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Race for the White House; Syrian Troops Prepare for Attack on Aleppo; Pope Francis to Hold Outdoor Mass; Van Gogh Masterpieces Found in Mafioso's House. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired October 1, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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


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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump refuses to apologize for his latest Twitter tirade as new polls show him slipping behind Hillary Clinton.

Battleground Aleppo: the Syrian military prepares for what could be a final assault on rebel-held parts of the city.

And several Caribbean nations face the strongest storm the Atlantic Ocean has seen in nearly a decade.

It's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. We're live in Atlanta. Thank you for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.

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ALLEN: Donald Trump says he has no regrets about his Twitter tirade against a former Miss Universe. The U.S. Republican presidential candidate mocked ex-beauty queen Alicia Machado in a string of scathing predawn tweets.

The Twitter rant prompted a swift response from his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, among others. More now from Jason Carroll.

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JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump up early and not letting up on his attacks on former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado.

The GOP nominee tweeting before dawn, "Wow, crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an angel without checking her past, which is terrible."

Trump adding, "Did crooked Hillary help disgusting, check out sex tape and past, Alicia M become a U.S. citizen, so she could her in the debate?" Yet offering no proof that such a sex tape exists.

Hillary Clinton responding with a tweet of her own, "What kind of man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories?"

And during a campaign stop in Florida later in the day --

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I mean, as late as Twitter meltdown is unhinged, even for him. It proves yet again that he is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander in chief.

CARROLL: During Monday night's debate, Clinton raised Machado's accusation that Trump called her "Miss Housekeeping" and "Miss Piggy" after she gained weight following her Miss Universe win in 1996.

CLINTON: Her name is Alicia Machado.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Where did you find this?

CLINTON: And she has become a U.S. citizen and you can bet --

TRUMP: Oh, really?

CLINTON: -- she's going to vote this November.

TRUMP: OK, good.

CARROLL: Trump has kept the story alive by criticizing Machado on a daily basis, even as he pushes back some of his advisors were not happy with his debate performance and are considering overhauling his approach before the second meeting with Clinton.

This as Trump continues to cite unscientific online polls that are not true measures of public opinion.

TRUMP: Every single online poll said we won, which is great. Every single online poll. CARROLL: And as for those accounts of debate discord, Trump tweeting, "Remember, don't believe sources said by the very dishonest media. If they don't name the source, the sources don't exist."

Trump also at odds with the "USA Today" editorial board. The paper's board has never taken side in a presidential race, but is urging voters to consider anyone by Trump, writing, "Republican nominee Donald Trump is by unanimous consensus of the editorial board unfit for the presidency."

"The Dallas Morning News" and "The Arizona Republic", which historically have supported Republican candidates endorsing Clinton this year.

Trump slamming the media outlets on Twitter, writing, "The people are really smart in canceling subscriptions to the Dallas and Arizona papers and now 'USA Today' will lose readers. The people get it."

For his part, Donald Trump says that tweeting is a modern forum of communication and he called it, quote, "very effective."

But having said that, there are a number of GOP leaders who would like to see less tweeting and more thoughtful discussion on the issues -- Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

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ALLEN: A new national poll shows U.S. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton gaining some ground on Trump after their first debate. FOX News shows Clinton at 43 percent nationwide to Trump's 40 percent with a margin of error essentially makes that a tie.

Clinton is doing a bit better in some key states. In Michigan she's up 7 points 42 percent to 35 percent; that result is mirrored in New Hampshire. It is also a key battleground state that could go either way in November. And in all-important Florida, the race has narrowed to just 4 points barely outside the margin of error.

Trump admits his campaign rhetoric has cost him. The acknowledgment came in a videotape released Friday at a deposition Trump gave this past June. He sued two celebrity chefs, who backed out of launching restaurants at Trump properties after he called some Mexican immigrants "rapists."

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ALLEN: In a deposition, Trump denied his comments were offensive.

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TRUMP: I obviously have credibility, because I now, as it turns out, became the Republican nominee, running against -- we had a total of 17 people that were mostly senators and governors, highly respected people.

So it's not like -- like, you know, I have said anything that could be so bad, because, if I said something that was so bad, they wouldn't have had me go through all of these people and win all of these primary races.

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ALLEN: Bill Clinton is speaking out about his 40-year marriage to Hillary Clinton in an interview on the Clinton campaign's podcast. The former U.S. president said his wife is more reticent than some people to discuss things she thinks are better kept within the family.

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BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In Hemingway's immortal words, "In some way or another, life breaks everyone and, afterward many are strong at the broken places."

And I think that she has literally spent a lifetime dealing with not only her joys and her blessings but also heartbreaks and disappointment, sometimes unfair treatment.

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ALLEN: Bill Clinton also said sometimes when both return from a long day on the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton will tell him, "We're not going to talk about politics tonight." (MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: We turn now to the war in Syria and what is happening in Aleppo. The U.S. estimates as many as 10,000 Syrian-led ground troops are gathering in advance of what may be a final assault by government forces against rebels holding part of the city.

Those left in Aleppo were already coping with devastation from months of heavy bombardment. On Friday alone, reports say at least 12 people died after warplanes targeted a residential neighborhood.

The World Health Organization says some 270,000 civilians remain stuck in Aleppo with dwindling supplies. Our Nick Paton Walsh has a closer look at the city on the brink of collapse.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: With the possibility of as many 10,000 Syrian-led fighters or troops near the rebel-held part of Eastern Aleppo, that is one U.S. estimate, there are potentially very dark days ahead for that area.

Already under a pretty effective form of siege that's lapsed at times but now seems to be depriving them of food but also intermittently of water as well; 300,000, by some suggestions, civilians trapped in that area.

They have faced bombardment for years but nothing like what they've seen in the past weeks or days. The U.N. suggesting that 96 children have been by that bombardment in just the last week, 223 injured, hard really to fathom numbers like that. They come at you so often during a civil war.

Perhaps easier to understand what one aid worker we spoke to said, "My nerves are fraught. I simply can't talk about this anymore."

He described how he has seen three rockets land just recently near him, body parts everywhere and how the people there had no hope in anyone to come to their assistance now apart from God.

That's the kind of desperation we're seeing in this area. Those clashes in that area suggesting an offensive that may be launched by those troops in the forthcoming days or weeks in the central area, first in Al-Bashir (ph), where we also heard this day that a barrel bomb landed, killing seven people there as well, including children.

It is a dark episode, indeed. That area of Aleppo has held out for years against regime forces and now it faces, perhaps, a more strategic and significant collapse, that of U.S. policy at this time.

John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, has been so keen that he believes that a diplomatic solution, working alongside his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, nay possibly ease the violence here. There'd be some U.S. officials who've cynically pointed out they don't trust the Russians here at all. Even John Kerry himself has said, frankly, it's his only choice. It's clear that the White House doesn't want to put military resources into a conflict that could be seen to clash openly against Russian resources on the ground there.

But the question now is what really has Moscow been planning for the past couple of weeks?

The volume of resources now potentially available for this assault against Aleppo, if it does happen -- and there are many suggestions that it may be underway -- will take weeks to get into play.

And those same weeks should have been spent, have been spent by Moscow and Damascus talking, potentially, diplomacy and peace with its Washington counterpart. That has fallen apart now.

We're now seeing one of the darkest episodes of violence that have hit Syria in this already nightmarish civil war. The U.S. talking about sanctions, maybe, against Russia; the possibility of better armaments being supplied by Syrian rebels, by their Gulf allies, that might be able to target Russian and Syrian aircraft.

A lot of talk here at this point. But the broader recognition, the U.S. is not going to commit ground troops here or potentially stop what many are already considering a war crime, the targeting of hospitals --

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WALSH: -- there as well.

Yes, this can be documented. This can be observed but it's unlikely there'll be an effective military response to stop it, certainly from outsiders, this looming now as potentially one of the darkest moments we have seen yet in Syria's civil war -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Beirut.

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ALLEN: And you may recall during the short truce, a convoy of trucks bringing supplies to people was stopped at the city's edge and it never made it in. The U.N. says it is going now to conduct an independent investigation into how the humanitarian relief trucks were attacked.

The convoy was near Aleppo, preparing aid deliveries for people who needed it, like food, medicine and blankets. Instead those supplies were destroyed. And officials say at least 18 people were killed, including the head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the area. The U.S. blame Russian warplanes, an accusation Moscow denies.

An Iraqi housewife has been fighting ISIS, she says, and before that, Al Qaeda for years and she boasts of killing ISIS fighter and says two of her husbands have been killed in fighting. Our Ben Wedeman has her story and with a warning, some of the images are graphic here.

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WAHIDA MUHAMMAD, HOUSEWIFE: (Speaking foreign language).

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wahida Muhammad (ph) counts all the times her house has been blown up: 2006, 2009, 2010, three cars in 2013 and 2014, she says.

Describing herself as a housewife, Wahida, better known as Um Hanadi (ph), took up arms and leads men into battle against ISIS and Al Qaeda before that.

"Six times they tried to assassinate me," she says.

"I have shrapnel in my head and legs. My ribs were broken. But all that didn't stop me from fighting."

Her first and second husbands were killed in action. And ISIS killed her father and three brothers.

"This justifies," she says, "the following, I fought them," she tells me, referring to ISIS.

"I beheaded them. I cooked their heads. I burned their bodies."

Grisly photos from her Facebook page bear out her words. Her men showed me the machete they say they use.

General Jemaah Anned (ph) heads combat operations in Saladin province. This is his explanation.

"She lost her brothers and husbands as martyrs," he says, "so out of revenge she formed her own force."

Last week Um Hanadi (ph) and her men took part in the battle to drive ISIS out of her native Shirqat (ph). All ISIS left behind was booby traps and a few dead bodies. Many of the residents stayed put or, like Um Hanadi (ph), joined the fighting.

These boys recount the travails of life under ISIS.

"There was no food, no school, nothing," says one.

"They ruined us."

"If we lose Iraq again," says Um Hanadi (ph), we'll lose it forever.

In ways both tangible and intangible, this ravaged land has already lost itself -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Shirqat (ph), Northern Iraq.

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ALLEN: Coming up here, the pope kicks off two days of a visit to Georgia and he talks about the situation there in Iraq and Syria. We will have a live report for you in a moment.

Also, the Caribbean prepares for one of the strongest hurricanes it has seen in years. Derek Van Dam will have that for us.

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ALLEN: Tensions between Pakistan and India continue in the disputed region of Kashmir. Both countries blaming each other for shooting across the line of control.

An Indian official says there were two separate incidents on Saturday and no one was killed. India has evacuated 10,000 people from the border area. The two nuclear armed nations have fought two wars over Kashmir.

Hurricane Matthew is churning up the Atlantic and is now a category five. Derek Van Dam is here with us.

And I haven't even mentioned Matthew and suddenly it is a category five.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, this thing has blown up, it's strengthened and intensified dramatically within the past 24 hours; in fact, only two storms have actually matched or had a faster intensification within that 24-hour period.

So we have summarized some really interesting what we like to call whiz-bang facts and figures for you here. And you can see at the very bottom there just what we are talking about, Natalie. Only two named Atlantic storms had a stronger 24-hour intensification period compared to that of Hurricane Matthew.

We're talking in 24 hours this thing increased in speed by 80 miles per hour, well over 120 kilometers per hour. Impressive stuff. This is also by the way ending over 3,000 days of a hurricane drought of a category five equivalent. That's also unbelievable. And this is, by the way, the lowest latitude that a category five has ever been recorded.

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VAN DAM: We have tropical storm watches for Western Haiti, hurricane watches for Jamaica and tropical storm warnings for Colombia.

Where's the storm headed?

As it moves its way across Cuba over the Guantanamo Bay region, there's a lot of mountains across this area. It should help to deteriorate the storm. But it will be a formidable hurricane as it moves to the Bahama Islands.

What you are looking at is a spaghetti plot, this is a mixture of all the various computer models that we look to see the path and it does appear that it will stay away from Florida. They will still feel effects from the storm. But where it goes from there is so incredibly crucial for the mainland of the United States.

Will it move in to the East Coast, the Carolinas?

Will it impact Cape Hatteras, for instance, will it be another superstorm Sandy equivalent?

We have got a lot to look at over the coming days.

ALLEN: We had one storm blow up about a year ago and then nothing happened.

VAN DAM: That was Joaquin. That was the storm I was in.

ALLEN: Oh, that's right.

All right. Derek, thank you.

In Tbilisi, Georgia, right now, Pope Francis is holding an outdoor mass. The pope is on a second day --

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ALLEN: -- of a three-day visit to the area. He will be heading to Azerbaijan Sunday, a predominantly Muslim country with a small Catholic community. Vatican correspondent Delia Gallagher is coverage the pope's visit and she joins us now live from Tbilisi with more about it.

Hello, there, Delia.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Hi to you, Natalie. We are here in Georgia with Pope Francis. He's at the outdoor mass that has just begun. I have to say an attendance of only about 3,000 people, this is a primarily orthodox Christian country and there's only about 110,000 Catholics total.

So this is one of the smaller papal masses I've ever been to. This is a country that Pope Francis wanted to visit for a couple of reasons, one, because they know he's the pope of the periphery. He likes to go out even where there are small Catholic communities and maybe especially where there's small Catholic minorities to give them support but also to meet with the orthodox Christians. You know, the orthodox Christians have been in a schism in the dispute with the Catholic Church for centuries now and it's something that the Vatican and many popes e Eastern before Pope Francis have always tried to heal.

And part of the way they do that is by visiting these countries. And the pope yesterday met with the orthodox patriarch in Georgia, Elia II (ph). The other reason Pope Francis comes here is because Georgia is a country which is also dealing with military conflict over two disputed territories with Russia.

So the pope's message here in Georgia is one of peace between countries. He spoke yesterday about the need to respect the sovereignty of nations within the framework of international law and, of course, the right of people that have been displaced by war to return, he said, to their homeland. So that is a message that he's also going to carry tomorrow to Azerbaijan.

Because Azerbaijan is also dealing with a military conflict with (INAUDIBLE) Armenia over a border territory there. So we can expect to hear the pope speak again about peace in those terms.

As you mentioned, Azerbaijan, tomorrow, is a predominantly Shia Muslim country and the pope will have an important meeting there tomorrow with the Grand Mufti, (INAUDIBLE) and he's an interesting Muslim cleric, Natalie, because he is one of the few who has authority and is kind of recognized by both Shia and Sunni Muslims.

So that will be an important moment for the pope and the Muslim community there in Azerbaijan. And will return back to Rome tomorrow evening -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Yes, and Delia, we know that he has made comments about Iraq and Syria. And as we just mentioned, Aleppo, Syria, very likely about to see major bombardment.

What did he have to say?

GALLAGHER: Yes, he did a special prayer last night, actually, and with the Chaldean (ph) church in Iraq that has ties to Iraq and here there are some Chaldean (ph) Catholics that came and he did a special prayer for Iraq and Syria.

And he actually has done, frankly, Natalie, for many, many months now and, indeed, years, you know, been praying for Syria, been praying for peace, especially in those areas.

So that was something that was very important to the pope to reiterate here, again, yesterday. It's something which I think he is doing constantly now, trying to make the rest of the world not forget what's going on there -- Natalie.

ALLEN: All right. Thank you so much, Delia Gallagher, following the pope's trip.

And we'll be right back.

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ALLEN: After 14 years, a pair of stolen van Gogh masterpieces could soon be heading back to a museum in Amsterdam. Italian police recovered the paintings in the home of an alleged mafia boss. Barbie Nadeau has the story from Rome. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mystery of the missing masterpieces finally solved after 14 years. Authorities in Italy revealed they have recovered two paintings by the Dutch master, Vincent van Gogh. "View of the Sea at Schevenengen (ph)" and "Congregation Leaving the Reform Church in Nunen (ph)," both said to be worth millions.

They were stolen from the van Gogh museum in Amsterdam back in 2002 in a daring heist that made international headlines. Police said thieves broke into the heavily fortified building through the roof.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What we have seen is a ladder on the backside of the (INAUDIBLE) museum and we found the rope. We're still looking if those things has something to do with the robbery.

NADAL (voice-over): Following a massive investigation dubbed "Operation Vincent," police blamed the Italian mafia for the heist. Police say they found the works hidden in a house in Naples that belongs to a suspected mafia boss.

Experts have now confirmed the paintings' authenticity, saying they appear to be in fairly good condition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Needless to say it's a great day for us today to see the works and to know they are safe and that they are in safe hands. Of course we hope they will be able to return to our museum as soon as possible.

NADAL (voice-over): Because the paintings are being used as evidence in the investigation, it's yet not clear when they will be returned but the museum's director says he's been waiting for this moment for 14 years -- Barbie (INAUDIBLE) Nadeau, CNN, Rome.

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ALLEN: That will be a sweet homecoming. Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. Our top stories are coming next and then it is "WINNING POST" here.