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New Day Saturday

Flash Flood Warnings Across Parts Of Texas; Mexico Facing Dangerous Mudslides, Flooding; Patricia Downgraded To Tropical Storm; Freedom Caucus Fails To Endorse Ryan; FBI Director Theorizes On Police "Slow-Down"; Patricia Downgraded to Tropical Storm; Carson Knocks Trump from Top Spot in Iowa; Democrats Gather in Iowa for Key Fundraiser; Russia to Back Syrian Rebels Against ISIS. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired October 24, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Your NEW DAY continues right now.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news we're following this morning. I'm Christi Paul. It's so grateful to have your company.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good morning to you. Hurricane Patricia, the most powerful storm ever recorded is already causing major flooding in the U.S. This is in Navarro County, south of Dallas, Navarro, you see the roads flooded here.

More than a foot of rain caused flash flooding in this area and many others. Numerous people had to be rescued from the high water overnight.

PAUL: I want to show what Patricia looked like as it came ashore in Mexico. What you're looking at here is a Category 5 at its peak top winds, topped 235 miles per hour. Listen to that. It's so frightening, isn't it when you think about being there.

Patricia has now slowed to a Category 1, but we cannot discount this, experts saying this is still a very threatening storm. We have live reports from Sara Sidner in Mexico and Ed Lavandera in Texas.

Ed, I want to go to you first and focus on the flooding threat that is happening there. What are you seeing today?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, it's been a treacherous night here along Interstate 45 and that is the major thoroughfare that connects the cities of Houston and Dallas. We're about 15 miles west of a town called Corsicana, where this stretch of I-45 has been covered in water for much of the night and the interstate had to be closed down.

So there's a great deal of backup starting to clear out. The rain has slowed down a little bit over the last couple hours. That has allowed the floodwaters to recede off the interstate. And now emergency crews are trying to open up as many lanes as possible.

Christi, as you can imagine, these are people headed southbound along Interstate 45. The traffic here is mind-boggling. Cars and cars for miles and miles, as I mentioned, has been an unrelenting rainfall that has hit this part of Texas for more than 36 hours now.

Emergency officials told me a little while ago that more than 17 inches of rain has fallen in the Corsicana, Texas area over the course since the rain started in the overnight Thursday into Friday morning.

So it has been relentless. The rain continues to fall, even though it's much lighter than it has been and that is the good news. But really they are trying to get a handle on the situation. They'll get a better idea once the sun comes up.

The real focus is the roadways. There have been about 30 or so high- water rescues here in the Corsicana area, that emergency teams have had to launch to save people trapped in the floodwaters.

So even though the rain has slowed down a little bit, it's still a very treacherous situation here. Emergency teams waiting for the sun to come up so they can get a better handle on just what they're dealing with.

But now here along Interstate 45, portions of the interstate are starting to reopen, but the backup has been for most of the night. It's going to take a while to clear the backlog here.

PAUL: All right, Ed Lavandera, I hope you get a chance to dry out at some point today. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: The mudslides, one of the biggest dangers right now, as Patricia dumps huge amounts of rain over the mountains of Central Mexico. That's where we find CNN's Sara Sidner.

She's in Guadalajara joining us live with the latest there. Again, we are still a few hours from sunrise where we get a comprehensive picture of the impact of Patricia. What do we know thus far?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what's interesting and what's incredible is here in Guadalajara, there's no rain, no wind. It's all very, very calm here. But as we understand, it's still a Category 1 storm that is trending into the country. And when it did hit, it was a Category 5.

We are going to show you some pictures of what that looked like. I mean, massive, massive amounts of wind, very strong sustained winds hitting 200 miles per hour. Unprecedented this is the strongest hurricane ever to be recorded in the western hemisphere.

So an incredibly powerful storm, there was reason to warn people. They evacuated tens of thousands of people, the Mexican authorities and they did the right thing. A lot of folks saying that certainly made a difference because the eye wall was small.

The eye was quite small. That's where the most dangerous winds are, around that eye. That was small, which means that likely the damage is not as extensive as they thought it would be.

The president did say he thought it could be catastrophic damage judging from how large and powerful this storm was. But he's now saying, look, from the reports that we have so far, even though it's not yet daylight, and we cannot yet see ourselves. The reports that we have so far is that the damage is not as bad as once expected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:08] ENRIQUE PENA NIETO, MEXICAN PRESIDENT (through translator): With the information available until now, and taking into account that the hurricane follows its path, the first reports confirm that the damages have been smaller considering the magnitude of the hurricane. Nonetheless, it is very important that the population stay in the shelters. The security forces will be patrolling to protect their homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So you're hearing him say, you know, still very important and the reason for that is landslides, mudslides, flash flooding. Those are still real and present dangers that everyone that is in that area, needs to be aware of.

And there's also another issue here in Colima, which is a couple of hours from where we are. This is where they were going to put the aid agencies and deploy to hard-hit areas.

They've had to evacuate people from there because a volcano that has been active and spewing a lot of ash over the past month. They're very worried box of the rain. That ash is going to turn into another danger and more mudslides -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Sara Sidner there live in Guadalajara, thank you so much.

WHITFIELD: Now we want to point out, we don't expect Tropical Storm Patricia to re-strengthen, but it's still bringing heavy amounts of rain. CNN meteorologist, Jennifer Gray, is tracking it for us here. So Jennifer, it's not going to heighten because you don't expect the trajectory to include the Gulf of Mexico? This is on land and it will stay there, yes?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's exactly right. The mountains are shredding the storm, a lot of wind shear. Even though it's now a tropical storm and it will completely dissipate over the mountains of Mexico, it is still going to bring a lot of rainfall for the southern U.S., Texas and Louisiana.

So the moisture from the remnants of this storm will feed into the upper level low that's into the south. That will bring incredible amounts rain over the next couple of days so winds right now 50 miles an hour.

It has been downgraded. The 8:00 advisory just came out, 90-mile-per- hour gusts so still could cause some damage especially for some of these villages that don't have that. We'll see trees down.

We'll also see the possibility of those mudslides because a lot of moisture is still within the storm and so it's still dumping a lot of rain as it continues to head to the north and east.

So here's a forecast rainfall. We are going to see 2 inches to 4 inches of rainfall in the mountains, 4 to 6 in isolated mountains and 6 to 10 along the coast. So flash flooding definitely is still a concern in Mexico.

But the shift to the U.S. over the next couple of days and it's already happening. We had high-water rescues overnight just south of Dallas. It has already been flooding. And we could see an additional 6 inches to 10 inches of rain across portions of Texas, guys.

It's unbelievable. We also could see 4 inches to 6 inches across Louisiana, isolated amounts even higher. So the flooding that we're already seeing, the flash flooding, we're going to see more rain on top of it.

Today, tomorrow, this is going to last into Monday. So this is going to be a huge concern, as we go through the weekend. All of this moisture, remnants of Patricia, pumping into the southern portion of the U.S. so flash flooding is going to be expected, today, tomorrow, even into Monday into Louisiana -- Christi.

PAUL: Jennifer Gray, thank you so much for the heads-up.

BLACKWELL: All right, Congressman Paul Ryan, he may have an easier than some would have expected path to becoming the next speaker of the House. But how much cooperation is in his future if he'd like to make some changes? Well, I'll speak with Representative Scott Garrett, the founder of, the often discussed, Freedom Caucus. That's next.

And is there a connection between violent crime and police scrutiny? Well, you may be surprised by who says there is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:12:09]

BLACKWELL: House Republicans may be just a few days from electing the next speaker, Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Ryan didn't really want the job, he said he'd run but with a few conditions.

One of them is endorsements of three key GOP caucuses. He got two out of three. But the conservative Freedom Caucus could not muster support from 80 percent of its members required for a formal endorsement, but about 70 percent, maybe a little more, they are supporting him. That's a super majority.

Ryan says that's good enough for him. So he's running. Congressman Scott Garrett, one of the founders of the Freedom Caucus, is with us now. Good to have you with us, sir.

REPRESENTATIVE SCOTT GARRETT (R), NEW JERSEY: Good to be with you. Good morning.

BLACKWELL: So 70 percent, strong number, as I said, but what were some of the holdouts, some of the sticking points for those who were not willing to support his nomination?

GARRETT: Well, some of the people, obviously, had made commitments elsewhere or had some thoughts on different things, but at the end of the days, our caucus and others, those organizations came out as well. Those organizations I don't think had formalized rules as ours did. Ours was a little structurally different.

BLACKWELL: Understood. One of the reported points of contention was the change that Congressman Ryan demanded be made to the ability to remove a speaker, the motion to vacate as it's known. Why was that a point of contention?

GARRETT: That's a procedure that's been in the books since Thomas Jefferson wrote this manual for Congress so over 200-plus years ago. It's a right of any member of Congress to represent his constituents on the floor of the House of Representatives.

So I guess our group is saying now is probably not the right time when you're trying to bring everybody to together to go in and try to divide things to change a rule that's been in place for over two centuries now.

BLACKWELL: You voted against voting against John Boehner as speaker. Would you be willing to use this motion to vacate to replace Paul Ryan, if he does not live up to the list of commands from the Freedom Caucus?

GARRETT: I don't know that the Freedom Caucus has really a list of demands that we are looking forward. What the Freedom Caucus is really doing is representing American public. The immediate focus is so much on the who and what, and forgets to ask the questions, the why.

Why are these things going on? You know, you look at a presidential race and you see that the public is not happy with Washington in general with the way the House is moving. We make changes in leadership and now the rules.

What the media always forget to ask is the why, and the why in the Senate is the other half of the equation. That's part of the problem we don't control, but when we pass bills in the House and they go over to the Senate, and they die there.

[08:15:05] That's the why question that really should be at the bottom of all of these discussions that we're having right now as to the changes that we are making in Washington.

BLACKWELL: Understood, but let me get back to the essence of the question. Is there part of the reason that some members thought changing the motion to vacate is because you foresee using that in the near future if Paul Ryan makes decisions which you disagree?

GARRETT: No, I don't see us using that in the future. We had good discussions with Paul Ryan. What his vision is. I've worked with him for half a dozen or more years in the Budget Committee and on the floor as well. He has a conservative vision for the country. He was the party's vice presidential candidate the last time around.

So, I think if we can enact those things, move those things in that direction. But again, it all goes for naught if we do all these great things and then it goes into the Senate and they die in the Senate.

BLACKWELL: There were three demands that were made from Paul Ryan. That's what I'm going to go to. He said that he wanted to be able to change this rule. Reportedly, he's going to delay that. He said he needed the endorsement of three key GOP groups. He didn't get that either.

I wonder if going into the job -- he's not even there yet, we don't know what the work/life balance will be. If he's weakened already by seeing he can't get the basic things which would be the only conditions on which he would run, and he's running without two of the major three.

GARRETT: No, it doesn't weaken him, it strengthens him in the sense, in order to move things along you have to have consensus in the House and that is what he was trying to do. That's what the House Freedom Caucus was trying do.

He realizes in order to try to move to get the responsiveness to the American people you have to move all together. That's what the American public acting for out of Washington.

Anyone in Washington that wants to be successful realizes when you go to the negotiation table, you may know what you want, but you're not going to get 100 percent of it.

And if you demand 100 percent of it, it's your way or the highway, then you will not be successful and the American public will not be successful. That's what we're trying to change in the House.

And I'll challenge you on this to ask that why question, why the Senate, we can't, why they're always looking for 100 percent, it's there way or the highway. We're willing to be the party of not hell no, but the party of hell yes. We want to get things done if we can get them out of the Senate and get them done.

BLACKWELL: Well, there are some who would who say that the Freedom Caucus is part of the why. It holds its own leadership in the House to a standard to pass something that when there was no chance it will even get a vote?

GARRETT: Yes, but that's the question you -- I challenge you to ask the Senate, why will they not allow the vote on those things? Ask that question, why does the Senate Democrat leadership say they will not allow a vote at all to allow the American voice to be heard? I challenge whether anyone in the media has asked the Senate that question why.

BLACKWELL: And I will hold myself to it. Congressman Garrett, thank you so much.

GARRETT: Appreciate it very much. Have a good day. BLACKWELL: You too -- Christi.

PAUL: Speaking of politics, from Iowa to Florida, all points in between. The men and women running for president had a busy day ahead of them. We're going to break it down for you.

Also Hurricane Patricia just downgraded to a tropical storm. It's still moving across Southeastern Mexico. This is the strongest hurricane ever reported. Still packing a punch this hour, but just in the next hour or so, the sun should be coming up there. And we're going to get a better glimpse of what it left behind.

Also, new video from a deadly shooting on a Tennessee university campus and police need your help to find the suspect.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:40]

BLACKWELL: FBI Director James Comey speaking at his alma mater at the University of Chicago addressed the so-called Ferguson affect. The national police slowdown in the wake of several controversial police shootings of African-American men and whether it's caused more crimes, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: Our officers answering 911 calls, but avoiding the informal contact that keeps bad guys from standing around especially with guns. I spoke to officers privately in one big city recently, who described being surrounded by young people with mobile phones held high, taunting them when they get out of their cars.

They said to me, we feel under siege, and we don't feel much like getting out of our cars. The question, the suggestion that's been asked to me is, are these kinds of things changing the behavior of police all over the country?

That explains the map and the calendar. The honest answer is, I don't know and I don't know if that explains it entirely. But I do have a strong sense that some part of the explanation is a chill wind that is blown through law enforcement over the last year. And that wind is surely changing behavior.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right, a strong sense, but Comey did admit there is no concrete proof to back up his theory that a recent uptick in crime could be linked to the increased scrutiny of police officers. The Department of Justice is not commenting.

PAUL: A $6,000 reward is now being offered for tip in a deadly school shooting that police say started over a dice game. This happened at Tennessee State University in Nashville. Investigators have released this new surveillance video. That is the suspected gunman, opening fire, killing one person. Authorities say they're looking for two men. Two students suffered nonlife-threatening injuries during the incident. But they're hoping this video will prompt somebody out there to recognize something that can help them.

And the U.S. Navy resumes its search for the voyage data recorders of the doomed cargo ship "El Faro." Crews arrived at the search zone in the Bahamas last night. The Florida-based cargo ship and its 33 crew members just vanished October 1st after running into Hurricane Joaquin. Debris from "El Faro" has been washing ashore on multiple Bahamian islands.

BLACKWELL: All right, coming up, we've got the latest on the now severe flooding across parts of Texas. People stranded, rescues overnight as people do what they shouldn't do, drive through standing water. We'll get that live report to you next.

[08:25:08] Also, Patricia has been downgraded again now to a tropical storm. That means the winds have died down. It doesn't mean anything about the rain. It's once one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded when it hit Mexico. How strong will the storm be when it reaches the U.S. in full force? That new track coming up?

PAUL: But first, in this week's "Impact Your World" singer, Caitlin Crosby, uses old keys to inspire people who are transitioning out of homelessness. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR, (voice-over): Actress and singer, Caitlin Crosby, says she just wants to help others.

CAITLIN CROSBY, FOUNDER, THE GIVING KEYS: I'm just obsessed with people and wanting to spread hope and encouragement, whether it be through a song or an Instagram post, whatever it is.

PEREIRA: Like sharing inspiring words on old keys.

CROSBY: I had an old hotel key from New York that I thought was cool. I went to a lock smith and asked him to engrave words like love, hope, fearless.

At first, I wanted to create a cool inspiring product that different people could die and a story started pouring in, like Jo has cancer so I gave them my fight key. I thought to my I need to make a website where the stories are being shown.

PEREIRA: Crosby had no idea this would be the key to opening doors for those without a home.

CROSBY: We now hire people that are trying to transition out of homelessness. They screen the people for us to make we're hiring people to change their lives and make sure they're ready for this change.

PEREIRA: And giving people like this man a new beginning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for not charging me for the part and I'm starting my new life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:11] BLACKWELL: Yes, this was Patricia at her worst. But now just the last few minutes it's been downgraded to a tropical storm. You see the winds here challenging this community in Mexico -- the video giving you a good idea of how powerful those winds were as a storm. The eye of the storm made landfall.

Right now, the storm is still dumping rain at least a foot of it over that country sparking fears of flash floods, mudslides throughout central Mexico. Patricia hasn't reached the U.S. totally. But those bands, those feeder bands, the outer bands are drenching parts of Texas, prompting some road closures and even water rescues.

PAUL: So we're tracking the story from every angle this morning. Meteorologist Jennifer Gray live in our CNN weather center tracking Patricia's path.

But let's start with Ed Lavandera in Ellis County, Texas. He's been standing in the rain for at least the three hours. And Ed, we can still see it looks like it's raining there. I know you've had some flooding situations there, overnight rescues -- what's it like there right now?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is some of the lightest rain we've seen which isn't really saying much because the rain has been coming down relentlessly here in many parts of Texas especially in the northern part of Texas for what seems like 36 hours or so by now.

In fact I was just talking to an emergency official a little while who said that they received here near the town of Corsicana more than 17 inches of rain since this rain started yesterday and it caused quite a bit of problems.

This is Interstate 45 which has been closed for most of the night and just moments ago started reopening. They're now in the process of clearing out miles and miles of cars that have been backed up here on the interstate stop because the water -- it has been covered in water for much of the roadway.

For now as the rains have receded and slowed down a little bit and the floodwaters have dropped back a little bit, the interstate here is open. That's a little bit of good news. But we're also told that if the rains pick up again here later in the day and floodwaters come back up. There's a chance that they might have to shut it down again. So they're trying to get as many people through as possible and that's what we're seeing now -- Christi.

PAUL: Yes, a long line of cars there. All right. Ed Lavandera, take good care of you and your crew there. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray now tracking the storm as it continues to break down. And those mountains really helped as you said earlier to shred the storm. But the rain is still the major challenge here.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. This storm has a lot of moisture with it. And that is going to be pumped into the southern portion of the U.S. combine that with an upper level low that's been sitting over Texas and you are going to have a major flooding event.

We're already seeing flooding, as Ed was saying, more than 17 inches of rain where he is. On top of that we could see an additional six to ten inches and so it is going to be a major flooding event.

All of this moisture -- here's tropical storm Patricia -- all of that moisture is just going to continue to feed to south Texas, Central Texas. You can see, south of Dallas, that bull's-eye right there -- we could see more than 10 inches of rain in isolated amount. Texas, all the way down to Houston, the hill country included in this.

So flash flood warnings are in place -- flood warnings, flood watches over much of the state and that also includes southwest Louisiana. Let's not forget about that because Louisiana's going to be in this, too, especially as we get into Sunday and Monday.

But look, Dallas in the rain right now. Often in the rain, we even have lightning associated with this. We've seen rainfall rates one to three inches per hour. Some areas have seen even higher rainfall rates. And that's just going to continue. It's not going to let up. This is going to be relentless over the next several days.

And look, that flash flood warning in Corsicana -- 35,000 people within that warning box. So that is in effect until 10:00. I'm sure that's going to be extended, guys because this is not going to let up at all.

Look at all this very the heavy rainfall that's forecasted by tonight just southwest of Houston along the coast. Dallas still in the rain tonight and on into Louisiana.

[08:35:04] So, this is going to be a major problem. We've already seen those high-water rescues overnight. And so as long as this rain continues to come down like it is it's not going to get any better -- guys.

BLACKWELL: All right Jennifer Gray, thank you so much. We'll continue to check in.

PAUL: You know, today, Iowa is the center of the universe, so to speak, for those who want to become the next president. Just minutes from now, Iowa's new GOP poll leader, Ben Carson is greeting voters.

The Democrats have a time-honored tradition tonight. We're going to break that all down for you. And we're hearing news about Russia -- major story in that it will

also supporting Syrian rebels against ISIS which means now they're backing two different sides in this fight. Now, a lot of people wondering how does that work? We're live in Moscow ahead.

Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Overall though, we're make enormous progress. And it does make you wonder why is it that Republican politicians are so down on America? Have you noticed that?

I mean, they are -- they are gloomy. They're like Grumpy Cat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The cat's not grumpy, it's just misunderstood.

President Obama giving his best Grumpy Cat face, though, poking some fun at Republican presidential candidates yesterday.

[08:39:57] This morning, Donald Trump is not exactly happy with his slide from the top of the polls in Iowa. The latest "Des Moines Register" and Bloomberg polls show Dr. Ben Carson with a commanding lead ahead of Donald Trump here by nine points in this critical caucus state.

It's remarkable because Carson isn't technically on the campaign trail. He's on a book tour. But his book tour goes through a lot of early voting and caucusing states.

CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston joins me now, live from Des Moines. How is, Maeve, how is Dr. Carson characterizing his ascendance to the top of these two polls?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, I mean what we're seeing is evangelicals that are flocking around Ben Carson and he obviously has rocketed up to the top here in Iowa.

He actually is here in Iowa today, along with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. He was doing a breakfast at a fraternity in Ames, this morning, part of his book tour. But he certainly is out there and connecting with voters. And we saw Donald Trump go after him last night at his rally in Florida, saying while Ben had shot up in the polls, they let him know that and he was sleeping.

So we'll see how the back and forth between Carson and Trump goes over the next couple of days.

BLACKWELL: And it's a big day for Democrats in Des Moines today or this evening. The annual Jefferson Jackson dinner that's so important every cycle, essentially elevated the campaign of then-Senator Barack Obama back in 2007.

A question for you, what are we expecting tonight? And what does a candidate have to do to get that elevation? I'm looking at former governor Martin O'Malley.

RESTON: Right, this could be a big moment for him tonight, all of the campaigns are getting their supporters to this dinner, starting with rallies this afternoon. We have dueling rallies between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders here in Des Moines.

Katy Perry who did a wake-up call for Clinton staffers this morning will be joining Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton in Des Moines later on today. This is really about getting their supporters excited, working the crowd, getting those caucus commitment cards in.

And everyone kind of talks about this as being sort of the real start of the fall campaign so, that's what's on the agenda for these candidates today. And they'll be speaking tonight in a theater in a round setting to their supporters which can have kind of a more intimate feel even though there are already 6,000 tickets that have been sold for the event.

BLACKWELL: 6,000 tickets but intimate environment. Maeve Reston, thank you so much. And I wonder, what is a Katy Perry wake-up call? Do we have any reporting on that?

RESTON: It's something about wakey, wakey eggs, and something about -- yes, for real. And then said like the early bird gets the vote -- so that's apparently how she got Clinton staffers out of bed.

BLACKWELL: All right. We'll see if it works. Maeve -- thank you so much. And of course tomorrow --

RESTON: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: -- candidates come to CNN, exclusive interviews with Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump air on "STATE OF THE UNION". That's tomorrow morning at 9:00 Eastern, only on CNN.

PAUL: I feel bad. They get Katy Perry, and you just get me. That's no fun.

BLACKWELL: You're great, though.

PAUL: No.

Russia, listen to this, I got news on Russia --

BLACKWELL: Ok.

PAUL: -- and this is actually pretty serious and very surprising to some people. Because Russia's now saying that it's going to get more involved in the fight against ISIS. Its military, they say, will provide air support for Syrian rebels. Here's the thing, they're already protecting Bashar al Assad's government forces. There's a contradiction it seems here. We're live in Russia with this major development to break it down.

Also we're watching the latest with tropical storm Patricia. The downgraded monster storm battering the Mexican mountains right now and fueling something major flooding in Texas, nearly two feet in some areas. And there's more to come.

We'll have the latest on that coming up at 10:00.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: A new attack this morning in Israel leads to one person who is now dead and officials say a Palestinian man was shot after attempting to stab security personnel at a check point in the West Bank. That man is the one who died.

This latest incident coming as Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan. The two are discussing the recent violence in that region. And earlier this week, Kerry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Meanwhile news this morning Kerry's Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov saying his country's air force is ready to give support to Syrian rebels fighting ISIS. Lavrov's comments come one day after he and Kerry discussed ways in trying to reach a political settlement to the crisis in Syria.

CNN contributor Jill Dougherty joining us now from Moscow.

It seems a bit contradictory, since they're also supporting the Abbas (SIC) regime, Jill. Is this a surprising move?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know in a way it is. It sounds a little counterintuitive as we say. But I mean here's what's going on. Russia right now is saying it's carrying out terror attacks in order to bring about peace. Because it wants to bring the fighting to the end, get everybody to the table.

And so this is an attempt by Russia to say, look, we're going the extra mile. We are willing to provide this air cover to the Free Syrian Army because they are not terrorists. They've already said they don't believe that they are terrorists. And they're fighting ISIS.

But there's kind of a caveat here, because in the next breath, the foreign minister Lavrov who made the statement says, but, the problem is the United States won't give us any information on where the FSA is or where the terrorists are, so that we can go and bomb the terrorists and protect the FSA.

The U.S. is saying we're not giving you that information, essentially, because we don't trust you not to go and bomb the FSA. So, that's kind of where we are right now.

But the good part of that is, with all of the kind of, you know, game playing and careful phrasing, et cetera, it does appear to be moving towards some type of movement toward peace. Let's put it that way. And Russia really does want to get it over with. It's not -- it's not putting its apples in one basket with Assad either.

[10:50:07] So maybe ultimately it's good news.

PAUL: All right, Jill Dougherty -- we appreciate it so much. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Two familiar foes, one unfamiliar setting -- the World Series set. Andy Scholes is going to break it down for us, next.

But first, this weeks "Start Small Think Big" showcases a San Francisco company that enables women to rent and share their clothes online.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRETT NORTHART, LE TOTE FOUNDER: Sharing clothing is something people grew up doing. The problem that we saw with the women in our lives revolved around everyday variety. It was I'm getting ready for work on a Wednesday, and I just don't like anything that's in my closet.

RAKESH TONDON, LE TOTE FOUNDER: I'm Rakesh Tondon.

NORTHART: And I'm Brett Northart and we're the founders of Le Tote.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would definitely wear that at work.

TONDON: Renting is a low cost way of getting that variety, having less clutter.

NORTHART: We felt like this unlimited closet that people could share on a national scale. It just made a lot of sense.

You sign up for the service online, we send you a box with three garments and two accessories. Then when you're done, send it all back and we'll send your next box right away. It costs $49 a month for unlimited access to our sharing closet.

Social media has been great for to us help grow the business, because you'll have women that are posting pictures of themselves, they're hashtagging Le Tote on Instagram. They're posting about the service on Facebook.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My wardrobe is bigger and it's a lot more varied.

NORTHART: We started the business right out of Rakesh's living room. We were sending stuff out to friends, friends of friends, trying to figure out if there really was a market for this.

TONDON: We initially started out with San Francisco and now we're in 48 states.

NORTHART: You see the rise of services like Spotify for music and Netflix for movies. I think the idea of sharing and getting access to things, not having to own them is a trend that's very real and it's here to stay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's awesome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well, CNN has learned that Colorado theater shooter James Holmes was assaulted by another inmate earlier this month in the Colorado State Penitentiary. The Colorado Department of Corrections called the incident quote, "very minor". Says the altercation occurred while Holmes was passing another passenger (SIC) in a hallway. He wasn't hurt, Holmes fellow inmate is charged though with assault.

BLACKWELL: The FBI has been asked to join in the investigation into the shooting death of a Florida church drummer. The Palm Beach County sheriff asked for the agency's help. Corey Jones was shot and killed by a plainclothes officer on an interstate exit ramp last weekend. The family members say at the time Jones was waiting on a tow truck. The officer pulled up in an unmarked car.

The books are closed on the investigation into former IRS official Lois Lerner. The Justice Department announced it ended its two-year investigation into whether the agency improperly targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups. Neither Lerner nor any other department official will face criminal charges.

PAUL: For the second year in a row, the Kansas City Royals playing for the world championship.

BLACKWELL: Yes. CNN sports anchor Andy Scholes is here with more on World Series matchup.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hey guys. I'm really looking forward to this series. You know, the Royals for the second year in a row, they're going to get a chance to win the fall classic. Last year, they lost in that heartbreaker in Game 7 to the giants. But you know, they're going to see if they can win it all this time around taking on the New York Mets.

Eliminating the Blue Jays in the ALCS was not easy. The Royals were up 3-1 in the eighth inning of this game. One on for Jose Batista, he takes this one deep to left. That's his second from running the game. Guess what -- a little rain came in. We had to wait 45 minutes in the eighth inning before this game resumed.

In the bottom of the eighth, Eric Hoff is going to hit this one to the corner and Lorenzo Cane was on first base and he's going to come all the way around to score. That was you winning run.

The Royals your American league champions after winning this game, final of 4-3. So, guys, "Back to the Future" wasn't right about the Cubs winning the World Series this year but hey we're going back to the 80s, the Royals last won it all in 1985. The Mets won it the next year in '86. Game one of this series is going to be Tuesday night in Kansas City. And baseball, of course, a game of tradition and there are few things more traditional than the old Louisville Slugger Bat. Now, they've made bats for players in every World Series since 1903. The factory is already hard at work making bats for this year's fall classing including the bat that won Mets star Daniel Murphy will use in the game.

You know, guys he's an absolute hero in New York right. He's homered in six consecutive post-season games -- that's a record. He has seven homeruns in the post-season. Only Barry Bonds has hit more home runs in one single post-season than Daniel Murphy. I guarantee you one thing -- he's never going to have to buy a meal in Queens ever again --

BLACKWELL: Or a beer.

SCHOLES: -- with the way he's played -- or a beer.

We want to know what you guys are thinking and who's going to win this World Series. Tweet us on Twitter using the #NewDayCNN.

BLACKWELL: Yes, please tweet us on Twitter.

PAUL: It sounds so provocative.

BLACKWELL: A little bit.

PAUL: This is what I think is funny. We learned a little tidbit today, that regardless of who wins the series, next season, the first matchup is --

SCHOLES: The stars align for this one -- right. The baseball schedule always comes out before the -- the next season's schedule comes out before the current season is even over. And the first series next year is going to be Mets and Royals. How crazy is that? And the funny thing is that these two teams -- these two teams they're in different leagues. The Royals in the American League, the Mets in the National League -- they only play each other once every three years. And that's going to be the first match for the season next.

BLACKWELL: So you asked everybody at home to tweet their forecast.

SCHOLES: Their guess.

BLACKWELL: Tweet it on Twitter, please. Just to be fair, who do you think is going to take it?

SCHOLES: I think the Mets are a team of destiny. Even though I mean -- you guys to go back to the Royals if they lose two years in a row. The Mets' pitching staff is so good. They got four young arms -- they're just incredible. It seems like they're a team of destiny.

BLACKWELL: All right.

PAUL: All right. BLACKWELL: We'll see what happens.

PAUL: We'll hold you to it -- Andy. Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: That's it for us. We'll see you back here at 10:00 eastern for an hour of CNN NEWSROOM.

PAUL: Absolutely. Don't go away though. "SMERCONISH" is starting for you right now.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST: I'm Michael Smerconish. Glad you're hear to recap an unbelievable week.