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Final Push Ahead of Midterm Elections; Video Emerges of ISIS Brainwashing Children; ISIS Kills Hundreds of Iraqi Sunnis

Aired November 03, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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

PETER HAMBY, CNN DIGITAL NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, if you talked about the Republican operatives working on these races over the weekend, they started to feel a lot more confident than they were last week. The flip side is for the Democrats working on these races. They were confident that these races were holding tightly heading into the final weekend of their ground game, their field operation. All that GOTV stuff that Democrats have been heralded over the last, you know, two election cycles would carry them through on Tuesday.

Over the weekend that shifted a little bit. You look at Iowa, for example, Colorado, two states that they thought they would have, you know, safely you know at this point six months ago seemed to be moving in the Republicans' direction.

I will say this: Democrats are still confident about their field operation. Look at early vote in North Carolina; look at early vote in Georgia. They think they're getting out sporadic voters, African- American voters, the kind of people that will help them when the votes are started to be counted on election night, Tuesday.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about a strategic decision that Democrats made early in this election. And that was not to embrace President Obama; not to, for the most part, have him out campaigning for them. Here is what Vice President Biden told Gloria Borger about that decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Each senator makes a judgment about whether or not he thinks it is helpful or hurtful.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, but this is the president of the United States. You've got a lot of Democrats up for reelection. Normally, you'd have the president out there.

BIDEN: Well, look, we've been doing this a lot. There are a lot of places where first term, second term, George Bush didn't show up, the older Bush, Reagan. I mean, you know, every state is different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, Jim. So he's basically saying historically it's not that unusual, but it's got to hurt inside the White House?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. You know, I did talk to one White House official recently who said, you know, they're not going to tell these campaigns how to run their operations. If candidates want to run from the president, they're going to let those candidates run from the president.

I did talk to one administration official over the weekend who said hang on just a second, before you write these predictions that we're going to lose on Tuesday night. They pointed me to a poll that was featured here on CNN, just two days before the 2012 election that showed the president tied with Mitt Romney, and the president went on to win fairly handily. So they say, as the vice president is saying, that this thing is not over yet.

But Alisyn, I have to say, I have talked to several Democratic strategists who are now starting to do some second guessing about whether or not this was the right approach to keep the president at arm's length. So one Democratic strategist, a pretty key one here in this town, who's worked with this White House, worked with these Senate candidates, said it made the party look like it was running scared. And one quote, this strategist said to me it was a chicken blank or chicken expletive, a word that was bandied around a lot last week. They think it seems fitting for how the Democrats handled things this time around.

CAMEROTA: I am really hoping that after this election we can retire the chicken blank phrase...

ACOSTA: Not sure about that.

CAMEROTA: ... that's been in play for the past week.

Right. Jim, I know you're keeping an eye on all of the most dramatic races. Let's talk about Kentucky. Of course, Alison Lundergan Grimes running against Mitch McConnell. And Grimes seemed to get emotional on the campaign trail this weekend. Let's watch a moment of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALISON LUNDERGAN GRIMES (D), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: I do believe that you are the messenger that Mitch McConnell can't buy. He can buy the airwaves. But he cannot buy the hearts and minds of each and every one of you.

You know that after 30 years, three decades of Mitch McConnell, we deserve better. We're coming down the home stretch. And let me tell you, this strong independent Kentucky woman, I've got kick stuff left in me. I'm not giving up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Dana, what do you hear there?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me just say for the record that Mitch McConnell is such a tough campaigner. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: if I were running against him, I would be in bed with the covers over my head and I would never have left. So the fact that she got out there and she was in the hunt for so long really does say a lot about her and about that race.

But I think it was -- it was exhaustion and also the reality that McConnell does appear to be doing well in his own race, because he has to win his own re-election before he can, of course, be a majority leader. So let's start there.

And big picture, it was confirmed to me this weekend that McConnell did get a call from a senior strategist in Washington, going through the ground game, going through the polls in all of the key states, saying it looks like any way you slice it, it's much more likely than not that he is going to be the next majority leader after tonight. But let's just a couple days from now after all the votes are counted.

CAMEROTA: We do have the latest poll there from Kentucky. It's showing Mitch McConnell is 50 percent, whereas Alison Lundergan Grimes is at 41 percent.

Some other key races, Peter: Georgia, the polls show that David Perdue, the Republican, is 48 percent to Michelle Nunn there, 44 percent. Everybody is keeping an eye also on Louisiana. There, Mary Landrieu has 45 percent, and Bill Cassidy, the Republican, has 50 percent, but there could obviously be a runoff.

So Peter, tell us what races you're following most closely.

HAMBY: Well, these two races are fascinating because of what you just said: the runoff potential here. No one thinks that Mary Landrieu in Louisiana is going to hit 50 percent. So that means that Cassidy, Bill Cassidy, the congressman from Baton Rouge, and Landrieu are probably going to head up to a runoff in December.

And then in Georgia, Democrats are hoping -- hoping, and they kind of think it might be an outside shot, that Michelle Nunn, the Democratic nominee, can hit 50 percent. And they're certainly hoping for that, because that runoff will go through January.

So if the Senate is still a jump ball after Tuesday, control of the Senate could come down to these two races. Outside groups have reserved millions and millions of dollars of air time in both of those states for the runoff elections. Democrats would love for their candidates to get to 50 percent in both those and avoid a run-off.

I will say this. It's going to be tough for both of them, but Mary Landrieu and Michelle Nunn are both very good candidates. Their opponents, David Perdue and Bill Cassidy, not so much. So they do have that going for them as they head into a runoff, which is what most of the betting is on.

CAMEROTA: Peter, you make such a good point. We may not know the answer tomorrow night or even Wednesday morning. But we will have you all back to analyze everything that's happening tomorrow. Peter, Dana, Jim, thanks so much. Great to see you.

This could go on for many months, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, yes. This is just the beginning. There's no question about that.

We also have some good news for you in the battle against ISIS. Kurdish fighters are finally gaining grounds in the terror group in the besieged Syrian city of Kobani.

Now, coupled with coalition airstrikes, the Kurds have actually managed on the ground to push back ISIS forces, who did seem on the verge of capturing the city weeks ago.

This as video emerges of the real threat that ISIS poses. Poisoning the minds, not just of adults but of kids, brainwashing with twisted notions of what Islam and life are about. Nick Paton Walsh has this story -- Nick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ... dark they sit in makes the light from the projector all the more captivating. Children in Derazul (ph) gathered. This is movie night. But it's ISIS productions and comes with a (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WALSH: "So don't be afraid. We're your brothers," he said. "If anyone assaults you, a top chief or unimportant soldier, just complain about him, and your rights will be restored to you by Allah's will."

And activist secretly filmed these pictures as the main event gets underway. An ISIS execution video, running in their underwear in their last moments. Some of 250 Syrian regime soldiers executed by ISIS in August. They keep watching.

What's the first movie you remember? We don't know if they were shown the moment of death. But this is how that propaganda video continued.

A Syrian psychologist specializing in the impact of war and ISIS on children examined this footage.

"What we see in these videos," he says, is ISIS taking steps to make it normal for their children to see such things. They hope that all, or at least some, will go on to do the same things. Not just be silent or accept it, but do it.

"Of course, when a child is growing up, it's a special time in his life when you can work on planting specific ideas in their minds that result in attitudes in the future."

Indoctrination comes with pageantry, in this study (ph). This is a graduation ceremony for the ISIS Cubs. They're not playing masked superheroes, but real life jihadi.

After years of sectarian bloodshed hear what they have these children sing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (CHANTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (CHANTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (CHANTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

GRAPHIC: Oh, Alawi Shia police who live to slaughter, we will come to slaughter you without you even knowing.

WALSH: Minds molded to their fit. Schooled to remember huge texts by rote. Yet, there is nothing staged about the vigor in these eyes as they chant "God is our leader and backer. America is their leader."

They talk about a lost generation in Syria's war here. The dogma and horror it has lost, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: Now we know there are millions of refugees in the country's neighboring Syria. The impact of them will last a decade. And you saw there what potentially is happening to a younger generation.

But Chris, I'm standing near Kobani, where we are seeing the Kurds claiming to be significantly advancing, pushing ISIS back to the west that way and to the east, too. We're seeing them for the first time, using heavy weapons to great effect. A lot of blasts in the past few hours here. But the potential optimism the Kurds saying they hope they could clear ISIS out of the city entirely in two to three days. Of course, ISIS have a vote on whether that happens or not -- Chris.

CUOMO: Fighting the military, though, is much easier, as you just pointed out very well, Nick, than fighting the idea that ISIS is planting in the heads of those kids. Thank you for this story. Be safe. We'll check back with you.

A lot of other news this morning, so let's get you right to Mick.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning once again to you.

Federal investigators say the co-pilot appears to have triggered a feathering system too early in the moments before Friday's deadly Virgin Galactic spaceship crash. The feathering system was used to help the ship descend. The co-pilot was killed in that disaster. The other pilot parachuted to safety and is said to be alert and speaking to doctors and family members this morning.

Kaci Hickox, the nurse, is now apologizing for causing her neighbors so much concern. She insists she will not mix with crowds until her 21-day Ebola incubation period expires next week. The Maine nurse challenged the state-ordered quarantine in court and won. She also says she has no plans to venture into town until she's officially in the clear.

Hickox says she went to court to make sure the quarantine debate was about science and not about politics.

We're learning new details this morning about how Missouri police kept media from covering protests from the air following the Michael Brown shooting. According to the Associated Press, the FAA agreed to a request by the police to restrict 37 square miles of airspace over Ferguson for 12 days. They cited security concerns. But audio recordings reveal authorities were trying to keep news helicopters away during violent street protests.

OK. This is one of those head scratchers. What is this knucklehead doing? An Australian man jumped onto a dead whale as two sharks encircled it, chomping at the carcass. Sharks, people.

Harrison Williams says he was out boating with friends. One of them had the bright idea that it would be pretty funny if he surfed the dead whale. Well, that was before he saw the sharks. Williams says now that he's looking back on it, it's something that he would never do again. He also says that his mom thinks he's an idiot. Dad isn't so terribly proud of him either.

CAMEROTA: Gosh. Some people are just too bored, I think, in their lives.

PEREIRA: In what universe, "I've got a bright idea."

CUOMO: That's why we watch Nik Wallenda. It is that fascination. And some people see it as just simply thrilling, like they're living life more fully.

CAMEROTA: Right but that...

PEREIRA: Surfing a dead whale?

CAMEROTA: That was silly.

CUOMO: Silly.

PEREIRA: Disgusting.

CUOMO: Except for those big sharks.

CAMEROTA: The sharks. Deadly.

PEREIRA: Crazy, silly and deadly.

CUOMO: Reckless. Perception of a risk is showing that dumb anyway.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: However, all of this is about to be turned on its head. Because there is one person in this studio right now who's watching them and thinking to herself.

CAMEROTA: "Hmm. I want to do that."

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I didn't know what was coming to me that way. I don't ride dead whales.

CUOMO: You wouldn't like to get that close to those sharks?

PETERSONS: I like getting close to sharks but in a nice cave. It keeps me nice and safe.

All right. We're talking about what we got over the weekend. It looks like we turned our clocks back like an entire year. Because no, this is not last year; this is just last weekend.

Bangor, Maine, over a foot of snow. Yes, we see snow this early. Not that much. And they were not the only ones. A lot of us felt it if you were in the northeast. This as even as far south as Tennessee saw over 2 feet or almost two feet of snow. But notice, it's really what's making headlines. Because South Carolina is seeing snow this early in the season.

And if you didn't see the snow or the rain, you felt the winds. They were howling out there. Talk about winds almost near 70 miles per hour out towards Massachusetts. Many people this morning are still left without power. Combine that with the very cold air that is still out there.

Even down to the south, we're talking about frost and freeze warnings. We are waking up to the chill. Everyone wants to know, when is this air going away? Please tell me it is not staying. That's exactly what I'm going to tell you.

Temperatures are actually going to be warming up. We're looking at a system making its way out of the Northeast. Warm air is building in just about another day or so. Keep in mind, there is a cold front out there that will bring in a couple more showers and some cooler air by the end of the week. But nothing like -- I don't know -- 70 mile- per-hour winds. I felt that. I'm not going to say I felt it actually. I stayed inside and I heard it.

PEREIRA: It is chilly, but it is turning into winter. So at some point it is going to get...

CAMEROTA: It only goes downhill from here. You expect. Thanks so much, Indra.

More bloodshed to tell you about in Iraq as ISIS carried out a mass execution of members of a Sunni tribe. What will it take to stop the terrorists?

CUOMO: There's a lot being thrown at you ahead of the elections. The magic number's six, but actually, it could be eight. Now you need watch ten key races. We have what you need to know, what the deciding factors are, and what it will mean going forward. John King looks at all the answers for you on "Inside Politics." Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: ... are asking whether allies overseas can hold off the militants on their own and if these airstrikes we're doing are actually getting the job done. Let's discuss with someone who knows. Philip Mudd, CNN counterterrorism analyst, former deputy director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center.

Over -- just give us the overarching. How is it going, in your estimation, before we get to the specifics?

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: I think it's going OK if we're patient. Remember, a month or two ago, we were talking ISIS advances, rampant ISIS advances, we were talking about potential attacks on Baghdad. Now we have some success in Kobani, we have the battle lines being drawn a bit. ISIS isn't taking that much geography. So we can talk about why we're not turning them back, but before we do that, we've got to remember that a month or two ago, we thought they'd advance even faster.

CUOMO: OK. So while pace may be debatable, they're doing some really bad things to people who need protection. Talk to us about what's going on in the Anbar region, specifically to this tribe. And they're a key demonstration of people who could be effectively fighting against ISIS. But they didn't get any help from the Iraqis. They didn't get any arms. Now they're getting slaughtered.

MUDD: Look, this is the Sunni heartland right here. Remember, though, before we get into what's happening with the tribes, we pretty much cut off the Kurdish north, Iraq about 65 percent, two-thirds Shia. The Shia are down here. But what's happened? What we've got is ISIS, obviously a Sunni organization, moving out of Syria, trying to consolidate in the Sunni heartland of Iraq, because they can't go north and they can't go too far south. What I think they're trying to do is a recognition that, if they keep trying to move, they're going to get whacked be the Shia and the Kurds.

CUOMO: You believe that? You believe that this is somewhat insulating them? And that this is certainly insulating them?

MUDD: I do. You've seen the past week or two of success by the Kurds in Kobani. You saw even before that ISIS try to go up against the Kurds. I think that was a mistake. The Kurds pushed them back. So I think ISIS is saying, "We've got to go in the same place we saw so much Sunni action when the Americans were there." That's the Sunni heartland, Anbar province.

CUOMO: But this tribe that they're beating up on right now, there's a metaphor value here. These are people who want to fight against ISIS, but they don't have the arms, and the Iraqi government has been cutting them off. And now they're getting slaughtered. Isn't that something that has to be addressed if we don't want U.S. troops on the ground?

MUDD: Look, we will not have U.S. troops on the ground, I predict. But this is critically important to understand. If you're running a counterinsurgency campaign supported by the Americans, you need a couple of things.

No. 1, you need government forces to fight. Remember, a couple months ago, they did not fight.

CUOMO: True.

MUDD: Which is why ISIS rolled through. The second thing we need, which we saw, remember in the Sunni awakening, back, eight, ten, years ago, when the Sunnis started turning the tide against foreign fighters in Anbar province. It was the tribes. The same guys who are getting whacked by ISIS today. So you're going to have to have the government eventually say it's OK to give these tribes weapons, even if it makes us nervous. Because they're going to be the front line against ISIS.

CUOMO: That's why the political solutions are more difficult than the military ones. And now, look, this map looked a little confusing to me, but now I get it, because you explained it to me.

The red is where they're certainly under control. This shows that they're walled off here to the north. And they don't have anything going on in the south. But this is their support area. And here's what's concerns me about it.

All right, take a good look at it now. Here is where it is before we did all the bombing and stuff. Right? Here it is after the bombing. They're controlling more now than they were before. How are the bombings working, P. Mudd?

MUDD: Look, pace of operations by ISIS is slowed. I think that's significant. But you've got to get a sense of time that matches the insurgents' sense of time. We can't operate with the American sense of time.

When I've looked at insurgencies in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, going into Asia, you're talking ten, 20 years. We're now, what, a few months into the bombing. So I think we've slowed the pace. But now we've got to get into the area where they're embedded. We're not just stopping them from moving. We've got into the areas where they're operating. And to pull the weed out after it's already embedded, that's a years' long operation.

CUOMO: All right. Here's the one pushback point, though. You government types, you like to talk about time. But time is money. And this is what it's costing us. The bombings, $7 to $10 million day. This is probably low, right? But even on that calculus, $740 million. Three billion dollars a year that can't got to education, can't go to domestic programs. And this is just the beginning, you're saying?

MUDD: But Chris, let's have a conversation.

CUOMO: Please.

MUDD: This ain't CNN. This is the U.S. government. This is the Pentagon, the CIA. If you add another zero to it, maybe we could have a real conversation. In the world I used to live in, $3.1 billion, that's chump change, dude. This is not a significant amount of money to stop the most serious militant organization we've seen since al Qaeda 13 years ago.

CUOMO: So you're saying you can't look at it in terms of dollars and cents? You have to talk about it in terms of what makes sense?

MUDD: I think you can't look at it in terms of $3.1 billion being, to be blunt, serious -- this is couch money for the U.S. government, in my judgment.

CUOMO: Couch money?

MUDD: Turn over the couch, shake it, and you can get $3.1 billion.

CUOMO: I got the metaphor. I'm just shocked by it. Phil Mudd, thank you.

Chump change, Alisyn. Couch money. That's what 3 billion is.

CAMEROTA: Yes. That's not in my couch. But I like that Phil Mudd goes there. That's great. Thanks, guys.

Well, just 24 hours until polls open for this year's mid-term elections. Voter turnout could be the deciding factor on who controls government for the next two years. John King will have more on the last push for voters "Inside Politics."

And another case of Ebola on U.S. soil? A patient being tested right now at Duke University Hospital. We will dig deeper, live, with an infectious disease specialist.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Good to have you back with us here on NEW DAY. And I'll give you a look at your headlines now.

Incumbent Premier Alexander Zakharchenko is declared the winner of the separatist election in Eastern Ukraine. This election was held despite a truce between coalition separatist groups and Ukraine government forces.

Moscow has said it will recognize the results, even though Kiev and the U.S. and European Union have called them illegitimate.

A former Navy SEAL who wrote -- wrote, pardon me, about the operation that killed Osama bin Laden says he'd rather be overseas fighting ISIS than dealing with all of the fallout from his best-selling book. Matt Bissonnette tells "60 Minutes" that he never trained for the stress that he's endured during the last two years. He says he is being investigated by the government. He's been shunned by the SEALs and he's now drowning in legal bills.

Yet, despite all that, Bissonnette says he doesn't regret writing "No Easy Day," because if generals and former defense secretaries can do it, so can enlisted personnel.

The end of a NASCAR race was more like the end of a wrestling match. Take a look: Jeff Gordon confronting Brad Kozlowski for slamming into him near the end of Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Texas. My goodness. Gordon was left with a flat tire, victory hopes dashed and apparently a whole lot of anger. The situation escalated when another driver pushed Kozlowski closer to Gordon. We're told both drivers walked away bruised.

CUOMO: A lot of rabbit punches thrown there. CAMEROTA: I don't know what that is.

PEREIRA: What's a rabbit punch?

CUOMO: A quick punch to the back of the head. Violation of man law. When you're in a melee, different rules apply.

PEREIRA: We will be so up on man law, Alisyn. This is a good thing.

CUOMO: Man law, study this scrum. See what's going on here? A direct metaphor to what you will see after the elections tomorrow.

PEREIRA: No. No, we will not.

CUOMO: This is exactly what's going on in our political polls for right now. Nobody knows that better than John King. And he will take us "Inside Politics" on NEW DAY.

John, am I right or am I right?

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": I hope you're wrong.

CAMEROTA: I do too!

KING: I hope ultimate NASCAR fighting stays over there in that arena and we get to a little bit of post-election, at least, maybe conversation. But we'll see. But we can't talk about that yet. 24 hours until people starting voting. Tomorrow is Election Day. If you don't have early voting in your state, your last chance comes tomorrow.

So let's go Inside Politics, look at the stakes in this huge midterm election.