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CNN NEWSROOM

Trump vs. Clinton; U.S. Relationship with Philippines "Rock Solid"; U.S. Vets Demand Visas for Afghan Supporters; Chicago Marks 500th Homicide of 2016; Fox Settles with Carlson & "Handful" of other Women; Apple to Unveil Next General iPhone Wednesday. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired September 7, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:12] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour --

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: After months of radio silence a new CNN poll gives Donald Trump reason to boast again.

VAUSE: One American city, eight months and 500 murders -- Chicago's bloody milestone.

SESAY: And ailing Fox: the news network apologizes for alleged sexual harassment and pays out a $20-million settlement.

VAUSE: Hello, everybody. I'd like to welcome our viewers all around the world. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

The race for the White House is now a statistical dead heat according to a new CNN/ORC poll. The national survey of likely voters shows Donald Trump with 45 percent, Hillary Clinton as you see there with 43 percent -- that's well within the margin of error.

VAUSE: On Tuesday Trump questioned Clinton's ability to be commander in chief, saying she would be no match for Russia's Vladimir Putin. Clinton fired back, slamming Trump's plans to fight ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Putin looks at her and he laughs -- ok. He laughs. Putin looks at Hillary Clinton and he smiles -- boy, would he like to see her. That would be easy.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He's talked about letting Syria become a free zone for ISIS. Look at the map -- Donald. He's talked about sending in American ground troops. Not on my watch. That is not what we are going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Trump also unveiled a list of 88 retired military leaders endorsing his candidacy.

VAUSE: Joining us now Democratic strategist Dave Jacobson and Republican consultant John Thomas. Ok.

SESAY: Welcome. Good to have you guys here.

DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good to be back.

VAUSE: Now, here is something we have not heard a long time from Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Today much to the consternation of many, the new CNN poll was just released and Trump is winning. Trump is winning.

This is a movement. It's a movement. We're tired of incompetent people running our country into the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Happy Donald. He got in the polls, Trump was very (inaudible)

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: But how much of this is actually timing? Because, you know, the last time the CNN/ORC poll was held Clinton had that eight-point lead. It was at the end of the Democratic convention. She had a bounce. Trump was feuding with a gold star family.

This time the poll was conducted when the FBI was releasing a summary of, you know, Clinton's e-mail server controversy. So sow much of the timing is playing into this -- John? Dave -- sorry.

JACOBSON: Yes, no worries. I think you have to take these national polls with a grain of salt. The CNN poll also indicates that among registered voters Hillary Clinton is still up by three points. NBC put out a poll -- has Hillary Clinton up six points.

Look, I think the real game in town here is going to be those battleground states -- right. Now, the race is tightening, there's no doubt about that, in states like Ohio and Florida. But Hillary Clinton's still leading in a lot of these battleground states -- at least a handful of them.

And I think if you look at the Electoral College map all she has to do is really win in all the Democratic states that went Democratic in six of the last six presidential elections. Add Florida and she gets past that 270 Electoral College vote threshold. So that's really the play here, is looking at those battleground states.

JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: It's more than just timing. I think you look at Fox News' poll last week had Donald Trump within one of Hillary. Now -- you have to look at the trend lines.

SESAY: And did she cede ground by being out of the spotlight in August?

THOMAS: That's partially it. But I think it's more that it's the drip, drip, drip of these e-mails. Voter -- the e-mails are -- it's like a double threat. It undermines her in two ways. One is it undermines her in her trust numbers that are already problematic for her. And it also undermines her in the competency claim that she's so experienced, that she has more experience than Donald Trump. She can't be that competent because she's saying she didn't understand classification. So that's part of the problem.

And Donald Trump, look, he had the campaign shake-up but he's been remarkably on message. He took a bold move to go to Mexico. It largely worked out in his favor. And he's been focusing on Hillary Clinton and her problems, not Donald Trump and Gold Star families.

VAUSE: Does this explain the enthusiasm gap? Because look at these numbers that we have right now, and is this something, Dave, that the Clinton campaign should be concerned about? Because right now Trump supporters, if you look at these numbers, Trump supporters are a lot more enthusiastic about going out and voting than those within the Clinton campaign. So how do you explain this?

[00:05:03] JACOBSON: Look, I think there is an enthusiasm issue that the Clinton campaign has to address. And I think largely the issue is she hasn't been driving a message. She's sort of been siloed off and she's had her surrogates be the face of the campaign whether it's the campaign manager Robbie Mook or the chair, excuse me, John Podesta answering all these e-mail issues, the Clinton Foundation issues.

And we saw a real pivot over the last 48 hours where Hillary Clinton addressed reporters for the first in hundreds of days, sort of driving a message, going on the attack. And I think she needs to do more of that if she wants to electrify the base and inspire folks to get to the polls.

SESAY: She also said when she was speaking to reporters that she doesn't pay any attention to polls; that you know, the strategy is what it is and --

(CROSSTALK)

SESAY: -- they were going to keep going with the strategy. Good call?

JACOBSON: Well, look, clearly there's been a pivot, right? Because now she's making herself more open and accessible to reporters because she knows that she has to drive a message. And if she's sort of siloed off and allowing her surrogates to be the face of the campaign she's not going to drive the news cycle like Donald Trump or she would.

So I think there's been a clear shift in strategy. And I think she fundamentally understands that she has to be the voice and the face of this campaign if she wants to create news and buzz.

THOMAS: I think it's real simple: when you're ahead quit talking. She went into the witness protection program to let Trump dominate the cycle and make mistakes. Now Trump's not making mistakes. She's starting to fade in the polls. And she also is bad off script.

So what did she do? It was smart. She bought air time on ads. But that's not working so she has to switch it up.

VAUSE: You mentioned the air time on ads. Let's go to that right now because up until a few days ago Clinton had spent almost $133 million on advertising. Trump -- who only just recently started actually buying ad time, almost $30 million.

So for the Clinton campaign to have spent so much on advertising and to have this result in the polls, to have this race virtually dead heat, John, if you're looking at this would you say something is going wrong within the Clinton campaign?

THOMAS: Well, yes. The ad -- it just shows you that there's so much earned media coverage about this election cycle that advertising works. Dave and I both know it. But it can be undermined that quickly if a week's-long media cycle is a counter message to what the advertising is.

And so Hillary's smart to be spending but she's going to need more than that. She's going to need a great debate performance. She's going to need quite frankly for WikiLeaks not to have a bombshell.

SESAY: Can she win the battle to gain control of the narrative? You know, if Trump isn't putting his foot in his mouth and he's staying on message, can Hillary win -- because he's a master at that.

JACOBSON: Right. Well, I think that's the objective is she needs to get him off message. And the thing is, like, you could spark his interest with something like that through like a simple tweet. So I think her objective here needs to go in, get him off message, make him sort of not disciplined and get him to pivot onto some other issue whether it's the Khans or Judge Curiel or some of these other outrageous issues that he's really focused on throughout this campaign.

VAUSE: Did you listen to Trump today with General Flynn, I think it was? He was very measured. His tone was calm. He certainly wasn't the irrational bad-tempered, you know, crazy guy that the Clinton campaign is making him out to be.

But what was interesting is today we had this open letter from almost 90 military generals, military leaders endorsing Trump on the issue of national security. This comes, you know, after 50 Republicans from the national security realm said they would never vote for Trump.

Clinton has her own generals as well backing her. And this then gets to the question of the politicization of the military. Is there a point now where for the good of the military and for the line between the military and politics that this is going to stop?

THOMAS: I don't think you're going to see it stop because so much is at stake, you know. These leaders who endorsed Donald Trump were obviously very passionate about not just Donald Trump but the direction of the country especially from a national security standpoint. So you're not going to stop these guys from doing this. I just think there's too much at stake.

VAUSE: There's concern about the politicization of the military. You have Republican generals, you've got Democrat generals out.

SESAY: Is it any different from previous elections?

VAUSE: -- used to be.

THOMAS: You know, maybe they're a little bit more vocal. There might -- just because there's a lot more earned media attention to this cycle perhaps they're getting more coverage. But I know in every cycle we do. We always roll out, you know, law enforcement leaders and military leaders.

SESAY: Dave, isn't the national security conversation with these leaders and all that -- isn't that something Hillary Clinton would welcome? Because that brings into question the whole temperament and competency question, which you know --

JACOBSON: Precisely. I mean we're talking about a candidate, Donald Trump, who when asked, I think, a couple of weeks ago whether or not Russia had invaded Ukraine he said they hadn't. And of course they had through Crimea.

So look, I think national security is going to be front and center in this campaign, particularly in the debates. And I think she's got a significant leg up on him. He's going say I'm an international business leader but she was secretary of state. She's got relationships with leaders all across the globe and I think that's a right sort of ground for her to capitalize on in the debates just 20 days from now.

SESAY: We're all counting.

VAUSE: It will be a very big debate.

SESAY: September 26th -- all-day coverage here on CNN.

THOMAS: Thank you.

SESAY: Guys -- thank you.

[00:10:03] VAUSE: U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a town hall with young people in Laos in a few hours from now.

SESAY: He'll head out on a day trip to Luang Prabang ahead of the summit of Southeast Asian leaders.

Meantime the U.S. insists its relationship with the Philippines remains rock solid despite the cancellation of a bilateral meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte.

VAUSE: He lashed out at President Obama, who planned to question the Philippine leader about his war on drugs. But Mr. Duterte's office says he never meant to insult Mr. Obama and that the profanity he used was directed at a journalist, not the U.S. leader.

Athena Jones joins us now from Vientiane in Laos. Athena, it seems that the U.S. officials there certainly are trying to play down this rift between the Philippines and the United States and any sort of long-term damage to the relationship between the United States and the Philippines because of those comments and the canceled meeting.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's true. Hi -- John.

The U.S. says that the relationship -- the White House says the relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines remains rock solid, that they have a close working relationship on a series of issues from disaster response to maritime issues.

Remember, there has been a deal to have U.S. military personnel based part of the time at five Philippine military bases -- that was announced just earlier this year. So the relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines is one that President Obama has worked a good deal on.

He's visited the Philippines twice in his second term and that military relationship is part of the U.S. rebalancing this new focus on the Asia Pacific region that was announced some five years ago. It's not just an economic focus but also a military focus.

And so it's important for the U.S. and the Philippines to continue to have a strong working relationship. They believe that they will continue to have that strong working relationship. But just that these comments from President Duterte at this moment were not conducive to having a constructive sit-down. And so that's why that meeting was canceled. As of right now no future meeting is on the schedule -- John.

VAUSE: What's been the reaction there to the other headline that's come out of this trip, that President Obama actually acknowledged the bombing campaign carried out by the U.S. during the Vietnam War -- a very intensive bombing campaign? And has pledged to help clean up some of the unexploded ordnance which were left behind.

JONES: Absolutely. The President in fact just finished speaking during a visit to a center called COPE, which is a center that provides prosthetic limbs to the victims, people who have been hurt when they found these unexploded bombs that then detonated.

This is a center that he was able to meet with a survivor, someone who was hurt by one of those bombs. He was able to meet with some of the people who spend their days searching for and removing these unexploded ordnance, which is of course very, very, very dangerous work.

He made some comments about the U.S. having a profound moral and human obligation to support this work. This comes after he announced just yesterday $90 million over three years to help with the finding and removal of these ordnances. Half of that money is going to creating a survey, a map of where those bombs were dropped. They were dropped up and down the country, all over the countryside and the villages of Laos.

The President said in his speech just now that the U.S. dropped more bombs on Laos than it did on Germany and Japan during World War II. And even though in America the war in Vietnam, the name is the Vietnam War, it wasn't just limited to Vietnam and it wasn't just limited to the years of the war.

He talked about how years later, decades later the people of Laos are dealing with the issue of some 80 million bombs that didn't explode. They hurt the economy as well because this is a country that relies heavily on agriculture. Imagine farmers trying to clear land and having to worry about triggering these bombs. So a very big issue and we'll get some of the pictures of that tour later on today, of the profound issue that the President wanted to address on this visit -- John.

VAUSE: Athena Jones in Vientiane, Laos. Thanks so much for being with us.

And we'll take a short break here.

When we come back, some U.S. military vets have a new fight on their hands, bringing those who helped them fight in Afghanistan safely to America. Why they say Congress is putting soldiers' lives in danger.

SESAY: Plus, the rebel-held city under repeated attacks by Syrian government forces. We'll tell you what weapons they're accused of using this time.

That's all just ahead. Do stay with us.

[00:14:51] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The story continues. Look at this. Still watching what is left of Hermine sitting almost in the identical place. It's lost all steering characteristics here -- locked in by an area of high pressure as with. So still keeping the moisture offshore but still impacting some of those coastal communities with that rough surf the past several days.

The models really don't take it anywhere anytime soon. It weakened just a little bit going into say Thursday afternoon but still could see some gusty winds along the shores and, of course, rough seas as well.

The pattern change comes into the forecast sometime Thursday into Friday. We see a nice cooling trend after what has really been a warm week for this time of year.

Look at the eastern half of the United States -- New York City almost 30; Chicago at 32; Atlanta into the mid 30s. All these temperatures about five to ten degrees Celsius above what is normal for this time of year. And watching something else that's pretty normal for this time of year is a hurricane and the way of Newton. Newton made landfall around Cabo San Lucas, still remaining as a category 1 hurricane as it enters the Sea of Cortez. The concern is this could be the sixth -- only the sixth storm in recorded history to make it into the state of Arizona as a tropical storm as it comes in across the southern portion of Arizona.

If this is the case then we're talking about a significant risk for flooding across this region. Of course, some of the rain is beneficial but always too much of a good thing very quickly becomes a bad thing and this is what is potentially in store across parts of Arizona. Take care.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Hello, everyone.

Now to a story that we warn you contains disturbing images but we think that they're important for you to see. Syria is again accused of using chemicals to attack Aleppo despite being condemned repeatedly for similar previous attacks.

VAUSE: Volunteers in Syria released these images of a suspected chemical attack on the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Assad regime planes dropped barrel bombs containing poison gas onto a rebel-held neighborhood. These images from the Syrian Civil Defense show children being hosed down and given oxygen masks inside a makeshift hospital.

SESAY: The group says more than 80 people suffered from breathing difficulties after the attack.

VAUSE: For almost a decade the United States has made good on a promise to help Iraqis and Afghans who helped U.S. troops as fixers or translators. Those who faced serious threats and reprisals at home because of their service in Iraq or Afghanistan will be eligible for a special visa to move to the United States. But this year something changed and thousands of Afghans have been left in limbo.

SESAY: A group of American military veterans from every branch of service representing every American conflict back to World War II has now contacted each member of the U.S. Congress asking why the special immigrant visas no longer apply to Afghan allies.

[00:20:01] VAUSE: The vets say nearly 8,000 people are waiting for visas and Congress is simply telling them no one cares. The group No One Left Behind made a video they hope will convince lawmakers to act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MOULTON, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: These are men and women who put their lives on the line not just for their country but for ours. In fact, they frankly have done a lot more to protect our national security than the vast majority of Americans. So we ought to treat them with respect. We ought to, at the very least, give them a chance to continue living and not be killed in their home country by the same enemies that we joined together to fight against.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Chase Milsap, a former U.S. Marine, Green Beret and a board member of No One Left Behind joins us now.

VAUSE: He's one of the authors of the letter. Chase -- thanks for being with us.

SESAY: Thank you.

CHASE MILSAP, FORMER U.S. MARINE: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: What's the -- just get to the nuts and bolts of all of this -- what's the holdup? What's happened here? What's gone wrong?

MILSAP: Well, simply this is the first year of the special immigrant visa program which we've seen, you know, from Iraq all the way back to 2006 but for Afghanistan specifically the first year we haven't seen the visas extended. And that's unfortunate because we still have troops on the ground.

So for myself and other veterans we looked at this and said we have to make this an issue. And that's why we sent Congress a letter this morning. So it was the first thing in their inbox when they got back from the Labor Day weekend to say this is an issue that can't wait specifically for those translators and fixers as you mentioned that are so crucial to everything we do on the ground overseas.

SESAY: Talk to us about the message it sends -- this holdup, this delay. Talk to me about how that's read overseas.

MILSAP: Well, there's really two aspects of it. I mean this is a promise that was made by the American government. And as a representative of that government on the ground, you know, there are soldiers and marines like me that look people in the eye and say we will protect you if you come under threat. You stand by us and we'll stand by you. And that's at risk now.

If we don't get the SIV at least extended through the next year, we know that about half of those that are already in line aren't going to have an opportunity to come here.

VAUSE: Why is that?

MILSAP: There are just not enough visas.

VAUSE: Right.

MILSAP: We've only extended the program enough to cover about half that are already in the line. So we're looking to extend that.

VAUSE: And you've had personal experience in Iraq with someone who saved your life who you're now trying to get to come here to the United States. So where do things stand right now with the captain?

MILSAP: The captain's case is slowly starting to move along. And remember the captain isn't even applicable. We didn't even get him --

VAUSE: He's in a refugee camp.

MILSAP: He's in a refugee --

SESAY: Turkey, right?

MILSAP: Turkey. So he's had to go through a whole separate barriers and everything that comes up. You know, for this issue it strikes me personally because I've had to go through myriad of challenges with him which has been taxing on both of us.

I couldn't imagine if other veterans had to do that when a program that's right there available to us gets -- doesn't get extended because of all sorts of circumstances that are out there.

So for us this is an issue that strikes not only personally but it's also that warrior code. We don't leave people behind. That's just simple.

SESAY: And the impact on you personally, you talked about the myriad of challenges in captain's case. But you've undertaken this fight for every translator, bodyguard, fighter on the battlefields of Afghanistan, hopefully getting Iraq back in the mix as well. How is it affecting you? Talk to me about that personally.

MILSAP: Well, to be quite honest, you know, personally for me it's been like a deployment without any resources. You come here at home and it's like, ok, I have no idea when this is going to end. And that's taxing. It takes its toll over time. But at the same time I know I'm not alone. There are other veterans.

You see by the letter, we've had multiple organizations including over 30 general officers who signed on to this. We all know that this is an issue and it's something that strikes at us. So having that, it makes me get to the next day. And then the captain, he looks at that and says wow, there are those that are going to live up to this promise.

VAUSE: You talk about those who are supporting you -- Senator John McCain who is a vet, a very famous vet from Arizona, he is a big supporter. And I think last month, he was on the floor of the House. He warned that people would die because of this.

What did he mean? Are they talking about people in the field? Or they're talking people waiting for visas? There will be retaliation from the Taliban, from militant groups in Afghanistan? Specifically what is he referring to?

MILSAP: Well, he's absolutely referring to those that are in Afghanistan right now that are under threat. If there's no option for them, they have the opportunity or they will come under threat. We know that's going to happen.

But at the same time there are U.S. troops on the ground that rely on these interpreters and translators. So let's say tomorrow that promise has been broken. They have no idea if those interpreters are going to show up or even come to work and that puts U.S. lives at risk.

SESAY: The letter's been delivered. It's been signed by other vets. What's your next step? How do you keep this momentum going?

MILSAP: Exactly. Well, we know it's going to be a long fight, but at the same time we look at this and say we have to bring awareness, we have to keep looking at this and we say politics aside, this is an issue that Congress needs to look at now, not next month, not after the election, those sort of things. This is an issue that will affect those lives.

[00:25:09] But at the same time you don't have to be a veteran to say the American reputation is at stake and it's something you believe behind. So for No One Left Behind we set up an entire position about this. Anybody that wants to sign up can go to NoOneLeftBehind.org/SavetheSIV and they can sign up and join us in this fight. We want to make people known that politics aside we're going to live up to the American reputation, because that's what American leadership is.

SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: Absolutely. Chase -- thanks.

SESAY: Thank you.

VAUSE: Good to speak with you again.

MILSAP: Thank you.

SESAY: Thank you. Very much appreciate it.

MILSAP: Appreciate it.

VAUSE: Well, coming up here Chicago was once known as a city of deadly gangsters. Now it's in the midst of a murder spree unlike anything in decades. We'll have more on the violent surge in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: And I'm John Vause.

Let's check the headlines this hour. A new CNN/ORC poll shows a virtual tie in the U.S. presidential race. Donald Trump has a two- point lead over Hillary Clinton 45-43 and that is within the poll's margin of error. The candidates spent Tuesday criticizing each other's record on national security.

SESAY: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's office says he never intended to insult the U.S. president. The statement said Mr. Duterte was referring to a journalist when he used profanity. The U.S. says its relationship with the Philippines remains rock solid.

VAUSE: UNICEF has released a new report on the growing crisis for refugee and migrant children. The numbers are staggering. According to its findings, nearly 50 million children around the world have been uprooted from their homes. 28 million have fled because of violence and conflict. Of those, 10 million are refugees.

[00:30:05] Almost all the others are displaced within their own countries. The number of child refugees jumped by roughly 75 percent between 2010 and 2015.

SESAY: Staggering numbers there.

Well, it's official. This will go down as the deadliest year in at least two decades in Chicago, and there are still almost four months to go.

VAUSE: The third largest U.S. city was once the haunt of deadly gangsters like Al Capone, but over this past holiday weekend, it recorded its 500th homicide for 2016 as 13 people were killed. Dozens more were wounded in shootings. The numbers are far outpacing 2015 when Chicago had 480 homicides for the entire year.

SESAY: Pastor Ira Acree joins me now from Chicago. He continues to play a very active role in the community's non-violence movement.

Ira Acree, it's good to have you with us. Sadly it's to discuss the fact that Chicago has had its 500th homicide this year. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson has been quoted as saying, "Chicago's violence is rooted in its impoverished neighborhoods and carried out by people without hope."

Do you agree with him?

IRA ACREE, PASTOR, GREATER ST. JOHN BIBLE CHURCH: I agree with him 110 percent. It's refreshing to hear him say that. But now we need to get him back to protecting and serving us and get the political leaders to come up with a vision to bring hope to the people.

People looking for jobs. They're impoverished. Bad schools. Second- class schools. First-class jails. And so many people are resorting to the drug economy because they see it as a viable option to make a way and to provide home for their family and to make a living.

SESAY: Yes. What is it like in Chicago right now? I mean, we just shared that statistic with our viewers that, you know, 500 people have already died, been gunned down in Chicago in 2016, making it the deadliest year in decades. You say it's a state of emergency in Chicago.

ACREE: It is. It's a state of emergency. I've never personally seen so many people walking in fear. I had a prayer service at my church, a back-to-school prayer service. It's normally pretty exciting. Hundreds of people come in a good spirit and all of that.

I mean, people were trembling and shaking, and parents were wiping their eyes and crying because they are overwhelmed with fear. They really are.

People, they hear these numbers, and these are not strangers. These are people that they know. When you hear 90 people in August murdered, these people, they're somebody's nephew, they're somebody's niece, they're somebody's child, they're somebody's neighbor, you know. And so people are devastated by this. And it's really crazy here because nobody's providing leadership.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is the mayor here. He once had political clout, but now he's so toxic he's fighting for the legitimacy of his own job and he's spending most of the time fighting for his own legitimacy. And if he had a vision to implement, he doesn't have time or the clout to implement it.

SESAY: So you mentioned Mayor Rahm Emanuel there, and saying that basically, you know, he's not able to provide what is needed right now for the people of Chicago. People living in impoverished communities.

I mean, do you feel failed by the political establishment? What about the police authorities?

I mean, this number, 500 people being gunned down, that is surely a question about policing also, is it not?

ACREE: I don't know about that. We can never police our way out of this. We can't arrest our way out of this. In fact, not only do we have some problems with the police, but in our neighborhoods, we have some problems with ourselves.

We've got to do some neighborhood, in-house cleaning among ourselves as well because you cannot police self-hatred, nor can you legislate love. And so we can't blame it all on the police.

This new superintendent, you've got to give him a lot of credit, though, because he's made some courageous decisions. He has stood up and said that he's not going to allow corruption to take place on his watch. You've got to give him credit for that.

But the reality is you can arrest people day and night, but until you invest in building the infrastructure of the city, we're going to be in trouble because desperate times call for desperate measures. And so many people, as I've said earlier, they look to the drug economy as a viable income source. And that's our real issue.

[00:35:17] SESAY: You need to bring back hope into their lives.

Pastor Acree, thank you so much for speaking to us, and just giving us some insight into life in Chicago right now. Please stay safe.

ACREE: Thank you so much. Pray for us.

VAUSE: You know, and compared to the rest of the country, Chicago really is a standout for all the wrong reasons.

(CROSSTALK)

SESAY: Yes, for all the wrong reasons.

VAUSE: The violence has been going down for the most part, especially violent crimes across the United States.

SESAY: A state of emergency, he said. That's how it feels like right now.

VAUSE: Yes.

We'll take a short break. When we come back, there is more drama at "Fox News."

The network apologizing and paying big over sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former anchor.

SESAY: Plus, we'll soon find out if Apple will get rid of their headphone jack for its newest iPhone. We'll tell you what else to expect from Wednesday's big unveiling.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: It's been a tumultuous 24 hours for "Fox News," and the legal battles may not be over yet.

The network has reached the financial settlements with a number of female employees who accused former CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment. And that includes a $20 million payout to former anchor Gretchen Carlson.

She also received a stunning public apology from the parent company 21st Century Fox. It read in part, "We are proud that she was part of a "Fox News" team. We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all our colleagues deserved."

And within moments of that, word came that anchor Greta Van Susteren would be leaving the network effective immediately. But her husband, who is also a high-profile lawyer, told CNN there is the possibility of litigation in the future.

Well for more on this, our senior media correspondent Brian Stelter joins us now from New York.

So, Brian, first to that apology for Carlson. That seems almost unprecedented. So what does that say about the case?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think it's going to have ripple effects actually across corporate America. Normally these kinds of sexual harassment allegations are he said/she said battles. Normally, the men are more powerful, they make these sorts of lawsuits or claims go away. But in this case, the stories had a very different ending.

Within two weeks of Carlson filing her lawsuit, Roger Ailes had resigned. And now she's receiving this $20 million payout, which signals I think to everybody that the Murdochs found a lot of evidence that there was harassing behavior going on inside Ailes's office at "Fox News.

They heard from more than 20 women who came forward speaking to a law firm that was hired to investigate this. Most of those women have remained anonymous, but we know about Carlson's lawsuit.

We know that several other women have now also reached smaller settlements with "Fox News" based on their allegations of harassing behavior by Ailes.

[00:30:05] The former executive continues to deny the allegations. He has expressed that the whole way through. But it would seem to me that Murdochs were convinced that there was wrongdoing and that's why they apologize.

VAUSE: And paid out $20 million to Carlson. A lot of money, but Roger Ailes is rumored to have walked away twice that amount as part of his severance deal.

Any blowback, any reaction to that?

STELTER: Well, there's been a lot of reaction to that fact. You know, he was paid at least $40 million, maybe a bit more than that, when he agreed to step down last July.

Now, this was because that's how much his contract was worth. He still had $40-plus million that "Fox" was supposed to pay him for the remainder of his contract. But he wasn't fired for cause.

And a lot of advocates in this world, people who believe that powerful men are let off too easily when there are allegations of harassment would say it was wrong for him to be paid $40-plus million while Carlson received about $20 million here.

VAUSE: At the same time all of this is happening, Greta Van Susteren, former CNN anchor, a big supporter of Roger Ailes, she's out. And her husband, who's a lawyer like Greta, he's hinting to you, to -- that this might not be over. There could be more legal action on the way.

STELTER: That's right. This is another aftershock from the Ailes scandal. We're only talking about the biggest media world scandal I would say of the current decade.

Roger Ailes was in some ways the most powerful man in media. The staff at "Fox News" was famously loyal to him, including on-air hosts like Greta Van Susteren.

Now, as a result of Ailes leaving, Greta is exercising a clause in her contract that allows her to leave. It's called a key man clause, which allows her to walk out the door because the key man, Ailes, walked out the door as well.

So that is the latest example of the continuing consequences of Ailes departing.

VAUSE: Another consequence of Ailes departing now appears that he's working for the Trump campaign even though they're denying it? STELTER: That is right. So there's a needle being threaded here. Essentially, Ailes is giving Trump advice, suggestions, guidance as Trump prepares for the all-important first debate on September 26th.

Ailes and Trump speak regularly on the phone. Ailes has also been out to Trump's golf course in New Jersey. But the campaign says he is not a formal adviser. He's not -- Ailes is not working with the campaign.

So that's why I said they're threading a needle. Technically, Ailes isn't being paid by Trump. He's not working for the campaign, but he is in Trump's corner giving Trump advice, and that's got to be an awkward situation for the journalists at "Fox."

VAUSE: To say the least.

Our, Brian, as always, good to speak with you. Thank you.

STELTER: Thanks.

SESAY: We shall see what happens next.

VAUSE: Apparently, Roger Ailes sits around drinking Coca-Cola, around eating McDonald's and practicing Zingers for the debates with Donald Trump.

SESAY: That's one way to prepare.

VAUSE: It doesn't seem like he's a proper paid consultant.

SESAY: Yes. All right, moving on. Apple lovers won't have to hold their breath for much longer to find out all about the newest iPhones. The company will unveil its next-generation smartphones on Wednesday. They could be called the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

We'll find out if Apple will remove the headphone jack, which everyone's up in arms about, in favor of wireless headphones as rumour -- all rumour rather, which has upset a lot of people.

VAUSE: And the new iPhones might be waterproof, at least water resistant.

SESAY: You sound very excited about all of this.

VAUSE: It's just --

SESAY: Really, a big sigh?

VAUSE: It's just whatever, isn't it? OK.

Shortly after the iPhone event, gamers will be tuned into Sony's Playstation meeting. The company's expected to announce new versions of the Playstation 4 console including one with a slimmed-down design.

It's all just underwhelming, isn't it? That's the best they've got?

SESAY: It takes a lot to impress you, John Vause. Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: I'm very impressed.

SESAY: Don't try.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. A live edition of "World Sport" with Kate Reilly is up next.

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