Return to Transcripts main page

Connect the World

Yemen's Forgotten War; Hurricane Matthew Ravaged Haiti; Clinton, Trump's Second Debate. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired October 09, 2016 - 11:00   ET

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

[10:50:00] NICK PARKER, HOST: Crisis in the GOP: Donald Trump's vulgar comments

about women have some party leaders abandoning him, this ahead of facing off Hillary Clinton in the all-important second U.S. presidential debate.

Next, we are live in St. Louis, Missouri where that showdown will take place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can actually see the roofs of homes on the hilltops. The roof just blown away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PARKER: A path of destruction: Hurricane Matthew ravaged Haiti's southwest and survivors

there are trying to recover. A live report from Port-au-Prince coming up.

Also ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You'd be forgiven for thinking this is Syria, but it's not. This is Yemen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PARKER: And now, one of the deadliest attacks in the country's war. Airstrikes hit a funeral killing scores of mourners. This hour we look at

the conflicts in Yemen.

Thanks for joining us. We start this hour with Donald Trump in full scale crisis mode ahead of what is arguably the biggest day in the U.S.

presidential campaign. The Republican candidate faces off against Democrat challenger Hillary Clinton in a town hall debate just

ten hours from now. You're looking at live pictures of the debate hall in St. Louis, Missouri. Trump will walk in facing a huge

backlash within his own party after an 11 year old video surfaced of him making lewd comments towards women.

More Republicans are withdrawing their endorsements of Trump, some are calling for his running mate, Mike Pence, to become the nominee, but Trump

still has his defenders including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FRM. MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: He genuinely feels very sorry about this. It's certainly not the views he holds today. He's run for public office. He's spent the last year and a half traveling around the

country. He realizes the responsibility that he has to the people that follow him and that believe we have to make a change in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PARKER: Trump, for his part, is vowing not to drop out of the race. A few hours ago, he tweeted, "thanks for tremendous support, except for some

Republican 'leadership.'" You can see Trump adding quotation marks around the word leadership, perhaps a not so subtle dig at House Speaker Paul Ryan

and others who have denounced his comments.

Trump apologized in a brief video statement earlier on Saturday, then quickly turned his attention to Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs,

implying they would be fodder for tonight's debate.

Sunlen Serfaty is outside the debate hall in St. Louis. Sunlen, good to have you with us.

So, as the clock ticks down to this debate, Donald Trump facing an huge backlash, but every indication he's going to go on the attack tonight.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Nick. And I think it's a really fair assessment to say that Donald Trump is facing the

most critical night of his political life tonight as he heads into this debate.

And, yes, his back is against the wall. And while aides have said he intends to take the debate

stage and issue an apology and say, look, this isn't the man that I am now and ask for forgiveness, everything he's also said in the last 48 hours has

indicated he will go on the attack and bring up Bill Clinton's past indiscretions, and specifically target Hillary Clinton over that.

He in the past has called her an enabler, gone after how he believes Hillary Clinton, how she handled those affairs and his alleged mistresses

during that time. So, that's something that will be a new tone, a new battlefront open between them tonight.

That Hillary Clinton, we are told from her aides, is prepared to take on tonight -- Nick.

PARKER: Indeed. Meanwhile, we're seeing a series of high-profile departures of senior lawmakers and Republican figures retracting their

endorsements for Trump, amongst them for our international viewers , John McCain and Condoleezza Rice, for that matter.

How much of an impact do you think that will have?

SERFATY: It's already had such a huge impact, because now we're under 30 days out from the election here in the United States and you have the

Republican nominee that's not only facing these serious headwinds with people revoking his endorsement, but you also have

people most importantly calling for him to drop out, saying they are going to vote for Mike Pence and say Mike Pence should be at the top of the

ticket. This is not what any candidate wants to face in the last 30 days of his candidacy.

So in a lot of ways that Donald Trump going to fight for his survival tonight. I think there are a lot of Republican on the fence right now that

are sitting back, his own running mate included, who has kind of chastised him for the videotape and comments in the tape.

A lot of Republicans sitting back and waiting to see how Donald Trump acts tonight. Can he start to pull this around and then basically will make up

their mind from there. But certainly not the way any candidate wants to be heading into the final stretch.

[11:05:24] PARKER: A quite extraordinary situation, really, that we're facing this stage of

the campaign. Sunlen Serfaty joining us live from St. Louis in Missouri where the debate is going to take place in about 10 hours from now.

Sunlen, thank you, appreciate it.

Another story that we are following for you. We are learning more about the gunman Israeli police say shot and killed two people in Jerusalem.

Police described the shooting as a terrorist attack. They say the government was a Palestinian man who belonged to a group that had been

banned in Israel.

For more now, Oren Liebermann joins me live from Jerusalem. Oren, walk us through what more we know about this attack.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the name of the attacker in this case us under a gag order. But we have learned quite a

bit of background on the attacker in Jerusalem. We've learned he's member of a group called (inaudible). Now, that is a group that's been banned in

Israel. They position themselves on one of the holiest sites, or if not the holiest site, the Temple Mount to Jews, al Haram al Sharif to Muslims.

And they confront police and religious Jews who go to pray there, who are not allowed to pray there, but go anyway.

Because of that tension and because Israeli security authorities say that promotes violent they were outlawed by the former defense minister as well

as included in that statement that outlawed them was -- authorities called them a threat to public security.

So, because of that, that group, a group that the attacker was a part of, was outlawed. We also know that the Mosque says he was a member of that

group, the Palestinian Islamist group based in Gaza. His family, the attacker's family, that is, disputes that.

Hamas praised the attack but did not claim responsibility for it -- Nick.

PARKER: And Oren, there has been a series of shooting attacks and stabbing attacks in the last few weeks and months for that matter. Is there a sense

that these are connected or are these isolated attacks?

LIEBERMANN: In one sense both. They are connected in that there's a string of them -- and

perhaps one inspires another. But police say there was no specific threat over the last few days that they were aware of. There was no intelligence

leading them to believe that there was a threat. So, in that sense police believe this was a lone wolf attack, one that they didn't have any

information about.

It is the Jewish high holidays. This is a time of increased tension. We saw it this year. We've seen it again this year. Police try to preempt

that by putting a larger security force in and around the old city of Jerusalem, but this -- and there has been no attack in the last few days

until this attack happened earlier this morning.

The two Israelis killed the two Israeli victims here. One was a police officer and one was a 60-year-old woman. They will be laid to rest today.

PARKER: Oren Liebermann live for us from Jerusalem. Oren, appreciate it. Thank you.

Taking a look at other stories on the radar, police in Palm Springs, California arrested a suspect in the fatal shooting of two officers.

Police say the suspect opened fire on the officers through the front door as they approached the house. A third officer was wounded.

In Turkey, the death toll from a car bombing has now risen to 18, that is according to the country's prime minister speaking to media. The blast

happened at a police station not far from the Iraqi border on Sunday. Turkish suspects -- Turkey suspects that Kurdish militants were involved.

Meanwhile, Turkey is on the attack against terrorist elsewhere. The army says it struck more

than 100 ISIS targets over the last 24 hours, killing almost 40 militants. State run media say the

operation was carried out in Northern Syria.

And Russian's foreign minister has warned the U.S. against attacking Syrian army facilities. State media reported Sergey Lavrov said any attack would

violate international law. In the same interview, he accused the United States of treating Moscow with a, quote, aggressive Russophobia.

Last month, the U.S. said it mistakenly killed at least 62 Syrian personnel in an airstrike

in eastern Syria.

Well, the worst of what was once Hurricane Matthew is over. But in Haiti, recovery efforts are only just beginning. The storm left widespread

destruction there. At least 336 people were killed, according to a civil protection service official. Other estimates put the toll much higher.

The casualties are expected to rise as aid workers begin reaching the worst-hit areas and now survivors are facing another growing threat:

cholera.

CNN senior international correspondent Ivan Watson is in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince. And Ivan, certainly the threat of cholera hanging over the

situation, Haiti subject to one of the worst cholera outbreaks in recent history after 2010 earthquake killing thousands.

[11:10:14] IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's right. And that is one of the worries right now, because Haiti

never really had very good infrastructure and so much of it was damaged in the southwestern part of the country in this terrible storm.

Today marks the first day of three days of mourning declared by the provisional president of the

country. The death toll stands officially at 336 people killed by this terrible hurricane, but aid organizations are predicting that number is

likely to rise because a lot of the communities that were affected were very much cut off, already isolated to begin with, but cut off by the storm

making it very difficult to reach by road or even by foot so that even as recently as yesterday some of these places could only be reached by sea or

by air.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: This is what the path of a hurricane looks like from the air. The storm left trees scattered like matchsticks on the hills.

Look at how these trees are just stripped of foliage here. You can actually see the roofs of homes on the hilltops, the roof just blown away.

Hurricane Matthew killed hundreds of people and left tens of thousands homeless. We are flying over Haiti's southwestern peninsula, one of the

most isolated parts of the country.

This the only real way we can get a sense of the scale of the damage caused by Hurricane

Matthew, because Haiti does not have a great network of roads. And there are a series of

islands off of Haiti's coast, like Isle Lavash (ph). What we're looking at right now.

Six years ago this region was largely untouched by the earthquake that shattered the Haitian capital, but this time, the people here weren't so

lucky.

How is your house?

UNIDENITIFIED MALE: My house (inaudible) down.

WATSON: Everything is gone?

UNIDENIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

UNIDENIFIED MALE: The (inaudible) tree was going down, the electric pole was down.

WATSON: Since the storm, residents of Port Salut (ph) cleaned much of the debris off the roads, but at night they sleep outside their shattered

homes in the dark.

When do you think you'll get electricity here again?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody know when.

WATSON: This is a close-up view of some of the damage that we can see from the sky. Just one home that was ripped apart by the hurricane winds that

made a mess of people's meager belongings and hurt a lot of people here, too, who had to wait days for emergency medical care.

These people survived the most powerful hurricane their country has seen in a generation. A grim reminder of the fury and power of mother nature.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: So, Nick, you've got Haitian officials that are saying at least 6,000 homes completely destroyed, tens of thousands partially damaged, some

60,000 people made homeless.

Now, the capital Port-au-Prince was spared the brunt of this hurricane, so we haven't seen anything like just the indescribable devastation of the

earthquake of 2010. But even as the authorities here, the aid organizations still try to wrestle with just assessing the

scale of the damage in the isolated southwest part of the country we're feeling other ramifications of this hurricane.

An election was supposed to be held this week here in Haiti, so we're going to look over my shoulder here. You've still got campaign posters up.

That has been postponed as a result of Hurricane Matthew. So the ongoing political paralysis this country has seen with the provisional president in

place for months, that is likely to continue just one more casualty of this natural disaster.

PARKER: And Ivan, you covered the 2010 earthquake, what stage had national reconstruction reached until Matthew hit Haiti? And what kind of setback

do you think it will be dealt?

WATSON: It seems we've lost our connection to Ivan Watson in Port-au- Prince. But we will try to go back to him later in the hour.

Well, the U.S. wasn't hit as hard by Matthew but the damage is still certainly significant. The storm killed 15 people in four states and left

behind record flooding and major power outages. It's no longer a hurricane but it is still packing a powerful punch.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has been tracking the storm for us. She joins us from CNN Center -- Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right.

Yes, we take a look at some of the damage photos again. Again, we just heard the atrocious damage in Haiti. Here's one of those images. Again,

we can see just all of the widespread trees that were down in this region.

And we saw a very similar scenario in the United States. This photo out of South Carolina. Again, you can see the trees down and then this home that

was just basically leveled from some of the incredibly strong winds they had in this region as the storm made its

way through. Now, post Propical Cyclone Matthew, that's what it is called now, is still packing hurricane force winds at 120 kilometers per hour, but

it doesn't get the distinction of having that name Hurricane Matthew anymore

because the inner structure of the storm has changed. It's gone from what we call a warm core to a cold core.

Now, from a meteorological standpoint that's a very loaded term. But in terms of the damage that it could still cause, this is a deadly storm

because the impacts from it, with it still packing hurricane force winds and all of the rain that's associated with it is still going to cause some

issues.

Now, the track of Matthew, we want to point this out, you can see down here in the Caribbean,

now it made its first landfall over the extreme western edge of Haiti, then making second landfall over the extreme eastern tip of Cuba, then kind of

really sliding in between, navigating through the Bahamas Islands, notice just barely missing Nassau just to the west of it. Same

thing with Freeport kind of sliding up and making third landfall in South Carolina over the United States.

Now, the storm is back out over open water as of right now. We're at still that post tropical type, but it still has a lot of moisture that it is

bringing to regions across the United States. And some of these areas do not need to see any more rain. Look at these incredible totals. We've had

almost 450 millimeters of rain in the city of Savannah, Georgia. Fayetteville, North carolina picking up 376

millimeters. Elizabethtown, North Carolina about 368.

So, again, keep in mind, most of these picked up this rain in 24 to 36 hours. So we're not talking stretched out over a week. Even then this

would be a lot of rain. But for many of these, this was just simply one to two days worth off rain.

And the winds as well are also going to be a huge factor, even though Matthew is expected to go back out over open water, the winds will get

wrapped around the system producing those near hurricane force winds for a lot of areas along Carolina coast and also southeastern Virginia. We're

talking forecast winds around 50 to 75 miles per hour. Or for comparison, we're talking 60 to 100 kilometers per hour for some of these areas for at

least the next 12 to 24 hours, Nick.

So again, even though the system is making its way out over open water, still going to be a potential threat, especially with the flooding for at

least the next two or three days.

PARKER: Indeed.

Allison Chinchar, live for us from the CNN Weather Center. Allison, appreciate that update. Thank you.

And still to come on Connect the World, Republicans run for the exit over Donald Trump's

vulgar remarks caught on camera in 2005. The continuing fallout and what to expect from the second

U.S. presidential debate tonight. That's ahead.

Also, grief upon grief. An airstrike hits a funeral hall in Yemen, prompting Saudi denials and

U.S. criticism. A look at what's sometimes called the forgotten war is next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:20:44] PARKER: Anger on the streets on Sanaa after one of the deadliest attacks in Yemen's nearly 19 month war. Hundreds of people

protested in the capital, blamining Saudi Arabia for an airstrike that killed and maimed hundreds of victims this weekend.

Hello, you're watching CNN. And this is Connect the World. I'm Nick Parker. Welcome back.

The United States is reviewing its military support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen after an airstrike there that killed at least 155 people.

Hundreds of people were also injured in the attack on a funeral in Sanaa, including at least 20 who had lost their limbs. Bombs

hit as grieving crowds -- as a grieving crowd attended awake for the father of the rebel government's interior minister.

The Saudi-led coalition is investigating after initially denying its forces were to blame. The United Nations says that more than 10,000 people have

died since Riyadh and Arab allies started to strike rebels in March of last year.

Well, the United Nations says the crisis in Yemen is now one of the worst in the world. The fighting has severely limited imports of food, fuel and

medicines and critical elements there. As a result, millions of malnourished and many are in danger of starvation, yet this war was largely

absent from the headlines.

Becky Anderson has this report. And a warning for some viewers, some images are distressing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Devastating airstrikes by a regime and its allies. A catastrophic humanitarian

situation. ISIS and al Qaeda taking advantage of the chaos and bitter better proxy war all taking place in one ravaged Arab state.

You'd be for given for thinking this is Syria, but it's not. This is Yemen and the war that commands a fraction of the headlines, but is no less

brutal for civilians caught in the crossfire.

JAMIE MCGOLDRICK, UN HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR FOR YEMEN: You're asking for the international community to look at Yemen in a different light. Right

now it's a forgotten crisis, it doesn't get the attention, for example, that Syria or Iraq does.

ANDERSON: Ordinary Yemenis are bearing the brunt of a Saudi-led war against Houthis rebels allegedly backed by Iran. Rebels, the coalition

considers terrorists.

The United Nations says more than 10,000 people have been killed since airstrikes began in

March 2015. The health system has been, quote, almost obliterated. And almost a third of the country is severely or acutely malnourished, that's

more than 7 million people.

STEPHEN O'BRIEN: UN UNDER-SECRETARY FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS: I met babies in the pediatric and in the feeding wards of the hospital, it was

absolutely terrifying, as any of us who are parents would find a child, one was said to be 7 years old. I'm not sure that to be the case, might have

been 7 months. Either way the child was so thin, so malnourished and the mother, too, it was absolutely appalling to see and these things are

avoidable.

ANDERSON: And yet it's been like this for more than a year.

As this footage shows Yemen's children have been through hell for the last 12 months, silent victims of an almost forgotten war and of the

indifference for much of the world. Despite the obvious need for humanitarian aid, the UN's relief fund for Yemen is less than halfway

funded. That's a shortfall of $888 million. To put that in perspective, Saudi Arabia has spent $3.5 billion on British arms alone since the war

began.

But as controversy grows over western arm sales to Riyadh amid accusations of war crimes by both sides, claims strongly denied, Yemen's war may

finally get the world's attention.

Becky Anderson, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PARKER: And right now we're getting some live pictures that we want to bring you from White Plains in New York State. And we understand there's

some pictures of Hillary Clinton inside her plane about to take off. And we understand we do not have those pictures at this stage after all. But

we will try to bring them to you as and when they become available.

Well, we were just talking about Yemen where ISIS has been operating, but it's still carrying out its brutal murders in Iraq. The terrorist there

say they were behind a suicide blast in eastern Baghdad on Sunday morning targeting Shiite Muslims outside a well-known bakery. At least two people

were killed and seven more wounded.

Despite attacks like that, ISIS is actually slowly being crushed in Iraq. Government forces are getting ready to take the fight to take back its last

major stronghold before Mosul. People from (inaudible) are getting out of the way. But with ISIS forbidding people to leave, CNN's Ben Wedeman found

out escape is dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[08:26:03] BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They walked 17 hours through the night to reach this ridge, the edge of Kurdish controlled

territories south of Kirkuk. An officer gives 10-year-old Amal (ph) a kiss and then a thorough search. With ISIS often inserting suicide bombers

among fleeing civilians, everyone is suspect.

The journey, says Amal (ph), was tiring.

And all the while she was afraid of Daesh, a derogatory term for ISIS.

. "Hundreds, thousands want to escape," says Mahmoud, but Daesh is waiting for people trying to leave. Twice they caught me. This time I succeeded."

During the night Mahmoud, his wife and five children hid in an irrigation canal to evade detection. Every day, people come to this point fleeing

ISIS control, but it's a long and dangerous journey. Along the way there are booby traps, there are IEDs. And according to the soldiers here, in

the last month nine people have been killed trying to reach this point.

It's a terrifying trek, but worth all the risks to escape ISIS.

"If you do something small they jail and beat you. Anything serious, and it's off with your head" says Latif (ph).

Bashir (ph), a farmer, had only one run-in with ISIS.

"They arrested me," he recalls, "for a pack of cigarettes, fined me 100,000 dinars, about $85

and gave me ten lashes."

Food is expensive and scarce. Medical care and education nonexistent.

"The children have missed two years of school," says Samira (ph). "And I don't know if any school will take them now."

Here they are given food and water and a bit of comfort and a cursory interrogation. Intelligence officers will question them further, checking

names against the database of ISIS members and sympathizers and then truck them to camps.

This group of people is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the hundreds of thousands of people who are expected to flee as the offensive

against ISIS continues.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, South of Kirkuk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PARKER: The latest world news headlines just ahead, plus Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

take the debate stage for their second debate in just hours from now. Why this rematch could be critical for the survival of Trump's campaign next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES)

[11:33:09] ANDERSON: In the race for the White House dozens of Republicans are condemning Donald Trump's recently serviced vulgar and sexually

aggressive remarks. Some in the party are even calling for the presidential candidate to drop out. Our Jake Tapper asked some key Trump backer and

former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani about the loss of support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Has anyone in this inner circle broached the subject of stepping down with Mr. Trump? Has anyone even raised it? Is he

even aware that 16 U.S. Senators who are Republicans are saying they are not voting for him? And what's his

response?

RUDY GIULIANI, FRM. MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: Well, I don't know if he's aware of the exact number. I wasn't aware of the exact number until you

gave it to me. But I was aware yesterday that there were various people asking him to step down.

Yes, he is aware of the fact that a number of Republicans have pulled their support. And he's not going to drop out. He's going to remain. He is

going to apologize for what he did. He is going to explain to people that is not the man that he is today and he is going to count on the fact that

the American people are fair and decent people and when someone asks for forgiveness, they usually give it.

I mean, the reality is, this is not the man then. This is not the man that ran for president for a year and a half and has learned the tremendous

concerns the American people have and really is the only one right now in a position who is in a position to straighten it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PARKER: Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's running mate Tim Kaine says voters at Sunday night's town hall will have a lot of questions about the Trump tape.

He told our Jake Tapper it's part of a broad pattern of Trump's behavior.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIME KAINE, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump has run a campaign where he's perpetrated a bigoted lie that President Obama wasn't a

United States citizen, he's gone after immigrants, he's gone after Muslims, he's attacked military families, and John McCain, a POW, he's said many

other deplorable things about women. There is a broad pattern of disrespect both in word, action, and policy towards all kinds of people.

And that is, I think, why this issue on Friday just so galvanized people, because it's not something you can explain away as an aberration or hear

something, well, this was me 10 years ago, it's not who I am now. There's plenty of evidence that this is exactly who Donald Trump is today. And by

this I mean divisive and cavalier in his treatment of others.

And with respect to women in particular, what this shows, I think, at its base is that he cannot consider women as his equals. I think there's kind

of a piece of the jigsaw puzzle missing in Donald Trump where he does not look at women and consider them equal to himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:35:52] PARKER: So really an extraordinary situation as we head into this debate. Let's drill down a little deeper now. Larry Sabato is the

director of the University of Virginia's center for politics joins us by Skype from Charlottesville in Virginia.

Larry, great to have you with us. Thanks for your time.

LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thanks, Nick.

PARKER: So, amid this public outcry and the desertion of some 16 Republican senators from the Trump campaign, Donald Trump is giving every

indication that he's going on the attack this evening and take the attack to Hillary Clinton, and for that matter Bill Clinton.

How do you expect that to play?

SABATO: I don't think it's going to play well, particularly in a town hall format when you have

many undecided voters that have been collected by the Gallup poll to be in the room to question the candidates.

The reaction probably will be negative. But, look, here is what's going to happen. Trump simply has to start out with an act of contrition. And it

has to be a lot more sincere than the taped message he delivered late on Friday evening.

That may or may not help him with Republicans, but I agree with you, he's very unlikely to drop out.

PARKER: Indeed. Despite the fact that we have a number of senior Republican lawmakers and Republican figures for that matter urging him to

drop out, even if he was prepared to do so, is that even a feasible scenario at this stage?

SABATO; Well, if he drops out, it is possible under the law that the Republican National Committee, a governing body of the Republican party

consisting of 168 members could substitute a nominee. But here's the problem. Most states have already started voting, either with absentee

voting or early voting. So we've already had millions of ballots cast. I've cast my vote. Most people I know have already voted.

What exactly do you do?

I don't think it will happen. I think the Republicans are reacting too late. I would say some of these people are very slow learners. There was

lots of evidence early in the year that Donald Trump was nothing but trouble.

PARKER: Yes, an extremely important point, that. That, you know, a number of millions, as you were saying have already started voting, so it seems

extremely unlikely. Looking at where things stand right now, before this tape even surfaced on Friday afternoon, Friday evening, we knew that

Hillary Clinton was leading in the key battleground states of Florida as well as Pennsylvania on the back of some momentum she gained from the

previous debate. Do you think this is really the beginning of the end of any hope Donald Trump has of winning the White House at this stage?

How do you see the polls going from here?

SABATO: Well, I think they will get worse for Trump. I don't know how much worse. I do know one of the two swing states he was leading in, Ohio,

he is now behind. And Ohio is absolutely critical. No Republican has ever been elected without Ohio.

Clinton is not leading by a mile, but she's leading. And Trump was up by about five points in the polling there. So that should tell us something

about what's happening in the swing states.

And as I say, all the other swing states, except for Ohio, are already in Clinton's column.

PARKER: And Larry, very briefly, if you were Hillary Clinton this evening, what sort of message would you be looking to carry? What would be your

approach in the debate?

SABATO: I certainly wouldn't introduce the discussion of this very unsavory issue, because she

knows what's coming. Trump is planning on attacking Bill Clinton, her husband, and her for the treatment of women that were as involved with Bill

Clinton in the 1980s and 1990s. So it's going to be an unpleasant debate for her, too.

But if she is seen as responding to an attack from Donald Trump, I think it might be to her favor.

PARKER: Interesting stuff, and a pretty compelling situation. Larry Sabato joining us from

Charlottesville. Larry, thank you as ever. Appreciate it.

SABATO: Thank you.

PARKER: Though be sure to watch Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton face off in their second presidential debate just hours from now right here on CNN.

It's a town hall format at Washington University in St. Louis moderated by our own Anderson Cooper and ABC's Martha Raddatz, that's at 5:00 a.m. in

Abu Dhabi, 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong.

It's getting pretty hard to keep track of where different Republicans stand with Trump, to be honest with you. But we have you covered. Head over to

CNN.com for a detailed list. We'll tell you who is sticking with him and who is abandoning him.

Well, the controversy in the U.S. race for president have certainly a few eyebrows. But we couldn't keep our eyes off at least one of the vice

presidential candidates. In your Parting Shots today, Jeanne Moos reports on the ups and downs of Tim Kaine's brows.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You could say Tim Kaine browbeat his opponent..

KAINE: Slobs.

MOOS: ...with his eyebrows.

KAINE: As he said that makes me smart.

MOOS: The debate was best summed up by "The Grinch."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a wonderful night for eyebrows.

MOOS: From the first word Tim Kaine uttered -- his eyebrows rose to the occasion...

KAINE: That passion throughout their life.

MOOS: His left brow in particular.

KAINE: Twitter war with Ms. Universe.

MOOS: In the political universe Kaine is famous for his levitating brow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Time Kaine, of course, is the people's eyebrow.

MOOS: The brows first came to national attention back in 2006...

KAINE: My fellow Americans.

MOOS: As Kaine gave the Democratic response to the state of the union. The State of his Union.

KAINE: From huge surpluses...

MOOS: The state of his brows was up.

KAINE: When we work together.

MOOS: Though the left brow seemed to work separately.

Tim Kaine's eyebrow must have its own Twitter account: clear eyes, full brows, can't lose. By the time he was nominated for VP, Kaine seemed to

have tamed his brows a bit.

They were no longer the furry caterpillars of a decade ago.

KAINE: And it's an honor tonight.

MOOS; But even the more buttoned down brows of Tuesday's debate launched gifs and tweets

speculation that came prep for the debate by lifting weights with his eyebrows.

"Can we all be honest and admit that this VP debate is really about eyebrows versus no eyebrows? Fun fact, Mike Pence doesn't have eyebrows,

read another tweet.

(on camera): The Democrats definitely don't think Kaine's eyebrows are low brow.

(voice-over): They flaunt them on t-shirts. Kaine himself Instagramed a pumpkin with an arched brow last Halloween.

KAINE: I have an uncontrollable left eyebrow.

MOOS: He once gave Jon Stuart a button. An eyebrow raising debate maybe a destruction, but how bad can it be being compared to Spoc and the Rock.

KAINE: He trash talks the...

MOOS: Jeanne Moos...

KAINE: Hard work.

MOOS: ...CNN...

KAINE: There's a better way.

MOOS: ...New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PARKER: Great stuff. I'm Nick Parker. That was Connect the World. Thank you for watching.

END