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Race for the White House; Crisis in Syria; Fighting for Iraq; Maduro Threatens to Arrest Opposition Lawmakers; Uncertainty about Brexit; Candidate's Wife Begs Voters to Elect Him. Aired 2-2:30a ET
Aired October 29, 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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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Tmoil in the Hillary Clinton campaign. The Democratic candidate responds to a new FBI probe into emails linked to one of her top staffers.
Syrian rebels take the fight back to government forces as they try to puncture a siege in Aleppo.
Plus: Venezuela's president lashes out at his critics after a planned opposition strike in the capital.
These stories all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you for joining us. We are live in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm Natalie Allen.
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ALLEN: The controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server is once again at the forefront of the presidential election. FBI director James Comey, on Friday, informed Congress a new batch of e-mails were recently discovered on a device belonging to one of Clinton's aides. He said those new emails appear pertinent to the now-closed investigation and are undergoing review.
The news blindsided Clinton as she campaigned in Iowa. She called on the FBI for full disclosure of the facts as the presidential election is just 11 days away
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HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have now seen Director Comey's letter to Congress. We are 11 days out from perhaps the most important election of our lifetimes. Voting is already underway in our country. So the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.
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ALLEN: Whether or not the new e-mails prove damaging to Clinton, it is an unwelcome development so close to the election. CNN's Pamela Brown explains how it came about. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, James Comey delivering the stunning news in this letter to Congress. The FBI has discovered new e-mails related to the Hillary Clinton private e-mail server investigation and is now taking a second look at that investigation.
The e-mails that prompted the new probe were on a device being examined as part of the Anthony Weiner sexting investigation, according to law enforcement sources.
Weiner was recently separated from top Hillary Clinton aide, Huma Abedin.
In the letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey writes, quote, "In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of e-mails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation."
He went on to say, "The FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these e-mails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."
The e-mails in question are not from Hillary Clinton but were sent or received by Abedin, according to a law enforcement official. This comes just three months after Comey told Congress the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server was complete.
REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: Did Hillary Clinton break the law?
JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: In connection with her use of the e-mail server, my judgment is that she did not.
BROWN (voice-over): Law enforcement sources say the newly discovered e-mails did not surface from the FBI investigation into hacked Clinton campaign e-mails released by WikiLeaks or The Clinton Foundation.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I need to open with a very critical breaking news announcement.
BROWN (voice-over): Republicans immediately pounced, Donald Trump celebrating the news in front of a cheering crowd in New Hampshire.
And Speaker Paul Ryan tweeting, "Yet again Hillary Clinton has nobody but herself to blame. She was entrusted with some of our nation's most important secrets. And she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information. I renew my call for the director of national intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved."
Comey's announcement potentially reversing course from the FBI's previous decision.
COMEY: Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.
BROWN (voice-over): Now the question is, could that change?
BROWN: Director Comey said in his letter to Congress that he doesn't know when this review of the additional e-mails will wrap up. But there's a strong likelihood that won't happen until after the election.
Now as for the timing of this letter, we're told that Director Comey found out about the additional emails Thursday afternoon and felt compelled to share this information with Congress after he had already given sworn testimony that the investigation had been closed -- Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.
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ALLEN: As you can imagine, the revelation was red meat for Republican candidate Donald Trump, whose campaign has been struggling. He even called it the biggest political scandal since Watergate as he reveled in Clinton's misfortune.
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TRUMP: In her very brief remarks tonight, Hillary Clinton tried to politicize this investigation by attacking and falsely accusing --
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TRUMP: -- the FBI director of only sending the letter to Republicans, another Clinton lie. As it turned out it was sent to both Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress. The FBI would have never have reopened this case at this time unless it were a most egregious criminal offense.
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ALLEN: Reaction to the new FBI probe varied greatly at the two candidates' rallies Friday. Here's CNN's Miguel Marquez.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the Hillary Clinton rally, news the e-mail investigation is being revived, for some, expected, but still a shock.
MARQUEZ: You just put your head in your hands.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did. We have been waiting for something like this, suspecting that something like this was going to pop up.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Some found the timing of the announcement the worst part.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought the timing was really terrible for Hillary. This is the worst thing that could probably happen when there's only 10 days left of the election. MARTIN (voice-over): Six short blocks away, just across the river, a Donald Trump rally and the reaction decidedly different.
Trump supporters emboldened by news the FBI is looking at new information.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Finally. Yes. It needs to be taken care of. She got away with it the first time.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Many hoping undecideds will finally see the light.
Dena Larson (ph) drove eight hours from Langford, South Dakota, three kids in tow.
Do you think it will turn the tide in the election?
DENA LARSON (PH), TRUMP SUPPORTER: If they can get the word out there. I mean if these independents and Democrats would hear this now, maybe they would finally wake up and realize that she is a crook.
MARTIN (voice-over): Eric Randy (ph), who has already voted for Trump, says he knows he's not perfect but:
ERIC RANDY (PH), TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yes, he has faults. Yes, he's not right about everything.
But like why do we have to be lied to?
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ALLEN: For the first time in the U.S., the Supreme Court will hear arguments involving transgender issues. The case centers on a public school district in Virginia. It wants to stop a female-born transgender student from using the boys' bathroom.
A lower court ruled in the favor of the student, who identifies as male. It found that federal law bans sex discrimination in schools. Supreme Court justices agree to hear the school board's appeal.
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ALLEN: At least 15 people are dead, scores more wounded after a new round of bombings in Aleppo. Rebels have launched this offensive on Friday.
Video from an activist shows an unrelenting attack on the city after the bombing started. The Russian military asked President Vladimir Putin, who is on the side of the government, for permission to resume its airstrikes. He said now is not the right time.
Here's Ivan Watson with more.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Residents of the divided Syrian city of Aleppo woke up to an awful sound on Friday, barrage of rockets, mortars and artillery launched by rebels.
It was part of a rebel offensive against the Western government- controlled part of the city, aimed at breaking through Syrian government siege lines around Aleppo's rebel-controlled east.
To punch through government fortifications, rebels unleashed at least three armored car bombs, equipped with devastating firepower. As the rebels attacked, the top diplomats from the Syrian government and its most important foreign patrons, Russia and Iran, met in Moscow, Russia's foreign minister blaming the rebels for the collapse of a brief unilateral cessation of airstrikes, declared by Moscow and Damascus last week.
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Today the situation in the region of Aleppo has seriously deteriorated. The cease-fire has been broken by the opposition. The United States and their allies in the region were unwilling or unable to maintain the cease-fire.
WATSON (voice-over): The Syrian government and Russia bombed besieged Eastern Aleppo for months, killing at least 400 people there in October alone, according to a top United Nations official.
STEPHEN O'BRIEN, U.N. EMERGENCY COORDINATOR: The Aleppo offensive by Syrian and Russian military forces has been the most sustained and intensive aerial bombardment campaign witd since the beginning of the conflict more than half a decade ago.
The results in human terms have been horrific. Aleppo has essentially become a kill zone.
WATSON: The fact is, there are no angels in this awful, grinding five-year war. In the last few days, independent observers have accused both the Syrian regime and the rebels of carrying deadly attacks against schools in Northern Syria.
WATSON (voice-over): The U.N. --
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WATSON (voice-over): -- saying airstrikes against a school near the rebel-held city of Idlib killed dozens, including at least 20 children on Tuesday, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says rebel artillery killed at least six children in government-held Aleppo on Thursday.
And with the rebels' latest indiscriminate shelling of Western Aleppo, the grim death toll in Syria just continues to rise -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Istanbul.
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ALLEN: As Iraqi-led forces advance on Mosul, ISIS carries out executions. We will have that story ahead here. Plus: the campaign to remove Venezuela's president from power suffers a setback.
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ALLEN: The United Nations says ISIS has executed 232 civilians just outside of Mosul for being disobedient. ISIS reportedly carried out the mass killings on Wednesday as Iraqi security forces advanced on its last urban stronghold. Some of the dead are former special forces members from Iraq, who refused to join the terrorists.
The U.N. also said ISIS is holding tens of thousands of people as human shields.
Meantime, Iraqi forces are making progress in the offensive to reclaim Mosul. Troops are holding positions just kilometers from the city.
Many of the families rescued from ISIS' control are, as you can imagine, traumatized and so very happy to be free. CNN's Arwa Damon visited one refugee camp and heard horror stories of life before liberation from ISIS.
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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despite the basic conditions at this refugee camp sprouted east of Mosul, there are still smiles.
It's over. They survived.
Nine-year-old Fatima hid with her family under the stairs.
(Speaking foreign language).
She says she was scared. And there were a lot of airstrikes.
Her uncle says an airstrike destroyed the wall in their home and they escaped by using a ladder to try to jump over the wall of their house into another house, where they thought that they would be safer.
Like everyone here Shansa Dinabas (ph) cannot stop talking about ISIS' iron fist. In this particular village, he's saying that ISIS took their cellphones away over a year ago. And then two to three months ago, they forced everyone to remove their television satellite dishes.
His friends, his neighbors had a little radio that they kept hidden and that's how they were getting --
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DAMON: -- snippets of news. Or sometimes they would turn on the radio inside their cars. Outside his tent, we meet his grandkids. They have just seen their
father for the first time in two years.
Oh, she kissed her father when she saw him. And this is his other son. He was 2 months old or 3 months old the last time he saw his father and they were finally reunited today.
These families all say they didn't flee when ISIS first arrived. They believed the fighters, who said we will not interfere in your lives. They had no idea what horrors ISIS would bring.
And for many, it was about long-term survival. They are shepherds. This is their livelihood, all they own in life, sheep and goats, now also being loaded into trucks away from the battle zone.
Dana says they lived in a constant state of terror.
So she's just telling us about the birth of her son. He is just 3 months old and ISIS did let her go out to the hospital to give birth. But she's saying it cost a lot of money, the equivalent of around $40. And that's considered cheap.
Others were charged double.
They brought their pigeons with them because pigeon breeding is quite a hobby here.
She's saying that it's the only thing that they kind of had left that they enjoyed. She's had pigeons in her family ever since she was a little girl. And for the last five months, there was no television at home. So the pigeons went from being a hobby to pretty much being their only source of entertainment, especially for the children.
And though they don't know what the future will bring, now, for the first time in over two years, they can sleep in peace -- Arwa Damon, CNN, Hazid (ph), Iraq.
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ALLEN: Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro said Friday's nationwide strike called by his rivals was a failure. Some businesses closed but others stayed open rather than risk arrest, (INAUDIBLE) threatened.
The opposition wants to recall Mr. Maduro in a referendum and some lawmakers want to put him on political trial in the legislature. Mr. Maduro said action against him is illegal.
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NICOLAS MADURO, PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA (through translator): If they violate the constitution and hold an alleged political trial that is not in our Magna Carta, the attorney general of the republic in representation of all Venezuelans should file suit, file a complaint before the courts and imprison all of those who violate the constitution, whether they are deputies or not.
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ALLEN: Polls show most Venezuelans want Mr. Maduro out. Many say 17 years of socialism helped ruin the oil-rich country and they have had enough.
Northern Ireland's high court has dealt a big blow to opponents of Brexit. A judge rejected challenges to Britain's exit from the European Union.
The court ruled that neither Northern Ireland's parliament nor its laws could override the British government. The challengers argued Brexit could damage the 1998 peace deal between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
There's a lot of uncertainty surrounding Brexit, especially for expatriates living in the U.K. Isa Soares introduces us to some foreigners working in London who hope they can stay.
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ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Marilla (ph) has made London her home for the past five months. And Fantastic Services (ph) has helped her to stay here.
The British company has provided her with constant work, so much cleaning, in fact, that she called on her family to join her from romania.
marilla (ph): My name is Marilla (ph) (INAUDIBLE). (INAUDIBLE) and he is Constantine (ph) (INAUDIBLE).
SOARES (voice-over): Constantine (ph) speaks no English, arrived after the British people voted to leave the European Union on June 23rd. Now the prospect of losing his job is scaring him.
MARILLA (PH): (INAUDIBLE) it's better, even for him and for his family because also he have two girls. And want a better life for them, too, not just for himself.
SOARES (voice-over): In the next room, Mario (ph) is closely looking for mice but his mind is clearly elsewhere.
MARIO (PH): Probably we need to go back to our country so all of us maybe.
SOARES (voice-over): He's hoping that won't be the case.
MARIO (PH): We deserve the chance to (INAUDIBLE) living on benefits. There are people living on benefits, I know that's why most of the majority of the people vote to leave.
SOARES: From Poland to Bulgaria and Romania, these workers are really the backbone of this British company, a company that depends on roughly 90 percent of European workers.
SOARES (voice-over): Yet CEO Rune Suvindal (ph), born -- [02:20:00]
SOARES (voice-over): -- in Denmark, said Brexit has brought plenty of uncertainty.
RUNE SUVINDAL (PH), CEO: Because I have been here 20 years and most of these people have also been here six, seven years and maybe more. So it's the same feeling. It's like we're not going to be sort of kicked out. We have more demand than we ever had before.
So the only thing that I see is more a fear of not having enough workers.
SOARES (voice-over): A fear that is increasing following a proposal by U.K. home secretary Ann Barrud (ph) to force companies to disclose how many foreign workers they employ.
SUVINDAL (PH): We're not ashamed of foreign nationals working for us. I mean, I don't think there's any company that should be ashamed of that. I don't think that it will be something that's our duty to do. My duty is to my customers, to deliver good service. It's not my duty to find out what nationalities they are.
SOARES (voice-over): Despite the tough talk, he's not taking any chances and he's branching out to new markets in Europe.
Back in Central London, Marilla (ph) reflects. A company can move on. But for her and her siblings, Britain is their only option -- Isa Soares, CNN, London.
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ALLEN: It's a campaign ad you'll actually want to see, the motormouth politician and his long-suffering wife. Her plan to get him to tone it down, coming up here.
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ALLEN: Record-setting heat is expected this weekend across much of the Central United States. Our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, is at the World Weather Center.
I'm headed to Mississippi for a football game.
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ALLEN: Well, a man in Texas loves his job as a county commissioner but he won't shut up about it and that's driving his wife nuts. So as Jeanne Moos reports, she's joined the campaign to get him reelected and out of the house. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Had enough of Trump bashing Clinton?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): How did Hillary end up filthy rich?
MOOS: And Clinton bashing Trump?
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA: He's a con artist.
MITT ROMNEY, (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR & FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A phony.
MOOS: Maybe you would prefer a political ad in which a wife begs voters to relieve her of her husband.
GERALD DAUGHERTY, TRAVIS COUNTY, TEXAS, COUNTY COMMISSIONER: It costs $103 a day.
CHARLYN DAUGHERTY, GERALD'S WIFE: Gerald really doesn't have hobbies.
GERALD DAUGHERTY: Last year, tax rate was 1.469.
CHARLYN DAUGHERTY: Is he always like that?
Yes, all the time.
MOOS: He is Gerald Daugherty, a Republican running to be a Travis County, Texas, commissioner, with a little eye-rolling help from his wife of 21 years.
MOOS (on camera): Does your wife roll her eyes that often?
GERALD DAUGHERTY: She actually does. She didn't have to take two or three takes on that.
CHARLYN DAUGHERTY: Most people leave work at the office.
GERALD DAUGHERTY: We have three light rail cars. You can put 60 people on each car, even if you add two cars.
MOOS: Do you like your light rail cars well done?
GERALD DAUGHERTY: My opponent, I asked is there anything he didn't like about the ad and he said I think the meat was overcooked.
MOOS (voice-over): Gerald's political consultant dreamed up the ad, inspired by the office that took six hours to shoot. The neighbors were played by friends.
CHARLYN DAUGHERTY: All he wants to do is fix things.
GERALD DAUGHERTY: Quite frankly, it is not a code violation.
I think I like to help around the house here. CHARLYN DAUGHERTY: Please re-elect Gerald. Please.
MOOS: Gerald thinks his ad went viral because humor takes the edge off the rancor of the campaign.
MOOS (on camera): Do you think your wife really wants to get you out of the house?
GERALD DAUGHERTY: Oh, absolutely. She does love me a lot but she loves me away.
CHARLYN DAUGHERTY: Please re-elect Gerald.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN --
CHARLYN DAUGHERTY: Please.
MOOS: -- New York.
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ALLEN: Oh, that's pretty clever. It's a good one.
Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'll be right back with our top stories. You are watching CNN.
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