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Presidential Race Tightens One Week before Election; Iraqi Troops on Eastern Outskirts of Mosul; Cubs Force Game 7 in the World Series; Confidante of South Korean President in Detention; Top Intel Official Alarmed Over Putin's Aggression; Meet "The Other" Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired November 02, 2016 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:00:11] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour --
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: With the election just a week away, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are all but tied in the race for the White House.
VAUSE: Iraqi forces on Mosul's doorstep facing suicide bombers, human shields and door-to-door combat.
SESAY: Holy cow. The Cubs win, setting up game seven of the World Series.
VAUSE: Holy cow indeed.
Hello. Welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause.
SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay.
NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.
VAUSE: By this time next week, we could know who will be the next president of the United States, or maybe not. Both candidates held rallies on Tuesday looking to win over last-minute support.
Republican Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence were in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Tuesday, two states which lean Democratic.
SESAY: And Democrat Hillary Clinton made stops at three early voting rallies in Florida, trying to hang on to her narrowing lead in the polls where the latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll shows the race shifting to a dead heat.
Trump has a one-point lead, the first time he has been ahead in that poll since May. CNN's poll of polls still has Clinton four points ahead of Trump.
VAUSE: Just days after announcing a new investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server, the FBI has released hundreds of pages from a 15-year-old investigation involving her husband Bill Clinton. The Clinton campaign says it's another political move with very questionable timing.
SESAY: They accuse the FBI director of having a double standard in cases involving the two presidential candidates.
CNN's Pamela Brown has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tonight the FBI under increasing scrutiny after releasing heavily redacted documents from its 2001 investigation into President Clinton's pardon of Mark Rich, a donor to his presidential library foundation.
But the timing seven days before the election and on the heels of the FBI director's controversial letter to Congress, invited more criticism of the bureau. Clinton's spokesman Brian Fallon tweeting "Absent a FOIA litigation deadline, this is odd. Will FBI be posting docs on Trump's housing discrimination in the 70s?" A case settled years ago.
An FBI official insisted to CNN today's release was not political, and that Freedom of Information Act requests are automatically posted to the account when they're ready for the public to view. The FBI says not posting the documents would have been a change in standard procedure. The FBI also this weekend posted documents relating to Donald Trump's father.
Today Director Comey appeared at a memorial service in Washington alongside Attorney General Loretta Lynch. CNN has learned the two talked on Monday for the first time since Comey went against the department's recommendation not to inform Congress of emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop.
Comey is a Republican who has donated in the past to GOP candidates like Mitt Romney and John McCain but has not made contributions since he was appointed FBI director by President Obama.
But tonight Democrats say there is a double standard: speaking publicly about the Clinton server investigation before there is clarity, but not about investigations connected to the Trump campaign, those around them and connections to Russia.
Sources tell CNN multiple FBI investigations and allegations of connections between Russia and the Trump campaign have yielded little so far, including into his former campaign manager's alleged ties to pro-Putin forces in Ukraine and Trump supporter Roger Stone's possible role into the Clinton campaign chairman's hacked emails released by WikiLeaks.
This is what Stone recently told NBC.
ROGER STONE, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I have a back channel communications with WikiLeaks. But they certainly don't clear or tell me in advance what they're going to do. BROWN: The Clinton campaign is crying foul amid reports Comey argued
against publicly tying Russia to the hacks of the Clinton campaign because it was so close to the election.
ROBBY MOOK, CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: They don't say a thing when it comes to Donald Trump and investigations against him. Yet when it comes to Hillary Clinton, for some reason, they're more than happy to talk.
BROWN: CNN sources say Comey's decision not wanting to name Russia had nothing to do with the election.
(on camera): Several hours after the Freedom of Information Act documents from that 2001 investigation were released by the FBI, the FBI released a statement saying "By law, FOIA materials that have been requested three or more times are posted electronically to the FBI's public reading room shortly after they are processed and then from there those documents are automatically tweeted out."
Pamela Brown, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[00:05:05] VAUSE: Joining us now, Democratic strategist Dave Jacobson and Republican consultant John Thomas. Thank you, guys, for being with us.
JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Sure.
VAUSE: Boy, it is getting exciting.
SESAY: Welcome.
VAUSE: It was before. Now, it's just crazy.
Ok. Let's see if you can pick up on the very subtle tactic here being used by the Clinton campaign. We'll start with Secretary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He calls women ugly, disgusting, nasty all the time. He calls women pigs, rates bodies on a scale from one to ten. We just heard from Alicia. She was Miss Universe. Why does he do these things?
Who acts like this? I'll tell you who, a bully. That's who.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The Alicia she was referring to, Alicia Machado, former Miss Universe, criticized by Donald Trump for gaining weight. Here is what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALICIA MACHADO, FORMER MISS UNIVERSE: It's clear. It's really clear that he does not respect women. He just -- he just judges us on our looks. He thinks he can do whatever he want and get away with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And we'll finish with President Obama. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By the way, this is not just one tape where he is bragging about how being famous allows him to get away with actions that qualify as sexual assault. This is a lifetime of calling women pigs and dogs and slobs and grading women on a ten-point scale. If you disrespected women before you were elected, you will disrespect women once you're president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Ok. It's subtle. So you may not think of what they're going for there. But obviously, Dave, you know, going after Donald Trump and his treatment of women and what he has called women, it's worked in the past for the Clinton campaign. Will it now work over the next six days?
DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think it will. And look, it didn't just work for the Clinton campaign, it worked for Barack Obama. I mean the Clinton campaign understands fundamentally that this race is all about demographics. She has to consolidate and electrify the Obama coalition to propel herself to the White House.
President Obama beat John McCain and Mitt Romney by a sizable margin with women voters. And that's precisely the strategy that I think the Clinton campaign is trying to embrace.
SESAY: John -- is this what you call going high? Like, come on.
THOMAS: What they're doing is they're just really trying to shift the conversation away from emails, away from the FBI, and go back to the temperament question. Go back to the women question because they do win in that argument.
But right now, that's not what the nation is thinking about. We're all wondering if serving her first term means in jail or in the White House.
SESAY: So for your candidate or for Donald Trump, is it a case of focus, focus, focus on the email and hope that just drives the new cycle and drowns everything else out?
THOMAS: You have to do that, but I think Trump also has to speak to the concerns -- the real concerns of voters, and that's the economic message. You have to push both of those and don't take the bait and start just attacking them because they're attacking over here.
This is a tried message already and it's not the most salacious thing today -- the FBI is.
VAUSE: I just want (inaudible) sort of factored that in and now they've moved on to the emails. The Clinton campaign is running a final ad blitz including this ad which, you know, seems quite effective.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing. When I come home and dinner is not ready, I go through the roof.
Grab them by the (EXPLETIVE DELETED). And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Ok. These ads are running heavy in Colorado, Virginia, Michigan, and New Mexico. So John, you have run campaigns. If you look at the strategy, is that what the Clinton campaign is doing now? Shore up those dates? That's the firewall. Forget about the rest.
THOMAS: That's what they have to do. And just like Dave said, they have to focus on women. They can't lose women. And the problem is in some of these other battleground states we're seeing that women are starting to wiggle away from her.
So they have to double down in this message, just like you saw the President talk about. That's their only play at this point. But it's hard. Just like a couple of weeks ago when the Billy Bush "Access: Hollywood" tapes came out, despite Trump desperately wanting to shift the conversation, there's not much you can do in that environment.
Today is the same thing.
SESAY: Is that it? Is that their only play -- Dave?
Jacobson: Yes. Look, she's got to make a character argument. She's got to shift the conversation away from the emails. Because we know any time that one candidate is dominating the news cycle, generally that candidate is losing altitude and oxygen -- right.
So she's got to pivot away from that. She's got to make the character argument that, look, you may not like the email issue, but at the end of the day this guy is a racist, a xenophobe and a bigot. And that's the choice. This is a binary choice that you're going to have to make and she's got to make that argument both on paid communications and in the earned media.
VAUSE: Ok. For Trump it's been sledge hammers at dawn as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: She wants to blame everyone else for her mounting legal troubles. But she has really no one else to blame but herself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[00:10:04] As you know, the FBI has reopened its investigation into Hillary Clinton. This is the biggest scandal since Watergate. And now it's been reported that there are FBI inquiries probing virtually all of Hillary Clinton's inner circle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: I mean it's like (inaudible) Tuesday but the crowd went wild. Now Dave, an aide to the Clinton campaign said that so far there is no indication that the actions of the FBI director are actually affecting the polling and that this is a natural tightening of the race, Republicans coming home. Really?
JACOBSON: Yes. Look, I think a lot of voters have cemented their decisions about the email issue like there is no new information that's come out like there's no additional like email that wasn't found. Like many of these emails the FBI even said could be -- or others have said could be duplicates.
And so we don't know what they have. The letter that director Comey put out was very cryptic and obscure and ambiguous. It didn't really have any meat on the bones. And I think that's the challenge.
And look if you're like an undecided voter, you've been hearing about the emails for the past 18 plus months. Like, you probably already made a decision about how you feel about that issue.
SESAY: John?
THOMAS: I mean if you just look historically at this race, whenever we're talking about Hillary Clinton, her polling numbers dipped down. Whenever we're focused on Donald Trump, she does better. It's just that simple.
So whether or not voters have kind of decided on the email situation, the focus is back on Hillary Clinton. And that's just simply not a good situation. And the ambiguity of what the FBI might -- may or may not have works in the favor of Donald Trump today.
SESAY: Is it natural -- the tightening though?
(CROSSTALK)
THOMAS: Yes. The race would naturally tighten. But I think it tightened a couple of weeks ago. Now the trend lines are roaring in Donald Trump's favor. And there was an ABC poll that came out today that showed there was an incredible enthusiasm gap because that's what this FBI issue has also done.
It enraged Trump supporters to turn out because they think he has a shot. And it has suppressed Democrats that might not have liked Hillary Clinton that much in the first place.
VAUSE: And with that in mind, a big final message for Trump to other Republicans. It's time to come and that includes the House Speaker Paul Ryan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), HOUSE SPEAKER: I stand where I stood all fall and all summer. In fact, I already voted here in Janesville for our nominee last week in early voting. We need to support our entire Republican ticket.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And he is still covering himself to mention Trump by name. But I'm just wondering John, is this how a lot of Republicans will be, that they will hold their nose and they'll vote for Trump?
THOMAS: You know, one thing beyond having mixed feelings about Donald Trump, they hate Hillary Clinton more. And the FBI's announcement has just ground that nerve and reminded people we have to stop Hillary Clinton. So I think they are going to come home.
SESAY: And Dave -- quickly, there anything else for President Obama and the likes of Michelle Obama to say at this stage, bearing in mind the enthusiasm and this excitement the Republicans have in this closing stage?
JACOBSON: I think it's less about what they say and more about like what they do. Like I think Hillary Clinton has an all-star team of surrogates, people who are more popular than her, Michelle Obama being the most popular surrogate out there both with Democrats and declining state (ph) voters.
And so she needs them out stumping for her in some of these key battleground start, particularly states where she is losing ground to Donald Trump -- Florida and Ohio. She is already running up the score in states like Colorado, Nevada and North Carolina. But I think she really needs Michelle and President Obama out there as much as possible in the coming days.
VAUSE: And do you know this weekend, daylight saving finishes. You know what that means? There is an extra hour -- another hour.
THOMAS: Please, no.
(CROSSTALK)
SESAY: Really is.
VAUSE: Catch up with you guys next hour.
SESAY: Appreciate it. Thank you.
VAUSE: Thank you.
SESAY: All right.
VAUSE: Ok. Iraqi troops are now very close to entering Mosul and their offensive to reclaim the city from ISIS. They're facing sniper, land mines and roadblocks just east of the city limits.
SESAY: Counterterrorism forces have taken control of the last village outside Mosul. They're clearing explosives left behind by ISIS before entering the city. But sandstorms are also making the battle more challenging.
VAUSE: CNN's military analyst retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona joins us now for more on this. Colonel -- thank you for being with us.
Explain the strategy here being used by the Iraqi force. Why are they actually moving into the city from the east?
LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They're keeping their momentum up. And at the same time, they're moving into the east and they have actually broken through the first outskirts. And they're actually getting into the city itself now. They're on a roll.
And John, I have to tell you, I'm very impressed with the Iraqi progress. I think they're doing a great job up there. At the same time they're coming up from the south and they're actually having an impact on ISIS. We see ISIS falling back to defend that western part of the city, trying to move their forces back for what they know is going to be the real showdown inside the city.
So I think in the next few days, we're going to see the real intense street to street fighting begin. And that's where the Iraqis really have to be methodical when they go in there.
VAUSE: And to that point, that's when this operation becomes a lot more complicated and a lot more dangerous for civilians.
[00:15:04] FRANCONA: It does because if you're going to use any air power at all, you're going have to accept the higher level of civilian casualties. So I think they're probably going to pull back the air power a little bit and rely on the Iraqi ground troops to go in there. And that's going to cause a lot of danger to them.
But we already see ISIS forming human shields. They're moving into areas where they've got a lot of civilians. They're going to make this as costly as possible in terms of civilian casualties. So the Iraqis are probably going to have no choice. So it's going to be very, very ugly over the next few weeks.
VAUSE: And you mentioned, you said you were impressed with the Iraqi forces to have gone this far. What do we know about this counterterrorism unit which has made this sort of initial run into the city limits of Mosul?
FRANCONA: Yes. They're using their elite forces here in the lead elements. And the counterterrorism force is a U.S. Special Operations Force trained unit. They're probably some of the best the Iraqis have. And they're very good in this role because they have been trained specifically how to defeat these suicide bombers, the IEDs. And they're also equipped with a lot of bulldozers and engineers that are going in with them.
So they were trained just for this mission. And they're doing a pretty good job of it. VAUSE: In the coming days, is ISIS expected to defend the eastern
part of the city where these Special Forces are or will they fall back across the Tigris River, focus on the western side of the city where the old city is?
FRANCONA: Right. And that's what we think is going to happen. And we've already seen one unit of ISIS pull back. They were about 15 kilometers south of the city. They started moving up over to the airport area, which is on the western side of the city.
And we expect that that's where the final showdown is going to take place because that's to their advantage. It's more of a rabbit warren. It's the old city. The streets are much narrower. It's going to be very hard for the Iraqis to move with their armor and humvees in there.
So I think that's where the final stand is going to be and we're starting to see ISIS move back over there. Moving civilian shields over there with them. That's where the final showdown will be.
VAUSE: Ok, Colonel, thank you. Colonel Francona there, giving us some insight of what we can expect in the coming days and just how difficult this will be. And of course, we've been saying it for a while this is going to go on for a number of weeks, maybe even months. Colonel -- thank you.
FRANCONA: Certainly.
VAUSE: We'll take a short break.
When we come back, South Korean prosecutors are running out of time to keep a woman caught up in political scandal in detention. We'll have the latest in her case in just a moment.
SESAY: And baseball's World Series is heading for a thrilling finish. We're live in Cleveland for all the game's action between the Cubs and Indians.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Where is fall? You wouldn't find it across the southeastern United States or the Mid-Atlantic or the Deep South. That's because temperatures running way above normal for this time of year. More like August or September weather.
Hello, everyone. I'm CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis.
[00:19:58] We do have a frontal system sweeping across the Great Lakes and the Central Plains, riding right around that ridge of high pressure. So as that moisture bumps in across some of that drier and hot air, we could see a chance for some showers and some thunderstorms, keeping things fairly unsettled into the Pacific Northwest.
Rainfall expected up and down most of the coastal area, all the way down towards northern California although San Francisco should be mostly sunny. Partly cloudy in Denver. Thunderstorms for Chicago -- it's going to cool off, 20 degrees. Dallas some thunderstorms. Atlanta still hot. New York City is still fairly mild, but running above normal.
Look at New York, though; by the weekend, those temperatures only in the low teens. So it's going to feel a whole lot cooler than what we have seen.
Belize City 28 degrees. Nassau, Bahamas looking at 28. And if you're traveling towards Rio de Janeiro, should it be mostly sunny -- look at that -- hot, 34 degrees. And Quito, 16 and thunderstorms.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: With their backs against the wall, the Chicago Cubs have forced game seven in baseball's World Series.
VAUSE: The Cubs were hot early in game six scoring three runs in the first inning. They added a grand slam in the third, never looked back, winning 9-3 in Cleveland. Game seven Wednesday night and one of these teams will win their first championship in decades.
SESAY: What exciting stuff. Andy Scholes joins us now from Cleveland. Andy -- what a night. Walk us through game six.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Well, I tell you what, Isha, you know, the fans here in Cleveland were pumped up before this game, hoping to celebrate the Indians' first World Series title in 68 years. They're going to have to wait another night. That's if they get to celebrate at all.
You know, the Cubs have been waiting quite a while themselves, 108 years since their franchise has won a World Series title. Both -- well, one thing is for sure. One of those droughts will end on Wednesday night.
I tell you what, at game six the air was let out of the building from the get-go. In the first inning, Kris Bryant, third baseman for the Cubs hit a solo home run. Then with two runners on, Addison Russell hit the ball to right center field and the Cleveland Indians outfielders just have a miscommunication. And the ball just drops on the ground.
Two runs come in to score for the Cubs, made it 3 to 0. And then Addison Russell came back up to the plate in the third inning with the bases loaded, absolutely crushed the ball to left. That was for a grand slam. He is the second youngest player ever to the hit a grand slam in the World Series behind only Mickey Mantle. He entered with six RBIs in the game which ties a World Series record. What a night for Addison Russell.
The Cubs win this one, 9 to 3; excited for them because they are now going to force a game seven on Wednesday night. And one of these two teams, like I said will finally have their long championship drought come to an end.
SESAY: The stage is set for an incredible game seven. But who has the edge going into it?
SCHOLES: Isha, you know, there is a saying in baseball. Momentum is only as good as your next starting pitcher. And you know you would think the Cubs have all the momentum after winning the last two games but the Indians have their ace on the mound in game seven -- Corey Kluber. He has been fantastic in this World Series so far. He has already won two games.
So if you go by the starting pitching matchup, you have to say the Indians have the edge especially also since they didn't use any of their great bullpen pitchers tonight. Andrew Miller did not pitch, Cody Allen did not pitch -- so all those guys are going to be rested.
Cubs, on the other hand, they're coming in tired. Aroldis Chapman pitched again tonight. So they might have some tired pitchers on the Cubs hands. But they might think history is on their side. It's kind of ironic that the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA championship back in June after being down 3-1 to the Golden State Warriors.
Now the fans here in Cleveland are on the other end of that. Their Indians are up 3-1. And now it's tied all 3-3 going into a game seven on Wednesday night.
SESAY: So Andy, going into all of this, the pessimists were saying baseball is dead. You know, people were pooh-poohing all of this. But here we are -- record-breaking ratings; bigger ratings than for the NFL.
I mean talk to us about this level of interest we're seeing, not just domestically, but internationally as well.
SCHOLES: Well, you know what this couldn't have been a more perfect World Series in terms of history of baseball. The greatest thing that could happen in sports in the United States is the Cubs win the World Series. You know, everyone growing up and people who are into their 70s, 80s, you know one thing. The Cubs never win the World Series.
[00:25:02] It was 1908 the last time they celebrated a World Series championship there in Chicago with the Cubs. So they're the most starved fan base there is in all of sports.
And, you know, if the Cubs were not in this World Series, the story would be the Indians because after the Cubs, the Indians, they've gone 68 years without winning a championship. So this really could have worked out for baseball.
And it's only fitting that we're going to have a winner take all game seven on Wednesday between these two teams. We know at the end of the night, one of those fan bases is going to be celebrating. And I will say this. There were a lot of Cubs fans in the stands for game six. And there is going to be even more I bet for game seven.
The ticket prices for game seven have skyrocketed. Standing room only seat here for Wednesday night, going for $1,500 bucks right now on the secondary.
SESAY: Wow -- $1,500? I was going ask you to get me a ticket. But maybe that might be pushing it.
Andy Scholes -- appreciate it. Thank you so much -- Andy.
VAUSE: He'd get me a ticket before you.
SESAY: 1908 the last time the Cubs won. You were 10 years old.
VAUSE: 1948 for Cleveland. You were on your first marriage.
We're going to take a short break.
The U.K. is now calling out Russia's Vladimir Putin. After the break we'll tell you what prompted Britain's top security official to speak out.
SESAY: And South Korea's political scandal is only getting worse, and now it's downright dangerous. Just ahead, the reason the man drove this forklift into the prosecutor's office.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
[00:30:00] SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay.
The headlines this hour --
New poll show the U.S. presidential race tightening less than a week before the election. The latest "ABC News/Washington Post" tracking poll has Donald Trump ahead by one point. His first lead in that poll since May.
CNN's poll of polls also shows the gap narrowing, but Hillary Clinton still leads by four points.
VAUSE: Iraqi troops are fighting ISIS on the eastern edge of Mosul. Forces have now taken control of the last village outside the city. They're clearing explosives left behind by ISIS. But sandstorms are making progress slow going.
SESAY: About 1500 children and teenagers are expected to be moved from the Calais migrant camp in France in a couple of hours. They'll be taken to reception centers across the country. Authorities finished dismantling the so-called Jungle camp on Monday. It was a base for thousands of people trying to cross illegally into the U.K.
VAUSE: There will be a decisive game seven in the World Series. The Chicago Cubs scored seven runs early in game six in Cleveland, beating the Indians 9-3 on Tuesday night. The Indians are trying to win their first championship since 1948. For the cubs, it's been 108 years since their last title.
SESAY: Now South Korea's president is reshuffling her cabinet as she tries to defuse a political scandal tied to her long-time confident. President Park Geun-hye named new members Wednesday after ordering the resignation of ten senior secretaries last week.
VAUSE: There is widespread anger over allegation President Park's friend Choi Soon-sil had access to government documents. One man was so outraged he drove a forklift into the gate of the prosecutor's office saying he wanted to kill Choi.
SESAY: Investigators are now questioning Choi. Prosecutors must decide whether to seek a warrant to formally arrest her.
CNN's Paula Hancocks joins me now with the latest from Seoul.
Paula, good to have you with us.
What do we know about Choi Soon-sil, this close friend of the South Korean president, now being accused of influence peddling and meddling in state affairs?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Isha, this lady Choi Soon-sil is believed to be in her 60s. And it's believed that she has known Park Geun-hye for a long time. In fact, her entire family has known the president for some time.
Her father, Choi's father was actually according to someone who is familiar with this matter was head of a cult-like religion back in the '70s, and apparently started to mentor Park when she was in her 20s.
So the accusations are that this family has had influence over Park Geun-hye for pretty much all of her adult life. And that is the concern. Now we know at this point Choi Soon-sil is in emergency detention after she arrived back in the country on Monday. Prosecutors have until the end of today to decide whether or not they want to formally ask for her arrest and issue a warrant. But we've already heard from the prosecutor they believe she is a flight risk, and they fear she may destroy evidence.
Isha?
SESAY: And, so Paula, President Park's apology and sacking of a number of her senior secretaries appears to have done little to appease public anger. Help our viewers understand why this is causing such outrage.
HANCOCKS: There were thousands of people that took to the streets over the weekend to protest this. Many of them saying that Park Geun- hye shouldn't actually be firing those around her. It's Park Geun-hye herself that many of these people and of course the opposition parties are angry at.
And so it's not necessary to move people around her. Now Park Geun- hye when she came to power just a few years ago actually campaigned on a ticket of anti-corruption. She said that she was going to change the way that politics were carried out in South Korea and it's the scathing corruption among politicians in the past.
So certainly the fact that now it appears as though she has been sharing speeches, potentially sharing classified documents with someone who has not been put into a position of power and should not be seeing this kind of material is making people angry.
Her approval ratings are dreadful. They were about 30 to 50 percent for the first few years of her tenure. But now, just this year, we have seen according to some polls 10 percent, maybe even 9 percent. So she is certainly feeling the heat from this particular scandal.
Isha?
SESAY: Paula Hancocks joining us from Seoul, South Korea with the very latest on the scandal that is swirling around the South Korean president.
Paula, appreciate it. Thank you.
Now the head of British security agency MI-5 gave a rare media interview to "The Guardian" newspaper. They issued a warning about Russia. He says Vladimir Putin's aggression is a threat to the stability in the U.K.
VAUSE: And in the United States, officials say Russia has been trying to disrupt the presidential election.
CNN's Brian Todd has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[00:35:00] BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New concerns tonight on both sides of the Atlantic that Vladimir Putin is getting more aggressive. U.S. sources tell CNN, they believe the Russian leader is trying to disrupt the American election.
In Europe, a fleet of his warships and fighter planes recently brushed past Britain on their way to Syria. Andrew Parker runs the secretive branch known as MI-5.
Tonight, Parker tells "The Guardian," Russia poses an increasing threat to Britain's stability and is more aggressively using its propaganda, espionage, subversion and cyberattacks.
BEN JUDAH, AUTHOR, "FRAGILE EMPIRE": There is alarm within the highest echelons of Britain's intelligence services about the Russian threat. And it shows that they don't believe that the public at large truly appreciates it in a way that they did during the Cold War.
TODD: Putin's spokesman dismisses the British intelligence chief's claim. Russia's embassy in London is mocking Parker, tweeting a poster of the cold war era comedy film "The Russians Are Coming."
But experts say Putin's aggression is no joke.
MASHA GESSEN, AUTHOR, THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE: There have been a lot of fires. There have been a lot of explicitly brazen acts of sort of military demonstration.
JUDAH: Not only is Russia escalating its use of cyberattacks, disinformation and propaganda, it appears to be working. TODD: U.S. leaders say Putin's meddling in America's election is unprecedented. CNN has learn investigators believe a cyberattack, which exposed voter data in Florida was the work of the Russians. The Obama administration publicly named Putin's government for hacks of the Democratic Party and the theft of Clinton campaign e-mails now posted on WikiLeaks.
The White House accuses the Kremlin of trying to destabilize America's political system. Putin has denied all of it.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): Does anyone seriously think that Russia can in some way influence the choice of the American people? Is America some kind of a Banana Republic?
TODD: America's top intelligence official recently talked what he thinks drives the Russian president.
JAMES CLAPPER, U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I think he is somewhat of a throwback. Not so much to the throwback to the czar era. I think he has this vision of a great Russia, as a great power.
TODD: Putin has already left an indelible mark on the 2016 campaign in America.
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, that's because he would rather have a puppet as president of the United States.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: No puppet. No puppet.
CLINTON: And it's pretty clear --
TRUMP: You're the puppet.
TODD: Experts say by being talked about so much in the U.S. election cycle, Putin wins.
GESSEN: I think that there is a lot of sort of self-satisfaction involved in seeing not just Russia, but Putin himself becomes sort of the third player in the American election.
TODD (on-camera): Analysts say that Putin, always thinking a couple steps ahead is also probably trying to calculate his next moves against the next American president. If it's Trump, experts say, he'll likely appeal to Trump's ego and try to manipulate him.
If it's Clinton, he'll try to counter her tough steps against him in a Cold War-style standoff.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Time for a quick break. Some regular Joes are getting a little sympathy these days. Up next, meet the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump who are not running for U.S. president.
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VAUSE: You may have noticed it's been kind of difficult to escape any talk of the presidential election, anything to do with the presidential election. It's wall-to-wall Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
SESAY: Now take a moment and imagine if you shared their names. Here is Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Will the real Hillary Clinton, please stand up?
HILLARY CLINTON, MUSIC FESTIVAL ORGANIZER: Hi, my name is Hillary Clinton.
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm running for president.
H. CLINTON: And I'm not running for president.
MOOS: Will the real Donald Trump, please rise.
DR. DONALD TRUMP, HEAD, CANCER INSTITUTE: I'm Donald Trump.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I am officially running --
DR. TRUMP: And I'm not running for president.
MOOS: But they can't run from their names. 20-something Hillary Clinton organizes music festivals.
H. CLINTON: Copy that.
MOOS: Dr. Donald Trump heads a Cancer Institute in Virginia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I get your name again?
DR. TRUMP: Donald Trump.
MOOS: Both say there are few perks and some drawbacks to sharing a presidential candidate's name.
H. CLINTON: Facebook won't let me have my name.
MOOS: You know who has it.
H. CLINTON: And so I'm Hill Clinton on Facebook. Facebook, if you're listening, I want my name back. MOOS: She also says most comments people make when she says her name aren't funny.
Dr. Donald Trump has actually met the Donald and tried to get him to go "Bald for Bucks" to raise money for cancer research. But Donald refused to sacrifice his hair, but he did make a generous donation.
(on-camera): And in a rare moment of modesty, these words actually escaped the lips of the Donald Trump.
TRUMP: So I say Donald L. Trump, which is you, is probably more important than Donald J. Trump, which is me.
MOOS: But what happens when Dr. Trump calls the Trump international hotel?
DR. TRUMP: My name is Donald Trump, I'd like to make a reservation for Saturday night, please.
MOOS: Three seconds of silence is what happens.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One moment, sir.
MOOS: They were willing to make the reservation after this Donald asked a most un-Trump-like question.
DR. TRUMP: What is your most economical deal?
MOOS: Dr. Trump says he is left of center, voting for Hillary, while this Hillary will vote for the other one, not Trump.
H. CLINTON: I'm scared of him.
MOOS: This Hillary may never be president.
H. CLINTON: But can the other Hillary Clinton do this?
MOOS: We think not. Except maybe on "SNL."
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: That was getting really old.
VAUSE: One of those people who are in for a really bad time for the next four years. That's my prediction.
SESAY: Yes, I suspect that November 8, we'll be drinking a lot.
VAUSE: That's not a bad idea.
SESAY: Stay with me. Stay focused.
VAUSE: Oh, well.
SESAY: Yes, I mean, I guess there are worse names you could have.
VAUSE: You could be called Hitler.
SESAY: Yes. Trust you to take it to the end of things. I don't know. We wish them the very best for the next four years.
VAUSE: Absolutely.
SESAY: All right.
VAUSE: We wish us the best, too.
SESAY: Why, are you suffering?
VAUSE: Pretty much.
SESAY: OK. Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause. A live edition of "World Sport" with Kate Riley is out featuring the World Series highlights and analysis in Cleveland. Then we'll be back with another round of news from all around the world and all of interesting names as well. You're watching CNN.
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