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Third Day of Anti-Trump Protests; Pence in Charge of Trump Transition Team; Trump May Keep Some of ObamaCare; Kremlin Hopes "Lousy" Relations with U.S. May Improve; Massive Protest against South Korean President; American Muslims React to Presidential Election; A "Silent, Secret" Trump Supporter; ISIS Killing Civilians in Mosul; Trump Contributes to U.S. Vocabulary. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired November 12, 2016 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Donald Trump's transition, days after his big win, the president-elect shakes things up with his transition team and questions about that team.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Thousands are still taking to the streets to protest Trump's historic win.
HOWELL (voice-over): Plus, another grim report from Mosul, ISIS continuing to execute the innocent.
ALLEN: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world, we're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell from CNN World Headquarters. NEWSROOM starts right now.
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HOWELL: 5:00 am on the U.S. East Coast and, for the third straight day, demonstrators have marched the streets and chanted against Donald Trump in cities across the United States.
ALLEN: The protests are not having any noticeable effect on the president-elect. He is moving ahead with his transition team.
On Friday, Trump put his running mate, Mike Pence, in charge of that transition that will take control of the White House from the Obama administration.
HOWELL: And so thousands of people have turned out for the last few days to protest this election.
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HOWELL (voice-over): Demonstrators hit the streets, take a look at this, in Atlanta, Georgia; Miami, Florida; San Diego, California and Boston, Massachusetts and dozens of other cities. They've been peaceful protests for the most part but authorities have made several arrests in Los Angeles.
ALLEN: Tensions were high in Portland, Oregon, as well, as protesters squared off against police there for the second night. The crowd was ordered to disperse after reports that some began throwing objects at officers. About 2 dozen people were arrested the night before when the protests turned violent.
Trump's transition team is moving forward despite the protests and there have been several developments.
HOWELL: CNN's Jim Acosta has more on that, including Donald Trump's hint of a compromise on ObamaCare.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just days after the election, a shakeup inside the Trump transition team. Vice president-elect Mike Pence has taken over Trump's transition efforts, bumping New Jersey Governor Chris Christie down to vice chairman, along with Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, retired Lieutenant General Mike Flynn, Newt Gingrich and Dr. Ben Carson.
Sources say the move comes after infighting inside the transition over whether the team should hire previously anti-Trump Republicans, the so-called never-Trumpers, not to mention the still unfolding Bridgegate scandal in New Jersey.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: Mr. President, it was a great honor being with you.
ACOSTA: Another surprise for the new administration comes one day after Donald Trump met with President Obama. Following his conversation with the president, Trump is now open to keeping some portions of ObamaCare, something he vowed to repeal during the campaign.
Trump told "The Wall Street Journal": "Either ObamaCare will be amended or repealed and replaced."
But the incoming administration is facing a more pressing concern, continued protests against the president-elect flaring up across the country.
REINCE PRIEBUS, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Look, I everyone needs to just take a deep breath.
ACOSTA: RNC Chair Reince Priebus urged calm after the president-elect himself ratcheted up the tension, returning to Twitter to complain: "Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters incited by the media are protesting. Very unfair;" a gripe he walked back, later tweeting: "Love the fact that the small group of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud."
But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid says Trump must do more than just tweet. "If this going to be a time of healing," Reid says in a statement, "we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs, at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate."
Priebus, who helped persuade Trump to stop tweeting at the end of the campaign and now a front-runner for White House chief of staff, agreed demonstrators have a right to protest.
PRIEBUS: I understand the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, but this election's over now. And we have a president-elect who has done everything he can do over the last 48 hours to say, let's bring people together.
ACOSTA: CNN has learned Priebus and former campaign chairman Steven Bannon are the leading candidates for the powerful chief of staff position, with a source telling CNN that signs are pointing to Priebus.
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HOWELL: CNN's Jim Acosta reporting there for us. Let's get more on this post-election situation with CNN Politics reporter, Eugene Scott, live via Skype in Washington.
Eugene, good to have you with us. Let's first talk about the president-elect's transition drama with Chris Christie being demoted and the apparent horse race between Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus for chief of staff for the president-elect.
EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Governor Christie is now the vice-chairman after initially being named the head of the team. There were some concerns about not just the Bridgegate scandal --
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SCOTT: -- and drawing negative attention to the campaign, well, I guess future administration at this moment but also some concerns about loyalty to the Trump campaign. Christie pretty much disappeared, according to our reports, for a couple of weeks following the revelation of the "Access Hollywood" tape, not coming into the office very regularly.
And I think the Trump campaign really wanted to get someone on board that they felt like they could trust more.
HOWELL: Also, there are questions about Donald Trump's family being part of the cabinet while heading his businesses. They would be part of that blind trust to oversee his businesses. There are questions of what that blind trust would be and also whether there is a conflict of interest in having them on his transition team.
SCOTT: Well, as of right now, there's no federal law that suggests there is a conflict of interest and the Trump organization announced Friday that they are vetting several business structures that would allow for the kids to take over the business in a way that does not compromise the Trump administration.
So what that will look like remains to be seen. HOWELL: There is also -- a lot of people saw the president-elect sitting beside the president, Barack Obama, just a few days ago, sitting together, people heartened by that and now they're seeing that the president-elect may be open to compromise when it comes to ObamaCare, not repealing all of it but instead repealing parts of it and replacing.
What more can you tell us about that?
SCOTT: Yes. New York congressman, Chris Collins, was on CNN Friday, saying that, you know, people who sign up for ObamaCare right now would still have until the end of 2017 and not everything would be repealed.
Some would say that Trump never suggested that everything would be repealed but Trump very regularly said that ObamaCare was a disaster and that they wanted to get rid of the whole thing immediately.
So it does seem like there's a bit of backing away from what was promised on the campaign.
HOWELL: Eugene -- and I'll ask our director if we're able to see some of the images of the protests, if we can pull those up. But there have been protests in so many different cities, as you know, in Atlanta, in Miami, in Boston and several others, dozens, in fact, people protesting Donald Trump and his election as the president-elect of the United States.
You see these images here.
Eugene, the question for people who are on the streets, some of them who did not vote, what do the protesters demand?
SCOTT: They voted for a very different administration than what Trump proposed. And so their hope is that there can be some level of acknowledgment that the America that they wanted to move forward is an America that seems different from what Trump wants to move forward.
But to give full credit to President-Elect Trump, he said he wants to be the leader of all of America, and so whether or not that will end up leading him to work with people who opposed him, primarily activists not just lawmakers, time will tell.
HOWELL: There was one tweet that Donald Trump put out, that he got some criticism for but then walked it back with a followup tweet, indicating that the protesters are showing their passion for the nation.
So, again, we'll continue to see these protests and obviously the Trump transition continues. Eugene Scott, live in Washington, thank you for the insight today.
ALLEN: Trump supporters are cheering his election victory, of course. Some Hillary Clinton supporters are having a much harder time accepting it.
As CNN's Kyung Lah explains, the reality of a Trump presidency is creating a high degree of anxiety in certain quarters.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Protests may be easiest to see but that's only part of what many like Kari Sherman feel.
KARI SHERMAN, CLINTON SUPPORTER: I think it's leaving a lot of us feeling very shaken and unsure and alone and afraid.
LAH: Are you still upset?
SHERMAN: Yes. I'm definitely still recovering. This goes beyond politics. This goes to something deeper and more fundamental to who I feel like I am as a human being.
LAH (voice-over): Sherman lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children. But her anxiety is shared across social media platforms and television, from the minority woman afraid of her own name's foreign sound to the Latina high school senior protesting in San Francisco.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It means a lot to me right now because a lot of my family, a lot of my friends are undocumented and it's not fair. It's really not fair.
LAH (voice-over): To the late night host, not telling a joke, sharing instead his yet unrealized hope for little girls watching.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I imagine this moment today will be a defining one for you, one that will make you work harder and strive farther and, whoever you are, I hope I live to see your inauguration.
LAH (voice-over): And the Muslim man looking for his place in Trump's America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very concerned as a Muslim. I'm concerned about a candidate who is now going to be president, who said on the campaign trail that he wants to ban all Muslims en masse just because they're Muslim.
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LAH (voice-over): Part of it is expectations. Kari Sherman, like many, believes she casts her vote for the woman who would win.
SHERMAN: To be in this historic moment and vote for our first woman president, there was just such a high in that moment and now in hindsight I've been in a bubble. I think a lot of what I'm feeling and I think other people I know are feeling is a sense of betrayal, that this country isn't what we thought it was.
LAH (voice-over): As politicians work toward a smooth transition in Washington, many outside the Beltway are finding this is a change they haven't yet accepted -- Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles. (END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: It will take some time for people to come to understand this and move on, hopefully. Throughout his campaign Donald Trump vowed to do away with ObamaCare. He put it down any chance he got on the stump.
Well, Trump now says he may keep some parts of the Affordable Care Act. The president-elect told "The Wall Street journal" that he is now reconsidering his previous stance following his meeting with Mr. Obama on Thursday.
In an interview with "60 Minutes" on CBS, he detailed what provisions of the law might stay.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let me ask you about ObamaCare, which you say you're going to repeal and replace.
When you replace it, are you going to make sure that people with preconditions are still covered?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, because it happens to be one of the strongest assets.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to keep that?
TRUMP: Also with the children living with their parents for an extended period. We're going to --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to keep that?
TRUMP: Very much try and keep that (INAUDIBLE).
Adds cost but it's very much something we're going to try and keep.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there's going to be a period, if you repeal it and before you replace it, when millions of people --
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TRUMP: We're going to do it simultaneously. It will be just fine. That's what I do. I do a good job. You know, I mean, I know how to do this stuff. We're going to repeal it and replace it.
And we're not going to have like a two-day period and we're not going to have a two-year period where there's nothing. It will be repealed and replaced. And we'll know. And it will be great health care for much less money.
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ALLEN: Well, the threat of a repeal of ObamaCare sent more than 100,000 Americans rushing to buy health insurance on Wednesday, the day after the U.S. election. That is the biggest turnout so far during this year's signup period.
HOWELL: Hillary Clinton also speaking out about her defeat. The former Democratic presidential candidate spoke with volunteers at a conference call on Friday, telling them these have been very, very tough days.
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HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a tough time for our country. I think we've seen how people have been reacting to the events of this election. And I know that we've got to be reaching out to each other, to keep it clear in our own minds that what we did was so important.
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HOWELL: Clinton also appeared at a staff event in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday. She urged staffers not to lose hope from Tuesday's loss.
Still ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, a question about Russia's relations with the United States.
Will it change under a Trump presidency?
ALLEN: A top aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin is dropping hints. We'll go live to Moscow for you next.
Plus, Donald Trump says border security will be a top priority during his first days as U.S. president. How Mexico is responding to the prospect of a border wall. That's also ahead. Here you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
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ALLEN: And welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
World leaders are reacting to a Trump presidency. French president Francois Hollande spoke with Donald Trump by phone on Friday. A spokeswoman tells CNN they expressed their willingness to work together.
HOWELL: The German chancellor Angela Merkel also telephoned Donald Trump and congratulated him on his victory. And British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also telling European Union leaders to snap out of the doom and gloom over a Trump administration.
ALLEN: A top aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin says his boss and Donald Trump have a number of things in common, including protecting their country's prosperity and national interests. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tells CNN both men are ready to improve relations between the U.S. and Russia.
He says ties between the Kremlin and the Obama administration right now are, quote, "very lousy." CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance is in Moscow for us.
And we all know they've been lousy. But as far as Obama and Putin -- but there are some big issues on the table but interesting, though, that Putin was the first to call Trump to congratulate him.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He was certainly one of the first leaders and that was interpreted as this kind of sense of Russian joy that Donald Trump had been elected into office and not his alternative, Hillary Clinton.
Of course, to a certain extent, that's true. I mean, all along the Russians have made it clear, not officially, of course, the Kremlin officially was neutral on this matter, but the state media, the messages put across in newspapers and television here was very much pro-Trump because the Kremlin sees him as somebody they can do a deal with potentially.
They see him as sort of not necessarily fixed in his anti-Russian stance, which is the way they characterized Hillary Clinton.
And so, yes, there are all sorts of ways in which this could potentially be a pivotal moment in the relationship between Russia and the United States. Trump indicated, for instance, that he would be willing to work with Russia and Syria to eliminate Islamic State and other jihadist groups.
That's music to the Kremlin's ears. Of course, although, in reality, that may prove complicated as would the Trump's suggestion that he would look again at recognizing Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 from Ukraine.
It's a nice idea and Russia would be pleased with it. But it could potentially alienate the United States' traditional allies in Europe, who are very concerned about the -- about Russian military ambitions in Eastern Europe.
And so, look, there is an opportunity here for the problems to be tackled in new ways. But the problems themselves aren't going to just go away.
ALLEN: Exactly. So we'll stay optimistic about that.
What about the Syrian war?
The U.S. and Russia are on different sides there.
CHANCE: Yes. And when it comes to Islamic State, that's something that Donald Trump has said is not right. They should be on the same side when it comes to fighting that jihadist group.
In fact, even under President Obama, there have been negotiations to try to bring the Russian and the U.S. militaries, who are both operating inside Syria, together to try to target with combined firepower the forces of Islamic State.
The problem is that it's complicated on all sorts of levels, not least of which is that, if you join with the Russians and fight against Islamic State or any other jihadist group, it puts you, Washington, on the side of the Syrian government, on the side of Bashar al-Assad.
And of course on the side of Assad's allies, first and foremost, Iran. And so the United States would be fighting alongside Iran. And it also alienates the traditional Arab allies --
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CHANCE: -- Turkey won't be very happy about it either. So, yes, it's, in theory, a great idea. In practice, it's going to be very, very difficult.
ALLEN: Matthew Chance live for us in Moscow there. Thank you, Matthew.
HOWELL: Trump has made many promises on the campaign trail, promises that Matthew just talked about, to improve relations with Russia. We'll see how that plays out. Matthew explained a lot of the nuance and intricacy there.
One of those promises also was to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico and he is not backing down on that.
ALLEN: No, he says border security will be a priority during his first days in office. Ed Lavandera for us now has more on the reaction in Mexico.
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TRUMP: We're going to build a great wall.
The wall just got 10 feet higher.
Maybe someday they're going to call it the Trump Wall.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The border between the United States and Mexico stretches nearly 2,000 miles; nearly 700 miles of it is already covered with some form of border wall or steel fencing. But Donald Trump wants more.
TRUMP: On day one, we will begin working on an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful, southern border wall.
MICHAEL DEAR, CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNER: Well, of course it can be done --
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Professor Michael Dear is an expert in city and regional planning and the author of the book, "Why Walls don't Work."
DEAR: A large concrete structure which might be 25 feet high would be very intensive in terms of resources and money. LAVANDERA (voice-over): In fact, CNN has surveyed a number of civil engineers, architects and academics about what may be most feasible. The wall would mostly likely need to be made of precast cement wall panels, 25 feet tall, 10 feet wide, eight inches thick, requiring 339 million cubic feet of concrete.
The panels would be held together by 5 billion pounds of reinforced steel with an estimated cost of at least $10.5 billion and possibly much more.
Trump supporters say they can't wait to see the beginning of the border wall construction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That wall will get built and Mexico's going to pay for that wall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he will try to build a wall and I think he will try to secure our borders.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If people want to come into the country, they should do it legally.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): But in Mexico, the idea of a wall is often shrugged off as a bump in the road north.
Jose Torres Hernandez says he has illegally crossed into the U.S. many times to find work picking fruits and vegetables. He says a wall might make crossing over a little harder but immigrants like him would always find a way to find work to feed their families.
And Armando Flores Gutierrez says he has crossed the border 25 times, starting when he was just 16, to work farm fields all over the U.S. He says keeping people like him out of the country will only hurt the U.S.
He says if he tries to remove all of the Mexicans in the United States, Donald Trump will realize what a huge mistake that is and how much the U.S. economy depends on Mexican immigrants -- Ed Lavandera, CNN, Mexico City.
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ALLEN: We turn now to South Korea, thousands of protesters are demanding again that the president resign.
HOWELL: It is one of the largest anti-government protests there in about three decades.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HOWELL (voice-over): You're looking at these live images this hour in Seoul, South Korea, where is it 7:23 there. President Park Geun-hye is accused of letting a long-time friend influence the running of the government for personal gain.
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ALLEN: CNN's Paula Hancocks is joining us now. She is there in the crowd somewhere from Seoul.
Paula, tell us about this continued uprising and how many people are demanding she has to go.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Natalie, this was expected to be big and it is absolutely massive, as you say, one of the biggest anti-government protests we've seen in this country in decades.
Now police at this point are estimating there may be around 200,000 people here; organizers say it is going to be closer to 1 million. So somewhere in the middle of those two figures, you would assume.
The place is packed here in downtown Seoul, there are people of all ages. You have families. You have children. You have a remarkably large number of high school students and university students. And then, of course, going all the way up to the elderly.
So all ages but just one simple message, down with Park (INAUDIBLE) we've been hearing. They want President Park Geun-hye to resign. This is because of the scandal, the fact that she allegedly gave classified documents to a close confidante of her who then allegedly benefitted from that.
She has currently been arrested and charged with fraud and abuse of power. And President Park Geun-hye, despite having apologized twice to the nation, is under fire here. There are a lot of people calling for her to step down, many of them telling me they're not going to stop protesting until she resigns.
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HOWELL: Paula, we're looking at these images. As you say, the streets there are just absolutely filled with people. You say there are students, there are people who are frustrated with the president there. Talk to us about -- and you alluded to this -- but just a little more exactly why.
What are the reasons for their frustration?
The president has apologized. She said that she took responsibility for it but still people are incredibly frustrated.
HANCOCKS: Well, that's right. A lot of people I've spoken to have said that they feel they have been lied to. They feel that their president has not told them the truth and has kept things from them.
This is not the only reason that they want her to step down. There has been some growing frustration with President Park Geun-hye over the past few years. Of course there was that farewell sinking (ph), that ferry that killed more than 300 people. There is still a lot of residual anger towards the president because of that.
And towards the government, assuming there was collusion in that and that was what caused partly the lack of being able to save more people. There are a number of reasons, there is disillusion with this government. Of course, this isn't across the board. I have to point out, there
are a lot of people who still support President Park but this is really a coming together today of not just people who are angry about this latest scandal; this is people who are angry about what they perceive as continuing scandals.
There are labor unions here. Anybody with a grievance against the government, against President Park, is here today. So this has just been building for some time.
ALLEN: Paula Hancocks, we appreciate it. You have to wonder as the president looks out over that crowd, what she is thinking about holding onto her job. Thank you, Paula.
HOWELL: 7:26 in the evening, we're looking at this crowd; so many people on the streets, demanding that President Park resign. Paula Hancocks, thank you so much, in the crowd there. We'll stay in touch with you.
ALLEN: Donald Trump made disparaging statements against Muslims while running for president. Next hear what some American Muslims have to say about the country's next president.
HOWELL: Plus residents say that ISIS commanders have started to flee Mosul. The brutal tactics that they use, though, to retreat as CNN NEWSROOM continues.
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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM at 5:30 on the U.S. East Coast. I'm George Howell.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Natalie Allen. Here are our top stories.
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ALLEN: In the U.S., some Muslims are demonstrating against Donald Trump's presidential win. They haven't forgotten him saying he wanted to ban all Muslims from entering the country.
HOWELL: Still, there are some people that tell our Jessica Schneider a Trump presidency is great for the American dream. Here is her report.
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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Hamtramck, Michigan, where Muslims make up a large portion of the population, there is widespread uncertainty about a Trump presidency.
SCHNEIDER: Are you angry at the things he said throughout this election? HASAN ALTAII, MICHIGAN VOTER: Definitely. I mean, you got to be kind to people.
TRUMP: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shut down of Muslims entering the United States.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Trump made that promise last December, but dialed it back by the time his party's convention convened in Cleveland.
TRUMP: We must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.
The Muslim ban is something that in some form has morphed into an extreme vetting.
SCHNEIDER: But tonight, his statement calling for a total and complete shut down of Muslims entering the United States is still on his official website. For some Muslims and many others, the rhetoric crossing the line.
FAYROUZ SAAD, MICHIGAN VOTER: I don't know how he got elected, I'll be honest.
SCHNEIDER: Fayrouz Saad's parents immigrated to Dearborn, Michigan, from Lebanon. She works on immigration issues at Detroit's mayor's office and says Trump's divisive rhetoric has made Muslim lives more difficult.
SAAD: I'm definitely angry. I don't want to say I'm fearful because I still have faith in the democratic process.
TANIA SHATILA, MICHIGAN VOTER: It is inexcusable the things that he said. It was shocking to hear, it is very scary as well.
SCHNEIDER: Tania Shatila runs this Middle Eastern bakery. She is still hopeful.
SHATILA: We can't stand against him, you know?
We have to support him and wish for the best. So, hopefully, he will instill that unity that he's been saying in his speeches ever since he won.
SCHNEIDER: Nedal Tamir has a much different view.
NEDAL TAMER, MICHIGAN VOTER: And Mr. Trump should be held as an image of the American dream.
SCHNEIDER: Tamer voted for Trump and convinced his family to vote for him, too. As a small business owner, he sees Trump as a role model and believes he speaks from strength. He wants his fellow Muslims to see it the same way.
What do you say when they have shock or anger? TAMER: I say to them the country is going to be great.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Well, another Muslim Trump voter is Asra Numani (ph). She is also the co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement and calls herself a silent and secret Trump supporter. Numani (ph) tells our Anderson Cooper why.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Asra (ph), explain why you voted for Donald Trump.
What made you as a Muslim woman choose him over Secretary Clinton?
ASRA NUMANI (PH), MUSLIM TRUMP VOTER: The condition of my life has not improved over the last eight years and I'm a life-long Democrat, I'm a lifelong liberal, I believe in progressive values and so I wanted a new opportunity for change. But I hope what will happen most importantly for me as a Muslim is that --
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NUMANI (PH): -- we will deal honestly without obfuscation on the issue of Islamic extremism. That's been my greatest disappointment over the last eight years. We've been doing this dance and I know that people have a lot of well-intentioned arguments for why they believe Muslims are better protected by not talking about the Islam in Islamic extremism.
But I believe that we have to confront the issue honestly and directly. And I saw in Donald Trump's national security solutions a clarity on that point that is, to me, very important.
COOPER: I understand that in hearing that Secretary Clinton that The Clinton Foundation had received money from Qatar or Saudi Arabia, that that also made a big impact on you.
NUMANI (PH): It did. Anderson, I believe in the feminist movement that is the pantsuit revolution. I want to see a woman as the chief executive of the United States of America.
But at the same time, I don't want to compromise on values that are really important to me. And the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to me, as a Muslim, represent the darkest interpretation of Islam that is out there in the world. And they represent a denial of progressive values. That's my moral consistency.
And when I saw that first memo that showed the documentation of money from the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia to The Clinton Foundation, I was so distressed.
What really killed it for me, though, was the e-mail from Secretary Clinton to her aide, John Podesta, acknowledging that the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia are funding and financing and supporting the Islamic State and other radical Muslim groups.
That's the kind of honesty that I want to see in policy and, unfortunately, for whatever reasons, I haven't seen that delivered in the Democratic platform on solving this issue of terrorism in our world today.
COOPER: Obviously, you know, we talked to a number of Muslim Americans, who expressed fear about Donald Trump, about some of the rhetoric that came up during the campaign, particularly the idea initially that Donald Trump seemed to have of banning Muslims from coming into the United States -- a temporary ban, he called it, on Muslims coming into the United States until they figure out what the heck was going on.
He seemed to have kind of morphed that into bans on people from areas where there is Islamic terrorism.
Did that concern you at all?
Because the argument on that was not only is that un-American to ban people based on a religion but that it actually alienates the very people who we should be trying to bring closer in order to fight radical Islam, Islamic terrorism.
NUMANI (PH): You know, Anderson, I've watched you go from the streets of Orlando to Paris in the wake of this blood that has been spilled in the name of Islamic extremism. And it breaks my heart that we don't deal clearly and honestly with this problem that confronts us by thinking that we are protecting Muslims by not talking about it.
That is the propaganda movement of the government that want us to avoid a conversation on ideology. Qatar and Saudi Arabia don't want us to talk about Islam. Because if we do, it indicts the Islam that they practice.
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ALLEN: George, Asra (ph) is an example that you can't lump everyone in piles, all Muslims this, or African Americans that, or women this, everyone has their own individual thoughts on things for sure.
HOWELL: And that is the danger in this election, there's so many different schools of thought about who did what, but you do always have to look at the nuance because there's a lot of nuance to it.
Still ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, the Iraqi military says it's made its gains against ISIS in Mosul, it's making gains. A live report from Iraq as NEWSROOM continues.
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(MUSIC PLAYING) HOWELL: The battle for Mosul continues in Iraq and we are now getting reports that ISIS has executed more civilians.
ALLEN: The U.N. says the terror group killed at least 60 civilians this week, some of the victims' bodies were hung at intersections with notes, alleging they collaborated with Iraqi forces.
We all know ISIS would kill some people who had cell phones, thinking they were collaborating and that has happened as well.
HOWELL: The news of these killings comes as Iraqi forces push into two neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city of Mosul and are facing tough resistance from ISIS.
The images that you see here from the Iraqi defense ministry appear to show civilians cheering Iraqi troops as they advance onward. People in Mosul say that ISIS commanders have started to flee the city but, as they do it, they're leaving teenage combatants to fight in their place.
For more on what's happening, let's go to live to CNN's Phil Black, who is in Irbil, Iraq, following this story.
Phil, first of all, let's talk about these executions that we're hearing, the reports of 60 people killed in Mosul.
What can you tell us about this?
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: George, there are now frequent accounts of these atrocities. Dozens of people just in the last week -- that's what we heard from the United Nations -- is what we heard from people in Mosul directly.
Mass executions of people that are condemned for allegedly collaborating in some way with the Iraqi and Kurdish operation to take back Mosul from ISIS.
As you mentioned, there these are people who were condemned simply on the basis of owning a mobile phone. So dozens of people, as you described, some of the bodies strung up across town of major intersections from electrical poles, wearing orange clothing, words that brand them as traitors to ISIS and its cause.
All of this really in a terrifying warning to the remaining population, which is still significant. It's huge. It's believed to be somewhere in the order of 1 million people or above. All of this is a warning to them to stick with ISIS to the bitter end -- George.
ALLEN: So interesting -- Phil, this is Natalie -- you see people cheering and waiving hello to the Iraqi forces as they come in there to Eastern Mosul and then you see the darkened gray sky with the tanks on the other side of town. We were all told this could be weeks, this could be months.
How is it looking?
Does anyone know?
[05:45:00]
BLACK: It's certainly not imminent, that's certain. From the early rapid progress that we've seen over the last three weeks or so, that was when we saw the operation move in and circle Mosul, take back the towns and villages that surround it, we are now in a much harder phase of the battle.
So while that operation is still underway, to circle the town and take back those settlements that ISIS has occupied, surrounding the city, on the eastern side of Mosul in the outer suburbs and areas, that's where Iraqi forces have moved in and have been now engaged for some days now in a daily street battle.
It's urban warfare and a particularly brutal example of it. They talk about endless waves of suicide car bombings, well-entrenched sniper positions, fighters using the narrow streets they know so well as well as the tunnels that they have been digging beneath the city itself.
All of it a very well prepared, highly motivated defense of ISIS' occupation of Mosul. So every day we're hearing about Iraqi forces taking a new piece of territory, moving into a new neighborhood there in the east.
But by their own admission, it is slow, it is difficult. But they say they are committed and they're committed to doing it in such a way that minimizes the civilian casualties. For them they say it is and it should be key winning back Mosul at the cost of huge civilian losses would not be much of a victory at all --Natalie.
HOWELL: Phil, as you were explaining all that, we were looking at some images, showing soldiers, troops kicking down doors, this battle going street by street, house by house, bloody and slow, as this process continues.
But those forces are making advances into Mosul. CNN Phil Black live for us there in Irbil, Iraq. Phil, thank you for the reporting. We'll stay in touch with you.
ALLEN: Derek Van Dam has joined us here on the set because he is about to explain a new weather phenomenon.
(WEATHER REPORT)
[05:50:00]
ALLEN: We'll be right back.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(SPORTS)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ALLEN: The U.S. force still recovering from a divisive presidential
race and political language may never be the same.
HOWELL: Here is a look at some of the words that Trump has had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Donald Trump's distinctive use of language during the election campaign...
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would bomb the (INAUDIBLE) out of them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): -- has left many commonly used words and phrases forever changed.
TRUMP: That will be proven out bigly.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): His popular brand of insults are now unforgettable.
The label "lightweight," for instance, was handed out widely.
TRUMP: This lightweight, you know John Harwood, this lightweight, this guy who came out, he was shaking, he was so nervous.
I watched lightweight Marco Rubio, he was standing right here.
The attorney general of New York is a total lightweight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): One of the Trump's other favorites, a simple bad --
TRUMP: But we have some bad hombres here and we're going to get them out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Other insults Trump tailored for specific rivals.
TRUMP: He has failed in this campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Early in the campaign, he leveled a seemingly mild jibe at fellow Republican candidate --
[05:55:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): -- Jeb Bush.
TRUMP: He is very low energy. I'm not used to that kind of a person.
So low energy that every time you watch him, you fall asleep.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): But the label stuck. TRUMP: I defined him. I gave him this term "low energy." I said he's a low energy individual. We do not need in this country low energy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): And Bush ended up dropping out early in the primary season.
Trump's nickname for his main rival, Crooked Hillary, became part of common language among his fans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crooked Hillary has been proven to be crooked once again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Some of Trump's insults, however, seem to backfire.
TRUMP: The only thing she has got going is the woman's card.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Clinton jumped to spin this one in her favor.
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: If fighting for women's health care is playing the woman card, then deal me in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Her campaign even sending out actual Woman Cards to donors.
And Trump's now infamous "nasty woman" comment.
CLINTON: -- to replenish the --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Such a nasty woman.
CLINTON: -- trust fund.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Ended up on T-shirts, worn by the likes of Katy Perry, a big Clinton supporter.
But there was one word that cut across the political divide this election season -- both Trump and Democratic candidate, Bernie Sanders, sharing a strong New York accent and unique way of pronouncing the word -- huge.
TRUMP: You know you have a huge problem with wastewater.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VT.: Huge voter turnouts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): A word that encapsulates both the characters and the magnitude of the 2016 election.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: And thanks so much for joining us from Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen. HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. For our viewers in the United States, "NEW DAY" is next. For other viewers around the world, "BUSINESS TRAVELER" starts in just a moment.
