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New Day

Deadly Fighting to Take Over Control of Mosul; Clinton and Trump Launch Battleground Blitzes. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 07, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I just - I don't. I like it. I depend on it.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I will move the finish line after tomorrow, but it happening tomorrow.

CUOMO: All right, now we have a really sobering reminder of why this election matters so much. We have Arwa Damon and one of our photographers embedded with Iraqi forces and showing in real time how deadly this fight for Mosul and to get rid of ISIS is. Twenty-eight hours of hell, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: U.S. backed forces are in Iraq right now and they are engaged in really bloody, deadly fighting to take over control of Mosul. CNN's Arwa Damon is looking at it first-hand, embedded with a unit locked in hellish battle with ISIS terrorists for more than 28 hours in the latest stint. She joins us now. She's fine. But these are images a lot of people, Arwa, are going to be surprised by them. They're used to seeing us embedded with American forces. This is a very different experience that you had and thank God you and your photographer are OK.

[08:35:02] ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's very true, Chris. And it's also a very different kind of battle because the ISIS fighters that these Iraqis are facing inside Mosul are much more hardened than anything, anyone, U.S. troops come across.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON (voice-over): After three weeks of this offensive, the Iraqi military is at last about to enter Mosul. The men of the elite counter terrorism force, the Salah Hadim Regiment (ph), are in high spirits. But after the open plains of northern Iraq, they're about to meet a terrible, new reality. This is not a place these soldiers know, but their enemy does.

DAMON (on camera): The challenge they're facing right now is that there are snipers on rooftops and they're receiving incoming mortar fire that ISIS is shooting from areas that have civilians in them, which makes it almost impossible for the counter terrorism unit to be able to fire back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): A car! A yellow car in front of you! Hurry up!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The side road in front of you. A man with an RPG!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Hit him!

DAMON: The three cars have disappeared down the side streets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There is a guy over there.

DAMON: There is one more to the right.

DAMON (voice-over): Already there's a sense that this will be a different battle. Civilians are still waving white flags, but the roads are getting narrower.

We're in ISIS territory. It's clearly marked. The convoy slows down and on the soldiers' faces, nerves begin to show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Watch out ISIS is behind you.

DAMON: And then the roads give way to muddy alleys. There's nowhere to turn. It's so claustrophobic. And every car her, every garbage can could be a bomb.

It's heartbreaking that some families are still here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My wife is here but she's scared.

DAMON: So is his 19-year-old daughter, Mura (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's crying (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We're fine, thank God.

DAMON (on camera speaking in foreign language): You are right to be afraid.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I am not afraid for me, but I'm afraid about my father. I have no one else but him. I swear, I have no one but him.

DAMON (voice-over): Mura was accepted into university, but she never went. Her younger brother Saef (ph) is paralyzed with fear, cowering with his mother in the back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Stop! Stop!

DAMON: Then a car approaches. Frantic shouted warnings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Sit! Sit! Go back! Go back!

DAMON: Clearly, he's not a bomber, but he's critically injured.

DAMON (on camera speaking in foreign language): That car? The yellow one? It's his? You thought it was a car bomb?

DAMON (voice-over): Minutes later, he is dead. An innocent taxi driver, it would seem, in the wrong place at the wrong moment.

Now there's more incoming fire.

DAMON (on camera): They've been coming across quite a bit of sniper fire, gunfire, mortar rounds, rocket propelled grenades and, of course, those car bombs.

DAMON (voice-over): Even in the midst of battle, moments of humanity. But they are all to fleeting.

ISIS fighters on the rooftops, three grenades land in the street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) I've been - I've been hit. Just I look this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did you - how did you get this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grenade.

DAMON: Bullets ricochet off our vehicle, intensifying as we go forward. Then, a suicide car bomb right behind us. There was a flash of orange, ears ringing. Then, another.

DAMON (on camera): That was the second massive explosion like that, that we've just heard. The first one they said was a suicide car bomb. And then it exploded on the vehicles that are just behind us. There are a number of soldiers just running in the street. One was carrying his buddy who seemed to be wounded.

DAMON (voice-over): They spot enemy movement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): That guy in front of us - check the house over there.

The first vehicle? It was hit?

[08:40:03] DAMON: The incoming fire is now intense. The bulldozer is hit. Our vehicle takes more fire. Soldiers shoot at a motor bike racing towards us. It's hit. We here the hiss of a tire losing air. We realize we're trapped, vehicles, wreckage, everywhere. Our MRAP (ph) takes a direct hit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, what are we doing?

DAMON (on camera): I don't know. I - honestly, I don't know.

We need to go in this house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

DAMON: Huh?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). DAMON: Go, go, go, go, go. (INAUDIBLE) in there.

DAMON (voice-over): We take cover. Injured soldiers and a terrified family. Brece (ph) too has a small head wound. More wounded arrive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I tried to deal with it and get out because the house had no cover. I did not know there was a guy over there and he shot me.

DAMON: Injured himself, Staff Sergeant Ahmed (ph) treats Brece's head wound.

ISIS has systematically targeted and disabled almost every vehicle in our convoy. There are only three working Humvees.

DAMON (on camera): It's been hours since they called for backup and none has arrived. They need to evacuate their wounded. They don't even have enough vehicles to get everyone out. And that's assuming that they would even be able to do so because they say there are still ISIS fighters that have them surrounded on all sides.

DAMON (voice-over): Later, ISIS released its own video of the battle. They had filmed the very house where we were taking shelter from just across the street.

It's almost dark. The front line has moved right next to the house where we have sheltered. We need to move, but every time we try, gunfire drives us back.

It's complete chaos and absolutely terrifying. We need to get to a Humvee five steps away. Finally, we make a run for it. Clambering in as quickly as we can. But there are so many damaged vehicles in our way, our Humvee gets entangled in another.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Go back, back, back, it's stuck.

DAMON: We break free, but go just ten yards.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Go forward a bit!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Get out of here, go forward, forward a bit.

DAMON: A long and frightening night in hiding follows. We had no idea that ISIS fighters were filming the war booty they'd recovered from the regiment's wrecked vehicles just down the street.

It's dawn, and we're still alive. We're with more than a dozen wounded soldiers. Only six who are not. Ammunition is running low.

DAMON (on camera): It's been almost 20 hours since we first called for backup and sent out the alarm that we were surrounded and we're still waiting.

DAMON (voice-over): The soldiers with us are exhausted, but determined. They know they're in this fight alone. On the roof top, they scan for ISIS fighters. The soldiers get ready for the attack they know is coming. Someone has been shot. The grief of a woman yards away is almost hideous. "Where is he," she yelled. And then it erupts again. ISIS has the house surrounded. Our only defenders are mostly the walking wounded.

A grenade lands in the courtyard. More wounded are brought in. They tell us it was tossed by an ISIS fighter in the house behind us. An air strike hits the house and brings down the outer wall of the home we're in. The family we're with hide under the staircase. One of the boys cries, "I don't want to die."

[08:45:15] Hours later, a moment of utter relief.

DAMON (speaking in foreign language): What happened? They arrived?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): You saw them? Yes, they are over there.

DAMON (on camera): They're here.

DAMON (voice-over): Our regiment has arrived as backup, along with a Humvee to evacuate us. It's less than a mile to safety. We're lucky. We can leave the combat zone. These men will have to return. The battle for Mosul has only just begun.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Arwa, your reporting and your video is just so chilling to watch. And you allow us to, you know, vicariously live the terror with you. One of the most intense moments is where you say, it's dawn and we're alive. Why - how do you think you survived?

DAMON: Well, frankly, because of the soldiers who were with us who continue to defend the position no matter what was happening. They really were giving it their all, granted these are very experienced troops in the sense that they have been fighting ISIS for more than two years, but even they were surprised to a certain degree by these level of the intensity of the fighting that ISIS put up by the way that ISIS was able to put forward what can only be described as a very sophisticated plan.

They let the convoy move through the first two neighborhoods fairly quickly. There wasn't a lot of resistance on the outskirts. But then when they finally managed to see that the vehicles were in these side streets, where it's just about impossible to turn a vehicle around, never mind an entire convoy, that's when they went in and launched this sophisticated attack. So it was due to the soldiers and it was due to the fact that backup finally did arrive.

CUOMO: So, Arwa, two quick things. One, are they using the right equipment for this situation? You said you were in an MRAP. It's a mine resistant ambush protected vehicle. They're big and heavy. Do you think they're using the right things given the conditions? And, secondly, your group Inara, i-n-a-r-a for those watching us right now, it's a foundation to help the children and the families who are hurt in these types of wars, even to liberate them, how bad are you seeing the humanitarian level there?

DAMON: To your first question, so they don't only move in these MRAPs. They only had two of them with the entire convoy that we were with. The rest of the vehicles were Humvees. And I have to say, American armor, very, very good. A lot of lives would have been lost if they didn't have these kinds of vehicles. It's a tough balance between being nimble and being able to move and also wanting to, you know, protect yourself, protect the soldiers as best you can.

In terms of the humanitarian catastrophe that's going to potentially be unfolding to an even greater degree than it already is, it is absolutely tragic and heartbreaking. Humanitarian organizations are saying that we could potentially be seeing a humanitarian tsunami because of the fighting that's happening in Mosul. But what is perhaps even more concerning at this stage is how many civilians we saw that were still there. A lot of these homes, they had families inside them absolutely terrified, like you saw there, and it is very difficult discern between friend or foe. And the great concern is that as this battle intensifies, which it is only going to, more people are going to be caught up because ISIS is not allowing them to leave.

CAMEROTA: Arwa, we are grateful to you for your reporting and we're very grateful that you are OK today. Thank you so much for all of that.

CUOMO: And that foundation is called Inara, i-n-a-r-a. You can go online, vet it for yourself.

CAMEROTA: I'm going to put it out on Twitter and FaceBook.

Meanwhile, the FBI director praised and criticized by both parties during this long, heated race. So is the criticism at James Comey justified? We have Dan Rather, next, and David Axelrod. They're going to give us "The Bottom Line."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:53:09] CAMEROTA: We are just one day away from polls opening. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump launching all day battleground blitzes to turn out the vote today. So let's get "The Bottom Line" now with our special guest, former CBS "Evening News" anchor Dan Rather and CNN's senior political commentator David Axelrod.

Gentlemen, great to see you.

Dan, great to have you here in the studio with us.

DAN RATHER, HOST OF AXS TV'S "THE BIG INTERVIEW": Thank you for having me.

CAMEROTA: So, you have covered 16 presidential elections by your own estimation.

RATHER: Right.

CAMEROTA: How does this one rank? RATHER: Well, there's never been one like this. Every presidential election is unique to itself and important. Look, we've never, in the history of the country, not just in my lifetime, we've never in the history of the country had an election campaign like this for a lot of different -

CAMEROTA: What makes it feel different (ph)?

RATHER: Well, it's a long list, but beginning with, we've never had a campaign in which both candidates had negatives above 50 percent. Unprecedented. Also I would say that the rules of civility, while they certainly have been broken many times in the past, never with the consistency have - this has been sort of a dumpster fire of an election campaign at which both sides, and I'm not giving false equivalency here, one side more than the other, racism, chauvinism, some (INAUDIBLE). Just, name it, it's been so down and dirty.

I know people say, well, back in the 1800s we had tough races. We've had tough races before, but never at a level this low. I think my friend David Axelrod would agree that politics is a very tough business and presidential campaigns are always tough, but we've never sunk this low.

CUOMO: What do you think, Ax, and I'm going to want your take as a journalist as well. For those who don't know, Ax was a very decorated journalist before he quit the faith and went into politics. But in terms of how you've seen the rules applied in this race, is it different or is it just heightened?

[08:55:06] DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I think it's - first of all, let me say, honored to share your set there with Dan Rather, who in and of himself is part of history of the last many decades of politics and government in our country.

But, no, this is different for a variety of reasons. A lot has to do with the media environment, the way campaigns are covered, Twitter. All of this has sort of escalated. I do think we've had more acrimonious races even than this, but they haven't been covered. You know, they weren't covered with the kind of mediacy (ph) that this campaign has been covered in. And so that's added and amplified the negativism.

And as Dan said, we have this extraordinary situation where you have two candidates entering the final day of an election, both well under water on their favorable, both well underwater on measures of trust and, you know, so the concern is not just about how we go into this election, it's how we come out of this election and the ability to governor after it.

CAMEROTA: Well, there you have it, Dan. I mean I'm having a hard time even conceiving of the day after the election because after all of the division -

CUOMO: That's because you're going to be on for six hours.

CAMEROTA: Yes, yes, because I'm delirious, number one, but also because what does happen. I mean it's not that the people who were Trump supporters and the people who were Hillary Clinton supporters, they don't just go away the next day. So what happens to all of that division and those - the anger and the toxic feeling?

RATHER: Well, that's the question today. What happens to the country? You know, we're all involved in what happens to these two candidates. But what's at issue is, what kind of country are we, what kind of society are we, what kind of people are we? Will we continue - will (INAUDIBLE) resume being the country of can-do people who get things done, or, as you suggest, the election just continues past Election Day with each side, two sides, at least two sides setting concrete, ideologically partisan political way.

But I'm an optimist by nature and by experience. And, you know, the American people, in general, it's true you have the extremes, but in general they want things to get done. And I'll be very surprised if whomever wins the election doesn't preach unity and say, listen, we need - we need hope, we need healing, we need unity. Will it be tough? You bet it will be tough. Can you write a scenario in which it all goes to hell in a hat? You can. But I'm not of that persuasion.

CUOMO: What do you think -

RATHER: We're better than that. We're better than this campaign.

CUOMO: Well, that's the hope. And when we're talking about whether the, you know, defining who's the "we" that's supposed to be better, let's talk about the media for one second. You gave me a piece of advice a couple of campaign cycles ago. I ran into you on the road somewhere and you said, hey, you know, remember, you're not in this business to be popular when you're covering politics. That if you do your job and you have a clear conscious, you're going to be unpopular from time to time. Get used to it or don't do it. What have you seen with the media here? I know that you've been critical of some of the reporting that's gone on. Why?

RATHER: Well, particularly during the primary campaign that Donald Trump was given almost a free pass that certainly were exceptions to that. But in terms of getting on television, Trump established very early Trump equals ratings. Everybody wanted ratings. You didn't have tough questioning of him. You didn't have tough follow up questions of him. There was very little deep digging, investigative reporting, particularly on - in an electronic journalism, television specifically.

Now, things got a little bit better once we got into the generally election campaign. But Trump's ability to command almost every news cycle with it being about Trump and giving credit even if you don't like him, he's a master of social media and using Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, all of that, that I think the basic criticism in the media, and I don't except myself from this criticism, by the way, not enough Trump questioning, not enough tough follow-up questioning. Too much just being transmitters of what the campaign wants - wants out and not nearly enough deep digging, investigative reporting. Listen, there have been cases open in this campaign that the list is so long you could spend investigative reporting every hour of every day. And that hasn't been done.

I think what the public expects the media to do is to be an honest broker of information, to play no favorites, pull no punches, be fair, be accurate, but also be truthful. The question right now, given the media's performance here, is whether we have reached now a new post truth political era in American politics, where the truth no longer matters, where facts no longer matter. I hope we haven't. but there have been some signs that that's what we've descended into.

CAMEROTA: David, we don't have much time left. Are you as optimistic as Dan?

[09:00:03] AXELROD: Well, I'm hopeful that we can find our way through. But the incentives have to line up right.