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Connect the World
Remaining Jungle Residents Set Tents on Fire; Clinton, Trump in Florida; Newt Gingrich Battles Megyn Kelly on Fox News; Russia's Troll Factories. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired October 26, 2016 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[11:00:14] HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It is so great to be back in Florida.
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to win the state of Florida.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAIN ASHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A prized state in the U.S. presidential campaign and a new poll has Trump edging into the lead there.
Clinton is wooing voters in Florida at this hour as Trump opens a new hotel just blocks from the White House. We are live in Washington in just a
moment.
Plus, France's most notorious migrant camp ablaze and makeshift shelters there are torched. Local authorities say the camp will be shut by the end
of the day.
Also...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right now a group of ISIS fighters is the target.
Cheers erupt as they're hit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: We take you inside a U.S. base in Iraq as the fight for Mosul heats up with reports of
hundreds of ISIS reinforcements arriving from Syria. A full report just ahead.
Welcome to Connect the World. I'm Zain Asher sitting in for Becky Anderson.
We begin with a significant shift in a must win state. Donald Trump, a new poll just released, shows that all his focus on Florida might actually be
paying off. The Bloomberg Politics survey finds Republican presidential candidate now has the edge on Democrat Hillary Clinton, 45 percent to 43
percent, and that is, by the way, well within the margin of error, but it's still welcome news for a candidate who has been consistently behind in most
polls.
Our latest CNN poll of polls updated just hours ago shows that Clinton maintains her lead though nationwide by a 7 point margin. You see her
there, 47 percent, Donald Trump behind at 40 percent.
Now, if you're the underdog this late in the game, you have to make sure that every second counts to stage a comeback, so Trump's detour from the
campaign trail this morning is certainly raising something eyebrows. Any minute now, take a look at this, he's due at a ribbon cutting ceremony for
his new Trump International Hotel in Washington.
Now, Trump's campaign manager is defending his decision to promote a business venture just
13 days before the election. She says that he has the most active campaign schedule of the two candidates by far adding, and I'm quoting for you here,
nobody accuses Donald Trump of taking time off. We don't even know when he sleeps or if he does.
And by the way, we're also keeping an eye on Lake Worth, Florida where Hillary Clinton
is due to speak at a rally any minute now. She's celebrating her birthday on the campaign trail today while focusing on getting out the vote.
We have two live reports on both candidates now. Sunlen Serfaty is at Trump's hotel in Washington and Manu Raju is covering the Clinton Campaign
from our Washington bureau.
So, Sunlen, let me begin with you. So the fact that Donald Trump 13 days before the election is
focusing on his business ventures, does that show that he's sort of prepared if you will, internally to accept the fact that he might actually
lose this election?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly, Zain, is atypical to see a
presidential candidate take any sort of break two weeks to election day. And to step off the campaign trail in any way.
For Donald Trump's case, it is just for a morning, then he is go to go to North Carolina, have
two events later today. But this is a pattern that we have seen throughout the course of this campaign from Donald Trump, prioritizing his business
interests and really cross promoting kind of muddling his presidential campaign with his business interests. And he has held up his successes as
a businessman as a cornerstone of his campaign, said that is one of the reasons that he believes he would make a good president. And certainly
we've seen the defense coming from the campaign that you you alluded to in the intro saying, look, Donald Trump does have a busy schedule and the
American voters want to see his successes.
So he's certainly putting that on display this morning here at Trump Tower here in Washington, D.C. where this is not a campaign event, the campaign
says, but is solely about this hotel -- Zain.
ASHER: And just Sunlen, just looking ahead to November 9, the day after election day, how much has Donald Trump's brand actually suffered given his
controversial campaign?
SERFATY: Yeah, that is a big question. I think that much will be seen after November 8. How his business is potentially recovered. There has
been some anecdotal evidence that voters in polls say that they are less likely to go stay at Trump hotels, go play at the Trump golf courses, go
buy the Trump brand because of the rhetoric on the campaign. But we'll see win or lose how he is affected beyond November 8.
[11:05:10] ASHER: All right, Sunlen Serfaty live for us there in Washington.
I want to bring in Manu Raju.
So, Manu, you're covering the Clinton campaign today. One message that Clinton has for her supporters is do not be complacent. Is that her
biggest fear at this point, that Democrats will be so confident that they're going to win that people just don't show up to vote?
MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is eventually going to be, as most elections are, turnout, getting out your
voters to the polls. And if folks believe that they're going to win this race, a lot of people may think that they may not -- there's no reason to
show up, especially since a lot of these voters who tend not to show up are maybe younger voters, more progressive voters, who are not fans of Hillary
Clinton.
If they feel like there is no reason to vote for Hillary Clinton, they will not do so. So that is a big concern. So in some ways there's polls
showing Donald Trump ahead by two points gives the Clinton campaign something to point to and say, hey, this race is absolutely not over.
And it's also -- it comes as a number of Clinton surrogates, top Clinton surrogates, are out trying to rallying the base, get people out to the
polls, build Clinton campaigning across North Carolina, also Chelsea, as well. So you'll see a lot of these Clinton surrogates and her -- Clinton
herself making the case very clearly take these voters need to show up otherwise they could hand Donald Trump an unexpected victory come election
day, Zain.
ASHER: So, Manu, one piece of negative news that Hillary Clinton is dealing with right now is of course what we saw over the past few days with
the Obamacare premiums set to rise by an average 22 to 25 percent. I'm just curious, could this hurt Democrats? And how does Hillary Clinton turn
this around. How does she spin this?
RAJU: This could be a big problem for Democrats. The reason why that Republicans have not really had much of an issue to campaign on, they've
been at war with their own nominee. They've had a lot of distractions, finally they have some news that they could galvanize their party behind,
which is one issue that actually unites Republicans, so in that sense it's very good news politically for Republicans.
Now, Hillary Clinton's message all along is that Obamacare needs fixes. And she's the one who is willing to fix the program. We shouldn't repeal
Obamacare and leave a lot of people without health insurance. We should do something about the costs.
But clearly as she's running essentially for a third term of President Barack Obama, she is going to inherit a lot of the problems. And one of
those problems is the rising cost of health care in this country. So it's certainly a political headache for the party right now at a key time in
this race, Zain.
ASHER: So the Obamacare premiums rising obviously bad new. But one sort of piece of
good news, I guess, is the fact that Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, is supporting Hillary
Clinton. How does Hillary Clinton capitalize on that? I mean, is it worth capitalizing on it, because a lot of people are saying it's no surprise
given that Colin Powell actually supported Obama the last few times.
RAJU: Yeah, that's right. And the Trump people and the Republicans aligned with Donald
Trump will say that, look, you don't want to give the keys back to people who represent a continuation of the Bush policies or the Clinton policies,
and Colin Powell in a lot of ways is that.
But at the same time, he's very well respected, particularly among the military rank and file
here in the United States and as well as among more moderate Republicans and it comes just at the time that Hillary Clinton is trying to make the
case to moderate Republicans that it's okay to vote for her because you could trust her in the White House. One reason why she can say you can
trust me is that people like Colin Powell are supporting me. So clearly they view
this as a net positive in the Clinton campaign. We look for that to be a message as something to point to in the coming days, Zain.
ASHER: All right. Manu Raju, Sunlen Serfaty, appreciate you both being with us. Thank you so much.
RAJU: Thank you.
ASHER: Right. I want to turn to Europe now. It has been a dismal symbol of the migrant crisis there. The Jungle, the migrant camp in northern
France, is now being torn down and it is meeting a very fiery end.
Take a look at this, migrants actually set set the shelters ablaze, sending fires through the heart of that settlement. More than 4,000 migrants have
already been bused to other parts of France as a part of a plan to resettle them.
Let's go right now to Melissa Bell. She's live at the camp in Calais. So, Melissa, just explain to us why would migrants set these camps on fire. I
mean, is this purely a symbol of resistance?
MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very much so. And that is something that the NGOs who have been working here for the last few months,
Zain, have confirmed to us. Overnight, we saw a few of those fires lit, the local authorities explaining by the morning that
this was a custom that when the migrants left a shelter, they burned a lot of anger here on the part of NGOs this morning. We say not at all. This
was very much in protest at what was being done with them, an expression of their anger, frustration and desperation.
You have to understand that this wasteland behind me, which is now the charred remains of The Jungle, was home to 10,000 migrants according to
those NGOs. Until the evacuation process began on Monday morning, people who had brought with them the hope of getting to the United Kingdom.
And a real sort of life had been built up here, Zain. There were shops. There were hair dressers, there were vegetable patches, the life that what
created out of nothing and sustained on the hope of one day making it to the United Kingdom. And the migrants, if they've been able to leave as
quietly as they have, the NGOs are explaining that simply because they warned them. They said you really do have to go, because otherwise it's
going to get violent.
And so the violence of previous demolitions was avoided.
And as you say, thousands have now gone voluntarily from the camp, more than 5,000 now, according to the very latest government figures, those that
had stayed were very reluctant to go, and expressed that anger at having -- I mean, made to do so, being expelled. So final indignity the believed at
the end of what's been an extraordinarly perilous journey for so many of them, and one too far.
Those fires were very difficult to contain for much of the morning, but as you can see have largely been put out. And there is very little left here
this afternoon of what was the home of so many people until Monday morning.
ASHER: So, Melissa, I'm just trying to get a sense of how many migrants are actually left in the camp. And I know that French authorities are
saying that they expect the camp or the resettlement to be closed by the end of the day. What happens to the migrants who are determined to stay at
all costs?
BELL: Now, the woman who is in charge of this operation, the chief of police of this region, has been speaking out over the course of the last
few hours, Zain, saying that all the migrants have now been evacuated, the bulldozers will be able to come in this evening.
But we have been here all day and we continue to see hundreds of high grants who are still on
the site, many of them children. They have been registered with French authority, they made their way down to prove who they are, they have the
wrist bands to prove that they're underage minors. Many of their fates still hang in the balance tonight, Zain, and that question hasn't been
resolved.
Some are hoping to meet found that they have family that they have in the United Kingdom and they hope that their cases will be resolved in the right
way and fairly quickly. Others, though, have no family in the United Kingdom and are still hoping to benefit from that deal between the United
Kingdom and France, still hoping to make to the United Kingdom, and the fate of those hundreds of unaccompanied miners who remain on this site
tonight has yet to be resolved.
ASHER: All right, Melissa Bell live for us there in Calais. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Right, still to come behind the scenes in the battle for Mosul, CNN takes you to an American
base at the center of the fight against ISIS, a look at some of the latest technology.
Also ahead, the spreading misinformation in the west, the work of an alleged Russian troll factory is exposed. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:15:17] ASHER: This heartwrenching video that you're look at is of families that were torn
apart by ISIS coming together after years of being apart when Iraqi forces took back control of their village from the militants leaving them free to
go.
Some fell to the floor to kiss their parent's feet, obviously a sign of deep love and respect.
These reunions happened at a camp for displaced people inside Iraq.
More than a week into that offensive and we will continue to follow it closely for you. You are watching CNN and this is Connect the World. I'm
Zain Asher. Welcome back.
Witnesses inside Mosul tell CNN they're seeing hundreds of ISIS militants pour in from ISIS
Syrian strong hold Raqqa. Our Michael Holmes is along the front lines near Mosul.
So, Michael, these are largely suicide squads and they basically give us a taste of just how fierce this resistance is going to get.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It really is. And, Zain, you know, it's funny, it's only a couple days ago we were talking to a
senior Sunni tribal leader up in that area who was saying that he had been seeing ISIS fighter there, families and even leaders leaving Mosul headed
for Syria in their hundreds. But what we've seen is traffic coming the other way now, residents in Mosul telling us multiple sources saying that
hundreds of hardcore fighters have been coming into Mosul from Raqqa.
Now, these are mainly foreign fighters, we're told, and they came in dressed in distinctive uniforms. They were wearing suicide belts. They
also had light arms with them. And clearly these are suicide squads, men prepared to die in the defense of Mosul.
Now, we've also been hearing from residents inside Mosul something that had been predicted earlier and that is ISIS fighters pulling back from the east
of the city crossing over the Tigris River and heading toward the western part of the city and also being told that the
four main bridges over the Tigris have been rigged with explosives, and you can guess what will happen to those when Iraqi forces enter Mosul.
In the western side of the city, you have the old city, narrow roads, a bit of a rabbit warren, and very difficult for the Iraqi military armored
vehicles to navigate, and obviously gives a bit of an advantage to the incumbents when it comes to urban warfare.
So ISIS has had a couple years to prepare for the defense of Mosul and it would appear that some of those plans are being put into effect, Zain.
ASHER: Michael, when you think about the resistance and the sort of asymmetrical warfare, what are the options for civilians who are still
trapped inside the city?
HOLMES: They have very few options other than to stay put. And in fact Iraqi politicians and the Iraqi government and also the Kurdistan political
leadership were telling people in Mosul to stay put, hunker down, basically survive this if they could.
Part of the reason for that is that the facilities for people who are likely to flee this -- well, there could be 200,000 or 300,000 of them,
more, there's a million people still left in Mosul -- the facilities aren't there to accommodate them and deal with them. So you had authorities
saying basically hunker down.
They don't have a lot of options for getting out either. There was talk of humanitarian corridors, but ISIS isn't about to allow that, when you know a
million civilians or so are there protection, their currency for them it is going to be dark days ahead for those civilians.
The battle for Mosul is going to be long and it is going to be bloody. And the civilians inside the city obviously fearing, have great dread for what
is to come, Zain.
ASHER: All right, Michael Holmes live for us there. Thank you so much.
Well, ISIS has had two years to plot how exactly they are going to hold on to Mosul doing things like planting explosives and booby traps all over the
place, as Michael was just mentioning. But as our Arwa Damon found out, arrest with Arwa Damon found out, the U.S.-led coalition had been
making preparations of its own.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is Qayyara West, America's largest forward position in Iraq, at the forefront of the battle
for Mosul.
(on camera): From the moment you get a call, you can mobile in this and out firing on to an enemy position within 2 minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.
DAMON (voice-over): Lt. Keegan Aldridge shows us the latest generation of precision artillery.
LT. KEEGAN ALDRIDGE, U.S. ARMY: So we are the further reaching artillery system on the battlefield, highly accurate, highly precise because our
system minimizes the collateral damage because there is a lot of urban targets that we are prosecuting.
DAMON: This facility was a base during the U.S. led occupation of Iraq. Some of the blast falls are from those days. When ISIS was finally driven
out in August, they destroyed the runway. Mounts of earth hid bombs and building were booby trapped. Now the runway is clear and hundreds of troops
are based here.
(on camera): Everyone has their gas mask?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
DAMON (voice-over): That is because obnoxious smoke from a fire set by ISIS at a nearby sulfur plant, which cast a dense pall over a huge area. Inside
the joint operation center, commanders closely watch drone feeds that we cannot see. Right now, a group of ISIS fighters is the target. Cheers erupt
as they are hit.
[11:21:00] MAJOR CHRISTOPHER PARKER, COALITION SPOKESMAN: The fire support that we have been providing for this operation has been unprecedented.
Since the Mosul liberation kicked off, we've dropped over 1,700 munitions.
DAMON: But if all goes according to plan, the operation will have to change.
PARKER: The civilian population does complicate the situation and avoiding civilian casualties is a very high priority for the coalition obviously. So
it will change the way that we look at our targeting.
DAMON: ISIS has long shown that it's a determined enemy.
(on camera): And the enemy always has a vote.
PARKER: I believe in what I have seen from our Iraqi and Peshmerga forces, the cooperation, the support that the coalition is providing, I believe
that our vote will outweigh their vote.
DAMON (voice-over): But what is a win in a country that has already lost so much?
Arwa Damon, CNN, Qayyara air base, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: NATO defense ministers are meeting today with the alliance pressing members to commit troops for its biggest military buildup on Russia's
borders in decades. The meeting comes just as the first pictures have been published of a new Russian intercontinental ballistic missile. Russian
state media says the SATAN 2, as its called, could actually wipe out an area the size of Texas or
France.
So let's talk more about this with our senior international correspondent Matthew Chance who is joining us from Moscow.
So, Matthew, what more do we know about this missile?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was commissioned back in 2010, so it's been sort of a very badly kept secret by the
Russians. If its military abilities are real, which is everybody expects, which is that's it quite a formidable weapon, a very formidable weapon, it
can hit any target on either side of the United States for instance, it's powerful enough to destroy a country, a single missile, the size of France.
It can carry up to 15 warheads. It can evade defenses quite effectively as well.
And so it's a pretty awesome sort of missile. But hopefully it won't ever be used, but the real political value of this is that it shows that Russia
is still a nuclear super power, that it can still compete, still has parity with the United States when it comes to the nuclear weapons. I think that
is its main importance at the moment in Russia.
ASHER: So, Matthew, I want to turn now to Russian's role in the U.S. elections because we're getting more insight into these Russian internet
troll factories that are designed to spread misinformation about the U.S. election. What more can you tell us?
CHANCE: Yeah, troll factories have been around for a couple of years now. They first emerged into the media in 2014 during the conflict in Ukraine
where bloggers paid by presumably the Kremlin were online inside these offices en masse kind of -- not hacking, but really kind of infiltrating
comment sections and online blogs and filling them through -- filled with disinformation.
Well, we've spoken to one woman who says that she was part of this so- called troll army and those that troll factories are now focused very much on the U.S. presidential election. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the idea that the Kremlin pays people to spread disinformation on the internet has been
dismissed by the Russian authorities, but one woman who says she was employed to do just that has told CNN that Russia's so-called troll
factories are now focused on manipulating online debate around the U.S. presidential election.
It all comes amid allegations by U.S. officials that Russia has been trying to influence domestic American politics.
There's already an official U.S. allegation of state sponsored Russian hacking, dumping sensitive data to influence the U.S. presidential vote.
TRUMP: Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails.
CHANCE: But there are also concerns the Kremlin is using the internet to manipulate political opinion.
Can Russia, according to one former Russian internet troll, control the United States, too?
LYUDMILA SAVCHUK, FORMER INTERNET TROLL (through translator): The U.S. elections are the key issue for the Kremlin. Of course, Russia has
invested a lot of effort into them. That's why the troll factories are working, I have no doubt.
CHANCE: It was during the Russian-backed rebellion in Ukraine in 2014 that evidence first emerged of pro-Kremlin troll factories filled with bloggers
like Lyudmila Savchuk, paid to spread false information online about the conflict.
They were even caught on camera in this office building in St. Petersburg, an army of trolls secretly filmed by a former employee, spent 12 hours a
day, according to Savchuk, praising the Kremlin and berating its enemies in blogs in internet chat rooms.
[11:25:36] SAVCHUK (through translator): It's so sophisticated and adaptive that it's almost impossible to recognize. This is paid propaganda
to brainwash and to make people believe all the lies spread by the Kremlin.
CHANCE: It all fits with what U.S. officials say is a much broader Russian effort to sway the presidential vote.
Russian state media is overtly pro-Trump in its coverage. Washington says there's mounting
evidence that Russia is supplying WikiLeaks with hacked emails from the Clinton campaign. The Russian president has dismissed such allegations as
election hysteria.
CLINTON: We have never in the history of our country been in a situation where an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard to influence the
outcome of the election.
CHANCE: All to harness the power of the internet, not to promote democracy, but to try and undermine it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE: So, when it comes to any of these allegations about hacking, about dumping of data or about these troll farms, the Kremlin has been very clear
to try and distance itself as much as possible from those allegations. But, you know, what the U.S. officials are accusing Russia of is
essentially unprecedented, not just using espionage or cyber espionage in this case, to gather information, but then to use that information in a
partisan way to try and influence the outcome of domestic American politics. And that's a red line, I think, from a U.S. point of view that
the Russians, although even their Soviet predecessors up until now never crossed.
ASHER: Yeah, it's certainly a big fear. Matthew Chance live for us there. Thank you so much
Live from CNN Center, this is Connect the World. Coming up, you've heard Donald Trump tell his supporters to ignore the polls, but now Hillary
Clinton is saying it, as well. Believe it or not she is, but for entirely different reasons. That story is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(HEADLINES)
[11:30:58] ASHER: And tensions are simmering in Venezuela a day after the opposition voted to put President Nicolas Maduro on trial. These are anti-
government protests in Caracas. Other protests are happening all across the nation. Smaller pro-government rallies are also popping up as well.
CNN's Shasta Darlington is following the latest developments in Venezuela from Brazil. She joins us live now.
So, Shasta, is there any fears that these protests could turn seriously violent?
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's what everybody is watching to see, Zain. As you said, Venezuelans are also taking to the
streets in what are expected to be massive demonstrations across the country, but the biggest ones in Caracas, these are aimed at the embattled
President Nicolas Maduro. The protesters say they have had some difficulty getting to the protests because ten subway stations have been closed, other
roads have been closed off.
But they're calling this the take back Venezuela day. They really want to show that they are determined to have President Maduro removed from office
and their anger grew when the government blocked efforts to hold a nationwide referendum that might have had him voted out of office this
year.
According to polls, 80 percent of Venezuelans think that he should step down and yet last week the government blocked their efforts to try to have
this done through a plebiscite.
So now the fury of the opposition is just taking off and we're seeing it not only in the streets, but also in the national assembly which is
controlled by opposition lawmakers. And that's why we saw them voting last night to launch proceedings against Maduro to see is this is a way they
could have him removed from office.
The problem there of course, it's more of a symbolic gesture given that in the end it's the
supreme court which supports the government that would have the final say.
So there's a lot at play here today. One of the concerns is that you could have clashes between pro-government and anti-government demonstrations.
There is also a significant security presence around the presidential offices, because the opposition protesters said
they are going to try and march on his offices.
So these are all areas where there is concern there could be clashes, there could be violence, that certainly wouldn't be the first time. But then
there is just the underlying situation of desperation. This is the third year of a crippling recession in Venezuela with the worst inflation in the
world, with shortages of even the most basic foods and medicines that have sent thousands of Venezuelans pouring
across the borders into Colombia and Brazil.
And the question, you know, how long can they put up with this. And obviously the demonstration today is one way for them to show they just
won't take it anymore, but it isn't clear where this will go in the end, Zain.
ASHER: Shasta, in the short term, though, President Nicholas Maduro is likely to cling on to power, because his supporters control the supreme
court, as you mentioned. But he is still calling this a parliamentary coup. And I'm just wondering how is he going to respond to
the mounting pressure for him to step down?
DARLINGTON: There are a number of different tactics. One thing we've seen, for example, the Vatican has now offered to mediate talks between the
government and the on opposition. This happened Pope Francis himself received Maduro earlier this week. They say they're looking for some type
of national conciliation, and so the government is jumping on that yes, we'll have this national dialogue.
Well, we'll reach some agreements. The problem is, of course, a lot of opposition leaders are saying we want anything do with this. We've seen
this before. This is a stalling tactic so that the government can try and deflect some of the frustration and put off all of these attempts to have
Maduro removed from office.
But what we saw yesterday is the armed forces came out and supported this national dialogue. So that certainly shows very squarely where the armed
forces stand in this that is key, Zain.
[11:35:03] ASHER: All right, Shasta Darlington live for us there. Thank you so much.
Now an update on the race for the White House for you. Let's take you back to the campaign trail in Florida. We have waiting right now for Hillary
Clinton to appear at this get out the vote rally in Lake Worth any time now. Our producers are telling me that she's set to appear in roughly
around ten minutes. We will let you know if she says anything noteworthy.
But in the meantime, she is advising her supporters to pay no attention to the polls. And that's a message that may surprise you since she's actually
favored to win the presidential election. She's been doing quite well in the polls.
Clinton, thoug, does not want her supporters to become complacent and staying home on election day.
Actually right not to let down her guard, because a new poll just released shows Donald Trump is actually gaing ground on her in Florida. Take a look
at this poll, 45 percent to 43 percent, very narrow margin it is actually within the margin of error.
Well, Florida may not be a red state or a blue state, it's known all over the world as actually an orange state. Florida's agricultural industry is
worth billions of dollars and its orange growers are among the country's most famous.
CNN's Richard Quest visited an organic farm on the outskirts of Orlando to get a sense of the mood coming up on election day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The orange groves at Uncle Matt's farm stretch as far as the eye can see. Acres of
green. They don't look like ripe oranges yet. It will be some weeks before they can be picked. But Ben is ready and he has been at the job for years.
(on camera) Where did this organic push come from for Uncle Matt's? Where did it come from?
BENNY MCLEAN, PRODUCTION MANAGER, UNCLE MATT'S ORGANIC: Well --
QUEST: You don't just wake up and say I'm going to start an organic fruit company.
MCLEAN: Well, Matt, my youngest son, the company is actually named Uncle Matt from him. Rallied the whole family and he asked my dad -- we all
called him Pappy -- he said, "Pappy, can we grow organic citrus in central Florida?" You know and my dad kind of bowed his nay up at Matt and he just
said, "Matt, what you think we did for hundred 50 years? Nobody ever told us it was organic. That's the way we used to grow it."
QUEST: Was it a bit like having to learning to walk again?
MCLEAN: A little tougher than that. No. It is a big challenge.
QUEST: Did you have to be convinced first of all?
MCLEAN: Well, when my dad told me it could be done, that's all I needed.
QUEST: Yes, did you have to be convinced that you wanted to do it?
MCLEAN: Oh, yes. You know, if you're in agriculture, you love a challenge.
QUEST (voice-over): Whether you're an organic farmer or a conventional grower, the big problem remains greening. It's a disease that affects the
orange trees themselves. And it seems no one is immune.
MCLEAN: You see the deficiency showing in the leaf?
QUEST (on camera): Yes.
MCLEAN: OK, that's typical of greening. That's what you see.
QUEST: It's effecting the immune system of the tree, but it's not the fruit?
MCLEAN: Well, it does, but it's in a small way. OK?
QUEST: But the fruit can still be picked --
MCLEAN: Oh, yes. You can still pick it and eat it.
QUEST: It's very serious?
MCLEAN: It's very serious. Richard, it can literally wipe this industry out. Ok. Not just because we're organic, the conventional boys have the
same problem.
QUEST: What for you is the biggest issue in this general election?
MCLEAN: In this general election, Richard, I'm going to put it to you this way. Regardless of who wins, I don't think they're going to solve greening.
And my biggest problem right now in the citrus industry is we don't have a cure for greening.
QUEST: How are you going to explain this election to your 12 grandchildren?
MCLEAN: But it's going to be written in a history book. Right? Because I've never experienced anything like this. We're all going to learn as we go.
You learn to adjust, Richard. Whether you like it or not.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: You learn to adjust whether you like or not.
Well, the rising cost of health care is Donald Trump's latest weapon and one of the Republican
candidate's most vocal fiery supporters is Rudy Giuliani. Earlier, the former New York mayor engaged in a heated conversation with CNN's Chris
Cuomo. His target: the Affordable Care Act better than known as Obamacare.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROSSTALK)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Here's the problem with Obamacare, Obamacare's got a lot
of problems...
RUDY GIULIANI, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: You can keep your doctor. You can keep your insurance. Lie. Lie.
It's going to save you money. Big lie.
CUOMO: Obamacare has problems, OK.
(CROSSTALK)
[11:40:01] GIULIANI: Unaffordable Care Act, Democrat.
CUOMO: There are a lot of problems. The GOP wouldn't work to fix any of them.
GIULIANI: They wouldn't even negotiate tort reform with the GOP.
CUOMO: And you know what, and as a result, because the Democrats forced this down the Republican's throat, the ACA, they decided to punish them.
And they won't work with the Democrats to fix any of the problems that they could fix.
GIULIANI: Oh, that's a bunch of nonsense. They created it. They created it themselves. They cut out bipartisan support and pushed it through.
They pushed it through.
CUOMO: They passed it without the GOP, I said that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: So, that was one heated interview. But we want to tell you about another cable news interview where things got really he heated when Megyn
Kelly, Fox news host, asked Trump supporter Newt Gingrich, about the allegations of sexual misconduct against the Republican advocate. Take a
listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS: If Trump is a sexual predator that is...
NEWT GINGRICH, FRM. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: He's not a sexual predator.
KELLY: OK, that's your opinion. I'm not taking a position on it.
GINGRICH: You could not defend that statement. No, I'm sick and tired of people like you using language that's inflammatory that's not true. When
you want to go back to through the tapes of your show recently? You are fascinated with sex and you don't care about public policy. That's what I
get out of watching you tonight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: So, Kelly concluded the interview by telling Gingrich you can take your anger issues and spend some time working on them.
Gingrich has actually now tweeted that Kelly is wrong, quote, unquote, I don't have anger management issues, but I do have media bias issues.
Brian Stelter, host of CNN's Reliable Sources joins me live now for more on this.
Brian just take our international audience through what exactly happened here. I mean it started off as a fairly normal interview and then Newt
Gingrich ended up telling Megyn Kelly that she was fascinated with sex. Just explain that to us.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: And she denied that. She said what she's fascinated by is how women are treated, especially by powerful
men, one potential office holder, Donald Trump. This is an example of the gender war really being front and center in this presidential election.
Sometimes it's only the subtext, it's the not talked about directly, but the prospect of the first woman president in the United States and all of
the allegations against Donald Trump by women accusing him of assault. That really kind of come together in this argument between Megyn Kelly and
Newt Gingrich.
It's not always talked about, but gender -- race, gender and class are sort of all themes in this
election and gender in particular came up very explicitly in this conversation between Gingrich and Kelly.
I think what we're seeing are Trump surrogates like beginning Gingrich almost at the end of
their ropes and you can understand why, and you might sympathize with what they're going through. Trump is down in virtually every poll. He is being
battered by a number of very critical news stories whether it's about his businesses, about these past issues with women allegedly, et cetera, et
cetera.
There is not much these Trump supporters can say, and so what we end up sighing
are the angry arguments with the likes of Newt Gingrich.
ASHER: So, Brian, I mean, obviously the argument started with Newt Gingrich accusing Megyn Kelly of media bias. I understand that a lot of
Republicans think that the media is liberal, but surely Fox News doesn't fall into that category.
STELTER: That is part of what was so strange about this. Yes, I mean Fox News is designed
to be the anti-media sort of. It's designed to be a conservative counterpoint to the rest of what they say is the liberal media.
You know, Newt Gingrich usually appears on opinionated shows like Sean Hannity's and Bill O'Reilly's. Megyn Kelly's show is a bit different on
Fox News. She is more of a news person, some would say she leans to the right sometimes, but she's more of a news person and he didn't seem
prepared to be challenged the way kelly was challenging him.
Gingrich did say one thing at the beginning that was very true, he said people are living in two parallel universes right now, two alternate
realities and that could not be more true. We see that in arguments like this with Gingrich saying the media is spending too much time talking about
the sexual assault allegations, the media should be talking about Clinton.
The reality is if you choose you choose your own news, if you pick and choose where you're getting your news, you are going to see one side or the
other. People have got to have more of a balanced diet in order to understand what is going on with this campaign.
And to the extent that people are off on one side or the other side or the other side, certainly that is detrimental to understand what is going on in
this election.
ASHER: So all of these people, you know, like Chris Christie who I put into this category, Newt Gingrich who have defended Trump until the very
end, now that there is a chance, a significant chance I would that he is probably not going to win. We don't know what's going to happen, but he
might not win come November 8, what do those people do on November 9?
STELTER: Well, Chris Christie, to name one, since you mentioned Christie, he has been
relatively quiet. He hasn't been giving interviews in recent weeks. He hasn't been visible campaigning for Trump.
So maybe that's one answer is for someone to quietly slowly back away.
Another example would be Rudy Giuliani. You showed him getting into a scrape with Chris Cuomo, arguing down to the last day on behalf of Trump.
What happens to these folks after election day is intriguing. Do they say by Trump if he loses, do they continue to support what Trump was standing
for, or do they break with Trump and try to work for a different kind of Republican Party in the future?
It is a more extreme example of what happened in 2012 with Mitt Romney's loss, with real intraspection, and soul searching that happened in 2012.
Will we see that same kind of thing in 2016 or not? That will be one of the questions for November 9, I suppose.
[11:45:34] ASHER: So as a media analyst, who came out of that interview looking better, Megyn or Newt?
STELTER: Well, Donald Trump's aides are attacking Kelly. They're saying that she's biased. They're saying that she's a fool.
The reality, though, is that Kelly's star on the rise among moderate, among normal viewer he is who don't feel quite as invested in this campaign as
Newt Gingrich does, she was able to hold her own and stay cool while Gingrich was getting angrier and angrier. That is
an impressive broadcasting skill.
And I bet you there were a number of TV executives who spotted that last night. Her contract is up next summer by the way.
ASHER: I'm going to guess she's going to be staying on for a lot more money. But you're right, she was very, very calm during that interview.
It impressed all of us. Brian Stelter, live for us there. Thank you so much.
All right, we'd like to update you on a story we brought you yesterday here on Connect the World. The Pentagon is suspending its efforts to get some
army veterans to pay back bonuses it gave them to reenlist while the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were raging.
America's Defense Secretary Ash Carter said earlier, let me quote for you here, this process
has dragged on too long for too many service members, too many cases have languished without action, and that is unfair to service members and to
taxpayers.
Right. You're watching Connect the World. Coming up in today's Parting Shots, we meet a photographer who camouflaged herself to get up close
images of rare wild pandas. We'll have those images just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love coconuts. I'm always happen when I see people around me taking coconuts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the age of 19, Adawarum Lugu Waziri (ph) set out to build her very own coconut empire. While still a student at university,
she founded Waziri (ph) enterprise, a coconut sales and distribution company.
UNIDENIIFIED FEMALE: From being a child, I've always had the business mind and also wanted to do things that would earn me something.
What we do is we have the wholesale and retail of coconuts. We take them bulk from the raw
areas and then sell to persons who want to do retail.
[11:50:04] UNIDENITIFIED FEMALE: Today, she has 90 acres, but her business was one that started small.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember my first transaction, my first time coming to the farm. I bought 280 coconuts. And then when I sold I got some money
out of it and (inaudible) so the next time I went, I bout 1,000 pieces, and then it went on and on until I'm able to get a lot.
I talk about 7,000, 8,000 in a week.
I have direct and indirect employees. For the indirect, I have about 50 workers. They include those who climb the coconuts trees, those who carry
them to the nearby roads and then the drivers. For the direct help, I have 25 of them. They go to the streets and they sell.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With the ability to sell across Ghana, at one point Lugu (ph) was one of the largest distributors in the country.
UNIDENITIFIED FEMALE: I want everyone individual in the world to be able to get familiar
with a coconut product. So in the future we are thinking of going into processing, so you can go to the supermarket and get the juice in a bottle,
you can get the food, you can use coconut soap, anything that has to do with coconuts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Since she started the company, Lugu (ph) has been nominated for four prizes at the Ghana start-up awards. Changmakers in
Ghana, Student Entrepreneur of the Year, Young Changmakers and Agribusiness of the Year.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would encourage anyone who wants to become an entrepreneur
that it's not a one day thing, it's a process you need to learn. And if you don't smart, you will end up facing obstacles and issues you were never
supposed to face in the first place.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: You are watching CNN and this is Connect the World. I'm Zain Asher. Welcome back.
Donald Trump has just taken the stage at the ribbon cutting ceremony for his new hotel in
Washington. These are live pictures. Just gone noon in Washington, D.C. Now Donald Trump has come under fire for taking a detour off the campaign
trail with just 13 days to go until election day.
Now, his critics say it shows that he's a lot more focused on building the brand of his business empire than on his presidential campaign, some say
that it might show that he's given up. But Trump's campaign manager is defending his decision to open this business. She said it shows that he
fixes and builds things adding, quote, it's the way he wants to repair America.
Photography can be awe inspiring, breathtaking, astonishing and even inspire the viewer to take action. That's why photographers go to such
great lengths sometimes to get that very perfect shot.
In today's Parting Shots, we meet a photographer who dressed like her furry subjects in an effort to protect them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMY VITALY, PHOTOGRAPHER: I do believe the power of an image can motivate change. It's such a gift to be able to do this. I found it's the stories
that motivate us are the ones that show some hope.
My name Amy Vitaly and I'm a photographer and I'm currently working on some stories for National Geographic about pandas.
China is performing a minor miracle. They are saving the panda who was on the edge of extinction and they are actually releasing captive born pandas
back into the wild. They're rewilding an icon.
So it turns out after one generation in captivity, pandas forget how to live in the wild. And you have to train them. The thing is, they don't of
want the captive born pandas to see humans. So we all have to dress up in these panda costumes.
We are camouflaged as this panda hope took her first steps into the wild. The director of the program saw this and came and gave me a hug and he said
thank you so much. And you will get to hold two baby pandas, President Obama he only held one.
The world is actually -- it's beautiful. There is goodness everywhere. We need to celebrate that. I just think there is a certain power in a still
image. And it's slower in today's really fast world. You know you can just stop and savor that and appreciate it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: All right, I'm Zain Asher and that was Connect the World. Thank you so much for watching.
END
