Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Obama, Trump Cordial Meeting at White House; World Muslims React to Trump Election; Optimism in Israel for Trump Election; Which Campaign Promises Will Trump Keep. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired November 11, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [02:00:09] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: You are watches CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.
Ahead this hour -
(HEADLINES)
VAUSE: Hello. Thank you for being with us. I'm John Vause. This is "NEWSROOM L.A."
The election of Donald Trump has unleashed a backlash from coast to coast for the second night of protests in least 25 cities. Demonstrators have been marching through Los Angeles, taking over downtown, blocking freeways and other city streets, telling the world Donald Trump is not their president. Authorities in Portland, Oregon, described the protests as a riot, cars smashed, objects thrown at police.
The transition of power continues, despite those protests. At the White House, on Thursday, a man uniquely unqualified to be president shaking hands with the worst president ever. That is how Barack Obama and Donald Trump described each other during the campaign. The met face to face for the first time. They set aside their antagonism and had a cordial and respectful meeting. And Mr. Trump called Obama a very good man.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe it's important for all of us, regardless of party and regardless of political preferences, to now come together, work together, to deal with the many challenges that we face.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, Mr. President, it was a great honor being with you. And I look forward being with you many, many more times in the future.
OBAMA: Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Joining me now Democratic strategist, Matt Littman; Republican consultant, John Thomas; talk radio host, Mo Kelly; and CNN's senior reporter, Dylan Byers.
John, we had the protests on the street the second night. Clearly the anger isn't going away. What's the responsibility on Donald Trump and what can he do to address these people who reason just protesting the election but they are terrified of what a Trump presidency must mean?
JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: He has to prove them wrong. In the sense that he is a president for every American. He started with the right tone. His accept stance speech hit the right marks. Today he was cordial with President Obama. He needs to give remarks on what his legislative agenda will be and assuage concerns they have nothing to fear.
VAUSE: How do you walk back 16 months of ugly rhetoric?
MATTHEW LITTMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: You can't. Let's also remember that within his first 100 days he's planning on the Muslim ban, as well. It was taken up and back on his website today. You can't walk it back. Donald Trump can come in and say that he is a president for all Americans, as you have said and he can give a speech where he is magnanimous than he has been but the odds of him being magnanimous - we've seen who Trump is. That's not who he is.
VAUSE: Dylan, it's not so much of can he do it but does he want to do it?
DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR REPORTER FOR MEDIA & POLITICS: That's a good question. You have to get to what drives Donald Trump, what's his mission? With previous presidents, none of them have done everything they said they were going to do. Many did things despite the fact saying they wouldn't do those things. But you have a sense of what their north star was, their ideology was, what their guiding principles were. When it comes to Donald Trump all you have is the notion of self-aggrandizement. He wants to be a success however he defines success. He cares about his own brand. The question is, has he fed off the energy of the sort of far-right conservatives and the disenfranchised Americans that have brought him to this level. The anti-establishment, anti-Washington fervor and will he continue to feed that? In that case, there is a great deal to be concerned about if you are on the left side of the political spectrum, or will he try to be a great president to all Americans as you said, or as he has indicated the last 36 hours because he feels that will be best for his brand. The thing is you don't know. We won't know throughout the transition period. We won't know until he actually becomes president of the United States.
VAUSE: But we do have a tweet. It came out the last couple of hours, a tweet. It is about the protests. This is from the president-elect: "Just had an open, successful presidential election. Now professional protesters incited by the media are protesting, very unfair."
Even the L.A. police chief came out and said, stop tweeting. You are POTUS.
And, Mo Kelly, to you, would this indicate that president-elect Trump doesn't get what is going on right now? [02:05:31] MO KELLY, TALK RADIO HOST: Not only does he not get -- I
question whether he has the right people around him who are giving him wise counsel. Donald Trump at this moment is worried about the wrong things. I can't wait for him to get inaugurated to figure out the right and wrong of what to say in moments of crisis. This should be an easy one to step in the moment, being above the fray, rather than throwing pot shots at this media and protesters that are demonstrating their First Amendment rights. I need the president to be better than us, not just one of us.
VAUSE: A lot of ugliness and divisiveness in the country. There's graffiti spray painted on softball fields. "Make America white again," a sticker. And graffiti that reads, "Black lives don't matter and neither does your vote." Latino kids were left in tears after rea after some were chanting, "Build that wall." Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHANTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: John, is it possible to rein that in now?
THOMAS: I think it is. Just by his actions and words. Look, Trump's tweet, I get it. He's frustrated. He's thinking here we go again. The media portraying one version of America. Obviously, there are people frustrated. But half of America voted for Donald Trump that is excited and optimistic for a new America that maybe their jobs are going to come back, their futures are brighter. I think he is frustrated. Right now, if it bleeds it leads and all the networks 24/7 hate him and he just got off a long campaign with this coverage. He's going, can these guys not get it right.
LITTMAN: He ran a divisive campaign. These people are not the best. This is not the dream team he has around him rye right now. It makes people nervous. The stories you hear about kids frightened in school, not just what you showed in Michigan. The stories you hear here in Los Angeles from people about what's going on, it is terrifying.
VAUSE: Dylan, there's a concern that something has been unleashed in this country after this campaign.
BYERS: Right. Whatever we are seeing, this sort of honeymoon period with Donald Trump and President Obama certainly his supporters feel emboldened. Some of his supporters, I should say, feel emboldened to make these attacks, to make America white again, the swastika, what have you. Here's the thing about that tweet. No one understood the if it bleeds it leads philosophy of media more than Donald Trump did. No one took advantage of it more than he did. He understood that by throwing out something controversial he could command the media's attention. Clearly protests are something that will command the media's attention and have commanded the media's attention. But he is the president elect now and he will be the president of the United States in a matter of months. If he wants to elevate the conversation. If he doesn't want it to be about the biased media not treating him fairly. He can elevate the conversation. He can call for peace. He can call for unity. Rushing to his twitter account the way he did throughout his campaign, that's not going high, not in the least.
VAUSE: OK.
There are a lot of divisions here in the United States. There are a lot of divisions around the world, which were brought on by this election campaign, in particular, in the Islamic world.
A report from my Mohammad Lela report from Abu Dhabi
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MOHAMMAD LELA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's bedtime at this family's house but this isn't like any other night. A new reality and a new president.
(on camera): What was your reaction when you heard the news?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With the elections, there is no when you heard the news, it is a long, killing me softly process.
LELA (voice-over): Esra is an American living and working here. We met her at an election viewing party we live streamed on Facebook.
(on camera): I want to play this clip so you can see. This is what you told us yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm hesitant, I'm worried. I don't know what to expect.
[02:10:03] LELA (voice-over): This is what she thinks today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's unpredictable. The tweets that come out you don't know what's going to come.
LELA: That uncertainty is casting a shadow over Muslims around the world. During his campaign, Donald Trump proposed a temporary ban on Muslims from entering the United States, and he wasn't exactly clear about how or even if he tried to improve relations with the Muslim world. Many are now stunned that Trump was elected.
"In my opinion, this is the worst decision America has made," this teacher in Baghdad says. "He will get America in to a lot of trouble."
"Trump's policy about Muslims, about immigrants, it's really bad," this man says.
Even here in this remote Syrian refugee camp where people struggle just to survive, the news and disappointment spread fast. "We were surprised by the victory of a racist and sectarian president
who is against the Syrian revolution. If we had a little hope to go back home, we don't anymore."
Hope is what Esra is clinging to. Now she wonders if people like her still have a place in president-elect Trump's America.
(on camera): Are you worried about going back now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am. Most obviously, the feeling of a displaced refugee.
LELA: Is that how you are feeling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I absolutely feel like a displaced refugee. Because --
LELA: In your own country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.
LELA: As she puts her 1-year-old son to bed, her hope is that Donald Trump, the president, will be different from Donald Trump the candidate.
Mohammad Lela, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: As much as there is pessimism in the Muslim world, there is optimism in Israel.
Oren Liebermann joins us live from Jerusalem -- Oren.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I would say some are optimistic here. Trump split Israel just like he did the U.S. In terms of those in favor and those against. But the right wing, which is to say the current government very much celebrated Trump's victory. In fact, one of the first statements we got is from the minister of education who said, "The era of the Palestinian state is over. Building there off of Donald Trump's campaign promises to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to move the embassy from where it is now to Tel Aviv. That would break with policy. And for him to visit as soon as possible. That was very much the right wing and the Jerusalem mayor and other ministers celebrating and calling on Trump to move the embassy as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Netanyahu gave a measured statement, a more formal statement, congratulating Trump, saying the two will work together, and saying they spoke on the phone and Trump invited Netanyahu to the U.S. to meet as soon as possible.
Palestinians for their part gave fairly short formal measured statements saying they would work with any American president who was willing to support a two-state solution with east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. That now seems problematic since Trump promised to recognize Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel.
Given that, Palestinians may now be looking to the next 70 days. This is where Obama has the chance to take some sort of action, whether a resolution on settlements or parameters on negotiations for a two- state solution. That would happen at the U.N. Security Council. That's where the Palestinians are looking at before Donald Trump takes office.
VAUSE: Oren, thank you. Oren Liebermann live in Jerusalem.
Matt, what we are hearing right now is Donald Trump is rewriting the rules of foreign policy.
LITTMANN: Yeah, it is interesting on the Israel Palestinian conflict. When Donald Trump started in the campaign he said he was going to be even handed and didn't want to take a side. And then he came out more pro-Israel as the campaign went along. If I were the Israeli government I would be paying attention to the anti-Semitism that Trump has trafficked in during the campaign. That's critical. In terms of Trump and Israel, I think he will come out as a strong supporter of Israel but the anti-Semitism that Trump has unleashed in the country is not going away.
VAUSE: Mo, do you think that Trump supporters or Americans really care what the rest of the world thinks of the United States?
KELLY: Well, they don't right now. Maybe they don't understand the bigger picture. My concern goes back to the tweet as we relate it to world issues. Donald Trump is not just representing hips. He should be representing the United States and everything he says and does has great importance and influence. It seems like he wants to be the communications director for his brand, opposed to the leader of the free world. Donald Trump needs to think about how every word, every utterance, every sentence he makes has world implications. The sooner he starts to figure that out is the sooner he makes the transition from president elect to president of the United States.
[02:15:11]VAUSE: OK. Stay with us.
We will take a short break. When we come back, great expectations. Donald Trump has made a lot promises. What's possible and what's not, in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Over the past year, Donald Trump made a long list of promises.
Martin Savidge reports on what voters want the president-elect to do on day one in office.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These illegal moochers from Mexico come in. We've got to get rid of these guys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get rid of all these illegal aliens.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If President-elect Trump is looking to organize his to-do list, he may listen to callers to station 570, WKBN in Youngstown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're got to get people back to work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jobs, jobs, jobs.
MARTIN: This used to be prime Democrat turf. But as the manufacturing jobs disappeared and businesses closed, many here, like their factories, turned to a rusty red, crossing over to Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like to see him address the health are problem.
MARTIN: Caller after caller added on to what they want their president to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Social Security. We haven't gotten a raise in seven years.
[02:20:06] MARTIN: Most want to focus on immigration.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Send Mexico an estimated bill for the wall.
MARTIN: Get rid of Obamacare. Bring back jobs. If possible --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rip up the Iran nuclear deal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go after and indict Hillary Clinton.
MARTIN: At Youngstown's oldest watering hole, I talked to Trump backers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I expected this. I was very confident actually in the election.
SAVIDGE: Jim has been a Democrat all of his life until now.
(oc0: What do you want to see Donald Trump do, first?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First thing I would like to see him do is pick a great cabinet. He has a big job there.
MARTIN: This man says the same thing: Trump needs to surround himself with the right people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to see the cabinet. I think he will be the CEO and let the cabinet do all the work. That's what I think. Then I want to see who are they going pick for the Supreme Court?
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Filling Supreme Court is near the top of many wish lists. But it isn't long before we are back to the wall. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the first priorities, secure our borders.
(CROSSTALK)
SAVIDGE (on camera): Build the wall?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Build a wall, yes. That is -- to me, that's a rhetorical term. Building a wall doesn't mean brick and mortar, OK?
SAVIDGE (voice-over): You hear that a lot. The wall Trump spoke of, to many voters is not really a wall at all.
(on camera): The wall? What is that? Build it, don't build it? It's a real wall, it's not a real wall?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know whether an actual, physical wall is the thing to do. I think there's other ways he can curb some of it coming in.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Which brings us back to another thing, Obamacare.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would get rid of it and start all over. You have to come up with something. Tough take care of people who can't take care of themselves. Everybody knows that.
SAVIDGE: You can't talk to Trump voters without talking about something else, all those protesters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You haven't given the guy a chance.
SAVIDGED: Most don't believe it's spontaneous anger, but organized.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the government they want. They want chaos and anarchy. And they're going to give it to us. This is just the beginning.
SAVIDGE: You think -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is just the beginning.
SAVIDGE (on camera): And about those protests, many start talking about the protest, they say it's disrespectful, disrespectful of the office of president and the outcome of the democratically run election. They say, after all, when President Obama won in 2008, did Republicans storm the streets?
Martin Savidge, CNN, Youngstown, Ohio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Matthew, John, Dylan and Mo are back with me.
So, Dylan, first to you, even though Republicans control all three branches now, that doesn't mean that Trump will get everything his way. BYERS: No, it doesn't. Again, you can, go back to how much this of
the stuff he said he will do will he actually follow through on. Look, a lot of these proposals, different things take different amounts of time. Just run through a couple of the more sort of incendiary proposals he's made. He's suggested he would appoint an attorney general to prosecute Hillary Clinton, his political rival. That certainly would take some time. Repealing Obamacare is something he could do a lot faster. There are other things he proposed like building a wall and putting a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country. There's a lot here if he actually were to follow through on he could probably get a lot of that done not just in his first term but in the course of the early days, weeks and months of his campaign.
Now, going back to that wall issue really quick, it's so interesting how big of a deal this wall was throughout the entire campaign. This thinking about how would you actually build a wall? What would it cost? And you talk to Trump supporters and for them it was never even a brick and mortar wall in the first place. At least the two that Martin Savidge spoke to. It speaks to the way that different people interpreted Donald Trump in different ways.
VAUSE: Mo, how will his supporters react if he doesn't get everything done? Who gets the blame?
KELLY: Is that for me, John?
VAUSE: Yeah, Mo.
KELLY: Donald Trump was great at giving voice to people that were angry, people that are voiceless but it is different when you have to produce. When people are angry and desperate they are impatient. Although Donald Trump may have a sympathetic Congress, although he won't have to deal with the obstruction that President Obama had to deal with he will have an impatient electorate as we have seen by half of the country who did not vote for him. More than half. And those people who looking at him with a side eye, not sure whether he can do the job. There will be a short honeymoon in all of this and I'm not sure that Donald Trump can deliver on a third of the things he campaigned on.
[02:25:25] LITTMANN: I remember when President Obama came in four months in to the presidency he ran on hope and change. Four months in people are saying where's the hope and change. People were disappointed. With Donald Trump, it's the same way. Not just the Muslim ban but planning a trade war with China. There's a lot of things, defeating ISIS immediately -
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Reducing the national debt.
LITTMANN: These things he said will happen fast within the first 100 days of his administration. If, within those 100 days, we don't get the results that Donald Trump said we will get, voters will worry.
THOMAS: Your right, but the stock market is excited about Donald Trump. The Dow reaching record highs today. I think he can repeal and replace Obamacare quickly. I think supporters understand building a wall on the border is nearly impossible but he has to show progress and economic progress. We also saw he wants to bring in sweeping ethics reform. Something secretary of state Clinton couldn't have done. Doing a five-year ban for members of Congress and their staff. He has a lot to achieve and if he doesn't get it done his base will hold him accountable.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: You mentioned Obamacare - sorry. Go ahead.
BYERS: Sorry. Let's just -- sometimes politics is very simple. If the people in areas like Wisconsin and Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and across the country -- if a year or two now they start to see their jobs coming back and their salaries go up, then Donald Trump will have done a good job in their eyes. If they don't, it will be time for change once again.
LITTMANN: I agree with Dylan. That is true. On the other hand, Donald Trump is talking about having a trade war with China. Those jobs, people will start to pay more for products and those jobs, we will be losing jobs is what it seems like will happen. A lot of people say we could end up in a recession in 2018.
(CROSSTALK)
LITTMANN: We don't know that it doesn't. Let's wait a couple of weeks. That's my concern.
VAUSE: Obamacare seems to be on every Republican's wish list to repeal and replace. The day after the election, 100,000 people signed up on that day alone. It was the biggest day so far of open enrollment.
DYLAN: It was all the protesters.
(LAUGHTER)
VAUSE: What happens, John, to the 24 million people who won't have health coverage?
THOMAS: Sure, Obama President-elect Trump will have to offer an alternative. No question about it. Remember, those people signing up will be hit with premium increases. Maybe premium increases they can't afford.
VAUSE: Most won't be, because it is sucked up by the high-end tax payers under their FICO.
LITTMANN: One of the great things about Obamacare, a lot of people with preexisting conditions are getting health care.
THOMAS: That has been a tenet of what the Republicans have wanted a long time. LITTMANN: We say want, you have to be able to get people in so the
people that are healthier are paying for the people that are sick. Republicans have had no plan. They just said they want to repeal Obamacare. They have had no plan and now it is up to you.
THOMAS: We get a chance.
LITTMAN: Let's see.
VAUSE: Mo, the same is true on the issue of immigration deporting millions of people but no details of how far it will happen. So, true of so many of Donald Trump's policies.
KELLY: I believe in his heart Donald Trump didn't really believe he was going to win. There's a way that you campaign and there's actual governance and now he is trying to get in the governance part. All of this time that we wasted not do demanding policy decisions he will impact and put in place. All of that time we waste, now that we see that Donald Trump probably does not have an answer for those things. And he is starting at square one, which is scary to me because we wasted, as Americans, we wasted the opportunity to press these candidates, to make sure they had actionable plans, which could be in place on day one. Instead we settle for repeal and replace. We never spent any time on the replace.
BYERS: By the way, it's not just Donald Trump. It's the Republicans. So, you will have a completely Republican controlled Washington. And they have been the party of no, the party of repeal, the party of block, the party of do not cooperate for so long. Now they have to show something. They have to show something across the board on health care, immigration, economic policy. I mean it's not just Donald Trump we are talking about. It's Paul Ryan and every other Republican in Washington.
VAUSE: OK. On that, we'll leave it.
Dylan, thank you.
Mo, Matt and John, thank you very much for being with us.
It is obviously a lot to get through. A lot ahead for everybody. Interesting times.
Thank you, guys.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, ISIS is setting up booby traps and explosives in civilian houses in Mosul --
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:00:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: OK. On that, we'll leave it.
Dylan, thank you.
Mo, Matt and John, thank you very much for being with us.
It is obviously a lot to get through. A lot ahead for everybody. Interesting times.
Thank you, guys.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, ISIS is setting up booby traps and explosives in civilian houses in Mosul and clinics are overwhelmed with victims. We are going live to Iraq.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back. You are watching CNN live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause, with the headlines this hour.
(HEADLINES)
VAUSE: ISIS is aggressively fighting Iraqi troops trying to retake the key city. Witnesses say the terror group is setting off explosives and booby traps in homes in the city's east.
CNN's Michael Holmes is joining us in Irbil, southeast of Mosul.
Michael, Iraqi forces are being hit with a wave of attacks by ISIS.
[02:34:52] MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORERSPONDENT: Yeah, we heard a while ago that ISIS had prepositioned car bombs around the city of Mosul. They have been an effective weapon in the ISIS arsenal. We do know they have been used extensively so far. Caused a lot of casualties among Iraqi forces. Iraqi forces are not giving much detail. We were at a hospital not far from Mosul where victims, military and civilian, are keeping doctors busy.
We warn viewers some of the images might be disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES (voice-over): Casualties of war, the weapon, an ISIS favorite, the car bomb.
(SHOUTING)
HOLMES: The triage room is full. And yet the ambulances keep coming. The doctors and medics have to decide who is closer to death and one operating theater at this hospital 40 kilometers from Mosul.
This man has shrapnel wounds, stitched up. He will live.
They have two other brand-new operating theaters here but not the equipment need to use them. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need equipment. But as soon as possible. We
have only this with two beds.
HOLMES: Outside are two other Iraqi soldiers from the same unit that has been hit. This man wounded by a car bomb days earlier. Their will to return to the fight undiminished.
He says he is ready to fight again and not just in Mosul but everywhere they are. They are dangerous to the world.
This hospital isn't used to this. Once a small-town clinic, now dealing with combat casualties. And it's the only non-ISIS held hospital in the entire province.
On this day, more than a dozen wounded soldiers brought in. 70 arrived in the last week.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is helping with advice, equipment and staff but they and the hospital workers fear a flood not of soldiers but of civilians caught in the cross fire. At the moment, unable to get out wounded or not.
(on camera): It would be hard to find a better example of what this war is doing to civilians. This family was in a house hit by a shell. These two men were injured but it got worse. His sisters, age 16 and 27, were both killed.
UINIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe more patients won't get access to health care. That is my biggest concern. I think right now, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
HOLMES (voiced-over): Later we see the soldier again, outside, emotional. He knows some of the new wounded and learned two good friends could be dead.
(END VIDEOTAPE
HOLMES: And, John, the big fear is those civilians, the soldiers, that is part of the job in a way. These civilians need medical treatment inside of Mosul who probably can't get the treatment until their neighborhoods are liberated -- John?
VAUSE: That could take some time.
Michael, thank you. Michael Holmes live in Irbil.
A suicide car bombing outside a German consulate in Afghanistan killed at least four people on Thursday. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast that happened in a northern city. Authorities say more than 100 were hurt. No German diplomates were injured.
A short break. When we come back, another legend lost. We will remember the prolific singer/song writer, Leonard Cohen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:40:51] VAUSE: Shoppers in China dropped $20 billion on singles day. It started as an informal holiday with single people buying themselves a gift but Alibaba ran with it and offered discounts. Celebrities at a gala before the launch included David and Victoria Beckham and Kobe Bryant.
Singer, songwriter, poet, Leonard Cohen, died at the age of 82. He leaves an epic song collection.
Here's a look back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(SINGING)
VAUSE (voice-over): If there is one song he will be remembered for is "Hallelujah," sung by others with three versions on the U.K. charts at one time.
Leonard Cohen died after a musical career that spanned five decades. He was born to a well-off Jewish family that was the highly Catholic city of Montreal, Canada, and religion was in his work. He wrote novels and just released his 14th studio album.
(SINGING)
VAUSE: His music was considered so dark, even suicidal, he was called the master of erotic despair.
LEONARD COHEN, SING/SONGWRITER: My reputation as a lady's man was a joke. It caused me to laugh bitterly through the 10,000 nights I spent alone.
VAUSE: His work combined love, redemption and joy.
(SINGING)
VAUSE: He was not a natural singer but, he developed a distinctive baritone, joking with audiences about his golden voice.
Along the way, he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and inducted in this Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. But in recent interviews and in his newest songs, he began to hint at his own mortality. A post on his Facebook page said, "We are lost one of music's profound visionaries."
Leonard Cohen dead at 82.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: You have been watching CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us. "World Sport" starts after the break.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:45:39] KATE RILEY, WORLD SPORT ANCDHOR: Welcome along to World Sport from CNN Center. I'm Kate Riley.
It will be a busy few days for World Cup qualifying matches and we have a marquee match-up in group "a" with the top teams of France and Sweden squaring off. The original date had to be moved since the match was due to be played on the anniversary of the Paris terrorist attacks. It is now being staged on Friday.
Now meanwhile after three qualifying matches, these two sides are top on seven points. Paul Pogba will be in action for France after netting the winner in their last qualifier against Holland. Ibrahimovic retired from playing for Sweden. How have the team coped without him?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): It's been a while since he made his decision to quit the national team and we have dealt with that and started something new and that goes for him as well as two others. We started to build anew. We have played three matches since and taken steps in the right direction at every meeting and in every match because we lost some experienced players. We're on our way in that process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RILEY: Manchester United in the headlines as the interim manager gave Wayne Rooney the captain's arm band ahead of the qualifier. The three lions prepare to face Scotland. The group match will be held at Wembley Stadium and Rooney returning to the starting 11. And Southgate has confidence in his captain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I think he's in a better place than he was for the last get together in terms of his sharpness, his confidence, and I think he's really an experienced player for a game like this. So, yeah, there's no hesitation from my point of view to be playing him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RILEY: Over in the states and the rivalries will be taken to a whole new level when the U.S. Takes on Mexico. Adding another layer of intrigue to this rivalry, the fixture is always tense. It will be even tenser if for USA this time as their star man Clint Dempsey won't feature to a heart issue he is suffering right now. And the U.S. men's Captain Michael Bradley tweeted this, "I hope every person who comes to the stadium comes ready to what we want to be a beautiful game between two sporting rivals that have a lot of respect for each other and hope is it a special night in every way."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BRADLEY, U.S. MEN'S CAPTAIN: There's an added layer to this game in terms of everything that has -- everything that's gone on in the last few months. I would just make a general comment that we - we, as Americans, we have total respect for everybody and total -- a real appreciation for the -- not just the Mexican-Americans but the people from around the world who come and make a new life for themselves in our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RILEY: When Wales take to the pitch on Saturday their qualifier against Serbia, their national kit will not feature a poppy for Remembrance Day. Instead they will wear black arm bands and fans will form a poppy mosaic before the match. FIFA's rules state that political, religious and commercial messages cannot be worn on shirts and the football association of wales would like to respect those who fought and lost their lives for their country but felt unable to take a risk of a penalty or point reduction.
[02:50:00] Formula One now. And with two races to go in the season, attention turns to the buildup in Sao Paulo ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix. It's not just the race on the line but the championship. It is Nico Rosberg's to lose. If he takes the checkered flag he will be crowned world champion regardless of what Lewis Hamilton does. Rosberg will have a 26-point margin. It's tense but nothing that Rosberg can't handle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICO ROSEBERG, FORMULA ONE DRIVER: I've had lots of great or mixed experiences here. So, it's a real chance to come here and try to win for the first time, something that, you know, Nico and Felipe have experienced in the past. That's my goal and nothing to lose.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RILEY: It has been a busy day at the White House. It wasn't all politics on Thursday. The Cavs were in town, too, catch the best bit shortly as the team celebrated the city's first major professional sports title in 52 years.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RILEY: Welcome back to "World Sport.". And while the big news out of the White House on Thursday was President-elect Donald Trump's meeting with Barack Obama, the current president, found time to welcome the NBA champions, Lebron James and the Cavaliers were congratulated after winning a first time in history back in June and ending a 52-year championship drought for the city of Cleveland. They overcame a Warriors team that won 93 games in the regular season. President Obama happens to be a huge Bulls fan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Obviously, what this all comes down to is a team that first for the first time in NBA history comes back from being down 3-1 in the final. The first team in history to dig themselves out of a hole like that.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: And by knocking off the Warriors, they cemented the 1996 bulls as the greatest team of all time.
(LAUGHTER)
So, your president thanks you for that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RILEY: Meanwhile, NBA legend Steve Nash never won a championship but he was named as the league east most valuable player on two occasions during his stellar 19-year career. Not bad for someone who grew up playing football. And Nash spoke to CNN about his love of both sports and the path he took to basketball stardom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[02:54:56] STEVE NASH, NBA BASKETBALL PLAYER: I followed football more. Even playing basketball, I as obsessive about the best player I could be. I really liked to get away from the game when I wasn't playing, so when I would go home, I would watch football. And I find inspiration in it as well. It inspired me. Different sports helped me perform at the highest levels. It gave me a boost to be the best I could be at my sport and it helped me get away from my sport a little bit when I was at home.
We have to gain their trust. I think they worry about a horror story, an American group coming in and buying a soccer team only to want to develop hotels or condominiums. That's not our goal. We love the sport, have fallen in love the club, the fans, the island, and the uniqueness. We're thrilled to be a part of it and, hopefully, leave it a much better placed then we found it one day, hopefully, many years from now. This is something we're passionate about and we want to see it succeed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RILEY: But before we leave you, the PGA golf season is currently being staged in Mexico. But most of the sport's top stars are take some time off before the new year. We don't blame them. But despite that there were plenty of fans on hand, including this guy, a monkey enjoying the action. So much so that he climbed down to the fairway to have a closer look. Not sure if he was trying to determine the yardage to the pin or if he heard anyone scream fore. He didn't care much as he then got down to monkey business with his mate.
Having fun aren't they.
And that does it for me and the team. I'm Kate Riley. Thank you for watching.
Stay with CNN. The news is next.
