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Hillary Clinton Gives Speech in Alabama; Oregon Shooting Victim Recovers in Hospital; Violence Continues between Palestinians and Israelis; President's Announcement of Remaining Troop Levels in Afghanistan Analyzed; Donald Trump's Campaign Spending Habits Examined; Carly Fiorina Experiences Drop in Recent Polling; Large Elephant Killed in Legal Hunt in Zimbabwe. Aired 2-3P ET

Aired October 17, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: They are introducing Hillary Clinton who is supposed to come out here any minute. This is a very, very pro-Hillary crowd. This group endorsed her at the Alabama Democratic Conference. They endorsed her in 2008 and have been praising her from the podium as this event gets underway.

Again, as you said, this is about her southern strength in particularly African-American voters, this group predominantly African-American, as you can see behind me. So we're expecting to hear from her any minute. She's expected to talk a bit about voting rights. We know that's been a big issue in this state as well as across the country.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Nia-Malika, thank you so much. We'll come back to you and Hillary Clinton as soon as she takes the podium, appreciate it.

Meantime, we're hearing information about Vice President Joe Biden's decision on launching a potential presidential bid. A source tells CNN the president of the powerful International Association of Firefighters spoke with Biden last night and that the vice president strongly indicated he is planning to run. The source also says the announcement is imminent. The firefighters association has indicated it would support Biden if he were to run.

On to southern California, now. Residents are digging out from massive mudslides that trapped hundreds of drivers. The images coming in are quite stunning. Motorists Nick Zurnyk captured this video, and he says he spent 20 hours stuck on the highway. A woman in Kern County also got caught right in the middle of it all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh, this car's going to hit us. Oh, my god!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're floating!

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: All right, Roland Sprewell is with the Los Angeles

County Fire Department. He's joining us right now. So Roland, tell me about the cleanup, and how do you recover from this?

ROLAND SPREWELL, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Fredericka, good morning, and good morning, everyone. As you already mentioned, we're in -- all but in the cleanup stages what Thursday afternoon was a pretty dynamic, pretty dangerous situation, walls of mud and water covering cars, people being rescued off the tops, rooftops of their homes, a very, very dangerous situation. And the focus yesterday was spent on checking vehicles and performing secondary searches to make sure nobody was still stuck inside of their car. We also reached out to a number of homes and conducted damage assessment and whatnot to determine whether or not people were stuck in their homes, access and functional needs, people in wheelchairs and so forth.

And so today the focus is really going out and doing what we call occupant support. That's helping these communities get back on their feet, clearing their homes of any mud, assessing for further structural damage and so forth. And basically, just helping this -- these communities recover from this disaster.

WHITFIELD: Wow. It's an incredible -- and so the secondary searches that you speak of, do you feel fairly comfortable that everyone has been retrieved and rescued?

SPREWELL: Yes. We assessed initially Thursday afternoon, Thursday evening about 25 cars, made sure everybody was out. We marked those vehicles to make sure nobody was still stuck inside them. Yesterday we saw much of the same sort of activity. There are still a couple of cars that are stuck in the mud, but a lot of our fire crews are helping to dig many of those residents' vehicles out and so forth.

And, again, today, much of the focus will be working with our public works associates and other stake holders, the sheriff's department, helping to get people back on their feet and get them back in their homes and getting life back to normal.

WHITFIELD: Wow, it's an incredible scene there. And you will definitely have your work cut out for you. But so glad there are no reports of any serious injuries. All right, thank you so much, Roland Sprewell, the L.A. County Fire Department, appreciate it.

All right, well, happening right now, they're in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, Alabama, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Let's listen in.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- on that stage in Las Vegas with what you've heard from the candidates on the other side, there is a big, big gulf. I didn't hear any real solutions from them. About the problems that keep families up at night. How we're going to raise wages and create more good jobs for hard working people. How we're going to keep our community safe from gun violence. How we're going to send more young people to college and be able to have them afford it and not be drowning in debt. How we're going to get the cost of prescription drugs down. How we're going to deal with systemic racism and injustice. I didn't hear anything about any of those issues.

[14:05:04] And I think that's really what this election's going to be about. We have to draw the comparison between what it means to have a Democrat in the White House and what it means to have a Republican in the White House.

Now, I don't mean to be partisan or even personal about this, but the economy does better in our country when we have a Democrat in the White House.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Now, those are just facts. Think about it. Unemployment goes down, incomes go up. Even the stock market goes up. Deficits get smaller. But under a Republican president you're four times more likely to have a recession.

Now, we don't have to go way back to the beginning of our country to remember that. There is a pattern of Republicans getting us into economic messes and Democratic presidents having to come in and clean them up.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: You know, when my husband became president, thanks to a lot of you in this room, I remember after that election in '92 him saying to me, it's so much worse than they told us. The debt of our country had been quadrupled in the prior 12 years. The deficits had exploded. And so he had to roll up his sleeves and work hard. And at the end of eight years we had 23 million new jobs, incomes were rising at the top, the middle working folks, poor people. And we ended up with a balanced budget a surplus.

And then we got another Republican president. And, boy, did he leave a mess to President Obama. After that 08 election, President Obama, then president-elect Obama, called me, asked me to come see him in Chicago. I didn't know why. It turned out he wanted me to be secretary of state. But before we talked about that, he said to me, it is so much worse than they told us. And boy was it. We were on the brink of a great depression, not just a recession. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month.

Now, I know these are inconvenient facts for your Republican friends and neighbors. But the truth is President Obama doesn't get the credit he deserves for saving the American economy for falling into a great depression.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Think about this -- 9 million Americans lost their jobs because of that, 5 million lost their homes, $13 trillion of family wealth was wiped out.

And so here we are on the brink of another election. We've recovered 13 million jobs. We thankfully did not fall into an even deeper hole and we're now out of the one we were in. We're standing, but we're not yet running.

And it is my commitment to you that my mission as president will be to make sure we create man more good jobs and start raising incomes for hardworking folks in America again.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: But you know what the other side is going to say. You've got to give them credit. Joe Reed and I were talking about this. They are persistent. They are persistently wrong in promoting trickledown economics. They are persistently wrong in saying that all we have to do to get the economy working for everybody again the way it did in the '90s is to cut taxes on the wealthy and get out of the way of corporations. That didn't work before, it will not work now.

So although I'm not running for my husband's third term or President Obama's third term, I'm running for my first term. I'm going to do what works to build a strong economy again.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: I will proudly carry forward the record of Democratic achievement. We're not going to rest on our laurels. There is a lot to be done.

[14:10:01] I do not understand what Republicans have against building roads and bridges and airports and fixing our rail tracks and systems and expanding broadband so we can be more competitive economically.

And I understand when you ask them about climate change they all say the same thing, they're not scientists. But they could go talk to a scientist. We've got some at the university here in Birmingham they could talk to. Because, you know, we have to face up to this issue, and we can create millions of new jobs and businesses if we do, by transitioning to clean, renewable energy.

And what do they have against hard working people who deserve a raise by raising the minimum wage? It's time we raise the minimum wage so nobody that works fulltime is left in poverty.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: And I'll tell you. If you want to raise incomes, you have to enforce equal pay for equal work for the American woman.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: The real emblem of equal pay is your own Lily Ledbetter from right here in Alabama.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: It's against the rules to find out what someone else has paid, which is one of the reasons she didn't know for years she wasn't paid equally to the men who were doing exactly the same job. This is not just a woman's issue. This is a family issue. This is an economic issue. And we've got to get more small businesses to be able to create jobs because you know 60 percent of all jobs come from small businesses. And we need to help more small businesses get started in America. And that means we've got to get more credit flowing so people with good ideas can actually get the money they need to borrow.

WHITFIELD: Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton there in Hoover, Alabama, invoking names of Presidents Clinton and Obama, saying that "I'm not running for my husband or Obama's third term. I'm running for my first term to build a strong economy again." We're going to continue to watch and listen to this speech of Hillary Clinton there in Hoover, Alabama. Right now, we're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:15:53] WHITFIELD: All right, we continue to monitor presidential candidate Hillary Clinton right there in Hoover, Alabama, just outside of Birmingham. She's laying out her plan for the economy but also giving credit to President Obama. So in her words, he strengthened the economy. She is releasing more information about her promise, her plan to increase wages and put more young people in college. We'll continue to monitor her remarks there out of Hoover, Alabama.

Meantime, we're also learning new details today from this month's campus massacre in Oregon. The man so many called a hero, Chris Mintz, is recounting what happened the day of the shooting moment by moment. Eight students and one professor were killed in the rampage, nine people were injured, including Mintz, who was shot five times. CNN's Nick Valencia has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dispatch as many ambulances as possible, we have upward of 20 victims.

VALENCIA: Chilling new details from the Oregon community college massacre from shooting survivor, Chris Mintz, the army veteran who has been called a hero for protecting others.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in a classroom.

VALENCIA: In a Facebook posting Mintz recalled the day that he says started out as normal but quickly descended into chaos. He writes "There was a bunch of yelling and that there were gunshots going off that sounded like fire crackers." Mintz, who says he sat in the front of the class, says everyone got up and took off. "I stopped and held the door open and waited for everyone to leave safely," he writes. "He then says he took direction from a counselor that kept screaming someone needed to tell the people in the library, and I told her I would do it."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody is outside one of the doors.

VALENCIA: Mintz writes that he made his way back into the classroom area where he came face to face with the gunman. "He leaned out and started shooting as I turned toward him," he recalled. This is how he described the shooter. "He was so nonchalant through it all, like he was playing a video game, and showed no emotion." Mintz says "The shots knocked me to the ground and felt like a truck hit me." He then says he was shot again while on the ground and that the gunman said "That's what you get for calling the cops."

Mintz writes in the Facebook post that he told the gunman that he didn't call police and they were already on the way. He then yelled to the gunman, "It's my kids birthday, man." Mintz says "The shooter pointed the gun right at my face and then retreated back into the classroom."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, everyone. I'm doing well.

VALENCIA: A friend posted this video of Mintz in the hospital. He has since been released and has this lingering question. "I'm still confused as to why he didn't shoot me again."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: That was Nick Valencia reporting.

All right, coming up, the rash of deadly attacks in the West Bank continues this weekend as a peace rally is underway. We're live from Jerusalem next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:22:29] WHITFIELD: All right, checking our top stories, Joaquin Guzman, the drug kingpin better known as "El Chapo," was injured while evading authorities. He got away, but not before sustaining injuries to his face and one leg. That's according to officials in Mexico. They say they've now launched an operation to recapture Guzman who broke out of prison in July.

The governor of Hawaii has declared a state of emergency to address homelessness in his state. Some $1.3 million in state funding will now be used to expand services, including temporary housing and an extension of contracts for homeless services. A state coordinator says Hawaii has the highest per capita of homelessness among the 50 states.

And Hungary has closed its border with Croatia today. The only legal entry into the country will now be restricted to official border crossings. Hungary's move comes in response to the thousands of migrants and refugees crossing over its borders in recent months.

And violence in the West Bank and Jerusalem is continuing to escalate today. And we're just hearing of a fourth alleged knife attack today in Hebron. Israeli Defense Forces say a Palestinian assailant stabbed an Israeli soldier in his upper torso and that attacker was shot. CNN correspondent Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem right now. A rally is underway. What's taking place?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a large rally behind me, a peace rally, and a joint peace rally at that, between Israelis and Arabs. Take a look behind me. This is the front of the rally marching through the streets of Jerusalem. It's saying right here that we're stopping the racism. There are other signs here that say '67, a Palestinian state next to an Israeli state, and Jews and Arabs standing together against hate. This is a rally for peace after what has been two weeks now getting towards its third week of these attacks.

The frustration here not only with this violence and these attacks, but also with politicians who at this point they're accused here of inciting, essentially, of not doing enough to restore calm, calm, peace, security some things that are sorely lacking here with a palpable feeling of tension and of fear in the air.

This peace rally doesn't change the reality on the ground today. We've just gotten word of a fifth attack at a crossing between the West Bank and Israel where Israeli police say a Palestinian stabbed a border police officer who then shot him in the legs. As the border police officer approached, the Palestinian, the IDF says, or the Israeli police say the Palestinian pulled out a second knife when another officer shot and killed him.

[14:25:12] So this peace rally calling for an end to all of these attacks, all of this violence. The death toll rising here, seven Israelis killed. That would be more than 40 Palestinians killed, about half of those according to Israeli security authorities in carrying out or attempting to carry out alleged attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. But there is this frustration with that violence, with these attacks, and you see that frustration here behind me. Fredericka?

WHITFIELD: All right, Oren. I'm going to take a chance. I know it's very vocal there. But if you can hear me, these recent attacks, what does it do in terms of people's fear and reluctance to trust one another, even if it is trusting journalists or first responders since people are taking sides?

LIEBERMANN: Well, it adds to the tension and it adds to that edge where there is those that always have that question lingering in the back of people's minds, is it safe? Is there, you know, is it safe to go out? And we have seen those questions on the streets from both Israelis and Palestinians. Israelis concerned about attacks. Palestinians concerned about what they say is a heavy hand and a willingness on the part of security forces to open fire against Palestinians. So that's part of that fear, part of that tension that we're seeing on both sides.

As a result of that, Israeli security forces and the Israeli government have put in very heavy restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in east Jerusalem that's making it very difficult for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move around and led to a quiet in the old city that we felt yesterday and before this today. But that is a tense quiet, a quiet not of good, but a quiet that's as a result of the tension, the attacks, the violence. The question, when will all of this end? The answer, not today, right now, Fredricka. WHITFIELD: All right, very volatile situation. Oren Liebermann,

thank you so much there in the streets of Jerusalem.

All right, the U.S. is leaving almost 10,000 troops in Afghanistan longer than planned. We'll ask our military panel what it means for the U.S. strategy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:30:23] WHITFIELD: All right, hello again. And thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredericka Whitfield.

Nearly 10,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan won't be coming home next year as planned. In a major reversal President Barack Obama delayed the anticipated troop drawdown, deciding to keep those American troops in Afghanistan through next year. I want to bring in our panel, CNN military analyst Rick Francona, a former military attache in the Middle East, good to see you, and Lieutenant Colonel Tony Shaffer is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer. Good to see you as well. All right, gentlemen, I wonder, Colonel Shaffer, you first, how do you interpret this move to maintain more U.S. troops there? Does that tell you Afghanistan is in far worse shape than you originally thought?

LT. COL. TONY SHAFFER, FORMER U.S. ARMY INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: Afghanistan is not stable. Afghanistan is a country in transition. And, I think we've recognized, as the president's recognized, that ISIS now is in ten provinces in Afghanistan, seven of which they control. And the Taliban is resurgent as much as we saw a victor in Kunduz about two weeks ago. The Afghan forces were able to retake that city from the Taliban with our help.

The thing we have to continue to focus on is reconciliation between the Taliban and the central Afghan government. It's not our job to do it for the Afghans. We have to create conditions for them. And, more importantly, at least for our purposes, to maintain a sufficient military force with sufficient intelligence capability to detect the rise of insurgents, which are actually like Al Qaeda and ISIS, who really mean to create bases to attack us. So we need to be there to maintain our ability to conduct offensive terrorism operations.

WHITFIELD: And Rick, what are the advantages you see in making this decision now as opposed to even closer to those dates of the drawdown?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET), FORMER U.S. MILITARY ATTACHE IN SYRIA: Well, I think it keeps a force in place and lets everybody know that we're committed to doing this. I just want to pick up what, you know, I agree with everything Tony said. But I think also, we need to remember one of the big missions over there is to keep training the Afghan forces. And that's been --

WHITFIELD: That will be the primary role, right, of keeping them there? FRANCONA: They say train, advise, and assist. But if you listen

to what the president said the other day, I think he's going to focus a lot on the counterterrorism mission. And this is what I'm concerned about. I don't know if 10,000 troops spread out over four or five locations is really enough to do that. I know it's an aggressive mission and it's a necessary mission. But one place or two places, that's fine. But he's talking about five different operating bases. When you do that, you spread your force so thin that you spend almost all your resources on force protection and intelligence gathering rather than on the core mission.

WHITFIELD: So what does this tell you, lieutenant, you know, that Taliban or other, you know, forces, you know, terrorism groups, et cetera, that they are growing and that they're formidable? Or does this also tell you something about, is it that some Afghan -- the Afghan people are not trainable, or, perhaps, you know, they're not able to have the same kind of dedication, I guess, to the police forcing or military forcing that the U.S. wants to see? What is it at stake here? What's at the root of the problem?

SHAFFER: Well, I agree with what Rick just said completely, and I agree the numbers will be a bit difficult. Let me answer your question in two parts first.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SHAFFER: The reason I believe we're at nearly the right number right now is because as long as they're able to do the aggressive mission assigned to them, as Rick said, if they can continue to do offensive, aggressive operations, that's the right number.

Regarding his other point, regarding train, the Afghan people are trainable. You have to understand, though, that the Afghan people do not have a tradition of a central democracy. So what we have to understand is that the warlords, those unsavory characters we've worked with called the Afghan militia forces which helped us win in 2001 are who we need to be working with as well now.

So it's a multifaceted tapestry of work to basically reconcile the warlords, the Taliban, with the central government so that they can co-exist. Our interest, frankly, is not nation building. It's not how they interact. It's about how we take care of business to create, prevent terrorist organizations from being able to do another 9/11 or train to do another 9/11 from that area as a base of operations.

WHITFIELD: And that's what I wonder. And I'm really kind of fumbling with trying to ask that question, because I wonder, Rick, is it an issue of, you know, American expectations may not necessarily be in sync with the cultural, you know, ways or mores there in Afghanistan.

FRANCONA: Yes, I think that's exactly right. We do these cookie cutter approaches. We're going to train. We're going to start at the platoon level and then work up to the battalion level. That's well and good if you're training in a western environment, but we're not. I think we have to take into consideration the way the country is structured. Rather than imposing our solution on them is looking at what works for them and trying to adapt our training to that. Like, you know, as Tony said, let's take advantage of these militias and the structure that's out there rather than putting this cookie cutter approach.

[14:35:14] You know, we have these great plans, the army has a great job at this. Truth to task, how long does it take to train to an individual skill set? But we're not working in a western environment. And I think you hit it right there with the cultural differences.

WHITFIELD: OK, and the flipside to that, do you think, Lieutenant, that the outcome, you know, is far worse if the U.S. does not further dedicate the kinds of resources or at least some sort of plan to help prop up Afghanistan against whether it be Taliban or other extremist forces or groups?

SHAFFER: Right, the government that we lead there is irrelevant as long as the government does not choose to do things to attack us. And I think, again, our job is to maintain sufficient military force necessary to address our objectives.

Just remember, we've never left Japan. We've never left Germany. South Korean, we actually have been there. We have 49,000 to 50,000 troops any given time in South Korean. We helped that country transition into a thriving democracy. So I don't believe it's in our interest to throw away the investment we've made in blood and treasure over the past 14 years, like we did in Iraq. I think we need to stay the course here. I think we're moving in the right direction by this change in policy.

WHITFIELD: All right, Tony Shaffer, Rick Francona, thanks to both of you gentlemen, always good to see you. Appreciate it.

SHAFFER: Thank you.

FRANCONA: OK.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, field offices, staff members, advisers -- this is typically where presidential hopefuls spend most of their money, right? Well, not Donald Trump, apparently. What he's spending his money on, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:40:20] WHITFIELD: All right, let's turn now to the race for 2016 where we're learning more about Donald Trump's spending habits. Reuters is reporting that GOP frontrunner spent more on hats, t- shirts, bumper stickers, and yard signs that any other campaign line item. He spent the second largest amount on his private Trump jet that he uses to travel. So for some perspective, typical campaigns usually allocate most funds towards staff payroll, mailings, and consultants. Joining me now to talk more about this is CNN senior media correspondent and host of "Reliable Sources" Brian Stelter. Good to see you. BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: You, too.

WHITFIELD: OK, so this is rather unusual. But everything about Donald Trump and what he's been bringing has been rather unusual, right? So in the past, you know, winning candidates have set up campaign offices across the country, mobilizing voters. What does this say about his campaign strategy, that he's not doing what most other candidates do?

STELTER: He continues to not just break the rules but create new rules for presidential campaigns. Trump took in $3.9 million in donations in the three months of the year. That's a change from over the summer from the early days of his campaign when he talked about a self-funded campaign. In this case he's taking in lots of small dollar donations from his supporters, spending less of his own money, and spending more in the traditional campaign way. But like you said, spending it on different kinds of things. Like you mentioned, a lot of different paraphernalia. He's also starting to spend money, though, on some of the basics of campaigning, more offices in more states as well as more consultants to make sure he's on the ballot. So we see in these documents some signs of Trump acting like a traditional campaign figure, while on the other hand we know how unusual he is. He's using the media to have a national campaign driven mostly by television interviews, and that is something that no other candidate has quite done.

WHITFIELD: Right, so we're seeing that absence of the campaign ads. He doesn't need them. He just doesn't need to.

STELTER: That's the one thing missing from television. We see Trump all over the place. He's so effective at using the media to getting his message out. But he doesn't have to buy ads. We've been trying to keep track of how many different interviews and appearances he's done, and frankly, it's been hard to do. He says yes to a lot of requests. He says no to even more. All these different interviewers, all these different outlets, radio, TV, online, you name it, would like to have Trump. And he's taking full advantage of that.

WHITFIELD: Isn't that remarkable his influence to help to help convince CNBC to change some things about the upcoming debate?

STELTER: Yes. This was very revealing this week. We saw Trump and to a lesser extent Ben Carson, but mostly Trump calling for changes to CNBC's debate rules, and it worked. We can put on the screen what they were demanding, what they were really seeking. That is a debate that was no longer than two hours, including commercials, and the opportunity to have opening and closing statements. It was important for these candidates not just to be fielding questions from CNBC's moderators, but to have a chance to deliver their own comments at the beginning and the end. Trump's message was these debates have gone on too long. The CNN debate earlier last month --

WHITFIELD: Isn't that unusual to argue too much time, we'd rather have less?

STELTER: As a viewer or as a journalist, I'd like as much time as possible. And the ratings indicate the viewers are willing to watch three plus hours.

WHITFIELD: We saw that.

STELTER: Even CNN's debate went until 11:00 p.m. The viewership did not fall off. People were very interested in what Trump and the other candidates were saying.

I think what's different here is we're seeing it happen in public. Yes, candidates sometimes try to have fewer debates. They try to limit the amount of time. But they usually do those kinds of things privately. Those negotiations usually happen way behind closed doors. Trump's very different because he does almost everything publicly, so he's made this an issue. And frankly it appears that CNBC and the Republican National Committee did agree because, after all, at the end of the day Trump and Carson make up half of the GOP field in terms of support from the voters. They get up to about 50 percent if you combine their rankings in the polls. And they had a lot of leverage in the situation.

WHITFIELD: Were they also in part kind of arguing they were feeling a little weary. Is that part of the admission, too, after all that time on stage.

STELTER: Certainly, that's a little bit what it sounded like. Trump has commented about being tired during the CNN debate, which went on for three hours. They get short breaks, but you can imagine it gets tiring being up there for a long amount of time. Of course, I don't know if they'd admit to that weakness. I don't know if they'd want to admit to that very publicly.

WHITFIELD: Right.

STELTER: I've got one of Ben Carson's aides, Armstrong Williams, on "Reliable Sources" tomorrow morning. And I'll be asking about that. But for right now, it does appear like they were able to succeed in having these rules tweaked. And CNBC says they were working on drafting the rules. But it's clear to me that CNBC would have liked this debate to go more like two-and-a-half or three hours. Instead it will be a little shorter.

WHITFIELD: It wasn't stated quite verbally, but it was more like an inference. At least that's what I'm reading.

[14:45:02] STELTER: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Brian Stelter, thanks so much. We'll be watching you tomorrow.

STELTER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Appreciate it.

Well, she shined in the presidential debates, right? But Carly Fiorina isn't exactly taking off in the polls right now. What happened? Coming up we'll go on the campaign trail to find out, what is she doing right now to stay in the race? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is on a three-day campaign swing through Iowa. She's trying to keep up her post-debate momentum as her numbers have recently slipped. CNN's Sara Murray reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carly Fiorina barnstorming Iowa, relishing her newly competitive campaign war chest.

CARLY FIORINA, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our trajectory is straight up, whereas others have been, you know, up and down.

MURRAY: Filling her coffers with $6.8 million, far more than the previous quarter, and a good sign. Half of the money came from small donations that often signal grassroots momentum. After enjoying a bump in the polls with moments like this in CNN's GOP debate --

[14:50:13] FIORINA: You know, it's interesting to me, Mr. Trump said he heard Mr. Bush very clearly and what Mr. Bush said. I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.

MURRAY: Fiorina's campaign seems to have lost some of its shine. A CNN-ORC nationwide poll had her in second place in mid-September just behind Donald Trump with 15 percent support.

FIORINA: You know something's going right, you know you're rising in the polls, you know you have momentum when the other side starts attacking hard.

MURRAY: Just weeks later, she's fallen to sixth place in a new FOX News poll with just five percent support nationally, a drop Fiorina brushed off today.

FIORINA: We're number two in New Hampshire We're number three in Iowa. We're number two in Nevada. We're way up there in South Carolina. And so, those are the polls that matter most to me.

MURRAY: What's to blame? Critics point to this moment during the debate.

FIORINA: As with regard to Planned Parenthood, anyone who has watched this videotape, I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.

MURRAY: But even as fact checks show the video didn't exist, Fiorina didn't back off and may have missed an opportunity to widen her appeal. And her campaign has struggled to counter stories about her tumultuous tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It could be problematic for her mainly because Donald Trump has shown such a willingness to go after her on her business experiences, which is why she needs to make it more of a character question.

MURRAY: A third GOP debate set for later this month, and it could be her best shot at reversing her slide in the polls.

FIORINA: This battle does not scare me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: That was CNN's Sara Murray reporting from the campaign trail.

All right, on the heels of Cecil the lion's killing, another big- game hunt stirring outrage around the world. This time it's Zimbabwe's largest known elephant shot by a hunter legally. The public outcry next.

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[14:56:11] WHITFIELD: Growing outrage over the killing of Zimbabwe's largest known elephant, a bull so large his tusks nearly touch the ground, each weighing about 120 pounds. The animal was believed to be more than 50 years old. And a German hunter reportedly paid $60,000 for the hunt. Unlike the killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe a few months ago, this hunt was legal. But that hasn't stopped the fury surrounding the elephant's death.

Joining me right now from Skype, from Richmond, actually, Jeff Corwin, a conservationist and host of the ABC series "Ocean Mysteries." All right, so Jeff, people are outraged. This is, you know, nearly -- well, 50-year-old elephant, the 120-pound tusks, and when you hear so many messages about the elephant population being decimated by poachers across Africa, why is it in this case, this is a legal hunt?

JEFF CORWIN, CONSERVATIONIST: Well, you're absolutely right, Fredricka. Here we see this magnificent iconic creature, the ultimate symbol of South Africa, half a century or more in age, giant tusks. Big elephants like this you just don't see that much anymore. And as you indicated, it's largely because of poaching. We lose between 30,000 to 40,000 African elephants every year. Population now is just under 400,000 animals. So these are creatures that are in serious trouble.

WHITFIELD: So wouldn't this -- I mean, many of the animals, particularly endangered species are protected there in Zimbabwe. But this seemed like a prized elephant. Why would this elephant not enjoy some kind of special privilege against hunting?

Corwin: Good question. Well, just like here in the United States, back there in Zimbabwe, they have protected areas, like national parks or state parks. Depending on the status of a state park, you can have hunting or no hunting. But there is no hunting in a national park. And in Zimbabwe, in that country, an African elephant protected within the boundaries of that regional national park would be protected. But outside of that border in a designated hunting area with someone who has the right credentials and permits, in theory they can legally harvest that animal.

WHITFIELD: And so, what would Zimbabwe's argument be? What's the advantage? Is it strictly the dollar? What's the advantage of Zimbabwe going down as the place where, you know, prized animals can still be hunted for a price?

CORWIN: Well, the argument is basically two sides of the coin. One side is that in Zimbabwe, they promote or accept the hunting because they can take a certain percentage, which is probably less than five percent of the hunting dollar which could generate anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, so five percent of that maybe would go to regional conservation.

The other side of the argument is that these creatures are symbolic of the wildness of this place. They are what we call keystone species, very important to the survival of this ecosystem. So they're more valuable alive than dead. But as far as the U.S. views this, Fredricka, the U.S. Department of the Interior of Natural Resources has passed a law they will not take any trophies from African elephants from Zimbabwe and other animals because of their questionable record when it comes to conservation.

WHITFIELD: The case of this, there's a German hunter, I don't know where he would be able to, you know, take those tusks or anything, any remnants from that elephant. I don't have that kind of information. But it's all so sad, isn't it, Jeff Corwin?

[15:00:00] CORWIN: Yes. You know, we live in a day where we're losing life incredibly fast.