. Our target price is more than $25,000.

BLACK (voice-over): He is a little ambitiously talking about dollars. Peter and many in Slovenia speak with pride about the possibility of Melania being first lady. But they know her husband's campaign isn't going well. They've heard about what Donald Trump calls locker room talk and allegations of sexual assault.

D. TRUMP: These events never, ever happened.

PETRA SEDEJ, MELANIA TRUMP'S HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND: For many women these are not easy words to hear from her husband.

BLACK: Petra Sedej and Melania went to high school together. That's Melania on the right.

(On camera): What do you think of the man she chose to be her husband?

SEDEJ: It's her choice. So.

(LAUGHTER)

BLACK: No opinion?

SEDEJ: No. No opinion. But it's her choice.

BLACK (voice-over): Melania's old friends won't publicly criticize her husband. But many are willing to give remarkably similar advice. As Mirjana Jelancic says --

Donald Trump should listen to his wife more. In Melania's hometown this talk of a special exhibit if Donald Trump wins. Not to honor the new president but to celebrate the unlikely origins of an American first lady.

Phil Black, CNN, Sevnica, Slovenia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: And if she does become first lady, she'll have to get used to being the butt of a few late-night jokes. Here's Stephen Colbert from "The Late Show" and his take on CNN's interview with Mrs. Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": Do you think these scandals will doom your husband's chances among women? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. Women -- no, it's boy talk. Bad boys, bad

boys, what you going to do?

(LAUGHTER)

COLBERT: OK. But I hate to point this out. Your husband isn't a boy. He's a 70-year-old man.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Boys, man, it's the same. No matter how nice they seem, secretly they're all foulmouthed Billy Bush grabbing pigs. I'm talking about your husband, your brother, the Pope. Luke Skywalker. All of them.

COLBERT: All men are like this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. They're all animals. If only a woman could be president.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK. Still to come here, rocky mountain high. The potency of legal marijuana is growing in Colorado.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:46:40] VAUSE: We have this just in to CNN. Turkish anti-terror forces have shot and killed a suspected ISIS suicide bomber. State news agency reports it happened during a shootout in the capital Ankara early Wednesday. Authorities say the suspect ignored orders to give up. They later found what they called scores of explosives in his home. The governor's office in Ankara warned on Monday of imminent terror attacks.

Legalized marijuana is now a booming business in Colorado. And as the business grows, the pot is getting a lot more potent.

Ana Cabrera reports on the wide range of weed growers and their offerings.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY WILLIAMS, CEO, MEDICINE MAN: I see cookies and cream. Purple Dream.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Andy Williams grows 50 to 60 different strains in this 12,000-square-foot medicine man marijuana cultivation.

WILLIAMS: I think we're the best industrial growers of cannabis in the world.

CABRERA: It's high tech. Machines regulate temperature, humidity and filter the air, creating an environment for growing specialized cannabis concoction. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're going best of the best hands down it's

going to be the Screaming Gorilla.

CABRERA: The Screaming Gorilla is one of Medicine Man's most potent offerings. With THC, marijuana's psychoactive component, testing over 25 percent.

(On camera): Are you designing them specifically to go that high?

WILLIAMS: This is experimentation. We purchase seeds, we purchase different cuttings from different legal providers around the state. We grow them up and we see if they're good, big and fast.

CABRERA (voice-over): In Colorado, pot plants and products --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We test flower --

(VIDEO INTERRUPTION)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:53:46] VAUSE: U.S. president Barack Obama has hosted his last state dinner Tuesday night at the White House. The guests of honor were Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his wife, but Michelle Obama wowed the room in a dazzling rose gold Versace gown. Mr. Renzi says he's supporting Hillary Clinton, no doubt well received among many guests there who were Democratic donors.

As for the election campaign, President Obama likened it to an epic journey through hell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Tonight we're reminded that American democracy has been graced by the touch of Italy. We look up at the dome of the U.S. capitol and marvel at the touch of Bromidi. Then again some days our presidential campaigns can seem like "Dante's Inferno."

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Finally, it is that time of year when the Vladimir Putin calendar for 2017 goes on sale. Oh, my god. Oh, my god, oh my god. Just in time for Christmas. Who can resist the softer side of the former KGB agent as he cuddles a kitten? Relaxing in a tree looking wistful, pensive even. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, he knows his audience and he doesn't disappoint. There's plenty of action shots riding a horse, wearing a maybe too tight revealing wetsuit, even flying a fighter jet.

[02:55:03] Word on the street in Moscow, it is a must-have. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really nice I think. Because I can see cats, children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beautiful strong man I see. It's our leader.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's very nice because I like my president. That's why I'm very proud of him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: We're all proud of him. Each month also features some words of wisdom from Mr. Putin including this one. "Russia is a peace- loving and self-sufficient country but if there is a threat we are ready to use our weapons to ensure our safety."

Get yours before they're sold out, while stocks last.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause. The news continues with Rosemary Church.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: ISIS fights back. Suicide bombers are --

(END)