hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 8:00 p.m. in moscow. wherever you're watching from around the world thanks very much for joining us. following two major stories this hour. hurricane matthew is taking direct aim at the bahamas and the united states after pounding cuba and haiti. the florida governor rick scott gave an update on the situation just moments ago. li listen to this. >> first, hurricane matthew is a category 3 hurricane and deadly.

at least 17 people have already been killed by this major people. 17 people have already died. we do not want to see another loss of life, and protecting life is our number one priority. if matthew directly impacts florida, there will be massive destruction that we haven't seen in years. again, this is a deadly storm approaching our state, and our number one priority is an individual's life. we are preparing for the worst, hoping for the best, and not taking any chances. i just spoke with the national hurricane center in all 67 florida counties. i've been in contact with sheriffs, mayors, utilities companies, the red cross, emergency management and officials across our state. here what we now know -- hurricane matthew made landfall on cuba last night and is headed north towards the bahamas. matthew has maximum sustained

winds of 120 miles per hour. it is still a slow-moving storm and continues to move northwest. it is suspected to strengthen as it approaches florida, but we should not focus on the exact track. the eye of the storm continues to move closer to our state. there are now some forecasts that put a direct hit on florida. based on the current forecast, the center of the storm will be close to cape canaveral on friday morning. regardless if there's a direct hit or not, the impacts will be devastating. i cannot emphasize this enough, that everyone in our state must prepare now for a direct hit. just remember, with a storm going up along our coast, a small deviation from this track can mean a catastrophic storm along our east coast. we have to prepare for a direct hit. we will likely start to see the impacts on our state within the next 24 hours and last through the weekend.

this is a slow-moving storm. that means we have less than 24 hours left to prepare, evacuate and shelter. having a plan in place could mean the difference between life and death. when it comes to a storm of this magnitude. right now we expect to see impacts all along florida's east coast. ranging from the upper keys to nassau county. we are still focused on the i-95 corridor. the impacts of hurricane matthew could be heavy rain, forecast projected four to seven inches from the upper keys north wswaro the central east coast florida. up to ten inches in some areas. remember, when you get a band, as we've done in prior storms you get even more rain that that. storm surge, higher than above ground. forecasters project four to six feet, four to six feet.

the surge can be deadly. please, do not risk by going out surfing during this storm. again, this can kill you. we're going do see rip currents. we're going to see beach erosion. we're going to see tornadoes, and hurricane force winds. >> rick scott, governor of florida with very, very strong words, a powerful warning and just a little while ago, president obama here in washington urged people up and down the southeastern coast of the united states to get ready. >> this is a serious storm. it has already hit haiti with devastating effect. it is now in the process of moving through the bahamas. because it's not going to be hitting enough land, it is going to be building strength on its way to florida. we anticipate that by tomorrow morning, it will already begin to have significant effect in

florida. >> we're going to keep you, of course, updated on where this hurricane is heading, and how the united states right now is preparing. our other big story we're following, the race for the white house. in the first and only vice presidential debate, mike pence scored points for style and edged out tim kaine, but did either running mate do enough to influence the overall race? now less than 34 days until the election. in our cnn/orc instant poll, 48% of debate watchers said governor pence, the republican, won 42% thought senator kaine. the democrat did. the two sparred over everything from the u.s. economy to foreign affairs to abortion rights for women. kaine was criticized for frequently interrupting his opponent. pence was more calm, more composed, but nieither hesitatesed to mix it up. >> donald trump started this campaign 2014, said if i run for president i will absolutely release my taxes. he's broken his first promise.

>> and he will. >> donald trump supports our veterans. >> we won't pay taxes. >> donald trump has paid -- how does that work. >> trying to keep up with the insu insult-driven campaign on other side -- >> i'm trying to -- >> i'm happy to defend him. don't but words in my mouth that i'm not defending him. >> you're not. >> wait until the other is finished. >> we're having fun up here. >> both vice presidential candidates are back on the campaign trail today. pence is rallying supporters in virginia. kaine has an event later this afternoon in philadelphia. now the focus shifts to the next presidential debate. the showdown between donald trump and hillary clinton only four days away. let's bring in our correspondent phil mattingly covering the trump campaign for us and jeff zeleny covering the clinton campaign. phil, shue trump preparing now for this next face-off, the second face-off with hillary

clinton? is he takingen in pages, for example, from mike pence's playbook? >> reporter: i think donald trump advisers made clear, he kept a close eye on mike pence last night. one of the interesting elements, wolf, about the second debate is the format. it's a town hall. the type of thing donald trump has done a number of times on the campaign trail. keep in mind, one-on-one debates something donald trump did not experience when he was in that primary. he always had 10, 11, 12 other people sitting beside him. very different for him in that first debate. the second debate, not so much. we're actually going to get a test of sorts. donald trump heading to new hampshire tomorrow where he will have a town hall pap bit of a practice run, if you will, going forward. but the big question remains, wolf, will he do the preparation behind the scenes? look what happened with mike pence last night, if you talk to republicans watching and comparing and contrasting mike pence's debate to donald trump debate, the one consistent thick you heard over and over again, mike pence was prepared. the big question now, will that

resonate with donald trump and even if it does, will he do anything about it. wolf? >> jeff, you covered the clinton campaign dpop they think that tim kaine did enough to help hillary clinton in this very, very close race? >> advisers to the clinton campaign very upbeat about the reaction publicly. privately thought tim kaine could have done a little better there. the interruptions can one thing. but they -- thought that he -- did not really show his true self as much as he sometimes does. but the reality here coming out of this, the one thing they were actually pleased about, the clinton campaign, is that tim kaine continued to raise questions about donald trump. after all, this campaign is about donald trump and the clinton campaign. it's not about mike pence and tim kaine as much. so they believe that he was really able to continue scoring some points here, but the clinton campaign, hillary clinton herself, wolf, is not taking a moment's rest off that sunday debate. she right now is preparing for the debate, locked with her advisers in her home here in

washington doing debate prep sessions. she is not scheduled to be on the campaign trail at all until after the debate. that is a notable difference from donald trump, out campaigning in nevada and as phil said, will have that town meeting in new hampshire. she is treating this so seriously, because it is, indeed serious. so much early voting going on. sunday is probably not an overstatement to say the most important moment of this campaign. >> yeah, and a new poll just released this hour. >> right. >> this is a poll in ohio. monmouth university poll, that has hillary clinton slightly ahead over donald trump. you see it, 44% for hillary clinton. trump, 42%. that's pretty good news for hillary clinton since earlier polls showed she wasn't doing that great in ohio. >> yes it is. if the spool trpool is true, thn campaign will be very happy. the only one showing her ahead of donald trump. ohio is a tough state a close state for them, but one they do not need, because they can get their path to 270 without that, but certainly are watching that. wolf it is, again, she is preparing as seriously, i'm

told, for the second debate as she did the first debate. >> we always point out, no rubben has ever wouldn't the white house without taking ohio. a key state for republicans. thanks for that. cnn polled debate watchers. by the end of the night people viewed senator kaine more unfavorably than before the debate nap growing from 28% to 40% throughout the evening, with a democratic-leaning audience of debate viewers. talk more about senator kaine's performance, bringing in jamie ruben, senior media adviser to the clinton campaign. thanks for joining us. >> good to be with you, wolf. >> so why do you think our poll showed pence won over kaine? >> well, i think a lot of people have talked about the style issue, but the real question, was it good for trump/pence good for the ticket? what tim kaine was able to do, extremely important. wolf, you and i talked about big

issues like russia for 20 years. last night you saw something that i've never seen before in the modern era. the vice presidential candidate did a 180-degree turn on a central foreign policy issue of russia. donald trump said he wanted to sit down and negotiate the removal of sanctions on russia. donald trump said he would accept crimea being part of the russian government. donald trump's team removed from the platform the idea of helping ukraine against russia. now, what happened last night? pence did the exact opposite. he suddenly said that he never said putin was a strong leader. suddenly he wanted to be very tough and strong on putin. talked about the need to stand up to the russians. now, wolf, this isn't just a subtlety. this isn't a narrow difference on one aspect of a policy. the u.s. policy towards russia is one of the two or three most

important things in our foreign affairs, and the candidate at the top took a soft on russia position. the candidate, number two, mr. pence, took a hard on russia position. which one is it? that's really important. it's not a nuance. >> and maybe that's one of the reasons -- >> foreign policy flip-flop i've ever seen. >> maybe one of the reasons by governor pence did well, because he was tough on the russians? but he also pointed out, jamie, that on so many issues, especially in the middle east, syria, iraq, iran for that matter, libya, hot spots around that area, the situation today is worse than it was when president obama took office, when the secretary of state was hillary clinton. those were tough statements that governor pence leveled against tim kaine and hillary clinton for that marttter. you're a national security adviser for the clinton campaign.

respond. >> look, the vice president dwa done too much, the blame america first strategy. everything that's gone wrong in the world mr. pence blamed on washington. even when in some of those cases he brought up georgia last night and forgot that georgia was invaded by russia during the bush administration. not the clinton or -- when clinton was secretary of state -- >> what about libya and iraq and syria? all of those areas, for example, are a lot more deadly, worse shape today than they were seven, eight years ago? >> now, wolf, you know these are very difficult, complex issues. if you cut me off after six seconds i can't explain libya. let's take libya. if donald trump supported the same idea of overthrowing gadhafi, take iraq. donald trump favored going into iraq, and then he lied about it. donald trump also favored, and this is really important,

russi russian/u.s. troops out. in 2007 when george bush was president, donald trump called for the immediate withdrawal, call it a victory and pull out. those are donald trump's position. so what mr. pence was doing, in fact, was criticizing either the positions of george bush, which happened before hillary was secretary of state, or attacked positions that his very man on the top of the ticket had as well. the middle east is very complicated. if you were listening to trump and pence, everything that happens there is washington's fault nap fault. that is a juvenile junior league policy. there have been dimt difficulties but clinton as secretary of state worked very well on iran. gather add coalition from all over the world that had never happened before to put sanctions on iran. that's why we got the iran agreement. on iraq, when the clinton administration came in, iraq was already a mess, because of the

invasion in iraq that george bush, mr. pence and donald trump all supported. these are not simple matters. they can't just be thrown out, but i wouldn't stop talking about russia. remember, russia is the issue that mitt romney said was the most important national security issue, and his ticket just did a giant flip-flop. >> jamey rubin for the clinton campaign, former u.s. assistant secretary of state. jamie, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. no surprise republicans are praising mike pence the performance in the vice presidential debate, but did governor pence do enough to defend the man right at the top of the ticket? talking about donald trump. let's bring in trump campaign senior adviser boris epstein. boris, thanks very much for joining us. >> of course, wolf. how are you? >> all right. so tim kaine repeatedly brought up donald trump's own words to mike pence, challenging him to defend the comments. listen to this exchange last night, for example, on

immigration and what donald trump previously said. >> these guys and donald trump has said it, deportation force. they want to go house to house, school to school, business to business, and kick out 16 million people and i cannot believe -- >> that's not true. >> they're illegal immigrants. they came over illegally. some are wonderful people and they've been here for a while. they've got to go out. they've got to leave. >> how do you do it in a practical way? >> try getting them back, the good ones. >> all right. trump did call for rounding up, deporting undocumented immigrants here in the united states, before sort of muddling hits position, if will you and subsequent interviews. how do you reconcile that with pence's denial? >> a couple things there, wolf. first of all, tim kaine on a million different things yesterday was wrong on his attack. less no 16 million. to get to that number, the democrats are adding 5 million

of u.s. citizens. those are children born here. nobody's talking about having those children who are citizens of united states leave. that's one. two -- >> let me ask you, are you sure boris about that? that donald trump wants these children who were born to undocumented immigrants, born in the united states, they should have u.s. citizenship? he's onboard with that? >> well, listen, if you're a u.s. citizen now, you're a u.s. citizen. what we're going to do with that policy going forward, that will be under consideration after we deal with the priorities of illegal immigration. >> you want to change that birthright citizenship? in other words, if -- >> i'm not saying -- >> go ahead. >> i'm not saying we want to change that. i'm saying we're going to deal with the priorities first. priorities are the illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in this country. those will be deported right away and those who overstayed vi visas, making immigration potion policials those are next and then deal with the rest. do it humanely and within the

constitution. tim kaine used all of these canned attacks against donald trump and mike pence but fell flat. why? he didn't bring anything new to the conversation. in a discussion with jamie rubin, the biggest flip-flop, that's called the tpp. hillary clinton was in favor 45 times now is somehow against it. >> i want to get your, give you an opportunity, boris, to respond to what we just heard from jamie rubin, but governor pence he took a different position from trump on the issue of vladimir putin and russia. what jamie said, but let me play the clip. >> the small and bullying leader of russia is now dictating terms to the united states, to the point where all of the united states of america, the -- the great effort nation on earth, just withdrawals from talks about a cease-fire while vladimir putin puts a missile defense system in syria, while he marshals the forces and

begins -- look, we have got to begin to lean into this with strong, broad-shouldered american leadership. >> certainly sounded different than what we've heard from donald trump over these many months. pence, denied, for example, trump praised putin, even though trump has repeatedly called him a strong leader. is there some daylight here based on everything you're seeing between trump and his vice presidential running mate? >> absolutely not, wolf. both donald trump and mike pence have been consistent saying that vladimir putin has allowed for the, for russia to lead and barack obama has allowed for the u.s. to lead from behind. vladimir putin has ban stronger leader for russia than barack obama has been for the u.s. that's not at all some, somehow support for vladimir putin or a compliment of vladimir putin. an indictment, on the reckless and failed leadership under barack obama. >> ever heard that kind of

statement from donald trump about putin? >> donald trump was specific actually and said he would be strong against putin. he doesn't care about what putin says about him and will lead through peace and strength. what we have to do as a country. what we used to do. because of the clinton foreign policy is a jamie rubin was a big part of, the failed north korean deal under madeleine albright, what you spoke of in the previous segment, syria, libya, iraq, everything that hillary clinton has been a part of in foreign policy has been an utter failure. we cannot allow that to continue and need to be strong on foreign policy and the international stage and what we used to be under ronald reagan and will be under donald trump. >> thanks for joining us, thanks. after a strong debate performance, some republican leaders tell cnn they wish it was mike pence actually on the top of the republican ticket. plus this -- donald trump is getting ready to go to a school in las vegas, have an opportunity to speak with some teachers, some parents, some students. we'll have coverage of that, and

hurricane matthew taking direct aim now at the southeast coast of the united states, prompting evacuations. where is it heading? when will it get there? stay with us. we'll update you when we come back. (♪) (♪) when you are suffering from chest congestion try mucinex 12-hour. mucinex is absorbed 60 percent faster than store brands. and lasts a full 12 hours. relieve chest congestion with mucinex, and enjoy living well.

got breaking news pap government contractor, a u.s. government contractor with top secret national security clearances has been charged stealing information while working at the national security agency, the nsa. our justice correspondent joins us fwith damesdetails. >> reporter: arrested august 27th. the arrest secret until today when the justice department announced it. accused according to the justice department of stealing important, top-secret documents that belonged to a federal agency. we're told by sources that this is the nsa. so we have, again, a person who's a government contractor who has stolen very, very top-secret information from sensitive information from the nsa. again, a contractor, just like edward snowden. so the question now for the government is, what are they going to do about this? the fact is that, you know, the

insider threat as they call it, is a perennial problem for them. they've been trying to address it, clearly not in time to catch this guy. so according to the justice department, in a search of his house they found these documents that belonged to a federal agency. again, we're told that that agency is the nsa. now, the criminal complaint filed against him, harold martin is the name of the contractor, doesn't really specify what exactly these documents are. these classified documents that he stole. it appears to be, wolf, these documents that made their way on to the internet a few months ago. they appeared to be really a top-secret hacking codes that the nsa uses to target countries, other countries including iran, russia, china and so on. so that appears to be what this is about. again, the documents in the criminal complaint do not specify what exactly these documents are, except to say that the publication of these

documents or these documents getting out would cause grave danger to the national security of the united states. >> any indication this suspect was working with a foreign government? >> it's not clear yet. i mean, he was at home when he was arrested. it's not clear if he was working for anybody that is obviously part of the investigation. >> disturbing indeed. thanks for that report. also following breaking news on the southeast coast here of the united states. keeping a very, very close eye on hurricane matthew. right now it is a category 3 storm, and it could get stronger as it gets closer and closer to florida. florida very much on high alert right now as that state remains under both tropical storm and hurricane watches, and warnings. joining us on the phone right now from fort pierce, florida, is the governor, rick scott. governor, i know these are very, very dangerous moments for you, for everyone in florida right now. what is the biggest worry you have for which part of your state? >> well, wolf, the problem with this -- with this hurricane is

it's right now going along the coast and i'm working to get everybody prepared. i want to keep everybody alive. we've done a variety of things. i'm traveling the state, making sure people get informed. i elehmanated tolls on the roads where we're doing evacuation. already sploied food, water, three different spots. central and north and south florida. repositioned 500 national guard members to help in north, central and south florida. already prepositioned high-water vehicles from our water management district, our fish and wildlife conservation commission. so we're getting everybody ready, but we -- i mean, this is going to be a category 4, looks like and it's coming very close, and it could change a moment's notice and have a direct hit on our state and i'm trying to get everybody ready, making sure we get evacuations done and make sure that everybody is safe. >> where are you telling people to evacuate from? what part of the state?

southern part, miami-dade, broward county or further up? >> right now we've already start evacuations in a variety of counties starting with broward going north and you can evac fwhat our state in the same county. you don't have to go that many mimes miles in. even though the storm may have three to six storm surge, you don't have to go far in. off the bearrier islands. jacksonville, evacuating here. we are, we're going to get everybody safe. it's just work to get there. >> so um people so far have been evacuated? >> wolf, i don't know the number, but this could be one of our biggest evacuations ever. typically when a storm is coming we know exactly where it's going to hit. this one is going right up our coast. basically we have to prepare as if it's going to hit everywhere from just north of fort

lauderdale all the way to jacksonville. we've got to prepare every one of these areas as if we were going to have a directs hit, because we won't have enough time as it goes along our coast, because if you look at the path, it's right along our coast right now. the projected path is right along our coast and as we know, you can't predict a path perfectly. slight movement to the west, a direct hit. a category 4 when it gets here. that's going to be a lot of wind, a lot of storm surge, a lot of damage. this is going to be catastrophic. >> it's a huge problem right now. so what's your bottom line advice to the floridians living along the coast right now, potentially in harm's way? >> so if you think you're going to evacuate, don't wait until it's mandatory. do it now so you can beat the traffic. number two, if you think you're going to a shelter now where the shelter is and get there now. opening up shelters all across the state and you can shelter in

county you're in. special needs shelter and shelters for the general population. we can shelter you in your county but you've got to act. trying to get everybody to take this seriously and understand that you've got to get prepared. now, if you -- you don't have to evacuate, three days of food, have three days of water. we're going to lose power. wolf, i don't know how long we'll lose power with 130-plus mile-an-hour winds, we're going to lose power around the state. so i've got to get everybody ready to assume they won't have power for two or three or four days. >> good luck, governor scott. good luck to everyone in florida. indeed, all up the eastern seaboard where this potential hurricane could cause enormous damage. governor, thanks for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. we'll stay on top of this story and we're also following politics. race for the white house. the republican governor mike

pence may have won last night's vice president debate but a source tells cnn that donald trump less than pleased with his running mate's performance. we'll tell what you that source is saying and why. we'll have that and a lot more when we come back. is it a caregiver determined to take care of her own? or is it a lifetime of work that blazes the path to your passions? your personal success takes a financial partner who values it as much as you do. learn more at tiaa.org

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a source tells cnn donald trump is not happy with how his running mate governor pence performed at last night's vice president many debate. saying now, "media is saying pence won but didn't really defend trump." that isn't sitting well with the boss. a longtime friend says he's worried trump will hear that pence is a better debater.

trump's campaign kellyanne conway denies those claims. pence spoke about his performance just a few hours ago. >> donald trump called me late last night from nevada to congratulate me on the debate. that really meant the world to me. truly did. some people say i won. i can tell you from when i sat, donald trump won the debate. donald trump's vision to make america great again won the debate. >> all right. special correspondent jamie gangel talking with republican leaders about the debate. jamie is with us right now. specifically, pence's performance. what are they telling you, jamie? >> fascinating the reporting trump might not be happy with it but all of the gop establishment people i spoke to, people who are veterans of the debate process, also people who have said publicly they're supporting trump. they think pence was fabulous. they said they were relieved.

they were thrilled. one said that he is the mvp of the trump/pence ticket and he pointed out that he didn't think trump really understood how valuable pence was going to be. the other thing i heard was, when i reached out to all of these people, i got almost the same reaction. in fact, someone just e-mailed me a few minutes ago, two words. pence 2016. and they didn't mean pence 2020. a lot of these people feel, he's so good, they wish he was at the top of the ticket. one of my sources said, he looks like a republican. he sounds like a republican, and he really knows how to debate, wolf. >> the implication is that donald trump doesn't look like a republican or sound like a republican? >> correct. >> and doesn't know how to debate. what they're suggesting? >> correct. absolutely. >> eric trump, donald trump's son, came over to us after the debate. he had this exchange on the

refusal by donald trump to release his tax returns. this exchange with dana dash. listen to this. >> has he paid federal income taxes over the last 18 years yes or not? >> of course. absolutely. my father pays a tremendous amount of tax. >> so if we ever see your father's income taxes it will show he has paid federal income taxes. >> there's no question about it. >> no question about it. so what are these republican leaders telling you about how donald trump is handling this whole issue of refusing to release his tax returns? >> they think it's a p.r. disaster. again, mike pence release ed his taxes. every else would be releasing their taxes and they're very concerned it's going to come up again at the debate, and everything they said to me was, they hope he has a better answer this time and that he is preparing over and over again, prepare, prepare, prepare. >> the second presidential debate, sunday night, right here on cnn. thanks very much for that. 9:00 p.m. eastern. coming up, hurricane matthew

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we're keeping an eye on hurricane matthew right now, a powerful category 3 storm that could make landfall on florida's east coast friday morning. on the southeast united states, under a state of emergency. florida's governor rick scott saying 17 deaths reported across the caribbean. jennifer gray is at the cnn weather center in atlanta now. where does matthew appear to be heading as far as we know right now. >> as far as we know now the next step is the bahamas and it is going to roar through there as a strong category 3 or strength ton a category 4 once it gets to the northern bahamas, extremely dangerous and possibly going to see a category 4 storm either just off the shore, off the coast of central florida or making landfall, and that is going to be the big question mark, because, wolf, those strongest winds are right around the center of the storm. of course, they weaken as the storm goes out, but if that

tracks onshore or very close to shore, you could have some pretty devastating consequences along the coast and florida, and then is supposed to bend back up to the north and east, possibly a category 2. off the georgia coast, south carolina coast. some models take it out to sea. other models, wolf, drag this back around and make a second landfall across florida. it is going to be something to watch. extremely closely. go out here on the floor. i want to show you, if i can -- graphic's not working. never mind. come back here, wolf. it is going to be extremely important for folks in the bahamas to be on the lookout. talking 10 to 15 inches of rain, storm surge, 10 to 12 feet on top of that, very, very high waves. 12-foot waves. we are going to experience catastrophic consequences across the bahamas as well as this to the north and west and the next stop being florida. if you're in the evacuation zones, can't stress enough, get

out. especially if we could possibly anticipate a second landfall across florida by next weekend, wolf. >> yeah. that would be awful indeed. thanks very much, jennifer. stay in close touch with you. coming up, as the fighting rages on in aleppo and syria, the talks about a cease-fire between the u.s. and russia come to a stop. we'll take a closer look at what's being done right now to try to get that process back on track. the state department spokesman the state department spokesman stand big ing by to join us liv. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance pl no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

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where does the relationship between the u.s. and russia stand right now. >> well, as we talked about the other day that said we have suspended bilateral engagement with russia with regard to syria that means we're no longer pursuing the agreement in geneva that would have initiated a cessation of hostilities and lead to the possibility of the joint implementation center with russia and would have effectively grounded russia's air forces if it had been fulfilled but it wasn't. so after a week of watching russians and the syrian regime carry out bombings on aleppo we had to walk away from it. >> russia has deployed an air defense missile system in syria. how concerned is the u.s. about

this move? does it pose a threat to other friendly pilots in region? >> well, wolf, i'd say we're watching that closely. it goes without saying that neither the opposition, nusra, nor daesh have any kind of air force so it's hard to say who they're trying to defend themselves against. all i can say is the that the coalition will continue to carry out its mission, counterdaesh mission in syria and as we made clear at the time we suspended our bilateral engagement on syria with russia remade clear that the deconfliction mechanism we worked out between the ministry of defense and our department of defense remains in place. >> at last night's vice presidential debate, both sides called for a humanitarian zone in syria. if everyone in the u.s. is in favor of that, what are the chances it could be achieved? >> we're working hard to get

humanitarian assistance into syria in a sustained way and that was one of the key components to this september 10 agreement that fell apart last week. we're pushing this through multilateral channels. we can all see the urgency of what's happening in syria and some of these areas, including aleppo, have been besieged for weeks and months. when you talk about safe zones and that kind of thing, we talked about the logistics around this before. they need to be policed. there's a logistical arrangement in order to protect that space. that require heavy lifting logistically. >> russia's foreign ministry rejected u.s. reports that two american officials traveling with diplomatic passports were drugged while attending a conference in st. petersburg, russia, last year. instead they're suggesting that the pair might have had simply too much to drink. have you raised this issue with the russia foreign ministry? >> we've raised in general the

issue of harassment of our diplomats. we have raised that that at the highest levels with the russian government. >> what about these two diplomats? >> i don't want to speak about this particular incident. we're still gathering the facts looking into it. but in general we've seen an increased harassment of our diplomats. you've seen some of these in various reporting. again, this isn't a spat we necessarily want to have out in public but trust me, we take the safety of our diplomats, the protection of our diplomats very seriously and we've raised it with the highest levels. >> as much as you can tell us, share with us, what did you say to the russians? >> precisely that when we have our diplomats operating in russia we expect their rights to be protected in line with the vienna convention and that we want them to be able to operate and work and live peacefully and without harassment in russia.

>> mark toner, lots going on. the state department deputy spokesman, thanks so much for joining us. >> sure, happy to be here. >> all right, mark toner, thank you. that's it for me, thanks very much for watching, i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room. the news here on cnn will continue right after a quick break. [ male announcer ] at customink, you can create

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top of the our, i'm brooke baldwin. you're watching cnn, i want to get to the breaking news we have for you. cnn has learned highly sensitive government information may have been compromised. the department of justice revealing that a federal government contractor with top-secret security clearance has now been arrested. and not only that, charged with stealing classified information and government property. let's go to justice correspondent evan perez working this for us from washington. who is he, evan? what do we know? >> brooke, his name is harold martin, he's 51 years old. he lives in the d.c. suburbs in maryland and he was working as a contractor for b