Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

The Final Countdown; Electoral Map Gives Edge to Clinton; Iraqis Trying to Liberate Mosul; Blast in Turkey Kills 9; Huge Crowds Celebrate the Cubs. Aired 12-12:30a ET

Aired November 5, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- first sexual assault is between the ages of 7 and 11 years old. Those stories used to undo me, they're so horrific. And the global issues of human trafficking are so big, it doesn't have to be the end of the story. It's a big part of the story but it's not the end. It's just a chapter in it.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You can vote for Becca or any of your favorite top 10 heroes now at cnnheroes.com.

That is it for us tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm going to tell you, I'm going to see you right back here at a special time on Sunday night at 10 o'clock. So tune in then. Good night.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: (voice-over) Down to the wire, with three days until the U.S. presidential election, the campaign trash talking is increasing but so is the star power.

Iraqi forces continue to push deeper into Eastern Mosul and now they're finding children in their crosshairs.

And what a sight in Chicago as 5 million people gathered to celebrate the best team in baseball.

Hello, I'm Cyril Vanier, and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

VANIER: So three days to go, just three days, the final countdown to one of the most contentious U.S. elections in recent memory. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are criss-crossing the battleground states in a frantic push this weekend.

Both are trying to convince American voters to give them the keys to the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Imagine having a president who demeans women and mocks the disabled, who insults African Americans and Latinos and Muslims, who personally engages in busting unions and preventing people from having the right to bargain collectively.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If she were to win, it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis. This will go on for years, folks. If she ever got into the Oval Office, Hillary and her special interests would rob our country blind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: And a new FOX News poll shows Clinton with a 2-point lead over Trump, 45 percent to 43 percent. That is within the survey's margin of error. However, our related CNN Poll of Polls, which includes those FOX numbers, shows Clinton ahead by 5 points. That's 47 percent to 42 percent in the CNN Poll of Polls.

However, our electoral map has her slipping just below that magic number of 270 electoral college votes needed to get to the White House.

Clinton pulled out the star power to rally Friday night in Cleveland, Ohio, Jay Z and Beyonce headlined a concert to get young voters excited.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

VANIER (voice-over): Beyonce and her backup dancers wore pantsuits in Clinton's honor. The singer says she wants her daughter to grow up in a country where women do not have limits.

BEYONCE, SINGER: Less than 100 years ago, women did not have the right to vote. Look how far we've come, from having no voice to being on the brink of making history.

JAY Z, ENTERTAINER: I would like to introduce to you the next President of the United States (INAUDIBLE).

VANIER (voice-over): Clinton told the crowd she needs them to help crack the glass ceiling once and for all. Now Chance the Rapper and Big Sean also performed, other celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Mark Anthony, Katy Perry and Jennifer Lopez have been lending their fame during the campaign as well. That's something that Donald Trump says he does not need.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I hear we set a new record for this building. And, by the way, I didn't have to bring JLo or Jay Z, the only way she gets anybody. I'm here all by myself. I am here all by myself. Just me, no guitar, no piano, no nothing. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: All right. Sara Murray has more from the Trump campaign trail and his strategy to flip key battleground states.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 2016's toxic presidential contest, led by two deeply unpopular candidates, is coming to a close in fitting fashion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary Clinton is under FBI investigation again after her e-mails were found on pervert Anthony Weiner's laptop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did Hillary end up filthy rich? Pay-to-play politics.

MURRAY: Donald Trump amplifying his latest barrage of negative ads on the campaign trail.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think she's unstable. She's trigger-happy.

MURRAY: Despite no new information from the FBI, Trump is still tearing into Hillary Clinton --

[00:05:00]

MURRAY: -- over her e-mail server and insisting she'll eventually face criminal charges.

TRUMP: How can Hillary manage this country when she can't even manage her e-mails? Did you ever see -- hey, folks, let's forget all of the stuff. What a mess. All she had to do was follow the rules. Unbelievable. And now she's going to run the country. She'll be under investigation for years.

MURRAY: All part of his final push to convince voters he's the fresh face and she's the face of corruption.

TRUMP: She's likely to be under investigation for a long time, concluding in a criminal trial. Our president. America deserves a government that can go to work on day one and get it done.

MURRAY: With the polls tightening, the GOP nominee is campaigning today in Ohio, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania and aiming to drive up his election day vote in key battlegrounds.

TRUMP: We have so many great polls. But you have to get out and vote on November 8th.

MURRAY: Trump's sprint to the finish still taking shape, but the GOP nominee will campaign this weekend in six battleground states and is likely to wedge in more along the way. But stops in North Carolina and New Hampshire planned Monday. His campaign continuing to be a family affair. As Donald Trump Jr. hits the trail in Arizona and New Hampshire, while Eric Trump barnstorms Michigan.

MURRAY (on camera): Now even though the polls show Donald Trump trailing here in Pennsylvania, the margins have tightened. And this is a state you're going to see him come back to before Election Day because it's a state with no early voting. So it's a strategic move to come here and try to rev up his voters and convince them to turn out on November 8th which is exactly what we heard from him on Friday night -- Sara Murray, CNN, Hershey, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: National polls show Hillary Clinton with a modest lead over Donald Trump ahead of Tuesday's election. But the final outcome will depend on just a handful of battleground states as you well know. John King takes us through the electoral map.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So we're into the final weekend. Hillary Clinton at 268, Donald Trump at 204 in the electoral votes. The gold states are the tossups. Donald Trump is in the hunt. Advantage Hillary Clinton.

Let's ask this question. How does she look compared to President Obama four years ago? Is she in the position the president was in when he won a big victory back in 2012. Well, let's look at some way to judge. First way to judge is the national polls. That's much better than where the president was four years ago. A lot of people forget this because of the outcome, the finish on Tuesday. But heading into the final weekend, this race was a dead heat, 47 percent to 47 percent. That's the national perspective.

But we pick presidents by states. So let's go back to the map and think about the key battleground states. Compare Clinton then -- Obama then, excuse me and Clinton now. Let's look at the states. In states where Clinton is running just about even with where the president four years ago, they include Nevada and Arizona, they include these important blue Midwestern battlegrounds, Wisconsin and Michigan and they include one of our tossup states, New Hampshire.

Now the gold states are tossups heading into this final weekend. President Obama won one, two, three and Nevada, four of these states. Hillary Clinton in the same position the president was heading into the final weekend. She thinks she can win all four of these, too. We'll see what Tuesday brings. But she heads into the weekend about even with four years ago.

These are the states Clinton has to worry about. She's underperforming President Obama significantly in big battleground Ohio and a smaller but important Midwest state, Iowa. We lean these to Donald Trump because he is running much better than Mitt Romney did four years ago. He has a lead heading into the final weekend. Clinton is underperforming Obama in those two states and just by a bit in Pennsylvania. She still has a lead in Pennsylvania, it's just not quite as big as President Obama's was heading into the final weekend four years ago. But even though she's underperforming in those, she's over performing, she's stronger than the president was heading into the final weekend in Colorado by a little bit. In Virginia by a bit. And significantly in North Carolina and Florida. This is very important. President Obama trailed in North Carolina in 2012 heading into the final weekend. He trailed in Florida by a bit heading into the final weekend.

He ended up winning Florida by a tiny margin. The closest race in the country, state by state perspective. He lost North Carolina a bit. But again, he was trailing heading into the final weekend. One of those two, she's ahead in both of them.

And that's a big deal as we go back and look at the map and say, how does Clinton get to the finish line?

How does she compare to the president four years ago?

Well, she thinks she's going to hold these blues up here. She hopes to turn Ohio. Let's see what happens. We still lean that one in favor of Trump.

There's some talk in the Democrats they can pull back in Iowa. We're going to leave that one leaning Donald Trump. We'll see what she does on Tuesday. But significantly, they believe especially because of early voting they can win out in Nevada. Most Republicans in Nevada are starting to think that, too. That would get Clinton over the finish line. That's enough. But they also think again because she's in better position than the president was four years ago, they think she can possibly win both of these.

And they still think, even though this one has become very close at the end and Trump is closing here, they think they can win that. If that were to happen, if Clinton could win Florida and win North Carolina and add New Hampshire, that puts her in the ballpark of where the president was four years ago.

Now is that guaranteed?

Absolutely not. Donald Trump is fighting in --

[00:10:00]

KING: -- those states to the end. But if you're asking the question, how does she look now compared to the president then, especially because of these two states as she enters the weekend, sure. In a contested race with Donald Trump, but confident the outcome will look a little bit just like it did in 2012.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Josh Kraushaar joins me now, political editor for "National Journal."

Josh, is it fair to say that Donald Trump has the momentum, given what's happened over the last week, that he still has that momentum three days ahead of the votes?

JOSH KRAUSHAAR, "NATIONAL JOURNAL": It's fair to say he had the momentum, but the race has now stabilized somewhat, in what was about a 6- or 7-point Hillary Clinton lead of two weeks ago, now looks like about a 3- or 4-point Hillary Clinton advantage.

So you're seeing the races tighten in all the swing states; you're seeing Donald Trump moving ahead in these big battleground states like Ohio and Iowa. But he still needs to get a little more momentum to really get to that 270 electoral vote magic number to win this presidential election.

VANIER: If I look at the CNN Poll of Polls, the numbers -- sure, the race has tightened, but the numbers are still pretty much in favor of Hillary Clinton. And it's pretty clear, I mean, 47 for Clinton, 42 for Trump. That's still a 5 percentage point difference. And of course that varies slightly from poll to poll.

But you're telling me, Clinton is pretty much not quite in the same position that she was in 10 days ago but still in a very strong position.

KRAUSHAAR: She's cautiously optimistic, the problem, what makes the Democrats worry is that a lot of these so-called Blue Wall states, these Democratic states that are getting a little bit tighter, are having her ahead but by margins that are within the margin of error.

So Pennsylvania, Michigan and even Ohio, those are three states she's going to be spending quite a bit of time in or has spent a lot of time in this last week and the race is close. These are states that President Obama won twice, fairly comfortably; they're states that John Kerry won in 2004 and they're uncomfortably close for Hillary Clinton.

She's still ahead in many of these Midwestern battlegrounds. But the margins are a little too close for comfort for Democrats.

VANIER: And Donald Trump has been a slightly more disciplined candidate over the last few days than he had been over the last few months.

Do you think that might help him?

Or is it too little too late?

KRAUSHAAR: It certainly is helping him not make mistakes and he even was reading on his teleprompter, saying, you know, stay on message, don't lose your cool, Donald, knowing that it's so important for him to be disciplined in the final week of his campaign.

He knows that the race is as winnable as its ever been. He's as close as he's ever been in the national polls. He's still behind.

But for the first time, he's got to feel a little bit more optimistic about his chances certainly than he was a couple weeks ago, when he was talking about rigged elections and the prospect of people rigging the results.

So he's definitely more on message, he's definitely sounding a little bit more of an optimistic, positive tone. But he still has a little bit of catching up to do so we may be in for a long Election Night. And Hillary Clinton can still feel fairly comfortable with the lead. But it's getting closer than it has been in quite some time.

VANIER: What about the undecideds?

Three days away from the vote, are they decided now?

KRAUSHAAR: There haven't been too many undecided voters but I guess when you have two candidates that are so deeply disliked by the majority of Americans, you're going to have some people that might go back and forth in the final few days.

The one problem for Hillary Clinton, she was actually viewed as positively as ever as she has this whole campaign a couple weeks ago, before the FBI announced that they were looking further into her e- mails.

Now her negativity -- her negative ratings rather, have gone up back to where they were at a low point. So Hillary Clinton had a positive message two weeks ago, now she's going very negative on the campaign trail because she realizes her own favorability, her own image is going back down.

VANIER: All right, Josh Kraushaar, political editor for "National Journal," joining us from Washington. Thank you very much.

KRAUSHAAR: Thanks.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

VANIER (voice-over): And you will not miss a bit of the U.S. election, do stay with CNN for all-day coverage on Election Day, Tuesday.

Donald Trump is facing more calls to fire the man in charge of preparing his potential transition to the White House.

On Friday, two former aides of New Jersey governor Chris Christie were found guilty on all charges in connection to a scandal known as Bridgegate. Lanes of a key bridge were closed in 2013, causing a massive traffic jam. Prosecutors say it was done to punish a local mayor who didn't endorse Christie.

Witness testimony implicates the governor but he is denying any wrongdoing. Now CNN reached out to the Trump campaign for comment but we have not received a response.

Coming up, a U.S. airstrike deals a huge blow to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Details coming up next.

Plus, the battle for Mosul: Iraqi troops are inside the ISIS stronghold. But the militants are using a chilling tactic to fight back.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:15:00]

VANIER: Right now Iraqi forces are trying to drive ISIS out of neighborhoods in Eastern Mosul. We want to show you a detailed map of Iraq's second largest city. You get a sense of where this is happening of the geography.

You see Iraq's counter terrorism units were the first to get to Mosul and push inside the city limits. So they're entering from the east, going through these areas right now, headed toward the center. But they're nowhere near the center, which is the purple part on the map, on the other side of the Tigris River, where most of the important government buildings are located.

That's not where it's happening right now, it's all happening right here. The battle is going house to house to clear those neighborhoods. And remember, this is all happening in areas where there are still thousands of civilians living there.

CNN's Nic Robertson has the latest on the battle for Mosul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The Iraqi army says they've gone into about six different neighborhoods on the eastern side of Mosul. They say that they're facing fierce resistance, that they were using airstrikes earlier in the day to target ISIS positions.

They've been using artillery as well. For their part, ISIS, the army says, have been using rooftops of buildings, where civilians were in the buildings, using those rooftops as sniper positions to fire down on the army.

Also they say ISIS has been launching mortar attacks on the army units as they move forward, those mortars, small tubes which fire artillery sort of almost vertically upwards and come down a couple of streets nearby. That has been causing civilian casualties as well.

But perhaps the army, in one of the neighborhoods, the army faced its biggest threat of the day and that was suicide bombers, two suicide bombers, targeting the convoy, two Humvees destroyed, three damaged. Three soldiers were injured in that particular attack, seven wounded.

And in that one neighborhood, the army quite literally had to say, we're going to pull back, we're going to reassess. So ISIS putting up a very, very tough resistance, the U.N. now reporting as well that not only is ISIS forcing civilians to become human shields in some situations, they have been trying to get boys as young as 9 years old, take them away from their families and use them to fight on the front lines. Of course ISIS in the past has been training its own young fighters,

the cubs of the caliphate, they call them. Now they are stealing children as young as 9 years old, young boys, and sending them potentially to the front lines -- Nic Robertson, CNN, Irbil, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: The Pentagon says a U.S. airstrike has killed one of the top leaders of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. It says Farouq al-Qahtani died in a precision strike on October 23rd in Kunar province in northeastern Afghanistan.

The Pentagon says al-Qahtani was trying to set up safe havens for Al Qaeda in the country and was a key plotter of attacks against the U.S.

Turkey is blaming the Kurdistan Workers' Party for a blast that killed nine people in the city of Diyarbakir on Friday. According to state- run media, a car bomb targeted a police station, killing seven civilians and two police officers. And Turkey's prime minister says --

[00:20:00]

VANIER: -- 100 people were wounded during that attack. The blast came after more than a dozen lawmakers from a pro-Kurdish political party were detained by authorities. State-run media says members of the HDP -- that's the People's Democratic Party -- have been detained as part of a terror investigation. Ankara has been cracking down on dissidents since a coup attempt since last July.

A celebration more than a century in the making: millions of Cubs fans pour into the streets of Chicago to cheer on their World Series champions.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

VANIER: A clash of air masses will create the possibility of some severe weather across parts of Europe into Saturday. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us now with the latest from the International Weather Center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VANIER: Do stay with us. I know you like your sports. Cubs fans are still feeling the high from their historic World Series win. An estimated 5 million people --

[00:25:00]

VANIER: -- that's right, 5 million -- swarmed the streets of Chicago for Friday's celebration parade. Ryan Young reports -- from Chicago, of course. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the biggest American sports stories ever, the Cubs, who have waited 108 years to finally win a championship, well, now the city gets a chance to celebrate like no other time.

In fact, if you look behind us, fans have been pouring in to see their team. They have been doing this for hours. Of course, not everyone gets a chance to get a World Series ticket. So for many fans, this was their chance to be able to show their appreciation for the team that they love so much.

And I can tell you, this city loves its Cubs. They even turned the river blue. You look at the crowd, you look at the fans and you could hear the players' appreciation for the city and their team.

BEN ZOBRIST, WORLD SERIES MVP: I've been blessed far more than I ever deserve or expected in this game. God has given a lot to me. And I'm so thankful for that. He gave me the opportunity to hold a trophy just like that last year and hoist it up.

And I thought, how can I ever top this?

And then I started thinking about Chicago. I started thinking about Wrigley Field, 108 years, and I said, I want to be a part of that. So I literally, I promise you, I prayed during free agency last year to be a Chicago Cub.

And thankfully, God and the Cubs -- thank you, Theo -- made it happen. And I embarked on a journey with these guys, to bring this elusive championship to the North Side.

YOUNG: So of course in America, there is a big election next week. But right now Cubs fans are under the red, white and blue of Cubby Blue because they are loving the fact that this team has brought the city together.

If you look out there, there are generations of people, folks who love the Cubs and they're holding hands and standing next to each other, celebrating this victory. In fact, there's already talk about next year's Cubs team, because they're already favored to win the World Series again -- reporting in Chicago, Ryan Young, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: For one Cubs fan, skipping the celebration was simply not an option. Kayla Adams had class on Friday.

So what does she do?

She e-mailed her criminal justice professor to tell him that she would be going to the parade, not to her class. The professor responded by saying that he admired Kayla for being so dedicated to criminal justice that she was spending her time seeing how the Chicago police would handle large crowds. He also told her to be safe.

All right. Thanks for watching. I'm Cyril Vanier. I'll be back with the headlines after the break. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)