Were live from cnn World Headquarters in atlanta and want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. Im George Howell. The second hour of cnn newsroom starts right now. And 5 01, we start in syria where u. S. Backed forces are closing in on the last isis enclave in the eastern part of that country, amid reports of heavy fighting. Listen. Cnn has been on the ground reporting from the front lines and in this exclusive video, you see the battle waging through the night sky. Heavy gunfire and artillery, terrorists cornered in Eastern Syria for weeks now. This renewed assault started friday after a pause to let civilians escape. Lets go live to the ground now. Our team there with our Senior International correspondent ben wedeman on the front lines and, ben, what more can you tell us . We see the smoke in the background. What is happening right now . Reporter at the moment, has calmed down ever so slightly. What we saw earlier today was over there behind my shoulder was that it appears to have been an ammunition dump that was ignited somehow. And saw some huge explosions. Now, throughout the morning we have been hearing planes overhead, Occasional Air strikes by Coalition Aircraft and lots of mortar fire into the camp as well. We have been able to see through our telephoto lens people moving among the tents. So there are still human beings inside there. We dont have any idea how many they could possibly be. We were speaking to the commanders in charge of this position, the commander, one of the commanders with the Syrian Democratic forces, he said whats going on is that the isis fighters are going and trying to go get more ammunition and weapons from their various ammunition depos within the camps. There is very good reason to believe there is a network of tunnels underneath there as well. This position came under attack just a couple of days ago from inside the camp. They were able to repulse it, but isis, despite this around the clock bombardment, is still putting up quite a fight, george, but nonetheless, this is an organization, a group of terrorist organization that at one point was all the way from western syria to the outskirts of baghdad. It is now restricted to a half mile square area that terrorist paradise for murderers and maniacs has been reduced to just a tiny speck of land. And it is not clear how much longer this battle is going to last. But whoever is still inside is likely to die. George . It is important to understand what were talking about here. This is the images were seeing, youre talking about war that is taking place, people die in war. Were watching as this plays out, ben i want to get a sense from you, you described the people that are there, many of those people still believe as you pointed out in your previous reporting, still believe in that twisted isis ideology. Where they go from here, but what happens to them from here . Isis losing territory, but still has some of its followers. Yeah. This has been underscored by officials in this part of the country, by officials with the from the United States and britain and france is that, yes, the territory that isis controls is about to disappear. But their appeal, their absurd appeal to some people remains. Thats the real danger. What we have seen in the last 30 days we have been here in syria is that there are sleeper cells operating throughout this part of the country and throughout many parts of iraq as well that continue to pose a threat to civilian life. And as far as the people who have left this last spot that isis occupies, they end up, the women and the children, end up in a camp called el hul several hours drive north of here. It is an internment camp, theyre not free to leave. But there are as many as 50,000 people inside that camp. Obviously not all of them with any known affiliation with isis. The question is in the longterm what do you do with these people, with the hundreds of foreign nationals who flocked to the socalled Islamic State at its height . Countries like the United Kingdom made it clear they will not accept those nationals who came flocked to the Islamic State, wont allow them back in. It leaves a huge burden on the authorities in this part of syria what do you do with these people . Not only the those from syria, from iraq, but also from the uk, from france, from germany, and elsewhere . And it is a dilemma and they have appealed for help time and time again, but we have what we have seen is that these countries are very obstinate, they dont want these people back. Ben wedeman, front lines in Eastern Syria, following the developments. The last isis enclave in its final moments there. Well continue to follow this with you, ben. Thank you. Now to u. S. Politics and the u. S. President turning to his base on saturday to salvage what he could from what you could say was a rough week for him politically. Surrounded by cheering fans, though, in this setting, mr. Trump was the star. The occasion was cpac, the annual conservative Political Action conference and the president on stage for two hours, the longest speech in his presidency to date. He was mocking, he cursed, and the crowd and the people there seemed to love every second of it. President trump brushed off criticism for saying kim jongun did not know about the american student Otto Warmbier being tortured in a north korean president , the president barely mentioned his summit with the north korean dictator kim jongun. Instead, mr. Trump returned to familiar territory, the special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Ongoing Investigation into Russian Election interference. Even mocking his own infamous call for russia to find Hillary Clintons emails. Listen. Unfortunately you put the wrong people in a couple of positions, and they leave people for a long time that shouldnt be there, and all of a sudden theyre trying to take you out with [ bleep ], okay. [ bleep ]. Robert mueller never received a vote. And neither did the person that appointed him. And as you know, the attorney general says, im going to recuse myself. And i said, why the hell didnt he tell me that before i put him in . If you tell a joke, if you are sarcastic, if you are having fun with the audience, if youre on Live Television with millions of people, and 25,000 people in an arena, and if you Say Something like, russia, please, if you can, get us Hillary Clintons emails, please, russia, please please get us the emails please of course mr. Trump did not stop there. He took jabs at two of his favorite enemies, the media, and Hillary Clinton and then accused democrats of hating america. Right now we have people in congress that hate our country. And you know that. And we can name every one of them if they want. They hate our country. Democrat lawmakers are now embracing socialism, they want to replace individual rights with total government domination. This is the new democrat platform for the and i dont want to talk them out of it. I dont. I dont. I swear i dont. This is a killer. I got to get off this subject. I want them to embrace this plan. I want them to go and sell this plan. I just want to be the republican that runs against them. Lets talk more about all of this now with scott lupus, scott teaches at the university of birmingham, joining us from birmingham, england. Good to have you, scott. Hardly a mention of the summit with kim jongun but he was having fun on the stage, tearing into the mueller investigation, playing to the crowds, cursing. What do you take from it . Im not going to call it fun, george. I didnt even want to talk about this speech this morning. I wish it would go away. It was degrading to american politics. It is degrading to the office of the u. S. President , it is degrading to basic standards of decency and tolerance and could be another attempt to block an investigation into what happened in 2016. Let me be clear, were now at the point where donald trump calls a legal investigation, one sanctioned to find out what exactly happened more than two years ago, is calling it, ill use the full word, hes calling it bs, hes calling the investigators, the justice department, hes calling them dirty, effectively calling them criminals, mocking his former attorney general who was a republican senator jeff sessions, he is deriding the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein and hes lying and ill use that word, george, about every member of the mueller team trying to do their job, making false allegations, for example, that they were in the clinton foundation. Now, he did it in a supportive atmosphere and i realize that this comes after the failure of the summit with north korea, after Michael Cohens testimony and trump needs to go on the offensive. I realize thats the only way he flourishes if he attacks rather than defends. But make no mistake about this, this was not a joke this was not sarcasm. This is an issue where donald trump may have colluded with russia in broad daylight when he called on russia to hack the emails of Hillary Clinton and hes trying to effectively defy all of that that collusion in broad daylight is somehow acceptable as he runs for a second term as president. Scott, you touched on this, it is a question that i pose last hour, and i pose it to you again. This quote that i remember hearing after mr. Trump won the presidency, that some people take him seriously and not literally. Others take him literally and not seriously. So the cursing, lies or mistruths, the allegations of affairs and misconduct, even mocking as you point out a southerner, jeff sessions, for his accent, do any of these things mack s make a difference diehard base, many southerners, many evangelical voters to name a few, who say hes getting things done, cutting recession la regulations, building the wall, and so on and so forth. Im a southerner. I take him literally and seriously. What i say is as long as you continue to go back to the question, what about his base what about his base, you play up the image that that base dominates american politics. That that base, will, whatever their incontinuationtentions al get away with possible criminal activity. At some point we got to stop talking about just the base. We got to talk to people outside cpac who are outside certain websites and say Many Americans may not actually want to support this spectacle, Many Americans may find it degrading, and that if there is a decent politics, you wont find it inside the room or playing up what happened in that room yesterday, you got to go beyond donald trump or else he might win again. It is important to point out his base does not represent half of the voters who took place in the last election. So, of course, we will have to see how this plays out in the next election. It was interesting to see mr. Trump on stage at cpac and in the split screen on many network, Bernie Sanders making his case for the presidency. Both represent the polar sides of their parties here, scott. It is shaping up to be a polar 2020 president ial race. The question here, do you see room for centrists like Vice President joe biden, should he choose to run . You know, george, i appreciate the focus on Bernie Sanders, who ran in 2016. I appreciate the focus on former Vice President joe biden. I dont want to make it trump versus biden or trump versus sanders. There is a whole group of democrats hoping to run for president. Behind the democrats there is a lot of people assessing the issues. Climate change, medical care, education, all issues that donald trump tried to deride as some type of dirty socialism yesterday. If we just reduce it to one versus one, we dont get to the fact this is almost a critical point in american society. And that we are at a critical point which was reduced yesterday by donald trump who talked about the green new deal, which raising some of the issues and called a sitting congresswoman a lunatic, who called another senator Elizabeth Warren pocahontas, focus on the issues, dont focus on the horse race, and maybe, maybe well actually get our way out of this mess. Scott lucas, bringing his perspective for us. Scott, we appreciate your time today. Thank you, george. The United States and south korea are trying something different. Instead of a massive military drill as we have seen many times before, they are taking a new approach, a smaller scaled down approach. More on why thats happening. Plus, an unarmed africanamerican man shot and killed, no charges for the Police Officers who shot him. What changes the mayor of sacramento is promising. ready to juvederm it . Correct agerelated volume loss in cheeks with Juvederm Voluma xc, add fullness to lips with juvederm ultra xc and smooth moderate to severe lines around the nose and mouth with juvederm xc. Tell your doctor if you have a history of scarring or are taking medicines that decrease the bodys immune response or that can prolong bleeding. Common side effects include injectionsite redness, swelling, pain, tenderness, firmness, lumps, bumps, bruising, discoloration or itching. 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This according to the District Attorney for sacramento. Stephon clark died almost a year ago, gunned down in his grandmothers backyard. The District Attorney described clark as taking a, quote, shooting stance and one officer saw a light in his hand that they thought was a muzzle flash. Turned out it was just a cell phone. Heres what the sacramento District Attorney had to say on saturday. So when we look at all of these facts and circumstances, we look at all of it, everything, we ask our question that we started out with again. And that question is, was a crime committed . There is no question that a human being died. But when we look at the facts and the law, and we follow our ethical responsibilities, the answer to that question is no. And as a result, we will not charge these officers with any criminal liability related to the shooting death and the use of force on stephon clark. And the body cam video from the night that clark was shot and killed, it is crucial, it was crucial to the case. Sacramento police were responding to a call about a man breaking car windows. I want to warn you, the audio is graphic. Here it is. Show me your hands shots fired. Clarks death and the lack of charges sparked protests like the scenes youre seeing here in sacramento, california, taken by kcra there. The news hit hard for his family and loved ones as well. Were outraged. Were outraged. They executed my son. They executed him in my moms backyard. And it is not right. It is not right. Please dont stop advocating for legislation and policies that could protect other families from suffering this overwhelming pain and sense of loss. And please continue to keep my family in your prayers as we continue to mourn the loss and navigate the World Without our beloved stephon clark. Lets talk more about this now with Sheryl Dorsey and andrew jerkaski. Thank you both for your time. Sheryl, starting with you, from a Law Enforcement perspective, the District Attorney said it was a gun, turned out it was a cell phone. Your reaction to the d. A. s decision . Well, as a supervisor, someone who reviewed the use of force in the past, what i hear is code speak and double talk from the prosecutor. Police officers are trained to know what theyre shooting at. We have shoot, dont shoot scenarios all the time because you need to be sure about whats in someones hand when you fire your weapon. Understanding that cell phones are bedazzled, different colors, theyre metallic, you dont get to shoot someone based on a belief. Youre a trained professional, you need to have target identification before you let go around and then to fire 20 rounds, there was no assessing of the situation after two rounds, and then determining whether or not there is a need for 18 more. It is outrageous and it is offensive to try to convince us of anything otherwise. So andrew, same question to you. Some 20 times the officers fired. What was it about the evidence in this case that played into the d. A. s decision in your view . The loss of any life, and the loss of mr. Clarks life, is truly tragic. Every single case involving a Police Shooting has to be looked at independently. And the facts in that case. In this cas