Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Mistrust Growing Between U.S., Russia in Syria; Amnesty International: 75K Refugees Need Food, Air; New U.S. Warnings on Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired September 16, 2016 - 01:00   ET

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


[01:00:25] ISHA SESAY, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

[01:00:28] JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: Ahead this hour. Born in the USA, Donald Trump is an Obama "birther" no more.

SESAY: Feeling nice like sugar and spice. Hillary Clinton back on the campaign trail.

VAUSE: Plus, exploding phones and a major recall in the United States.

SESAY: Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I am Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: Great to have you with us, I'm John Vause. This is the second hour of NEWSROOM L.A.

Donald Trump's campaign now says, "Yes, he does believe President Obama was born in the U.S." This coming just hours after Trump refused to tell The Washington Post if he thought the president was a natural-born citizen. And five years after Trump became a leading figure in the so-called "birther" movement.

SESAY: While Trump's rival, Hillary Clinton jumped on the controversy as she returns to the campaign trail after taking three days off to recover from pneumonia. Well, while she was out sick, Trump, well, he ties in the gap with Clinton in various polls that you see there on your screens. This one from Fox News shows them in a one-point race among likely voters. In Washington Thursday, Clinton says Trump may be saying different things now, but she insists he hasn't changed.

HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, he's trying to reset himself and his campaign many times. This is the best he can do. This is who he is. And so, we need to decide who we are. If we just sigh and shake our heads and accept this, then what does that tell our kids about who we are?

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable. That means you can't ever get better. She doesn't understand you. I call you hard-working American patriots who love your family and love your country.

SESAY: But while his campaign has now disowned the "birther" movement, we haven't heard Trump say it himself.

VAUSE: Not the words. Brianna Keilar has more now on the "birther" controversy, and why it's suddenly a central part of this campaign.

[01:03:00] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A spokesman for the Trump campaign releasing a statement, saying in part, "Having successfully obtained the President Obama's birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States. Now, this is something that we have heard from top campaign officials before. And we need to be clear, this is a campaign spokesman saying this. We have not heard it from Donald Trump himself. And for years, he's either openly questioned President Obama's birthplace or is dodged when asked to give a definitive answer on the topic. So, this is really the question, does the candidate repeat what his campaign is saying? Is he going to do that either in an interview, perhaps in a tweet? What's going to happen there? Keeping in mind you, though, the timing is significant. The statement from a spokesman came just hours after Donald Trump's comments to The Washington Post were published. And they really blew up, because The Post asked him if Obama was born in the U.S., and he said, "I'll answer that question at the right time. I just don't want to answer it yet." Hillary Clinton jumped on that statement. She said this while addressing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute at their annual gala.

CLINTON: He did again. He was asked one more time, "Where was President Obama born?" And he still wouldn't say Hawaii. He still wouldn't say America. This man wants to be our next president? When will he stop this ugliness, this bigotry?

KEILAR: All of this is playing out as Donald Trump says he's making a play for African-American voters or as many see, at least, a play for voters who are turned off by what they believe is very a belated and ineffective attempt to reach out to reach out to the black community. It's a key democratic voting bloc. Hillary Clinton has been losing some ground in some key states, not to Trump, but to third-party candidates. And so, she's been very quick to seize on any of his missteps with this constituency. These birther comments particularly off putting to black voters, because they're seen as an effort to delegitimize the first African-American president. But also she seized on Donald Trump insulting the pastor of a black church in Flint, Michigan, who he called, "A nervous mess," the day after she rather calmly and pre-briefly interrupted his address to her congregation once he started criticizing Clinton by asking him as they had previously agreed to keep his comments apolitical. Brianna Keilar, CNN, Washington.

VAUSE: Joining us now, a Democratic strategist Dave Jacobson, and Republican consultant John Thomas. OK. Let's go back in our time machine to just, oh, a hours ago when Donald Trump was still actually kind of a birther, and how all of this began, because it was only just a few hours ago when The Washington Post moved that story on its website. It was an interview which Donald Trump gave to the reporter that was sitting on the tarmac, the plane's engine are running. The reporter asked if he believe that Obama was born in the United States, and he answered it this way, "I'll answer that question at the right time. I just don't want to answer it yet. I don't want to talk about it anymore. The reason I don't is because then everyone is going to be talking about it as opposed to jobs, the military, the vets, security."

OK. Well, mission accomplished, because now everyone's talking about this. No one is talking about the mention - no one is talking about, you know, security, or any of those kind of things. The problem, though, is that we have Rudy Giuliani who's a surrogate, who's come out and said, he believes that Donald Trump believes that Obama was born in the United States. His campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said the same kind of thing, but we still haven't heard it from Trump himself. So, you know, John, to you, how important is it that Trump actually says those words?

[01:06:46] JOHN THOMAS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, I don't know how important it truly is. The campaign is an arm of Donald Trump, but I think at some point, he should say it in a sit-down interview with CNN, maybe on this show.

SESAY: Great. That's great.

VAUSE: That's right.

THOMAS: But he should say it at some point. Look, Donald Trump is saying, "I'm on a roll. Look at my polling numbers, right? I'm on the uptake. I don't want to distract from that message. The problem is, this is the kind of case we got to hang a lantern on the problem, or rip it off like a band aid and just move on.

SESAY: True. But the assessment is not that big a deal.

[01:07:15] DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, no. I mean, we're clearly talking about it. And he sort of bating Clinton.

VAUSE: Everyone's talking about.

JACOBSON: Right. Everyone is talking about it. The fact that like his campaign felt the need to sort of issue a statement of clarity afterwards, I think, really underscores the fact that he knows he's got a ceiling in this race, right? He's like consistently now polling around 42, 44 percent, but he's not breaking above that threshold. The question is like, how does he appeal to those persuadable voters in some of these key states that he really needs to get to the 270 electoral college threshold. And I think one of the ways to do that is to come off as like not a racist or a bigot, or someone who's a xenophobic. And I think the way to do that is to come off more moderate on issues like the "Birther" movement, right? This guy is the founder of the "Birther" movement. The question is like, will he go on the record, and say, "Look, the president was born in America, period."

VAUSE: And actually, one of the reasons that could be out there, why he doesn't want to say it, is because there's a certain group of supporters who are backing Donald Trump, who's thought - there's a lot of them who believe that Obama was, you know, not born in the U.S.

THOMAS: Well, that might be the case.

VAUSE: And he doesn't want to emanate them.

THOMAS: That may be the case, but they're still going to vote for Donald Trump, because I guarantee you, they don't like Hillary Clinton either, so they're still going to -

VAUSE: Or they could stay home.

JACOBSON: Well, I think it's a function of enthusiasm, right?

VAUSE: Yeah.

JACOBSON: Like it does sort of - it's a question of, does he want to alienate those folks? Like will they stay home if he sort of pivots to the more moderate condition.

THOMAS: I think Hillary Clinton calling them deplorable is enough to motivate those people to go to the polls.

SESAY: Well, back to John - back to Dave, the issue of Trump not breaking past that mid-40s number. I mean, going after the pastor in that church in Clint - sorry, in Flint, is perhaps not the way to do it. Let's play the clip of what he actually said when he did it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When she got up to introduce me, she was so nervous, she was shaking, and I said, "Wow, this is sort of strange." And then, she came up. So, she had that in mind, there's no question about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bother you - does it bother you? It seems like it did.

TRUMP: No, it doesn't bother me. No, it's - I mean, everyone plays their games. It doesn't bother me. I'll tell you what really made me feel good, the audience was saying, "Let him speak. Let him speak."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Dave, what do you make of that?

JACOBSON: Verbal diarrhea of the mouth. I mean, the reality is like when Donald Trump doesn't have a teleprompter in front of him when he goes off-script, this is when you start to see his poll numbers tank, right? We had the Khan family, the Gold Star family, we had Judge Curiel. I mean, this is his challenge in this race when he sort of shoots from the hip, and he goes off-script, and he's not disciplined, he gets off-message. He's not talking about jobs and the economy. He's not talking about his opponent, Hillary Clinton. That's the challenge for him. I think as long as he stays on message, he's going to continue to narrow that gap. But when he pivots and he goes and starts attacking like real Americans, that's a significant challenge for him.

THOMAS: You know, Trump has seen some gains in the African-American community. Yes, he's still down. The latest -

VAUSE: Really?

THOMAS: The latest L.A. time-tracking poll has Trump -

VAUSE: You're still like being pro-Trump anyway.

THOMAS: -- has him - he was down, like, two percent. Now, he's a 19 percent. So, he's make -

VAUSE: Wow.

THOMAS: -- the trend lines or moving.

JACOBSON: Is he going to -

VAUSE: That's not my --

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBSON: -- any other polls at 19 percent -

SESAY: I'm waiting for the day -

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) as well, but nice try.

THOMAS: OK. Well, he's making inroads with quite all -

JACOBSON: I give you, we are in Los Angeles, so -

SESAY: So, making inroads, but then you go and do something like this.

THOMAS: Yeah. It certainly doesn't help him. And Dave is right. Look, Trump is not a politician. This is the first time he's ever run for office. You can't expect the guy to be perfect.

SESAY: But he is a politician now. I mean, this line that he's not, he is now a politician.

THOMAS: Well, try to be one, but he's definitely not career politician.

SESAY: (INAUDIBLE) seeming as a politician, but he's in the game now.

THOMAS: You're right, and he needs to tighten it up, but it's hard. It takes years and years of practice. Look at Hillary Clinton, she still makes mistakes, has reboots and resets.

SESAY: I want to say she's -

VAUSE: I think everybody can agree that Hillary Clinton is an awful candidate. OK? I mean, admittedly, she's not good at campaigning.

THOMAS: Right. Yeah.

VAUSE: And I think, you know, so -

JACOBSON: She's -

THOMAS: Or honesty.

VAUSE: Oh, come on.

THOMAS: And many others.

VAUSE: OK. We've also heard from President Obama in the last couple of hours. He was at this gathering for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He was pretty blunt. He didn't mention Trump by name, but he had a few things to say.

BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: And look, throughout this political season, you know, the talk around these issues has cut deeper than in years' past. It's a little more personal. It's a little meaner, a little uglier. And folks are - folks are betting that if they can drive us far enough apart, and if they can put down enough of us, because of where we come from or what we look like or what religion we practice, then that may pay off at the polls. But I'm telling you, that's a bet they're going to lose.

VAUSE: So, Dave, you know, when we look at, you know, the tone of this election campaign, it has been pretty nasty. The president makes the point that eventually this has to kind of come to an end.

JACOBSON: All right. I mean, look, he ran on a platform of hope and change. He had an optimistic sort of campaign, right? And then pivot to eight years later, and it's doom and gloom. The reality is I think we've seen a sort of shift in the Clinton campaign. She's trying to strike a more inspiring, hopeful, optimistic tone. Balancing that with attacks on - in defining Donald Trump, but now, she's sorting - she's shifting to a more positive message, and I think that's something that will improve her likability numbers. I think she fundamentally understands that she's got to really paint a picture of the differences between the two candidates in this race. And she's got to weave in more positivity, not just the negativity, and so -

VAUSE: Like you've - like you've been saying that for months.

SESAY: (INAUDIBLE)

THOMAS: I think you're right. Hillary has a likability problem.

VAUSE: Yeah.

THOMAS: And her numbers are locked in stone. So, the only thing she can do is tear down Donald Trump. This is right. In '08, Barack Obama ran on hope and change, but this time after eight years, 70 percent of Americans think we're on the wrong track. If we're on the wrong track, it's not going to be all roses and petunias.

SESAY: But I guess to that point when they held a convention months ago, and the message was more positive, it did reflect in the numbers and the bounce, right? So, there is something in that. THOMAS: Sure. Well - and moreover, people like optimism, but then they realized or let's stuck with Hillary Clinton.

SESAY: Oh, man.

VAUSE: OK. Let's finish here with Donald Trump. Tax returns, will we see them, will we not see them? There's a lot of pressure, of course, on Trump to release them. Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan is the latest to (INAUDIBLE) that's what he said.

PAUL RYAN, UNITED STATES HOUSE SPEAKER: I'll defer to Donald Trump as to when he thinks the appropriate time to release his returns. I know he's under an audit, and he's got an opinion about when to release those. I'll defer him on that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think it's a good idea?

RYAN: I released mine. I think we should release ours.

VAUSE: OK. So, it's all about - it's all about the tax returns can't be released because it's under audit, but Donald junior has a different take.

DONALD TRUMP, JR., DONALD TRUMP'S SON: He's got a 12,000-page tax return that would create - that would create probably 300 million independent financial auditors out of every person in the country asking questions that are going to distract from his main message.

VAUSE: And Dave, so maybe cut through what he said. He's saying if Donald Trump releases his tax returns, people will look at them.

JACOBSON: Right.

VAUSE: Isn't that the point?

JACOBSON: Right. Talk about candor. I mean, that's the reality. And the challenge is, though by saying things like that and getting off-message, now we're having the conversation. Like, yeah, that's what we want to do. We want to take the magnifying glass and sort of look and see, you know, all of these potential conflicts of interest that he may have both in the country but also abroad, right? Newsweek came out of with this, you know, earth-scorching story today that talked about all the potential conflicts of interest that Donald Trump has with America's allies, but also some of our adversaries. And, like, people, Americans ought to have a look at like some of his financial ties all across the world.

THOMAS: This is where - well, this is where Donald Trump should pull out the art of the deals, and he should release his tax returns, assuming he can. And he should say, "Hillary, I will release my returns when you release your Wall Street speeches." And use this as a piece of leverage. Americans get everything they want in that deal.

SESAY: Dave, you respond to that.

THOMAS: Well, look, I guess my question is like when Paul Ryan says, we should release our taxes. Like, we? What does we mean? Like, is that like we, Republicans; we, the Republican Party? Like -

VAUSE: I think we, the politicians who are running for office or running for president.

SESAY: Or we, the president that has been established. And the only thing that - I mean, I think that's what he means.

VAUSE: That's what he said.

THOMAS: Right.

VAUSE: Yeah. OK. OK.

JACOBSON: Silence is golden.

SESAY: Fun job. We're going to leave it there.

VAUSE: A perfect spot to end.

SESAY: Gentlemen, thank you.

JACOBSON: Thanks, guys.

THOMAS: Thank you.

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) Of course, all of this controversy over Donald Trump and whether or not he believes President Obama was born in the U.S., it has been overshadowing his policy speech on the economy, which outlined some major changes to his original plan.

SESAY: He scalled back some of his tax cuts, and he's promised more benefits for lower income families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Over the next 10 years, our economic team estimates that under our plan, the economy will average 3.5 percent growth and create a total of 25 million new jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Let's talk economics now with Rana Foroohar, CNN'S global economic analyst, and an assistant managing editor at Time. Rana, we just heard Donald Trump there promising economic growth averaging 3.5 percent, 25 million new jobs. That would be pretty impressive given that the U.S. economy has never really produced that many jobs in one decade, come close, but never reached 25 million.

[01:16:16] RANA FOROOHAR, CNN'S GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Right. And, you know, four percent is basically double what the economy is growing right now. You know, to be honest, a lot of this is magical thinking. I got to say, these numbers, 3.5 to 4 percent growth are predicated on the idea that Trump's plan of tax cuts would actually create that kind of growth momentum. And unfortunately, the last 20 years, that has not been the case. It's not even by a part of something. You know, you can look at the tax cuts under George Bush in 2001 and 2003. These were big sustained cuts, they did not create a big jump in growth. And then before the financial crisis, more Bush cuts in 2008, and then everything Obama did afterwards in terms of trimming taxes, post the financial crisis also did not create growth. So, basically, you've got 20 years of evidence that this sort of Trickledown Theory is not working. So, it makes these numbers just really hard to figure.

VAUSE: OK. But did you say 3.5 percent economic growth, because from Donald Trump, wait, there's more. He's promising that the economy can grow even faster. Listen to the Republican nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's time to start thinking big once again. That's why I believe it's time to establish a national goal of reaching four percent economic growth. And my great economists don't want me to say this, but I think we can do better than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And again, so the question here is, you can put this out there, you can say whatever you want, but if you look at the economic policies, which the Trump campaign is putting forward, is there any explanation how the economy can actually grow better than four percent?

FOROOHAR: You know, there really isn't, John. And in fact, you've got a lot of economists very worried that some of these policies, protectionism around trade, tax cuts without spending cuts, which by the way, was the "Reagan Formula." You know, Reagan cut taxes, but he actually never cut the budget. That's why at the end of his tenure, you had national debt three times what it was before. All of these things, economists are worried are going to shave growth. In fact, Oxford Economics, a UK-based consulting firm, believes that if all of Trump's plans are put into place including barriers to immigration, which also demographics create growth. And that's one of America's great advantages. They believe that if all of these plans are put into place, it would actually shave a trillion dollars off the U.S. economy.

VAUSE: That's interesting point about the immigration policy, too, because this seems to be where the economic policy slams head on with his very popular immigration policy. We know Donald Trump has said he would like to deport millions of undocumented workers who are currently in the United States. But if he is to achieve that jobs growth, which he outlined, some experts have said, you'll have to double the immigration intake. So, how does that work?

FOROOHAR: Absolutely. Well, if you think about, what is economic growth? Economic growth is basically the number of people working and how productive they are. And so, as I said before, you know, one of our great advantage in the U.S. compared in - particularly Europe, has always been that we have more immigrants, we have a slightly higher birth rate. If you start to cut those things, you're cutting economic growth. VAUSE: OK. Look, Donald Trump did revise his tax plan. Before it was costing, I think, around $10 trillion over 10 years. Now, it's $4.4 trillion and included in that tax plan is a big corporate bonus. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: One of our greatest job-creation measures is going to be our 15 percent business tax rate down from the current 35 percent rate, a reduction of more than 40 percent. I know that's what you people have been waiting for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK. So, if you look at that tax cut, we've got the child-care tax rebate he announced the other day. There is a big boost in spending on defense and infrastructure. All of these being paid for by stronger economic growth. Is there a provision within the Trump plan if the economic growth doesn't materialize?

FOROOHAR: Not that we've heard. And, you know, again, cutting taxes and not cutting spending is a recipe for more debt. It is not a recipe for growth. And by the way, we're also entering a new period in the global economy. It's a period when monetary policy is probably going to start slowly tightening. You know, you're not going to have the same 40 years of easy money that you have in the past. This is not the time to be adding unproductive debt to the U.S. economy.

VAUSE: Also finally here, it does seem that, you know, the world is in this model or sort of formula of low economic growth anyway.

FOROOHAR: Yeah.

VAUSE: It seems unlikely that, you know, the heady days of the 90s, no one is returning to those days.

FOROOHAR: Well, that's right. And if you think about what was happening in the 1990s, that was the beginning of the tech boom, you know, the internet was coming online. There was a lot of connectivity, people were, you know, getting computers. That period is over. That is tapped out. In fact, a lot of economists think that really most of the benefits from that big computing boom are finished now. We're not going to see that again, unless there's something major on the horizon, some kind of new invention, some kind of major shift in global demographics, it's really hard to imagine four percent growth in the U.S. right now.

VAUSE: How the 90s, they were the days. Right?

FOROOHAR: Right.

VAUSE: It's good to have you with us. Thanks so much.

FOROOHAR: Thank you.

SESAY: Great conversation there. VAUSE: Yeah, Rana, she's very smart.

SESAY: Yeah, she is.

VAUSE: Much smarter than me.

SESAY: Yes, she is. Time for a quick break now. Next on NEWSROOM L.A., the battle to retake Mosul from ISIS. New signs that it could be coming soon.

VAUSE: Another setback for the Samsung's Galaxy Note 7, just as Apple launches it's new iPhone, well, the light - the latest in the smartphone wars, when we come back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[01:24:25] KATE RILEY, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN "WORLD SPORT" Headlines. After a busy two days of Champions League, action - attention now turns to Europa League. On Thursday, Manchester United began their second straight campaign in the competition. They faced Dutch side final through a sailing through their season so far with five wins from five of their domestic league. The game was deadlocked with 10 minutes to go until Tonny Vilhena puts one beyond the reach of the United goalkeeper, David de Gea. That's how it would end, 1-0 to the Dutch side.

We saw the true definition of comeback elsewhere in Europa League on Thursday. Zenit St. Petersburg with three goals down against Maccabi Tel Aviv with 14 minutes to go in a match which also saw a red card and eight yellows. We saw the Russian side scores four with the winner coming in the last minute of action. And to tennis, where we're already getting set for the Davis Cup semi-finals on Friday. Andy Murray will lead defending champ, Great Britain, against Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro. It's a rematch of the Rio 2016 Olympic gold medal match. Mixed emotions, though, for Murray. He's chosen to miss his grandfather's funeral in order to represent his country. And that's a look at all your SPORTS headlines, I'm Kate Riley.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[01:26:09] VAUSE: Welcome back everybody, just gone 10:26 here in Los Angeles. CNN has learned that hundreds of U.S. Military Personnel have now arrived in Iraq to support Iraqi Forces when they begin an offensive to retake the City of Mosul.

[01:26:22] SESAY: Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr reports that a major showdown with ISIS fighters could be coming soon. [01:26:30] BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Near Mosul, in Northern Iraq, U.S. bombs hit this ISIS or Daesh chemical weapons plant 50 times.

LIEUTENANT GENERAL JEFFREY HARRIGIAN, COMMANDER U.S. AIR FORCES CENTRAL COMMAND: Intelligence had indicated that Daesh converted a pharmaceutical plant complex into a chemical weapons productions capability.

STARR: The fight to retake Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, could begin next month. U.S. Defense officials tell CNN. Additional U.S. Special Operations Forces may be sent in to help advice Iraqi units moving on Mosul. U.S. Advisers are expected to be closer to Mosul's front line, facing more danger, several Defense Officials tell CNN. South of Mosul, at the Iraqi Air Base near Qayyarah, hundreds of U.S. Military Personnel are now on site providing support for Iraqi units. U.S. jets could soon be flying attack missions from there. Timing of the Mosul assault depends on how ready Iraqi units are, and if they don't get bogged down in coming days.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: The big remaining piece is the City of Mosul, which is where ISIL has tried to establish its so-called caliphate. That is the next front.

STARR: The administration is optimistic on what may be the biggest test so far for Iraq.

BLINKEN: The Iraqis, with the strong support of this coalition that we've put together has taken back more than half the territory that ISIL once controlled.

STARR: Getting fresh intelligence is job one.

HARRIGIAN: I am constantly reviewing our resources whether it'd be ISR, strike platforms, tankers, people to anticipate the operational environment.

STARR: For now, there is less optimism on Syria and the proposed U.S. agreement with Russia. In Aleppo, with a drop in airstrikes, children are out playing, but desperately needed humanitarian aid, has not arrived.

PETER COOK, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Understanding we have that the Department Defense that those aid trucks have not yet been put in position to deliver the assistance that we think is critically required.

VAUSE: Barbara Starr there, reporting into the Pentagon. And when we come back, more on Aleppo, we go inside the city and find out what life is like after 5 years of war and 72 hours of calm.

SESAY: Plus, 75,000 Syrian refugees stranded in the middle of the desert with no food or aid, while Amnesty International says Jordan is violating its international obligation.

(END VIDEOTAPE) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:32:26] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. Just gone 10:32 here. I'm John Vause.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Isha Sesay.

The headlines this hour --

(HEADLINES)

SESAY: Now air raids targeting ISIS have killed 23 civilians in Syria. Activists say the strike hit a school in Der Azor (ph). It was housing families displaced by the war. At least nine of the victims were children.

VAUSE: It's not clear who carried out the strikes. Since the area is controlled by ISIS, it falls outside the territory covered by the Syrian ceasefire.

And the ceasefire is holding for now but mistrust is growing between Russia and the United States.

SESAY: Russia is flying a drone over rebel-held eastern Aleppo to look for ceasefire violations.

Senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, has more from government-controlled western Aleppo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than five years of civil war have scarred large parts of Aleppo. Neighborhoods like this one controlled by the government in ruins.

Now finally, with the ceasefire, some respite, and seemingly little things become special. For the first time in months, 9-year-old Abdul and his friends can go out and collect firewood for their families.

"We need this wood to cook dinner because we have nothing else," he says.

The neighborhood was right on the front line until recently. Rebels shelled this district from a nearby hill, laying waste to many of the buildings. Meanwhile, government forces used air power to bomb the opposition areas.

Amid the destruction, families continue to live in the ruins. Ahmed has been here for three years and stayed even after the rebels fired makeshift rockets into the flat next door, blowing away the wall separating the two apartments.

[01:35:16] "It was very dangerous," he says. "We were too afraid to go out because there was also a sniper covering the street and we couldn't go into this living room." Now he stays her with his wife and eight children, the kids trying to rest in the badly damaged flat.

By all accounts the situation is even worse in the rebel-held parts of Aleppo. Russia and the U.S. trying to ensure safe passage for U.N. aid into the besieged areas.

(on camera): If the agreement holds and Syrian forces withdraw from this area, then this road, the Costello Road, will be the main entrance road for aid into eastern Aleppo. This is the road the U.N. trucks are going to use.

(voice-over): The ceasefire has brought much-needed calm for the residents of this once so beautiful, now so battered city. While many of them cherish the calm, few are convinced that it can truly last.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Aleppo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: So much destruction.

More than 75,000 Syrian refugees are trapped in the desert in no-man's land near the border with Jordan with no access to food or aid. The U.N. rights group, Amnesty International, says that Jordan is violating its international obligations. Jordan has been taking few refugees, citing security concerns.

VAUSE: Amnesty International obtained video which shows a makeshift grave site next to the camp. The group says some refugees are dying from preventable.

SESAY: Tirana Hassan is the crisis response director for Amnesty International joins me now. She joins me from Geneva, Switzerland via Skype.

Tirana, thank you for being with us.

75,000 people trapped on the border with Jordan. We know that they have these vigorous vetting measures which they've used before to screen refugees before allowing them into the country. Why not use them now? What has changed?

TIRANA HASSAN, CRISIS RESPONSE DIRECTOR, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: That's a very good question. As you mentioned there are 75,000 people living in squalor in the middle of the desert at the Syrian-Jordanian border known as the Berm. Jordan stopped allowing refugees in after a car bomb by the Islamic State group, detonated on the 21st of July. What has happened since then is no humanitarian assistance is coming in and no one is going out. Jordan is saying we are trying to protect our citizens and we have a responsibility do that. While no one questions Jordan has a responsibility, you cannot put safety above your international obligations. It cannot be at the expense of is what Amnesty International is saying. There is no good reason that Jordan cannot start vetting refugees immediately and no reason that Jordan cannot open its borders right now and start allowing full and unfettered humanitarian assistance to go in so people have adequate food, water, stop dying from preventable illnesses such as hepatitis. We have reports from inside the Berm that say there were nine deaths related to childbirth, so women or infants who died during childbirth just in the last month.

SESAY: Tirana, in the absence of humanitarian aid being allowed in, explain to the viewers what will happen to these tens of thousands of people.

HASSAN: Well, these tens of thousands of people are undergoing immensely hard conditions right now. And it's just an absolute -- it's a picture of human misery. And the thing is that this situation is completely solvable. But we can't just focus on Jordan and say Jordan can fix this problem because it is an international problem, and the situation at the Berm in this particular stretch of land with these 75,000 refugees is a great snapshot or a grim snapshot, I should say, of the international failure, because international governments could be increasing their resettlement quotas. Governments, such as the U.S., the U.K., the E.U. block, Australia, could be increasing the amount of refugees that they resettle in an organized and structured way to relieve the burden on countries like Jordan, who have now sort of felt like they carried the majority of the burden from the Syria crisis, along with Turkey and Iraq and Lebanon. And this will not be solved unless we see world leaders, who are meeting next week in New York at refugee summits being conducted by the secretary-general of the U.N. and Obama, to try and find a solution. But that's why we have seen little coming from governments who are interested in solving the problem by increasing their own quotas and there is no other option but doing that and having global responsibility sharing.

[01:40:34] 75,000 people stuck in no-man's land. The world is watching. Something has to be done.

Tirana Hassan, thank you for joining us.

HASSAN: Thank you very much.

VAUSE: Coming up next here on NEWSROOM L.A., new warnings about Samsung phones and what you should do with your Galaxy Note 7.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: U.S. regulators have made it official recalling one million Galaxy Note 7 Smartphones.

SESAY: Several users report they have caught fire while charging. Customers have been urged to stop using the phone immediately. Samsung said it will stop selling the device and customers can ask for a refund or a different phone.

VAUSE: For more on the recall, we are joined from San Francisco by "CNN Money" tech reporter, Heather Kelly.

Heather, thanks for being with us.

Just first question, have they worked out what is causing the problem here, why are these phones bursting into flames?

HEATHER KELLY, CNN MONEY TECH REPORTER: They have. They're faulty lithium ion batteries. They are in all the Smartphones and in Tesla's electric cars. And Samsung says there is an error in the manufacturing process causing them to overheat or explode, sometimes while charging, sometimes while not

VAUSE: A pretty big problem, I guess, an error in the manufacturing process. This is bad timing for Samsung. Now the recall comes just as the iPhone 7 hits the market.

[01:45:12] KELLY: It's really unfortunate. It had great reviews. People love the stylus and the big screen and it would be a big competitor for the iPhone 7 Plus, which is going on sale starting today. And Samsung's stock is not doing too well with that news. And customers will have to wait if they want to stick with the android phone. There is a chance that people could switch to the Apple iPhone.

VAUSE: People loved the phones so much, two weeks ago, when the company put out a voluntary recall, no one took them -- or most people didn't take them up on that and kept using the phones. Now there is an official recall. Is it likely to change?

KELLY: Hopefully. I think there is criticism of how they handled the wording of the recall. They started the recall on the 2nd but it wasn't until the 10th that they emphasized that people need to stop using the phones. There was a delay there and some people thought it is a minor problem, my phone won't explode. So this official recall will hopefully make it seem more serious for everybody.

VAUSE: Famous last words. Bottom line here, for Samsung, what will it cost the company? Could there be concern about other Samsung products?

KELLY: So far, it's limited to only this one phone but they are offering exchanges for other phones as part of the recall. There doesn't seem to be any concern. And they are saying it's a small portion of the 2.5 million 7s that have gone out. Hopefully, it won't come up again. But it is something we might see in the future like with the hover boards and other products that use the lithium ion batteries.

VAUSE: Stay with us because, we have an update on the iPhone 7. You mentioned the iPhone 7 is going on sale. It has just come out. They are lining up around the world just to get their hands on this. Employees in Tokyo counted down the second for the store to open.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: One buyer, waiting in line, she is happy with the camera and excited to use the phone to pay the fare at the subway. Australians are the first to purchase the new iPhone. They waited in the rain to get one.

So it seems that as the phone is being launched and people have a chance to look at it, people are warming now to the iPhone 7 a lot more than a week ago when Apple first put the details out there.

KELLY: Yeah, I have been using one for a couple days. It's pretty great. When you look at the controversies, one is missing a port for head phones, and the other, it catches fire. So the iPhone 7s are looking great.

VAUSE: That is a good selling point. Buy an iPhone. It won't explode.

KELLY: That should be in the advertising campaign.

(LAUGHTER)

VAUSE: Excellent.

Thank you for being with us, Heather. We appreciate it. Heather Kelly, "CNN Money."

KELLY: Thanks.

SESAY: I think you are on to something.

VAUSE: I should be in marketing. A stroke of genius.

(LAUGHTER)

SESAY: Let's think about in the break.

We're going to take a break now. Donald Trump says he has super ideas and super plans for the U.S., but we didn't know he also has superpowers.

VAUSE: He does.

SESAY: That is according to a NEW billboard in Times Square. We will explain, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:52:46] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Over the last 20 years that this election campaign seems to have lasted. We have seen a lot of strange things. And now we can add this, a Trump superman.

SESAY: And naked Trump statues are coming back.

Our Jeanne Moos explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flying above Times Square --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a bird.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a plane.

MOOS: -- it's Super Trump. A group supporting the Donald shelled out $25,000 for this to run on a digital billboard for three days. I think the Donald would agree with the second half of the description.

ANNOUNCER: A strange visitor from another planet who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

MOOS: Some were amused.

(LAUGHTER)

MOOS: But for others --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a worry. In Australia, we are worried about Donald Trump actually getting in.

MOOS: But if you peel off the tights, this is what you get, naked Trump is back, back atop two buildings, one facing traffic, at the Holland Tunnel heading into New York, the other in Miami.

Look familiar? They are the same statues that appeared in public spaces last month before being taken down.

Now the Manic Temporary Arts Center is hosting naked Trump on its private property.

So just as the Donald is telling Dr. Oz --

TRUMP: The one thing I would like to do is be able to drop 15, 20 pounds.

MOOS: His bloated likeness has been dropped on rooftops.

In Miami, the statue was first placed on billboards and taken down after the police said it was tying up traffic.

By the light of a full moon, naked Trump was reinstalled and is now mooning people from atop an art gallery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The naked Donald Trump, awesome.

MOOS: At the Holland Tunnel location, they were adding new locks after someone tried to break in. The art center suspects Trump supporters wanted to remove him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Trump statue is a metaphor for his campaign, off-color, bloated and a big joke.

MOOS: The center says it will take down naked Trump if the Donald releases his tax records.

Somebody get that statue a cape.

(on camera): Who is this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump.

MOOS: Super Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

MOOS (voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN --

(on camera): Make America naked again.

(voice-over): -- Jersey City, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(LAUGHTER)

[01:55:09] VAUSE: It does sum up the campaign. Those who support him, see him as Super Trump. Those who don't, have a less favorable opinion.

SESAY: Nicely said.

We have wondered what Donald Trump's amazing-looking hair feels like.

VAUSE: I know I have.

So, too, has host, Jimmy Fallon. The host of the late-night TV show asked if he could mess with Trump's coif when the presidential candidate was on the show tonight. Trump seemed game for it. So Fallon went in. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Go ahead. With my hair.

(CHEERING)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, THE JIMMY FALLON SHOW: Yes! Donald Trump, everybody! I'll do it again. Donald Trump, everybody!

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Yikes.

VAUSE: Is it a comb-over? I mean, anyway. It looked comb-overish.

SESAY: Yeah. Good sport, for letting him do that. I won't let you do that to my hair.

VAUSE: No. And I wouldn't dream of it.

SESAY: All right. So he says now.

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

VAUSE: I'm John Vause.

For those in the United States, "CNN Tonight" with Don Lemon is up next.

For everyone else, we'll be back with another hour of news. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)