MARIA-01
For Yemen; Putin: Russia Is Not Trying To Influence U.S. Presidential
Election; Long Voting Lines In Georgia; $700k Federal Food Study; Rocket
Launches In Virginia; Dylan Dodges Nobel Academy; Disney & Dole Team Up;
Getting Kids To Eat Healthy; Clinton Bombshell; Martha Stewart Coming Up.
Aired 6:30-7am ET>
Suicide Bomber; Surgery; Airstrikes; Humanitarian Aid; Ceasefire; Yemen;
Putin; Russia; Nobel Prize; Nobel Academy; Disney; Dole; Rocket; Georgia>
MARIA BARTIROMO, FBN ANCHOR: Good Tuesday morning, everybody. Welcome back. I'm Maria Bartiromo, it is Tuesday, October 18th. Your top stories 6:30 a.m. on the east coast. Election Day three weeks away from today. Voter registration ends today in eight states. Many polls already open for early voting and some stations slammed with long lines already. We will show you, coming up. Plus, the battle for Mosul, the fight is being streamed live on the internet as the Iraqi forces made progress against ISIS. The republican ticket weigh in on the battle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, she failed to negotiate an agreement with Iraq.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: How stupid are our people. Can you imagine the great General George Patton and General MacArthur? I really had a lot of respect. You know what they're doing, right? They're spinning in their grave. I used to wonder why they don't go in, but I meant like quietly bump, right? Surprise. Remember they used to call it the element of surprise. Now, our element of surprise is in four months, we will be attacking Mosul.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: A closer look on the war on terror coming up. Your tax dollars hard at work or put to waste, the controversy after the government doled out nearly one million dollars to study food on social media. We'll tell you about it.
Looking at the global markets rally today, its earnings have come in largely above expectations, Futures actually pointing to a pretty good gain this morning, about 70 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. NASDAQ looking strongly as well, up 28 points. We've got Netflix soaring this morning. In Europe, gains across the board as well, as you see, the major average is up between one and one and a quarter percent up the Eurozone. In Asia overnight, stocks higher there. The Shanghai Composite and the Hang Seng, the best performers up at one and a half percent a piece. Bob Dylan staying silent. The Nobel committee giving up on trying to reach the newly named Nobel laureate after five days of trying to reach Bob Dylan to give him that price.
Well, the battle in Mosul ongoing. It's 75 square miles of territory regained by coalition forces yesterday. As many as nine villages were taken from ISIS controlled. The fight also making its way to social media. It is being streamed live on Facebook. Soldier holding flags wincing at gunshots and smoke can all be seen right there live. There's also audio commentary on the feed, however, it is only in Arabic. I want to bring in retired four-star general and Fox News Military Analyst, General Jack Keane. General, good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.
JACK KEANE, RETIRED FOUR-STAR U.S. GENERAL: Good to see you, Maria.
BARTIROMO: This takes me back to when I first started in the business, and I was at CNN when CNN was doing what nobody else was doing, and that is covering the war in Iraq live on television. Here we have it being streamed on the internet, on Facebook. What are your thoughts?
KEANE: Well, it's the reality of what we have in modern broadcast, that's for sure. As long as people are wanting to go out on that battlefield and share those dangers. Certainly, technology has been there for years to be able to transmit it. I think in time viewers will find that it really doesn't have the sort of fanatic action-based scenes that you see in a Hollywood movie, but nonetheless, the longer you look at it, as you realize, these are real people, these are real bullets and certainly lives at risk, and some of them will obviously actually fall right in front of the viewing audience.
BARTIROMO: It's pretty extraordinary actually to watch it happen as it happening. So, general, how do you characterize day one of the attempt to take back Mosul?
KEANE: It's a good day. As you mentioned in the introduction, nine villages taken by the Peshmerga and towns, about three by Iraqi Army. They moved about miles into ISIS territory. This is phase one, Maria. What they are trying to do is encircle the city, except for the western part, which they're going to permit ISIS to use that as an escape route in to Syria. So, they're encircling north, east and south, and that's what is taking place in phase one, and then the actual phase two, the decisive action will be entering the city itself. They'll use the Iraqi Army, the counter-terrorism unit that we saw so successfully in Fallujah and Ramadi. And they'll also bring in some Sunni travel forces to participate in that assault in the inner city. What we don't know, Maria, is whether ISIS will stay and fight in the city, what they have done in the past fight for a period of time and then withdraw most of the forces? We also don't know how the people will react? Most of them welcomed ISIS to be frank about it when they came, because they were so sick of the Shia-based Maliki government. But over the last two years, the tyranny of ISIS has had a major impact on them and the Iraqi government is hoping that they will support the Iraqi assault and not support ISIS. That remains to be seen.
BARTIROMO: Yeah, it's interesting what you say, because the people were initially welcoming ISIS. It's sort of, you've got your enemy fighting with your friends' enemy. One of my panellist (INAUDIBLE) earlier said, "Look, you've got the Kurds and Turks working together. How is this going to play out when you've got enemies working together and we know that they really - they're on different sides?
KEANE: Well, much of the - of the challenge of this, the military aspect of the Sunni will take weeks to unfold, but given the sheer manpower and technology advantage that the Iraqi army has, clearly with U.S. advisers that helped them do the planning, assisting in the execution and U.S. airpower, the end result is predictable, Mosul will be taken. But the challenge, you just put your finger on it, the real challenge will be the divisions that exist in Iraq, among Kurds, between Kurds and Iraqi government, between Sunnis and Shia. The - and the involvement of the Turks as well. This lack of political unity is a major issue and it needs to be resolved, the United States, frankly, our diplomatic effort here has been very weak by comparison to the U.S. military effort and much needs to be done to bring this country together, or the results could actually be a civil war down the road here.
BARTIROMO: Yeah, which is - which is why we keep hearing that this is going to take a long time. Day one was successful but let's not have any rose colored glasses here. This is going to take some time. Let me ask you about Yemen, the ceasefire set to last for 72 hours in Yemen as 11 coalition airstrikes destroyed two Islamic State defense positions, three vehicles while also killing 20 Islamic State militants, what are you expecting following this ceasefire?
KEANE: Well, first of all, that's a good thing because they'll be able to get some humanitarian aid there. There's been 10,000 people killed there. That's a lot of people that's a result to this war that's been going on for a year. Nothing in comparison to the 500,000 dead that have been killed in the five-year civil war certainly in Syria here. But this is all about the Iranians, Maria, and our government has not even stepped up to acknowledge that. The Iranians train and armed the Houthis who overthrew a U.S.-backed government last year, forced the evacuation of the U.S. special operation base force the closure of a U.S. embassy here. And now, they're shooting at U.S. warships. And that shooting had to be ordered by Iranians, make no mistake about that.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
KEANE: The Iranians are seeking domination of the Middle East and we are not even stepping up to acknowledge that reality.
BARTIROMO: Right. And of course, Russia inserted itself in the Syria War. Turkey is warning that the U.S. and Russia could start the next world war if they cannot solve the conflict in Syria. Your thoughts on that warning?
KEANE: Well, there's certainly is potential for conflict between the United States and Russia. And the deals with Russia's desire strategically to push out and establish a buffer to the south and a buffer to its west in Eastern Europe. They have always believed that that is the only way to protect Mother Russia. They are phobic about a Frenchman who burned their major city and a German who came within 30 miles of it during World War II. We may not think that that's a possibility but it's irrelevant because they do. And they are preoccupied with it. So much of their activity is around Russia establishing a strategic buffer. They are going to test us, for sure, in Eastern Europe and particularly in the Baltics. There is potential for conflict and that's the reality that we are facing. That is why I think the major lesson from the Cold War is you have to have deterrence. And deterrence is two things. It's one, the capabilities, they must be real, and two, you must have intent to use them. And believe me, we do not have the capabilities in Eastern Europe. And given our president and the feckless Europeans, we have no intent to use them. And that invites the aggressiveness that you see Russia unfolding in Eastern Europe and also in Syria in the Middle East.
BARTIROMO: Very aggressive and just schooling the U.S. in some ways. So, Putin has said now that he's not trying to influence the U.S. Presidential Election. He's also saying that he hopes relations between the two countries will normalize after this election. What do you think about Vladimir Putin's comments this morning? I mean, obviously, he had to make a comment, because one side keeps blaming him for trying to get involved in the U.S. election.
KEANE: Well, I believe our government, when we - when they say that the Russians are involved. We have very good forensics on - when we're receiving a cyberattack, so I think we got them. We know who did this. So, that's number one. Number two, he interfered in many elections in Eastern Europe, so the pattern is already there. MI5 is reporting to sources, and that's the intelligence agency in England, that Russia was involved in the Brexit vote. So, the fact that they're involved in U.S. election certainly is very unique for us, but not unique for them. And Russia pulls out all the tools to accomplish their national interest. And their national interest in the outcome of a U.S. election is obvious. They have picked a side and that's what's - that's what's they're about here. It's outrageous that we tolerate this. We should have been doing something about this when it first began, exposed it and then counterattack. But we've done nothing yet, we're still ringing our hands talking about it.
BARTIROMO: Right. Why do you think they picked a side? Is it because he hates and doesn't respect President Obama and feels that Hillary Clinton is the extension of him? I mean, what's behind them picking a side?
KEANE: I don't really know, because if you just look at it, Obama has been the greatest gift to Putin in these last eight years, because he's been able to make territorial gains, he's been able to get back on the world stage again at the expense of U.S. national interest. He is a major player in the Middle East --
BARTIROMO: You're right. Obama doesn't do anything about it.
KEANE: When we were a major player in the Middle East.
BARTIROMO: That's true.
KEANE: And done nothing about it. So the perception that he has that maybe Secretary Clinton would be different than that based on the relationship that he had with her when she was Secretary Of State, I don't know. And I don't think he knows much about Mr. Trump other than what his intelligence agents are getting or what he's getting out - getting out of the media. So, I can only speculate what's going on here as to why he's -- why he's chosen a side.
BARTIROMO: Fascinating.
KEANE: The other aspect of it is - which he does have an interest in, is he desires to weaken people's respect and regard for the United States government, expose some of the weaknesses of the U.S. democracy on a world stage, which he believes and weakens the relationship that the United States has with its allies as they have less respect for the United States.
BARTIROMO: Right. And I guess he figures that makes Russia that much more strong and powerful, you know, if they lose respect for the U.S., they'll see Russia as the tough guy around the world. General, good to see you as always. Thank you so much.
KEANE: Good talking to you, Maria.
BARTIROMO: General Jack Keane joining us there. And Fox Business Network will take you live to the third presidential debate tomorrow night, moderated by Fox News' Chris Wallace. Our special prime time coverage starts tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. MORNINGS WITH MARIA will be live from Vegas tomorrow morning and Thursday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. Eastern for pre and post-debate analysis. I hope you'll join us live from Las Vegas. Coming up, bullies on Twitter could have the - have cost the company a deal with potential buyers. Look at what's next for the social network. And then the latest Nobel Prize winner for literature is nowhere to be found. Yeah, Bob Dylan, what the academy is doing to track down Dylan, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good morning, everybody. It's looking like a pretty good day for Wall Street stocks today. Take a look at markets, Futures indicating a gain of about 70 points, earnings have been largely better than expected. By the way, we just got IBM and IBM stock is trading down this morning, but many of the names that have reported earnings particularly in the banking sector trading up. Let's look at a couple of other names on move, VISA shares this morning, on the move. The company is announcing that its CEO is leaving the company, this was announced last night. He's leaving the company after four years at the helm, that's Charles Scharf stepping down. He says he cannot spend enough time in San Francisco to do the job effectively. The company's headquarters are there, but his family lives on the east coast. Scharf will be replaced by Alfred Kelly, a current VISA board member and former president at American Express. We're watching shares of Twitter, new details this morning emerging about why companies like Salesforce and Disney decided to walk away and not move forward on a bid to acquire the social media company. Reports say Twitter trolls and online harassment were among issues for the companies walking away. Time is running out to register to vote in eight states. Cheryl Casone with the details now. Cheryl?
CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NEWS ANCHOR AND FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, Mariah. Well, residents in these eight states have until today to register to vote in this year's General Election. There they are. They're Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, West Virginia and Florida. Remember, a federal judge last week extended the registration period by six days in Florida because of the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew. Well, early voting is underway in Georgia, where there are some big crowds and some very long lines, take a look at this video, people in several counties waiting for hours to cast their ballots in one of the most bitterly fought presidential campaigns in recent history. During the last presidential election, nearly two million people in Georgia voted before Election Day, nearly half of all of the ballots cast.
Well, your tax dollars at work, the National Institutes of Health gave researchers at the University of Utah more than $700,000 to study what foods are mentioned on Twitter via hash tag, 80 million tweets were collected, and if you want to know the two most frequently mentioned food items are coffee and beer, the idea is to make public health surveys easier, I guess. OK. Well, the third time is the charm for Antares Rocket, the unmanned ship launched successfully last night after two failed attempts. It is on a mission to deliver supplies to the international space station. The launch provided a show for stargazers along much of the east coast we should say reports poured envy of Twitter from observers and Washington, Baltimore, Philly, New York even Raleigh, North Carolina, they loved it. The launch expected to give a lift to Virginia's commercial space industry. And finally, this, Maria, the Nobel Academy has a very weird problem. They awarded the most prestigious prize in literature to legendary singer Bob Dylan, but they can't find him. Dylan has not answered any of the academy's calls since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature last week. They spoke with some of his collaborators who were nice enough, but they'd like to talk to him directly. Maria, the academy says they've given up on tracking him down. They're hoping he's going to show up in the ceremony in December in person to accept the price. Both see, I'll keep posted.
BARTIROMO: That is funny. That really is. You said it right. It makes him that much cooler.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NEWS ANCHOR: Yeah. Exactly.
BARTIROMO: Really cool.
MCDOWELL: Don't go, Bob. Don't go. Like we're on a first name basis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have we mentioned -
MCDOWELL: Right where on the first-name basis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have we mentioned the award is $927,000.
BARTIROMO: Yeah. And they can't - Yeah, and they can't find -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's not nothing.
BARTIROMO: That's walking around money if you're Bob Dylan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess so.
BARTIROMO: Coming up, Disney characters are getting new roles, as nutrition role models how Dole is using Elsa and Olaf to get kids to eat healthier. Back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACK WIDOW: You know what's about to happen. Do you really want to punch your way out of this?
FALCON: What do we do?
CAPTAIN AMERICA: We fight.
BARTIROMO: From your favorite super heroes to princesses, Disney is bringing its most famous characters for a grocery store near you. Thanks for a new partnership with Dole Foods, Disney branded fruits and vegetables will hit shelves soon. I spoke with nutritionist Keren Gilbert to learn more about how they're pushing to get kids to eat healthier.
BARTIROMO: First of all, can Disney characters actually get kids to eat this stuff?
KEREN GILBERT, NUTRITIONIST: Absolutely, because I think as all moms know, kids do as they see, not as they're told and it is fantastic that this huge company, Disney, which has a huge portfolios of all these characters and stories, it's teaming up with Dole to promote healthy living.
BARTIROMO: How will that - how will that work? In other words, Disney branded first?
GILBERT: Absolutely. And to be honest with you, this is a proven model because in the great depression there was a character called Popeye and he ate spinach.
BARTIROMO: Oh, my God, that time is so funny.
GILBERT: The statistic show that this consumption of spinach increased by 33 percent in the great depression and kids loved spinach, it was their favorite food. So this is a proven model and I think the most important things to remember is that it has to be interacted and see - so Popeye ate the spinach, he got stronger so if spider-man is eating a bowl of broccoli -
BARTIROMO: Isn't that fascinating?
GILBERT: My son - my seven year old would be on the -
BARTIROMO: I love it.
GILBERT: -- would be on the -- would eat it.
BARTIROMO: Yeah, because it's all about math - marketing. So - OK. Cuties, let's talk about Cuties for a second because Cuties proved that a good logo can go a long way.
GILBERT: Absolutely, and also --
BARTIROMO: This company sold 100 million five-pound boxes of mandarins last year.
GILBERT: Yes, and I think that's -
(CROSSTALK)
GILBERT: Because they called them cuties and they had fantastic commercials behind it, which again, is interactive and I think that's really the big message as a nutritionist and a mom, is that kids have to see. They saw the kids on the commercial eating Cuties, and they're saying Cuties because it's for kids and it's just a fantastic campaign. And I hope that other food companies will follow and other vegetables companies will follow.
BARTIROMO: You need the schools to go along with it, right? Because the schools - that's one of the biggest issues.
GILBERT: Absolutely.
BARTIROMO: They're not getting this kind of stuff at school.
GILBERT: Absolutely.
BARTIROMO: The numbers are really alarming as over 35 million children in the United States are either obese or overweight. So what's the blame for this epidemic Keren?
GILBERT: Oh, because - well, there's government policies in place and they're just not working because I think what we're just talking about, they're telling our kids, they're giving them paper, they're saying the words, there's an obesity epidemic but nobody's doing anything about it, there is -- specially these big companies that have aggressive marketing towards unhealthy foods and we know how that work. I mean, I can't take my seven-year-old into the super market, I do what I do and I promote healthy living and it's a tough sell for me. And so, of course, you know, for all moms out there and all schools, it's hard.
BARTIROMO: You have to state at the perimeter of the supermarket and only go with the fresh stuff is. Don't go into aisles.
GILBERT: Yeah, I'm not kidding, I do not take.
(CROSSTALK)
GILBERT: I don't take them because I'm afraid, because I don't want to - I don't feel like getting into arguments.
BARTIROMO: Thanks to Keren Gilbert there. Still to come, Martha Stewart teams up with Snoop Dogg, she joins us live to tell us all about it in the next hour of MORNINGS WITH MARIA. We're back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Good Tuesday morning, everybody. Welcome back, I'm Maria Bartiromo. It is Tuesday, October 18th. Your top stories right now, 7 a.m. in the east coast, a bombshell report this morning weighing on the Clinton campaign just before the final debate. New documents revealed of state department officials, try to convince the FBI to declassify some of Clinton's e-mails. Donald Trump went on the attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It's very disappointing, I mean, when you see that and you'd say, what's the purpose of holding (INAUDIBLE) you would think you'd hold these hearings, frankly immediately. This is serious stuff. This is big stuff. This is Watergate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
END
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