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Trump Criticized Khan's remarks out of Context; Security a Major Theme of U.K. Election; Contractor Charged with Leaking Classified Information; Trump's Travel Ban Tweetstorm. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired June 06, 2017 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:08] VAUSE: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.

Ahead this hour --

(HEADLINES)

VAUSE: Hello, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. We're down to the third hour of NEWSROOM L.A. I'm John Vause.

As more is known about the London attackers, there are new questions about possible security lapses in the U.K. Now police are searching an east London address in connection with the attack. No one has been detained so far.

Officials have identified two of the attackers. One, Khuram Shazad Butt, a British citizen born in Pakistan, on the right, Rachid Radouane, who claimed to be Moroccan and Libyan.

Meantime, hundreds of people attended a vigil for the victims of the attack, where London's Mayor Sadiq Khan spoke out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZADIQ KHAN, LONDON MAYOR: As the mayor of London, I want to send a clear message to the sick and evil extremists who commits these hideous crimes. We will defeat you. You will not win. As a proud and patriotic British Muslim, I say this, you do not commit these disgusting acts in my name.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Isa Soares is at 10 Downing Street and joins us live.

Isa, Sadiq Khan, London's mayor, he also had some very strong words for the U.S. President Donald Trump in this ongoing feud between the two.

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I don't know if we should go as far as calling it a spat between both of them. It's definitely seems a one-sided spat. We heard from Sadiq Khan's press person yesterday following from President Trump's comments, tweets in the last few days, basically saying he does not have the kind of time to engage in the tweet fight by the president because basically he has plenty of work following on from the attack here in London. But it is something that is raising eyebrows in London. And many Londoners feeling upset President Trump's meddling in the attacks, given how quick police here responded within eight minutes. It's being seen as an attack. And we've seen from the acting U.S. ambassador who also praised Mr. Khan, who is the first Muslim mayor here in London, so someone who is well respected and everyone has been paying tribute for the way he has led the city following on from these attacks.

Today, of course, the focus, given that we are just days away from elections, John, is on the two men who will be front and center on voters' minds when they go to vote on Thursday. Of course, security was not at the top of the discussion among voters' minds. It was again the health services, as social services. This is something that people will be discussing. In my taxi yesterday, I heard a big debate on radio about voters calling in and basically saying, if they have changed their mind given what is not just in Manchester where 22 people died, but also in the attack in London.

We are learning more than about these two men who were killed in a hail of bullets. Still waiting for word on the third, John. We know the first was 27 years of age, British-born but Pakistani, described by many as quiet but also a friendly. We've been speaking to neighbors who say they reported him to police two years ago. We heard from police who said he would be investigated but just up to 2015 investigated but they dropped that investigation according to reports because he was part of the lowest echelon of the investigation. Nothing to suggest that any criminal activity or attack being planned. This is something, John, voters, people will be thinking of when they vote, given Theresa May's cuts to the police force.

[02:05:00]VAUSE: Isa Soares, live in London. Thank you, Isa.

The terror attack in London comes just days before the general election in the U.K. and it's put the issue of security front and center. The Labour Party's Jeremy Corbyn has seriously criticized Prime Minister Theresa May for her past handling of police resources when she was home secretary. May is strongly defending her record.

Dominic Thomas is the French and Francophone studies at UCLA. He's an expert on all things French.

Good to see you, Dominic.

It is interesting, security was not meant to be the Achilles' heel for Theresa May going into this election. But now she has to answer for her time, a very long period of time as home secretary.

DOMINC THOMAS, CHAIR, FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE STUDIES, UCLA: Right, from 2010 to 2016, when David Cameron was essentially defeated by the Brexit vote she was the home secretary. She was the chief law enforcement officer essentially in the United Kingdom. So she finds itself here in a very precarious position. She was hoping the election would really be about the question of Brexit and that she would keep the momentum forward in the negotiations about to get going, capitalize on some of the success that she had. And now she finds herself involved over the past few weeks in a succession of attacks, which made it very difficult for her to position itself on these without sounding even more hypocritical than she already was on the Brexit question.

VAUSE: Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, doesn't have the best record on security issues either.

THOMAS: Right, and he is having to answer questions, yes or no argument that advocates the use of policed violence and then shooting these attackers and so on. So there as well. But she is the one right now who called the snap election. She is the one who somewhat strategically and greedily is trying to build on the majority in the House of Commons. And considering she started out polling with over 20 point, it has dropped dramatically for a multiplicity of reasons over the past few weeks.

VAUSE: Is it just an issue of security which is dragging her poll numbers down and making this race look closer than expected?

THOMAS: She was a long way ahead. I think that when she went into this campaign, she was a bit eager to protect that lead by trying to limit the extent to which she conducted a real full-on campaign. Having said that, Jeremy Corbin has done better than expected and has been able to talk about issues that are crucial to British people such as health care, education, and so on. Having said that as well, Theresa May's meeting was Jean-Claude, Juncker, the E.U. commission president, in London, was a dissolve, which I think has demonstrated to the British people that the Brexit negotiations will be much tougher than expected. And let's not forget that Donald Trump's visit to Europe did not go very well, especially given the fact that he has been reluctant to sign on to the Paris Accords. And his only real friend in Europe is Theresa May. This does not help either.

VAUSE: Quickly, on Sunday, 24 hours after the attack on Saturday, Theresa May gave a very well received, very strong speech, calling for a sweeping review of counterterrorism strategy. She said enough is enough, it's time to act. On reflection, now things are - people are saying, hang on, does that seem to imply that the U.K. the British should accept a certain level of terrorism, and why didn't you do anything about it before.

THOMAS: Absolutely. It's a real faux pas. As prime minister, you do expect a response. We're a few days away from the general election. So any intervention sounds like political campaigning. So that was inappropriate. Absolutely not. One is too many. Going all the way back to 2005, to the July attack, up until today, this has been an important question the British society must face. And in fact, extricating themselves from Brexit is not -- from the European Union is not going to help them because the coordinated intelligence network among European have entrusted to partners in the European Union is something that the United Kingdom desperately needs at this moment in time.

Dominic, good to speak with you. Thanks for being with us.

THOMAS: Thank you. [02:09:25] VAUSE: A federal contractor is facing some serious jail time, accused of leaking information of the National Security Agency about Russia's efforts to hack the U.S. presidential election.

CNN's Jim Sciutto has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: First, let's talk about this NSA document, what we know about it. It was classified, prepared by the NSA just last month. It focuses on is Russian attempts to control the probe, probing cyberattacks of electoral systems during the election. We knew some of this during the election that they had probed voter election role, voter registration rolls, et cetera, in Arizona, in Illinois, in Florida. This provides more details, more intelligence about those efforts. Does not change the intelligence community's assessment that Russia did not change voter tallies in the election but gives more details about those efforts to probe those voting systems. And that by itself is alarming. Whether or not it had an impact on the 2016 presidential election, I'm told consistently by intelligence community officials, that Russia is certain to attack U.S. elections again. What they learned here could help them attack voting systems in elections to come, 2018, 2020. That is possible. It is adding to their broader intelligence picture.

Let's talk about the leaker here, a 25-year-old contractor working for the NSA, accessed this classified document, printed it out, and then shared it with the reporter. The reporter then shared it with another contractor. That contractor shared it with bosses. They were able to look at that image of the document, determine that it had been printed out because it had a crease in the image there, showing it seemed to be folded. And then based on the small number of people would printed out this document, were able to find their way back to this leaker, who now faces very serious charges. CNN has spoken to her mother. She has a court-appointed attorney. But facing very serious legal challenges going forward.

Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Joining me now, CNN political commentators, Democratic strategist, Dave Jacobson, and Republican consultant, John Thomas.

Thanks for being with us.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Let's start with the leaks.

John, to you.

It's fair game to condemn the leak.

JOHN THOMAS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Of course, it is. VAUSE: The other question, was the White House going to tell us it actually had proof that Russia actually did hack the voting systems?

JOHN THOMAS: Good question. I don't know their internal strategy. At some point, they should announce it, probably once the whole Russian investigation was complete. It's not surprising though. In a phishing scheme, you cast a wide net. You cannot rely upon one stupid person like John Podesta, whose password was "password," to take the bait. You have to go to a lot of people. So I'm not shocked by this. I'm more shocked by the stupidity of the leaker, because typically, when they leak, they do not hand physical things to reporters. It is all verbally done.

VAUSE: It was amateur hour, I guess in one respect.

Dave, where does this leave the president and his claims that Russia tried to interfere with the election, that's fake news?

DAVE JACOBSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it really does beg the question of like whether or not the Trump administration was actually going to expose the fact that this place. I think the leaker was extraordinarily courageous, but I think there is going to be obviously a harsh penalty for the move. But at the end of the day, the information needed to get out, and clearly, she felt compelled to do so. But I think at a time you've got a White House who is firing the FBI director because they are trying to get --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: This information was published.

JACOSBON: Precisely. You know, and they are trying to embrace a hush campaign and secrecy, hiding information from the American people. I think we need more patriots who are willing to expose the truth and bring more sunlight into what really happened.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN THOMAS: Yeah, it's not patriotism. This is exposing national security information. It's despicable. Your judgment, calling this, you might like this but you do not like something else, you cannot have leaks. This is unacceptable. It is really endemic of a larger problem in government. The people just feeling emboldened. If they don't like something, leak it.

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBSON: One think I'll say. This is one thing we disagree on, but it will add to political fodder for the FBI, for Comey's testimony on Thursday. I'm sure it will come up.

VAUSE: The administration can't get out from the shadow of this Russian investigation.

During the campaign, Trump send out in incendiary tweet and that would change the news cycle. They'd jump on board. That went well in the campaign. It's not working so well now as president. Every time he sends out a tweet, it seems to backfire.

JOHN THOMAS: I think that's been the main frustration of the communications team as well. I mean that there has been no message discipline coming out of the White House. It's also the frustration of the president because, you are right, his ability to control the narrative via tweet was essentially why he got elected. Ad now, as much is he wants to shift to a narrative of the day, it ends up backfiring. And his own staff now are saying, you know, do not take him literally, he is saying take me literally. You know, it is a problem. If he does not get this discipline together, it will significantly undermine his presidency and could cost him the midterms.

VAUSE: The weekend twitter attack on London's mayor after his city had by a terrorist attack, it was roundly criticized. But then on Monday, he tweeted this, "Pathetic excuse by London mayor, Sadiq Khan, who has to think fast on his feet 'no reason to be alarmed' statement. Mainstream media is working hard to sell it."

David, that's not right. It's completely wrong.

JACOBSON: It's petty, childish and reckless. We're supposed to lend a friendly hand. This is our -- this is a special relationship for -- with, pardon me. At a time when they are in crisis, we need to be helping, not fanning the flames and creating a wedge between our country and theirs.

[02:15:16] JOHN THOMAS: The president did immediately offer full support of the U.S. soon after it happened.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Before he got to that, there was the travel ban -

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN THOMAS: No, no. On the day of the attack --

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN THOMAS: Yeah, immediately on --

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN THOMAS: You've got to understand, President Trump is -- part of what's so refreshing to his supporters is about it's that he is honest and that he is -- this is reason to be alarmed. Do not -- this is not a little thing.

VAUSE: Well, when it comes to the feud with London's mayor, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated to make sense in the briefing today. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: I think it matters in the sense that it gives him a communication tool, again, that isn't filtered through media bias. But at the same time, I think that the media obsesses over every period and dot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So a good communication, exorbitant assessment. She went on to say it wasn't an insult when Trump called the mayor pathetic. If she's going to spread that, I think she should do a better job than that if she wants Spicer's job, right?

(LAUGHTER)

JACOBSON: Right. No doubt is a tough job. Days ago, Sean Spicer was saying that there was no travel ban. The Homeland Security secretary said there was no travel ban. And then you've got Trump today tweeting there is a travel ban. Clearly, the left hand is not talking to the right hand. He continues to undermine his staff at every chance he gets. But no doubt, it is an extraordinarily tough job. But I think it underscores the dysfunction and the chaos that just continues to exist in this White House.

VAUSE: You have this line, don't pay too much attention to the president's tweets, the tweets speak for themselves. This now features a new tactic which some in the White House are trying to spin out. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, SENIOR TRUMP ADVISOR: The obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little on --

(CROSSTALK)

SEBASTIAN GORKA, DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: It's not policy. It's an executive order. It's social media. Please understand the difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: John, that would be like saying do not take anything he says on the radio seriously, it is just the radio. Tweets are an official form of communication.

JOHN THOMAS: It is. It is.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN THOMAS: I mean, the radio isn't limited to 174 characters.

(CROSSTALK)

OK, so it's a little different. Yes, the president has to tighten up his tweets. This is really just the latest attempt of the White House communication team grappling with how to struggle with this not -- the idea of don't take him literally, take him more figuratively, it is a struggle. Look, there is no real easy way to get around it. Their word, the president's mouth, I don't know how you slice it any other way.

JACOBSON: I think it is a little disingenuous for Kellyanne Conway to go on television to say that, because just today, it was her husband who was angling for a job in the Justice Department. By the way, last week was on the short list, who went out and criticized the president today, basically saying you are undercutting the attorney, the DOJ's argument before the Supreme Court on his travel ban. You've literally got her husband responding to the president on Twitter today --

VAUSE: been taking notice -

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: The president was tweeting about the attack in London, calling it an act of terror long before there was official confirmation from officials in Britain. So that in mind, around the same time, the secretary of defense, James Mattis, was asked to comment about what happened in London. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They want to say it's a terrorist attack, two dead, dozens wounded --

JAMES MATTIS, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I like to confirm everything. I like learning about something before I talk. So let me look into it.

UNIDENTIFIEED REPORTER: Is this why the United States need a travel ban?

MATTIS: That -- I -- I need to look into it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: John, it's not like there's no one at the White House who can advise the president on how to deal with these things.

JOHN THOMAS: Yeah, he is a seasoned pro at this, so no surprise. I believe the series of events was the president called it a terrorist attack after he had been briefed of the event so --

VAUSE: He retweeted a "Drudge Report" --

JOHN THOMAS: What -- he was right. He didn't get it wrong. But also, I remember watching is it. The coverage said the president had been briefed. I think I saw the tweet right after that. He might have been off of the "Drudge" story. Look, if he were wrong, it would be a whole different story.

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBSON: That's what I was going to say. I think that is the danger, is like what happens if something happens domestically and you have the president of the United States tweeting out fake news or misinformation and the public consumes that information thinking that it is true because it's the president of the U.S. (CROSSTALK)

JOHN THOMAS: I think we're having a semantic argument. Terrorists are killing people, and so we're shifting the conversational in a way of what he should have said when he should it, rather than how do we eradicate radical Islamic terrorism. I think that is what frustrates the president.

[02:20:53] VAUSE: We'll leave it there.

Thanks to you both.

JOHN THOMAS: Thank you.

JACOBSON: Thank you.

VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, more on Trump's latest Twitter tirade. And this latest tweetstorm may actually undermine his own lawyers and their case for his travel ban, which is now being argued before the Supreme Court.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: In an early morning Twitter rampage, the U.S. president may undermine his own legal team and their appeal to the Supreme Court to reinstate his controversial travel ban.so much. President Trump lashed out at his Justice Department, the courts, and said his executive action restricting visitors from a handful of Muslim-majority countries is actually really a travel ban.

For more on the legal consequences, we're joined by CNN contributor and former special counsel to President Obama, Norm Eisen.

Norm, good to see you.

The president, it does seem is doubling down the reality. He tweeted, "That's right, we need a travel bag for certain dangerous countries, not some politically correct term that won't help us protect our people." So having said that, what we have heard repeatedly from the administration is that this is not a travel ban. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. JOHN KELLY, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Many referred to it as a travel ban. We have always looked at it as a pause.

CONWAY: These seven countries, what about the 46 majority Muslim countries not included? Right there, totally undercuts this nonsense that this is a Muslim ban.

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is not a Muslim ban. It's not a travel ban. It is a vetting system to keep America safe. That's it, plain and simple.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Politics here. Some problems in the White House. But legally, will the admission from the present make much difference as far as the Supreme Court is concerned?

NORM EISON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: John, thanks for having me. And I do think that this tweet in the series of tweets will make a difference in the Supreme Court. Donald Trump has pulled the rug out from under his legal team yet again. The reason that you see those administration officials, one after another, saying it's not a travel ban is because, first, if it is a ban on travel, that is going to set up a tougher level of scrutiny. They do not want that. They are trying to shrink it. Trump undid that today.

Second, the word ban brings in his campaign language to the effect of a Muslim ban. That is against the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. He undid the good that his own colleagues and lawyers were trying to do for him with these tweets.

VAUSE: Another tweet from the president, "The Justice Department should have stayed with the original travel ban, not the watered-down politically-correct version they submitted to the Supreme Court."

Could this tweet be a bigger legal problem for those Justice Department lawyers because the issue the Supreme Court is looking at is about religious discrimination, will the ban target Muslims, and the president seems to admit the original version was changed because of political correctness.

[02:25:01] EISEN: Yes, John, if the first tweet was the appetizer, this is the entree in the table that the opponents of this ban are trying to set because the case that they are trying to make -- and this is what the appellate court ruled on here in the United States, the Fourth Circuit -- The case the opponents of the ban are trying to make is that you can trace a line, starting in the campaign, continuing in the first travel ban, and now into the second travel ban, bias against Muslims, prohibited religious discrimination. By talking about the watered-down version, by using the codewords of political correctness, Trump is connecting up all of those data points. So it is making his lawyers and his spokespeople's lives very difficult.

VAUSE: Do these tweets take on a greater significance now that he is president as opposed to the candidate tweets, almost like official policy?

EISEN: Well, the tweets are critically important because, after all, what the case has become about is what did the president intend and can his intent be taken into account. And so this is a present statement of intent that does provide more evidence of impermissible violation of the First Amendment by targeting Muslims based on religion. You cannot do that under the Constitution. However, they also add to the total arc of the evidence, so it starts with the campaign statements, it moves through the first executive order, and now he is coloring the second executive order, connecting the dots for the Supreme Court. And I think it hurts him. VAUSE: The legal teams opposing the travel ban, they say they will

try to use these tweets. Here's the lead counsel for Hawaii. Put this on Twitter. "It's not likely to have the defendant in Hawaii, Trump acting as our co-council. We don't need the help. But we'll take it."

Is the bigger problem perhaps that Mr. Trump is unclear about how the whole judicial process actually works?

EISEN: He does seem to exhibit a lot of confusion in these tweets, John, for example, he blames the Justice Department for the change in the executive orders. Well, that was his decision. If he did not want to water it down, he did not have to. So it seems that he does not understand what these tweets -- the tweets have been devastating to him. Not just here but across the board in so many areas. The investigation of obstruction of justice, possibly with respect to Jim Comey, that is another area where his tweets have been devastatingly harmful. And time after time, he utters these tweets, so I do think that the -- he is failing beyond the job training.

VAUSE: Maybe Melania needs to take that phone away once she moves to Washington from New York. That could be one solution here.

Norm, as always, thanks for being with us.

EISEN: John, thanks for having me.

VAUSE: Just into CNN, AFP reports the death toll in last week's suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, has risen to more than 150 people. The announcement came from President Ashraf Ghani at a peace conference on Tuesday. The earlier number of dead was put at 90. More than 300 others were wounded when a truck exploded in the diplomatic area of the capitol.

As Iraqi-led forces prepare for the final assault on the ISIS-held parts of Mosul, many are fleeing that besieged city and sharing their stories of survival. A CNN explosive report is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:31:22] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for staying with us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

We'll check the headlines now.

(HEADLINES)

VAUSE: About 100,000 children are caught in the crossfire in western Mosul, the latest major stronghold for ISIS in Iraq. The U.N. says children are being killed, injured, being used as human shields as Iraqi government-led forces try to retake the rest of the city. And the U.N. is calling on both sides to stop attacks on civilians.

Amid all of the suffering in Mosul, there have been stories of survival, not only from the families that have escaped, but others who risking their lives to save them. And a warning, the images you are about to see are disturbing.

CNN's Arwa Damon has this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They stumble towards the Iraqi troops. They're breathless. Their voices are shaking from fear and shock.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(CROSSTALK)

DAMON: They use single sentences that seem to hardly encompass the scope of what it is that they've actually just been through.

(EXPLOSION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(CROSSTALK)

DAMON: And as ISIS is squeezed into even smaller territory, the civilians they're holding hostage are running out of food.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: It was only enough to feed the children, to try to keep them from crying out. She and her husband, they went hungry.

On the front line helping the Iraqi army is Dave Eubanks, he's American ex Special Forces, with his team of Free Burma Rangers, volunteer medics.

(CROSSTALK)

DAMON: Days earlier, ISIS massacred dozens of people who were just trying to make a run for it. And Dave was called to the scene.

DAVE EUBANKS, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL FORCES & VOLUNTEER MEDIC HELPING IRAQI ARMY: We saw 13 bodies and we saw movement. Here they are. Look at that wall.

DAMON: A man alive and a I little girl who creeps out from under her dead mother hijab, where she'd been hiding for two days hugging her mother's corpse.

(GUNFIRE)

[02:35:16] DAMON: They use the tank for cover to move out, dragging those they just saved past the corpses of those who perished.

(SHOUTING) DAMON: The little girl has not yet spoken. Not a single word. No one even knows her name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: The next morning, they spotted even more movement.

EUBANKS: We ran, got across the road, went through rubble like this, and ISIS was on three sides of us. We could hear them talking. Crawl throw, find a street where ISIS is shooting. They threw a line to her. She tied herself. Three days, no sleep, no water, wounded.

(CROSSTALK)

(GUNFIRE)

DAMON: Much of western Mosul is already apocalyptic. And the fight for the last square kilometers is going to be so much worse than anything we've seen before.

There's no past blueprint for this kind of warfare. No one has fought an enemy like ISIS holding civilians hostage in a dense urban battlefield.

We go to a clinic that's further back from the front line. There's an old man who can't speak from the shock.

(CROSSTALK)

DAMON: And a little girl. Her name is Maria. She's 10. And there with her older sister. They say a mortar hit their house just as they were trying to make a run for it. One sister they know is dead. They saw her lifeless body.

(CROSSTALK)

DAMON: The others are buried under the rubble of their home. But ISIS still controls the area.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: The reality of what she's just said perhaps not quite sinking in. Or maybe she's just looking for any distraction from a loss that she cannot yet fully comprehend.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Arwa joins us from Irbil, Iraq.

It's unbelievable what people have gone through. Arwa, besides the volunteer medics, is anyone else helping these people get out of that hellhole?

DAMON: I hear the problems, John, is that until the fighting actually reaches their front door, they cannot really escape. So once they do manage to leave their home, get out of the battle zone itself, you have the volunteer medics, the Iraqi security forces who immediately begin giving them water and basic food, but the key issue right now, and this really illustrates how impossible of a battlefield this is, when people need to try to keep themselves safe, they can't. Every single airstrike and explosion, every single plume of smoke we see in the distance, you can be fairly certain that there is a family cowering in a basement or underneath a staircase in a home desperately trying to keep themselves safe. Of course, the toughest battle is still ahead, the battle for the old part of the city.

VAUSE: We have this U.N. report about children being used as human shields and being forced to fight for ISIS, disgusting, cowardly, horrendous, but not entirely surprising.

DAMON: No, it's not. ISIS is an enemy that knowns no boundaries. There are no rules to this kind of warfare. There is no blueprint, as we were staying in that report, as to how you confront them and combine them. And the Iraqi security forces on the front lines will tell you that they are greatly concerned that potential ISIS suicide bombers could be hiding among the civilian population. As they are trying to flee, there could be infiltrators beginning to get as well. And of course, the big challenge for the Iraqis as they try to move forward in the final stages and it phenomenally understandably slow going is going to be to try and preserve as many lives as they possibly can. Not just for the sheer humanity of it but also because, in the future, if they want to provide an entity like ISIS from the reemerging, they need to prove to the population of Mosul that they are going to protect them. They need to rebuild trust. This is such a multi-faceted challenge when it comes to actually ensuring that the civilian population in Mosul and in all of Iraq never has to go through anything like this again.

[02:39:55]VAUSE: They've gone through so much over the last, what, 10 or 15 years.

A good reminder of what so many people are enduring right now.

Arwa, thank you for that report.

And we'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Believe me, President Trump is addicted to just two words.

Here's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Who says President Trump isn't a man of deep beliefs?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Believe me.

MOOS: He was deep in "Believe mes." TRUMP: Believe me, we've just begun.

MOOS: Dropping five of them --

TRUMP: Believe me.

MOOS: -- as he announced the U.S. would drop out --

TRUMP: Believe me.

MOOS: -- of the Paris Climatic Accord.

TRUMP: Believe me, this is not what we need.

MOOS: But what is five in one speech?

TRUMP: Because, believe me, there is no collusion.

MOOS: When he has been a believer at the rate of two in under 10 seconds.

TRUMP: My total priority, believe me, is the United States of America.

MOOS (on camera): What is Trump's usage compared to other people?

TYRUS SNEVELYN (ph), LINGUIST: Trump's usage is off the charts.

MOOS (voice-over): Linguist Tyrus Snevelyn (ph) actually has made charts of Trump's usage.

TRUMP: Believe me.

Believe me.

Believe me.

Believe me.

Believe me.

Believe me.

Believe me, I know.

MOOS: The linguist tallied Trump at 580 occurrences per million words vs. immediately six for Hillary Clinton.

(on camera): You know, it seems to me it's a time killer or a time filler to collect your thoughts.

SNEVELYN (ph): You're emphasizing something that will let you play for time.

MOOS (voice-over): John Stewart has another theory.

JOHN STEWART, FORMER HOST, THE DAILY SHOW: Nobody says "believe me" unless they are not.

(LAUGHTER)

MOOS: The addition to saying --

TRUMP: Believe me.

MOOS: -- is ironic for some that's often described --

TRUMP: Thousands and thousands of people were cheering.

MOOS: -- as having his pants on fire.as having on fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 2015 Politifact lie of the year goes to the collective misstatements of Donald Trump.

SNEVELYN (ph): I've got lots of friends tells me that their parents explicitly, don't believe anyone of says "believe me." But that doesn't seem to be the case that this is just an easy marker of lying.

TRUMP: Nobody builds walls better than me. Believe me.

MOOS (voice-over): And you, personally, you don't say, oh, here comes a lie when he says, "believe me?"

SNEVELYN (ph): No, I don't.

TRUMP: We're going to knock the hell out of ISIS, believe me.

(CHEERING)

SNEVELYN (ph): He' is really actually most comfortable when he uses it.

MOOS: You better believe it.

Jeanne Moos, CNN

TRUMP: Believe, believe, believe, believe, believe, believe.

Can you believe it?

MOOS: New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: He's a believer.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, Live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

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[03:00:07] MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: London terrorists identified after brutal attacks in the heart of the city. And neighbors saying they warned police about one of them.