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Married Couple Differs in Politics; Eyes of the World on U.S. Election; ISIS Using Child Soldiers in Mosul; The Battle for Utah; Fox News Anchor Walks Back on Indictment Claim; Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired November 04, 2016 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:52] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Four more days before you cast your vote in one of the most contentious elections in our history. The cover of "TIME" magazine says it all. It's a picture of both candidates standing together holding a sign that says, "The End is Near."
I know you get the joke. According to a CBS/"New York Times" poll, 82 percent of Americans are disgusted by this election proving once again we now live in a toxic political environment.
Is it even possible to live with someone on the other side?
I sat down with Chris (INAUDIBLE) and Christie Griffin. She's a Democrat, he's a Republican. And yes, they are married. Conflicted by happy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Christie, you are a Democrat. Chris, you are a Republican. And you are married. How does that work exactly?
(LAUGHTER)
CHRISTIE GRIFFIN, DEMOCRAT MARRIED TO A REPUBLICAN: Well, like any marriage, you would like to have as few disagreements and arguments as possible, and it kind of stinks that this sometimes is a source of tension, and I would really prefer that our arguments be about laundry or whatever. And instead, we do argue occasionally about politics.
COSTELLO: This particular election, it's really hard.
CHRIS AUTHIER, REPUBLICAN MARRIED TO A DEMOCRAT: Yes. This one's been that.
COSTELLO: How many times do you think that you talk passionately about this election per week?
GRIFFIN: We naturally start talking about it and then it sometimes just escalates. So I came home the other day and said, I don't understand why would Paul Ryan endorse Trump. And I am bringing this up to my husband, a Republican, because, like, help me understand, like, what is your camp is thinking. COSTELLO: So when she asked you about like what is your camp
thinking, what -- how do you respond?
AUTHIER: I'm a really big believer in most of the Republican fundamentals as they were like originally but when it comes to, like, you know, where is at today, you know, I can't kind of believe it. And so I have a hard time defending my party right now. I mean, I'm almost disgusted a little bit, some of the things that have happened.
COSTELLO: But still, you cannot bring yourself to vote for Hillary Clinton?
AUTHIER: I can't. And that's a fundamental thing. Right? So, like, for me, I feel like anybody that's been in government their entire career has never been in capitalism.
COSTELLO: So when you hear your husband talking like that about -- because you are going to vote for Hillary Clinton, right? So when you hear him say that, what --
GRIFFIN: That's where we disagree. Now I'm at the point where yes, I want him to vote for Hillary because I see that as a vote against Trump.
COSTELLO: So that's your tactic. OK. So is that working with you?
(LAUGHTER)
AUTHIER: No. If I voted for Hillary, I would be just as disappointed in myself as if I would vote for Trump.
COSTELLO: So are you voting for no one?
AUTHIER: I'm going to vote for no one. And I really believe in my vote.
COSTELLO: So when you hear, it's like painful for him, why do you continue to try to convince him?
GRIFFIN: Well, I disagree with his thought process that it's going to send a message to the Republican Party. And I got really disappointed when I realized that Election Day this year, November 8th, is our anniversary.
COSTELLO: Get out.
GRIFFIN: Yes. Because I was thinking oh, when -- you know, when Hillary is elected I want to high five my girlfriends or be like excited with people who are happy, and I realized he's not going to be that happy but we are definitely going to be together.
(LAUGHTER)
AUTHIER: Yes.
COSTELLO: So what are you going to do on Election Day? AUTHIER: I don't know. I'm going to be miserable. On a -- from a --
politically.
GRIFFIN: And that's -- I think I will be really happy.
COSTELLO: Hillary does win, will you just be a tiny bit happy for Christie?
GRIFFIN: For me. Yes.
AUTHIER: Yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: I kind of felt like a marriage counselor. But they are handling it amazingly well.
Still, the ugliness of this race could continue well after the election and that same "New York Times" poll I mentioned, if Hillary Clinton wins, a large portion of Trump supporters say they will not accept the results.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the U.N. now says ISIS may be using child soldiers in Mosul.
[10:35:04] And Iraqi troops are facing fierce resistance as they fight inside the city. We'll take you to Iraq next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: As we enter the final hundred hours before Election Day, it's not just voters in the United States paying attention to what happens Tuesday. As Clarissa Ward shows us, the whole world is watching.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The rest of the world doesn't get to vote in next week's election but it is watching the race with rough attention. And it's easy to see why.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can't continue to allow China to rape our country.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president.
TRUMP: No puppet.
[10:40:02] We will build a wall. Mexico is going to pay for the wall.
WARD: The American election has global consequences.
TRUMP: I'm really rich. WARD: Donald Trump, initially seen as something of an amusement, is
now in many countries a figure of fear and loathing. In Mexico Easter celebrants this year chose to burn effigies of him rather than the traditional Judas.
While in Germany, activists took pleasure in tearing down their own Trump wall, as the foreign minister called him a creature of hate. The French president didn't mince words either saying Trump's excessiveness makes people want to wretch. Or as one Canadian newspaper summarized it, "We're terrified."
But Clinton is not popular everywhere either. In Russia, which has been accused of hacking Democratic Party e-mails to influence the election, she has been denounced by one lawmaker as a cursed witch, while President Putin has publicly praised Trump.
And in Israel, Trump supporters are so confident of his popularity they have set up shop to get out the vote among expats.
It seems everyone no matter where they live has something to say about the U.S. election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Through Translator): Hillary is more predictable and because of that, markets would react in a positive way. If Trump wins, Brazilian markets would certainly fall.
WARD: So what's the bottom line? The world looks to America for leadership on everything from economic issues to the fight against ISIS. And while Donald J. Trump may be good at grabbing international headlines, few overseas believe he can provide stability.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: The United Nations believes that ISIS is using child soldiers to fight, ordering families to hand over their sons 9 and older to do battle in Mosul. Iraqi troops trying to retake the city are facing what one soldier called crazy resistance. They have lost three soldiers and two Humvees. And as ISIS militants fire on the Iraqis they are surrounding themselves with civilians.
Listen to the gunfire in the background as Arwa Damon files her report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They have been coming across quite a bit of sniper fire, gunfire, mortar rounds, rocket propelled grenades, and of course, car bombs, suicide car bombs. In fact, the unit we were just with, we saw a yellow taxi driving towards them. They called for the vehicle to stop, it did not. They shot the occupant and he was wounded. They then dragged him out and are in the process of interrogating him.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson live in Irbil, Iraq. Hi, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. Hi, Carol. The Iraqi Army went into about six different neighborhoods in the eastern side of Mosul today. Arwa was with one of those groups that was going into one of the neighborhoods. That particular neighborhood, the army found themselves under very, very heavy resistance and they actually had to withdraw from there.
Suicide bombers, they were able to tackle, the army was able to tackle and deal with more easily before they arrived in Mosul. They could see them coming across the open ground, the desert, they could shoot them, they could -- they could destroy their vehicles. Now in the city, the suicide bombers in vehicles are coming out of little side streets very close to the convoys of military vehicles that are moving through. It makes it much, much harder to tackle them.
That as well as we learn details from the Iraqi army, from others about how ISIS is using the civilians, they're using houses that civilian are in as rooftop positions for snipers to try and slow down the army as well as telling civilians to go and gather in Mosul to use them as human shields and as well, these reports now that children, young boys as young as 9 years old, are being taken from their families by ISIS with the intention of using them on the front lines of this very, very intense conflict.
Of course, ISIS as we have seen in the past has what it calls these cubs of the caliphate, its own supporters that it's been training, children, very young children have been training for battle. These kids that they are taking now, not trained, taken from their families, from their homes and put now potentially in the line of fire.
This fight is very, very difficult. The indications that we got from Arwa today that we're hearing from the Iraqi military showed just how stiff a resistance ISIS is putting up there on the eastern side of Mosul -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Nic Robertson reporting live from inside Iraq this morning.
Eight people are dead in Turkey after a car bomb explodes outside of a police station. Two police officers and six civilians were killed. More than 100 other people have been injured. 93 of those injured have now been released from the hospital. Turkey's state-run media says the Kurdistan Workers Party is responsible for that attack. The blast came just hours after members of another pro-Kurdish political party were detained.
[10:45:04] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the battleground blitz is on but in Utah, there's a wildcard. How independent Evan McMullin is shaking up the race.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: T-minus four days. And both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in an all-out blitz, both camps bombarding key battleground states right now. One of the more interesting races playing out in traditionally red Utah this year.
Right now Trump tops Clinton by six points and then there's independent Evan McMullin, he's still holding strong at 24 percent.
CNN's Stephanie Elam in Salt Lake City this morning with more for you. Hi, Stephanie.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Normally when there's a third party candidate on the ballot, you can pretty much just write him off. It's not totally the case here in Utah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM (voice-over): Never Hillary and turned off by Trump, voters like Greg Fix are turning deeply red Utah into a battleground state.
GREG FIX, VOTED FOR MCMULLIN: I'm a conservative.
ELAM: The difference in the Beehive State this election is Evan McMullin. Running for president as an independent, the 40-year-old Mormon says he's advocating true conservative values.
[10:50:06] EVAN MCMULLIN (I), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hello, sir. How you doing?
ELAM: Fix, a Mormon who votes Republican, chose McMullin for president.
FIX: Looking at the two main party candidates, neither one of them really have the values that I feel and the character that this country needs to represent the United States of America.
ELAM: Other Republicans in Utah, about 85 percent are Mormon.
QUIN MONSON, Y2ANALYTICS: It's pretty surreal this year to see electoral maps that have Utah painted as a battleground state.
ELAM: He says never before has a Republican nominee been so out of sync with traditional Mormon values.
MONSON: So you have Mormons that are siding with Trump, many of whom are doing so reluctantly and another group who have been waiting all year for some alternative that they can live with, because they couldn't go and vote for Hillary Clinton. You add on top of that his own personal morality, the reaction to the tape, the way he treats women, the way he just lashes out at people.
ELAM: This has made McMullin appealing to many members of the Church of Latter Day Saints in Utah. On top of that, there are more than 515,000 active registered voters unaffiliated with any party in the state. That may also bode well for the independent candidate.
But for some, a McMullin victory is ultimately a Clinton victory. LDS member Maureen Anderson voted for Trump. (On camera): You weren't swayed to perhaps vote for Evan McMullin?
MAUREEN ANDERSON, VOTED FOR TRUMP: No.
ELAM: Why not? What was it about him that didn't appeal to you?
ANDERSON: I just think that right now it's a two-party system, and voting for a third party candidate is not the way the system works. And just because he's LDS isn't a reason why I would pick someone to vote for.
FIX: I think you need to vote your conscience. Vote what you feel is best for us as a country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM: All right. So the idea of Utah being a battleground state, let's examine that a little bit. Most people do expect that Utah will stay red as it has for many, many years. The difference here, though, is that many are worried about whether or not Evan McMullin will change what happens to those six electoral votes, and if Donald Trump doesn't get them and if he needs them that that will usher in a Hillary Clinton presidency. But overall the state more than likely will remain red -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Stephanie Elam reporting live from a beautiful Salt Lake City this morning. Wow. Thanks so much.
Conservative blogs lighting up this week when FOX News anchor Bret Baier said an indictment is likely when it comes the FBI's inquiry into the Clinton Foundation. Our sources and other news outlets say that just isn't true. Baier has since walked back those comments but the heat is far from over.
Senior media correspondent and host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" Brian Stelter joins me now with more on this. Good morning.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. This is a prime example of the echo chamber at work. People wanting to believe good news about their side and bad news about the other side in the waning days of this election. But as you said, Carol, sources talking to CNN, NBC, ABC, other news outlets all say that Bret Baier's claim that indictments are likely was just completely unfounded.
He was relying on anonymous sources who seem to have an agenda. But what happened after his report on Wednesday, well, take a look at what Donald Trump said about it on the campaign trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It was reported last night that the FBI is conducting a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's pay-for-play corruption during her tenure as secretary of state. In other words, the FBI is investigating how Hillary Clinton put the office of secretary of state up for sale in violation of federal law. The FBI agents say their investigation is likely to yield an indictment. (END VIDEO CLIP)
STELTER: Likely to yield an indictment is the claim there from Trump at the end. There were several questionable statements in those comments from Trump that seem to be provoked by the FOX News reporting.
But to be clear, FOX is not entirely off base here. Yes, there is a divide inside the FBI. There is an active inquiry into the Clinton Foundation. Numerous field offices looking into the activities of the foundation. Some agents seem to believe there were serious improprieties that should be investigated further. But as of right now there's nothing imminent, no serious legal jeopardy for Clinton at this moment.
So Trump clearly took it too far and he took it too far based on FOX's reporting. I think what's interesting about this, Carol, is you see how conservative blogs and Web sites have taken this and run with it. It is in a way wish fulfillment. And this happens to lots of folks on all sides in the final days of an election.
COSTELLO: Well, they're getting it from what they consider a trusted source. I think it's important to point that out Bret Baier said he didn't say it artfully and he walked it back.
STELTER: Right. He did walk it back. On Thursday, he walked it back, said that the way he was describing what his sources were telling them was not quite right. And so credit to him for acknowledging that.
[10:55:04] However, sort of too late. You know, lies spread so much more widely than the truth spreads. And so now the Clinton campaign is on the offense saying the FBI needs to come out with a public statement about this, refuting what they say is a baseless FOX News report.
We have also heard from Clinton allies just this hour calling for an investigation of the FBI over all these leaks because that's really what's incredible about this, Carol. We're seeing numerous sources in and around the FBI seeming to leak information about Clinton, about ongoing inquiries about Clinton. It is a very unusual situation.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: This is a very unusual election, don't you think?
STELTER: Yes. Yes.
COSTELLO: I mean, my recurring nightmares will just be stuck on four days until the election. It will be like Groundhog Day and I'll keep waking up and it will never be over. I'm just joking.
Brian Stelter, thanks so much.
STELTER: Oh boy.
COSTELLO: Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "AT THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND BOLDUAN" after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
