Whitmer Kidnap Suspects Video Evidence; French Educators' March In Grief And Support
CURNOW: It's just over 2 weeks to go until election day in the U.S. and the president, Donald Trump, is on a campaign blitz. He spent the weekend crisscrossing the country and he'll begin this week with two rallies in Arizona. Now the president was in Nevada on Sunday evening and, yet again, despite COVID cases surging throughout the country there was clearly no social distancing and very few masks. Well, President Trump seems to be going back to his playbook from 2016 holding several rallies a day and making baseless accusations against his democratic rival, Joe Biden. But it was a very, very different scene in North Carolina as you can see here where Mr. Biden was holding a rally. He wore a mask until he started speaking and his supporters were socially distant as they cheered from their cars. Meanwhile, across the U.S., early voting turnout is continuing to smash records. More than 27 million general election ballots have been cast as of Sunday evening. That's according to a survey. Well, Ryan Nobles is on the campaign trail with the president and has the details. Ryan.</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump is in the middle of a very busy campaign schedule, a campaign schedule that's actually picked up since he was diagnosed with the coronavirus pandemic. The president just in the past few days traveling to key states including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and he ended the weekend with a trip here to Carson City, Nevada. It was at that event in Nevada that he talked about his response to the coronavirus pandemic and actually ridiculed some of the scientists who've been giving him advice when it relates to the virus. Take a listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression instead of we're like a rocket ship. Take a look at the numbers. And that's despite the fact that we have like five or six of these Democrats keeping their states closed because they're trying to hurt us on November 3rd. But the numbers are so good anyway. They'd be even better.</s>NOBLES: And this torrid campaign pace is expected to continue. The president expected to make stops next week in Pennsylvania and in North Carolina. And, of course, he'll travel to Nashville on Thursday for the final debate of the 2020 campaign. Ryan Nobles, CNN. Carson City, Nevada.</s>CURNOW: And Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, as I said, is running a very different style of campaign than President Trump. Arlette Saenz tells us what Biden has been saying and where he's going next.</s>ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Joe Biden traveled here to Durham, North Carolina as in-person early voting is underway in the state. The former vice holding a socially distanced drive-in style rally as he encouraged his supporters to make a plan to vote in the final weeks of this election. Now Joe Biden once again hammered away at the president for his response to the coronavirus pandemic as he believes this is a central issue in these final weeks before the election. And Joe Biden also talked about how the country needs to overcome division and how he is a president who will look out for all Americans. Take a listen.</s>JOE BIDEN, FMR. VICE PRESIDENT AND DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Folks, as my coach used to say in college, "It's go time." I'm running as a proud Democrat but I will govern as a American president.</s>BIDEN: No red states, no blue states, just the United States. I promise you I'll work as hard for those who don't support me as those who did.</s>SAENZ: Now North Carolina is one of those states President Trump won back in 2016 that Joe Biden is trying to flip in these final two weeks before the election. And on Monday, his running mate, Kamala Harris, is returning to the campaign trail. She will campaign in the state of Florida. This comes after the campaign had suspended her travel for a few days after two members of her traveling team tested positive for coronavirus. Kamala Harris tested negative for coronavirus on Sunday and will resume campaigning on Monday. And later in the week on Wednesday, perhaps the biggest Democratic surrogate out there is hitting the campaign trail for Joe Biden. President Obama will campaign in Philadelphia, his first in-person campaign appearance as he's making that pitch for his former V.P. Arlette Saenz, CNN. Durham, North Carolina.</s>CURNOW: Well, chilling videos of the suspects accused in a plot to kidnap the Michigan governor have been released. And in at least one of them are seen carrying out what appear to be training exercises. The video is now part of the evidence being used against the suspects. As Sara Sidner now reports.</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You are looking at evidence that was played in federal court of the field training exercises federal prosecutors say were carried out in a plot to storm Michigan's capital and kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer. CNN affiliate, WXMI, obtained the video from the U.S. Attorney's office after the preliminary hearings for six men federally charged with conspiracy to kidnap a sitting governor. Several pieces of federal evidence were played in court. Including this video of suspect, Brandon Caserta, ranting about the government.</s>BRANDON CASERTA, SUSPECT: I'm sick of being robbed and enslaved by the state. Period. I'm sick of it. And these are the guys who are actually doing it. So if we're doing a recon or something and we come up on some of them, dude, you better not give them a chance. You either tell them to go right now or else they're going to die. Period. That's what it's going to be, dude. Because they are the (bleep) enemy.</s>SIDNER: The suspect's alleged deeds and words were shown to the federal judge so she could decide if there was enough evidence to go to a grand jury. In this video, the lead FBI agent acknowledged in testimony the defendant, Adam Fox, is inside a basement appearing to be speed reloading his weapon to quote, "minimize the time that your weapon is inoperable in case of a gunfight." Prosecutors say the video was taken inside this vacuum shop in Grand Rapids. The owner of this vacuum shop says Adam Fox lived here for the last couple of weeks. He says he lived behind this door and down into the basement.</s>BRIANT TITUS, STORE OWNER, GRAND RAPIDS: (...), basement. Where he stayed.</s>SIDNER: OK.</s>TITUS: And he was only going to stay here till 1 November.</s>SIDNER: Why did you decide it was time for him to go?</s>TITUS: He was buying more like attachments for like an AR-15 and he was buying like food. And I'm not stupid, I was in the Marine Corps. So that -- I told him he had to go.</s>SIDER: Briant Titus said he had no idea what was going on in his business's basement after hours.</s>CURNOW: Thanks, Sara. Brilliant piece there. Appreciate it. So CNN has actually heard back from one of the defendant's attorneys. That attorney for Ty Garbin told us that as soon as his client learned of the alleged plot, he disavowed it and withdrew from it and is innocent of all of his charges. Of course, all of the defendants, as Sara was saying, they are presumed innocent unless they are proven guilty. So across France, thousands of people have now been rallying in support of free speech and educators after the beheading of a French teacher. Jim Bittermann has the details.</s>JIM BITTERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In a country that puts a high value on education, Friday's attack and beheading of a middle school teacher has provoked a huge outpouring of grief. In Paris and dozens of other cities, thousands gathered in tribute to Samuel Paty, the 47-year-old teacher who had conducted a class discussion on freedom of expression centered around caricatures of the prophet Mohammed from the controversial satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo. A discussion that became the focus of social media anger from Islamic fundamentalists. France takes pride in laicite, the secular nature of its institutions. The brutal killing of Paty stirred memories of the other acts of Islamic terrorism that have occurred here. But it raised questions too about whether Paty should have been better protected especially given the Internet -- teacher space.</s>ALBERTINE, SPECIAL NEEDS TEACHER: It's a reality and nobody seems to take it seriously and our bosses do not protect us at all.</s>UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Attend (French)</s>BITTERMANN: Still, police were not faulted in their response after the attack.</s>UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: (French language)</s>BITTERMANN: As seen in this video, within minutes they had chased down the 18-year old perpetrator and officers can clearly be heard in French ordering him to lay down his arms. And when he didn't police brought him down with a volley of bullets.</s>BITTERMANN: More tributes including a national one on Wednesday are scheduled later this week with thousands of teachers expected to take part as they did Sunday.</s>CROWD: (Singing French National Anthem)</s>BITTERMANN: More than a million French are involved in the national education system here. It's viewed as a cornerstone to the country's principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. Perhaps the reason the minister of education and others here have said that Friday's brutal murder was not just an attack on a single teacher but on the French Republic itself. Jim Bittermann. CNN, Paris.</s>CURNOW: Thank you, Jim, for that. So a convicted murderer who helped stop a terror attack on London Bridge last year will likely have his sentence reduced thanks to a pardon of sorts from Britain's Queen Elizabeth. Steven Gallant famously used a narwhal tusk to confront the Islamist attacker who fatally stabbed two people. A viral video of the incident shows Gallant jabbing him with a tusk before police shot him dead. Well, Gallant was actually on leave from prison to attend an event on prisoner's education when the attack took place. Queen Elizabeth granted him a rarely used prerogative of mercy to get him considered for this early parole. And Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is calling on President Trump to condemn the alleged chemical attack against him. Navalny became gravely ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow back in August. The global chemical weapons watchdog confirmed the presence of the nerve agent novichok in Navalny's body. In an interview on "60 Minutes" Navalny said all leaders should speak out against the use of chemical weapons. Moscow denies Navalny's accusation that President Vladimir Putin was behind the poisoning.</s>ALEXEY NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: I think for Putin, why he's using this chemical weapon -- to do both; kill me and terrify others. It's something really scary. That people just drop dead without -- there are no gun, there are no shots and in a couple of hours you will be dead without any traces on your body. It's something terrifying. And Putin is enjoying it.</s>CURNOW: So coming up on CNN. Months ago, the Czech Republic was the first to beat the wave of coronavirus. But it celebrated too soon. Now it's in the grips of a brutal second wave.