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Official says Trump has offered Retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the post of National Security Adviser; Mitt Romney is set to meet with President-Elect Trump for possibly a key position in Trump's team. Death, Destruction Daily Life in Aleppo; Electoral College Decides Presidential Win; Shinzo Abe, Trump Meet Face to Face; China Looks to Make Splash at APEC Summit; Jeremy Clarkson's New Show Trying to Repeat Former Success. Aired 1:00-2a ET
Aired November 18, 2016 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, Donald Trump picks his National Security Adviser, a retired general with plenty of baggage.
Barack Obama in Europe, trying to calm fears over a President Trump. And latest, start your engine, Jeremy Clarkson races back to the small screen with a brand-new show.
Hello, everybody. Thank you for staying with us. I'm John Vause. We're now into the second hour of NEWSROOM L.A.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is making another big move as he fills key positions in his administration. A transition official says Trump has offered Retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the post of National Security Adviser. It's not clear if Flynn has accepted. He was a top adviser and a high profile surrogate to Trump during the campaign. He was also fired from a top intelligence job by President Obama. Let's bring in now, Political Strategist Mack Zilber and Republican Consultant John Thomas. Guys, thanks for coming back. John, first to you, this is a key position, National Security Adviser is the gatekeeper to the President. So, what does Flynn's appointment, if he accepts, which we assume he will.
JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Why wouldn't he?
VAUSE: Exactly. What does it say about, you know, that side of policy moving forward?
THOMAS: Sure, well, General Flynn has really established trust with Donald Trump throughout his campaign, and although, General Flynn is a democrat, I think Donald Trump and Flynn see eye to eye on a lot of issues. Number one, it's calling Radical Islamic terrorism exactly what it is. Number two, you know, taking the fight to them, and also number three, they both were against the Iraq war. So, I think they come with similar ideologies and levels of trust.
VAUSE: But not before the war started.
MACK ZILBER, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Yeah, but I mean, thing about Flynn is that, he is as close to Trump as one can get, as far as foreign policy views, he has Trump's ear, but he has a lot of baggage. Flynn retweeted a tweet that said "Sorry Jews" in response to a story - I think that was CNN related, which he later apologized for. He also was criticized for allegedly leaking classified information to the Pakistani government, so it's going to be interesting to see whether this gets some blow back.
VAUSE: There's also talk he kind of went off the rails a little after he was fired by Obama.
THOMAS: Yeah, I'm sure he was upset. I mean, the guy has --
VAUSE: He sort of started lashing out, and those close to him say there was a real change in his personality and his temperament.
THOMAS: You know, I've met him a few times at the Republican Convention, he seemed pretty even keeled to me, and he's been one of Trump's (INAUDIBLE) allies in this campaign. I just - it doesn't seem surprising that Trump would want to reward that, and surround himself with people he trusts.
VAUSE: All right. OK. Well, you mentioned the tweeting and the fake news stories, that is one of the controversies that comes with Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. He was re-tweeting many fake news stories about Hillary Clinton. Jake Tapper has a report now on that, and the problem we're having right now, with fake news, we'll he take support, come back on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Retired General Michael Flynn took to Twitter just days before the election and forwarded this false and rather unhinged story suggesting that NYPD had found evidence of so many crimes on Anthony Weiner's laptop, including pedophilia, that Hillary Clinton and her crew would be put away for life. The story on something called "truepundit.com" was a complete lie. Nonetheless, Flynn tweeted it to his tens of thousands of followers. "You decide," he wrote. It has since been re-tweeted nearly 7,000 times. After all, General Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, wouldn't tweet it if it weren't true, right? False. Twitter streams and Facebook newsfeeds, flooded with falsehoods had become so prevalent, it was called out today by the leader of the free world.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we are not serious about facts, if we can't discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems.
TAPPER: In an era when sharing a story, is easier than fact checking one, the battle for the truth is difficult.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAL: It's time to reject the media and political elite that's bled our country dry.
TAPPER: Contributing to the craze is a deepening distrust in mainstream media.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You lie, you lie.
TAPPER: Some of it is owned by giant missteps, such as the false "Rolling Stones" story, about a nonexistence gang rape on a college campus. Along with the perception, that media organizations are choosing political sides.
TRUMP: A bunch of phony low lives. They're disgraceful.
LUCAS GRAVES, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ASSISTANT PROFESSOR: That kind of journalism has a long history in the United States, but I think it also contributes to the long-term decline of people's trust in the news media.
[01:50:03] TAPPER: And it turns out, lying is a lucrative business. According to BuzzFeed, fake news stories far outperformed legitimate ones on Facebook in the weeks leading up to Election Day.
GRAVES: We have kind of a perfect storm, in some ways, because the media economy today, really rewards stories that go viral. The stories that tend to go viral, are those that tap right into our political instincts. So, there's a strong incentive for people who are trying to make money.
TAPPER: One man behind these hoaxes told the The Washington Post, "There's nothing you can't write about now that people won't believe. Adding -- campaign Manager posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact. Like, I made that up."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authenticity comes across as lunacy.
TAPPER: Some conservative say, part of the blame for this phenomenon lies with those who treated popular left leaning satire programs, such as "The Daily Show" as legitimate news sources, even though, they engaged in deceptive editing for comedy sake. But, Facebook and Google have announced they will no longer allow fake news sites to use their ad selling services, a small effort to slower rumor mail that is running faster than ever. Jake Tapper, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: So, John, just getting back to Michael Flynn here. Is it a problem that the former Head of Defense Intelligence Agency did not know the difference between a fake story and a real story?
THOMAS: Yeah, I think, this is not the first time Twitter has got people in trouble, so whether it's the President-elect or-- it's very easy to click a re-tweet button.
ZILBER: Right, but I think it is based to general sloppiness of Flynn. I mean, from leaking classified information on two occasions to re-tweeting fake news to re-tweeting an anti-Semitic tweet that he later retracted and said he didn't mean to do. I mean, he seems to have a pattern of kind of saying "oops" and taking things back. VAUSE: I mean, to the bigger issue of the fake news, Obama made the
point today, everything is true and nothing is true, and it's almost like, information is being weaponized, or, you know, it's weaponizing disinformation, if you like. And would you say -- you'll probably going to disagree with this. I'll go to Mack, would you say it's a bigger problem on the Trump side of the campaign than on the Clinton side of the campaign?
ZILBER: Absolutely, you know, in the country of Macedonia, there were over 100 Trump fake news sites that were set up because it was profitable. And they tried to setup fake pro-Hillary news sites and fake pro-Bernie news sites, and they were a few of them. But they found it didn't make nearly as much money because Bernie and Hillary people weren't sharing the nearly as much.
THOMAS: Yeah, you don't - you don't have to create fake sites and you've got main stream media who's doing the work for you. I mean, that's the reality, right? The fact is, this group think that the main stream media thought Hillary had this thing in the bag, but there's no way - I mean, so, there's a thirst for an alternative voice (INAUDIBLE), the consumer has to be aware in the modern environment.
VAUSE: OK. The President-elect met with his first foreign leader on Thursday, it was the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. Ivan Watson is with us now from Hong Kong, and Ivan, we understand General Michael Flynn was actually at that meeting with Shinzo Abe and Donald Trump.
IVAN WATSON, CNN'S SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT BASED IN HONG KONG: That's right. The Japanese Prime Minister described this as an unofficial meeting, since President-elect Trump hasn't been inaugurated yet, but according to a series of photos that were released by the Japanese government, handout photos, that Michael Flynn is seen seated next to Donald Trump on a couch in Trump Tower, along with Shinzo Abe. Also notable that Ivanka Trump is shown seated there, and in several of the photos, her husband, Donald Trump's son, Jared Kushner is also shown there meeting with Shinzo Abe. Now, Abe described the talks as very cordial. He said that the President-elect had agreed to another further meeting in the future. The Japanese government appeared to expect that Hillary Clinton would be the winner of this election, and there are some signs that there was a bit of a scramble on the part of Tokyo to try to get a sit down with Japan's arguably most important ally, the U.S.
VAUSE: See, John, not everyone -- sorry (INAUDIBLE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHINZO ABE, PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN (through translator): About today's discussion with President-elect Trump, however, I do believe that without confidence between the two nations, alliance will never function in the future. And as an outcome of today's discussion, I am convinced that Mr. Trump is a leader with whom I can have great confidence in.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WATSON: So, there you go there, and again, the Japanese are trying to make the case that Japan is a very good ally to the U.S., that Japan pays, according to some estimates as much as $5 billion a year to support the some 50,000 U.S. troops that are stationed at different bases around Japan. Of course, Donald Trump as candidate argued that Japan was getting a free ride and needed to pay more for this. John?
[01:09:59] VAUSE: Yeah. And Ivan, I was just making the point to John Thomas that, you know, it wasn't just the media and the United States that thought Hillary Clinton was going to win. Clearly, the Japanese government did as well. But one of the big issues, obviously for the Japanese, is the nuclear question and Donald Trump has said a lot about that, in particular the spread of nuclear weapons across Asia, and I guess the Japanese, like same of the others, are probably work out, what he said on the campaign, is it truth, was it campaign rhetoric?
WATSON: Yeah, I mean, the Japanese are in this position of trying to assess how reliable their ally has been, basically since World War II. The U.S. is a central pillar of their defense policy, and Trump not only floated the idea of possibly withdrawing some of these troops, and we got to consider that the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's seventh fleet is in Japan, that's the largest naval deployment, forward naval deployment that the U.S. has. But also, Donald Trump floated the idea that, hey, maybe Korea and Japan - South Korea, have to develop their own nuclear weapons programs and that raises an awful lot of questions. Japan feeling very vulnerable right now due to North Korea and its own nuclear weapons program, the fact that it pops off rockets and missiles nearly every month in tests, and also with China and laying claims to the South and East China Sea, so you've got these kind of spats between the Chinese and Japanese navies happening on a fairly frequent basis. All of these are reasons why Japan needs to try to establish strong contacts with the next president of its most important ally. John?
VAUSE: OK. Ivan, we appreciate the update. Thank you. Ivan Watson live - Ivan Watson there live in Hong Kong. John, let's get back to the issue of, you know, what Trump said on the campaign, what he really meant, what he will do as President-elect, you know, it's not just most Americans are trying to accept -- work this out right now, it's Japan, it's Europe, it's like the entire world.
THOMAS: When they watch CNNi.
VAUSE: Right. It's like, you know, he has said so many things and has retracted them and gone back, and has left everything just so wide open.
THOMAS: No, it is a challenge for Trump and that's why I think he has to first be consistent from this point on. I mean, he took one could say was an anchoring position to come back to the middle as a negotiation, but you're right, the world is out there wondering what are his positions? So far, we seen, I think a very level-headed and moderate Trump, but I think, you know, he's going to have to lay out his policy agenda very clearly, so that our allies and foes, know exactly where they stand. VAUSE: I mean, it has only been a week, Mack, but clearly, there are a lot of people worried about where Trump stands on so many issues.
ZILBER: Right, and we've kind of seen a schizophrenic administration so far, I mean, on the one hand, you have some very reasonable overtures, the possibility of Mitt Romney as Secretary of State. On the other hand, you see them flaring up for the possibility of a Muslim registry for no reason, and then walking it back and bringing it back out again. And it just seems like we're seeing a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde administration where we don't know if we're going to get right-wing extremism or just kind of a generic republican agenda?
VAUSE: Or we get both.
(CROSSTALK)
THOMAS: It's also the Rumour Mill right now. Trump hasn't come out with official statements. We don't know if the registry was just an idea floated and Trump kicked it right back, that we don't know.
ZILBER: Right, but I mean, what kind of country are we living in, or that idea even gets floated in a theory of conversation.
(CROSSTALK)
THOMAS: We had a registry until 2011.
(CROSSTALK)
THOMAS: But what kind of country - I mean, it was under the last administration -
VAUSE: Also, you got the guy who wrote the papers (INAUDIBLE) Arizona, now currently working with the transition team on just the Muslim registry and a few other issues. But - we'll move on. You mentioned Mitt Romney. He is the - well, the latest out there being considered a Secretary of State. Just for old time sake, let's go back and listen to Mitt Romney talk about Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, FORMER GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS: Here's what I know. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing the members of the American public for suckers. He inherited his business, he didn't create it. A business genius, he is not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: His promises are worthless. So, comes the weekend when they meet, if he promises him Secretary of State, you know, do you think he'll take it?
THOMAS: You know, I think he probably would. First of all, I think that Romney is a kind of guy who puts country first. So, I think he would take it out of sense of duty, but also, look, campaigns say a lot of vicious things and I think Trump probably will be chuckling to himself going, "Well, I'm sitting here and you're not, OK." So, you could have said what you want.
VAUSE: Trump certainly did.
THOMAS: But I think what's more interesting is potentially, we don't know if he will select Romney, or Romney will accept it, but Trump could be putting together a team of rivals, which is really contradictory to what -- some had portrayed in the primary that he's vindictive and hateful, and he couldn't - and spiteful. What about if he brought in Ted Cruz, and Mitt Romney, sort of his harshest critics, I think - I think it speaks to a good side of his temperament that many people underestimated.
[01:14:57] ZILBER: Right, and I'd call it more of a team of quarrelling siblings, rather than a team of rivals, when you have a team that ranges from mainstream republican to the outer fringes of white nationalism, it's not really a "Abraham Lincoln Style" bipartisan cabinet, it's just simply saying, "Only half of my cabinet are going to be people who will be unthinkable four years ago that their whole (INAUDIBLE) position of power --
VAUSE: Yeah, this issue, who will be a Secretary of State, this seems to be just being handed around like, you know, candy at a party. It's so far - it's been offered to or rumored to, been considered for the position, and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who basically has been telling everybody he's got it, it's in the bag, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, former U.N. Ambassador John bolton, scary, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, speaking of Newt Gingrich, who is out of the running, Senator Bob Corker, Richard Haas President of the Council of Foreign Relations, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. You know, out of all of those, Richard Haas seems to be the most sensible one in my books.
THOMAS: I like Mitt Romney, but here's what we don't know, look, Trump has had a very condensed timeframe to put to get - to do a lot of vetting, a lot of transition work that normally, when elections are more steady in the polls, that campaigns would have kind of vetted this out. A lot of campaigns start with a list from here to Texas, and they narrow it down. It just word now, giving that Rumour Mill in a condensed period of time.
ZILBER: Right, and we've already seen him twice overhaul his transition team in the last week, I mean, with that being said, I think that, at the end of the day, choosing someone besides Giuliani or Bolton, is going to be really important for him because if he picks either of those two, they both have ties to a kind of fringe Iranian terrorist group, that I think will make a tough and won't be taken seriously.
(CROSSTALK)
THOMAS: Bolton is pretty well respected by conservatives, so he's a very well-respected former U.S. Ambassador.
ZILBER: Come on, with his family. VAUSE: The Giuliani thing is interesting because he keeps telling everybody he's got the job, but it doesn't seem to be --
THOMAS: I don't think so. And the fact is, even if Trump wanted to, I just don't think he'd get it confirmed.
VAUSE: OK. John and Mack, thanks for coming in.
THOMAS: Thanks, John.
VAUSE: Great. We'll take a short break. When we come back, here on NEWSROOM L.A., the U.S. President stopping in Germany to reassure his most stalwart ally and warn Europe after Donald Trump's election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: A extraordinarily unconventional campaign and it resulted in the biggest political upset in perhaps modern political history, American history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RHIANNON JONES, CNN WORLD SPORTS ANCHOR: I'm Rhiannon Jones with your CNN World Sport Headlines. We begin with the end of the European golfing season, where Henrik Stenson continues his race for the year- end number one title. The Swede opened the first round of the DP World Tour Championship with a level pass but a six shots back from the leader. Last year's champion Rory McIlroy, who has an outside chance of hitting (INAUDIBLE) into the title had even worse than the swede, a double bogey 6th of the 16th, leading to 3 over par 75.
[01:19:59] But it's two-time European Money winner Lee Westwood who's turned back the clock. The Brit setting the pace with a blistering 66. To the ATP World Tour finals in London where Novak Djokovic looks to retake the world number one ranking from Andy Murray. The Serb was up against world number 11th, David Goffin after Gael Monfils, had to pull out for the rib injury. Djokovic who had already qualified for the semi-finals, completed the group stage with a 6-1, 6-2 win. He is attempting to win his fifth straight World Tour finals.
10 more athletes have been stripped of medals they won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics for failing anti-doping tests, mostly weightlifters and wrestlers. They were among a total of 16 athletes sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee. 98 samples have now come back as positive for banned substances. That's a look at the sport headlines. I'm Rhiannon Jones.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Barack Obama is spending Friday trying to reinforce U.S. alliances, as his term in office nears its end. He spent much of the day meeting with Western European leaders. The U.S. President spent most of Thursday in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, trying to quell fears about the intending Donald Trump presidency, but he's also warned about a possible shift in the global order.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: The voice that helps to steer the world away from war wherever possible, that's our voice, more often than not. And we're not always successful, but if that voice is absent, or if that voice is divided, we will be living in a meaner, harsher, more troubled world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: For more now on Barack Obama's last trip to Europe as president, we're joined by Dominic Thomas, the chair of French and Francophone Studies at UCLA. Dominic, has Mr. Obama done all he can to try and calm European fears about President Trump?
DOMINIC THOMAS, CHAIR OF FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE STUDIES AT UCLA: At this stage, I don't think there's anything he can do to calm people down. I think that the - I'm looking at the response the -- from Europe or from the European Union. The main question to ask is in who are we talking about and where are people located? Because the reaction has been quite divided. On the one hand, jubilation and especially in countries in which we're seeing a rise of the far-right and the political parties who have in many ways embraced many of Donald Trump's electoral campaign messages to folks who are concerned and fearful as to what this is going to mean for -- on the one hand, the future of Europe-American relations, but also the implications for NATO and other such issues.
VAUSE: The German chancellor seemed to echo the message and the tone of Barack Obama. This is what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): Germany and the United States are joined by common values, democracy, freedom, respect for the law and human dignity regardless of skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political beliefs. Based on these values, I offer close cooperation to the future President of the United States of America, Donald Trump.
VAUSE: But just as a reminder, this is what candidate Donald Trump had to say about Angela Merkel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton wants to be America's Angela Merkel. True. And you know what a disaster this massive immigration has been to Germany and the people of Germany.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Will Angela or Angela Merkel be able to put those comments to one side?
THOMAS: Well, they're going to have to. I think that's first of all as political leaders, they're going to have to and lead by example. But I think there's a disconnect between what Angela Merkel is saying and how the German people feel, how -- many of the German people feel, of course, I should - I should be a little more careful in how I say this, in the same way as with Marine Le Pen in France has spoken on the sort of opposite side of the spectrum about welcoming this election. Obviously, these countries work together, they need to work together. But I think it's going to be the actions hence forth that are going to help define this relationship.
VAUSE: You mentioned Marine Le Pen there, the leader of France's National Front. This is what she had to say about the election of Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:25:07] MARINE LE PEN, PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL FRONT (through translator): They say the policies that you, Marine Le Pen, have isolate you. Well, I feel less isolated today, because of the multi- polar world defended by Donald Trump but also by Theresa May and Vladimir Putin. I have a feeling that it's Mrs. Merck and Mr. Hollande who should feel isolated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Is Le Pen right?
THOMAS: I think she is absolutely right. Back in 2002, her father, as the former leader of Front National, made it through to the run off stages and the right and the left came together to deliver President Chirac the largest second round electoral victory in the history of France. Since then and since Marine Le Pen herself took over in 2011, the party has undergone a complete revision of its platform and has gone through a process of kind of cleansing of de-demonization, as they call it. And their policies correlate, if you do a Venn diagram between on the one hand, the sociological realities around Donald Trump's election, the kind of white (INAUDIBLE) the attack on the establishment in which words like Washington can be substituted by Brussels as the central spot of the European Union. When you look at the migrant question, immigration issues, national identity, where you have the majority of people in France believe that France used to be a better and stronger place. And the Marine Le Pen platform is a platform like President-elect Donald Trump's, "Let's Make France Great Again."
VAUSE: Donald Trump was meeting, Thursday, with the Japanese Prime Minister, but the first foreign politician he met with was Nigel Farage from the hard-right U.K. Party, the man behind Brexit. What message is that sending to Europe?
THOMAS: To me, this - for Europe, in any case, Nigel Farrage is not a very well-known figure in the - in the United States. There's a strong paradox, of course, that many of these people like Farrage and like Le Pen who're unable to get electoral representation in their own countries went to the European Union, and were elected as European Union MPs, even though they're anti-European Union candidates.
This is quite ironic that Nigel Farrage is even within the United Kingdom, even though he was considered or was one of the leaders of the Brexit - of the Brexit camp is not someone who is taken very seriously, politically. And his statements on Muslims, on migrants, on ethnic minorities have been denounced powerfully throughout Europe. And this is certainly not the sorts of person that President-elect Trump should be frequenting, if he's going to try and restore some kind of confidence in the European people's trust in this new presidency.
VAUSE: OK. Dominic, we are out of time. We shall leave it there, but thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.
THOMAS: Well, Thank you.
VAUSE: Next on NEWSROOM L.A., a Donald Trump presidency isn't entirely set in stone. How the Electrical College could still pick Hillary Clinton.
Also, Aleppo, Syria, a quarter million people already trapped there with little food and medicine. Now, they say bombs are falling like rain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:40] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause, with the headlines this hour.
(HEADLINES)
VAUSE: At least 45 people are dead in a third straight day of air strikes in Aleppo, Syria. Activists say the government is dropping barrel bombs on rebel-held neighborhoods. The U.N. predicts the humanitarian catastrophe could get even more brutal as winter approaches.
Aleppo residents say there are more planes in the sky than birds and bombs are falling like rain. Death and destruction are a daily routine after the Syria civil war.
CNN's Will Ripley has more now, reporting from Istanbul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERANTIONIAL CORRESPONDENT: Day three of the Syrian regime's renewed bombing campaign on east Aleppo. Reports from activists on the ground of dozens of explosions, barrel bombs, artillery, a lot of explosions happening in heavily populated areas. Reports on the ground from those activists that the number of people killed on the third day jumped from 21 to 45, which means around 140 people have been killed in the first three days of the renewed bombardment. If that pace continues, it would far exceed the 500 people who died in a month before this three-week lull that ended with a that ominous text message on Sunday telling residents to get out or die. Food is running low. Medicine is running low.
We've been speaking with parents, including a father of a 4-month-old boy who said he just prays he doesn't get sick because there isn't any medicine to give children or adults, for that matter, who fall ill.
I spoke with a father whose wife is five months pregnant. She can't get vitamins. She is malnourished. So, most women who are expecting in east Aleppo are not only malnourished but run the risk of dying during childbirth. It's a very grim reality for expecting parents in the city who are bringing children into a world. And they don't know what the future is going to look like.
We see the video of children clutching their backpacks walking through the rubble sobbing, living in fear. And for this generation of children, this is the only reality they know. They have never known what it is like to live life and not be afraid. And sadly, their parents can't offer words of reassurance. Because they don't know what will happen next.
We have seen in the past the Syrian regime used the technique of using ground troops to surround and cut off the areas and continue the bombardment and essentially starve out the population.
But there are more than a quarter million civilians living in east Aleppo, along with 8,000 rebel fighters, and amongst those civilians are the children. And more children have died in this new bombing campaign and more are expected to die if this bloodshed continues.
Will Ripley, CNN, Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:35:00] VAUSE: Opponents of the late Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos are outraged after the dictator received a hero's burial in Manila on Friday. The country's Supreme Court approved the burial earlier this month. An immediate black out was order. Marcos died in 1989 in Hawaii where he was exiled after being ousted from power. Protesters say corruption and human rights violations during his rule should have kept him out of the National Hero's Cemetery.
Next on NEWSROOM, L.A., there's still a slim, although a very slim chance that Donald Trump might not be the next U.S. president. How the Electoral College really decides the race for the White House.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Let's buckle up because we are heading deep into legal nerd land, American history and the Constitution. Right now, Hillary Clinton is way ahead in the popular vote, leading Donald Trump by more than a million votes. And with heavily Democratic California still counting for another month, her lead could be two million or more. And, yes, that means nothing. It is irrelevant because Donald Trump won the Electoral College. That is the 229-year-old system which relies on state-by-state tallies to decide the president. It was a compromise at the time to southern slave the states so they would actually sign the Constitution. The south was worried they would be overwhelmed by the north's larger population and political power, so the Electoral College creates what's known as a regional balance. And under that system, next month, delegates from each state will travel to Washington to vote. It is usually just a formality. But almost 4.5 million people have signed a petition to urge those delegates, once they get to D.C., to elect Hillary Clinton. They argue that the Electoral College can give the White House to either candidate, so why not use this most undemocratic of our institutions to ensure a democratic result?
Joining us now in Atlanta, in the Deep South, is Paige Pate, a constitutional lawyer.
Paige, thank you for being with us.
[01:40:06] PAIGE PATE, CONSTITUTIONAL ATTORNEY: Absolutely.
VAUSE: In theory, is this possible? Could the delegates get to Washington, D.C., vote for Hillary Clinton, and put her into the White House? What's the deal?
PATE: It's an interesting question, John. And I will tell you the Constitution does not prohibit it and federal law does not prohibit it. An elector has the right to choose who they want for president and vice president. But the states individually have different laws that restrict those electors to choosing the candidate that won their particular state. While there is nothing in the Constitution that would prohibit it, and nothing under federal law that would prohibit it, most states prohibit their electors from casting a vote different from what their state voted in the election.
VAUSE: And the reality is, in practice, it ain't going to happen.
PATE: Right.
VAUSE: But if we look closer at three states that went Republican, the margins are thin, Michigan by 11,000 votes, Pennsylvania by 67,000, and Wisconsin just over 27,000 votes. So, do the math, it is over 100,000 votes. Is it fair to say those votes could determine the outcome overriding the one million-plus margin that Hillary Clinton has in the popular vote?
PATE: Absolutely. And that's how the Electoral College system works. Remember, in 2000, it was a couple of counties in Florida that determined that George Bush would win the White House over Al Gore, even though Gore won the popular vote. It's the way the system has been set up, it's constitutional, but it sometimes leads to very, say, undemocratic results.
VAUSE: I think only four times in the history of the United States has the candidate won the popular vote but not gone on to be president. Four years ago, Donald Trump tweeted this, "The Electoral College is a disaster for democracy." That's when it looked like Mitt Romney would win the popular vote and lose lost the election. It didn't turn out that way. How difficult would it be to scrap the entire system of the Electoral College?
PATE: Well, it would be extremely difficult. I understand Senator Boxer, from California, has introduce legislation, or will shortly introduce some legislation to attempt to do that but you have to amend the Constitution. That is an incredibly difficult thing to do. First, it has to pass Congress by a two-thirds majority of the House and the Senate, and then it has to be ratified by most of the states. We have had very few amendments over our 200-plus year history, and I cannot imagine something like this being able to pass.
VAUSE: But this brings us to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact -- a very big name. The way I understand it, 10 states as well as the District of Columbia, have passed laws at a state level and a district level to award their delegates to the candidate who won the popular vote. Some see that as an end run around the Constitution.
PATE: John, again, it's difficult to do. But the Constitution does leave it up to the states to determine how they choose their electors and there is nothing in the Constitution that binds an elector to the result that was the result in the state, in other words, the popular vote for that particular state. Even though it is difficult to do, there is at least some constitutional argument that it is possible.
VAUSE: And if anything like this happened, it would probably end up in the Supreme Court or have to go through Congress?
PATE: First, if there's going to be any change to the Constitution, it will start in Congress and end with ratification among the several states. If there is a challenge to any particular electoral system that a state has, if it is somehow inconsistent with the Constitution, it would most likely be challenged and end up in the United States Supreme Court.
VAUSE: Paige Pate, thank you for explaining everything. We appreciate it.
PATE: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: World leaders are gathering in Peru for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, and with the U.S. leadership in a state of transition, China is expected to step forward and offer its own free trade agreement.
Our Shasta Darlington has more.
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SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The world's rising superpower singled out for the wrath of Donald Trump in the leadup to the U.S. election.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can't continue to allow China to rape our country. That's what they're doing. It's the greatest theft in the history of the world.
DARLINGTON: He threatened to slap 45 percent tariffs on one of America's biggest trade partners.
Trump's victory arguably bad news for U.S.-China relations. But if he turns inward and focuses on domestic issues, as he suggested during his campaign, it could provide an unexpected boost for China's regional clout.
MEREDITH SUMPTER, EURASIA GROUP: Strategically, Beijing will be under less pressure from a less active U.S. presence in the region, so Beijing's operating environment will be freer.
[01:45:02] DARLINGTON: To start with, President Barack Obama's dream of signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, trade deal with 11 countries, and excluding China, now appears dead in the water.
(on camera): Which means it's going to be Beijing, not Washington, seeking support for its regional trade deal here in Lima when leaders from 21 nations meet for the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit this weekend.
(voice-over): Will we see leaders warming to Chinese Perhaps Xi Jinping's proposed trade deal?
Perhaps joining the ranks of Rodrigo Duterte, who is already in Beijing this month seeking investments. Despite the country's historically strong ties with the U.S., he has been an outspoken critic of Washington and Obama.
RODRIGO DUTERTE, PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT: Trump, you can go to hell. Mr. Obama, you can go to hell.
DARLINGTON: China may have room to flex its military muscle if U.S. alliances weaken. Japan and Korea rely heavily on the U.S. for military support but Trump has threatened to withdraw that support unless they pay more for it.
In the South China Sea, China has sought to wrest control of the important trade route from its neighbors using island building and land seizures.
The U.S. has been viewed by China's neighbors as a stabilizing force.
SUMPTER: As long as Donald Trump does not invest considerable time and energy to chart out a multilateral strategy for the South China Sea, China will have greater latitude to pursue its interests.
DARLINGTON: In the end, President Trump will spell major changes but might not put the brakes on China's ascent.
Shasta Darlington, CNN, Lima, Peru.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: We'll take a short break here. When we come back, Jeremy Clarkson's new car show is off and running, trying to repeat the success of one of the world's most successful TV shows.
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[01:51:00] VAUSE: Petrol Heads, rev your engines. The first episode of "The Grand Tour" is online right now. You can find it on Amazon's video service. Hosted by the three former stars of incredibly popular "Top Gear," and it marks Jeremy Clarkson's return to the screen after he allegedly punched a producer last year. Amazon has committed $200 million to the show.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We only have one minor fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're talking about that Tom Cruise movie, "Cocktail."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: "Entity" magazine's Sandro Monetti joins us now to talk more about the show.
Nice to see you.
SANDRO MONETTI, MANAGING EDITOR, ENTITY MAGAZINE: Great to see you, John.
This is incredibly anticipated and the budget, $200 million, they are sparing no expense.
MONETTI: Cheaper, half the price. "Top Gear" was on in 214 countries and so Amazon will put this to about 200 countries, marking a huge expansion for them. This is not just another TV show launch. This is the first shot in a war with Netflix to establish them as the new major player in television. And they're doing it by taking an established brand, changing it slightly, but with the same names, and going for it with big money and big names.
VAUSE: And they discounted the price in Britain to log on to Amazon so they're really pushing this.
MONETTI: They've dropped the price by 20 pounds in Britain, an attractive offer to bring everybody in, yeah.
VAUSE: The background here and the reason it is on Amazon and no longer on BBC, for anyone living under a rock, Clarkson was fired from "Top Gear," right, so he has a controversial past.
MONETTI: Clarkson is the bad boy of broadcasting. Just when you expect him to turn left, he turns right. He does everything you shouldn't do. But because the ratings were so high, he would get away with it for so long. BBC, as a public-service broadcaster, didn't feel they could put up with this behavior any longer and showed him the door. His two co-hosts went with him. They revived "Top Gear" without him and it wasn't as successful.
VAUSE: Now it's on the Internet and it's a privately-owned company, not a government public broadcaster. Different standards here? Will this be Clarkson unleashed?
MONETTI: The gloves are off. This is an opportunity for Clarkson to not feel so limited and restricted like he was by all the rules he had at the BBC. Now there's no rule book. It'll be interesting to see just how far he goes.
VAUSE: The mind boggles. It really does.
(LAUGHTER)
MONETTI: Yeah.
It's like giving a teenage boy the car keys and keys to the liquor cabinet, letting Jeremy Clarkson loose on the Internet. Have at it.
VAUSE: Oh, boy.
12 episodes originally, Jeremy Clark, Richard Hammond, James May. They will be in a different country each week. Apparently, Clarkson has been told the audience in the first episode this, "We're going to be like gypsies, except our cars are insured." Not much has changed for Clarkson and his humor. And I guess that's what appeals to too many people. He is so irreverent.
MONETTI: He is, indeed. The gypsy reference is that they are pitching a tent in a different city every week. They are going on a tour of different countries, starting in Los Angeles, and going to South Africa and then to England and then to Italy.
(CROSSTALK)
MONETTI: Exactly.
VAUSE: Let's talk about "Top Gear" that he left, not doing so well.
MONETTI: No. It kept exactly the same format with new presenters but it just didn't work. Clearly, even though cars are a universal language, to quote Jeremy Clarkson, people just love those hosts. And they tried five new hosts, including Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc. Chris Evans lasted six episodes, Matt LeBlanc ended up as the front man of the series, but it sunk to record low ratings and terrible press. So, there's a real opportunity for this new show to claim back the throne.
VAUSE: And the interesting thing, the new show does not have the old favorites, no Stig or celebrity in a medium-price car.
[01:55:09] MONETTI: For legal reasons. BBC owns the format, so the test driver, Stig, didn't speak. So now they have a test driver but he speaks.
VAUSE: There's always a work around.
MONETTI: So it's different. It's different.
VAUSE: Oh, Sandro, excellent. And they released it 20 minutes early. So, I'm going to rush home and have a look after this.
MONETTI: Oh, right. As soon as you're finished. I think I can get it now.
VAUSE: OK. Enjoy.
OK, thanks so much. And you have been watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
I'll be back with another hour of news from all around the world in just a moment.
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[02:00:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.
Ahead this hour --
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