Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Obama Stumps for Clinton; Trump Tackles Battleground States; South Korean President Denies Being Cult Member; Iraqis Trying to Liberate Mosul; Huge Crowds Celebrate the Cubs. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired November 05, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY Z, ENTERTAINER: I would like to introduce to you the next President of the United States, Ms. Hillary Clinton.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The stars come out: rapper Jay Z and superstar wife Beyonce showed their support for the Democratic presidential candidate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER (voice-over): And human shields: a new report says ISIS is forcing civilians, even children, to be on the front line.

Plus, a celebration more than 100 years in the making: the Chicago Cubs and fans take to the streets to party like it's 1908.

Hello, I'm Cyril Vanier and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

VANIER: So this is the final weekend before the U.S. presidential election, just three days to go and the candidates and their surrogates are in the middle of a frantic push through battleground states.

Hillary Clinton telling supporters that Donald Trump is unfit to rule and bad for America while Trump says a Clinton presidency would be mired in criminal investigations.

Meanwhile, a new FOX News poll shows Clinton with a 2-point lead over Trump 45 percent to 43 percent. That is within the survey's margin of error. And our latest CNN Poll of Polls, which includes those FOX numbers, shows Clinton ahead by 5 points, 47 percent to 42 percent.

However, our electoral map -- and that is worth noting -- has her slipping just below that magic number of 270 electoral college votes, the number she needs to get to the White House. As the U.S. election heads into the home stretch, President Barack Obama is among the VIPs on the campaign trail this weekend for Hillary Clinton. On Friday, he stumped for her in the crucial swing state of North Carolina. It was his second stop in the state in 24 hours.

At one point, he singled out Donald Trump for injecting incivility into the campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Imagine if I'd behaved in the way this man behaved. Imagine what Republicans would have said. Imagine what the press would have said.

But now we act like, I guess this is normal as if it's -- as if it's -- as if it's some parody. You can't tell the difference between "Saturday Night Live" and what's actually happening on the news.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: And Clinton pulled out star power at a rally on Friday night in Cleveland, Ohio. Jay Z and Beyonce headlined a concert to get young voters excited.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

VANIER (voice-over): Beyonce and her backup dancers wore pantsuits -- that was in Clinton's honor. The dancers had on Clinton T-shirts. The candidate told the crowd she needs them to help to crack the glass ceiling once and for all and her celebrity supporters couldn't have agreed more.

JAY Z: I want to grow up in a world where my daughter has no limitation, where our daughter has no limitation. She feel like she can be whatever she want to be in the world.

And this other guy, I don't have any ill will towards him but this conversation is divisive and that is not a evolved soul to me. So he cannot be my president. He cannot be our president. Once you divide us, you weaken us. We're stronger together.

BEYONCE: I want my daughter to grow up seeing a woman lead our country and know that her possibilities are limitless. We have to think about the future of our daughters, our sons and vote for someone who cares for them as much as we do. And that is why I'm with her.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to be a president who helps everybody fulfill their God-given potential. And I can't do that unless, on Tuesday, we decide what kind of country we want to be.

Will we reject a dark and divisive vision for our future and embrace a hopeful, inclusive, unifying America?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: All right. So Hillary Clinton had her high-profile supporters but Donald Trump had plenty --

[03:05:00]

VANIER: -- to say about her celebrity fans. He told supporters in Pennsylvania that he does not need special guests to fill a stadium. He says he does just fine on his own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I hear we set a new record for this building. And, by the way, I didn't have to bring JLo or Jay Z, the only way she gets anybody. I'm here all by myself. I am here all by myself. Just me, no guitar, no piano, no nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Sara Murray has more from the Trump campaign trail and his strategy to flip key battlegrounds before Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 2016's toxic presidential contest, led by two deeply unpopular candidates, is coming to a close in fitting fashion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary Clinton is under FBI investigation again after her e-mails were found on pervert Anthony Weiner's laptop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did Hillary end up filthy rich? Pay-to-play politics.

MURRAY: Donald Trump amplifying his latest barrage of negative ads on the campaign trail.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think she's unstable. She's trigger-happy.

MURRAY: Despite no new information from the FBI, Trump is still tearing into Hillary Clinton over her e-mail server and insisting she'll eventually face criminal charges.

TRUMP: How can Hillary manage this country when she can't even manage her e-mails? Did you ever see -- hey, folks, let's forget all of the stuff. What a mess. All she had to do was follow the rules. Unbelievable. And now she's going to run the country. She'll be under investigation for years.

MURRAY: All part of his final push to convince voters he's the fresh face and she's the face of corruption.

TRUMP: She's likely to be under investigation for a long time, concluding in a criminal trial. Our president. America deserves a government that can go to work on day one and get it done. MURRAY: With the polls tightening, the GOP nominee is campaigning today in Ohio, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania and aiming to drive up his election day vote in key battlegrounds.

TRUMP: We have so many great polls. But you have to get out and vote on November 8th.

MURRAY: Trump's sprint to the finish still taking shape, but the GOP nominee will campaign this weekend in six battleground states and is likely to wedge in more along the way. But stops in North Carolina and New Hampshire planned Monday. His campaign continuing to be a family affair. As Donald Trump Jr. hits the trail in Arizona and New Hampshire, while Eric Trump barnstorms Michigan.

MURRAY (on camera): Now even though the polls show Donald Trump trailing here in Pennsylvania, the margins have tightened. And this is a state you're going to see him come back to before Election Day because it's a state with no early voting.

So it's a strategic move to come here and try to rev up his voters and convince them to turn out on November 8th which is exactly what we heard from him on Friday night -- Sara Murray, CNN, Hershey, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: National polls show Hillary Clinton with a modest lead over Donald Trump ahead of Tuesday's election. We showed you those earlier. But the final outcome will depend on the states and just a handful of battleground states at that. CNN's John King takes us through the electoral map.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So we're into the final weekend. Hillary Clinton at 268, Donald Trump at 204 in the electoral votes. The gold states are the tossups. Donald Trump is in the hunt. Advantage Hillary Clinton.

Let's ask this question. How does she look compared to President Obama --

[03:10:00]

KING: -- four years ago?

Is she in the position the president was in when he won a big victory back in 2012?

Well, let's look at some way to judge. First way to judge is the national polls. That's much better than where the president was four years ago. A lot of people forget this because of the outcome, the finish on Tuesday. But heading into the final weekend, this race was a dead heat, 47 percent to 47 percent. That's the national perspective. But we pick presidents by states. So let's go back to the map and think about the key battleground states. Compare Clinton then -- Obama then, excuse me and Clinton now.

Let's look at the states. In states where Clinton is running just about even with where the president four years ago, they include Nevada and Arizona, they include these important blue Midwestern battlegrounds, Wisconsin and Michigan and they include one of our tossup states, New Hampshire.

Now the gold states are tossups heading into this final weekend. President Obama won one, two, three and Nevada, four of these states. Hillary Clinton in the same position the president was heading into the final weekend. She thinks she can win all four of these, too. We'll see what Tuesday brings. But she heads into the weekend about even with four years ago.

These are the states Clinton has to worry about. She's underperforming President Obama significantly in big battleground Ohio and a smaller but important Midwest state, Iowa. We lean these to Donald Trump because he is running much better than Mitt Romney did four years ago. He has a lead heading into the final weekend.

Clinton is underperforming Obama in those two states and just by a bit in Pennsylvania. She still has a lead in Pennsylvania, it's just not quite as big as President Obama's was heading into the final weekend four years ago.

But even though she's underperforming in those, she's over performing, she's stronger than the president was heading into the final weekend in Colorado by a little bit. In Virginia by a bit. And significantly in North Carolina and Florida.

This is very important. President Obama trailed in North Carolina in 2012 heading into the final weekend. He trailed in Florida by a bit heading into the final weekend.

He ended up winning Florida by a tiny margin. The closest race in the country, state by state perspective. He lost North Carolina a bit. But again, he was trailing heading into the final weekend. One of those two, she's ahead in both of them.

And that's a big deal as we go back and look at the map and say, how does Clinton get to the finish line?

How does she compare to the president four years ago?

Well, she thinks she's going to hold these blues up here. She hopes to turn Ohio. Let's see what happens. We still lean that one in favor of Trump.

There's some talk in the Democrats they can pull back in Iowa. We're going to leave that one leaning Donald Trump. We'll see what she does on Tuesday. But significantly, they believe especially because of early voting they can win out in Nevada. Most Republicans in Nevada are starting to think that, too. That

would get Clinton over the finish line. That's enough. But they also think again because she's in better position than the president was four years ago, they think she can possibly win both of these.

And they still think, even though this one has become very close at the end and Trump is closing here, they think they can win that. If that were to happen, if Clinton could win Florida and win North Carolina and add New Hampshire, that puts her in the ballpark of where the president was four years ago.

Now is that guaranteed?

Absolutely not. Donald Trump is fighting in those states to the end. But if you're asking the question, how does she look now compared to the president then, especially because of these two states as she enters the weekend, sure. In a contested race with Donald Trump, but confident the outcome will look a little bit just like it did in 2012.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Russians are following the U.S. presidential election with keen interest. Judging by what is reported in the Russian media, it's no secret which candidate they favor. CNN's Clarissa Ward has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The American Dream is dead.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russia's media is relishing every minute of this U.S. election, presenting it as an epic failure of American democracy.

And it's not hard to see who the favorite is here. The republican candidate is presented as a maverick underdog, a political outsider who speaks truth to power.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is cast as a dangerous Russia hater, whose election could lead to World War III.

Russian media frequently labels her a witch, with one tabloid even calling her, "evil incarnate."

State TV anchor, Sergey Brilev says it's a response to Clinton's aggressive attitude.

SERGEY BRILEV, RUSSIA TV ANCHOR: The (INAUDIBLE) on the streets, of course, is Clinton is someone hostile to Russia, because - well, she's being hostile. She's done all those anti-Russian statements whether it's about hacking or (INAUDIBLE) Putin or Russia, just rhetoric statements.

WARD (voiceover): President Putin has dismissed allegations that Russia is playing favorites in this race, but as the polls have tightened, Russian media is now suggesting that the election is rigged and that the establishment won't let Trump win.

One channel has predicted bloody social unrest if Clinton becomes president, followed by the overthrow of the corrupt regime.

KONSTANTIN VON EGGER, RAIN TV ANCHOR: It is a very effective message for the Russian audience, because Russian audience is very suspicious of America, is very suspicious of western democracy and American democracy. And someone who rebels against the system, definitely is very good in the eyes Russia.

WARD (voiceover): Which is why media here is happily milking this election for all the propaganda value it can get -- Clarissa Ward, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Make sure you stay with CNN throughout our election coverage up until Tuesday. We will have all-day coverage on Election Day, of course.

Now to South Korea, where the president had to take time in a nationally televised speech to deny being part of a cult. It's not often you hear that word from a world leader. But it shows the types of accusations and the depth of the political crisis facing Park Geun- hye. Paula Hancocks has more from Seoul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not often the president of a country has to publicly deny being part of a cult or deny carrying out rituals in the presidential palace. Park Geun-hye did just that on Friday, apologizing for allowing the confidant access to government business, a confidant who stands accused of using the access for personal gain.

PARK GEUN-HYE, PRESIDENT OF SOUTH Korea (through translator): I thought I was improving the economy and the lives of the people. But in this process, a certain individual has committed corruption for personal gain. Everything is --

[03:15:00]

PARK (through translator): -- my fault and my mistake and I feel huge responsibility for this.

Her father started a cult-like religion in the '70s. The family has long had influence over the Park Geun-hye family a revelation that some say has brought shame to the entire country.

It is not just a surprise, it's shocking. Such a weird situation. No one has ever imagined she would have such a deep-rooted, strong, long standing, close relationship with such an unqualified, unknown, unverified, kind of people.

Fears of a power vacuum insisting the government cannot be allowed to come to a halt. Saying the country's security is in crisis. North Korea, largely responsible for those Korean concerns is covering the scandal continuously. They refer to Park Geun-hye as traitor.

Now we have a legitimate crisis in the south and you can bet every day on the front page of North Korea is full reporting of everything going wrong in the south.

The second apology from Park Geun-hye clearly not enough for these protesters on the streets of Seoul Friday night. Around 1,000 here expected to be 100,000 on Saturday night.

Just to give you an idea how unimpressed people are with what the president has done, her latest approval ratings, according to Gallup Korea are 5 percent, the lowest in history of any South Korean president -- Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Next up on CNN, street-to-street fighting, the battle for Mosul is becoming even more intense. We'll show you how Iraqi forces aim to drive ISIS out and the chilling moves the terror group is making in its brutal fight back.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

VANIER: In Iraq, the battle for Mosul is taking place street to street, house to house and Iraqi forces are trying to drive ISIS out of neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city at the moment. That's what the fighting looks like.

Iraq's elite counterterrorism units were the first to get inside Mosul. They still aren't currently the only forces within the coalition involved in the battle for Mosul to be within the city limit.

And we want to show you this map, a detailed map of Iraq's second largest city, so you get a precise sense of where the fighting is happening right now. The elite counterterrorism units pushing in from the east as we said, ultimately of course they look to reconquer the entire city.

They will be moving towards the Tigris River in the center of that map, eventually to the city center right there, that purple part, where a lot of the government buildings are --

[03:20:00]

VANIER: -- but that could be months away. Right now they are going house to house to clear the areas in their eastern areas. And that's where the fighting is taking place. They are encountering significant pushback. CNN's Nic Robertson has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The Iraqi army says they've gone into about six different neighborhoods on the eastern side of Mosul. They say that they're facing fierce resistance, that they were using airstrikes earlier in the day to target ISIS positions.

They've been using artillery as well. For their part, ISIS, the army says, have been using rooftops of buildings, where civilians were in the buildings, using those rooftops as sniper positions to fire down on the army.

Also they say ISIS has been launching mortar attacks on the army units as they move forward, those mortars, small tubes which fire artillery sort of almost vertically upwards and come down a couple of streets nearby. That has been causing civilian casualties as well.

But perhaps the army, in one of the neighborhoods, the army faced its biggest threat of the day and that was suicide bombers, two suicide bombers, targeting the convoy, two Humvees destroyed, three damaged. Three soldiers were injured in that particular attack, seven wounded.

And in that one neighborhood, the army quite literally had to say, we're going to pull back, we're going to reassess.

So ISIS putting up a very, very tough resistance, the U.N. now reporting as well that not only is ISIS forcing civilians to become human shields in some situations, they have been trying to get boys as young as 9 years old, take them away from their families and use them to fight on the front lines.

Of course ISIS in the past has been training its own young fighters, the cubs of the caliphate, they call them. Now they are stealing children as young as 9 years old, young boys, and sending them potentially to the front lines -- Nic Robertson, CNN, Irbil, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: The Pentagon says a U.S. airstrike has killed one of the top leaders of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. It says Farouq al-Qahtani died in a precision strike on October 23rd in Kunar province. That's in northeastern Afghanistan.

The Pentagon says al-Qahtani was trying to set up safe havens for Al Qaeda in the country and was a key plotter of attacks against the U.S.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for a blast that killed nine people in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir on Friday. The claim of responsibility came through a terror group's media wing. Turkish officials earlier blamed the explosion on the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK.

And according to state-run media, a car bomb targeted a police station, killing seven civilians, two police officers. Turkey's prime minister said 100 people were wounded in that attack.

The bombing came hours after more than a dozen lawmakers from a pro- Kurdish political party were detained by authorities. State-run media say members of the HDP -- that's the People's Democratic Party -- have been detained as part of an ongoing terror investigation. Ankara has been cracking down on dissidents since the coup attempt last July.

Now Japan has launched a new weather satellite that will continue to advance its meteorological agencies. Derek Van Dam from CNN's International Weather Center is going to explain to me exactly what that means.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: OK. So previous satellites take snapshots of the world's weather, the clouds, every 30 minutes. But that leaves that 30-minute gap of very important information of storm evolution, thunderstorms, cyclones, typhoons. This is going to fill in that gap with almost a rapid scan, continuous monitoring of the planet.

Take a look at the launch of the satellite and this is actually in the Kayushima (ph) prefecture in Southwestern Japan. This took place on the 2nd of November. So a few days ago. It's launching the Himawari- 9 satellite within inside of that rocket.

And again, this is going to help in the monitoring of the tropical cyclones, making it possible to accurately study the distribution of volcanic ash and aerosols, which is so critical for our aeronautics industry and just our airline industry as well.

So what it did is it launched this geostationary satellite about 22,000 kilometers into the sky and geostationary means that it's in relative to a fixed position on Earth. It actually stays in the same position. And that is directly over the equator.

But its focus is primarily on Asia. This is also a follow up to the Himawari-8 satellite, which was launched back in 2014. So this satellite that they just launched now, two days ago, it's going to be on standby until 2022, where it will take over from Himawari-8.

This is just an example of that rapid scan technology that I was talking about, giving us very crucial information. This is a recent typhoon that's developing across the Western Pacific.

And you see the almost instant continuous --

[03:25:00]

VAN DAM: -- development of the center of that storm. That gives meteorologists an indication and a great bird's-eye view of how that storm is progressing and monitoring, giving you at home more crucial and timely information.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VANIER: Cubs fans are still feeling their high from their historic World Series win. An estimated 5 million people swarmed the streets of Chicago for Friday's celebration parade. Ryan Young reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the biggest American sports stories ever, the Cubs, who have waited 108 years to finally win a championship, well, now the city gets a chance to celebrate like no other time.

In fact, if you look behind us, fans have been pouring in to see their team. They have been doing this for hours. Of course, not everyone gets a chance to get a World Series ticket. So for many fans, this was their chance to be able to show their appreciation for the team that they love so much.

And I can tell you, this city loves its Cubs. They even turned the river blue. You look at the crowd, you look at the fans and you could hear the players' appreciation for the city and their team.

BEN ZOBRIST, WORLD SERIES MVP: I've been blessed far more than I ever deserve or expected in this game. God has given a lot to me. And I'm so thankful for that. He gave me the opportunity to hold a trophy just like that last year and hoist it up.

And I thought, how can I ever top this?

And then I started thinking about Chicago. I started thinking about Wrigley Field, 108 years, and I said, I want to be a part of that. So I literally, I promise you, I prayed during free agency last year to be a Chicago Cub.

And thankfully, God and the Cubs -- thank you, Theo -- made it happen. And I embarked on a journey with these guys, to bring this elusive championship to the North Side.

YOUNG: So of course in America, there is a big election next week. But right now Cubs fans are under the red, white and blue of Cubby Blue because they are loving the fact that this team has brought the city together.

If you look out there, there are generations of people, folks who love the Cubs and they're holding hands and standing next to each other, celebrating this victory. In fact, there's already talk about next year's Cubs team, because they're already favored to win the World Series again -- reporting in Chicago, Ryan Young, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Thank you very much for watching. I'm Cyril Vanier. Next on CNN it's "POLITICAL MANN." But first I will be back with your headlines. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)