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Two Days Until U.S. Election; Trump Rushed Off Stage by Secret Service; CNN Crew Caught in Mosul Crossfire. Aired 2-2:30a ET
Aired November 06, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:12] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Trump. We love you. Welcome back.
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CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to finish his speech, Donald Trump returns to the stage after being rushed off by the secret service.
And caught in the fight, CNN's Arwa Damon recounts being caught in the crossfire between ISIS and Iraqi forces.
That's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you for joining us. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Cyril Vanier.
So the United States is just two days away from choosing its next President and the latest CNN poll of polls shows the race tightening even more ahead of Tuesday's vote with just three percentage points separating Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Both candidates are campaigning hard in key states that could go either way on Election Day. One of those battleground states is Nevada, where a Donald Trump rally Saturday night was briefly interrupted.
You see it right there by a security scare. The secret service immediately hustled the candidate offstage when someone in the crowd shouted "gun". A man later identified as Austyn Crites was taken into custody and questioned. CNN is told that Crites was not the person who yelled "gun" and no weapon was found. He was later released without any charges.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Trump. We love you. Welcome back.
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VANIER: So the candidate returned to the podium a short time later. He quickly resumed his speech after briefly acknowledging the incident.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nobody said it was going to be easy for us. But we will never be stopped. Never, ever be stopped.
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VANIER: OK. So what was the scare all about in the end? Well the man at the center of it, Austyn Crites, says he's a long-time Republican and he opposes Trump. Here's his version of what really happened at the rally.
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AUSTYN CRITES, DETAINED AT TRUMP RALLY: I just came with a sign. I literally just had one sign that said "Republicans against Trump". And when I pulled out the sign, people around me were trying to grab the sign. Somebody yelled something about a gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
CRITES: And so that's where things really got out of hand. I mean, people were just kicking me, grabbing my arms, twisting them, and finally, and I'm very thankful for the law enforcement who were able to quickly come because had they not been here it's possible these people could have strangled me and killed me right on the spot.
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VANIER: So that whole incident shows how tense a lot of people have become with Election Day just around the corner. And with the race so close, both campaigns are leaving little to chance.
CNN's Kyung Lah reports on Trump's weekend blitz through key swing states.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Trumps side by side in neck-and-neck North Carolina, a must-win state to hit 270. Melania Trump on charm offensive, a rare appearance on the campaign trail.
MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: He's also compassionate, thoughtful, giving and loving. Donald cares.
LAH: Three days to Election Day, Donald Trump mostly on message, on script in North Carolina.
TRUMP: The Clinton family have made themselves rich by being in politics.
LAH: But earlier at a Tampa rally in crucial battleground Florida.
TRUMP: Future construction worker.
LAH: Donald Trump cast teleprompter Trump aside, lashing out at Hillary Clinton's celebrity support from Beyonce and Jay-Z, talking about Jay-Z's explicit rap lyrics.
TRUMP: We don't need Jay-Z to fill up arenas, you know. Should I use that language, one of that? Can you imagine if I said that? LAH: Of course Trump has used plenty of other language that's landed him in trouble. Trump then pivoting back on script, pounding away at Clinton's achilles heel, her use of a private e-mail server.
TRUMP: If she were to win, it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis.
LAH: The e-mail controversy is central to the closing message Trump is toting as he zig-zags across the country, visiting at least ten states between now and Monday, four to crucial battleground states. The states Trump can't hit will see this.
TRUMP: Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American people.
LAH: An unconventional $4 million, two-minute-long ad. Trump's final national message will run during NCAA, NFL, and NASCAR events this weekend and during major prime time programming before Tuesday.
[02:05:09] TRUMP: The only thing that can stop this corrupt machine is you. The only force strong enough to save our country is us.
LAH: Trump also taking the conventional turn as a Republican presidential candidate delivering the weekly Republican address.
TRUMP: It's time to close the history books on the Clintons and to open a bright new chapter focused on the great citizens of our country.
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VANIER: And CNN's Kyung Lah reporting there on Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton meanwhile, has enlisted some major star power to win over young voters. On Saturday, singer Katy Perry joined Clinton in Pennsylvania. Before that, Clinton campaigned in Florida, the single most important battleground state.
CNN's Senior Political correspondent Brianna Keilar has got more on the home stretch of the Clinton campaign.
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BRIANA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hillary Clinton campaigning in Florida.
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: To this day, I have a lot of ground to cover.
KEILAR: The fourth time she's been in the state this week, thanking the crowd for braving the rain to see her.
CLINTON: My friends, you are a hardy bunch standing out here in the rain. I don't think I need to tell you, all of the wrong things about Donald Trump. But here's what I want you to remember. I want to be the president for everybody. Everybody who agrees with me, people who don't agree with me. People who vote for me. People who don't vote for me.
KEILAR: Recent polls put Florida at a statistical tie. And with 29 electoral votes at stake, Clinton's campaign sees the sunshine state as one way to block Donald Trump's path to the White House. And they're encouraged by high Hispanic voter turnout among those voting early.
CLINTON: Every day in this campaign is exciting. And being here with all of you, the last Saturday before Election Day, really gets me geared up. We are seeing tremendous momentum, large numbers of people turning out, breaking records.
KEILAR: Clinton and her long bench of surrogates are fanning out across battleground states in these final hours before Election Day.
Her running mate Tim Kaine also campaigning in Florida and vice president Joe Biden in his home state of Pennsylvania, slamming Donald Trump.
JOE BIDEN, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: A guy who wants to be president getting up at 3:30 in the morning and tweeting vitriol. Tweeting vitriol about a woman's body, her weight, calling women pigs and -- I mean, imagine -- I'd get the back of my father's hand quicker than -- no, I'm really. I really mean it. You do -- you know what I'm talking about. Can you imagine at your dinner table your father or mother allowing you to speak that way?
KEILAR: Clinton is also tapping star power. The campaign is out with a new ad in tossup states featuring Katy Perry.
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VANIER: And that came to us from CNN's Senior Political correspondent Brianna Keilar. She of course is part of the CNN political team that we're deploying across the U.S. to bring you full coverage of this historic Election Day, nonstop coverage on Tuesday. Join us for that. From before the polls open to long after they close.
And the Battle for Mosul reaches on Iran, security forces facing a hardened enemy willing to fight to the death. ISIS has held Mosul for more than two years. Militants have had time to set up their defenses. They've been using tunnels and booby traps to fight Iraqi troops. They're also using civilians as human shields, making it more difficult for Iraqi forces to retaliate.
CNN'S Arwa Damon and Brice Laine (ph) experienced the brutal fight in Mosul firsthand. They've got ambushed as they were following Iraqi special forces into the eastern edge of the city. The ambush lasted more than 28 hours. Here's how Arwa described it earlier.
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ARWA DAMON: CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Our photographer, cameraman, Brice Laine (ph) and I were with this unit of Iraqi counter-terrorism forces. And what happened was ISIS ambushed them in a very complex attack on one of these narrow streets that they were going down and they managed to split the convoy in two. I have to say that this is the most harrowing experience that I personally have ever been through.
They then began to systematically take out the convoy's vehicles, Humvees and MRAPs starting on both ends and moving towards those that were in the middle.
[02:09:59] Forcing the soldiers and eventually us out of our vehicles onto the streets and into the buildings, basically putting the troops in more vulnerable positions because then the ISIS fighters were moving in and attacking the buildings that the troops were sheltering in.
At the end of a very long 24 hours, the bottom line is that we were under siege with around 22 wounded soldiers, six who were not wounded. It got so bad at one point in the morning this is despite the fact the unit was repeatedly calling in for backup, none came, that they were saying they were running out of ammunition. And this is how close the ISIS fighters were.
They were in the building right behind where all of us had spent the night along with an Iraqi family. An air strike took out the building, the house right behind us. Later we found out that eight ISIS fighters were there. At one point, there were ISIS fighters on the rooftop right next door throwing grenades into the courtyard that wounded even more of the soldiers that we were with. They were screaming for anyone who could walk, even people who were wounded in one arm carrying their weapons and the other arm to come up to the roof and defend this position.
The reason why backup couldn't arrive, well, based on what we were told, the units that were supposed to be coming as reinforcements also got bogged down because of clashes that they were undergoing with ISIS. And this really just illustrates the challenges that the Iraqis are going to be facing as they try to clear Iraq's second largest city.
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VANIER: Arwa Damon in northern Iraq.
Two suspects are in custody in Turkey after police opened fire on them near Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. No weapons were found on the suspects but authorities tell Turkish media that they had ignored multiple orders to stop as they rode a motor bike towards the airport's entrance. One of them was injured. The other was caught as he tried to escape. Ataturk Airport has been the target of terror attacks in the recent past.
And the Nigerian army says it has found another Chibok schoolgirl kidnapped by Boko Haram. She says she escaped from the terror group's hideout in the Sambisa forest along with her ten-month-old son. Many believe that forest is where the girls were taken when they were abducted in 2014. Some of those girls have since made it back to their families. But most of them, roughly 200, are still missing.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Cyril Vanier. "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" is next. You're watching CNN.
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