Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Fact Checking the Presidential Debate; Trump Says China Should Solve N. Korean Nuclear Problem; Colombia, FARC Sign Peace Deal. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired September 27, 2016 - 01:00   ET

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


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANDERSON COOPER 360 ANCHOR: -- it for us. I think, in fact, we're going to -- if you missed the debate, earlier this evening, you can see it in its entirety right now. See you later.

[01:00:09] ISHA SESAY, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: That's funny.

[01:00:17] JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. Thanks for being with us. I'm John Vause live in Los Angeles.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. And we'll start with the biggest political showdown in decades. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton went head to head Monday night in the most anticipated 90 minutes of the U.S. Presidential Campaign.

VAUSE: About 100 million Americans are expected to have watched the debate. A record breaking televised Presidential Debate, on par with big sporting events like the Super Bowl. The debate began with a friendly handshake, but it wasn't long before it all got very heated.

HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have a feeling by the end of this evening, I'm going to be blamed for everything that's ever happened.

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Why not?

CLINTON: Why not. Yeah, why not. You know, just join the - join the debate by saying more crazy things. Now, let me say --

TRUMP: There's nothing crazy about not letting our companies bring their money back into their country -

LESTER HOLT, MODERATOR OF THE DEBATE: This is - this is Secretary Clinton's two minutes, please.

TRUMP: Yes.

SESAY: Well, a CNN/ORC poll release after the debate finds that 62 percent of viewers felt Clinton won the debate, 27 percent thought Trump came out on top. Let's go to CNN's Chris Moody, he's live from Hofstra University in New York. Chris, you hear those numbers there from the poll, what the viewers thought. But talk to us about the feeling inside that debate hall. The audience, they were loud, and they bought into it, every single minute of this debate. [01:01:38] CHRIS MOODY, CNN POLITICS SENIOR DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, despite the rules that everyone in the audience remain silent, there were periods where they really couldn't help themselves, and they let out cheers here and there, especially for zingers that Donald Trump delivered against Hillary Clinton as well as Clinton against Trump. But you know, I think the takeaway tonight is that Clinton really put Trump on the defensive tonight. She clearly prepared for this. She studied her opposition research book against Trump. You could almost see it word for word that they planned on just about every kind of attack they could get from Trump. Now, in the early part of this debate, Trump really made a lot of points that we see resonated with people about the struggling economy, particularly what he said about jobs leaving states where industries have gone to other countries in the past few years. And these are key states in the United States like Ohio, Pennsylvania, states he will need to win. But he also went on the attack against her and tried to throw her off her foot -- footing but really did not succeed. She remained steady throughout the entire debate, even smiling through many of the attacks. And as we see in that poll, many of the voters or the viewers of that - of that debate thought that she not only won, but also was more prepared and ready to take him on.

VAUSE: And Chris, very quickly about this CNN/ORC poll. There's some numbers behind there's numbers which we should explain in particular that there are a lot of democrats in the sample.

MOODY: That's right. There's a flash poll taken just of people that were watching the debates. Of course, not all Americans even though many will still get the numbers in a little bit later. But I think even in early numbers, that it still shows you how people were feeling coming immediately off this debate. Now, going into the debate, Donald Trump really had the momentum. Hillary Clinton had the lead and this was her real opportunity to try to slowdown that momentum. I tell you, I cannot wait to see some of the polling afterwards especially in the key states, in the Floridas, in the Ohios, in the Pennsylvanias. To see if he really - or she was really able to slow down his momentum. We've got two more debates to go, and I think there's still a lot more opportunities. This race is not over by any means. It -- going into this, we're looking like it's about 50/50. It's going to be very exciting to see what we have coming in the polling in the next few days and weeks.

VAUSE: And there'll be plenty of polling, I'm sure. Chris, thank you so much.

SESAY: Uh-hmm. Chris, thank you -- Chris, many thanks.

VAUSE: And now we're joined by Democratic Strategist Matthew Littman and Republican Consultant John Thomas. OK. So -

SESAY: Welcome to (INAUDIBLE)

VAUSE: Welcome. One of the big challenges for Donald Trump going into this, was to show that he had the temperament to be president. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think my strongest asset, maybe by far is my temperament. I have a winning temperament. I know how to win. She does not have -

HOLT: Secretary Clinton -

TRUMP: Wait, the AFL-CIO the other day behind the blue screen, I don't know who you were talking to Secretary Clinton, but you were totally out of control. I said there's a person with a temperament that's got a problem.

HOLT: Secretary Clinton?

CLINTON: Whoa, OK.

VAUSE: So John that works well. How did you think that part of the debate went for Donald Trump, as he was yelling about his temperament?

[01:05:54] JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Well, here's what Trump's problem is. He made good points, but it just went right over the head of most of the electorates. No one saw that video when he talked about people pleading the Fifth Amendment on the e-mail issue. He ignored the low-hanging fruit talking about what the FBI Director said about her truthfulness and compromising national security. So everything was very inside baseball. Trump was defending himself and not on the attack. He -- this wasn't the best night for him, but it wasn't disqualifying either.

SESAY: Matt, the night wasn't just about sounding presidential; it's also about looking presidential, though. In that split screen the whole time, optics matter. Talk to me about how they came off because this was a study in contrasts.

[01:05:33] MATTHEW LITTMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, Trump says that Hillary doesn't look presidential. He said that before tonight, and he really couldn't defend that statement tonight either. But the split screen didn't work for Trump because he is interrupting all the time, and he's groaning and sniffling. Couldn't figure out really what was going on there in his side. Hillary was pretty calm, smiling, sometimes in meaning it and smiling sometimes in a way that obviously she didn't mean it. And as she was taking a lot of that incoming flak, which you just saw before and the clip that you showed, she took it very well. You know, they were showing him groaning and shaking his head and she was taking it all very well and seemed very, very calm throughout. I will say this, I thought that Trump started out pretty OK during the debate -

VAUSE: The first 20 minutes, he was doing good.

LITTMAN: Yeah. I thought he was doing fine. As you -

VAUSE: Yes. On the trade issues especially.

LITTMAN: Say that again?

VAUSE: On the trade issues. LITTMAN: On the trade issues. But as you might imagine with Trump's attention span, I think that's the best of him. And that hour and a half hour debate -- if a debate was 45 minutes, Trump would do really well. An hour and a half is never (INAUDIBLE)

THOMAS: Trump's challenge was to look presidential. Hillary's challenge was to look human. And I don't think Hillary looked human. I think she hit her marks, but she never really addressed the concern that she is overly scripted. But she didn't falter either. So I think in the next couple debates, we're going to see, can she address that likability factor, the trust worthiness challenge.

VAUSE: One of these would cost is Trump with women voters. How many women heard him yelling over the top of Hillary Clinton thinking, "Oh, I remember the time when a guy yells on top of me, won't let me talk." I mean, he interrupted her 26 times in 5 minutes.

THOMAS: I think Trump was acting as his own fact-checker. You know, he was correcting her every time she would make a statement and in two-minute response, he would say "Wrong" or sometimes he would say "True, true."

LITTMAN: But let's say -- when he would say wrong, he was -- she was very often right. He would say wrong but he was wrong, like for example, when they talked about climate change, Donald Trump sent out a tweet saying that the Chinese manufactured climate change to really - to kill U.S. jobs, right? And then he said they didn't say that, but he said it, it's posted in a tweet.

SESAY: This is about 2012.

LITTMAN: Right. And then when he talked about the Iraq War, he said he was in favor of the Iraq War, and then a month later on TV with Neil Cavuto, he said that he thought it was going really great. He said tonight that that's not what happened, but that is what happens when Donald Trump is fact-checking Hillary, he's very often not telling the truth.

VAUSE: OK. Another challenge for Donald Trump was to reach out to those minority voters as well in particular African-Americans and his Hispanic voters. He, again, straight from the stump speech, described their communities as a living hell, and then Hillary Clinton responded to that.

CLINTON: I've heard - I've heard Donald say this at his rallies, and it's really unfortunate that he paints such a dire, negative picture of black communities in our country. You know, the vibrancy of the black church, the black businesses that employ so many people, the opportunities that so many families are working to provide for their kids. There's a lot that we should be proud of and we should be supporting and lifting up.

VAUSE: OK. We could have cut that a lot shorter because I just wanted to pick up on the ugh moment. We all heard, everybody in the audience heard it, everyone watching her -- (INAUDIBLE) it was almost like an Al Gore moment, you know, from 2000 debate. THOMAS: Well, I think, Trump is disgruntled that he feels that she's distorting his record. And he said that at many points. And he said, "Look, she's spending millions of dollars of ads, both of which are false," and he's frustrated about that.

VAUSE: But she was talking about African-American communities then, and she was replying to something he said about African-American communities not about his record. She was saying how vibrant African- American Communities are and he's groaning.

THOMAS: Well, I think he wasn't groaning about the vibrance of the community. I think he's saying, "Look, this is -- she's wrong, she's distorting the truth."

SESAY: But the language in and of itself, Matt, and this is to you, John, as well, but this language of despair that he continue to repeat by the African-American community. Again, it comes back to this disconnect.

LITTMAN: It sounds - it sounds like he really does not know an African-American person is really the way that it sounds. But let me say this about the debate tonight, Trump seemed totally unprepared for the debate tonight. And I was really surprised, I mean, on some basic issues he really just didn't seem to know very much and when Hillary would say things like -- talking about his record -- the families record in real estate where the Justice Department sued them for racial discrimination, he said, "We settled." What does mean?

(CROSSTALK)

LITTMAN: It doesn't sound great. I mean, I'm sorry, but it just doesn't -

THOMAS: Oh, that was just a way of punting on the issue.

LITTMAN: That might be his way but that doesn't work.

THOMAS: Hillary was better prepared for the debate tonight. I think there's no question about it. Donald Trump started out strong. And it'll be interesting to see the ratings of who dropped off after 20 minutes or so. But if Donald Trump can stick in the next couple debates and saying, "Look the direction of the country needs to change." If he can make that case consistently, he should do well.

SESAY: Speaking of lack of preparation, when he was asked why he suddenly changed his mind on birtherism, he seemed to struggle to come up with an answer. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLT: And we're talking about racial healing in this segment, what do you say to Americans who are people of color -

TRUMP: Well, it was very -- I say nothing. I say nothing.

CLINTON: So, he tried to put the whole racist birther lie to bed. But it can't be dismissed that easily.

TRUMP: Well, I got to watch in preparing for this some of your debates against Barack Obama. You treated him with terrible disrespect, and I watch the way you talk now about how lovely everything is and how wonderful you are, doesn't work that way. So, when you try to act holier than thou, it really doesn't work. It really doesn't.

SESAY: Matt does he have a point there in terms of the holier than thou in the hindsight of the birther story?

(CROSSTALK)

LITTMAN: I'm so surprised -- sorry to interrupt you. But I am so surprised to hear him saying that Hillary and Barack Obama when they were debating, she was treating him with disrespect. What is he talking about? I think the most effective answer that Hillary gave the entire night, I'd like her to personalize some of her answers a little bit more. Recite less statistics. The answer that they gave and I hope you show it, about the Latina woman who competed in the Miss Universe Pageant, and Trump referred to her as a housekeeper. That's something that I would like to see again repeated on CNN, because that's hard to believe, and I think that really impacts how see -- people see Donald Trump.

THOMAS: But Donald Trump's claims about Sidney Blumenthal are accurate. Those were correct.

LITTMAN: No, not in this -no, no, no.

THOMAS: They are.

(CROSSTALK)

THOMAS: The campaign was trafficking those -

(CROSSTALK)

LITTMAN: -- Sidney Blumenthal says no. And by the way - no, they were not. You're wrong.

(CROSSTALK)

THOMAS: (INAUDIBLE) they never got attraction.

LITTMAN: You're wrong. And also, Donald Trump has been doing that until today. Nobody --

THOMAS: I'm not - I'm not defending Donald Trump.

LITTMAN: You are actually defending Donald Trump

THOMAS: He went on that issue -

LITTMAN: And Barack Obama was -

THOMAS: And she is guilty -

LITTMAN: No, she isn't. Not as guilty

THOMAS: In 2008 --

LITTMAN: No, she isn't --

THOMAS: Yes, she is -

(CROSSTALK)

LITTMAN: Donald Trump has been trafficking this for six years. You think that Hillary is as guilty because Sidney Blumenthal might have been -

THOMAS: No, in 2008 she's pretending like her campaign never did anything about it.

(CROSSTALK)

LITTMAN: Donald Trump has been talking about for six years, "Was Barack Obama born in the United States?"

THOMAS: Of course --

LITTMAN: Then why is Donald Trump talking about this for six years.

THOMAS: But she's denying that in 2008 she ever brought up the issue --

LITTMAN: She didn't bring up the issue. You just mentioned Sidney Blumenthal. You didn't mention Hillary Clinton.

THOMAS: Her campaign was driving the issue.

LITTMAN: They weren't driving it.

VAUSE: She has plausible deniability, OK.

THOMAS: I suppose.

VAUSE: Is the birther issue, though, took 39 minutes to come up, it seems to be a permanent problem, though, for Donald Trump.

THOMAS: Yeah, it's a loser, just like Hillary Clinton's e-mails.

VAUSE: And he'd left that on the table in a big way. OK.

LITTMAN: Can I say something else?

VAUSE: Sure.

LITTMAN: And I hate to say this (INAUDIBLE) Donald Trump any ideas. He dropped that e-mail very fast

VAUSE: Exactly. (CROSSTALK)

LITTMAN: And Hillary gave like a two-second answer, and that was the end of it. I was so surprised by that.

SESAY: But again, does that not come down to preparation?

LITTMAN: I can't -- I don't - I don't know what Donald Trump were doing for the last couple of months. I mean, he really -- he seemed unprepared for the basic questions that he was going to get from Lester Holt and from Hillary -- talk about Rosie O'Donnell at the end of the debate. What is he talking about?

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) he's going to that, you know, being prepared for an answer. Trump brought up the issue of Hillary Clinton's stamina, and again, she was ready with a - with a reply. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't believe that Hillary has the stamina.

CLINTON: As soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a ceasefire, a release of dissidents, an opening of new opportunities in nations around the world, or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina.

VAUSE: And that was clearly a rehearsed line. And it was interesting to see how the Trump campaign has managed to change for the fact that she didn't look presidential to now she didn't have the stamina to be presidential?

THOMAS: Well, there have been concerns about her health as a reason, so I think, you know, he might be speaking to some of that. But Trump's problem tonight was he bit on all the things that were the least impactful. There were plenty of soft shots to take at her, and he let them all pass. That was the problem.

VAUSE: Sorry.

SESAY: No - so, I mean, if you are in the Trump campaign, what are you saying to him, in the debrief?

THOMAS: I'm saying, what you started out, you've got to stay focused. So we're going to need to practice some more than we did last time, right?

LITTMAN: It's going to happen now. You have to medicate him to stay focused. He can't do it and he cannot remember all of these facts. Hillary knows a lot of these facts, Trump doesn't and he won't.

VAUSE: So, are you suggesting that maybe his aides work spinning when they - they were saying that he wasn't preparing for the debate.

(CROSSTALK)

LITTMAN: If I were Trumps' aid, I'd pull the fire alarm and (INAUDIBLE).

VAUSE: Thanks guys.

SESAY: Gentlemen, a pleasure.

VAUSE: OK. Well, cyber security came up and Hillary Clinton said the U.S. would hit back hard against Russia, China, and anybody else who hacks into American files.

CLINTON: Clinton and other officials believe Moscow is behind a series of cyber-attacks including one on the Democratic National Committee. But Trump challenged that claim.

TRUMP: I don't think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. She's saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don't -- maybe it was, I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK? You don't know who broke in to DNC.

VAUSE: Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance joins us now live from Moscow. A 400-pound blogger could be to blame. Matthew, Donald Trump seems to be at odds with the position of the U.S. Intelligence Committee, but he was saying, he is in line with what is being generally his favorable view of Russia and President Putin.

[01:15:33] MATTHEW CHANCE, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, that seems to be the case. And of course, it could be a 400- pound Russian that did this. But you're right, the U.S. Intelligence Officials that have been briefing on this and the other lawmakers in the United States have pretty much arrived at the conclusion that it's Russia that's behind those hacks on the Democratic National Convention, against all the various other sort of institutions in United States that have been hacked releasing those at Hillary Clinton e-mails as well. But I mean, Trump is technically correct in the sense that no one's produced actual technical concrete digital evidence that these hack attacks came from Russia. The evidence is predominantly circumstantial in the sense that those who have been targeted by the hacks attacks over the past several months are primarily the rivals of the Russian State and opponents of the Kremlin - critics of the Kremlin like Hillary Clinton. And so, the hacks tend to be aligned with Russian foreign interest. Not circumstantial evidence, not digital evidence, but, you know, as we're saying it, all that circumstantial evidence does point to Moscow.

VAUSE: And quite often when it does come to hacking and cybercrime, it usually is - or usually is circumstantial evidence, but on the other side of this debate, Hillary Clinton pledging her support to U.S. allies and NATO, sending a clear message to any countries in the region. They may be nervous after Russia Annex Crimea.

CHANCE: Yeah. That's obviously a reference to the fact that in the past that Donald Trump has questioned what allegiance the United States should have to its NATO allies. Of course, it's been a cornerstone of U.S. Foreign Policy on both sides of the (INAUDIBLE) that NATO alliance is sacrosanct. And, of course, Donald Trump has questioned that, he said if Russia -- we was questioned by the New York Times a few months ago, he said, "Look, you know, if Russia were to attack a NATO ally what would you do?" He said - he said something like, you know, "I'd assess, you know, whether they'd, you know, done all their obligations - fulfill their obligations to us before I decided whether or not to defend them." And that's interesting because any kind of shakiness when it comes to the NATO military alliance is exactly the kind of shakiness that the Kremlin is looking for. And again, it feeds into this narrative that Donald Trump is an unwitting agent, as he's been called by a former CIA Director of the Kremlin. Not that he's a spy, not that he's employed by the Kremlin, but his view of the world, his view of geopolitics in general, his view of America seems to align very closely to the Kremlin view of those things, too.

VAUSE: OK. Matthew, thank you. Matthew Chance live this hour for us in Moscow. I appreciate it.

SESAY: Well, next on NEWSROOM L.A., more on the first U.S. Presidential Debate including how the candidates plan to tackle terrorism and secure America.

VAUSE: Also ahead, a new round of airstrikes on Eastern Aleppo. The Syrian government plans to fight terrorism on its own soil.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[01:20:26] DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: I'm Don Riddell with your CNN WORLDSPORT HEADLINES. The world of golf has been paying tribute to Arnold Palmer who passed away on Sunday at the age of 87. Tiger Woods thanked Palmer for his friendship, counsel and a lot of laughs. Just hours after winning the tour championship, Rory Mcilroy described him as a true pioneer for our sport, forever remembered. Fellow golfing great and a close friend of Palmer, Jack Nicolaus said he would miss him greatly, adding, "We just lost one of the incredible people in the game of golf and in all of sports." The U.S. Golf Association called him "golf's greatest ambassador."

After just three years in operation, FIFA has disbanded its anti- racism task force declaring its work complete. Football's world governing bodies said in a letter to taskforce members it had totally fulfilled its temporary mission. Many critics are dismayed racist incidents at football matches have recently been seen and punished by EUFA in Italy, Spain, Poland and Ukraine. The news comes less than nine months before Russia stages the World Cup Warm up Confederations Cup Tournaments.

And Paris Saint-Germain Defender Serge Aurier has been sentenced to two months in jail for elbowing a police officer. Aurier, who also plays for Ivory Coast was fined over the incident to the Paris night club in May, he remained free pending an appeal, which means he could play for PSG in the Champions League on Wednesday. That is a quick look at your sports headlines, I'm Don Riddell. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:22:10] SESAY: Hello, everyone. One of the biggest questions for the next U.S. President, terrorism and how to defeat ISIS.

[01:22:15] VAUSE: Hillary Clinton says the U.S. needs to work closely with Middle-East allies. But Donald Trump blamed her for the rise of ISIS and the instability in the region.

CLINTON: We're working with our friends in the Middle East, many of which as you know, are Muslim majority nations. Donald has consistently insulted Muslims abroad, Muslims at home, when we need to be cooperating with Muslim nations and with the American-Muslim community.

TRUMP: We've been working with them for many years. And we have the greatest mess anyone's ever seen. You look at the Middle East, it's a total mess under your direction, to a large extent.

SESAY: But in all their talk about ISIS, Trump and Clinton barely mentioned Syria. In fact, the word itself came up just one time during the whole debate. Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen joins us now live from the Syrian Capital, Damascus. Fred, what does the absence of any significant discussion of the war in Syria during this debate tell us?

[01:23:17] FREDERIK PLEITGEN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, look, I mean, it was quite surprising, Isha, that Syria was pretty much barely mentioned at all in this debate especially in light of the fact that you had this major escalation that happened here just during the past couple of days with that campaign that the Syrian government launched in Aleppo with many people who were killed over the weekend on Monday as well. And then also, the fact that the Syrian government has now announced this ground offensive that right now, the diplomacy to try and bring this war to some sort of a conclusion.

That has pretty much all but failed and the main nations behind all of this, the Russians and the Americans don't seem to be able to find any sort of common ground to find -- make this war stop. And of course, all of that also very much important when you're talking about the international fight against ISIS, which of course, Syria is one of the main battlegrounds, the U.S. very much involved in the form of special forces, in the form of airstrikes here in Syria as well. It was interesting now to see that Donald Trump basically blaming Hillary for the rise of ISIS saying that some of the decisions around the Iraq pull-out were to blamed for that. So certainly, very little of substance for the folks here in Syria where, of course, many of them also watching this debate waiting to see whether or not especially after that recent escalation, there would be more of a substance here for the folks here on the ground.

SESAY: Yeah. And Fred, what do we know about conditions in Eastern Aleppo right now with the stepping up of the attacks in the last couple of days and the government announcement of a ground offensive, what are conditions like right now?

PLEITGEN: Well, still very bad. You know, one of the things that we've heard is that yesterday, the opposition says that about 15 people were killed in airstrikes and also artillery strikes there in the Eastern Aleppo area, which is of course, the rebel-held districts of that city. But the main factor right now is that the offensive that the government has launched and the government has said it wants to take back all of Aleppo, that that offensive is still very much ongoing, and it involves both an air campaign as well as ground forces as well. There's been some heavy fighting especially in the north of Aleppo in a place called Handarat Camp, which was actually overrun by government forces for a while before it was then taken back after a rebel counteroffensive, and now there's back and forth shelling going on there. So, it really at this point in time, doesn't look like any of this is going to stop any time soon. There's a lot of people who've been killed, there's a lot of people who've been wounded. A lot of people, the rescuers say still trapped under the rubble, because rescuers can't get to them. And one of the other main things, Isha, is that aid is also not getting to these places. We talked at length yesterday to the Resident Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations. He says, "Right now, with the fighting as intense at it is, the fact there's no humanitarian corridors to try to get in there, pretty much impossible to help all those people who have a massive shortages of water, food, and of course, first and foremost, medical supplies, and also a distinct lack of doctors, only about 30 apparently left in rebel-held Aleppo, which services about 250,000 people that are still trapped in there, Isha.

SESAY: The pictures out of Aleppo are truly horrifying. Frederik Pleitgen joining us there from Damascus. Fred, stay safe. Thanks for the reporting.

VAUSE: Well, when we come back, we'll have more on the debate including some fact-checking on China and Iraq. Also, why Donald Trump was unhappy with his microphone? And what was all that sniffling anyway?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:10] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody, the first U.S Presidential Debate lived up to the height as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump sparred at Hofstra University.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: For 90-minutes, the candidates clashed over crucial issues, like the economy, national security and cyberwarfare.

Clinton put Trump on the defensive several times with comments like this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it's real.

(CROSSTALK) DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I did not. I do not say that.

(CROSSTALK)

CLINTON: And I think it's important --

TRUMP: I did not say that.

CLINTON: -- that we grip this and deal with it both at home and abroad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Yes, but let's go back in the way back time machine. Here's the tweet from 2012, "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non completive."

To be fair, he said it was just a joke.

SESAY: He was kidding.

VAUSE: Dylan Byers joins us with more on that.

Wasn't just the tweet about global climate change. There was talk before this debate whether or the moderator, Lester Holt, would fact check Donald Trump. As it turns out, Donald Trump was fact checking Lester Holt during the day debate. Listen to some of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESTER HOLT, DEBATE MODERATOR: You supported the war in Iraq before the invasion. What makes your --

TRUMP: I did not support a war in Iraq.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: That is a mainstream media nonsense put out by her because she -- frankly I think the best person in her campaign is main stream media.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Would you like to hear? I was against the war --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Wait a minute. I was against the war in Iraq. Just so you put it out.

HOLD: The record shows otherwise.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: The record does not show -- (CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: The record shows that I'm right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK. That was on Iraq, the other heated exchange.

Stay with us, Dylan. It's worth it.

This is on the issue of Stop-and-Frisk. Listen to what Donald Trump has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLT: Stop-and-Frisk was ruled unconstitutional in New York because it largely singled out black and Hispanic young men.

TRUMP: No, you're wrong. It went before a judge who was a very against police judge. It was taken away from her. And our mayor, our new mayor refused to go forward with the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Dylan, now we know why the moderators shouldn't be bothered with fact checking. It would be impossible.

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR REPORTER FOR MEDIA & POLITICS: It is impossible with Donald Trump because in many cases he has a different version of how things went down. Personally, in watching how Lester Holt handled the debate I thought he did a very good job. He certainly held back. Some people criticized him initially. But that was in keeping with what the expectation was on the Commission on Presidential Debates. The goal was to let these two candidates debate one another and the onus was on them to do the fact checking. And Lester Holt said before the debate, he's not going to be a potted plant and he wasn't. He challenged Trump on the Iraq war vote. He challenged Trump on Birtherism and on several issues, certainly more often than he challenged Hillary Clinton. I think it's to his credit. I think there's a very tight rope the moderators have to walk in terms of both challenging the candidates to stick to the facts while also letting the candidates take the lead and debate one another. And I think, all things considered, he did a pretty nice job.

SESAY: Dylan, after the debate, Trump was complaining, but it wasn't about the moderator. It was about his microphone. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And they have -- gave me a defective mic. Did you notice that? My mic was defective within the room.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: No, no. I wonder, was that on purpose?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know.

TRUMP: Was that on purpose? But I had a mic that wasn't working properly within the room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: OK, well, the microphone sounded fine on the air. But nonetheless, is Trump's complaining indicative of the fact he knows he had a lackluster debate performance?

BYERS: You have to believe that it is. If the idea that somehow Trump's performance tonight can be attributed to a bad mic, is pretty laughable. I think what happened here, when you get out of a debate and you haven't had a stellar performance or categorically won the debate, you have to look for people to blame. He may have been blaming his microphone. But immediately after the debate, members of his campaign, surrogates, supporters, and many people did start blaming Lester Holt, saying he was tougher on Trump than on Clinton. Interestingly enough, we saw Trump in the spin room after the debate and that's not what he told us. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[01:35:17] BYERS: Mr. Trump, how do you feel about how Lester Holt did?

TRUMP: I thought Lester did a great job. I though honestly he did a great job.

BYERS: You thought the questions were fair?

TRUMP: Yeah, I thought it was good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BYERS: So, needless to say it's going to be hard for the Trump campaign and his supporters to argue that Lester Holt was the problem. Whether or not they can argue that a bad microphone was the problem, I have doubts about that, too.

VAUSE: Dylan, one of the stranger moments in the debate is when Trump was talking about the Iraq war and he was saying, call Sean Hannity. We were talking about it and I told him I was opposed to the Iraq War. Sean Hannity is a host on FOX News. But this is the clip I want to play you. This is also Sean Hannity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, HOST, HANNITY: One of the reasons I'm supporting Donald Trump this year is, number one, he is going to put originalists on the supreme court, people that believe in fidelity to the Constitution, separation of powers, co equal branches of government. He will vet refugees to keep Americans safe. And of course, he'll build that wall. He says he's going to have Mexico pay for it. That's fine, as long as we secure the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That's Sean Hannity endorsing Donald Trump in a campaign video. Explain the weird dynamic between these two?

BYERS: As you see in that video, Sean Hannity earned his six mentions by Donald Trump during what will likely prove to be the most watched presidential debate in history. In terms of Trump's base, repeating Sean Hannity, Sean Hannity, that is huge for Sean Hannity, and I'm sure he loved it. But the dynamic has been weird throughout the campaign. No one in the media, with exception of the media figures in Trump's campaign, like Stephen Bannon, no one is closer to Trump than Sean Hannity, and no one is more of an unapologetic supporter than Sean Hannity, and I'm sure he is happy hearing his name six times during the debate.

VAUSE: Dylan, thank you.

SESAY: Appreciate it, as always. Thank you.

We're joined once again by Democrat Mike Littman; and Republican consultant, John Thomas.

OK. There were some other key moments in the debate like this one on taxes. You want to talk about fact checking. We're play two sound bites, one during the debate and one after the debate in the spin room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes. Because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax. So --

TRUMP: That makes me smart.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: It sounds like you admitted that you hadn't paid federal taxes and that that was smart. Is that what you meant to say?

TRUMP: No, I didn't say that at all. If they said I didn't, I mean, it doesn't mean anything. I will say this. I hate the way our government spends our taxes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

VAUSE: Who else is confused here?

John, please, you a Trump whisperer.

(CROSSTALK) JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: But the fact is that where he should have pushed it aside and moved back to the attack, he dug himself deeper and deeper. That was a mistake. He was not in control during this debate. That is a mistake. Hillary was prepared and knew which buttons to press and Trump couldn't help but take the bait.

SESAY: Was it is a moment of ill discipline or he thought my supporters will love the fact I didn't pay taxes. It shows me getting one over the system?

MICHAEL LITTMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Let's remember the fact we are talking about the stylistic part of the debate but he is not releasing his returns and he is hiding something. I don't think Hillary is right that he's hiding that he paid no taxes. We all assume he has paid no taxes the last 20 years. But what is he hiding in the returns that he won't release them? That's the big issue. Let's not lose sight of it by what he should have talked about, what he should have said. He's not showing his tax returns and he's hiding something.

(CROSSTALK)

THOMAS: He also did make the claim that I'll release my taxes when you release your 30,000 e-mails. Hillary is not the most transparent figure as well.

VAUSE: OK, she also went after him on the business record and bankruptcies and stiffing the little guy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: You built a lot of businesses on the backs of little guys. And, indeed, I have met a lot of the people who were stiffed by you and your businesses, Donald. I've met dishwashers, painters, architects, glass installers, marble installers, drapery installers, like my dad was, who you refused to pay when they finished the work that you asked them to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:40:13] VAUSE: So tonight, Donald Trump may or may not have admitted to not paying taxes and he admitted when he said the guy didn't do a good job.

THOMAS: Here's where a skilled debater could have done a better job. He could have said -- he had an answer in the primary. He said they did terrible work but I created more jobs and built more businesses than, Hillary, you ever have, and politically --

VAUSE: But politically this has the potential to hurt. It has the potential?

THOMAS: It has the potential.

(CROSSTALK)

THOMAS: She has been running ads against him on this for months.

LITTMAN: Again, you are giving a stylistic answer. But the truth is he does stiff people who work for him. When he says the people aren't doing their job, I think a lot of times they did a pretty good job, the person did a good job on that specific thing they were talking about. He has a tendency to not people and to get involved in lawsuits over and over again.

SESAY: Let's go from stiffing to sniffing.

Would you like, as the Trump whisperer, to help us understand what was going on?

(CROSSTALK)

THOMAS: Yeah, he does that all the time.

VAUSE: Let's listen to it again.

SESAY: I didn't know that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We used certain laws that are there.

And when Secretary Clinton talks about people that didn't get paid, first of all, they did get paid, a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Is he sick?

THOMAS: Jimmy Fallon has had a funny skit about all the sniffing. He'll adjust the mic and he'll sniff. And that's just a classic sign of a deviated septum. I think he's completely healthy.

(CROSSTALK)

LITTMAN: Maybe he is sick and doesn't have the stamina.

(LAUGHTER)

THOMAS: I don't think stamina is his challenge.

VAUSE: Maybe he has pneumonia.

(LAUGHTER)

We'll leave it there.

SESAY: We'll leave that alone.

Thank you.

VAUSE: Mike Littman, John Thomas, thanks very much. SESAY: Time for a quick break now. Donald Trump had a simple answer to ease concerns about North Korea's nuclear arsenal. We'll go live to Seoul for reaction just ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Just to go down the list, we --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:45:12] VAUSE: During the U.S. presidential debate, Donald Trump called nuclear weapons the single greatest threat to the world.

SESAY: And he gave his solution for disarming North Korea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Once the nuclear alternative happens, it's over. At the same time, we have to be prepared. I can't take anything off the table. Because you at some of these countries, you look at North Korea, we're doing nothing there. China should solve that problem for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Paula Hancocks joins us live from Seoul, South Korea.

Paula, sticking to his position that countries like Japan and South Korea will have to pay more for U.S. defense. How much are those countries paying? They have heard this talk like this before from Trump.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. This was back from March when this was first spoken by Donald Trump. And there was shock and confusion here in South Korea, and similarly in Japan.

Looking at the figures. South Korea, according to Vincent Brooks (ph), the head of the U.S. forces in Korea, pays about 50 percent of all personnel costs when it comes to the 28,500 U.S. troops here. He had a Senate hearing and said it is cheaper to have the troops here in South Korea than to house them back home. A look at

Japan as well. Japan pays $3.5 billion a year for housing 54,000 up troops there. When you look at that, it's about 60/40 to what the U.S. and Japan pay.

But certainly there has been some concern about what has been said. When I talk to Koreans about the presidential debate on a personal level, the one question I'm asked is, do you think Donald Trump is serious about not paying enough? Do you think he is serious about pulling U.S. troops out? There is concern about it here -- John?

VAUSE: Paula, thank you for that. We appreciate you being live with us for the reaction from Seoul.

SESAY: A quick break. Colombia and the FARC rebels agreed to end 50 years of war. But hear why not everyone is happy with the deal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:51:14] SESAY: More than half a century of war is coming to an end in Colombia. The government and the Marxist FARC rebel group signed a peace deal on Monday in the capitol. It needs to be ratified by the people in a vote this Sunday.

VAUSE: The two sides signed the accord with pens made from recycled bullets from the conflict. And estimated 220,000 people were killed during more than 50 years of fighting, and five million were displaced.

SESAY: There are opponents of the deal.

Rafael Romo joins us from Colombia with more.

Rafael, the signing of the peace deal marks a historic day in Colombia's history but does it put to an end the decades of hatred and mistrust the conflict has generated?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN LATIN AMERICA CORRESPONDENT: That's an excellent point, Isha. I talked to some protesters who came here where the signing ceremony was held and they were telling me that, to them, this is not something they wanted to see because, in their eyes, the FARC, the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia, are a terrorist group and they say they cannot forget all of the atrocities, including kidnappings, murders, assassinations that they carried out.

SESAY: All right. We seem to have had a -- or a disconnect with our reporter there. But we do have his report from earlier in the day of this historic signing there in Colombia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO (voice-over): It's the moment generations of Colombians had been waiting for, a signature to mark the formal end to Latin America's largest insurgency and 52 years of war.

(GUNFIRE)

ROMO: FARC Guerrilla leader, Rodrigo Landonya (ph), said the words many thought they would never hear.

RODRIGO LANDONYA (ph), FARC GUERILLA LEADER (through translation): I offer sincere apologies to all the victims of the conflict for the pain we may have caused during this war.

ROMO: President Santos said this is more than an agreement.

JUAN MANUEL SANTOS, COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): We got tired of war. We want to say loud and clear, no more war. ROMO (on camera): Under the 297-page agreement, the Revolutionary

Unforces of Colombia, also known as FARC, will stop being a guerrilla group and will become a far-left political party with representatives in the Colombian Congress.

SANTOS: Peace will write our agreement.

ROMO (voice-over): The agreement was signed with pens made from recycled bullet casings. "Our past" was written with bullets. The inscription on the pen, in Spanish, means, "But education with right out future."

Still there's strong opposition. This woman says there can never be real justice unless guerrilla members are tried and punished for atrocities, including bombings, kidnappings and assassinations.

But Colombian interior minister, Fernando Kesto (ph), says it's time to move towards reconciliation. His own father was murdered 19 years ago by a guerrilla fighter from a different group, the EON.

(on camera): What do you say to people who are protesting saying that those who killed should not be for given.

FERNANDO KESTO (ph), COLOMBIAN INTERIOR MINISTER: I'm in this conflict. My family has suffered. My family is a victim. What I would say to these people is we don't forgive. If we don't give a chance for the peace in Colombia, we are going to have more victims, more families suffer. We have to stop this war.

ROMO (voice-over): Colombian voters must still ratify the peace agreement in a referendum to be held on October 2nd. Polls say those in favor will prevail --

(GUNFIRE)

ROMO: -- allowing Colombia to continue healing the wounds of his bloody past.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Colombia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:55:22] VAUSE: Because we are a couple of really hip people ahead of the trends, here is what is surely to be the next really cool viral video. It's from a Japanese comedian. And it's pen, pineapple apple pen, PAP.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Isn't that just the best thing you've seen all day?

SESAY: I'm deeply troubled. VAUSE: Now you've heard it, you can't unheard it. It will be going

around and around and around.

SESAY: I'll tell you what, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause.

A replay of the U.S. presidential debate is up next.

You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)