geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more. hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us. we start with donald trump. he's holding a campaign event in ohio right now. this is his first campaign event after last night's final presidential debate. at the beginning of his remarks, he tried to suggest he was going to clarify his controversial comments on whether he would accept the outcome of the u.s. presidential election. listen to this. >> i would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the united states that i will totally accept the results of this great and

historic presidential election if i win. i would accept a clear election result, but i would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result. >> hillary clinton is off the campaign trail today. though she will appear later tonight. as will donald trump. they will both appear at the dinner in new york city. it's a traditional white tie affair where the presidential candidates typically poke some fun at each other. it's unclear if trump and clinton will follow that tradition tonight after that bitter debate last night. here's the campaign map as itened stas right now. you see donald trump and his ohio event today. vice presidential candidate mike pence, the republican, he's in nevada and then new mexico. on the clinton side, she's got

president obama out on the campaign trail for her in florida today. the first lady, michelle obama, she's talking to voters in arizona. my political panel is with us. dana bash, our chief political correspondent, gloria borger, our chief political analyst, david nacamara, reporter for "the washington post" and carol lee, reporter for "the wall street journal." gloria, he wanted to have a little fun with his controversial comments last night when he refused to say he would accept results of the election so he opened up his remarks just a little while ago with what he thought was a joke. >> if i win, i'll accept results. well, it's not a joke. you know, this is something we have heard from donald trump since last may and i have something he said last may. he said, you've been hearing me say it's a rigged system but now i don't say it anymore because i won. it's true. and he said, you know, he said now i don't care, i don't care. the only way i won was i won by such a big margin because it is a rigged system.

that is not the way we do politics. that is not what our constitution says. if there are election irregularities, the secretaries of state, of each state, have automatic recount rules. what happened in florida in the year 2000, it was half of 1%, automatic recount. those are the things that this country does. but to assume, as he does, up front, that there will be fraud and, therefore, he has to sue tashgss it to a different level entirely. >> it's a whole different level, what we're hearing right now. dana, trump keeps claiming. he's doing it once again today. that the whole system, the election, is rigs. and he's got all sorts of the philippines have been statistics why he thinks it's tied to the united states for rigged. more than a hundred years, first you had a chance last night to as a u.s. territory, then as an speak with his campaign manager independent state and close u.s. kellyanne conway. spoke briefly right after the ally. now it appears that relationship debate. may be coming to an end. i want to play you a clip. the philippine president,

also what she told cnn's "new rodrigo duterte, told a business day" this morning. forum in china today, and i'm >> donald trump will accept quoting him now, "america has results of the election because lost" as he announced his he's going to win the election. >> what you're telling me is on country's "separation" from the u.s. both militarily and election night, if he's sort of economically. cnn correspondent matt rivers is waffling, you as his campaign joining us live from beijing. manager will say, mr. trump, no matter what it is, obviously, it matt, tell us what's going on won't be a big deal if he here because this is getting inwith, but if he doesn't, you will say, mr. trump, this is what is going to happen and you ugly. >> absolutely. president duterte made these will accept these results. >> absent evidence of widespread comments during a state visit to abuse and irregularities, yes. china that is actually still donald trump has said, if you take it is statements together, ongoing. this visit certainly meant to he has said he will respect the inspire warming relations results the election. between the philippines and but everybody, including al gore china. it's very interesting that these in 2000, waits to see what those comments, these negative comments about the u.s. come election results are. during his trip to china. if they're verified. if they're certified. >> so there seems to be a disconnect. kellyanne conway on the one hand. he's made negative comments donald trump on the other hand. about the u.s. but let's show his vice presidential running you what he had to say at a business forum a few hours ago mate pike pence spoke to us before the debate last night and here in beijing. said we will accept the results

>> in this venue i announce my the outcome of this election. what do you see is going on here? >> clean-up. there's no other way to put it. clean-up. the fact that kellyanne conway separation from the united states. came out just moments after the [ applause ] both in military, not maybe debate ended and told me what you just played there and she is somebody -- not only is she campaign manager but she has social but military and been involved in his debate preparation, tells me that this economics also. is what they hoped he would say. >> and so if you take president and the fact that he came out duterte's comments at face value and you believe he can follow today with a scripted speech, through with it then separation means two things -- one, it just shows where they wanted him means the treaty that has to go. existed, the defense treaty that has existed between the u.s. and and there's a lot of frustration philippines for decades would be because absent this and a few thrown out the window and other quips that are making some headlines, he had a pretty good subsequent subsequently and went squently debate. the u.s. has a small military certainly a better debate than he ever has before. and they felt good about it. but as we all know from history, presence, the two countries have conducted joint naval patrols, one line, one misstep, can erase that military presence then goes all of that. away and, wolf, as you know, the >> you spent a lot of time south china sea such a tense spot right now geo politically looking at the 2000 election, speaking and if that relationship with the

gore v. bush, the recount, the philippines goes away it gives supreme court eventually got the u.s. that much less leverage involved. i was down in tallahassee covering all of that as well. trump spoke about it just a few as it tries to push back against minutes ago. chinese expansion in the region. let me play the clip and we'll >> and it's become very personal discuss. >> i was asked a question about for president duterte. whether i would agree in advance he has said some awful, awful things about president obama and to concede the results on that has been a source of great election night if for some anger, frustration here in washington as well. reason we should lose, which we're not going to lose. let's see what happens. matt rivers reporting from beijing. we're following this story and that was sort of an closely. that's it for me. thanks for watching. unprecedented question. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. east if al gore or george bush had agreed three weeks before the american the situation room for election to concede results, and our international viewers "amanpour" is coming up next. waive their right to a legal challenge or a recount, then for north america, "news room" with brooke baldwin starts right now. there would be no supreme court case and no gore versus bush or bush versus gore. and there have been numerous >> hi there, i'm brook bald win, other cases. in effect, i'm being asked to thank you for being with me. here we, go another day in this waive centuries of legal precedent designed to protect story, the race for the white house is taking another wild the voters. turn.

less than 24 hours after >> all right, so gloria, you refusing to say he would accept hear what he's saying. your reaction. >> well, this is like comparing the results of the presidential election donald trump is doing a an apple to an elephant. they're two completely different things. first of all, al gore did not reversal perhaps trying to undo the damage his debate comments charge the election was rigged incited. many republicans have been before the election. he actually did call bush and outraged over trump's claims of this rigged election. he's been saying there's widespread concede that night because it looked like florida had gone for bush. when he discovered that and even jeb bush says this, when he discovered that the state was so close that the secretary of state, they couldn't certify the election, he did unconcede because the votes needed to be counted. >> automatic recount. >> automatic recount. half of 1%. and when donald trump talks about the legal suits and all the rest, there was an automatic recount, but it was jim baker who actually ended up taking this cation to the supreme court. just for the record. >> can i add one quick thing to that. which is i remember as a younger producer, sitting in the house

chamber, watching the election results of 2000 beer certified. as irony would have it, the person who does that is the vice president. so al gore was sitting in the house chamber, certifying the election results for his opponent, and having to beat back requests from his fellow democrats to challenge the election results. >> that's right. >> because he wanted to follow the rules and laws. >> al gore, in his concession speech, it took 36 days, if you'll recall, for this to get designed. and he said to the american people, it is crucial that the american people have full faith and confidence in the electorate process from which the president derives authority. >> last night, in the debate, david, there were several substantive issues where these two candidates on a serious level totally disagreed. let me play a little clip. we'll explain. >> we have some bad onmbres her

and we're going to get them out. >> he went to mexico, he had a meeting with the mexican president, didn't even raise it, he choked. sg >> i don't know putin. he said nice things about me. >> that's because he would rather have a puppet as president of the united states. >> no puppet. you're the puppet. >> donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. >> didn't even apologize to my wife who's sitting right here because i didn't do anything. the one thing you have over me is experience but it's bad experience because what you've done has turned out badly. >> i was in the situation room. mon terming the raid that brought osama bin laden to justice. help was hosting "the celebrity apprentice." my social security payroll contribution will go up, as will donald's, assuming he can't figure out how to get out of it. but what we want to do is replenish -- >> such a nasty woman. >> absolutely accept the results of this election? >> i will tell you at the time.

>> well, chris, let me respond to that, because that's horrifying. >> a little example of what was going on, david, last night. they totally disagree on so many issues. and after some substantive serious debating, they got really personal. >> of course they got personal. that was expected. what you saw secretary clinton doing, clearly part of her strategy, continue to needle him in a way that got under her skin. for him to use slang, sort of undercut some of his message to latino communities and what not. he also reacted in a poor way to what she was saying, what she's done throughout all three debates really. she did not take the debate, not nearly as much. >> she clearly wanted to get under his skin. and she did. >> she did. if you look at the beginning of the debate, it was very kind of courtial and they were answering questions about policy and then she stuck to him saying he choked when he met with the mexican president and then that was it and from there on it was just, you know, we got nasty

woman, we got bad ombres and a number things and then we got the moment evershadow everything which he doubled down on today which is he may not accept the election results. >> you're a puppet. >> no, you're a puppet. >> right, all that, listening to him talk today, so he's saying he's unprecedentedly being asked this question of whether he will accept the results. he's being asked the question because he's saying the situation is rigged. i would spent time with him on the campaign trail today. all of us talk about how this is the tradition of american politics. the supporters don't really care. his rigged lines are some of the ones that get the biggest reaction. >> he's going to be president of the united states, he needs to go beyond that base. he needs to bring in others. listen ton senator john mccain who lost in 2008. this is a statement that he released today. i'll read it. i didn't like outcome of the 2008 election but i had a duty to concede and i did so without reluctance. a concession is an act respect

for the will of the american people. a respect that is every american leader's first responsibility. in every previous election, the loser congratulates the winner and calls them my president. that's not just the republican way or the democratic way, it's the american way. this election must not be any different. a very strong statement, carol, from john mccain, who actually lost the presidential contest. >> right, so he knows what this is like. you've seen a number of republicans say this makes him very uncomfortable. this is not something you would expect ever from a nominee for a major party. you see that in john mccain's statement. you saw senator lindsey graham say something about this. so he's just, again, alienating himself from the broader republican party and sticking with and -- >> i cover the white house like carol. it's astounding. having president obama respond in the rose garden just this week at a bilateral appearance with the head of another state, from italy, talking about the american system.

the italian prime minister lavished praise on the united states as a great partner in, an ally, and sort of a beacon of, you know, sort of values. and the president here, the president first question to him was about this very thing. the president expressed great frustration with the idea the system is rigged. the next day, spoke to him yesterday, josh earnest said the president is concerned about this rhetoric. >> if you're a down ballot republican, say you're marco rubio running in the state of florida, running ahead of donald trump, and donald trump is saying the system is rigged, what if you win the state of florida and donald trump doesn't win the state florida and it's not an automatic recount as it was in bush v. gore, say it's a few points. well, and donald trump is saying it was rigged in florida. what does that do to the legitimate i of your own election. there are lots of republicans running in battleground states. and, you know, i think he's creating a problem for his own party which is why people -- >> we're going to taik a quick

break, but dana, his speech just now, trump, he's really doubling down on this. >> he did with the joke, which, you know, okay, fine, you know, it's good meat for your base, they love it, and he knows that and he's a performer and he wants to feel the love from the crowd. the part of the speech that was very carefully written that he clearly read from the teleprompter was him saying what he probably should have said last night, which is of course i will accept, barring anything that shows we have to, you know, challenge the results because of some electoral issue, didn't fully say what john mccain wants him to say or other people want him to say but didn't, you know, say i'm going to keep you in suspension which is not -- >> everybody's -- hold your thoughts -- >> -- a rigged system and say -- >> hold your thoughts. there's much more coming up. we'll have much more with our panel. plus, fact checking this, the third and final presidential debate from allegationings ths

undocumented workers helped build trump tower. what's true, what's not true. >> but you know who the big w winner in mosul is going to be, and the only reason they did it is because she's running for the office of president.

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we're back with our political panel. dana bash, gloria borger, david, carol lee. i want to play a clip, a little more of where these two candidates last night totally disagreed. >> we need a supreme court that in my opinion is going to uphold the second amendment and all amendments but the second amendment which is under absolute siege. >> i understand and respect the tradition of gun ownership. but i also believe there can be and must be reasonable regulation. >> do you want to see it overturned? >> if we put another two or three justices on, that's really what is -- that will happen. that will happen automatically in my opinion because i am putting pro-life justices on the court. >> i want to get everybody out of the shadows. get the economy working. and not let employers like

donald exploit undocumented workers which hurts them but also hurts american workers. >> we cannot give amnesty. now, i want to build a wall. we need the wall. the border patrol, i.c.e., they all want the wall. we stop the drugs. we shore up the border. one of my first acts will be to get all of the drug lords, all of the bad ones. we have some bad, bad people in this country that have to go out. >> i want to get everybody out of the shadows. get the economy work. and not let employers like donald exploit undocumented workers which hurts them but also hurts american workers. >> i want us to do more to help small business. that's where two-thirds of the new jobs are going to come from. i want us to raise the national minimum wage. because people who live in poverty who work full time should not still be in poverty. i do sure want to make women get equal pay. >> my plan, we're going to renegotiate -- we're going to have more free trade than we

have right now. >> so you see, some the issues like guns, abortion rights for women, very strong differences. donald trump on abortion rights wants to do away with roe v. wade, leave it up to the states he says, hillary clinton of course supports abortion rights for women. >> that's right, and it really shows you why if you took the personalities and character traits out of these candidates, not easy, but if you could try, you could see that this could and should be a very, very tight race. and if you just look at cnn's poll right after the debate last night, on all of the issues, they were almost evenly split. almost couldn't tell the difference between hillary clinton and donald trump. because it does show and mirror the divide in this country. there really are very, very different choices. never mind the temperament. never mind the outsider versus insider. but in terms of the issues that really affect people's lives in

this country. very stark choices between these two candidates. it did company oe out last nigh >> on gun, for example, gloria, he says hillary clinton wants to effectively do away with the second amendment which gives americans the right to own a gun. shep says s she says she supports the second amendment but she wants greater controls. >> she wants regulation. i was thinking what dana wasen listening to the beginning of the debate. a traditional debate, aside from trade, because donald trump is not a traditional republican on trade, and aside from syria, because hillary clinton is more muscular and more interventionist on syria than either barack obama or donald trump but take those two things aside, this is a kind of conventional debate you would have with a more conventional republican candidate. what starts out as a debate about policy and a serious debate about policy kind

devolves into, into something else, usually after the first 30 or 40 minutes. >> what did you think of his assertion, david, that the military offensive on mosul in iraq right now was designed by the iraqi military, the iraqi government of al abadi, the kurdikurd ish manager peshmerga in afghanistan, the timing of it was to help hillary clinton in the last few days of the election? >> it's hard to fathom, an argument like that. this is an administration dealing with this issue for so long. it's been more than one administration. they're not waiting around for results of the election cycle to take an offensive this seriously. >> neither are the peshmerga. >> none of the coalition involved. and president obama, if anything, it's risky to some degree to take an offensive like this. you don't know if it's going to work. you know, what's going to happen. to say that is completely outside the box. but, you know -- >> also though is part of his everything is against me.

it's all about doing this to con spir against me. the idea that mosul which took more than two years ago is now, you know, now we're fighting a battle there because they -- iraq, the president want him to lose the election or want to help hillary clinton, it just -- it doesn't even bear out. >> yet he doesn't accept -- he doesn't want to talk about the russia hack which could potentially help him. the russians are doing to aid his candidacy -- >> he's just saying all these u.s. intelligence agencies have confirmed russia's responsible for these attacks on the democratic party and others and trump's not ready to accept that intelligence assessment, at least not yet. coming up, the podium pivot. hillary clinton gets a question about one of her paid bank speeches and pivots to trump and vladimir putin. did she need a better answer for voters? i'll ask pennsylvania senator and clinton supporter bob casey. he's standing by live.

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hillary clinton is now 3 for 3 in the presidential debates. this according to our cnn polling of debate watchers. she holds a commanding lead nationally as well as in key swing states but there are 19 days to go before the u.s. election. clinton supporters say it's not over until it's over. senator bob casey of pennsylvania is a clinton supporter. he's joining us live from capitol hill. senator, thank you for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. >> so what's your biggest concern now, your biggest concern right now, between now and election day? >> well, we just want to make sure we maintain the momentum.

i think secretary clinton last night continued that momentum with a gate debate performance. it was a real contrast. it seems like every time she tries to focus on her plan to raise incomes for middle class families or focus on specific policy solutions for families, her opponent takes the debate another direction. i thought she did very well. we'll got to make sure we maintain the focus because in our state for example, pennsylvania, it will be closely fought until the very end. so we got to be ready for a tough finish. >> in late night's debate, hillary clinton was asked about those hacked transcripts of one of her paid speeches published now by wikileaks. here's how she tried to explain her comment about open borders. >> is that your dream, open borders? >> well, if you went on to read rest of the sentence, i was talking about energy. you know, we trade more energy with our neighbors then we trade

with the rest of the world combined. i do want us to have an electric grid, an energy system that crosses borders. i think that would be great benefit to us. you are very clearly quoting from wikileaks. what's really important about wikileaks is that the russian government has engaged in espionage against americans. >> that was a great pivot off the fact that she wants open borders, okay. how did we got on to putin. >> so are you concerned there will be yet more wikileaks documents that will be released, that will be blish published, revealing more damaging information about her, her positions, her top aides, before the election? >> no, i'm not, wolf. for the very simple reason. i guess there's two reasons. one is the american people know an awful lot about hillary clinton, where she stands on issues. they've examined her work forde.

the second reason is she's got a set of policy papers, the likes of which i have not ever seen by a presidential candidate. if you go to her website, hillary for america, hillary.com, more than 40 specific policy papers. i wish, i wish the republican nominee had that commitment to try to get this policy right to focus on those families, keeping the country safe and helping the middle class. >> on the important issue of abortion rights for women, senator, clinton accused trump of using scare tactics when he said this. listen to what he said. >> if you go with what hillary is saying in the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother. just prior to the birth of the baby. now, you can say that that's okay and hillary can say that that's okay, but it's not okay with me. >> so your a democrat, you're

anti-abortion, but what's your reaction to trump's late-term abortion description? >> well it's like a lot of things he says. i don't think he's thought much about a lot of these issues when he comments on them. look, we have debates, issues in the debates, where people have disagreements. but one thing that hillary's done from the beginning of her time in government especially in the senate and i think in this campaign is she understands where we're stronger when we're working together. doesn't mean we won't have disagreements, but she's always been someone who tries to focus on the common ground to move the agenda forward, and i think that's true of her as a candidate, and it's been demonstrated over and over again. think it's also true in terms of what she said in the campaign most recently. she said, i want to be a president for all of the american people. whether you voted for her or not. and i think that's the kind of

president she's going to be. you're not only running to be president of the united states, you've got to be the leader of the free world. you have to not only know what you're talking about, i think you have to project a sense of optimism and unity that the world expects an american president to project. >> one final question because trump keeps bringing up a supposed rigged eelectric and he often referred to philadelphia and your state. when you hear him make the assertions that there's a potential for rigged voting in philadelphia, what's your reaction? >> first, of all, wolf, there's no evidence of it, so he's got no evidence, again, for yet another wild statement. no one believes that. i think it's -- i think there's a lot of republicans out there who have run statewide in pennsylvania and wish they got more votes in some of our cities. but they don't -- when they lose an election or when they don't get as many votes in the city, don't start making appeals -- or making the kind of statements and i think appeals to a kind of

race-based politics that donald trump has. what he ought to do is campaign in philadelphia, campaign in eastern and western and central and northeastern pennsylvania. all across the state. and then accept results. unfortunately, he can't commit to that, to accept results of the election. no candidate in history has gotten anywhere close to the line with that rhetoric. once again, donald trump crossed a line that i think a lot of people are looking at now with bewilderment and also outrage. because he's running for president of the united states. >> senator casey of pennsylvania, that's a key state donald trump is hoping to win that state. hillary clinton is trying to win as well. we'll watch pennsylvania very closely. thanks for joining us. coming up, we've got breaking

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we have breaking news on a u.s. service member killed in action in northern iraq. let's go to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. >> the official announcement within minutes but cnn has learned a u.s. service member was killed earlier today in action in northern iraq. the first u.s. combat death since these operations to retake mosul began. to be clear, we do not know if this person was directly involved in the mosul operations. but we are told it was the result of an ied attack, a long-standing isis tactic. the services member was seriously wounded, medevaced often the battlefield and

succumbed to those wounds. more information is expected shortly. the pentagon will release under policy the name of the person killed in action 24 hours after the family notification has happened. the family has been notified. defense secretary ash carter is being notified. this is, in fact, though, the first combat death since these operations in northern iraq began. the third, pardon me, the fourth combat death in iraq since operations against isis began back in 2014. northern iraq is treacherous right now. isis has laid most of the ground around mosul with ieds, booby traps and bombs, very difficult going, very tough news for yet another u.s. military family, wolf. >> we know, barbara, there are 5,000 u.s. troops in iraq right now. a few hundred, together with the iraqi forces, the kurdish forces moving on mosul, is that right?

>> that's right, wolf, there are about 100 to 200 u.s. forces, many special operation force, out in the field in northern iraq. they're reasoning as advisers to the iraqi and the person manager peshmerga kurdish forces moving on mosul so they are out there in the field to a very large extent. the rules of engagement require them to stay as far back from the front line of combat as they can. but situations like this just underscore in northern iraq where they're involved in directly assaulting mosul or not. it is just treacherous what isis has put out there in terms of its ability to launch bombs, ieds, booby traps, kill iraqi forces and now perhaps having killed an american service member there as well, wolf. >> all right, barbara, we'll get more information and share it with our viewers. thanks very much. one topic of last night's presidential debate here in the united states was international relations and hot spots.

that includes the battle against isis, the humanitarian crisis in syria and of course u.s. relations with russia. here with us to discuss the topics, what we heard in that final presidential debate, our global affairs correspondent elise labboth. what donald trump called the great migration of refugees coming to the united states. >> she's taking in tens of thousands of syrian refugees who probably in many cases, not probably, who are definitely in many cases isis aligned. we now have them in our country. wait until you see, this is going to be the great trojan horse. wait until you see what happens in the coming years. lots of luck, hillary, thanks a lot for doing a great job. >> all right, how many refugees from syria are coming to the united states right now and how many does hillary clinton want to come to the united states and what about the vetting process? >> well, it is true what donald

trump says, that the u.s. has taken in about 12,500 refugees from the end of the fiscal year which ended last month. hillary clinton wants to take in 6,5,000 syrian refugees. so that is, as donald trump said, 550% increase. but wolf, these syrian refugees, and refugees in general, face some of the strictest vetting that the united states has for travelers to the united states. there are very strict background checks, bio metrics, identity checks. that vetting process can take up to two years. there's no evidence that there are any members of isis here in the united states. and so i think those claims are a little bit inflated. but it certainly is true that there are thousands of refugees. but even so, those syrian refugees, in addition to those strict vetting, have even more vetting than regular refugees. >> refugees coming from other countries. they also strongly disagreed on the allegation that russia's involved in cyberattacks against

the united states. hillary clinton cited what she called 17 intelligence agencies, military and civilian here in the united states who believe, concluded that russia's doing it. trump said our country has no idea. who's right? >> well, it is true that 17 intelligence agencies -- these are the intelligence agencies that would be working for donald trump and reporting to him if he were president, have said with reasonable confidence that russia was behind those attacks. and they also went further to say they have confidence this was directed by senior levels of the government. if you look at the debate -- >> she said putin, hillary clinton clinton, putin. >> well, the intelligence age y agencies have said senior levels of the government. a lot of people who follow this know putin calls a lot of shots specifically on foreign policy. vladimir putin kind of the third presence in the room as donald trump and hillary clinton tried to talk about who would be a better commander in chief in terms of fighting russian aggression around the world.

even as that debate was going on, you had russia moving one of the biggest deployments its p it's had since the cold war to syria trying to end the war in the lead up to the u.s. election so certainly russia going to be a very big challenge for the next president. >> hillary saying putin wants trump elected because he can be, according to hillary clinton, putin's puppet. >> that's right, he called her his puppet too. >> thank you very much, elise, for that. the circle tightens around mosul. promising news about the operation to retake the city after more than two years of brutal isis rule. we'll go there live and talk to our people on the ground. that's coming up next. >> this is the front line and being this close to the fighting, one can't help but to think, but to wonder, about the fate of the civilians who potentially might be trapped inside.

1. iraqi led forces have met resistance in their bid to retake mosul from isis. arwa damon was embedded with iraqi military forces and witnessed the fighting firsthand.

[ speaking arabic ] >> arwa is joining us from a much safer location not too far away from mosul in erbil, iraq. so arwa, what's the latest on the battlefield. >> as you saw in that clip there, we were taking cover behind the humvees as best we could as the counterterrorism special forces were pushing forward towards what was a christian enclave, a small town, they advanced from three different directions coming across what are now fairly common isis tactics, truck bombs, suicide car bombs, as well as mortar fire. responding in full force. they did according to the brigade's commanding general manage to recapture the vast majority of the town itself although they said they were

still facing pockets of resistance. and, wolf, the iraqi government is saying that throughout the various different front lines, although yes they are getting into some pretty heavy clashes, forces are moving much faster than anticipated. but one must also bear in mind that the terrain out there is fairly open and a lot of these villages don't have a civilian population left in them so that makes calling in an air strike a lot easier if one doesn't need to worry about civilian deaths. of course when they actually reach the city of mosul those tactics are going to be more difficult to employ. some heavy or mortar they have they can't maneuver through the streets and calling in air power, especially coalition air power will prove to be trickier, especially given there are upwards of one million people believed to be inside mosul, wolf. >> be careful, arwa, on the battlefield for us. thanks very, very much. coming up, duterte's dig.

the president of the philippines declares he's breaking up with the united states to align with china. his bold message -- america has lost. so how's the u.s. responding? we'll have our report. that's coming up next. red 97! set! red 97! did you say 97?