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Rebels Losing Their Grip on Eastern Aleppo; Terror Suspect Arrested in Rotterdam; Geert Wilders Convicted of Inciting Discrimination; Challenges of Covering the 2016 Race as a Muslim; Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 09, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00] DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Strange things happen after you lose. I mean, Bob Dole lost to Bill Clinton, went on and did Viagra television ads. In Russia when Mikhail Gorbachev tumbled he ended up doing Pizza Hut commercials. I mean, we never know how people are going to emerge in a year or two because money is very big in the United States and Hillary Clinton now is going to be on the top of people's list of speaking.

I'm sure book companies are offering her $10 million deals to tell a story about the age of Trump. So there -- you know, anything's possible with her. She's in good shape. She just ran a great campaign but lost it in the end and so have to find ways to resurrect the rest of her life and I'm sure she will. There's got to still be -- feels some depression involved with her. So there's got to be a depressing holiday season still for her.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. I think you got that right. And thanks for bringing those Bob dole Viagra commercials because I had forgotten about those. But now they're firmly implanted in my mind again.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Douglas Brinkley, thanks so much.

For the father of one of the Sandy Hook victims, the fight against fake news is all too real. His name is Lenny Pozner and his son Noah was just 6 years old when he was shot and killed along with his classmates. He talked with Anderson Cooper about a foundation he started to target what he calls hoaxsters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEN POZNER, FATHER OF SANDY HOOK VICTIM: They don't think anything bad ever happens. They don't think anyone ever gets hurt. So they think that whenever they see something on the Web or on television that is a crime or mass casualty event, it has to be a hoax. And then if there is debunking evidence that comes out that shows that they made mistakes, like researchers, like normal researchers, they won't correct their mistakes and oftentimes, they start to fabricate their evidence or fudge their evidence or Photoshop their evidence so really, they are contributing to the hoax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Earlier this week, a Florida woman was charged with four felony counts of making threats against Pozner because she believes the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax. Her first court appearance is later this month.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM, Dylann Roof in his own words. Today a jury hears the two-hour confession of the man on trial for gunning down nine people in a Charleston church.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:36:46] COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 10:36 Eastern Time.

Trial resumes for the man accused of gunning down nine black parishioners at a Charleston church this morning. Prosecutors are planning to show video of Dylann Roof's confession. This after new video was just released showing Roof entering and leaving the Charleston church on the night of the shooting. The officer who arrested Roof is expected to take the stand today as well as the investigator who interviewed him.

Flags at the nation's capitol are at half staff today to honor the extraordinary life of space pioneer, war hero and long-time senator, John Glenn. He died Thursday at an Ohio hospital. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth and the last surviving member of the Mercury 7. He was 95.

An Alabama man was executed overnight for killing a convenience store clerk two decades ago. Attorneys for Ronald Smith made a series of last-minute appeals to halt the execution. And the Supreme Court even granted two temporary stays but late last night, the justices has ruled it could proceed.

The second police officer involved in that Georgia manhunt has died after injuries from a gunshot wound. Officer Jody Smith, he's on the right, and his fellow officer, Nicholas Smar, on the left, responded to a domestic dispute call and were shot by the suspect. The SWAT team later found the fugitive dead in an apparent suicide.

The United Nations says 40,000 Syrian civilians are fleeing their war- torn homes for safety as the bombs continue to fall. This is what they're leaving behind. Old town Aleppo destroyed. And now human rights officials say some of those who are trying to flee to safety are being blocked or possibly, well, actually, they are just disappearing.

CNN senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen is in Aleppo with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): As the rebels increasingly lose their grip on Aleppo, Syrian Armed Forces continue to pound the besieged areas, many killed and wounded in the crossfire.

We came to this front line crossing just as a man was being evacuated. Claiming he was shot by rebels as he tried to flee.

"They shot me as I was running out," he says. "They don't allow anyone to get out. They said, are you going to the regime areas?"

The opposition strongly denies its fighters would harm civilians but the rebels do acknowledge they won't be able to hold out in Aleppo much longer. And that realization is leading to an avalanche of people trying to flee the rebel districts.

Syrian troops throwing some bread but not nearly enough to quell the hunger of the many who have been starving for months.

(On camera): The Syrian military has made major advances once again in the past 24 hours and we can see that as the army moves forward, more and more people are coming out of those former besieged areas.

(Voice-over): Many of those fleeing, families with small children. Struggling to carry the few belongings they were able to take. Many overpowered by emotions. Some with barely enough strength to walk. Others too frail to walk at all.

The Syrian Army has amassed a massive force at this front line. The local commander with a clear message to the rebels.

"Look at the scene," he says. "These are your families. Surrender yourselves and drop your arms, come back to the country and hopefully our leadership will forgive you."

[10:40:09] But for now, the fight goes on. This family, one of the many to cross into government-controlled territory, now in safety but still in agony.

"Things used to be good," this elderly woman says. "May God act out revenge on those who brought us these difficult circumstances and may God protect us."

And so they walk on, weak and traumatized, moving into an uncertain future.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Aleppo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Coming up in the NEWSROOM, it was challenging enough for any reporter covering the 2016 race but it was made tougher for a reporter in a traditional head scarf.

Coming up next, a personal story from behind the scenes of the 2016 race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. CNN has just learned that Dutch police have arrested a man who was planning a terror attack.

Nic Robertson is following the story for us. Hi, Nic.

[10:45:05] NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, hi, Carol. The details we're just getting in, this man was arrested with an AK-47 with two full magazine clips full of rounds. The police say that in his apartment they found a large ISIS flag as well as full boxes full of what they described illegal and highly explosive fireworks. These are just the first details about this we're beginning to get, Carol.

COSTELLO: And also, Nic, in another lens, the far-right politician Geert Wilders known for being politically correct and often compared to Donald Trump, he's been found guilty of inciting discrimination. What can you tell us about that?

ROBERTSON: Yes. What the judges here found him guilty of lesser charges. He's also being tried on incitement for hatred, incitement for violence and the judges found he was innocent of those charges, and charged him on the lesser charge. But however, surprising quite a lot of people here, the judges decided not to fine him. Rather they said that the trial enough was punishment enough. However, a lot of his supporters and the general sort of believe at large here is Wilders is becoming very popular here with his populist message, very much like Donald Trump.

Any event that puts him in the news like this court case where this goes back to 2013, a rally -- 2014, rather, where a rally he was talking about Moroccans and the crowd was essentially shouting out, get them out of the country, as a very anti-Islamist message, most people here seem to think that whenever he gets in the public -- whenever he gets in the limelight that just benefits his supporters.

A lot of people here comparing him to Donald Trump, particularly how Donald Trump has talked about the Mexicans. This is what I found talking to a church minister here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MINISTER HENK-JAN PROSMAN, CHURCH NIEUWKOOP: Will this explicitly refers to the Moroccan community as --

ROBERTSON: Criminals?

PROSMAN: As criminals, but that's statistically true --

ROBERTSON: But in the same way that Donald Trump referred to Mexicans?

PROSMAN: For example, yes. In this case he broadcast it live on national television. He gets the floor. The media and the politicians are really doing him a favor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So Geert Wilders, as the minister there says, is being done a favor by the court case here today. Right now his party is judged to be about the most popular here. And come elections here early next year, Carol, he could be the leader of the biggest party in parliament.

COSTELLO: All right. Nic Robertson reporting live from Amsterdam, thank you.

There is no doubt America's election for president was at times racially charged and at times it was tough to cover for any journalist, but especially if that journalist stood out.

NPR political reporter Asma Khalid joined me in the NEWSROOM many, many times. She provided amazing analysis of what voters were thinking across the country, but I never thought how difficult that was for her until I read her reporter's notebook on NPR's Web site.

She wrote in part, quote, "Sometime in early 2016, between a Trump rally in New Hampshire where a burly man shouted something at me about being Muslim and a series of particularly vitriolic tweets that included some combination of raghead, terrorist bitch and jihadi, I went into my editor's office and wept. I cried for the first but not the last time this campaign season. Through tears I told her that if I had known my sheer existence, just the idea of being Muslim, would be a debatable issue in the 2016 election, I would have never signed up to do this job."

Asma joins me live now. Good morning.

ASMA KHALID, POLITICAL REPORTER, NPR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So what did your editor tell you that day in her office?

KHALID: I wish that I could remember, Carol. You know, I just remember crying and she said to me that, you know, this was sort of early on during the primary season and she said we'll sort of see how it goes. And I go on in that essay that you mentioned to say that I think regardless of how I felt in the heat of that particular moment, I realized that I was too invested. You know, I had been covering the campaign for months at that point and that this was, you know, the story of a lifetime as it is for many journalists and that I sort of felt conflicted because while at times there were these really visceral reactions that people had towards me, towards my appearance, I also really wanted to continue covering this story. It was a story like none other that I've ever covered before.

COSTELLO: And the ironic thing is you grew up in Indiana. You played -- you played tennis and you sold Girl Scout cookies. So did it ever enter your mind that as you went -- you know, as you went forward doing your job across the country that people would question your Americanness?

KHALID: I don't think that I had ever anticipated the degree to which that would be the case. You know, I think that I saw things in this election cycle about who we are as Americans that really saddened me.

[10:50:04] Things that were said to me that I had never heard before. You know, you mentioned, I'm from Indiana. You know, I grew up in the Midwest, went to college in the Midwest, and you know, my town was a fairly small predominantly white, fairly conservative town, and, you know, I never felt out of place at all. And I think part of it is that, you know, people knew me, people knew our family and I think when you're out on the campaign trail, a lot of times what people see maybe on first impressions is the scarf. That's the most visible impression that they have of you.

I think the other side that people don't see is that I'm a Hoosier. And I talk about, you know, once I got to the point where I could sort of engage with voters, I think that they really did often open up because I had this toolset that I had grown up in Indiana and that I understood and knew where a lot of these voters were coming from.

COSTELLO: Can you explain what one of the worst incidents were and how you handled it?

KHALID: I think one of the worst incidents -- I should say one of the incidents that stuck with me because I had never had such a visceral reaction was about a month before the election, I was in Ohio. I went to tag along with some canvassers. This is something I often did. I was covering voters, so different groups would go door-to-door and I would sometimes tag along to get a sense of what they were hearing.

And in these interactions, you know, I'm kind of the silent fly on the wall. I have a microphone and a badge and I ask them if I can record but other than that, I don't say anything. And I was in south Columbus, predominantly white working class neighborhood, and a woman opened the door, she was engaging with the canvasser, answering her questions but at some point her mother saw me, she opened the front door, came out on to the porch and started yelling and said, you need to get off my property. And she looked squarely at me and she said, she needs to get off my property.

And you know, in that moment, if I had been alone truthfully I think I would have said, thank you and walked away, but I was tagging along with this canvasser who needed to do her job. And so the woman who was actually engaging with the canvasser apologized, she quieted her mother and sent her inside, but throughout the remainder of the canvassing interview, I could hear her mother in the background. She was still so upset that I was on her front porch.

And you know, I have tape of it in the background, she's saying there's a Muslim on my front porch. And she was so upset viscerally. And I had never experienced something like that where, you know, usually I say that once you sort of get to talking to people, fundamentally people start sort of seeing that, you know, you're human, I'm human, and they trust you and they sort of see where you're coming from, and I think a lot of that trust was fundamentally that I grew up in the Midwest, I shared a lot of experiences.

You know, I could talk about basketball and steel mills and understood where a lot of these voters were coming from. But in that moment, you know, first impressions, I had never had somebody sort of viscerally hate the idea of me. And --

COSTELLO: So my last question to you.

KHALID: Yes.

COSTELLO: Is where do you think that hate came from and how do you reconcile it within yourself?

KHALID: I don't know where it came from exactly. I mean, I can sort of surmise that some of it I think is because people have impressions of a group, right, be they Muslim or whatever group, and in a lot of places people haven't had one-on-one contact with someone, because I would say that I grew up in a place where a lot of folks may not have necessarily always cared for -- well, I shouldn't say a lot, but some folks might not have cared for Muslims in the abstract but they got to know me, they got to know my family.

In some places where I was going, I don't think folks had ever met a Muslim. You know, I really got that hunch because it wasn't always negative. In some instances voters invited me into their homes, they wanted to invite me for the weekend to spend time with them, to have tea and cookies, because they had never had these one-on-one human interactions.

You know, Carol, I mentioned that one of the saddest things for me, though, was that my job covering voters was to understand where folks were coming from, you know, to empathize with them. And in some cases, people did return that empathy but at times, you know, like when I was on that Ohio porch, I don't think that voters reciprocated that empathy.

COSTELLO: Well, I must say, Asma, it never came out in your reporting. You were -- you are a wonderful journalist and I'm glad that you joined me so many times during the election. And thanks so much for sharing your story.

KHALID: Thank you so much.

COSTELLO: Asma Khalid, thank you so much.

KHALID: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "AT THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND BOLDUAN" starts in a minute. But first, the "10TH ANNUAL CNN HEROES ALL-STAR TRIBUTE" salutes 10 people who put others first all year long.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are the kind and the caring. They are the strong and the brave. They are the ones who see a need, fill a void, make a difference.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm trying to give them all the opportunities that they deserve.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has become my life. I don't ever want to do anything else. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't do it for themselves. They do it for

all the rest of us. They are a reminder of what's good in this world. And what it truly means to be a hero.

[10:55:06] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We give them the foundation from which they can thrive. The feeling of family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have transformed the lives of thousands of children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This Sunday night, CNN presents a very special live event. The "10TH ANNUAL CNN HEROES, ALL-STAR TRIBUTE."

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Tonight we're gathered to celebrate the extraordinary men and women who highlight the best of what humanity has to offer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Join host Anderson Cooper and special co-host Kelly Ripa as we honor 10 extraordinary people. The "10TH ANNUAL CNN HEROES, ALL-STAR TRIBUTE" live Sunday night at 8:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm John Berman.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, everybody. I'm Kate Bolduan.

You thought the election was over? Think again. Donald Trump heading back on the campaign trail but not stumping for himself. That election is settled. Apologies, Jill Stein. Rather, you're seeing a live picture right now of the airport where Donald Trump will be taking off very shortly. He's going to be heading to Louisiana to campaign for the Republican candidate in the closely watched run-off Senate election there.

BERMAN: Then for the president-elect --