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Donald Trump Thank You Tour; Final Journey For Chapacoense; ISIS Leaving Toxic; Swirling Phone Calls Over World Leaders; Thailand Has a New King; Wildfires Spread. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired December 02, 2016 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:00] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Donald Trump goes on the road to thank hi supporters giving his first extended speech since the election in hopes of uniting America. Will he?
The victims in this weeks' deadly plane crash in Colombia prepare to make their final journey home.
The struggle to put out the toxic fire lit by ISIS at an oil well.
Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom live from Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is on his post-election thank you tour. He kicked it off Thursday night in Ohio. Trump's victory rally sounded a lot like his campaign stops. He had all the familiar rhetoric while promising to reunite the country after such a divisive election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT-ELECT: We condemn bigotry and prejudice in all of its forms. We denounce all of the hatred, and we forcefully reject the language of exclusion and operation. We're going to come together. We have no choice. We have to. And it's better. It's better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Trump also did not stray from controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Do you agree with my stance that if people burn the American flag there should be consequences?
(CROWD CHEERING)
Although we had a lot of fun fighting Hillary, didn't we?
(CROWD CHANTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: That's the crowd chanting "lock her up" once again. Trump also confirmed he wants retired Marine General James Mattis seen here as defense secretary. Mattis needs a congressional waiver to be confirmed and some on Capitol Hill already plan to say no.
Jim Acosta has more on Trump's victory lap including the push back on the deal he cut to keeps some jobs from heading to Mexico.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: After an election that divided the nation in weeks into sometimes messy transition, Donald Trump he ran the feel-good victory lap he's been seeking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: These companies aren't going to be leaving anymore. They are not going to be taking people's hearts out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Trump toured the Carrier furnace back to Indiana that he had railed against during the campaign when the plan announced that it was shipping its jobs to Mexico. A move he vowed to block.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And you know what's going to happen? They are not going to move. They are not going to move.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Now under a deal brokered by Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence who pulled some strings as Indiana's governor, Carrier is instead receiving $7 million in state tax breaks over 10 years, saving 1,000 jobs at the factory but still allowing 600 positions to head south of the border.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The goodwill that you have engendered by doing this all over the world, frankly, but within our country, you watch how fast you are going to make it up. Because so many people are going to be buying Carrier air conditioners, you know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: While his aides are touting the Carrier as a big win, it's the kind of deal Trump once blasted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to give them a little here, we're going to give them low interest loans, we're going to give -- you don't have to do any of that. Too complicated, too much corruption involved or could be involved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders warned of unintended consequences, writing in an op-ed, "Trump has endangered the jobs that workers who were previously safe in the United States. Why? Because he has signaled to every corporation in America that they can threaten to off shore jobs in exchange for business friendly tax benefits and incentives."
House Speaker Paul Ryan asked why the fuss?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL RYAN, U.S. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I'm pretty happy we are keeping jobs in America, aren't you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Trump is busy making other moves, scheduling a meeting with North Dakota democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp. A transition source says Heitcamp is under consideration for energy secretary which would throw her Senate seat into a special election. Potential pickup for republicans. All of it a mystery, the senator says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEIDI HEITKAMP, (D) NORTH DAKOTA SENATOR: I have no idea. Honestly, you know as much as I know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: One key democrat, Senator Elizabeth Warren cautions she is not ready to work with Trump given what she has seen so far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIZABETH WARREN, MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR: If Donald Trump wants to run an administration based on bigotry and he wants to follow through on trickledown economics, run an economy that only works for those at the top and doesn't work for anyone else, than I can't help on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Joining me to discuss all of this is Larry Sabato. He is the director of the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia. Hi there, Larry. Thank you again for being with us.
Well, Donald Trump is on his thank you tour sounding a lot like his campaign rally, at the same time also trying to sound a tone of unity and say he can bring the country together. What was your take on his rally?
[03:04:59] LARRY SABATO, VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR POLITICS DIRECTOR: Well, there were a lot of contradictory messages. This was either the last speech of the concluded 2016 campaign or it was the first speech of his 2020 re-election campaign. There were certainly parts of it that were unifying, but there were
also parts that were terribly divisive. Certainly his followers, at various points, continued to shout "lock her up." Her, of course being Hillary Clinton. That doesn't sound very unifying.
ALLEN: Well, as president-elect and as president, that will be his job to see what he can do moving forward with those tones because that was celebrated during the campaign and this might just be perhaps a little leftover.
SABATO: Well, it is certainly leftover. But Donald Trump has not made any adjustment between being a candidate and being the president-elect and eventually the president.
When you are president elect or president, your words matter and the truth or falsity of your words matter. Just one quick example. Trump insisted before this crowd that he had scored a landslide win. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Hillary Clinton is currently, just today, 2.5 million votes ahead of Donald Trump in the popular vote. Nothing like this has happened in American history. It's the largest margin by far and his Electoral College victory was comfortable, but modest. This is not a landslide win.
If he continues to make statements like that in each of his speeches I really don't know how we will be able to cover them without spending all of our time fact checking.
ALLEN: Well, let's move to the Carrier deal which we saw him agreeing to with Mike Pence. Seven million dollars' worth of incentives to keep 1,000 jobs in the U.S. but still several hundred going to Mexico. What's your take on this development?
SABATO: It was certainly great news for hundreds of workers in that one place in Indiana and that's great for them. But you know, we have a work force approximating 160 million people. And every year millions of jobs come in to the United States and go out of the United States.
A president of the United States cannot be negotiating with individual corporations to keep jobs here, a few hundred here and a few hundred there. There isn't enough time in the day for a president to do that.
So, I think while people are delighted for the workers who kept their jobs, they are disturbed by the precedent that has been set here. No prior president has done anything like this. This is left up to the governors of individual states. And it's also left up to the labor markets, the global labor markets, not just the national labor markets.
ALLEN: Well, let's turn to his cabinet now. He is going to nominate retired Marine General James Mattis for secretary of defense, which some democrats already opposing because they say it should be a civilian position and this isn't the first general Trump's appointing.
SABATO: Trump is clearly very fond of generals. He's going to have at least three in his cabinet in immediate staff and maybe more than that.
Now having said that, Mattis has a good reputation and he will probably do a good job as secretary of defense. But he actually needs a special law passed by Congress to give him permission to serve because he's not been out of the active military for seven years. So, that shows you how unusual this appointment is.
ALLEN: And the most anticipated position, secretary of state, Trump getting push back from some of his most loyal supporters on the prospect of that job going to Mitt Romney. Listen to what former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: I have never ever in your career seen a serious adult who's wealthy, independent has been a presidential nominee suck up at the rate that Mitt Romney is sucking up.
And I'm confident he thinks now that Donald Trump is one of his closest friends, that they have so many things in common, that they are both such wise brilliant people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: So, what do you think of the possibility for Mitt Romney, how could he be on the campaign after all that he said about Donald Trump?
SABATO: It does ring credulity, no question about it. Romney didn't just oppose Trump. He called him every name in the book, you know, starting with con man. So, it's amazing. Maybe it's a good thing in terms of unifying the Republican Party of the country. One wonders whether he will get it in the end. Though I think with Trump anything is possible.
But Gingrich's comment is representative of most people in the Trump campaign that is both the top level -- and I think his base.
[03:10:07] They really dislike Mitt Romney and they are amazed that Trump is as serious as he is about possibly appointing Romney to secretary of state.
ALLEN: Well, and if he does, he will probably explain that and how he got there perhaps.
Well, finally Trump has filed an objection to the Michigan recount initiated by the Green Party. But he argued that the election was rigged before he even won. So why not do the recount?
SABATO: Well, when Trump argued the election was rigged, that was when he and most of the senior people in the Republican Party believed that he would lose. And that would have been a very convenient excuse for Donald Trump.
In his mind, I'm sure. We've proven that the election wasn't rigged because he won, or at least won the Electoral College. As far as the recount goes, I actually think he is right on that. It's not going to change anything. It's a waste of time and money. People have the right, the legal right to do it. They are following through on that right, but it's a distraction.
ALLEN: Larry Sabato, thank you so much for joining us and giving us your thoughts.
Well, a bit of a diplomatic dust up is swirling over a phone call between Donald Trump and Pakistan's Prime Minister.
CNN's Elise Labott has that.
ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It's the country criticized by the U.S. for failing to crack down on terrorism. President-elect Donald Trump says, Pakistan is doing, quote, "amazing work in every way."
A message Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Trump delivered in a phone call Wednesday, promising to play any role to solve Pakistan's problems.
Sharif's office quoting Trump as saying, "He would love to come to a fantastic country, fantastic place, a fantastic people."
Trump's team describe the conversation as production. It's a far cry from the troubled country he described during the campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Pakistan is a very, very vital problem and really vital country for us. Because they have a thing called nuclear weapons. They have to get ahold of this situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LABOTT: And no mention of his pledge to ban immigrants from terrorist havens like Pakistan. The change in tone has one long-time diplomat questioning Trump's intent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER ROBERT HILL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: But I think what we are seeing in these early days is a certain amount of winging it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LABOTT: The State Department said it had no part in briefing Trump beforehand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had no discussion with President-elect Trump prior to that call.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LABOTT: Kazakhstan announced Trump also fawned over its president who has had an iron grip on the country since 1991. It has been slammed by human rights groups for torture.
The transition said the two leaders spoke about closer ties but the President Nazarbayev said Trump told him that under his leadership Kazakhstan's success was a, quote, "miracle."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: You don't want to give off a lot of signals that you didn't mean to give and then have to, you know, reverse course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LABOTT: Trump didn't shy away from grandiose praise for U.S. adversaries on the campaign trail, saying this to NBC News about Vladimir Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If he says great things about me, I'm going to say great things about him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LABOTT: After insulting some Mexicans during the campaign, he took heat when he didn't bring up his signature issue in a meeting with Mexico's president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: As who pays for the wall we didn't discuss.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LABOTT: Despite U.S. tensions with Egypt over its crackdown of political opponents Trump had nothing but praise for President el-Sisi telling Fox Business News after meeting him in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He is a fantastic guy. Took control of Egypt and he really took control of it. There was a good chemistry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LABOTT: Now these readouts would suggest Donald Trump is striking up a rapport with world leaders with his out of the box, even casual style but words matter in diplomacy, especially now that Trump is president-elect.
India, Pakistan's arch enemy is trying to make sense of the readout, but for now let's take it a tongue and a cheek approach. The foreign ministry said it does hope that Trump would help Pakistan with the biggest problem, terrorism. Elise Labott, CNN, Washington.
ALLEN: We turn to other news now, the pain is still raw in South America after the loss of 71 people in a plane crash in Colombia. Officials there have confirmed the jet was out of fuel when it went down.
Bolivia is now launching an investigation into charter airline Lamia. Aviation authorities in Bolivia have also suspended the airline's flying permit.
Most of the passengers were from the Brazilian football team. The goalie is one of six who survived the crash. Doctors had to amputate his right leg, but they say he is sedated and doesn't know it yet.
Sixty five of the crash victims will be repatriated to Brazil on Friday.
Shasta Darlington talked with a relative of one of them.
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Roberto de Marchi was rooting for victory when his hometown team got on a plane to Colombia.
[03:15:01] Now he is in Medellin to pick up his cousin's body. One of 71 people killed on the charter flight carrying the Chapacoense soccer team.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTO DE MARCHI, RASH VICTIM'S COUSIN: I had to come here and to see and to give comfort to my family. Because they know someone is here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DARLINGTON: Nilson Folle, Jr. was a member of Chapecoense board of directors, just 29 years old. He was also the godfather to Roberto's son.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DE MARCHI: We went to this May or last August with the whole family because he was all the time saying we must be altogether. We have to be together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DARLINGTON: Chapecoense was Nilson's passion. He posted this picture days before leaving for the South America Cup final. "Let's go Chape." This kind of loss unimaginable.
All of the waiting is just agony for the families. But this is part of the process and it has to be done. Every single one of the 71 bodies has to be prepared for repatriation and burial and because it's happening three days after the crash it's going to take longer between four to nine hours per body.
Before sent to funeral homes, the bodies were identified. With no explosion or fire on impact, doctors say it wasn't complicated. They were able to match up their fingerprints to a database. The team doctor flew in from Brazil to help.
"I never in my life imagined going through this," he says. "I've been a doctor for 27 years and I never imagined a situation like this. Making it so hard to watch the final images of the scrappy team."
A Bolivia network shot what maybe the last video of Chapecoense right before Lamia flight 2933 took off. Only six people survived. The others, their bodies, due to be repatriated in military planes Friday afternoon.
Shasta Darlington, CNN, Medellin, Colombia.
ALLEN: A very tragic. ISIS has left a toxic legacy south of Mosul where oil wells still burn.
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The heat coming off of this fire is incredible. It has melted much of the ground around the well. The air it is thick and foul. It really tastes terrible. It makes your eyes water.
ALLEN: Up next, why efforts to put out the flames could make things worse. Our Phil Black is there.
[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: In Aleppo, Syria rebel groups are forming an alliance in one final attempt to hold back a crushing government assault. The new coalition called the Aleppo army is fighting against sweeping gains by Syrian government forces in the eastern part of the city. They have been moving in.
Meantime, the U.N. said at least 27,000 civilians have been displaced in the last few days. And it is still asking for a pause in fighting to deliver aid. But it seems like that just never happens.
CNN's Muhammad Lila joins me now live from Istanbul. Muhammad, tell us more about that U.N. report painting such a dire picture of the situation on the ground.
MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Natalie, that's right. There's even a newer U.N. report that suggests as many as 31,000 people have been displaced because of the fighting in eastern Aleppo. They've also identified at least 400 civilians inside the eastern part of the city that are in desperate need of emergency medical evacuation.
Now how those people are going to be evacuated when both sides are still striking and fighting each other is anyone's guess. And to give you a sense of the gravity of the situation, the U.N. report says they sent the fact finding mission into one of the neighborhoods that has been retaken by government forces. This is a neighborhood that is normally lively and has people that are
going about living their lives. The U.N. report said that they found that neighborhood completely empty of any civilians.
And of course, the big dark shadow hanging over all of this conflict, especially in eastern Aleppo, is that winter is coming, and a lot of the places where the refugees and the displaced people are being sheltered simply don't have the necessary survival tools to survive the winter.
Some people are even being sheltered in abandoned factories, for example. So, imagine 15 to 20,000 people showing up in a factory. They need blankets, they need food, they need medicine, they need all the things they need to survive. And the factory is basically just an empty building.
So, certainly all of this is contributing to the humanitarian crisis that's only getting worse.
ALLEN: Absolutely. It's unreal scenario and it seems like it's always two steps back ward and not a step forward. Muhammad Lila, thank you so much, from Istanbul for us.
The battle to drive ISIS from Mosul in Iraq rages on. Just to the south, one town is still suffering even though ISIS left months ago. The terror group scorched earth tactics have left people with a toxic legacy.
Our Phil Black is there.
BLACK: As ISIS retreated from this territory, it transformed the landscape into this apocalyptic vision. The group blew up and set fire to 19 oil wells near the town of Qayyera. We don't know the motivation.
More ruthless, vengeful destruction or perhaps the hope it would provide cover from air power above. The fires have burned since August, lowering the sky, concealing the sun, layering the earth and people's lungs with toxic, black filth.
The heat coming off this fire is incredible. It has melted much of the ground around the well. The air it is thick and foul. It really tastes terrible. It makes your eyes water. This is the poisonous atmosphere. That people in this part of Iraq have been breathing in and living with for months.
There's now a desperate effort to fix the wells but lead engineer Iklaf Mohammad (Ph) tells me it's a difficult complex process.
He says you can't just put the fire out because that would release vast amounts of deadly fumes. First, earth moving equipment is used to contain the fire and channel the bubbling oil into reservoirs.
Then workers dig through the flames, while trying to keep the oil and their equipment cool as they haul out mounds of smoking sludge and earth. Gaze through the flames and you can see the fire's red-hot core.
They need to get through all of this to find the head of the well, only then can they determine the extent of the damage and what must be done to close. Workers here say the nature of the job is always challenging and dangerous and in the beginning they have to cope with ISIS, as well.
This man says, "You'll be trying to dig out the fire and they will be shooting at you. You will be using the hose and mortars will start coming in."
The group left mines around the burning wells. Most haven't been cleared yet. It's too early to accurately estimate the value of the wasted oil or the cost of the repair work. The final figure will be many millions of dollars. The human cost is more disturbing.
[03:24:57] Families live beneath the towering columns of smoke and the sky that always feels like twilight. Children's faces and hands are stained by the same air they breathe.
A dark shadow now hangs other their health, their future because of yet another toxic legacy left behind by ISIS.
Phil Black, CNN, Qayyarah, Northern Iraq.
ALLEN: The children keep smiling.
The United Nations admits it did not do enough to prevent the cholera outbreak in Haiti that killed at least 10,000 people after the 2010 earthquake.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAN KI-MOON, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: On behalf of the United Nations, I want to say very clearly we apologize to the Haitian people. We simply did not do enough with regard to the cholera outbreak and its spread in Haiti. We are profoundly sorry for our wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: The Haitian ambassador to the U.N. welcomed the Ban's acknowledgment but Haiti still needs money from the U.N. members to improve its health care, water and sanitation systems.
Russia's leader says he wants to work with Donald Trump. But something he is just trying to manipulate the U.S. president-elect. We'll look into that coming next to you. You are watching CNN Newsroom.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. Live from Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen. Here's our top stories.
[03:29:58] U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is on a thank you tour. At a kickoff rally in Ohio he promised to unite the country and secure American interests.
Trump also publicly confirmed his choice for secretary of defense. He wants retired Marine General James Mattis to lead the Pentagon.
South Korean opposition plan to vote next week on impeaching the President Park Geun-hye. She denies any wrongdoing but has offered to resign. Park is accused of letting her friend view confidential documents and presidential speeches.
Thailand has a new king, Crowned Prince Vajiralongkorn has accepted the government's invitation to assume his father's role. He honored his late father a few hours ago with a Buddhist prayer ritual in Bangkok. His father died in October.
Tens of thousands of Muslims are protesters in Jakarta, Indonesia. The say the city's Christian governor insulted Islam during a campaign speech and should not be allowed to govern a majority Muslim city. A similar rally last month led to violent clashes with police.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again signaled he wants to work Donald Trump's White House. But some skeptics say Mr. Putin has an ulterior motive.
CNN's Brian Todd takes a look.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Trumpeting and fanfare for Vladimir Putin as the Russian strong man and president delivered his equivalent of the state of the union. American diplomats and analysts are combing through Putin's words for hints about how Russia's relationship may change under the incoming Trump administration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (TRANSLATED): We count on uniting our efforts with the United States to fight a real, not a made up threat, which is international terrorism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: The example he cited, Russia's intervention in Syria but there's a big difference there and how Russia and the Americans want to fight terrorism. Putin's speech comes at a time when Russia's relation is at the lowest point since the Cold War. But Putin said it's important for Russia's dealings with the U.S. to be on a, quote, "equal and mutually beneficial basis."
Experts say it is pure swagger from the Russian president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIA IOFFE, POLITICO MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTING WRITER: He was trying to say we are coming now from a different position from a position of strength and let's work together but you have to respect us, and you can't talk down to us and you can't lecture us.
(END VIDEO CLIP) TODD: Putin feels emboldened, turning the tide for Bashar al-Assad in
Syria. He brushed off as a myth U.S. accusations that Russian intelligence meddled in the America's election process. Putin's tenuous olive branch comes after a phone call he had with Trump where he says they agreed the relationship has to be straightened out.
One of Putin's ulterior motives could be to get the new American president to lift or loosen sanctions on Russia, level after Putin's invasion of Crimea. Trump said he'd consider doing that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We will be looking at that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: Putin is a master at exploiting those openings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW ROJANSKY, WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER DIRECTOR He chooses very carefully the setting, the environment that he wants in place when he has a meeting with a foreign leader, whether that's bringing a dog to a meeting to scare Angela Merkel or whether that's invading Syria so that he can have a different conversation about Ukraine and sanctions with the new American administration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: But some experts worry if Trump acts impulsively or doesn't rely on solid advice he could be an easy target for Putin's manipulations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES GOLDGEIER, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL SERVICE DEAN: Former KGB agents watching trump's behavior he is salivating, thinking, oh, my gosh, like this guy throwing a temper tantrum, totally undisciplined, can't stay focused. I think Putin is thinking to himself, this is going to be an incredible God send for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: We asked President-elect Trump's transition team for a response to that, we didn't hear back. Analyst say Putin has a short window of time to win concessions from the new American president.
They point to President Obama's attempt to reset with Russia early in his administration and George W. Bush saying he'd looked Putin in the eye and got a sense of his soul. It wasn't long before Putin and both of those American presidents couldn't stand each other.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
ALLEN: Well wait and see where that relationship goes, won't we? Well, a political shot in France where President Francois Hollande
said he will not run for a second term. But it's the first time in over 50 years a sitting French president has decided not to seek re- election. Mr. Hollande has some of the lowest approval ratings ever. His administration struggled to revive the economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, FRENCH PRESIDENT (TRANSLATED): Power, the exercise of power, the corridors of power, the rituals of power have never made me lose perspective, either over myself or the situation because I have to act.
And today, I'm conscious of the risks that would result from a step, my own, that did not unite enough people behind me. I have therefore decided not to be a candidate for the presidential election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:35:04] ALLEN: Mr. Hollande leaves behind a divided left. The socialist candidate could be Prime Minister Manuel Valls that Francois Fillon of the center right conservative is leading in the polls.
The controversial Marine le Pen from the far right National Front has also been gaining ground.
The rise of populism across Europe will face a major test in Austria. Voters there hit the polls on Sunday. Leftist candidate Alexander Van der Bellen who you see here on the left, won the election in May, but a re-run was ordered because of voting irregularities.
And Norbert Hofer could become the first far right head of state in Europe since World War II. He has been very vocal against the hot button issue of immigration.
CNN's Atika Shubert reports from Vienna on the so-called identity movement.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Vienna, Austria, the city is a living monument to centuries of European history and heritage. And at its center is a statue of Empress Maria Teresa, sitting on her throne.
Monday night, Austria's far right identity movement arrived, lights flashing, they use a crane to hoist a giant black niqab, the Islamic face veil onto the statue and they pinned this sign, "Islamization, no thanks," it reads.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTIN SELLNER, ACTIVIST: My generation was never ask, if you want this mass immigration and if you want Islamization as population replacement in your country?
(END VIDEO CLIP) SHUBERT: Twenty seven year-old Martin Sellner is a veteran of the
identity movement, posting frequent YouTube videos and wearing colorful t-shirt he designs himself with slogans like Europa nostra, or our Europe. He met us at a typically Viennese cafe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SELLNER: My biggest fear is that at some point demographics could kill democracy.
SHUBERT: So you're not a white supremacist?
SELLNER: No, not at all. Not at all. I think we're just patriots. I think the problem is not people, the problem is the system. That's why we also reject, like the anti-Semitism, or something like that which is just identifying the problems with the southern people. I think that's stupid and wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: But the identity movement does single out one group - Muslims. Only an estimated 7 percent of Austrians are Muslims, but in Vienna and the its suburbs where Sellner grew up, the demographics are more than 12 percent. With some neighborhoods majority Muslim. Sellner claims this is islamization.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SELLNER: A majority of them is largely against democracy, anti- Semitic, (Inaudible) and more than 70 percent of them say that for them their ethnic tribal identity is more important than the Austrian citizenship.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: Last year, Austria was overwhelmed with refugees, most moved on to Germany, but 90,000 stayed to claim asylum in Austria, prompting the government to cap refugee applications at just 80 a day, until an annual limit of 37,500 is reached this year.
But that wasn't enough for Sellner. He and other identity movement activists hand out flyers calling for Austria to shut its borders altogether. And now he believes that God emperor Donald Trump, as he cheekily refers to the U.S. President-elect, will bring the change Sellner wants in Europe.
Do you think there will be a Trump effect?
SELLNER: Yes, absolutely. The idea that you have to rise to preserve your identity to close your borders, to yes, to be patriotic, without any feeling of guilt.
SHUBERT: But cultural blends do have their benefits.
SELLNER: I think it's possible to have -- to have different ethnic communities, especially in Vienna, for example, where we're drinking coffee something that was brought here by the Turks. But does it really have to be a complete exchange of population?
SHUBERT: Vienna's famous cafe lounge is an equal balance of black coffee and creamy milk foam. It seems for Sellner that blend is fine for drinking, but people, he says, need a different balance.
Atika Shubert, CNN, Vienna.
ALLEN: We want to turn now to the state of Tennessee. The death toll has risen to 11 since wildfires swept through the Gatlinburg area this week. Dozens of people have been injured. The fires are blamed for scorching thousands of acres and burning hundreds of buildings and homes.
Meantime, crews are extending their search in to previously inaccessible areas to look for those who are missing. One man, searching for his wife and daughters, say he is hoping for a miracle.
The fires are still burning across the southeast. Our meteorologist Derek Van Sam is following that story for us. And Derek, there is some rain that has come to the southeast but Gatlinburg, it's such an important area economic area, this it's a touristy area as well for people, not only the people that live but people that work there.
[03:40:10] DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And all the people that visit the area. In fact, you, myself, I'm sure both of us have been there. I know I have.
ALLEN: I have.
VAN DAM: And it is lovely place. And to see those images it's absolutely devastating. So, we've investigated just how many fires are ongoing across this area and the coverage of this particular chimney top two fire is what they call it. The one that burned through Gatlinburg.
And we've loaded on Google Earth here just the scar, the burning area. There's Pigeon Forge to the north. Here's Gatlinburg. This is the chimney top two fire. And it just gives you a perspective how large this fire actually is.
And we calculated some of the numbers, and this is really astounding. You have to see. It's burned over 26 square miles, which is equivalent to 17,000 acres, and guess what, that land consumed from the chimney top two fire is more than that of all of Manhattan.
So if you have traveled to New York you know just how big it is. But you can imagine when you put this up against the fire and the burned area, so far, that is a significant amount of coverage.
Well, we want to show you this before and after images, courtesy of Digital Globe 2016. And you can see some of the burn scars left over from the fire as it swept through this region. You see that shading of red and orange that of course is the shrubbery, the trees.
And if we zoom in even a little bit closer, you'll be able to see some of the homes. And not to belittle the situation, but these are people's memories. These are people's livelihoods that we're talking about here destroyed in a matter of moments. I mean, it's really difficult to see this but it's important that we get the story out there.
Because it has been so devastating for the southeast. The fires that have just plagued this particular region.
Of course, there has been some much-needed rainfall. But we've talked to experts and the two to three inches of rain that fell over the past couple of days is only enough to really help to quell the fires at least for one or two days from now.
But the drought is so persistent across this region. We need a multi- day rain event to help completely extinguish the fires. Right now that chimney top two fire is at zero percent containment. So it is still smoldering around the outer periphery and still has a potential to spread before rain actually settles in.
So the good news is there is some light at the end of the tunnel here. We have a storm system that is going to bring several days of rain to the south and east. Will it be enough? Only time will tell. But there is potential for at least a few inches of rainfall across this region, especially to the south of the ongoing fires that continue to batter the southeastern United States. Natalie, very difficult to see.
ALLEN: Right. And that the fire that you were describing there, do they know how that started?
VAN DAM: Unfortunately, they believe that it was man made, Natalie.
ALLEN: It makes it much even worse, doesn't it?
VAN DAM: Yes, absolutely.
ALLEN: All right, Derek. Thank you.
Well, the effort to end modern-day slavery. Some high school students have joined in racing to save the lives of trafficking victims. We will have their story and their effort for you coming up next here on CNN Newsroom.
[03:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: Hundreds of high school students in Hong Kong have pushed themselves to exhaustion. Running a 24-hour endurance race to save the lives of human trafficking victims.
CNN's parent company Turner was a sponsor of the event.
Alexandra Field with the CNN Freedom Project shows us how the students did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ready, set.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some of these teenagers are athletes, runners, and swimmers used to competition but few of these are faced a challenge like this. For 24 hours, teams of eight from Hong Kong-based schools will run continuous relay laps, a bold mission to raise awareness of modern-day slavery and money to fight human trafficking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really like important for each other, for all of us to motivate one another.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And just keeping the main idea in mind that we are doing this for a good cause. And this is 24 hours, compared to our entire lives which most people go through.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FIELD: The global slavery index estimates there are 48.5 million enslaved people across the world and that two thirds of them are in Asia. For the seventh year, the nonprofit running to stop traffic is putting on this race entirely organized by high school students.
They race along Hong Kong's Victoria Peak and partner with runners in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and South Korea. Together the Asia relays race raised more than 700,000 U.S. dollars since 2010.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And slowly I started to go back to my home roots. And when I found out more about slavery in India how it manage in many different forms, I felt really bad because I thought that I'm living in such a privileged area in Hong Kong. I was to go back and I am not really able to do some change. I slowly got more interested in the 24 Hour Race itself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FIELD: At 5 o'clock on a Sunday morning the finish line feels far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very, very tired. Four hours to go. A few of us have injuries and some of us are starting to get sick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you get a cramp and you are running and you feel like you can't go on anymore, just think about what they're going through, and then keep ongoing for them when you can't go on for yourself. You want to give up, just go on for the cause that you have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FIELD: The fuel for these runners, fighting for so many others.
Alexandra Field, CNN, Hong Kong.
ALLEN: For more on that story and other stories, you can go to cnn.com/freedom for our Freedom Project stories that we do here. Coming up, kids discover Santa comes in all different colors.
[03:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAN DAM: I'm CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam for a quick look at your weather watch.
We start across the United States where cold air and winter-like conditions are starting to settle in for many locations specifically downwind from the Great Lakes. Lake effect snow showers kicking in to full effect and mountain snow developing across the northern Rockies. That's going to help to build up some of the snow base at the ski resorts out west.
Here's a look at our forecast radar. A few showers anticipated across central and western sections of Texas. Some of that moisture will make its way towards the four corners. It will be cold enough for that to remain in the frozen variety.
So, a few snow showers expected just west of Denver. But look at our temperature trend over the next seven days. Oh, yes. You see that cold air starting to build from Canada that is going to bring some the coldest air of the season so far across much of central and eastern sections of the United States.
That's really for the middle of next week. Vancouver, British Columbia, nine degrees with rain showers. Of course, snow for the higher elevations, 16 for San Francisco. Denver one lonely degree above freezing.
If you are traveling in or out of the big apple, temperatures around nine degrees for the day today. And we stay fairly temp rate through the course of the week. We cool off somewhat into Atlanta by Sunday. A few shower and storms across Central America.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PRESIDENT: Five, four, three, two, one!
(APPLAUSE)
Merry Christmas, everybody!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: And there it is. The Obama's officially welcome the holidays lighting the national Christmas tree on Thursday, the last time they will carry out that tradition as the first family of the U.S. President Obama called for unity, decency and hope this holiday season.
Well, in the run-up to Christmas, we know Santa's are a fixture across the U.S. malls. At shopping centers big and small they greet children, they ask them the presents they want and they have a standard look, too. Red coats, fur caps, white beards.
But as our Minneapolis, Minnesota affiliate WCCO found Santa's can be full of surprises.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Just Saturday I was doing a party for an event and one child said, "Santa, you are brown." And I said, yes, I am. I said but Santa comes in many different colors. He just said, oh. I gave him a candy cane and he ran off. You know, kids are just kids, they are very innocent they just love Santa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: They just want Santa to bring them their toys.
Well, finally here, cleaning up after man's best friend maybe the worst part of being a dog owner. But one puppy aims to fix that. He may not be house broken, but he has another unique talent.
And here's Jeanne Moos to tell you about it.
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ever wished your pet would clean up its own mess? Meet Pablo a 3-month-old pit bull.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I have my chains, boy?
MOOS: He belongs to a 21-year-old Texas rapper who calls himself Billie bands. When he went out of town, Billie left Pablo at a friend's and Pablo had an accident on the bathroom floor.
[03:55:04] This is what his caretaker came home to, a toilet paper covered puddle. Billie, whose real name is Acelin Hampton, posted the photo, tweeting "my dog Pablo (bleep) on the floor and tried to clean it up. Really can't even whoop his (bleep) for this one."
Actually, Billie says he never whoops his butt. That's just an expression.
"You think Pablo went over to the toilet paper and unrolled it himself?"
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ACELIN HAMPTON, RAPPER: Yes. Only because he's pretty -- he's pretty smart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: The internet swooned over the ever-so-clean canine. Pablo had apparently absorbed a lesson watching Billie use paper towels to clean up after his pup.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MOOS: He's a -- he's a star now?
HAMPTON: Yes, he is. Girls messaging him, trying to, you know, match him up with their little puppies on little dates. And girls talking about hoping they can meet him one day and stuff like that. And I'm just like, aha.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: The overshadowed rapper tweeted "Pablo about to blow up before me." Now the pitbul has his own Twitter account, thanks to Billie. We will never know if Pablo was trying to clean up his puddle or conceal it.
But as one commenter noted, "I know humans who don't even do that."
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
ALLEN: Pablo, our dog of the day. Thanks for watching. I'm Natalie Allen. Early Start is next for viewers here in the U.S. And for everyone else, the news continues with Max Foster in London. See you later.
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