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Lion Air Flight Crashes With 189 On Board; Three Hate-Filled Crimes in Three Days in U.S.; Fans Mourn Leicester City FC Owner; U.S. Defense Secretary Calls for Transparent Probe; Japan's Princess Ayako Weds Commoner; Search and Rescue Search for Lion Air Survivors; Brazil's Trump Won the Race; Eleven Lives Taken in Pittsburg Shooting; Thai Boys Rescued from Cave Meet Manchester United; Boston Red Sox Beat L.A. Dodgers to Win World Series. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired October 29, 2018 - 03:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: A Boeing 737 plane has crashed at sea near Jakarta, Indonesia, with 189 people on board. We are following the very latest on the search efforts.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN HOST: Plus, the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, people there mourning the victims of a shooting at a synagogue. We have the very latest of new details about the suspect.

CHURCH: Also this hour, the man known as Brazil's Donald Trump will now be the country's next president, but many remain wary of his far- right stance.

HOWELL: Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, we want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm George Howell.

CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church. CNN newsroom starts right now.

And we are following this breaking news out of Indonesia. Authorities say Lion Air flight 610 has crashed into the sea off Jakarta. The plane was carrying 189 people, including children. It vanished from radar just minutes after take-off on the way to Bangla, Pinang.

HOWELL: The country's search and rescue agency has sent in boats, helicopters and 130 rescuers to the site. At this point they are working on the assumption that the plane sank and they're taking equipment to find an underwater locator beacon.

CHURCH: CNN's Will Ripley joins us now live from Hong Kong with more on all of this. So, Will, what more are Indonesian authorities revealing about this plane crash off Indonesia's coast just hours ago?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As you said, Rosemary, they are operating on the assumption this plane crashed into the water and sunk, and sadly, the images that we are seeing of plane debris, some passenger items coming to the surface of the Java Sea some 34 nautical miles from Jakarta, it all seems to indicates that indeed a horrible event took place, a crash.

The plane disappeared from radar after making a pretty drastic drop from about 5200 feet, and the flight crew apparently just minutes after takeoff, called the airport on the radio, asking to turn around and go back. And that was just before they vanished.

There was no indication, though, from the flight crew that an emergency was taking place. They didn't say that something was horribly wrong. They just said they wanted to turn the plane around, which experts tell us indicates that they may have thought the issue with the plane was fixable. Sadly, that was not the case.

And family members who have been waiting for agonizing hour at the airport for information, obviously with each image that comes to the surface and each piece of debris that comes to the surface as well, any hope is sadly fading for those people who want to know about the 181 passenger and eight crew members on board. And the flight list included one child and two infants.

It was just supposed to be an hour-long flight; the kind of flight people take every day and just don't think much about it. Obviously, it never arrived, and as we see, so often in incidents like this, there are a lot of questions about how this could have happened.

There was really no turbulent weather in the area where the plane went down. There were some thunderstorms, but they were a safe distance from the aircraft. And this was a brand-new plane pretty much. It was a Boeing 737 max, just 800 flight hours. So lots of questions, Rosemary. But, of course, the immediate question, where exactly is this plane and where are those black boxes.

CHURCH: Yes, a lot of questions, people want answers. And of course, family members -- it is just a tragedy for them. Imagine the agony. Will Ripley joining us there live from Hong Kong. Many thanks.

HOWELL: Let's talk more about this with Greg Waldron. Greg, the Asia managing editor for flight global group which tracks flight and data analytics. Live this hour from Singapore. Greg, thank you again for your time today.

So, as we understand at this point, the pilot asked basically to return to the airport 20 minutes into flight. No emergency, though, ever declared. What do you draw from that?

GREG WALDRON, ASIA MANAGING EDITOR, FLIGHT GLOBAL GROUP: Well, it's hard to say what happened. We won't really know until there is a thorough investigation. But certainly, what happened fast. My understanding was 13 minutes into the flight they wanted to come back to Jakarta, but then nothing else was heard from.

And typically, the rule for airmen is that, you first aviate, then you navigate, then you communicate. And so that was probably was what they were trying to do. But we'll wait to see whether it was, you know, what were the issues they were confronted with. That's going to be very high priority for the investigators now.

HOWELL: Aviate, navigate, and communicate. Never heard that, but it certainly sounds logical steps to take as dealing with any situation.

Our Will Ripley just spoke about that dramatic drop in altitude. Again, is there anything that you draw from that bit of information that we've gathered?

[03:05:03] WALDRON Again, hard to say. But I have seen the reports from the flight tracking sites, and there was a radical -- I mean, dive, pretty much, at the very tail end of the flight. So, you know, it looks like it was a very sudden instant. I'm not, you know, it's hard to say with any certainty what happened, but whatever happened was clearly, you know, very dramatic.

You know, the crew would have been -- the fact that they didn't get -- from my understanding, there was no mayday, there was no distress call, they didn't adjust their transponder to say there was an emergency. The fact that they weren't able to get that out is quite interesting.

HOWELL: And then Lion Air, what can you tell us about this budget carrier? Is there any information that, you know, it's worth looking into given the plane?

WALDRON: Well, they're going to be looking at all aspects of this accident. You know, the aircraft, the maintenance, you know, how the crew performed. But Lion Air is probably one of the fastest-growing budget carriers in the world.

I mean, they have hundreds of aircraft on order. It's a dominant player in Southeast Asia. And as they have grown, and this is also true of the other low-cost carriers out here. It's been a real struggle to find and train pilots, and so, therefore, you're getting a situation where there is tremendous growth, but of course keeping safety standards up to where they should be possibly could be a challenge.

You see, they've had 11 accidents since they were founded about 13, 14 years ago. And five of those have resulted in the loss of the aircraft. Six if you include the flight today. So, they've had their share of up and downs over the years.

There tends to be a -- in the reporting on this, there tends to be procedural errors, things missed, maybe some, you know, procedural up sights training oversights. And that could be -- these things pop up in Indonesia, unfortunately.

HOWELL: Greg Waldron, we appreciate your time and perspective.

WALDRON: Thank you.

HOWELL: We'll stay in touch with you.

WALDRON: Thank you very much.

CHURCH: Communities across the United States are mourning Saturday's deadly mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. An inter-faith ceremony was held Sunday to honor the 11 people who

lost their lives. The anti-defamation league calls the shooting the deadliest shooting on a Jewish community in U.S. history. Pittsburgh is nicknamed the steel city. Its mayor vows it will stay strong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL PEDUTO, PITTSBURG: Let me tell you something about Pittsburghers. We've tough. We are proud of our blue-collar roots. And we're not the type of people that react to threats or actions in a way that ever takes back from us. We will drive anti-Semitism and the hate of any people back to the basement, on their computer, and away from the open discussions and dialogues around this city, around this state, and around this country.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEDUTO: We're a resilient people. We will work together as one. We will defeat hate with love. We will be a city of compassion, welcoming to all people no matter what your religion or where your family came from on this earth, or your status.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: And this day we are also learning more about the 11 victims of this terrible tragedy. The youngest were the Rosenthal brothers who were in their 50s. They have been described as inseparable. The oldest was 97-year-old Rose Mallinger. She's being remembered for always offering a friendly greeting, a hug, and a smile.

The alleged gunman, Robert Bowers, is in custody. He's due to appear in court in the coming hours.

CHURCH: The U.S. attorney plans to seek the death penalty. CNN's Miguel Marquez is in Pittsburgh and has more for us.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the more we learn about Robert Bowers' life, the more disturbing it is. Not because people are saying that he was this sort of Nazi figure in their neighborhood, but because what they didn't know about him.

This is a person that everybody that we have spoken to, whether it was neighbors or people who have known him for many, many years, say that this is a person who didn't have a mean bone in his body, never uttered a terrible word about Jews or any other race, and there is just shock, absolute shock that he could do this sort of deed.

This is a person who had a very difficult life, from what we can tell as well. People describe him as a lost soul. Those who knew him a long time, a lost soul. Somebody who went from job to job and could never quite figure out life.

This, as investigators are going through his home, his computers, his phone, his car, they're looking for surveillance video. They know he had many, many guns registered in his name, some 21 guns registered in his name, and they are trying to complete that full picture of who this individual was.

[03:05:08] What you didn't see on the outside of his life was sort of this opaque sort of -- he didn't even cast a shadow. But underneath was this just deep well of hatred that this man had toward Jews. Posting this on places online, not Twitter, not Facebook, not the obvious places, but posting online. If you knew where to look, you could find it.

Seventeen days before he opened fire in that synagogue, he posted about one Jewish group in particular, HIAS, the Hebrew immigrant aid society. They have resettled immigrants not only Jews, but other races, from other all countries for many, many years. They made a video on the U.S.-Mexico border about the caravan coming up. Robert Bowers was very, very concerned about that caravan, hated the idea of it, called them invaders. Coming to slaughter our people.

The day he went into the synagogue, he posted that. That was the last post he made, that he didn't care about the optics about what he was about to do. He was going in. And investigators now trying to collect up every bit of information they can to paint a full picture, not just evidence for a trial, but try to understand what it was that drove a man like this to this just horrendous act. Back to you.

HOWELL: Miguel Marquez, thank you. The shooting at that synagogue's caps off a week in the United States that also included a wave of pipe bombs sent by mail, critics of president Trump, top Democrats, and targeting CNN.

CHURCH: The pipe bombs were intercepted thankfully. The suspect arrested on Friday is this man. Cesar Sayoc. He is set to appear at a Miami, Florida court in the coming hours. Sayoc faces a string of charges and could get up to 48 years in prison if convicted. Thankfully no one was killed or injured by the bombs he allegedly set.

So, let's talk more about this with Juliette Kayyem. She is a former secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and a CNN U.S. security analyst. She joins me now from Boston, Massachusetts. Good to have you with us.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: Well, it was a tough week and, Juliette, the mass shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday shocked the nation, and saw the president suggest an armed guard should have been in the building at the time of that attack. And then continued with a rally. He continued with a rally on the very same day those 11 people were shot to death.

Mr. Trump justified his actions by saying, you can't give the killer an edge, and then he wrongly suggested that the New York Stock Exchange reopened a day after 9/11. What was your reaction to the way President Trump led the country on that grim tragic day? KAYYEM: I mean, he could -- calling it leading is probably a mistake.

The president, of course, as you said, first claimed that if they had been better armed or had better security at the temple no one would have been killed.

First of all, there were actually three police officers very well armed who are still in the hospital. And now that the names have been released, you see that the victims were in their 70s and 80s. This is not -- these are not people who would have been armed in any event.

And then to move on to a rally in light of this being the worst attack against the Jewish faith in the United States was just sort of shocking in many regards. There was a lot of discussion here about whether president Trump's language has led to this kind of violence in particular, because we had the bombing -- bombing threats this week.

And now with the synagogue, we also had a hate crime against an African-American couple, and so those three incidents, you know, suggest maybe things are getting out of hand, that this racial animus is getting animated from the top.

But I will tell you as someone who worries about the next event, I'm very concerned that the president's lack of gravity in the sense of what is going on will lead others to maybe think that this violence is not a big deal.

CHURCH: I do want to turn to that other disturbing news from last week, the series of pipe bombs that were sent to two former presidents and to other high-profile Democrats, as well as CNN.

Again, President Trump's response upset many people because he refused to actually name Barack Obama and the Clintons and others as targets of those pipe bombs.

KAYYEM: Yes.

CHURCH: What happens when a U.S. president responds in such a partisan way in the midst of a national crisis like that?

[03:14:57] KAYYEM: So, it's not just partisan. It's just not right to not call the former presidents who, you know, have been the focus of these, essentially, assassination attempts.

Look, the president has decided he's going to use his -- this opportunity for him, which I think he does view the presidency as an opportunity to divide and not unite. He's made that clear it's not particularly political of me to say that. There's nothing he's done in the middle of these heart wrenching attacks. That would make you think that he wants to unify. He's blamed the media. He's blamed the Democrats.

And so, we call this in counterterrorism, right, a sort of form of radicalization. That what he's doing is he's somewhat in some ways sort of radicalizing those who do not like Democrats, those who do not like a certain kind of person. I'm not saying he's a proponent of violence. I'm just saying that for

someone who ought to know that people are hearing him in a way that is leading to the kind of violence we're seeing, as we know from -- in all of these cases, these were politically motivated, that you would think that he would responsibly tone it down and he has not. I wish I had better news for you, but if this week didn't change his ratcheting up, nothing will.

CHURCH: And, thankfully, authorities moved swiftly. They identified the pipe bomb suspect, and tracked him down and he is custody. Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

HOWELL: Still ahead here on Newsroom, voters in Brazil have picked the man to write the next chapter in that nation's history. We take a look at what put Jair Bolsonaro to the top.

CHURCH: Plus, much more on the crash of an Indonesian passenger plane that went down shortly after takeoff. We will bring you the latest on the investigation.

[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAIR BOLSONARO, PRESIDENT-ELECT PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL (through translator): As a defender of freedom, I will lead a government that upholds and protects the rights of the citizens who follow their duties and respect the laws. The laws are for everyone. This is how it will be during our constitutional and democratic government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: That is Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's new president-elect.

HOWELL: Of course, he is not new to Brazilians. He's been in politics for decades, powered by far-right views that many view as controversial. Those views earned him the nickname "the Trump of the tropics." In fact, Bolsonaro says President Trump called him Sunday to congratulate him.

CHURCH: Meanwhile, Bolsonaro's leftist opponent, Fernando Haddad vows to keep fighting. This (Inaudible) one of the Brazil's most violent and polarizing campaigns ever.

HOWELL: Bolsonaro is viewed as a very polarizing figure in Brazil.

CHURCH: Our Shasta Darlington is in Sau Paulo with the closer look,

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNNINTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He is known as Brazil's Trump, an anti-establishment politician who promises to drain the swamp and crackdown on crime. And like his U.S. counterpart, he campaigned on change and won.

Sixty-three-year-old Jair Bolsonaro is a seven-term congressman with a reputation for controversial comments. Often aimed at homosexuals, minorities and women. Once telling a congresswoman she was not pretty enough to rape.

He has a strong conservative base who, like him, are pro-life and against same-sex marriage. A former army captain, Bolsonaro wants to bring back law and order which he said was strongest under Brazil's former military dictatorship. Even though military rule ended in the mid '80s, Bolsonaro still believes in some of the old regime's brutal tactics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOLSONARO (through translator): I support torture. You know that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DARLINGTON: It's tough talk that has resonated with voters tired of political corruption and widespread crime. Brazil has one of the highest murder rates in the world and Bolsonaro plans to fight fire with fire. Encouraging police to use lethal force on criminals.

Last month, Bolsonaro himself was stabbed in the stomach at a campaign rally by a man who police believed was mentally ill. On the economic front, Bolsonaro promised free market reforms and privatizations. But as the head of South America's largest economy, he also said he would safeguard natural resources, and warns that China already owns too much of its land.

Whether or not Bolsonaro makes good on his campaign promises to make Brazilians safer and more solvent is yet to be seen. He'll get that chance when he officially takes office in January.

Shasta Darlington, Sao Paulo.

HOWELL: Let's talk more about this now with Eric Farnsworth. Eric is the vice-president at the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas. Joining this hour from Washington, D.C. Eric, thank you for your time.

ERIC FARNSWORTH, VICE PRESIDENT, AMERICA'S SOCIETY & COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAS: Pleased to be with you.

So, Mr. Bolsonaro took 55 percent of the HOWELL: vote, clearing the 50 percent threshold to win, and besting his opponent Fernando Haddad, at 45 percent of the vote. What does a Bolsonaro presidency mean for Brazil?

FARNSWORTH: It's going to be a change, there's no question about it. The Brazilian people voted for change. They are so tired of corruption. They are so tired of crime. They're looking for the they are looking for the economy to be jump started and for job reaction once again to be a priority. This is something now President-elect Bolsonaro says he is going to be able to do. And so there are a lot of hopes from the Brazilian people riding on his candidacy right now.

HOWELL: And we are looking at images right there, these images from earlier in Rio de Janeiro. So many people who came out to celebrate his victory. But given the racist, the homophobic, the misogynist comments that the president-elect has made in the past, is there any sense that he might moderate, that he might shift to a more inclusive tone for all of Brazil's people or is there concern he will lead as president, in accordance to the things he's said in the past?

[03:24:59] FARNSWORTH: There is a lot of hope that he'll moderate his rhetoric and, in fact, bind up a very polarized Brazil. But I think most people anticipate that, in fact, he won't do that.

In part, because the rhetoric and the things he's said in the past pre-date in some cases, by many years, the campaign. And although campaigning and governing are two separate things, nonetheless, he does seem to have a record that goes back many years that seems to be fairly anti-Democratic, that seems to be pointed against minorities, and seems to be really challenging the idea of a large inclusive country like Brazil really traditionally has been.

HOWELL: Of the 26 states in Brazil, Mr. Bolsonaro seemed to do best in the western and southern parts of Brazil. His opponent, Fernando Haddad won in central, northern and eastern states. What were some of the key issues that made the biggest differences for voters across those regions?

FARNSWORTH: Well, these are traditional strongholds of the Workers' Party or the P.T., in other words, the regions that Haddad won. And those tend to be more racially diverse. They tend to be less developed than the southern part of Brazil. And so you have some economic cleavages in Brazil. You have racial cleavages. You have development cleavages.

It's really a -- going to be a challenge, particularly now with the president-elect who comes into office with some very divisive rhetoric. And so, this is going to be a challenge too. Because, look, Brazil faces some very significant and economic problems that it's going to take a national consensus to be able to address.

And so, if you have a polarized society and you have a president in government who are actually not trying to bring people together, but rather divide people, getting that national consensus to drive through economic reform it's going to be doubly difficult. And so, it calls into question whether, indeed, he'll be able to create the jobs and build the economic foundation that he claims to be able to do.

HOWELL: Eric Farnsworth, again, thank you for your time and perspective.

FARNSWORTH: Thank you so much for having me.

CHURCH: And we'll take a very short break. Still to come, it is a grimly familiar scene in the United States. Police arriving at another shooting. The president's response to three days of deadly hate-filled crimes.

Plus, more on the search and rescue efforts for the plane that crashed off the coast of Indonesia. [03:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: We continue following the breaking news this hour out of Indonesia. A passenger plane has crashed into the sea. I'm George Howell.

CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church. We want to welcome back our viewers here in the United States and of course all around the world.

Indonesian authorities confirm its Lion Air flight 610. The passenger plane went missing soon after takeoff from Jakarta on its way to Pangkal Pinang on the island of Bangka.

HOWELL: We understand 189 people were on the plane including two infants and a child. Rescuers are searching the crash site, this just 34 nautical miles from Jakarta.

CHURCH: Greg Bamber joins us now from Melbourne, Australia. He is a professor at Monash Business School Department of Management and the author of "Up in the Air: How Airlines Can Improve Performance by Engaging Their Employees." Good to have you with us.

GREG BAMBER, PROFESSOR, MONASH BUSINESS SCHOOL, DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT: Hello, good evening.

CHURCH So, we are learning more about the circumstances leading up to this plane crash. The plane only climbed to about 5,200 feet and just 20 minutes into the flight, crashed into the sea. And the pilot had apparently requested to turn back to Jakarta, although that never happened. What are those details signal to you may have happened?

BAMBER: Well, that's a good question, Rosemary. The fact that the pilot had requested turning back is interesting because that meant the pilot had some time, but the pilot was probably very busy trying to troubleshoot the problem to talk much with the controllers.

And the problems would come down to one of four kinds of problem: A mechanical issue, like a catastrophic failure of the systems; human problems, human error or illness or whatever; criminal or terrorist type of activities; and fourthly, weather.

But from the reports, it would appear that weather is not a factor. So, in terms of trying to diagnose the problems, it would be either mechanical, human or criminal.

CHURCH Yes. So, I mean, the process of elimination already underway as people are looking at these possibilities. Lion Air has had safety issues in the past, but apparently had improved in recent years. How significant is this?

BAMBER: It is significant, Rosemary. Lion Air was banned from flying into the European Union, for example, for several years. And its permission to fly back into the E.U. was only restored last year after it had worked on its issues. So, this is a significant setback for Lion Air and it would indicate that there are some problems in terms of its safety culture with Lion Air because there have been a number of other issues, as you mentioned.

CHURCH: Now, as you mentioned, it does appear that weather did not play a role in this crash. You listed there mechanical issues, human error, or criminal or terrorist activity. So those three possibilities. What investigators go through as they try to eliminate one or two of those to actually narrow it down to what happened here?

BAMBER: Well, the major priority for the investigators is to find the aircraft, which they haven't yet found. And within the aircraft or nearby, to find the black box recorder, which is the best set of evidence they can have for diagnosing what's gone wrong.

So, it's early days for us to speculate. It's a brand-new aircraft, so it would seem that mechanical failure is not very likely. It's only been flying for two years, and it's a new model of the Boeing 737, which is the plane -- there are more 737s flying around the world than any other model of aircraft, a tried and tested aircraft. There could be some kind of human problem, we don't know, or criminal terrorist kind of activity.

[03:35:01] The plane dived very quickly and is now underwater in something like 30 to 40 meters. So it shouldn't be too long before the authorities find it.

CHURCH Yeah, indeed. Greg Bamber, thank you so much for sharing your analysis and perspective on this. We shall see in the coming hours if we have some answers to so many questions. Thank you so much for joining us.

BAMBER: Thank you, Rosemary, and our thoughts are with the families and their friends of those on board.

CHURCH: Absolutely. Thank you so much.

HOWELL: Surely our thoughts are with the families wondering what the situation is.

CHURCH: Yeah, horrible to think of the agony that they are experiencing right now.

HOWELL: Absolutely. Well, here in the United States, you talk about agony, 72 hours of hate-filled crimes, they were committed during that time, two of them deadly. In addition to the mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, critics of the president were targeted with pipe bombs.

CHURCH: And a man with a history of racist rants is charged with killing two African-Americans at a Kentucky grocery store. President Trump at first responded with a unifying message, then pivoted to blaming the mainstream media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This evil antisemitic attack is an assault on all of us. It's an assault on humanity. It will require all of us working together to extract the hateful poison of antisemitism from our world.

The media's constant unfair coverage, deep hostility, and negative attacks -- you know that -- only serve to drive people apart and to undermine healthy debate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Well, let's talk about that now with Scott Lucas. Scott, a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, live via Skype from Birmingham, England. Scott, a pleasure to have you on the show.

Look, 72 hours of hate. There was a partisan attack involving explosive devices, then a deadly antisemitic shooting, targeting a synagogue, also a racist who killed two Africa-Americans in Kentucky. The U.S. president has not responded to that attack, but has responded to the other two, Scott. Your thoughts about Mr. Trump's responses or lack thereof so far.

SCOTT LUCAS, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: Well, first, I mean, we've had attacks in the U.S. before. We have had hate crimes, but the intensity of hate crimes and the pace of them in this era of social media are increasing, and all politicians have responsibility.

All of us, indeed, have a responsibility knowing that -- to try to tone it down in terms of if we get angry, and instead try to find dialogue and reconciliation. But this president has no reverse gear. He only knows one way forward, which is to attack, to attack his perceived opponents, whether they are you in the media, whether they are political opponents, whether they are activist.

And it is notable that as soon as he has come off script in the last 72 hours, he's returned to the attack. So only yesterday, calling a Democratic donor, Tom Steyer, a crazed lunatic, and then blaming the media again last night and portraying himself as the victim.

Let's add one thing, George. This isn't just off-the-cuff remarks. When Donald Trump and other figures in the GOP decided to make this about mobs, that the strategy before the congressional elections would be hashtag jobs not mobs, and that the Democrats were whipping up people to overrun the United States, they created this notion of an enemy within.

And even if they don't put guns and pipe bombs in people's hands, the idea that your enemy is across the street from you or across the political divide from you, it gives legitimacy to those people who will attack.

HOWELL: While saying the nation should come together, Mr. Trump did say that, he has refused to consider whether his rhetoric might play any part in the problem. Instead, he's decided to double down on attacks, as you mentioned, to the media. Is this a strategy that works for President Trump?

LUCAS: George, we'll just have to see on November 6th, you know, which is only eight days away. For months, the Trump advisers, including people like Stephen Miller, have been saying, look, if you just tar all immigrants or would-be immigrants as being threats, if you just portray other people outside the U.S. as threats, if you portray the Democrats as threats, we will win.

They are relying not on all Americans, but on a section of Americans, I think, will support them. Now, there are others who may not like that message. I can't tell people how to vote, George, but I will say that these midterms next week are the most important, I think, in American history.

[03:39:55] Because it is either a chance for us to reflect as we vote in terms of whether we support that type of divisive aggressive rhetoric or whether we look for some way which is a way before a bomb is thrown, before another gun attack, we actually seek to work with each other so that we don't have to mourn as we have been this weekend over incidents such as Pittsburgh and in Kentucky.

HOWELL: Yeah, it's been a hell of a week. Let's hope for things to be better this week. Scott Lucas, thank you for your time.

LUCAS: Thank you, George.

CHURCH: Saudi Arabia's chief prosecutor is in Istanbul. Coming up, the latest on the investigation into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Fans of the British football club Leicester City are grieving for the team's owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the Thai billionaire, died when his helicopter crashed and burst into flames in the parking lot just outside the Leicester City stadium. It happened just after Saturday's premiere league match.

HOWELL: Four other people were also on board the helicopter. They were also killed. The club didn't confirm his death until nearly 24 hours after the crash, but that didn't stop fans and well-wishers from coming together and creating a memorial with many things there in front of the stadium.

U.S. defense secretary is calling on the Saudis for a transparent investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

CHURCH: As he traveled to the Czech Republic, James Mattis told reporters he discussed the journalist's death with Saudi Arabia's foreign minister at a conference Saturday. He said there was full agreement from the minister for a thorough investigation.

And we have the latest from both Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Sam Kiley is with us from Riyadh and Jomana Karadsheh is in Istanbul. Good to see you both. Sam, let's start with you. [03:45:01] The U.S. defense secretary has called on the Saudis for a transparent and thorough investigation into the death of Khashoggi. How likely is it, though, that they can deliver on that?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it's something that the Saudis are very keen to do. It's interesting that Adel al-Jubeir has repeated his commitment to track down whoever was behind this killing, not least in the context of the Saudi prosecutor earlier over the last few days has said, Rosemary.

But the Saudis now believe that there was malice aforethought, that this was a planned murder, not an abduction or an interrogation that went wrong. So the Saudi narrative has been shifting to something much closer to what the Turks have been alleging all along using their drip feed of alleged intelligence.

But the problem for the Saudis is how far up the food chain of politics here does responsibility really lie. Ultimately, the issue is going to be remains for the Americans is very much the position of the European Union. Indeed, the G7 have all said that there has to be a completely transparent investigation here.

And that means ultimately an examination of how much, if anything, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, knew about this operation. Because the people who conducted it, almost all -- certainly the majority of them, people that work for him or work very closely to him. But this repeated commitment being made by the Saudis of an open-ended investigation, somewhat commits them ultimately to looking into the corners that they might want to keep dark in the future, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yeah, indeed. And, Jomana, let's turn to you there in Istanbul, Turkey. What is the latest on the investigation there into Khashoggi's death?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, at least publicly, it seems that the investigation is moving really slowly. As we know, there are two investigations going on. You have Saudi Arabia carrying its own investigation and Turkey now for nearly a month with its own investigation. And they both have this working group where they share the results of this ongoing investigation.

And as part of that, you have the chief prosecutor of Saudi Arabia arriving here overnight. He's expected today to be meeting with Istanbul's chief prosecutor who is leading the investigation into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

Now, as Sam mentioned there, you have this changing narrative from the Saudi side, but at this point, you have both sides saying that it was premeditated murder. Of course, there's lots of questions that remain unanswered. And Turkey is trying to get the answers from the Saudi authorities. And that specifically comes down to the 18 individuals that Saudi Arabia arrested in connection with the killing of Khashoggi.

We understand that the chief prosecutor is bringing the testimony of those 18 individuals, expected to share those with Turkey. Now, this might not be enough. We've heard Turkish officials including the president saying that they want these 18 to be -- to face justice here in Turkey where the crime was committed.

We know that an extradition request was being prepared by Turkey. But indications so far is that Saudi Arabia is going to reject such a request. We have heard from the Saudi foreign minister over the weekend saying that the 18 are Saudi nationals and they will face justice in Saudi Arabia.

So, we'll have to wait and see where that goes. We'll have to also wait and see how much evidence Turkey will be sharing with the Saudi chief prosecutor during this visit. And one pressing question, something we've heard from President Erdogan and other officials they want answered is where is the body of Jamal Khashoggi, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yeah, that is the big question. Jomana Karadsheh joining us there from Istanbul in Turkey, Sam Kiley in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thank you to you both.

HOWELL: Next on CNN "Newsroom."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

CHURCH (voice-over): We will recap the Boston Red Sox world series win and see how a city's world (ph) by baseball success is celebrating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Japan's Princess Ayako got married at Tokyo's Meiji Shrine on Monday. True love came at a cost. The 32-year-old groom works for a shipping company and that means that, like all female members of Japan's imperial family, Ayako will lose her royal status for marrying a commoner.

CHURCH: But the Japanese government will give her a lump sum of $950,000 for her living expenses. Quite the wedding gift although we'll have to see whether that lasts.

HOWELL: Not a lot, Rosy.

CHURCH: Not really. Not a lifetime.

(LAUGHTER)

HOWELL: Yeah.

CHURCH: Well, the 12 boys from the Thai football team who were rescued from a flooded cave got a special surprise over the weekend. They got to meet players from England's famed Manchester United Football Club. HOWELL: The youth team known as the Wild Boars also tour the team's training ground and stadium, then they watched the team defeat Everton in an English premiere match on Sunday.

CHURCH: And the Boston Red Sox are world series champions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Pitch. Red Sox win the world series! Five in one the final tonight! And the best team in baseball wins it all in 2018.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: How about that? They beat the L.A. Dodgers in game five of the best of seven series. It crowns the Red Sox as major league baseball's best team from start to finish in 2018.

HOWELL: The city of Boston -- take a look there. People are pretty happy there on the streets, as you'd imagine. Fans filled the streets to celebrate. You could say also they're getting kind of spoiled there in Boston these days.

[03:55:02] The Red Sox fourth world series title in 15 years. And as you might expect, the champagne corks were popping in the winner's locker room. Our Paul Vercammen was right there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what it feels like, one of the most dominant seasons in baseball history, the clubhouse becomes a nuthouse of sheer joy. The Red Sox in ecstasy. They won 108 games in the regular season. And in the post-season, they seemingly destroyed everyone.

If you think about it, the Yankees won one game, the Astros won one game, the Dodgers won one game. That means total all those up and it's still not enough to beat the Red Sox. A season to remember, and one that ends here at Dodger Stadium, four games to one and five to one. Now back to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Thank you so much. A nice way to end this hour. Thank you so much for watching CNN "Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church.

HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. For our viewers in the United States, "Early Start" is next from New York. For viewers around the world, the news continues with our colleague Hannah Vaughan Jones live in London. You're watching CNN.

CHURCH: Have a great day.

HOWELL: The world's news leader.

[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)