welcome back. 9:00 p.m. here in new york. crunch time after last night's republican debate. keeping the candidates honest and what they said. first, a recap of the lights of another memorable debate. >> this is the man that was a managing general partner at lee

pan bro leeman brothers when it went down. he was on the board and thirdly, he was so nice. he was such a nice guy and he said oh, i'm never going to attack but then his poll numbers tanked. that's why he's on the end. >> i wasn't on the board of leeman brothers. i was a banker and learned how people make jobs. my state is doing great across the board and guess what? in 201 1, i got a deal and agreement -- >> he tried to take credit -- >> four years later, it's a joke. >> if you want someone to grab a beer with, i may not be that guy but if you want someone to drive you home, i will get the job done. and i will get you home. >> but marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term and you should be showing up to work. i mean, literally, the senate, what is it like a french workweek, you get like three days you have to show up? you can campaign or just resign

and let someone else take the job. >> it's interesting over the last few weeks, i listened to jeb as he said you're modelling your campaign and you're going to launch a furious come back. i don't remember you complaining about john mccain's vote record. the only reason you are doing it now is because someone convinced you attacking me will help you. >> yes, i was fired over a disagreement in the boardroom. there are politics in the boardroom and yet, the man that led my firing, tom perkins, an icon of silicon valley said we were wrong, she was right, she was a great ceo and would be a great president of the united states. that's the leadership we need in washington d.c. >> mrs. fiorina it's interesting you bring up mr. perkins because he said a lot of questionable things. last year in an interview he said he thinks wealthy people should get more votes than poor people. >> this is reasons mr. perkins and i had disagreements in the

boardroom, becky. >> mannatech offered claims they could cure autism, cancer, paid $7 million to settle a deceptive marketing lawsuit in texas and yet, your involvement continued. why? >> well, that's easy to answer. i didn't have an involvement with them. that is total propaganda. >> to be fair you were on the home page of the website with a logo over your shoulder. >> if somebody put me on the home page, they did it without my permission. >> if you saw that blimp that got cut loose from maryland today is a perfect example of government. what we had was something the government made basically a bag of gas that cut loose, destroyed everything in its path and left thousands of people powerless but couldn't get rid of it because we had too much money invested so we had to keep it. >> would you feel more comfortable if your employees brought guns to work? >> yes, i might feel more comfortable. i would say that i would and i

have a permit, which is very unusual in new york. a permit to carry. and i do carry on occasion. sometimes a lot but i like to be unpredictable so that people don't know exactly -- >> we have $19 trillion in debt. we have people out of work. we have isis and al qaeda attacking us and we're talking about fantasy football? >> everybody said it would be three hours, three and a half including them and in about two minutes i renegotiated it down two to hours so we can get the hell out of here. not bad. >> breaking news, jeb bush was asked about a conference call with concerned donors. reporters in new hampshire he was asked what he was going to do to get better in debates. john king spoke with two participants on the call. he says governor bush spoke for a bit and acknowledged he could have done better but said he was confident in the plan and strategy. we have reaction. gary tuchman spoke to

republicans in utah, one of the most conservative corners of a solidly red state. >> reporter: before the debate began, we asked loyal republicans. which candidate are you support sng. >> ben carson for president. >> i'm supporting ben carson. >> land paul. i'm heading toward ben but i'm not quite sure. >> i am leaning towards ben carson right now. >> ben carson. >> kasich. >> ben carson. >> reporter: would the debate change any minds? >> his poll numbers tanked and that's why he's on the end and he got -- [ laughter ] >> reporter: they laughed during some of the debate. >> i love donald trump. he is a good man. i'm wearing a trump tie tonight. get over that one. okay? >> that was good. >> reporter: they also booed. >> does that not speak to your vetting process or judgment in any way? >> it speaks to the fact that i don't know -- >> boo! >> what a stupid question. >> boo, that was bad.

>> reporter: all here say they got a lot out of the debate. so once again, seven of you before the debate started said you were intending to vote for ben carson. raise the hand seven of you that said that. how many of you feelings changed after the debate about carson? even a little bit. raise your hand. one, two, three, four, five. so five of you feel differently. you pick kasich. you still feel strongly about kasich. >> even more so. >> and you picked rand paul. feel the same? >> yeah. >> let's talk to the carson people. >> reporter: ken hanson is one of the two staying loyal to carson. >> something happened with ben tonight that you have not seen with any other politician. he actually admitted he was whereon on an issue. to me that was extremely important because that attests to me that the man's integrity, honesty and moral condition is in tact. >> reporter: so that made you feel even stronger about carson. >> it did.

>> reporter: john spooler is the republican mayor of the largest town in rich county, utah garden city. he's one of the five that feels differently about carson. >> after this debate, i would definitely be considering some other candidates. ben is still very high on my list but carly was super impressive. >> reporter: wads worth who is leaning towards carson had an outcome she didn't expect. >> he seemed quiet, and i did like his humbleness and i like his morals, but i don't know that he showed the strength that you want to see in the president of the united states. >> reporter: who do you think show that strength during this debate? >> trump. >> so do you favor trump? >> i don't want to. i don't want to but yeah, i

might. >> reporter: and this most republican county, everyone in this room says this country needs a republican in the white house but this debate made it clear most of them still don't know which republican. gary tuchman, cnn, rich county, utah. >> a lot of people clearly still to make up their minds. let's bring the panel atlantic media contributing editor peter bien heart and nia mallika henderson and amanda carpenter, conservative writer for senator ted cruz. peter, i want to quote from this column. you said if you feel sorry for jeb bush last night don't. why did -- what do you mean? >> because i think jeb bush would have never been in the front run pore session to begin with. the reason he was front runner overwhelmingly is because he raised a huge amount of money in large donations from people connected to his family. it was never really any evidence if you go back to early this year that voters were excited

about voting for him. >> he had been governor in florida so some people must have liked him. >> he had a career but out of politics for a long time. no chorus of people demanding he run for president. from the spring it was clear he was not a great campaigner and i think what i argue in the piece is in a way the system worked, which is the fact that he's not a good campaigner. the fact that republicans for whatever reason are not interested in the idea of having him in. that is turning out to be the most important factor and we should feel good about that. >> and something that's come out of the debates, really shown him in stark contrast to others on the stage. amanda, just moments ago jeb bush acknowledged he had a conference call he would do what other candidates do and start to quote rudely interrupt in debates, those were his terms to get more time and more substantive questions. will that do it for him next debate? >> halloween is coming. jeb bush is the walking jeb. he is a zombie candidate

propelled by his super pacts and a lot of money and bad consultant device. i think the money he had at the beginning of the race was his curse. unlike the other candidates, he didn't have to do the hard work of earning it and making a case for hiscandidacy in doing boot strap work. it doesn't have the political athletic fitness to perform because he never went through that proper spring training period. >> that's a really interesting point. again, sort of echoes peter what-off said. nia, today bush said his campaign is not on life support, which if you have to pamake tha announcement, your campaign may be on life support. if he has another lackluster performance during the next debate that is a couple weeks away, how much longer can he hold out? >> that's right. as lodge as he's got the money, he spent some of it on ads in new hampshire and some haven't

moved the numbers yet but he's still got that bank account and because of his last name. there wasn't much vetting done. i think that's very clear. not a lot of vetting done in terms of what he's actually like as a candidate and that i think still remains his curse. he's just not a good candidate. he's got no charisma at all. that's something you can't fake. marco rubio has charisma in spades but i still think if you're jeb bush, you got a lot of leeway, you've got some room to grow certainly because of the money and already you've got infrastructure built in the states. we don't know yet if marco rubio will capitalize on that really strong debate performance he's had passed debate performances where he was really strong but he still hasn't been able to prove that folks in his party, the establishment will rally around him whether that's in endorsements or donors, so he's still got convincing of not only the sort of establishment people but also just actual voters.

>> but one point, you know, anderson in the last hour you ran a package where jeb said essentially he would start attacking all three gop senators running for president, not only marco rubio but ted cruz and rand paul. i think this is a devastating mistake. each of the senators rose to national prominence by beating establishment people like him. there is nothing more the tea party would like than a rematch of the three of them versus jeb bush to take them out of the race. >> peter, when you look at donald trump last night, a lot of people expected look, this would be a debate on finance and economic issues. this is something we'll hear more from him on but he didn't really distinguish himself. he says he won all the online votes. they feel he did well. but you didn't hear a lot of people talking about you heard people talk about rubio and cruise. what did -- >> right, that was the biggest shift. donald trump really dominated the last two whether you think he did well or not and really didn't dominate this. you know, we've moved into a bit

of a post trump phase. he's not sucking up all the oxygen anymore. there is this fascinating disconnect which i think your packaged showed with the focus group, elites, people like me have been talking about rubio after this debate. rubio, jeb, ted cruz. they didn't mention any of those people, right? they were talking about ben carson and donald trump. there is still this fascinating disconnect between these two discourses about the campaign we have to remember. >> nia, when you look at gary tuchman's focus group, almost all the people he spoke to going into the debate were ben carson supporters. why are so many people drawn to him because he hasn't laid out a lot of policy specifics? >> two people mentioned moral character and that's what they like about him. they feel like he's a good person, a good man, a well-mannered and so that's what

he presented in this debate last night but also interesting, a lot of people think they like ben carson and a couple dropped off and said maybe they want to switch to trump. trump and carson, those are two. i think it's interesting that people don't really feel threatened by ben carson even on that stage. they didn't want to go after him. so it's almost like they don't take his front runner status, at least in one of the polls very seriously and feel like maybe he'll fade or be sort of a regional candidate maybe like huckabee, pick up a couple states in iowa but not a long-term threat. >> good to have you-all on. thank you. coming up next, one of the under dogs thinks he has a lot of room to grow and a message he thinks can win. john kasich speaks out and joins us tonight. >> new video, the view from the middle of the shootout in waco, texas. bikers left nine dead, 177 in custody, amazingly, no charges filed in any of the killings, no charges. questions now could that soon be changing, some answers ahead.

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john kasich earned a spot on the trump target list last night. look at the give and take in boulder over his record in the governor's office and business world. >> first of all, john got lucky with a thing called fracking. he hit oil.

he got lucky with fracking, believe me, that's why ohio is doing well and important for you to know. number two, this is the man that was a managing general partner at leeman brothers when it went down the tubes and almost took every one of us with us, including ben and myself, i was there and i watched what happened and leeman brothers started it all on the board and aening was a managing general partner. so nice, such a nice guy and said i'm never going to attack and poll numbers tanked. that's why he's on the end. he got nasty. you know what? you can have him. >> let me -- yeah, let me just -- let me respond. first of all, ohio does have an energy industry but we're diversified one of the fastest growing states in the country. we came back from the dead and it works very, very well and secondly, when you talk about me being on the board of leeman brothers, i wasn't on the board of leeman brothers, i was a

banker and proud and traveled the country and learned how people make jobs. we ought to have politicians that know how the ceos and job creators work. my state is doing great across the board and guess what? in 2011, i got a deal and agreement -- >> out of time on this. >> we tried to take credit four years later. it's a joke. >> fiery exchange last night. i spoke with the governor a short time ago. governor, a lot of people thought you had a strong debate last night. there was the extchange you had with donald trump. i wonder what changed in your how to deal with him. you said you didn't want to engage and go that route and then, there was an exchange last night. >> well, anderson, it really wasn't just aimed at donald trump. i mean, i just reached a tipping point when i hear people talk about eliminating medicaid and medicare and replacing it with something and i hear another guy talk about deporting ten or 1 1

people. i've been thinking that for a long time and then these tax schemes, and i'm for tax cuts but tax schemes will put us it wills of dollars in debt and put more debt on my kids. at some point i had to speak out and i sort of reached the tipping point and look, none of these attacks are personal. they are really my deep concern about us picking somebody who doesn't know how to do the job or making too many promises like a chicken in every pot. i have a program that will cut taxes. it will balance the budget and do a lot to create jobs but the numbers fit together. it's not some made up fantasy plan. >> where do you see your lane moving forward from here? i mean, look, clearly, dr. ben carson, donald trump, they are the ones leading now in the polls, have been for quite sometime. dr. carson seems to be leading right now, taking the lead in iowa. where do you see yourself moving forward? >> well, anderson, look, i mean, we don't run this election on

the basis of regional or national elections. so in terms of these numbers, you know, my numbers are probably not going to move until i do extremely well in new hampshire. what i would tell you is we compete in iowa. we've got the best organization in new hampshire with johnson leading former senator leading this organization. we know what we need to do in south carolina and in the south and in michigan and illinois. so it's a state by state basis and as you know there have been all kinds of people that peaked to disappear. you win elections from the bottom up so national polls are not my great concern. my great concern is to continue to raise money, to have a good organization and build my organization from the bottom up in these critical early primary states. >> you know, when you look at history, there have been outsiders before, so-called outsiders before who have peaked at a certain point and then more establishment candidates, people with more of a political track record have actually gone on to

win. do you see that happening here? i mean, obviously, you're confident about yourself. >> i do. i do. anderson. >> you see the success of carson and trump somehow peaking? >> well, my view is, anderson, people want somebody who can land the plane and right now people are saying okay, throw anything out there and let me take a look. i'm so frustrated with the status quo and anderson, to use a basketball analogy, i can play, i can hit the three-pointer and play the inside game. i've been an outsider fighting the establishment most of my career. you don't get to a balanced budget in washington or turn ohio around without stepping on a heck of a lot of toes but i know how to get it done. if there is anything this country needs now, it needs to have a really revitalized economy and i know how to do that in washington but i'll tell you one other thing it needs, that is a renewed spirit, stronger family, stronger neighborhoods, neighbors caring about one another.

let me take care of washington with the great team of people to get this economy moving and creating jobs but america's built from the bottom up. i think you know that. you do stories like this on heroes. people at the bottom getting stronger and wanting to change the world, that's the one two punch of what i think needs to get america moving again. >> appreciate your time. thank you. >> good to talk to you, anderson, thank you. just ahead, donald trump has a chance or had a chance last night to ease ben carson's lead in several polls. we'll talk about whether he made the most of that. the 88th southern parallel. we had traveled for over 850 miles. my men driven nearly mad from starvation and frostbite. today we make history. >>bienvenidos! welcome to the south pole! if you're dora the explorer, you explore. it's what you do. >>what took you so long? if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance,

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in the spin room last night donald trump gave a typically modest assessment. i killed it he said. hours later he took to twitter slamming critics and thanking supporters. trump went into the debate trailing ben carson. last night was an opportunity to turn the numbers around. joining me now is jeffrey lord, former regan white house political director and also paul

bagola and paul, hadn't heard from you since last night's debate. let's start with you. you made no secret of your enjoyment of donald trump in the race even if he didn't have the strongest debate. he didn't seem to have big stumbles. is that almost as important? >> yes, when the front runner doesn't stumble, that's a win. i was surprised. this is an economic debate. he's a billionaire businessman. i guess he didn't go to his patented move. last night was the tip off to the nba season, steph curry has a move and kevin durant stop and pop, they have signature moves. trump's signature move is bashing immigrants and didn't do it last night. as an american i'm glad but as a strategist, he's going to come out to out law guacmole or something. he'll have to do something crazy to get his mojo back. >> did trump do anything last night or will do anything in the coming days to blunt dr.

carson's rise in the polls. >> keep being donald trump. i would disagree with paul, his signature is not bashing immigrants. his signature perhaps if you want to put it that way is opposing illegal immigration. there is a considerable difference in a country that's 100% filled with descendants of immigrants. i think he's going to keep on doing what he's doing. the most important thing as we move along is the ground game and in talking to somebody in iowa the other day, i guess last week, that ground game is well underway here and is very organized, not only iowa but new hampshire and south carolina. there is a matching effort out of camera range to what you see in the polls and those -- most of the polls he is still doing very well. >> what about jeb bush? you've been involved in a lot of campaigns, can he come back at this point? i mean, he can't -- he doesn't seem to be a good debater, at least in the three debates, he says maybe he'll change tactics in the next debate and i think on this conference call, the

reporting said he'll interrupt more and try to i guess hope to get better questions but what do you make of his campaign? >> i think he's through. can he come back? he is a talented guy. he hides it well. this is not my original thought. i wish i could take credit for it. my friend who was chef strategist, has this analogy about jeb's money. matthew said when you have tons of money, it's like extra oxygen tanks but two broken legs. you live longer but don't go anywhere. >> if i can say -- >> go ahead. >> i have to say i think paul is absolutely correct. matter of fact, i have a column coming out tomorrow in which i quote paul as saying i believe i heard him say that jeb is toast and i agree. i mean, i just think this was doomed from the beginning in terms of establishment connections and the only people

who were stunned that it was doomed are the people who were inside the bush campaign. >> are you allowed to quote paul favorably in the american spectator? >> we'll see, we? >> that will be edited out. jeff, what is a must win state for donald trump? it can't be iowa. is it new hampshire? is it south carolina? can he afford not to win either? >> i think it will go beyond that. i mean, i do look back to the regan bush showdown in 1980 in which regan lost iowa, won new hampshire but do lose on occasion. that race went until may when george h.w. bush finally yielded but won pennsylvania. i think he may have even won michigan along the way. so i do expect that this could be a very long and prolonged battle here for this. >> all right. fascinating and already is. jeffrey lord, paul. a new look, remember the deadly biker brawl in waco,

texas? chaos inside the restaurant as a gunfight erupted in the parking lot outside. selling 18 homes? easy. building them all in four and a half months? now that was a leap. i was calling in every favor i could, to track down enough lumber to get the job done. and i knew i could rely on american express to help me buy those building materials. there are always going to be unknowns. you just have to be ready for them. another step on the journey... will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com frequent heartburn brand in america. i hope you like it spicy! get complete protection with the purple pill. the new leader in frequent heartburn. that's nexium level protection.

tonight, dramatic new video of the deadly brawl in waco, texas. hundreds of weapons recovered from the scene, 177 members of two rival biker clubs were arrested. more than five months later, you might be surprised to hear no one has been charged in the nine deaths. a first look at surveillance video showing what was happening inside the restaurant as the violence broke out. >> reporter: the showdown was like the gunfight at the oak corral, that's how a witness describes the biker massacre. you don't have to hear the eruption of gunfire to feel the chaos rival motorcycle clubs unleash. these videos take you inside the twin peaks restaurant in waco, texas where nine bikers were killed and the parking lot was turned into a raging war zone. >> oh my god, this is crazy. >> reporter: cnn obtained more than 2,000 pages of documents,

crime scene photos and surveillance video giving us the most detailed accounts of what unfolded last may. some of the very evidence that a texas grand jury is using to possibly indict the 177 bikers arrested and charged with organized criminal activity. restaurant surveillance cameras show the patio area filled with members of the club waiting for an early afternoon biker meeting to start. they had already been there for more than an hour. the bandito crew roll in and anticipating violence watch from a distance. john is president of the chapter in waco sitting on the patio when the banditots arrive. >> the lead guy on that, you know, i looked out watching and he deliberately steered into one of our prospects and hit him. you know, i mean, he wasn't going real fast but he deliberately ran into him with a

motorcycle, enough to knock him down. >> reporter: clifford pierce is who is he talking about. in a police report an investigator wrote piece said he did not get his foot run over but may not have gotten out of the way fast enough. it doesn't matter. they believe the bandit ran into one of his eyes and the fight was on. who fired first isn't clear. it was told a bandito fired into a ground and in dozens of interviews, the rival biker clubs point the finger at each other or claim they didn't see anything. clifford pierce says he hit the dirt and was shot. a bullet hits his spine leaving pierce paralyzed from the waste do down -- waist down. >> guys were getting hit and falling and i realized i needed to get away from where i was and i looked at the guy to my right, my left, a good friend of mine

and i told him, i said we got to get off the sidewalk or we're going to die here. >> reporter: a biker running across the patio fires a gunshot caught on camera toward the fight scene in the parking lot. he then stashes the gun. a number of bikers take cover, some slide handguns across the ground to each other. patrons and waitresses are stunned and trapped. the scene plays out in gory detail, you can see a group of bikers pummelling one man outside the patio area, crime scene photos show a biker's body left dead in that exact spot. this biker runs toward the camera with a bloody face. another group pulls a wounded man into the patio and they appear to be trying to revive him. he's then carried away. several defense attorneys tell cnn the video shows most of the bikers there that day were innocent bystanders. >> y'all going to put us in jail? >> yeah. everybody is going to jail. >> the way they handled it with

just the mass incarceration of people with million dollar bonds, flies in the face of justice and flies in the face of fairness. it's ridiculous. >> reporter: after it was all over, the scene was chaos. dozens of bikers run inside the restaurant to hide in bathrooms and the twin peaks kitchen. police swat teams move in to round up the crowd. they are escorted out with hands up. weapons litter the crime scene, knives, brass knuckles and more than 150 firearms everywhere. some even hidden in toilets. it's been more than five months since the twin peaks brawl and all of the mike bikers are out jail on bond. not one of them has been indicted by a grand jury yet and no one has been charged with murder. in fact, it's still not clear who killed whom. one police report says at least three officers fired into the crowd and one officer wrote he heard suppressed fire from what i believe to be swat officers

with suppressed rivals. several defense attorneys say it's likely some bikers were hit by police bullets but as far as we know, ballistics reports have not been completed. police and prosecutors refused to answer questions about the investigation siting a gag order but waco police defended their actions six tnce the beginning. >> this is a criminal element that came in and killed people. they came with violence in mind and were ready for it. >> these images of the twin peaks brawl tell the story. >> all these bikers started shooting. they put us in a freezer. it was a wild west style shootout in broad daylight. >> incredit to believe see it like that. ed joins us from waco. what stood out to you in the evidence that's come out about this brawl? >> reporter: what really stood out was and remember all of these bikers charged with a criminal charge of participate income organized criminal activity and it was interesting in reading all of the police

reports from get-go, many police focussing questions on what motivated each of the bikers they were interviewing for being there at the twin peaks restaurant last may, really getting into the motivations. the bikers said they were simply there for a meeting, preorganized meeting, a biker club meeting and that's why they were there. of usually police said all along they were there for reasons. there was a history of fighting in the months leading up to the shootout where the two had gotten into violent altercations and because of that, police say they had intelligence that something bad was going to go down that day. so they have been focused on the motivation for what brought them there to that twin peaks restaurant. >> appreciate the reporting. ed is answering viewer questions about this. submit yours on facebook. up next a cnn exclusive, tough words for the top spy and vladimir putin in syria. and a volunteer, former u.s.

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blasting putin.

it came in an exclusive interview with jim sciutto. jim, i understand you delve into the spiraling situation with director clapper. what did he have to say? >> it's interesting. this guy has been in intelligence for 50 years. the toughest job is seeing into the minds of foreign leaders trying to guess their plans and intentions. he says that's particularly difficult with vladimir putin because he has such a tiny circle. he says he's in a decision bubble. what he does know and this guy is good at reading people, he is very impulsive and opportunity and that has relates to syria, he doesn't believe he has a long-term plan. this is how he laid it out to me. >> we're expected to know that a decision has been made by a foreign head of state before he makes it. putin is case in point. i think he's very impulsive,

very opportunistic. it's a debate but i personally question whether he has some long-term strategy and i think his intervention into syria is another manifestation of that. those things are hard to predict when there's a very -- in his case, a very small number of people around him unlike our president, he is not subjected to a steady stream of bad news. that's not a good thing for his intelligence services to do. so he's very much, i think, in a sort of a decision bubble and he makes these decisions on pretty much on his own. >> do you think he has a plan for syria? >> what his long-term plan is, i'm not sure he has one. i think he's kind of winging this day to day. >> winging this day to day and i did ask if the president, if he was blind sided by russia's

military action. he says no, they saw that coming and warned the president. >> it's interesting to hear him describe putin as somebody in this very, you know, tightly controlled bubble and actually doesn't get that, you know, bad information. that certainly makes it all the more difficult when dealing with him if the person you're dealing with is not an actor getting all the information or as much information might be . i understand clapper got into presidential politics with you. >> he did. i asked him about all of the comments in the debates and in the campaigns about big national security issues, including how to respond to russia, how to get involved in syria, russia, china, et cetera. i said, do any of the comments worry you? he said, well, in his words, those comments are misinformed. then he corrected himself and said, no, they are uninformed and a lot of the candidates when they get into office, that their confidence will diminish very quickly. >> jim sciutto, thank you.

an exclusive look at an american volunteer on the battlefield now wearing his own fatigues and taking aims at isis fighters. our own clarissa caught up with him at a training camp in northern syria. >> reporter: randy roberts has spent much of the last seven months on the front lines. the former u.s. army specialist who deployed twice to iraq was studying graphic design in the u.s. when he decided to join the fight against isis. >> i felt like i could, given my past military experience, that i had been to this region before, that i could contribute and actually help the cause. >> reporter: how did you get guidance as to how to get here, who to link up with? >> well, google. >> reporter: google? that's how you planned your trip to come and fight isis? >> believe it or not, yes.

i simply looked up westerners who had come over here before me. >> reporter: roberts is one of more than 100 westerners who have come to syria and iraq to fight with kurdish forces. ♪ the internet is full of slickly produced wpg propaganda videos featuring american volunteers. there's even a website selling isis hunting kits and offering packing lists on what to bring. at a small training camp in northern syria, we watched some new recruits. among them, two americans. most did not want to show their faces. unlike roberts, few had any military experience. >> and you also meet a lot of people who think that this is going to be the gaming experience, call of duty because they understand how to pull the trigger on a controller that they know how to do it in real life. >> elbows in and tight to your

body. >> reporter: roberts believes the most valuable lesson he can offer is training. >> so when you need to reload, take a knee behind cover, stock in here. >> reporter: while some kurdish fighters welcome western volunteers as a morale boost, others dismiss their presence as a nuisance. >> reporter: do you believe you have helped? >> i would say, yes. >> reporter: some people say this isn't your war. this isn't your business. >> it's better to do something than sit back and watch because it's on the other side of the world, not my problem. >> reporter: certainly the risks are real. keith broomfield died fighting alongside kurdish fighters this past summer in syria and roberts has seen for himself how tenacious enemy isis can be. >> they are trying to keep us from advancing on these

villages. they also have little trenches that they hide in and pop up and machine gunfire. >> reporter: has it ever crossed your mind that you could get killed? >> yeah. yeah. >> reporter: that's a price you'd be willing to pay? >> yes. if i got to the end of my life and i hadn't come and i looked back on this and i had chose not to come out, then it would have bothered me. it would have bothered me for the rest of my life. >> clarissa, what's the u.s.' position on these volunteers who have gone to fight isis? >> technically, they say it's not illegal to fight against isis in syria and iraq as long as they are not fighting with a terrorist group. in this case, fighting with kurdish ypg fighters would technically be legal. at the same time, given what has happened to other americans captured by isis and the terrible, grisly fate that they

met, the government tries to actively discourage anyone from going out and trying to fight in these incredibly dangerous war zones. >> clarissa, great to have you with us. thanks for being with us tonight. new video of the airliner on fire on the tarmac in ft. lauderdale. the latest on what happened when we come back. the cold truth is, there's no easy way to do your job when you're sick. tough symptoms need alka-seltzer plus cold & cough it's four cold symptom fighters

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i'm a senior field technician for pg&e here in san jose. pg&e is using new technology to improve our system, replacing pipelines throughout the city of san jose, to provide

safe and reliable services. raising a family here in the city of san jose has been a wonderful experience. my oldest son now works for pg&e. when i do get a chance, an opportunity to work with him, it's always a pleasure. i love my job and i care about the work i do. i know how hard our crews work for our customers. i want them to know that they do have a safe and reliable system. together, we're building a better california. before we go, we just got a video that shows how violent the fire was on the tarmac for the plane that was headed to venezuela. 17 people were hurt in all. one person badly burned. we're told this happened at lunchtime. a pilot reported seeing fluid leaking out of the left engine and it all erupted.

the ntsb has a team on this already. dynamic has limited roots with a fairly old aircraft which in itself is not a safety concern. we'll be following this throughout the evening as the events warrant it. thank you for joining us. coming up right now -- we'll be back at 11:00 p.m. eastern. "cnn tonight" starts with don lemon. is time running our for jeb bush? is this marco rubio's moment? this is "cnn tonight" and i'm don lemon. those questions and more in the wake of the debate that began this end to end combat between rubio and bush. >> we're running for the same position and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you. >> it's never a good sign when you're having to tell people this about your campaign. >> it's not on life support. we have the most money, the greatest organization. we're doing fine. >> if you think donald trump is