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Iraqi Forces Face Fierce Resistance in Mosul Battle; Early and Absentee Voting in Florida Higher Than 2008 Turnout. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired November 07, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SENIOR ADVISER FOR DONALD TRUMP: Remember that a lot of the Florida Hispanics, Cuban-Americans are Republicans. And I think they will be supporting Donald Trump. So it's not just a given voting bloc that Hillary Clinton owns and gets to claim as her own. And so I think that we're, again, in a great position. Those are the same people that frankly I think care a lot about the future of this country and I think most people are going to trust that to Donald Trump a lot more than they trust it to Hillary Clinton.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: You heard Joel Benenson say he didn't think the FBI reopening closing of the case over the past 12 days really going to have much of an impact. Most people, he said, already made up their minds about that.

Based on the internal evidence that you've seen in the Trump campaign, what's your analysis, Sara?

SANDERS: I think that's sad, wishful thinking on Joel's part. There's no way that you can say that there hasn't been an impact. The constant exposure to the Clinton corruption has been a major factor in this race, and that investigation isn't over. The FBI criminal investigation of the Clinton Foundation is alive and well and I don't think that there's anybody in America that wants to see that type of corruption in the White House and I think that's a big thing that people need to factor in when they go to vote tomorrow.

Hillary Clinton represents the constant corruption out of Washington. Donald Trump is the change agent and will come in and shake Washington up in a way that it desperately needs.

BLITZER: Yes. It's unclear how alive and well that criminal, so- called criminal investigation referring to about the Clinton Foundation really is. We're getting all sorts of conflicting reports on that.

Sarah, we're going to have to leave it on that note. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, thanks very much for joining us.

SANDERS: Thank you.

BLITZER: CNN has partnered with Instagram on Election Day. Use the #myvote, as you make your choice and your photo could be used in our election coverage. We're going to get you back to the race for the White House. Much

more coming up. But up next, under attack and stranded for more than 24 hours.

A CNN crew including our own Arwa Damon caught in heavy ISIS crossfire as they cover the battle to try to retake Mosul in Iraq. Their harrowing report from the front lines of this fight. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:41] BLITZER: You're look at live pictures in Tallahassee, Florida, where Vice President Joe Biden is campaigning for Hillary Clinton. We're going to have more on the presidential race here in the United States in just a few moments. But first, we want to bring you another major story. The fight against ISIS. Right now there are two offensives happening, one to recapture the second largest city in Iraq, Mosul. The other to regain control of what the ISIS terrorists call their caliphate capital in Raqqa, Syria.

Late Saturday the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces began their advance to isolate Raqqa. This is the de facto capital once again of ISIS. The U.S.-led coalition is providing support in the form of air strikes.

This operation comes at a time that U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are pushing forward right to the heart of Mosul.

The battle for Iraq's second largest city is bloody and brutal as convoys move through neighborhoods, ISIS militants are using civilians as human shields and using their homes for cover.

One of our own CNN teams witnessed the battle firsthand. It was awful. While traveling with Iraq-led forces in Mosul, our senior international correspondent Arwa Damon and our photojournalist Brice Laine were caught up in an ISIS Ambush. They spent 28 hours under attack. They were trapped not knowing if they would survive. Fortunately they did.

Arwa is joining us now. She's safe. She's near Mosul not that far away.

Arwa, it is not often we see this kind of warfare up close. You saw it. You experienced it. I know you were terrified. Tell us about your experience.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Wolf, I think from what we saw just in those 28 hours, it's clear that ISIS -- defeating ISIS is going to be much more difficult arguably than anyone anticipated, and we should warn our viewers at this stage the report they're about to see does contain some very disturbing images, some difficult to watch.

(BEGIN 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.

(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.

[13:40:02] DAMON: There is one more to the right.

(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 here, 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).

(On camera): She's crying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (Through Translator): We're fine, thank God.

DAMON: 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.

(On camera): That car? The yellow one? It's his? You thought it was a car bomb?

(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.

(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.

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

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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 of 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.

(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.

(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?

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 hear the hiss of a tire losing air. We realize we're trapped, vehicles, wreckage, everywhere. Our MRAP 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. Go, go, go, go, go. In there.

(Voice-over): We take cover. Injured soldiers and a terrified family. Brice too has a small head wound.

[13:45:04] 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 Brice's head wound.

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

(On camera): It's been hours since they called for backup and none has arrived. They need to evacuate their own 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.

(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 10 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.

(On camera): It's been almost 20 hours since they first called for backup and sent out the alarm that we were surrounded and we're still waiting. (Voice-over): The soldiers with us are exhausted, but determined.

They know they're in this fight alone. On the rooftop, 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." 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.

(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)

DAMON: And Wolf, if that's what it looks like in these first initial neighborhoods in eastern Mosul, one can hardly imagine just how difficult and devastating it's going to be as they push towards the center and then the western portion of the city.

BLITZER: Arwa, how are you doing after this ordeal and our photojournalist, Brice Laine, how is he doing?

DAMON: We're both good. We're very relieved that we were fortunate enough to be able to get out.

[13:50:03] But also, we recognize how lucky we are that that is not our life. We were able to leave and sleep in a comfortable bed in a hotel room. And those civilians are still living through that same level of fear, if not worse. Those soldiers are still out there fighting every single day. And I think both us really just hope that through that report, through those images that our viewers are watching, they have a better sense of just how difficult the battle is and a better understanding and hopefully a greater level of compassion and empathy for the civilians that are suffering through all of this as well.

BLITZER: And as you say, this military operation based on that experience you had, for those Iraqi forces, the Kurdish forces backed by the U.S., it's not going to be a cake walk at all. It's going to be brutal and difficult. Right? DAMON: It most certainly is. I think the ferocity of the ISIS

resistance in that part of the city really took everyone by surprise. Us, the soldiers, the analysts, the coalition. It was a very complex attack, Wolf, because they also initially allowed the unit we were with to move through the first two neighborhoods very easily. They waited until they were in these very narrow streets and then launched the attack both on the front and on the back end of the convoy. Physically paralyzing us and the soldiers in the middle.

And they also targeted the backups, the relief units that were coming in. Two of them were trying to reach us, reach their soldiers to be able to help them out before it was too late because they were running out of bullets. And it took from over 20 hours from when they first put out the alarm bells, for those units to actually get there because they encountered that difficult resistance from ISIS, Wolf.

BLITZER: Well, fortunately you're OK. Brice is OK. We're grateful to you -- both of you for this amazing report. Be careful over there. Arwa Damon reporting for us from Iraq.

When we come back, we'll turn back to politics. We'll take a closer look at the battleground state of Florida and why voters are turning out in record numbers in this crucial state for both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. You're looking at live pictures.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Some historic voting in the battleground state of Florida right now. The number of people who have voted early or used absentee ballots in that state is now higher than the entire 2012 election there. It's a crucial battleground.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is in Miami, Randi Kaye is in Orlando.

Randi, let's begin with you. What is it like?

[13:55:02] RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are here at the Orange County Elections Office, Wolf. And they are very busy. We call this the democracy factory. They are counting the absentee ballots that have come in. They expect to count 17,000 today. They've already counted about 147,000.

Once they sort all of those, they come back to the machine where they actually put the ballots into the machines and count them. It is very, very interesting stuff. And they are breaking records here, already more than 400,000 people have voted absentee or early voting here in Orange County, setting a record, just like my colleague, Boris, can talk about in Miami, also setting records there.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Randi. 50,000 people voted in Miami-Dade County just yesterday, giving Democrats about 100,000 vote advantage in a county that is reliably Democratic but the big question here in south Florida, how will Cuban Americans vote? If Donald Trump can convince the traditionally GOP leaning demographic to go his way, it may cut into that 88,000 vote lead that Democrats have state wide, Wolf. BLITZER: All right, Boris and Randi, guys, thanks very much. That's

it for me. The news will continue. Our special election coverage and more right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)