18
Forces Prepare To Clash South Of Mosul; Coalition Forces Preparing
Raqqa Offensive; Polls Show Clinton Ahead, Trump Gaining Ground;
Gingrich To Fox Host: You're Fascinated With Sex; France to Bulldoze
Calais Migrant Camp; NATO Prepared Biggest Military Buildup Since Cold
War; Hollywood A-Listers Urge Americans to Vote, Not for Trump. Aired
1-2a ET - Part 1>
[01:00:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, two powerful earthquakes shake Central Italy. We will take you live to one of hardest hit villages.
VAUSE: ISIS sending suicide squads to Mosul as coalition forces prepare for their toughest battle yet.
SESAY: Also ahead, Samsung's phone fiasco sets fire to the company's just-released earnings report.
VAUSE: Hello everybody. Thank you for staying with us. I'm John Vause.
SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.
Just two months after horrific earthquakes, central Italy has been hit again. This time, two powerful quakes hit just two hours apart on Wednesday night.
VAUSE: The first quake was a magnitude 5.5 then a 6.1 magnitude quake hit near Perugia. So far, there are no reports of any fatalities.
SESAY: Barbie Nadeau joins us now, from Campi, Italy near the epicenter of those earthquakes. Barbie, set the scene for us. What is happening, where you are in the aftermath of these quakes?
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, the light is just starting to come up. The sun is just starting to come out. We're getting first light. But what you can see behind me, this is a perfect example of just the importance of these two quakes, hitting back to back at 7:10 p.m. last night. The first quake just created a few fissures on this 15th century church (INAUDIBLE) on the country side of di Norcia. Two hours later, the church is completely destroyed by that 6.1 earthquake. We've seen that scene in little villages around. The first hit caused a lot of damage, the second hit was quite catastrophic. One of -- if there can be a silver lining in this, one of the things that had saved lives, no doubt, is the fact that so many people left the area in August, when the devastating quake that killed around 300 people, hit the same area. People just aren't around here or people living in temporary housing. There are some people who are still living in tents. We talked to a woman who has been in a hotel since that earthquake and she was shaken from her room in the hotel, and she's sleeping outside tonight - spent the night outside.
But now that the light is coming and now that we've got a little bit more emergency vehicles and people like that, coming into the area. We're going to be able to better understand the -- how widespread the damage is, and whether there are any serious injuries. We haven't had a lot of reports of that. There were very big concerns last night about the safety of the roads. These roads in this area are very, very narrow. It's been raining for days and days. It rained all night, last night. There was a lot of concern about mudslides, and we don't want to take heavy equipment up or put safety workers in jeopardy in situations like that. So I think we're going to understand a little bit more about how widespread the damage is, and if there are any fatalities or any serious injuries at this point, this morning.
SESAY: And Barbie, just tell our viewers a little bit more about the surroundings, about the actual region that was struck by these two earthquakes. You mentioned the roads being narrow. Tell us a little bit more about the landscape and the architecture.
NADEAU: It's a very mountainous region. These houses in this area are mostly stone houses. Many of them were -- the foundations were built 100, 200 years ago, even by family members. Those houses have been renovated and expanded throughout, you know, the very many centuries that the families have had these homes. Lots of them during in the summer are agritourism, there's tourist farms, and things like that. And the villages are so picturesque because one of the most beautiful places to visit in Italy up in the mountain side. But always in the situation like that, that which makes it so beautiful, makes it so dangerous in a situation like this. You know, there was a devastating earthquake in this area in 2009 in L'Aquila, which is a town nearby. After that, the government said any home over 100 years old, has to be reinforced with anti-earthquake seismic reinforcements. It's always a big question whether or not, anyone learned a lesson from those previous earthquakes, whether anyone did - took those measures, spent their extra money to make sure their homes were reinforced. We saw in August, not a lot of houses did. We'll see they were a little bit of in different regions just a few miles up the mountain. And so, at first light, we're going to understand the people who took heed and sorted up those homes, that's what can save people, and in so many situations, some people just don't do it.
SESAY: At first light, more will certainly be revealed. Barbie Nadeau, joining us there from Campi, Italy. Barbie, appreciate the reporting. Thank you.
[01:05:00] VAUSE: The toughest fight yet in the battle for Mosul could be imminent. Iraqi-led forces have surrounded Hammam Al Alil, just south of Mosul on the Tigris River. Witnesses say ISIS has moved its most hardened and experienced foreign fighters there, to defend the town.
SESAY: Also, the U.S. and its allies are pushing ahead with plans to isolate Raqqa, Syria. There are concerns the terror groups will launch attacks from there.
VAUSE: Michael Holmes is near Mosul's front line. He joins us now live. So, Michael, ISIS is putting up a much bigger fight on the southern approaches to Mosul. Why are they making a stand there?
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you mentioned Hammam Al Alil. This is about 15 kilometers south of Mosul on the Tigris River and witnesses saying, as you point out, that ISIS is moving some of its most effective fighters into that town. We're talking about Czechians, Moroccans, Tunisians, Afghans as well. Why they are doing this? Why make such a stand short of Mosul? Well, likely, it is to degrade, if you like, to do as much damage to Iraqi forces both literally, and I think also morale wise before they even get to Mosul. With the delaying tactics as well, giving ISIS more time to make its preparations of defense inside of Mosul. But what you're seeing, you know, an example like that town, is Iraqi forces having to put considerable resources against those fighters, a comparatively few fighters. And so, it's really a degradation of resources, a delaying tactic, perhaps trying to impact morale as well, by using those effective fighters willing to fight to the death and employ things like, suicide car and truck bombs before these forces have even reached the outskirts of Mosul, and they are close, 5 to 8 kilometers in many places, John.
VAUSE: I wouldn't say it has been easy for the Iraqi coalition forces, but the offensive has moved quickly ahead of schedule. Was the increased resistance that we're now seeing from ISIS, was that expected to occur at this point?
HOLMES: Yeah, I think - I think they expected resistance. I think at times it depends where on the battlefield. In some places, it's been easier than they thought, in other places, it's been tougher than they thought, with ISIS making a stand in a few particular places and Hammam Al Alil is going to be one of those places. They expected this, but they are still ahead of schedule. What they have to do, though, is tighten that noose around Mosul. As I said, in some places, they're five to eight kilometers from the outskirts, but in other places, they are a little bit more than that. And they got to get everyone up on the same circle, if you like, the same sort of distance from Mosul, in order to be able to enter the town, and we've already heard that ISIS may be pulling back from the eastern side of Mosul, that was not unexpected, crossing those four main bridges into the western part of the city and actually rigging those bridges with explosives. The advantage of the western side of the city for ISIS, is that the old city is there, there's narrow streets, closely packed together buildings. Those narrow streets are going to make it hard for the sorts of armored vehicles we've seen rolling across the plains here and through towns and villages to navigate and really does give the advantage to the incumbent, still places being pound over -- that was an outgoing shell heading into the town of Bashiqa, which is another important town that Kurdish fighters are trying to secure at the moment, which is on a main road in the Mosul. So, you know, every day we're hearing -- and there's the impact of that shell there, over towards Bashiqa. So, that sort of kinetic activity still continuing every day. We hear this all day, every day. John?
VAUSE: And you didn't flinch. Michael Holmes, joining us again, live with the very latest. Thanks, Michael.
SESAY: All right. Well, airstrikes kill 35 people in Syria including at least 11 children. A monitoring group says the children were in a school in Idlib that was hit on Wednesday.
VAUSE: The head of UNICEF says it would be a war crime if the school was deliberately targeted. Idlib is near Aleppo, has the largest populated area controlled by Syrian rebels.
SESAY: Well, one police officer was killed and more than 100 people injured in protests on Venezuela's streets. The opposition party says President Nicolas Maduro has violated the constitution and they're demanding a recall vote.
VAUSE: They also blamed him for the country's economic collapse, but Maduro says his opponents are trying to stage a coup. Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 smartphone has burned a hole in the company's profit. The South Korean company reported that quarterly earnings are down almost $2 billion from this time last year.
SESAY: Samsung blames the losses on its decision to kill off production of the smartphones earlier this month. The company recalled the phones after reports that they were catching fire and exploding.
VAUSE: Industry expert, Lori H. Schwartz is joining us now here in Los Angeles.
LORI H. SCHWARTZ, INDUSTRY EXPERT: You're very welcome.
VAUSE: Thank you for coming here.
SCHWARTZ: It's good to be here.
VAUSE: As far as bad news goes, is this as bad as everyone expected or were they expecting worse?
SCHWARTZ: I think this is as bad as everyone was expecting. I mean, it was such -- the phones were exploding. You're walking on airplanes -- and now, actually the FA had said you are not even allowed to bring them on. So this is the most public recall of any handset that I can remember. And so, because it's so public, I think people were expecting this.
SESAY: But there's more to these numbers than meets the eye.
SCHWARTZ: Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, you know, they announced a $4.6 billion profit which to any of us, would be pretty good, but it is 30 percent down, but they have displayed coming out. They have the most popular VR head mounted display out there. They have a chip that people love, and they're also announcing their new watch, in November. So I think there's a lot of, you know, bullish things to say about Samsung. They have great products coming out. It'll just be just about how they move forward from this.
VAUSE: And we're also seeing in this statement, in its earnings report. Some indication of how Samsung plans to claw back consumer confidence.
SCHWARTZ: Yeah, I think, first of all, there are going to be sort of strategic, you know, using strategy around how they're going to announce the Galaxy 8, the Note 8, and that's supposed to be announced in February. So it will be interesting to see if they still do that, and what's going to happen there. And then, you know, there -- that device, that Note was so popular, and so beloved. I mean, it's one of the reasons why Apple came out with the Plus, right? That size was so popular. So I think there is still consumer love for those phones. I mean, a lot of people actually haven't given them in.
VAUSE: Yes.
SCHWARTZ: Yeah, it's a passion point, right?
SESAY: And to that point, you mentioned Apple. I mean, Samsung may be able to regain its footing but can they take the lead again? I mean --
SCHWARTZ: You know, the phone market is so saturated and if you are reading the news about Apple's reports and everything like that, they are in a decline too. And I think it's just because the phone market is saturated. So I don't think anyone's going to really win there, right now.
VAUSE: Is there a lesson here for other companies, don't rush your product launch?
SCHWARTZ: I think there's that. I think you have be very careful with lithium ion anything.
VAUSE: That's the other license.
SCHWARTZ: Right. Right.
SESAY: And if you do have a problem, maybe respond better.
SCHWARTZ: Well, respond better. I think we are now on a culture where the consumer wants transparency. And I think the more transparent you are, the more that that brand will stay in your heart, even if they make a mistake.
SESAY: Yeah, and that's a good point.
SCHWARTZ: Yeah.
VAUSE: OK. And still amongst all this, Samsung's stock is going up.
SCHWARTZ: Yeah, well - so, their -- the vice chairman who actually initiated the recall, who is the heir apparent to becoming chairman, is actually being announced to their board tomorrow, so it's a pretty cool stuff.
VAUSE: Lori, thanks so much.
SESAY: Lori, very much appreciate it.
SCHWARTZ: A pleasure.
SESAY: Thank you. Still to come on NEWSROOM L.A., smoke and flames rise over Calais, as the migrant camp is officially closed. But many refugee children remain inside the Jungle.
VAUSE: Also ahead, Donald Trump strikes back at Hillary Clinton after she questioned his campaign schedule.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is not what we need. This is not what we need as a president. She's a very low-energy person.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PATRICK SNELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hi there, I'm Patrick Snell with your WORLD SPORT headlines, Jose Mourinho and his Manchester United team getting a badly needed win in the Derby and City in the fourth round of the English League Cup. The 1-0 victory courtesy of a second half winner from the Spaniard, Juan Mata, didn't just being us now the worst run of Pep Guardiola's managerial career, but also means the (INAUDIBLE) city have been knocked out by their local rivals.
It's been seven years since Svetlana Kuznetsova has won her second major tennis title, but the Russian has secured her birth now in the semis of the year-ending WTA Finals in Singapore. She backed up her win on Monday against defending champion Agi Radwanska with another epic victory, this time over U.S. Open finalist, Karolina Pliskova, edging her opponent in a third set tiebreaker after finally seeing the win at the fourth attempt. Kuznetsova collapsing on court in sheer exhaustion. The victory putting the former world number two into the semis at the year-ending championships for the first time in six attempts.
And Wladimir Klitschko says he wants to fight the British Heavyweight World Champion, Anthony Joshua, in March or April. A plan to (INAUDIBLE) the bout fell through because the fighters ran out of time according to Klitschko's manager, Bernd Ponte. Promoter Eddie Hearn initially blaming confusion over the titles and offer, and a minor injury to Ukrainian Klitschko that failure to arrange December date. Thanks for joining us. That's a look at your world SPORT HEADLINES, I'm Patrick Snell.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Well, Donald Trump says he'll donate more money to his own campaign in the final days of the U.S. presidential race. He is campaigning in Battleground States, including North Carolina and Florida. Trump says he will spend $100 million by Election Day. But federal election records show, he has given far less than that so far.
VAUSE: Trump was just a few blocks from the White House on Wednesday for the grand opening of his new hotel, and he reacted sharply to criticism from Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So, I thought I'd take an hour or two and run in and cut the ribbon with them at the building. To show you how low she is, she comes out and says Donald Trump took time off from the campaign to open a hotel. OK. Now, she'll do one stop -- I'm telling you, she wants to sleep all the time. This is not what we need. This is not what we need as a president. She's a very low-energy person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Joining us here now in Los Angeles, Ron Brownstein, CNN's senior political analyst and senior editor for the Atlantic.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, SENIOR EDITOR AT ATLANTIC MEDIA: Another low-energy person.
VAUSE: Another low-energy person.
SESAY: But we like you.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, of course.
VAUSE: OK. Let's actually hear what Hillary Clinton had to say about Donald Trump opening his hotel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I was struck today that Donald Trump is actually paying more attention to his business than to the campaign. That's his choice. But we're going to keep working really hard to reach as many voters as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A little different from how Donald Trump portrayed it, but I guess the point that Hillary Clinton is making, a lot of people have made, 12 days until the election, way behind in the polls, wouldn't you be spending every moment trying to win votes?
BROWNSTEIN: Look, all the way through, he has kind of intersected the campaign and his business (INAUDIBLE) the press conference where he talked about Trump's stakes on Election night that ended up getting carried to CNN -
VAUSE: I've thought about that.
BROWNSTEIN: -- because, you know, people thought it was going to be a, you know, a conventional speech. The press conference are going to his golf club in Scotland in the middle of the campaign. So, it's been - look, this is, you know, as one of the guests talked about before, I mean, this is - this is an unusual candidate who also has to worry about his brand, his commercial brand after the election if he doesn't win. I think he's done some serious damage with portions of the electorate with his brand. But it is kind of odd (INAUDIBLE) on the other hand, Trump has turned up the campaign schedule. I mean, he is - you know, he is not coasting to the end. He is, you know, he's barn storming those few states that he - that he absolutely has to have. And, you know, he's putting in the effort, but it is strange the way he's mixed business and kind of politics.
SESAY: Hillary Clinton says she's going to continue to work hard right until the end. She's going to need to because these WikiLeaks stuff continues the drip, drip, drip of e-mails.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. You know, look, against any other candidate, this would be a bigger deal, I think. And it's been a remarkable - if you - if you think both about the state department e-mails that she's had to release and then the WikiLeaks e-mails from John Podesta that have been released, I mean, the kind of the x-ray of the inner world of the Clinton is just extraordinary. And you see how - what a - you know, calculated, careful, deliberate, planning kind of politician she is. It's very revealing in that way. But it -
SESAY: In a negative view?
BROWNSTEIN: What's that?
SESAY: In negative view?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, I don't know if it's - I don't know. It really depends on what you think about Hillary Clinton, right? I mean, this time, she is -- she is kind of behind closed doors, pretty much who you thought she was. And - but - you know, again, Donald Trump is dealing with big, bigger issues and it kind of Trump her own vulnerabilities as there were doubts about his experience, his judgment, his temperament and whether he's biased against women and minorities, that's kind of overshadowed what our very real doubts about her than he fronts to.
VAUSE: OK. Donald Trump was out in North Carolina, a state he has to win, and he was talking about his poll numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You see the new polls coming out where we're really doing well? We're going to win North Carolina. We're going to win Florida, too. We're going to win Ohio and we're going to win Iowa. Yeah, we're winning - we're winning a lot of states.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: We're all - we're all winners.
BROWNSTEIN: He could win all of those - not that he would today.
VAUSE: Right.
BROWNSTEIN: But he could win all of those and lose, right? I mean, the problem he's got is the 18 states, what I call the blue wall in 2000. And I voted democratic at least in the past six elections. They have 242 Electoral College votes. He is significantly behind today in all of them. You add New Mexico, Virginia, and Colorado you are at 269. OK. So, at that point unless he can take away one in Maine, that the worst she could do is a tie, and you've got New Hampshire. So, at the least, he is significantly behind right now in states with 273 Electoral College votes. Before you get to Florida, where in most pollings by the Bloomberg Poll today, his also - I think, you know, you would say most - both sides are saying she's pretty solidly ahead right now in states with 302 electoral college votes. Not to say it's impossible to turn them around, but today, that's where we are.
SESAY: So, this talk about the race tightening, you say what?
BROWNSTEIN: There are so many polls every day, they give you such divergent information. It's really hard to know - yes, there was a Fox poll today that he was behind three points. There was a Suffolk USA Today poll and an ABC-Washington Post poll where he's behind nine points. I see enormous consistency in this race all year, as we've talked about, where Donald Trump is very strong among blue collar whites, but facing huge deficits among minority voters who'll be 28 or 30 percent of the electorate and underperforming literally every republican nominee in the history of polling among college whites. As long as those three basic things remain true and no polling suggests they are not, he has a hard time getting above the low 40s, and whether the margin ends up being four or five or six or eight, if he can't get above the low 40s, he's not going to get there.
VAUSE: OK. So, again, an extraordinary campaign which we have not seen anything like this before, and that includes what happened on Tuesday night on Fox News with the former speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich and this exchange between - with anchor Megyn Kelly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE, TRUMP SURROGATE: Rough time. At least -
MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS THE KELLY FILES ANCHOR: If Trump is a sexual predator, that is -
GINGRICH: He's not a sexual predator. You can't say that.
KELLY: OK. That's your opinion. I'm not taking a position on it.
GINRICH: You could not defend that statement.
KELLY: I'm not taking a position on it.
GINRICH: Now, I'm sick and tired of people like you using language that's inflammatory and that's not true. You want to go through the tapes of your show recently, you are fascinated with sex and you don't care about public policy.
KELLY: Me, really?
GINRICH: Now, that's what I get out of watching you tonight. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And just to this point, you know, it was amazing to watch, but Donald Trump kept the story alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: By the way, congratulations, Newt, on last night. That was an amazing interview. That was an amazing -- we don't play games, Newt, right? We don't play games.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So many women who saw that took such great offense at the tone and the way - I mean, Isha?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
SESAY: Yes. And almost the things (INAUDIBLE)
(CROSSTALK)
BROWNSTEIN: Well, a surrogate who's been married three times defending a candidate who is been married three times, and, you know - and kind of accusing the woman anchor of being kind of fascinated with sex. Look, the republican -- right now, Donald Trump is doing fine among people who look like Newt Gingrich. OK? I mean, he is - he is - he is -
VAUSE: He's locked up the Newt Gingrich demographic.
BROWNSTEIN: He is cleaning up among older, conservative white men.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWNSTEIN: But he is facing again, literally in this case, two or three -- he may lose college educated white women by twice or three times much as any republican nominee ever. The biggest democratic advantage there have been, eight. He is routinely in polls, 20 to 25 points behind among -- you add that to the deficit among non-white voters, that's pretty much the story. I mean, just then, if Clinton can hold those kind of advantages, you're done. And, you know, the agony of so many republican women in the aftermath of this, that have talked about and read about, conservative women today, this is just one of many ways in which the Trump candidacy is cleaving the republican coalition. And there's going to be a lot of tension after this is over, one way or the other, win or loss.
SESAY: Because they'll be a civil war you're saying in the Republican Party.
BROWNSTEIN: It's going on already.
SESAY: And we'll go to the flanks. I mean -
BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, I mean, you know, this was the first time - we talked about this (INAUDIBLE) we talked about this in the spring. This was, you know, the first time ever in, I believe, in the history of the primaries, where the blue collar wing and white collar wing disagreed on the candidate, and the blue collar wing actually won. When they disagreed before, the white collar wing won with Mitt Romney or John McCain, and there's always been kind of a leadership group in the Republican Party that finds not only Trump personally but the elements of Trumpism, which include protectionism, nativism, no cuts and entitlements, big infrastructure, just kind of blue collar populism, it's really unclear where this goes next, but there's no doubt that the forces behind Trump are going -- if he loses are going to be wanting to take out Paul Ryan.
VAUSE: And let's keep - going back to the civil war actually that's going on here, because Newt Gingrich was asked about that, about the exchange today, and he's not backing down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINGRICH: I don't have an anger problem. I have a media bias problem, and I believe the media bias in this election is the worst in modern history.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On Fox News where you were?
GINGRICH: Everywhere. I think the media bias the way words are used, the way things are set up, the fact that the three major networks spent 23 minutes attacking Trump and 57 seconds on Hillary's secret speeches. I mean, how can you look at that and not say it's biased?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: How bad is it when the surrogate for the Republican nominee is actually accusing Fox News of being bias?
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. It's really striking. It's - again, it's just a reminder like how this - there is no institution in kind of the conservative infrastructure that has not been divided over Donald Trump. If you look at more elected officials -- even though some have gone back like Jason Chaffetz. More elected officials say they're not voting for him than, I believe, any republican nominee ever. Many more than Barry Goldwater in 1964. Even more than 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt walked out of the Republican Convention when a nominated - re-nominated William Howard Taft, there are more republican senators, for example, say they're not going to vote for Trump than went with Roosevelt against Taft. So, the level of division that we are seeing in the party and all the kind of the ancillary groups around the party is just extraordinary and it's not clear that all of this quickly gets patched up after the election. Certainly, if he wins there would be an all kind of open division Republican Party, that even he loses, there's going to be a lot of debate about whether the problem was Trump or Trumpism, and that's a very - you know, that's an - that's an important distinction.