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Two Men Shot in NYC, Still At Large; Mike Pence to Release Tax Returns; Deadly Flooding in Louisiana; Waiting for Donald Trump to Speak in Connecticut; Chlorine Gas Attack Kills Children in Syria; The Cost of Childcare. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired August 13, 2016 - 19:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:00:11] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we begin tonight with breaking news, in New York City. Two men shot and killed in broad daylight today, one of them the leader of a Muslim house of worship. This happened this afternoon in Queens. Both men shot in the head. Their killer, according to police, still at large. Our Sara Ganim is in Queens where it happened, in Ozone Park.

Look, Sara, I know that these two men, the older one was 65, one was 63. Are police describing any motive right now?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes Poppy, at this moment police are not going there. They are saying they are continuing to investigate. You can see them doing that here behind us, as they're looking at the crime scene. This is what they're telling us so far. They know that around 2:00 these two men, one is a local imam, very beloved in this community, and his neighbor walking down the street, leaving the mosque after prayers on their way home just a few blocks away.

And someone approached them from behind. They were shot in the head. One of them died shortly after the incident, the other one was confirmed just moments ago by the NYPD at a press conference that he also died. And here's what police are saying. They know that there were witnesses who saw a man fleeing the scene with a gun, and they have surveillance video that shows a man at the scene fleeing with a gun. But no arrests have been made at this point and they're not talking about a motive.

They say nothing was taken from either of the two men. But investigators say there's nothing preliminarily that shows that they were targeted. They are also saying they're looking into the possibility that there was a dispute at the mosque. That's something according to a law enforcement source who talked to a producer at CNN.

So, there's a lot of questions here as police continue to investigate. Of course you can tell, no matter what happens this is a tragic thing for this community. People have gathered here. They are calling for justice. They are mourning, they're reacting, because this was a local religious leader and it's a sad and scary thing that he was gunned down in the street, Poppy.

HARLOW: Sara Ganim for us in Queens, New York.

Again, the headline, two men, one of them an imam, murdered in broad daylight in Queens. And you hear some of the people who have gathered there chanting "We want justice." Of course it is early hours here, police are just starting their investigation. We will bring you more on this as soon as we have it. Sara, thank you very much.

To politics now. We have just learned that we will soon see the tax returns of a candidate on the Republican ticket. But it's not Donald Trump. Jeremy Diamond is live in Fairfield, Connecticut for us tonight. That is where Trump is expected to take the stage at any moment. And as we await Donald Trump, Mike Pence coming out and saying he will release his tax returns.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right Poppy. Mike Pence saying on a radio show this afternoon that he plans to release his tax returns before Election Day. I also spoke with his spokesman who confirmed to me that Pence does indeed plan to release his tax returns before then. Of course that's notable because Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine released the IRS just yesterday. Donald Trump still has not done so and said that, you know, he's not planning to do so while he's under audit.

But the Clinton campaign is ramping up the pressure, just as Mike Pence is saying that you also have Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, saying today during a campaign stop that Donald Trump has to release his tax returns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY DIAMOND, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Even Richard Nixon released his tax returns to the public when he was running for president because he said, as has every major party nominee of both parties since, the American public have a right to see my tax returns, they should see what my financial status is, they should see who I have connections with, they should see if I am paying the taxes that support our veterans, that support our military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: Donald Trump meanwhile has said that he will not release his tax returns while they are still under audit by the IRS. Now actually his tax returns have been under audit since 2009, so that means it's highly unlikely that before the election they were going to see Donald Trump's tax returns, at least for recent years, before the election, if he sticks to that logic, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. Jeremy Diamond live for us in Fairfield. We'll get back to you when Trump does take the stage. Thank you Jeremy.

Let's discuss with our political panel. CNN politics reporter Tom LoBianco, he is also a member of CNN's reality check team, and Andy Puzder, he is a Trump campaign advisor, also CEO of CKE Restaurant. Thank you gentlemen, both for being with me tonight. Andy, let me begin with you.

So Mike Pence comes out today, he says he's going to release his tax returns, he's going to do it before the election.

[19:05:06] Does that put a significant amount of pressure on Trump to release his?

ANDY PUZDER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISOR: Well, there's already pressure on him to do it. But I think the problem is that ...

HARLOW: Now his running mate is doing it.

PUZDER: Yeah, but if you're in an audit and the IRS has questions about matters in your return and you're trying to explain them, you don't want that done in the public. You know the way to resolve this would be if the IRS resolved the audit, if they just would finish up the audit, be done with it and they've been working on it since 2009, they must be close to a conclusion here. Just wrap it up, and then there's no reason not to disclose the tax returns.

HARLOW: So one thing, we have not seen the audit letter from Trump, which everyone who is being audited gets an audit letter. So, you know, I think a lot of people would like to see the audit letter. But aside from that, there are things, Andy, that he could do, right? He could release his marginal tax rate, he could release just his charitable contributions, just to show the public some of what they're asking for, why not do that?

PUZDER: Well because -- you know, I don't know what is in dispute with the Internal Revenue Service. But for example the marginal rate might change based upon what they do with the IRS. I don't know how big of an audit his is, but it sounds like a pretty big audit, if you're going to -- 2009, that's seven years of tax returns. So, you really can't release this piecemeal until you know what the IRS is going to do with it. And as I said you don't -- it's even unfair to the IRS if you start releasing things publicly, then the IRS is under pressure to resolve or not resolve an issue, and it's certainly unfair to Mr. Trump. So, let's get, you know, get the audit done, finish the audit, wrap it up, and he can release his tax returns.

HARLOW: Tom, to you, I mean, there is nothing about an audit that prohibits anyone from releasing their tax returns to the public. Just to be very clear with the IRS, there's no rules against it, but Tom, I wonder if you think, you know, a lot of Trump's surrogates on our air say that it's just the media who cares about Donald Trump's tax returns not the voters, not the public. Do you think Mike Pence coming out saying, yes I will release mine is antithetical to that argument then, because he's saying, in essence, yes it matters to the voters and I'm going to do it?

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Absolutely. I mean this is -- Governor Pence here is in a very interesting position. You know, on the one hand, he wants to think it's a win, OK, because then he's in the White House. But on the other hand though, he could be positioning himself for future prospects. So, he has his own career to think about here. So he really has to make the right call, politically correct call here, and clearly that's releasing the tax returns. This is a well- established thing. And, you know, the bigger problem here is that the longer that Trump holds out on this, and that you have the Democrats keep beating him over the head with this, and then you have something like this today where, you know, Governor Pence comes out and says, Yeah, I'll go ahead and release my returns, that detracts from their campaign message.

HARLOW: So Tom -- you have covered Mike Pence in his role as Governor incredibly closely, very closely. So, I wonder what you make of the fact that he seemingly has sort of -- even if probably inadvertently boxed Trump into a corner with this.

LOBIANCO: Well, you know, that's the kind of thing where, looking forward -- that might have been a mistake by him, we don't know at this point. But clearly he has his own career to worry about here as well. It's a funny balancing act that needs to happen. You know, again, Governor Pence making the right call. This is the second time we've seen something like this. He came out and endorsed Paul Ryan. You know he said that he would support McCain and Kelly Ayotte, right?

So this is -- you know, at the same time we've seen him break with Trump on this thing. And, it's awkward, to say the least. It puts Trump in a strange position. You know, you got to wonder how many more of these are we going to see? Because, you know, a lot of Trump advisers will remind us that Trump is a political novice, all right? He hasn't done these things before.

HARLOW: Yeah, to be fair, Tom, he did incredibly well in the primary. And I get it, general is a totally different game. I mean, Trump believes, and the New York Times outlined it in an article today, talking to more than 20, you know, people close to the campaign that he often believes, what got me to win the primary will help me win in the general. Andy, to you, I want to talk about these battleground polls. Let's pull them up and show folks what we're talking about here.

Real struggle for Donald Trump in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, trailing Clinton significantly, especially in North Carolina, nine points behind her in a state that Romney won in 2012. You're an adviser to the campaign. This is on top of comments from Trump this week when he said, "Look, I'm concerned about Utah. We're having a tough time in Utah, Arizona, Virginia." What does he need to do to turn those numbers around?

PUZDER: Just stay on message, he needs to talk about the economy, the economy and then talk about the economy again. He can go into some of the Clinton corruption allegations if he feels the need to do so.

[19:10:03] But I think a focus on the economy is absolutely Donald Trump's best path to win this election.

HARLOW: So why isn't he talking about it more? He gave a speech in Detroit, but he really could have hammered and doubled down on the really anemic GDP report a few weeks ago. He could focus a lot more on wage growth not being what it needs to be. Why doesn't he just hammer home on those things?

PUZDER: Well, another thing he could hammer home on was Hillary Clinton's plan that she released which basically was a tax and spend plan where he's got a growth plan. So, I wish he would do that. I have encouraged people in the campaign, encouraged him to do it. He need to stay focused on that. I think he knows it, I think people in the campaign know it, and I hope we're going to see more of it in the coming weeks.

HARLOW: And we'll see, I know he's giving a big policy speech on ISIS Monday in Ohio. So, we'll see if there's more of a focus on the issues ahead. Andy, thank you. You'll be back with my in just a little bit. Tom, thank you as well.

Coming up this hour, we're watching Fairfield, Connecticut, that is where at any moment Donald Trump will take the stage. We will take you there live.

Also, a state of emergency in Louisiana, deadly flooding in the southern part of the state. The worst part, it is far from over, we will take you to Louisiana. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right, an update now on the terrible flooding in Louisiana that has claimed at least two lives. First, the dramatic rescue caught on camera, a man in Baton Rouge had to tear open the convertible top of a sinking car to save a woman and her dog today. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get that dog now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here. Here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Unbelievable. That woman was concerned about her dog, as you heard her calling, get my dog, get my dog, for the first tense moments. She even wanted to dive back into to try to rescue her dog. Thankfully her rescuer was able to save both of them. Just incredible. It gives you a sense of the magnitude of this flooding, historic flooding in Louisiana right now.

The governor there calling a state of emergency for the next month in response.

[19:15:00] Our Boris Sanchez is in the flood zone with more. Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, now that the floodwaters are starting to recede in some parts of Louisiana, we're getting a clear picture as to the extent of the damage, just how bad this flooding was, how strong these waters were. I want you to take a look over to the left of me. We're in an industrial yard here in Amite, Louisiana. That's a body shop and you see that pickup truck just crushed like a child's toy, flipped over. Actually the other side of that building, there was a tractor in this area earlier that was helping people get across this flooded area, to get to their homes and come back.

The truck actually got stuck in the water and had to be pulled out itself. You can also see pieces of asphalt, huge pieces of asphalt that have just been lifted off the ground and tossed around like pieces of paper onto the street. And I want to point something out, you see it across the street here in that area just off the street, that white pickup truck, that was actually a man that was trying to cross the road while it was flooded out. He clearly did not make it across. He had to be rescued by officials.

One of the 1,000 rescues that firefighters, paramedics, and other emergency officials have had to make here in Louisiana, because of this devastating flooding. The last thing I want to point out, Poppy, across the street, that trailer, I spoke to the guy that lived in that trailer. He kept it across the street here in the industrial part. Fortunately he didn't spend the nigh here last night. He says, it ran more than 120 yards and got smashed against the trees over there. I've asked him how he felt, seeing his home and state in disarray. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrible. The gentleman who has that tractor right there, he lost his house in the flood back in March, he just a couple of weeks ago got his house back in order. And he's lost everything. He has six, eight inches of water in his house. It's terrible. I mean these people, it's just, you know, it's a sad thing to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The major concern now are the cities and towns that are south of here, Poppy, because all these water that was here just continued moving in that direction. The other question is, when is the rain finally going to stop, it had settled down a couple of hours ago, now it's falling yet again. Experts tell us it will continue until at least Monday, Poppy.

HARLOW: Boris Shanchez, Boris tonight in Louisiana. Thank you Boris for that.

Still ahead this hour, we are watching Fairfield, Connecticut, that where at any moment Donald Trump will take the stage. Why is he campaigning in a state that is solidly blue? We'll bring you there live next.

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[19:00:00] HARLOW: Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump on tax returns, basically saying, now it's your turn. Clinton released her 2015 tax returns yesterday. They revealed that she and her husband made about $10.5 million last year. They paid just about 31 percent in taxes. And just tonight, Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, says he will release his tax returns before the election. So, where does that leave Donald Trump? Our Brian Todd has more on that. Hi, Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, Donald Trump has found a lot of different ways to dance around releasing his tax returns and to avoid a clear explanation for why he hasn't released them. Right now the candidate is under more pressure than ever for a full accounting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Unbelievable ...

TODD: Donald Trump promised he would release his tax returns to the public, but that was a year and a half ago. Then, at the start of 2016, Trump said he was working on it, saying the information was approved and, "very beautiful." He went from that to downplaying their impact.

TRUMP: You can't tell anything from tax returns.

Oh, maybe there's something in his tax returns, theirs nothing.

TODD: Then, what's become a familiar deflection. Trump says a long- running IRS audit of his taxes prevents him revealing his returns.

TRUMP: I can't do it until the audit is finished. It would be crazy to give the papers before the audit is completed.

TODD: He got defensive about it when speaking to ABC.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your tax rate?

TRUMP: It's none of your business. You'll see it when I release it.

TODD: And he's floated theories denied by the IRS on why he's being audited.

TRUMP: Maybe because of religion, maybe because of something else, maybe because I'm doing this although this is just ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean religion?

TRUMP: Well, maybe because of the fact that I'm a strong Christian, and I feel strongly about it, and maybe there's a bias.

DAVID NAKAMURA, REPORTER, THE WASTHINGTON POST: I think he's demagoguing that issue. I mean I think he's trying to distract from what's really going on, when he's defensive sometimes, he reacts irrationally.

TODD: To all the deflections and excuses, still, no release of tax returns from Donald Trump. Is he legally prevented from releasing them during an audit?

ROBERT KOVACEV, FORMER JUSTICE DEPT. TAX DIVISION ATTORNEY: There's no legal reason why Mr. Trump couldn't release his tax returns now. It's perfectly allowable for him to do so. TODD: Is Trump really being audited by the IRS?

TRUMP: You know, I get audited every single year.

TODD: Trump has offered a letter from his tax lawyers saying to him in March saying, "Examinations for returns in the 2009 year and forward are ongoing. But is there a letter from the IRS to Trump specifically saying he's being audited? The IRS says it's not allowed to tell us. Trump's campaign and his lawyers aren't telling us either. And the political pressure on the GOP nominee is building.

NAKAMURA: I think you're going to keep seeing the Democrats continue to hit this because they do sense there is a vulnerability here.

TODD: Trump's tax returns might confirm whether he's as rich as he says he is, gives as much to charity as he says he does, and might reveal who he does business with, where his interests lie. Still, one prominent tax attorney says he would advise Trump not to release his taxes while he's being audited.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thousands, millions of people would be looking at it and would probably see transactions that are complicated and perfectly legitimate but look that looks strange to someone who's not trained in the tax field. And that would raise a public outcry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Trump could get around that. He could release other basic figures without releasing his actual tax returns. He could release figures on his adjusted income, on his charitable contributions. He could come out and say what his tax rate is. Now we asked the Trump campaign and his campaign attorneys if they could give us that information. They declined, saying, again, that the nominee is undergoing what they call, "routine audit," and he'll release those returns when that's an all done. Poppy.

HARLOW: Yeah, we just haven't seen any evidence of the audit, no audit letter has been presented from the Trump camp. We'll keep asking for it. Thank you, Brian Todd.

Coming up, we're watching Fairfield, Connecticut where at any moment Donald Trump will take the stage. We'll take you there live, stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:27:58] HARLOW: Welcome back. Donald Trump is set to take the stage at a rally, a packed rally there in Fairfield, Connecticut tonight. Will he double down on the claim he made yesterday in Pennsylvania, that the only way he'll lose that swing state is if he's, "cheated out of it." He pointed to voter fraud. Let's wait -- let's hear what Donald Trump has to say.

And as we do let's bring in CNN politics reporter Tom LoBianco, he joins me in Washington. All right, so we're waiting to hear from Trump at any moment. We'll bring that to our viewers when he does speak.

But, I want to address an issue that happened today on our air, on CNN. Trump campaign national spokesperson Katrina Pierson was on earlier. And she said something that was just not true. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATRINA PIERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON: And Barack Obama went into Afghanistan, creating another problem. It was Hillary Clinton and her incidents in Libya which is also a reckless decision to create that vacuum. They armed the rebels. And they're even funding them now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, so you're saying Barack Obama took the country into Afghanistan post-2009, is that what you're saying?

PIERSON: What I'm saying is the policies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- that was Obama's war, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. So, Pierson later acknowledged that the mission in Afghanistan was not launched on President Obama's watch, because it began, as we know, in 2001, following the 9/11 attacks. But Tom, when you add that on to what she said just a few weeks ago to my colleague Wolf Blitzer, blaming the death of Captain Humayun Khan, who is killed in Iraq in 2004 on President Obama, before he took office, it is concerning. Listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERSON: Surely you can understand the confusion considering how Donald Trump never voted for the Iraqi War, Hillary Clinton did. And then she didn't support the troops to have what they need. It was under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that changed the rules of engagement that probably cost his life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So, look at this big picture with me, Tom.

[19:30:00] When a national spokesperson continues to make these types of high-profile errors, does this play into the fear expressed by fellow Republicans that the Trump campaign suffers from a lack of Discipline at times?

LOBIANCO: Well absolutely. Because, you know, fundamentally what this does, it creates a credibility problem. You know, you can have a misstep, a stumble here and there. But this is the same thing twice effectively, blaming Barack Obama for something that he was not initially responsible for.

You know it's worth pointing out of course that he did get more involved in Afghanistan. And that was something he campaigned on. At that point he was saying that was the forgotten war that we need to be dealing with that. So, it would be accurate to put it that way. But to kind of blame everything on him and to do that repeatedly, inaccurately, what that does is it creates a credibility problem. And it creates unnecessary problems for a campaign that really, really, really does not need those right now.

HARLOW: I think the question though, becomes, Tom, does it matter to his supporters?

LOBIANCO: Well, you know, if you look at the base, and this is the bigger problem that Trump has right now, right? If you look at the core base of supporters, there's probably not an awful lot of concern with something like that. You know, we've seen a lot of anger at us, the media. He spurs a lot of that, consistently says we're inaccurate about things, et cetera, and that's fine, politicians do that.

But, what he needs to be looking at now is moderates, independents. Everyone he needs to win the general election. And those are the folks who are concerned with stuff like this. So, you can't keep on playing to the base, you've got to broaden out. And, you know, we've said this many times, his window is rapidly closing on doing this, and having surrogates out there who are not on message does not help him.

HARLOW: So what do you think the strategy is then, Tom, when you talk about reaching out to independents, to moderates, to take the stage in Pennsylvania last night and say, the only way I'm going to lose this state, which he's trailing Clinton in by double digits now, the only way I'm going to lose the state is if I'm cheating out of it. I mean pointing to voter fraud that he has zero evidence of.

LOBIANCO: Well, strategically he's trying to inoculate himself from this. But that's kind of the -- I mean, if you take it that way, what he's basically doing is giving up. Saying -- he says it's rigged, that the system is rigged, and that -- that if he loses it's because it's rigged. He's trying to insulate himself here, which is a problem, because the -- a huge problem, because the election hasn't happened yet. And, you know, what you really need is, you need a ground game in these swing states. We've seen a little bit of some talk about that, about them trying to work with the Republican Party, the RNC on building that out.

You need to be in battle mode. And what he's doing there is he's on the defense. That's not how you win a swing state.

HARLOW: So as he does that, you have some new reporting on his running mate, Mike Pence, and the really key meetings that Pence has been having with Republican Leaders like Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush. I know he's tried to reach out to John Kasich. What is Pence trying to do here and how much can he help?

LOBIANCO: Sure. Well, you know, when I came in here, I was going to say that, you know, Governor Pence has been really the bright spot here, and in that regard he has. Of course this tax return thing, where he broke with Trump and said that he will release his tax returns, it throws a flip side on this.

You know, Pence is in a very interesting position. He is trying to help, obviously that's his job. He was recruited because he can do that. He has these longstanding relationships. He can go into an airport, right, and fly into Wisconsin and see Governor Scott Walker there and pull him aside, OK. They're colleague as governors, they have an even level relationship, they're peers. He can talk to him perhaps a little bit better than Donald Trump can. Members of the House like Steve King, he was working on Steve King from Iowa, he can speak to him as a former colleague. He spent a dozen years in the House.

That is the good side. This is where Mike Pence is succeeding and that's where the Trump people need him succeeding right now. The tax return thing today, that just -- like we're talking about earlier, it really boxes in Trump and, you know, does a lot of that good that Pence has been doing.

HARLOW: Yeah, I mean he says he'll release his tax returns before the election, and Donald Trump has made no indication that he'll do that. So it puts certainly more pressure on him. All right, Tom LoBianco, thank you, stay with me as we await Donald Trump speaking here in Fairfield, Connecticut. He's set to take the stage at any a moment. As soon as he does we'll bring it to you live.

Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:38:03] HARLOW: Welcome back. We're waiting for Donald Trump to take the stage and address his supporters, live in Fairfield, Connecticut at any moment. We'll bring that to you as soon as it happens.

On Monday foreign affairs will take front and center, they will be center staged when Trump takes the stage in a major speech planned in Ohio focusing on the fight against ISIS. The devastation in Syria right now though of course goes beyond any political speech. The suffering on the ground, the few remaining doctors left in Aleppo now sending a letter, pleading with President Obama to step in and to try to stop the bombings of the rebel-held city.

This as a chlorine gas attack is suspected this week to have killed at least three people and injured dozens more, including two children. Our global affairs correspondent Elise Labott has more on the letter and now how the White House is responding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELISE LABOTT, GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Aleppo's last remaining doctors, just 15 who remain in the besieged city, are issuing a desperate plea to President Obama, begging for a lifeline and slamming the U.S. for failing to stop the horrific bombing, writing in an open letter, "We have seen no effort on behalf of the United States, to lift the siege or even use its influence to push the parties to protect civilians."

Russian air strikes helping regime forces have decimated Aleppo. Hospitals are frequent target. The doctors write, last month there were 42 attacks on medical facilities in Syria, 15 of which are hospitals in which we work. Right now there is an attack on a medical facility every 17 hours. At this rate our medical services in Aleppo could be completely destroyed in a month, leaving 300,000 people to die. What pains us most as doctors is choosing who will live and who will die.

DR. LINA MURAD, SYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY: Imagine, you know, you're trying to work in a hospital with no clean water, no electricity, no medical supplies, and all those civilian victims, you know, coming over.

[19:40:00] LABOTT: The doctors' urgent appeal as the U.S. is investigating another poisonous gas attack in the al Zebde (ph) neighborhood of Aleppo. Chilling footage shows victims in the hospital as aid workers sift through the rubble. This man describes smelling gas and gasping for breath. The raid despite a Russian pledge to stop military action to allow for desperately needed humanitarian aid.

Last week President Obama acknowledged the challenges of trying to solve the conflict in Syria.

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: I've been wrestling with this thing now for a lot of years. There is not a meeting that I don't end by saying, is there something else we could be doing that we haven't thought of?

HARLOW: But Aleppo's doctors warn, "We do not even tears or sympathy or even prayers. We need action." That will come too late for this first responder, notorious for pulling a baby out of the rubble, and who colleagues say died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

The White House says it is working around the clock to try to and get an agreement with Russia to end the violence and allow lifesaving humanitarian aid into places like Aleppo. The doctors on the front- lines tell us by failing to stop the violence by Russia and the regime over the last six years, the United States shares some of the burden of responsibility.

Elise Labott, CNN, the State Department.

HARLOW: Wow, such important reporting, Elise, thank you for that tonight.

All right, coming up, we are continuing to watch Fairfield, Connecticut. At any moment Donald Trump will take the stage. We will bring you there live as soon as it happens. Stay with us.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. In this week's "American Opportunity," the battle over childcare, paid leave, and the votes (ph) of working parents who desperately need both. [19:45:06] In many cases, many parents need as much help as they can get. The average cost of childcare for an infant, more than $17,000 a year. That's nearly $13,000 a year for a four year old, that's the average folks. If you're living here in New York City or another big city, it is a lot more than that.

Also, family leave, a huge issue right now. If you look back to the '90s, the 1993 family medical leave act guarantees up to 12 weeks of time off after the birth of a child or to take care of a sick family member, and your job is protected. What's key though, it does not guarantee that you were paid for it. The United States is now the only developed nation not to guarantee paid family leave.

Childcare and family leave were front and center in the presidential candidates' economic speeches this week. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: My plan will also help reduce the cost of childcare by allowing parents to fully deduct the average cost of childcare spending from taxes.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Paid family leave won't only make life easier for moms and dads. It will also keep skilled, talented Americans in the workforce and grow our economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So Hillary Clinton supports 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents with workers getting at least two-thirds of their current pay up to a limit. She also wants to limit childcare expenses to 10 percent of someone's income. Donald Trump says we should make parents cost for childcare fully deductible from their taxes.

Let's talk about what this would really mean for you, with CNN digital correspondent Kelly Wallace; also with me Jean Sahadi, senior writer for CNNMoney.com; and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. Thank you all for being with me.

Look, as a new parent, I can attest to the extraordinary cost of childcare. And frankly, I'm lucky -- we're all lucky to work for places where we get paid time off. This is not the reality for so many Americans, and they need it. So Jean, just go through what a Trump presidency and proposal would do for working parents, what a Clinton presidency and proposal would do.

JEAN SAHADI, SENIOR WRITER, CNNMONEY.COM: Sure. Trump's proposal is still a work in progress, the campaign told me. But he would like to allow families to deduct the equivalent of the average cost of childcare in their state from their taxes. If you don't end up owing income taxes, as many low income families don't, and they need help the most, the campaign says you can deduct it from your payroll taxes.

Secretary Clinton has made three main proposals, and you mentioned them. One is guaranteed paid family leave for 12 weeks. That would give you up to two-thirds of your weekly wages. The other is guaranteeing that your childcare cost would not exceed 10 percent of family income. One of the things Clinton has not specified yet is what will the ceiling be on income?

So in other words, if I make $1 million, don't tell me you're going to pay me 10 percent in childcare costs on that.

HARLOW: What's important is that the candidates are talking about it.

SAHADI: Yes, it's huge.

HARLOW: I think devil, Ron Brownstein, is always in the details when it comes to how they're going to pay for this, right? Is this something that voters vote on, Ron?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well this campaign, I think, has not been driven primarily by the issue today. It really has been driven by a kind of broader set of values about whether you are comfortable with or resistant to the demographic changes that America is undergoing, and also, you know, the fitness, the qualifications for president. That is what has been front and center.

But, I think Donald Trump coming out with a proposal on this, even though it has the limits that you just talked about is a rare example of them kind of responding to an electoral problem that he's facing. You know, he is facing a significant problem, particularly with college educated white women, and, you know, by structuring this as a deduction rather than a credit, it kind of like pull the veil back a little bit about who this is aimed at, aimed at much more upper income, much more valuable, as you know, to the upper income than lower income families.

But nonetheless, it is a rare moment where he's trying to speak to a portion of the electorate that has been resistant to him rather than reinforcing and doubling down among those who have been with him from the start.

HARLOW: It's interesting, because one of the criticisms of -- if you make it a tax deduction, will the family has to pay upfront and then you have to wait for tax time to get it back, if you will. Kelly Wallace, to you, I mean you cover parent issues around the clock. Is it wrong to frame this as a women's issue?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: It is absolutely wrong. I mean you are now seeing, you see polls, when you ask working dads and working moms, are they having a difficult time balancing work and family? Guess what? Almost the same number of working fathers say, yes, it is not just difficult, it's very difficult.

You are seeing more fathers pressed for paid family leave for fathers, for dads in talking about these issues that are important. So it is not any longer a women's issue. And you can see this even when you look at the polls in terms of looking at men and women in the issues that are of concern for them, in this election. The economy is up there but also an equal number of men and women are looking at health care too.

[19:50:05] So these are equally important to men and women.

HARLOW: Yeah, and it's important to approach it equally for men and women. Jean, I think it's -- when you dig into what we have now, the Family Medical Leave Act, it only applies to about 60 percent of Americans because companies that have 50 or fewer employees, they're exempt.

SAHADI: Right.

HARLOW: So, some of the lowest income folks who are working at bodega or a mom and pop shop, they don't even get the unpaid time off guaranteed.

SAHADI: Right, and one stat that's so upsetting is that, about 25 percent of women who have a baby has to go back to work within two weeks because they cannot afford to take time off. Imagine how many fathers have to go back or never get to take that time.

HARLOW: Right.

SAHADI: That's kind of heartbreaking, because that is a really important time to be with the baby.

HARLOW: Kelly, why is the U.S. so far behind on this? Seriously, why is it the United States is the only developed country not to have paid leave?

WALLACE: That is a question people have been asking. And they're trying to sort of say, it should be embarrassing that the United States is the only industrialized nation not to do this. I do think that advocates are seeing a lot of momentum. We are now seeing four states, New York came out this year, so it's not New York, Rhode Island, and California leading the way in terms of providing paid family leave for their employees. We got San Francisco passing measure, the first city in the country to offer paid leave.

So there seems to be more momentum at the state level and also Poppy, as you know too Jean, at the private sector level. We are seeing company after company, especially companies in Silicon Valley that are trying to hold on to talent, offering these incredibly generous paid family leave policies. So, it does seem as if the issue is getting more attention and momentum.

HARLOW: And bipartisan support.

WALLACE: And bipartisan support. It's just a big question though of how you pay for it. Like if you're going to make a federal mandate of paid leave for all workers, ultimately how is that going to be paid?

HARLOW: And I think, will it apply to those small companies where you have fewer working. You can't forget about those people and they need to be included ...

WALLACE: They're the ones who need it the most.

HARLOW: Exactly, absolutely. And Ron Brownstein to you, look, in terms of the best messenger for this, just think back to the RNC and Ivanka's speech, Ivanka Trump's speech. How helpful do you think she could be to her father on this front?

BROWNSTEIN: Helpful to a point. I mean ultimately it does come down to the candidate and whether the candidate is persuasive on the issues that they champion. And there's no question that large course of Americans feel that today, it is simply impossible to succeed at both work and home. And you know, this debate has been caught up in two big ideological fights over the years, the role of government. And one of the reasons we don't have paid family leave is because we're elected to mandate it in the U.S. relative to other countries that are more comfortable with an assertive government role.

And it's also been frankly caught up in the debate about the role of women, and women moving into the workforce, but that is, you know, there's an issue that we're kind of -- as on the demographic change. The change has already happened, the only issues is really weather or not we are going to choose to adopt to it, and whatever the limitations, and there are many, of Donald Trump's proposal, his step in this direction is a sign that more Republicans, like Marco Rubio, are going to have to grapple with this as well, and that could be prefigure action in the next couple years no matter who is in the White House.

HARLOW: Yeah absolutely. Ron, thank you. Jean, Kelly, we appreciate it. And important discussion we'll continue on the show for sure.

Quick break. We'll be right back.

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[19:56:39] HARLOW: And before we go, tonight, Fidel Castro turns 90 today, and the Cuban government now says that he has survived hundreds of assassination attempt, from an exploding car to a Mafia hit. Our Patrick Hoffman has more from Havana.

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PATRICK HOFFMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How many people have tried to kill Fidel Castro? According to Cuban intelligence officers there have been over 600 attempts on Castro's life. And while that number is impossible to confirm, we know from a U.S. government report that both the American Mafia and the CIA tried to do Castro in, and there have also been scores of Cuban exiles that tried to kill Castro.

The plots have varied widely from attempted poisoning of Castro's cigars, his wet suit, and even a chocolate milkshake that Castro was about to drink. Assassins have tried to shoot Castro, blow him up, and make his beard fall out.

According to Cuban officials, no other leader in modern times has faced so many assassination attempts. Castro is now retired but remains heavily protected. He says that he never expected to live to see 90 years old. And that's something that his many enemies probably agree with him on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Patrick, thank you so much. And this week on "DECLASSIFIED," the dangerous role of U.S. undercover agents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the early inquiries we got from an Iranian arms deal, a guy named Amir.

He asked for a very wide range of military components. And some actually, we assessed as being potentially for nuclear weapons purposes.

This guy is clearly bad news, so we needed to start a relationship with him in order to make a case like this happen.

Artibelli used to send us request for, I mean hundreds of requests for quotation, and we were constantly providing him quotes. For the most part he was not, you know, closing the deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a lot of instances where he committed through e-mail that he was going to procure something. We would provide banking information and the money would never come.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We almost had nothing from him and largely wrote him off because he wasn't really dealing with us, so we weren't sure if he got spooked, he saw something he didn't like, which happens, or he is just flighty and didn't want to deal with us anymore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a never ending learning curve. Running an undercover business is a tedious process because we're really not business people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're trying to figure out, are we don't things the right way, because we're not in this trade. What we are is pretending to be in this trade.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that's why we needed to learn more about the illegal international arms market.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, we needed help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Don't miss CNN'S original series "DECLASSIFIED." That new episode tomorrow tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern only right here on CNN. But coming up tonight right after this, a "DECLASSIFIED" marathon ahead of tomorrow night's episode.

Thank you so much for being with me tonight. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. I will see you back here tomorrow. Have a great evening.