-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello, i'm wolf blitzer and it is 11:00 a.m. in boulder, colorado, and # 1:00 p.m. in washington and 8:00 p.m. in baghdad. wherever you are watching around the world, thank you very much for joining us. it is the economy, stupid, from wall street to main street, the economy is a huge campaign issue for voters ashs sond there is a lot at stake for the candidates at the third republican debate tonight. it is an opportunity for the candidates to change the conversation of the campaign to try to steer it away from donald trump to a little bit to allow

them to present more of their economic and business platforms, but it is a tall the order. many this cbs/new york times poll released for the first time ben carson is ahead of donald trump nationally among republican, and many are going to be watching how that matchup is going to be playing out on the debate stage tonight. carson talked about the poll in a facebook post. he wrote, i have only been the frontrunner for a few hour, but i know that i am not standing alone, but i am standing with millions of you like me who have lost faith in our so-called leaders. millions together who want to turn the country around to save the future for our children and grandchildren, and we stand unite thood that purpose. as you can imagine, donald trump did not take a quiet approach in reacting to the poll numbers. for more, we go to sun lynn serfaty, and she is there at the debate site in boulder, and how did trump respond, sum lynn? >> well, frankly, he is late

perplexed by the drop in the polls saying point blank he just doesn't get it, but it is interesting in a rally last night in iowa where he spoke bluntly outright acknowledging that he has had a slide in the polls, and that is where he shifted and in a really switched to start pleading with the vo voters to help to boost up the poll number, and this is what he told the voters in the rally in sioux city, iowa. >> iowa? what are you doing to me? i don't like to be second. io iowa, get the numbers up. will you get the numbers up? i promise you, i will do such a good job and by the way, before i forget, will you get the numbers up, iowa. this is ridiculous, and please do me a favor, and will let me win, iowa. i refuse to say get your asses in gear, and i will not say that. and if i lose iowa, i will never speak to you people again, and they will tell you. >> and this going to be one of the big dynamics up there on the

stage, and not only donald trump squirming to the number two poll standings, but also, and most important ly the new frontrunne ben carson how he is going to be acting as a new target on the back as the frontrunner, and how he is going to be defending himself, and how he returns the fire. >> and thank you, sunlen. it appears tonight's debate is going to be fascinating and not just between carson and trump, but a whole lot more. let's discuss what is about to happen with the cnn political commentator strategist donna brazile, and also the political commentator s.e. cup, and when you see donald trump reacting there, and one national poll, he has been number one 100 days, and now the second poll within the margin of error, and are you surprised how necktively he is reacting to that? and three polls in iowa show number two. >> well, brace yourself, because i have been a outfront critic of donald trump. i thought it was fantastic, and

i love that he engaged the voters, and said, this is what is at stake for me. i need your help, and come on this journey with me, and this is how much i want your vote. so many people go to iowa and the caucus states, and act almost detached from the voter, i'm here, and i'm here because i have to be, and this is a real person. i mean, i trump does plenty that bothers me, but i thought that was fantastic. >> and he is the only politician that i have seen, and i have been covering this kind of stuff for a long time that actual ly talks about all of the polls. most politicians, we don't look at the polls, and we don't care about the polls, and the only poll is election day, blah, blah, blah, and you have heard it a million time, and almost all of the speeches are about these polls, because he was number one and when he is number two he is speaking about the polls. >> prior to becoming a politician, he kept talking about the rating, so there is something about the numbers that fits his personality, but you know what, s. eche. is right, h finally saying to the voters in iowa who wants to be loved and

will return love, he is saying, i need your help. i want to win this and i want to win this for you, and we have finally heard donald trump pleading for a little mercy and love and not just all of the blanket attention. but wolf, tonight is a substantive debate on the e k economy, and they are going to be talking about the taxes, and talking about the middle-class, and they will have to discuss this budget deal that is being voted on today, and whether or not they like it, do they think it is good for america, and if so, why is? >> well, i am sure they will get into the issues, but it should be an area of strength for a billionaire businessman like donald trump who has been in business and deals with the economy every single day of his life. >> this is why it is is important for him, and he needs to show as much as he has been talking about the border security and foreign policy, he is actually an expert on this, and if he can't dive down on substance on this topic at this debate, i don't know that he has a whole lot of offering in the way of substance on anything. and this should be his night to shine, and she is going to have

some competition from carly fiorina, who is equally as versed in the language of the debate the night, but if trump uses this to swing ad hoc at s hissedhis opponents, then it is a mistake. >> and according to the cnn and new york times poll, dr. ben carson has spent his whole career as a physician, is this going to affect him? >> no, the working class and those who are poor in the country, and plans and programs and policies to help people. and is this another night for rich people, and i'm proud for donald trump to turn $1 million into $25 billion. but how can ordinary people take

with what they make to a living wage. >> and on that, ben carson has a personal story on that, and on that, he is going to win, but ben carson has to show that he has actual ideas and policies, and everwhere that he has been asked about the policies, he is unsure how to the solve complicated problems so i expect some trouble tonight. >> and what is interesting john kasich, the ohio governor said no more mr. nice guy, and he said, i have about had it with these people referring to the republican challenger, a nd he s twice elected governor of ohio which is a critically important state. >> and remember in the last debate, he defended for a long time why he would not go after hillary clinton the democratic frontrunner, and it is fair to go after the opponents, but he has to go against the democrats and his long time friends in congress, and if kasich wants an

impact, he has to tell the country why the democrats have been failing the country, and not why donald trump has. >> and you know, i would tell the republicans like i would tell any democrat, keep the sharp knives at home, because it is not fright night, but an opportunity to present the idea, and mr. kasich has talked about turning the state's economy around and the job e creation, and that is what the american people want to hear, and if they want to attack, fine, but they need ideas to help them become frontrunners or otherwise, a couple of candidate who may not survive to not, and not talk about getting out of colorado, but main the next couple of months. >> and lesser tier candidates in the first debate, and then the main stage. >> jeb bush, and this is his moment. jeb bush has to show that he has not only just the energy that donald trump talks about, but the ideas to give people in iowa and new hampshire a second look at him. >> thank you, both. and now, be sure to watch

tonight, "a.c. 360" post debate special at 10:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn and still new information on the school resource officer who appeared to slam and drag a student into a south carolina classroom. we will tell you what the sheriff there has announced. then later, we will take you to the front lines of the fight against isis where the kurdish fights are clearly outnumbered, outgunned, and what is the u.s. role? stay with us. new charmin ultra strong, dude.

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break news here in the u.s. a sheriff's deputy was caught on camera body slamming a e female student across a classroom and is now out of a job.

the south carolina resource, school reresourrere -- resource was fired. the sheriff who admitted in the press conference ta the video made him want to throwup has fired the deputy from the force. >> he did not follow proper training or procedure when he threw the student across the room. from the very beginning, that is what is causing me to be upset. when i first saw that video, and continues to up isset me when i see that video is the fact that he picked the student up, and he threw the student the across the room. when you make an arrest from someone who does not have a weapon that you need to escape from, you never let go of the subject, and you maintain control of him, the person that you are trying to arrest, and when he threw her across the room, he had lost control of her. >> that is richland county sheriff leon lott.

and now joining us is benjamin franklin who is from that area, and what is your reaction to the news that deputy fields has been fired? >> well, i believe, wolf, thank you for the opportunity to be here. i believe that the sheriff made the right decision today based on what we saw and millions of people around the world saw. it was a disproportionate response, and use of excessive force on the teenager, and people have to understand that as a former head of the criminal justice agency, that our discussion is about public safety, but it also about public accountability, and public trust, and the ability to police any community recognizing our police force may have 500 or so officers, we have a jurisdictional pop you of well over 100,000 metro area of 1 million, you have to have the trust and the confidence of the

people in order to properly keep a community safe. if that trust is eroded, then it is really a difficult and challenging situation. >> there are going to be at least three investigations, the county, the sheriff is in v investigating obviously, and they have asked the fbi which is now coming in to investigate, and the justice department, and the u.s. attorney is being brought in to investigate, and do you have confidence in all three of the investigations? >> certainly. i know that the sheriff called in the federal government, and the school district called in the state law enforcement division. i spoke this morning to the u.s. attorney and worked closely with him for year, and i have confidence in his ability to get to the bottom of whatever he is researching, but, you know, i appreciate the swift response from the sheriff, and it is just going to give us all of us public officials the opportunity to again help people to understand that, you know, we have to focus on the training all of the officers. i work side by side with some of the best men in law enforcement

many this world. they are heroes. they run towards danger while we are all running in the opposite direction, and one incident like this can help to erode the incredible amount of trust and loyalty built up over the year, and we have to train the officers, and focus on the catability, and make sure that we have a justice process >> what about the 16-year-old girl dragged across the floor of that classroom? i understand that i think that you have spoken to her parents, and have you spoken with her? there are conflicting reports about her injuries. what can you tell us? >> i did speak with her mother yesterday. wolf, you know, just as a sheriff officer communicated, i'm the father of two school aged daughters, and seeing that video shocked me. it scared me as a mayor, as a citizen, and most importantly, as a parent. i would not wish that on any child. we have to remember, and this is a call i believe also for us to

look at some more systemic reforms. how do we change the nature of law enforcement in south carolina and across the world. the disturbance of school act is a real challenge. if i were held accountable and you were held accountable, wolf, and many people who are successful in the world for things that we did in adolescence or junior high or middle school, i am not sure that we would be where we are right now. we have to make sure that we don't take people out of the economic mainstream by criminalizing adolescent behavior, and let's deal with it, and deal with it firmly, and require the parents to be parents, and school administr e administrators to be administrators, and cops to be cops, but criminalizing the adolescent behavior is not the way to build public trust. >> what did the mother tell you about the girl's condition? >> she told me that she was injured, and i want to make sure that when she has her opportunity to speak she can share her own story. but she called, and she heard

some public comment that i made and called to express her appreciation for our concern regarding her daughter, but, you know, i hope that this child recovers, and recovers fully, and i hope that the other children who have had a chance to view this recover fully, and i hope that deputy fields has due process, and has his day in court, and potentially tell his story some day. it is a tragic situation all around. all we can do is to figure out the ways in which we can come together and learn from this and figure out how as a community and i use that word broadly, as the entire nation can move forward from this. >> thank you, mayor, for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. thank you so much. >> good luck to you and the folks in columbia, south carolina, and mayor stephen benjamin joining us. sfwhoo a and this is bringing up

questions about whether schools should have police officers in schools or whether laws need to be changed to stop something like this happening again. [ male announcer ] whether it takes 200,000 parts,

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i want to update you on the breaking news out of south carolina. we have learned that the sheriff's deputy involved in the violent arrest of a young female student has now been fired. the boss, the sheriff in the county said that the investigation revealed that the deputy sheriff ben fields did not follow the proper procedure when he threw that 16-year-old girl across the floor. joining us from south carolina, the south carolina congressman and democrat james clyburn, and thank you for joining us. i want to get your quick reaction to sheriff's decision today to fire that deputy? >> well, thank you very much for having me, wolf. i want to thank the sheriff lott for doing what he did as promptly as he did. i know the sheriff very well.

i think that he did what was proper. unfortunately, this should not end this. i think that we have to begin to review our school procedures. as you know, wolf, i am a former edge educator, and i taught eighth graders, and i know what it is like to have an eighth grader act up in class. and we have had young children, and not all of us, but i have had teenager, and sometimes the teenagers mouth off, and when they do, we are have to treat them as teenagers, and we have to conduct ourselves as professionals. that deputy, that resource officer did not conduct himself as a professional dealing with a young developing child. we should always keep in mind that all of us have been young

ourselves, and all of us know that we have at sometimes acted our age, but adults must always act their the age as well. this is a resource officer that did not act his age. he did not follow procedure, and let me tell you something else, we have to change the laws in south carolina. and i have been talk about these repressive laws that we have been putting on the books in reare cent years, and the fact of the matter is that we have had 1,200, the third biggest level of arrests in south carolina now or school disorders, and that is crazy stuff. we have these young people developing criminal records for the rest of their lives, and then we tell them that you can't vote if you get a criminal record, and we are doing that to the young high school, and junior high school, and that is an abomination that we have to look at inside of south carolina, and stop this

foolishness. >> it is time to change the law in south carolina and get those sheriff's deputies out of the schools? >> absolute ly. they can be in the schools to protect the student, but they have no business in a classroom meting out discipline. discipline belongs to the tee teacher, and the teacher should go to the administrator, and the administrator should never bring a deputy sheriff into the classroom unless there is bodily harm being threatened. if somebody is using a cell phone that should not lead to a criminal arrest, and certainly not leading to personal injury. a 13-year-old girl, i am sorry, it is not 13 years old -- >> 16. >> 16-year-old young girl being treat treated that way by a 300-pound weight lifter. this guy looked like he was practicing the weight lifting on that the little girl. this is crazy stuff. we all know it. we in south carolina ought to be

ashamed of it, and we should respond the way we should respond and that to take a look at the draconian laws that we put on the books, and take a look at the procedure involving resource officers in the classrooms. they ought to be there to protect the soosiders to come inside, and never to mete out discipline to the unruly child, because most of the children i know at one time or another are in fact unruly. >> as you know, the state, and that is the newspaper in columbia, south carolina, out with an editorial describing how the young girl's ar are rest is challenging to the state, and just as the state was challenged by the charleston,south carolina, massacre back in june, and the police shooting of an unarmed black man in april. let me read from the editorial. it is essential to show amazing peace, calm and togetherness, and we have inspired ourselves and the nation before, and we must do it again.

what is your recommendations to the folks there in south carolina? what is the most important thing, congressman that you need to do? >> well, let me remind you of back in the '60s, i was arrested on that day back in 1961 when we challenged the breach of the peace laws in south carolina. they passed law s s in the 1960o keep us are from exercising our rights to peaceably assemble, and we know that these are reaction reactions to certain things. certainly, there are times when we have problems in the classrooms. there are times when we have problems on the school grounds, but take a look at the laws, and see whether or not there are laws put in place to protect or put in place to mete out some kind of a punishment which could ruin children for the rest of their lives. what happens to the young lady who took the video? she, too, was arrested and handcuffed. that is crazy stuff that ought not be happening to young people, to children on a school

grou ground. i have a daughter that teaches at one of the feeder schools for spring valley. she is over at dent middle school. we talk all of the time about what the challenges are for middle school students. certainly they are going to act out, but we as adults must act like adults irrespective of how the children may act. >> good point. thank you, congressman, for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> james clyburn of south carolina. the gop is calling out hillary clinton on comments she made about the veterans administration, and now senator john mccain is asking her to apologize to the veterans in the united states. what caused this uproar? what is her campaign saying about it? that is next. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira giving me new perspective.

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hillary clinton's campaign is walking back comments about the veteran administration's problems being over stated. this is what the frontrunner said on msnbc last friday. >> i don't understand that. i don't understand why we have such a problem, because there have been a number of surveys of v veterans, and overall, veterans who do get treated are satisfied with the treatment. >> and much more so than the people in the regular sector. >> yes. and you would not believe it from the coverage that comes from the ideological agenda. >> because there has been real scandal. >> yes, but it is not as widespread as it has made out to

be. >> and the veteran groups fired back at hillary clinton this book, and earlier john mccain said that the comments were in his word disgraceful, and called for her to apologize. and now her campaign says the statements were misconstrued. her campaign says that she was outraged at the problem wills at the veterans administration, and it is unacceptable for people to be waiting to see a doctor, and she is going to be working to make sewer that the v.a. truly works for the veterans. mark preston is the executive editor of cnn politic, joining us with the investigative reporter who broke this v.a. scandal, and won all sorts of award, and drew, the problems at

the v.a. were said the to be widespre widespread. and you have new data that the problems now are actually getting worse. tell us what you found >> well, it is not new reporting, but it comes straight from the v.a. and i sat down with the deputy secretary of health who is in charge of fix ing this mess sloan gibson who said that there are 500,000 or more veterans waiting for appointments for 60 days or olonger, and as the capacity increases up to facilities which are not up to speed, the wait times are longer, and the sources inside of many v.a. hospitals across the kun tcounte saying that the veterans are being denied delayed care because of the wait list scandal, and you know, that is why so many of the veterans groups are speaking up, and wondering how informed is secretary clinton on this very issue which is as you have rightly pointed out, wolf, in the news now for the better part of two years. >> and the v.a. and the

administration, they have given you and the investigative team here at cnn a lot of credit for publicizing the blunders even though the inspectors general and others knew what was going on at the v.a. and mark, tonight at the debate, these republican candidates should take advantage of what hillary clinton said about the dismissive happenings at the v.a. do you believe it is going to happen? >> yes, it is an easy one for her to come out to be critical of the frontrunner of the democratic party to attack her directly, but also an opportunity to show that they are willing to take hillary clinton on. if they are able to give a coherent and yet forceful argument against hillary clinton tonight, that is what the republican primary voters are looking for, and in many ways, if you look at donald trump's success, it is because he is so forceful and out front, and jeb bush, many who thought would be

the frontrunner at this point, why he is not doing so well, because he has been too meek. that is why you will see it in the debate. >> i have heard some democrats say, you know what, she probably misspoke the other night when she was speaking to rachel maddow, and the campaign is now walking back her comment, and what must she do now, mark, to fix it, because potentially it is a problem. >> it is potentially a problem and not for the democratic primary so to speak, but the ad makers are taking the clip of that the interview, and filing it away, because it is an issue that could have some resonance as we are heading into november, but for hillary clinton and the democrats as a whole, the veterans don't tend to be very supportive of the democratic party. if you go back to the 2014 midterms across the country, the republicans won the electorate, and the veteran electorate by 20 point, and back to 2008 and 2004, the republicans won it in the presidential election, but hillary clinton needs to at least offer her plan to try to

reform the v.a. and we are told by the campaign, that is going to be happening next month. >> and quickly, drew, because you have investigated this, bernie sanders when he was in the majority, the senator who chaired that veterans committee in the senate, and what kind of record did you see that he had as far as oversight was concerned? >> well, you know, what hillary clinton said about the vets surveys on rachel maddow's show, bernie sanders made the same comments more than a year ago before eric shinseki was fired and they are talking points about veterans who just got service at the va, and this is not the issue here. in all of the discussion, wolf, i'm a little nervous for the vets that this does become a political issue. quite frankly, the v.a. has been on a slide for a decade and a half, and it is going to be taking bipartisan efforts to fix the v.a. bur keaucracy which is the problem, and if this is allowed to become just another political issue in a campaign,

it will be the vets who will suffer, because it is just toing to be pushed on down the line. >> drew griffin, thanks again for your excellent reporting along with the investigative un unit. and drew griffin and mark preston, guys, thank you very much, and we will stay on top of the story. we are getting breaking news into cnn norad is saying that a blimp has become dissociated with the mooring. it is untether and flying around somewhere over pennsylvania we are told the right now according to the norad spokesman, and the pentagon official say that two f-16s have scrambled from the new jersey national guard and tracking the blimp right now, and we will have full detalils. we will take a quick break and much more on what is going on right now. improved crest 3d white brilliance removes 5 times more stains than the red box.

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we are following a breaking news here in the united states. a massive and ebs trextremely expensive blimp used by norad has come loose from the taeter, and now floating freely over pennsylvania somewhere. and now we go to the correspondent barbara starr, and now, barbara, what is happening? it is sort of flying around right now, and what are they going to be doing about this? >> well, wolf, the information just coming in, and norad, the north american air defense releasing information that the

blimp became untethered from aberdeen, north of washington, d.c., and it is flying uncontrolled, and think of it as a large helium filled balloon structure floating uncontrolled over pennsylvania. it is being tracked by two air force f-1s that were scrambleded out of their air station in atlantic city, new jersey. they are tracking it. following it. the faa and other federal agencies are working on it right now trying to ensure air traffic safety in the path of to a aerostat, because it is uncontrolled in the uncontrolled flight, and making sure that no aircraft get in its way. and trying to decide what to do about it. what is this system? it is essentially helium-filled with extensive radar equipment and something they are using and testing at aberdeen. it is a system that is designed

to track incoming aircraft, and incoming unidentified aircraft, and missiles in a combat situation. we have seen over the years the kinds of aerostats smaller in places like iraq and afghanistan, and successful of providing the surveillance over a wide area, but this system in particular can fly about 10,000 feet over sea level. right now, we are told that it is drifting at 16,000 feet. it is going to remain to be seen what the u.s. military can do to get control of this thing. are they going to let it drift and lose the helium in some fashion and float to the ground or take the action to disable it, and make it come to the ground? but at this hour, a pretty urgent effort to make sure that the air safety as long as this afloat, air safety is maintained, and if it is going

to be coming to the ground in a controlled fashion so no one is hurt or injured. >> how do they do it? fire some bullet in there so it sort of starts to float to the ground someis that potentially what they would do? >> well, to be blunt, this is unchartered territory the right now at this moment as you are and i are chatting. i don't think that there has been any instance of one of the large aerostats coming un -- loose from the mooring, and loose from the 240-foot tether rope and drifting over the united states. we have not had that before, and we have not had a helium-filled aerostat like this. this thing can, how large and how significant, it can survey territory, we are told the size of the texas. now, we have had disabled small civilian aircraft where norad has to track them until they frankly do crash to the ground,

and we have had a couple of those situations in recent years, but this is always going to bring up the delicate matter at what point does the u.s. military take kinetic action? what point do they shoot down some oobject floating over the united states that is not under control? a real decision what to do about it in the coming hours, wolf. >> and very expensive surveillance radar equipment inside of the blimp as it is called the jalens, the joint air loo airline and so we are going to hope they bring it down in some unpopulated area n a field somewhere. thank you, barbara. >> they are outman and outgunned , but the kurdish forces are managing to take hold of the

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the iranian foreign minister will be at the table this yeek in austria for talks in the crisis in syria according to iran's news agency. this marks the first time iran has been included in the international talks which include the u.s., turkey, russia among others. the russian foreign ministry says the united states invited iran. iran is an ally of bashar al assad and he's apparently boosting his military presence as we speak in syria. meanwhile, the u.s. has upped its support for kurdish and other groups fighting isis in northern syria, despite air drops of ammunition, kurdish forces say they remain desperately short of weapons transportation and armor.

clarissa warren visited one newly liberated area where fears offize isis still linger. >> reporter: weeks ago, these dusty plains were held by isis. this is what's left of its presence now. the charred remains of a training camp hidden in a pine fore forest. it's where isis trained an elite unit of suicide bombers that attacked kurdish positions with devastating effect. kurdish fighters known as the ypg took this entire area from isis in august, but holding it along a front line more than 400 miles long is a huge challenge. in the shadow of mt. abdullah zooez, this commander said he lost 30 fighters in a recent battle when isis came down from the mountain. >> translator: the enemy attacked us with a large number of fighters using heavy weapons. they took control of three villages and after that --

>> reporter: zenar is a battalion commander but this is the size of his battalion, a handful of poorly equipped men, the nearest friendly forces miles away. the cost of pushing isis out has been enormous, streets here are draped with the flags of fighters killed in battle, along desolate roads through abandoned villages we saw scene upon scene of devastation. the wreckage of months of fierce fighting and relentless coalition air strikes. dozens of villages like this one that were liberated from isis months ago are now still completely deserted. that's partly because the isis militants before they retreated planted land mines all across this area. but it's also because many people here aren't convinced that isis won't be coming back. in the tiny village of mahuja we met this woman who lived here

all her life. she told us she was afraid to leave home when isis was in control, that they beat and killed people and brought misery upon the community. there were no air strikes before they arrived. then the strikes started. there was one next to me, she says. we were scared of everything, not just isis. are you still afraid, i ask? she says not but glances warily at the kurdish fighter was us. the kurds question the loyalty of these villages claiming they harbor isis sympathizers. the killing may have stopped, but there is no peace here. >> clarissa ward is joining us live from erbil in northern iraq. are these kurdish fighters getting any help from the iraqi military? they obviously have had their problems with the iraqi military. what do you see on the ground there? >> reporter: no. the syrian kurdish fighters are not getting any assistance from

the iraqi military. the iraqi peshmerga does have some cooperation with the iraqi military, but the syrian kurds, the only real cooperation and coordination and support they're getting is from the u.s. and i dao thio think there's a distinction to be drawn when we're looking at what the kurdish fighters we spent time with and what the u.s. is hoping they will want. kurdish fighter wez spent time with are really focused, wolf, on establishing a contiguous, autonomous surdish seeking independent region. and the u.s.'s focus is of course to get the kurdish fighters to take the fight to raqqah to launch an offensive on isis' stronghold. from what we saw, the ypg's focus and priority simply isn't on taking the fight into areas that are not kurdish areas. >> clarissa ward on the scene in

erbil, northern iraq. that's it for me. thanks for watching. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." "cnn newsroom" starts right now. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. all right, here we go. breaking news on cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. i don't think i've ever seen these words before, but there's a first time for everything. a blimp is on the loose. we are told it's flying somewhere in the skies over pennsylvania. there are f-16 jets that have now been scrambled. boy, oh, boy, do i have some questions on this one. let's bring in our pentagon correspondent barbara starr, also with me our cnn aviatin correspondent maria sbarbara, we're looking at pictures of what said blimp would look like. can you tell me what the heck happened? >> well, we know at in point norad