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Trump Picks Two Key Staffers; Iraqi Forces Free Ancient Village from ISIS; Millions of People in India Wait to Get New Cash; President-Elect Appoints Bannon as Chief Strategist; Earthquake Kills at Least 2 People in New Zealand. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired November 14, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:09] CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: As Donald Trump's presidency is taking shape the President-Elect chooses two key members of his new staff.

Iraqi forces have recaptured an ancient village and its ruins that had been targeted for destruction by ISIS.

Plus, parts of New Zealand are bracing for more aftershocks after a deadly earthquake hits.

Hello. Thank you very much for joining us. I'm Cyril Vanier. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

So, we're starting to get a clearer picture of how the Trump White House will look when he takes office next year. On one side is the Republican Party establishment represented by Reince Priebus here on the right. He is chair of the Republican National Committee. On Sunday Trump picked him to be White House chief of staff, a person who's sometimes described as the second most powerful in Washington.

Then there's Steve Bannon on the left, who is a political outlier associated with the far right. He headed Donald Trump's campaign and he, too, is going to be playing a key role in the White House. The President-Elect has appointed him as chief strategist and senior counselor.

So how is that going to play out in the White House -- a Washington insider versus the man who wanted to bring down the Republican establishment?

Here's CNN's Chris Frates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President-Elect Donald Trump has named Reince Priebus as his chief of staff and Steve Bannon as his chief strategist and senior counselor. Now by naming Priebus as chief of staff, Trump put the head of the Republican National Committee in one of the most powerful positions in Washington.

But Priebus' insider cred is balanced out by Bannon's anti- establishment world view. In a statement, Trump said this of the duo. Quote, "Bannon and Priebus will continue the effective leadership team they formed during the campaign, working as equal partners to transform the federal government, making it much more efficient, effective and productive."

Now Priebus is known inside the Beltway and he's got good working relationships with the Republicans who are running Congress. These are people like Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan who has been a longtime friend of Priebus both from the home state of Wisconsin. Now, Priebus' knowledge of Washington could be key in helping Trump pass his agenda through Congress.

Bannon, who is Trump's campaign CEO, also ran Breitbart News which has been accused of catering to racist, sexist and anti-Semitic audiences. And Bannon's also been very critical of the GOP establishment. Now, both men will advise the next president.

Chris Frates, CNN -- Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: You heard there that Steve Bannon is a controversial figure for Republicans.

CNN's Poppy Harlow spoke with senior media correspondent Brian Stelter and former Trump adviser Jack Kingston about why there's concern over Trump's pick for chief strategist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I want to recognize a lot of our viewers at home, this is frightening to them, and I think we should acknowledge that. This may feel to a lot of viewers at home like a national emergency. Why? Because Steve Bannon has been described as someone who has been described as a white supremacist; as someone who is an anti-Semite. Now he would completely reject that. But these are not random people on Twitter saying that. These are people like Ana Navarro saying these sorts of things.

That there was a 2007 case between Bannon and his ex-wife where his ex-wife alleged in court documents that Bannon said he did not like Jews. Now, he denied that -- completely denied that. And there are friends of his who say they've known him for years and have never heard a racist word or action from his mouth.

All that said, Bannon is uniquely controversial. John Weaver -- Kasich strategist saying on Twitter this evening, "The racist, fascist extreme right is now represented footsteps from the Oval Office.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: Congressman Kingston, why do you disagree with those descriptions of Steve Bannon?

REP. JOE KINGSTON, TRUMP ADVISER: Well, when somebody quotes an ex- spouse, I hardly think it's worth responding to. Ex-spouses never say or very rarely say complimentary things. I've worked with Steve Bannon, I was with the -- (CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: If you were to put that aside, respond to Weaver, a Kasich strategist who --

STELTER: I mean Ana Navarro is calling him a white supremacist Neanderthal. And she's a conservative.

KINGSTON: Well, Ana is a friend of mine but she's also somebody who did not support Donald Trump. And, you know, I understand why people want to continue this campaign, but I can say this. As somebody who has been involved with this campaign and worked somewhat with Steve Bannon, I found him to be an honorable guy, a hard-working guy.

I understand why the left fears him. I understand why they want to label him and continue to stir the pot. They're very, very disappointed in the results of this campaign.

HARLOW: But this isn't -- sir, this isn't the left. I mean Brian just pointed out, John Weaver, a strategist for Kasich and Ana Navarro -- those are two conservatives.

KINGSTON: A strategist for Kasich is hardly an objective party. I mean Kasich, you know, voted for John McCain. He's a never-Trumper. I know John Kasich. I like John Kasich. But he's a never Trumper.

[00:05:02] I can say this, as somebody who worked with Steve Bannon. I did not see any of these horrible charges that keep coming up. And, remember, this is what we heard in early August when he got on board. Oh, the campaign is going to turn into a racist outfit and a horrible organization. But the rhetoric, which the left loves to refer to all happened pre-Steve Bannon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: CNN political commentator Ryan Lizza joins us now for more on the transition and Donald Trump's first big choices. Ryan -- Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee will indeed be the next White House chief of staff. So in the end, it looks like the President-Elect Donald Trump went with the safe choice. Is that right?

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: For that position, I think so, yes. Look, a couple of good things about Priebus in terms of Donald Trump passing an agenda. He's very close to the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. They're both from Wisconsin. And that's a really important relationship. So if Donald Trump's first year is going to be about moving legislation through Congress, that's a good sign.

I will say, though, you know, Trump doesn't have any experience governing, and even though Reince Priebus has been the head of the RNC, he doesn't really have this kind of experience. He comes from state politics and he was the head of the RNC. But he's never actually worked in the legislature or in the White House. And so we haven't yet seen from Trump people with any governing experience. And that's a little bit concerning for someone who has never done this before.

VANIER: So you're actually disputing this notion that he's chosen a safe pair of hands to guide him through the dos and don'ts of Washington?

LIZZA: I think so. I mean -- meanwhile we'll talk about Bannon in a second. But Priebus, in comparison to this other guy Steve Bannon, who is now the chief strategist, I think is seen as more establishment figure, someone who knows Washington better. So we're perhaps exaggerating his level of experience.

But it's not, for instance, like Barack Obama when he chose Rahm Emmanuel, someone who had come from the hill to be his chief of staff --

VANIER: Right.

LIZZA: -- and had that governing experience. So far we haven't seen any picks with governing experience.

VANIER: Just before we get back to Steve Bannon, one more about Reince Priebus. Can you still take on the establishment as Trump has promised to do when your right-hand man is an establishment figure?

LIZZA: Well, what does this mean to take on the establishment? I know it's -- I mean to me --

VANIER: I mean that's his campaign promise -- drain the swamp.

LIZZA: Exactly. Drain the swamp, right? I mean I've probably lived here too long. But I've lived in Washington almost 20 years. And the truth is the swamp never gets drained. It's just that creatures change.

He's not -- he is the establishment now. The day you take that office, the day you win, you're now the establishment. And I think that's why he's got Steve Bannon as his chief strategist to try and keep some of that outsider mentality front and center in the White House.

VANIER: As I read it, there are really two different possible reads on the nomination of Reince Priebus. Either you think that the Republican establishment is gaining a foothold in the Trump White House, or you see it as the other way around -- the President-Elect affirming his control over the Republican establishment to try and make it his own. What's your read?

LIZZA: That is a great way to put it. And the truth is, look -- Trump had this very small staff. He comes from the business world. He -- if you want to staff the government as a Republican, you are inevitably going to draw on the Republican establishment and the people who are just sort of the permanent government in waiting on the Republican side.

And, look, it happened in the campaign. Reince Priebus helped Donald Trump win. He was a very important adviser. So it's not like Priebus is all of a sudden being thrust into this role. But I tend to think it's a little bit more of the establishment bending to Trump right now.

We'll see if that dynamic changes if the center of gravity moves back towards the Paul Ryans and the establishment Republicans over time. But right now, this is much more Trump is the center of gravity. He's the sort of sun that these other people are revolving around.

VANIER: And what about the possible relationship between Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus. I know they worked together on the campaign but they're very different, potentially antagonistic figures. Do you think Trump might be playing one against the other?

LIZZA: Absolutely. You know, Lincoln talked about a team of rivals. This is a team of rivals. Bannon is a very controversial person in American politics. He turned a -- what was just a sort of average -- you know, normal right wing web site into a right wing Web site that brought into American politics and mainstreamed in American politics what we call the alt-right but which used to just be called white nationalists.

[00:09:50] And he really changed the Web site that he ran into a place where racism and white nationalism had a sort of mainstream currency that just did not exist. So he's extremely controversial here in the states. The fact that he was brought in to run Donald Trump's campaign was very controversial. And we, frankly, have in modern politics, have never seen someone with his views and background in a senior position at the White House.

So I think a lot of us who cover politics are really trying to -- struggling to wrap our heads around the fact that this person has gone from the fringes of American politics right into the Oval Office.

VANIER: Ryan Lizza -- a lot of insights there. Thank you very much for sharing them with us. Thanks a lot.

Donald Trump's election victory still bringing people into the streets across the U.S.

Several hundred people marched through downtown St. Louis, Missouri on Sunday voicing their opposition to the Trump presidency. Similar scenes played out in New York, Washington and San Francisco.

While most of the protests have been peaceful, there have been tense standoffs in Portland, Oregon between police and protesters Saturday night. More than 70 people were arrested.

Now Trump has gone back and forth on these protests, first criticizing them then praising them. He's also sending out mixed signals on some of his key campaign promises.

During an interview with "60 Minutes on CBS, Trump was asked if he still plans to deport millions of immigrants and if he'd settle for a fence instead of a wall on the southern U.S. border. Here's his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: For certain areas I would. Certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I'm very good at this. It's called construction.

LESLEY STAHL, CNS NEWS: So part wall, part fence.

TRUMP: Could be some fencing.

STAHL: What about the pledge to deport millions and millions of undocumented immigrants.

TRUMP: What we are going to do is get the people that have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers. We have a lot of these people -- probably two million, it could even be three million. We're getting them out of our country or we're going to incarcerate. But we're getting them out of our country. They're here illegally.

After the border is secured, and after everything gets normalized, we're going to make a determination on the people that you're talking about who are terrific people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: The U.S. House Speaker, Republican Paul Ryan also addressed fears of possible mass deportations once Donald Trump gets into the White House. He says there is no such plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), HOUSE SPEAKER: I think we should put people's minds at ease. That's not what our focus is. That is not what we're focused on. We're focused on securing the border. We think that's first and foremost before we get into any other immigration issue.

We have to know who is coming and going in the country. We have to secure the border. So we believe an enforcing bill -- a border security enforcing bill is really the first priority and that's what we're focused on.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Ok. So it's not a top priority, mass deportation, but obviously President-Elect Trump thinks it is.

RYAN: No, securing the border is --

TAPPER: Right.

RYAN: Securing the border is our top priority.

TAPPER: Right. But what about in year two, year three, year four?

RYAN: That's why I say we're not focused on -- we are not planning on erecting a deportation force. Donald Trump is not planning on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Ryan also said he supports Trump's call to keep some elements of President Obama's signature health care law.

Iraqi forces notched another victory as they try to retake the key city of Mosul from ISIS. Details up ahead.

Plus, India is experiencing long lines at its banks. In a country where cash is king, the equivalent of more than $200 billion was made instantly worthless.

[00:13:32] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VANIER: In their fight against ISIS, Iraqi forces have recaptured an ancient village in northern Iraq and its nearby ruins. Nimrud is 20 miles or 30 kilometers southeast of Mosul which Iraqi troops are trying to retake from the terror.

As this video shows, ISIS militants made a point of destroying much of these historic ruins when they swept through the area last year.

Meanwhile, witnesses tell CNN, ISIS is fortifying its positions in eastern Mosul, digging new trenches and building barriers on major roads.

CNN's Phil Black reports on the civilians fleeing the city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Munaz Abdullah (ph) and his family are being searched for weapons on Mosul's eastern outskirts, just a short distance from where Iraqi forces are battling ISIS. They've decided to flee the city.

Munaz says they left because mortars started falling close to them. They are among the people now following this road every day away from the violence and terror of an urban war zone. But they don't know where it's taking them.

Asnar Muhammad (ph) says she hid in a home with her family enduring nearby explosions for eight days until one of them destroyed half the building, so she ran.

"I was running among bullets", she says. "Walking and crying. Running and crying."

They are escaping war and ISIS as well after living under the group's ideas of morality for more than two years. 11-year-old Dawud (ph) witnessed justice according to ISIS. He says they slaughtered three men and called us to come and watch. One of them, the poor guy, wasn't beheaded properly, so another man came with a knife and finished the job.

This is the start of the screening process. The women and the children, they are being taken away first on to a truck that's just arrived. Their husbands, brothers, fathers have to wait. They'll be taken somewhere else. Their names checked against the database just to ensure they're not one of the ISIS members that may be trying to flee the city with all the other refugees. The moments that follow are chaotic and heartbreaking, especially for the children. There's little dignity in this, but they'll be safe. The rest are ordered to sit quietly in rows.

[00:19:58] Somehow Dawud has been left behind with the men. His hands can't hide his anxiety. He tells us he's thinking about the camp, living in a tent, under rain, in the mud.

This is a life-changing day; their first without ISIS for a long time. There's relief, some nervous smiles but war, uncertainty and loss ensure there is no feeling of celebration.

Phil Black, CNN -- near Mosul, northern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: One of Sweden's top prosecutors will be on hand as Julian Assange is interviewed about rape accusations that are pending against him in Sweden. The interview of the WikiLeaks founder will take place in the coming hours in Ecuador's embassy in London where he's been holed up since 2012 trying to avoid extradition to Sweden.

Sweden says two of his prosecutors as well as a police officer will attend. However, the person conducting the interview will be an Ecuadorian prosecutor. Officials may also take a DNA sample. That is, if Assange consents to it.

And let's remind you of why Assange is living in that embassy in the first place. In November 2010, the criminal court in Stockholm issued an arrest warrant for Assange based on allegations of sexual assault from two WikiLeaks volunteers. The following month, Assange turned himself in to police in London.

He denied any wrongdoing. He claimed the charges were politically motivated. Assange was placed under house arrest. In May 2012, the British Supreme Court denied his appeal against expedition to Sweden. Assange feared that Sweden would extradite him to the U.S., where he could face the death penalty for publishing government secrets on WikiLeaks.

Assange then sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in June of 2012 and was later granted asylum and he's been there since.

Now, imagine that in an instant, much of your money became worthless. That's precisely what happened in India after the government suddenly scrapped two of the country's largest currency notes and issued new ones.

CNN's Ravi Agrawal is in New Delhi where people are still scrambling to trade old money for new. Ravi -- good to have you with us.

What is it like at the cash machine where you're standing?

RAVI AGRAWAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Cyril, it's Monday morning here in New Delhi. It's actually a public holiday, a religious public holiday. So the lines are shorter than they have otherwise been but even so, really, really long. You can see behind me here, the lines that are snaking around.

I'm just going to have the camera turn towards me here so you get a sense of how long this particular line is. We're in a rather busy sort of area in central New Delhi. This was one of the only ATMs that was open in this area. A number of ATMs here are actually closed. And there you can see behind me where the line ends up at an ATM.

And a lot of the people I've spoken to here have been here for hours already. They queued up even before the ATMs opened for the day. A lot of them are saying they're worried. They can't go about their daily work because they don't have enough cash.

How do we get here and what really is going on? This all stems from a decision made by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week where he decommissioned the two most -- the highest value notes in India -- the 500 and the 1,000 rupee notes.

Take a look at this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AGRAWAL: Kamal Gupta (ph) has run this business for 43 years. It's a typical Indian mom and pop store selling everything from milk to shampoo. Today, he says, sales are down by more than half.

Can I pay for this with this 500 rupee note? What about --

KAMAL GUPTA, BUSINESSMAN: All closed by the government.

AGRAWAL: It all began Tuesday when the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise primetime announcement to the nation. 500 and 1,000 rupee notes -- the two biggest available would be discontinued and replaced with new 500 and 2,000 notes. The reason? A crackdown on counterfeiters and tax evaders.

At mom and pop stores like this one here that sell a whole range of products, there are no credit card machines. Every single transaction is in cash. And that's not unusual across the country. In fact, experts say that 90 percent of all transactions in India are in pure cash.

So even if it's expensive jewelry, people pay in cash. And that's what the government wants to change. One reason is taxation. Only 3 percent of Indians actually pay income tax. That's in part because the tax barrier is high but also because it's difficult to keep track of so many off the books cash payments.

The government's main target is rich tax evaders -- people literally stockpiling hidden cash. But this week the middle class is feeling the pain as well.

We walked around a few banks in New Delhi. Long queues of men and women lined up to replace old money with new. For now, they can only exchange the equivalent of 4,000 rupees, just $60. We stopped to chat. [00:25:06] This man says his son is getting married tomorrow. He needs to get out more cash but the surprise rules are ruining all of his plans.

This woman here says the move is an inconvenience but she's happy that tax avoiders will now face a crackdown.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AGRAWAL: As you saw there, those were a number of people we spoke to on the streets of New Delhi. And that was a few days ago, I should add. Back then when the move first took place, there was a lot of pragmatism, a sense that the fat cats in India, the people who are not paying their taxes, would face a crackdown.

But there is also now a few days into this move more frustration that we're sensing on the streets of New Delhi. A lot of middle class Indians, a lot of poorer Indians, of which there are so many here really saying that without cash, they are struggling. There are a lot of Indians who don't have bank accounts, a lot of Indians who don't have the means to be able to go about their daily work. They can't buy things from the grocery store -- so a lot of gridlock.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting meetings here in New Delhi to try and come up with ways with which to alleviate India's cash crunch but Cyril it doesn't seem like this problem is going to resolve itself in a day or two, Modi has asked for 50 days.

VANIER: All right. Ravi Agrawal, live there from a very, very long line indeed to take cash out of the cash machines in New Delhi. Thank you very much.

Coming up, we'll take a closer look at Donald Trump's choice for chief strategist. Why some say he's provided much of the ammunition in Trump's battle with the Republican establishment.

Plus, there weren't just laughs on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend. The message comedian Dave Chappelle had for the U.S. President-Elect when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:00] VANIER: A warm welcome back to our viewers around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Cyril Vanier. The headlines this hour.

People in Eastern Aleppo received grim text messages, Sunday morning, warning them of an attack. They were urged to flee the Syrian City within 24 hours. The note also warned rebels to put down their weapons and renounce the, quote, "Collapsed leadership abroad."

France is extending its state of emergency which began after the Paris terror attacks one year ago. The prime minister says the extension will help protect the country's democracy; this with the presidential election coming up in just a few months. People threw out flowers, lit candles and held memorials on Sunday to remember the 130 people killed in last year's attacks.

And U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says Reince Priebus will be his White House chief-of-staff. Priebus heads the Republican National Committee and stood by Trump even when many other prominent Republicans publicly disavowed the candidate during the campaign.

Meanwhile, Steve Bannon who was CEO of the Trump campaign was appointed chief strategist and senior counselor.

So let's go more in depth on Steve Bannon. He's going to have one of the most powerful positions in the Trump White House. Some believe he's the man behind Donald Trump's campaign attacks on establishment Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan. Well, Sunlen Serfaty has more on Trump's pick for chief strategist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a whole sinister got out.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump's scorched earth, take no prisoners strategy against his own party --

TRUMP: We don't get the support from guys like Paul Ryan. So, look, I don't want his support. I don't care about his support.

SERFATY: Seems to be covered in the fingerprints of this man, Steve Bannon, whose long-time mission to target the establishment wing of the Republican Party may be egging on Trump's anti-establishment tear.

TRUMP: The shackles are some of the establishment people that are weak and ineffective people within the Republican Party, senators and others and Paul Ryan led to a certain extent by Paul Ryan --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were holding you back?

SERFATY: Bannon joined as CEO in August from the far-right conservative Web site "Breitbart News."

STEVE BANNON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN CEO: What we need to do is bitchslap the Republican Party and get those guys, you know, heeding to. And if we have to, we'll take it over.

SERFATY: Bringing a no-holds barred fighter stance of his own.

BANNON: If you're fighting to take this country back, it's -- you know, it's not going to be sunshine patriots. It's going to be people who want to fight. I mean, Andrew Breitbart was all about the fight. In fact, we call ourselves internally the fight club.

SERFATY: Taking direct aim at the establishment wing of the party.

BANNON: We don't really believe there is a functional conservative party in this country. We certainly don't think the Republican Party is that.

SERFATY: One of Bannon top targets has been Paul Ryan. And Bannon seems to have been wanting to take him down for some time. E-mails obtained by "The Hill" newspaper show Bannon telling his Breitbart staff the long game is to have Ryan gone by spring. Breitbart producing headlines against Ryan over the years, desperate, failing and running scared.

A foe and a fight which Trump is tagging into the ring now, even suggesting if he becomes president, Ryan's speakership might be in jeopardy.

TRUMP: I would think that Ryan maybe wouldn't be there. Maybe he'll be in a different position.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: And that was Sunlen Serfaty reporting.

Donald Trump is now telling his supporters to stop engaging in hate speech. In an interview with the "CBS" news show "60 Minutes," the president-elect was asked about reports that some of his supporters have been using racial slurs and harassing minorities.

Well, here's how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I am very surprised to hear that. I would --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Telling Muslims --

TRUMP: I hate to hear that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you do hear it.

TRUMP: And I hate to hear it. I don't hear it. I saw one or two instances.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You saw nothing on social media?

TRUMP: But I think it's a very small amount. Again, it's the --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want to say anything to those people?

TRUMP: I would say don't do it, that's terrible, because I'm going to bring this country together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're harassing Latinos, Muslims.

TRUMP: I am so saddened to hear that. And I say stop it, if it helps. I will say this, and I'll say it right to the cameras, stop it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: The U.S. comedy show "Saturday Night Live" took on a somber tone during its first episode since the election.

Comedian Dave Chappelle made his hosting debut on the show. So he began his monologue poking fun at Donald Trump and the election. But then things got more serious. Chappelle mentioned his recent visit to the Obama White House, and as both an African-American and a Muslim, he had this message for the president-elect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE CHAPPELE, COMEDIAN: And I saw how happy everybody was. These people who have been historically disenfranchised, and it made me feel hopeful, and it made me feel proud to be an American, and it made me very happy about the prospects of our country.

So, in that spirit, I'm wishing Donald Trump luck, and I am going to give him a chance. And we, the historically disenfranchised, demand that he give us one, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:35:23] VANIER: "Saturday Night Live" cast member Kate MacKinnon opened the show as Hillary Clinton singing "Hallelujah" in a tribute to musician Leonard Cohen who died last week.

People in New Zealand are taking stock of the damage after a powerful earthquake struck the country's south island.

Plus, the moon is shining brighter than it has in decades. We'll explain how we get this Supermoon. That's all coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VANIER: A series of earthquakes on New Zealand's south island has killed at least two people. The first one, a 7.8 magnitude quake struck about 90 kilometers from Christchurch, the country's third largest city. It triggered tsunami waves along the coast, but thankfully that's no longer a threat. Earlier, we did speak a weather analyst about the damage those waves could have done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILIP DUNCAN, HEAD WEATHER ANALYST, WEATHER WATCH: Well, in New Zealand, we don't have a big history of tsunami. In fact, I believe it was a deadly tsunami in the 1800s which affected the South Island, but that's quite awhile ago, obviously.

In my lifetime, I'm nearly 40 and I've never seen anything like this before. And I'm pretty certain most people I know have never seen a tsunami of this size being reported here because with all the big Pacific tsunamis that we've had over the last say 15 years, they have all produced small tsunami but just the coastal ones.

You know, half a meter, that sort of thing. 2-1/2 meters, that's something else. And so we're still waiting to hear the reports on damage. We haven't heard a lot yet out of Calcutta, but it's not normally a big place so we're not expecting to hear huge amounts but still -- you know, it will be interesting to see what sort of damage, if, any the tsunami did cause.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: All right. So what's the situation now, and more importantly, what are the risks now in New Zealand? That's the question we're going to put to our meteorologist from the CNN international weather center Pedram Javaheri.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. You know, this is a quake, of course, that occurred less than 24 hours ago. So we know aftershocks on the order of hundreds still possible in this region. And this could have been far, far worse when you look at the magnitude and we often say it is not the quake itself that takes lives. It's the structure that take lives.

And we say what are people doing. What time does this quake occur? It occurred after midnight. So a lot of people indoors. So the potential is very high for significant damage. And I just want to show you the historical breakdown of quakes across New Zealand in general, because Monday's 7.8 could in fact be the strongest quake anyone in the country has felt in recorded history.

Now you look at other quakes. We've had one that was a 7.8 in 2009 in the left corner of your screen. That one in a sparsely populated region. We've had one, of course, at a 6.3. That was the Christchurch quake of 2011. 200 times weaker in the shaking intensity than Monday's quake, but notice the fatalities approaching almost 200 people versus the two that we know of so far on Monday.

[00:40:00] And another quakes have been similar magnitude, but extremely deep or extremely sparsely populated. This particular one we are fortunate enough to have it in a remote area relative to being very close, of course, to Christchurch, but still in a sparsely populated area.

I want to show you the initial quake there. There it is, 7.8. Notice, of the 31 aftershocks that have occurred since, every single one of them now has stayed either at that location or to the north of this location.

This is what is known as a zipper effect. Essentially you think of a zipper splitting open. Precisely what's happening on the crust or the earth's surface right here where you have all the energy dispersed to the north. In fact 50,000 people felt severe shaking, had the severe shaking displaced further to the south in Christchurch. That could have been devastating. But you notice more towards the sparsely populated regions, but still millions feeling this quake across this region of New Zealand.

Here's what we have ahead of us as far as aftershocks. Historically with a 7.8, you'd expect one 6.8 aftershock or greater. The strongest we've had so far, a 6.5. We've had four of which that had been on the six scale. Notice you typically expect ten in the 5.8 scale and then you get into the hundreds and thousands when you work your way toward smaller magnitudes. But looking at previous quakes of this magnitude, you would expect hundreds, if not thousands of aftershocks. The number will remain very high and the number of shaking you'll feel, but the intensity of that shaking will actually drop significantly over the next three to four days.

So from Wednesday into Thursday, Friday and Saturday, you'll notice you'll generally see threes and fours. Any fives or sixes would happen in the next couple of days before they dwindle. The other element we're watching, of course, the weather element across this region.

We are a storm system pushed through as we speak. Much of it will impact portions of western areas of the south island of New Zealand. Notice as you go just north of Christchurch near Amberley, the rain shower is going to be very scattered, if not limited. This is as good a weather map as you're going to get for an area that was severely hit just because the rains really seem to want to stay away from the hardest hit areas near the epicenter. But the temperatures we can't do much about. And you notice there, we drop it from 23 in Christchurch down into the lower teens.

The overnights will be close to freezing. So some of these areas certainly any sort of search or recovery efforts are going to be impacted by temperatures the next couple of mornings.

VANIER: Thank you very much, Pedram. And I know you'll continue to look at the situation in New Zealand and hopefully those aftershocks not going to have too much damage in the hours and days to come.

Thanks a lot.

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

VANIER: If you check out the night sky in the next day or two, you might notice the moon looks bigger and brighter than usual. It's known as a Supermoon. And we haven't seen one this big in 68 years.

Jennifer Gray explains what makes a Supermoon and other lunar oddities.

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JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): One of the more notable moons, the harvest moon. This is because the fields have already been harvested and this is when animals needed to be killed and stored because winter is coming soon.

There's also what's known as the Supermoon, where the moon can be as much as 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter. This occurs during the closest approach the moon makes to the earth on its orbit. Every now and then, we get a couple of bonus moons.

You see the lunar calendar is roughly 29 days, but our monthly calendar is mostly 30 to 31 days. So every now and then, you will get two full moons in one calendar month. When you have two full moons in a calendar month, the second one is called the blue moon. And when you have two new moons in a calendar month, the second moon is called the black moon which is pretty much the only moon that matches its name because it's invisible to us on earth, appearing black.

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VANIER: And that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Cyril Vanier. "World Sport" is up next.

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