U. S. Special forces to circle raqqa which is essentially the administrative capitol of the Islamic State. And basically cut it off from resupply of fighters, of ammunition, while they train up additional arab fighters who will go into the city and actually fight block to block. Rose and we conclude this evening with governor Chris Christie of new jersey talking about the bridge gate trial and verdict and his political future. I cant tell you how many timessive been told my political career was over. Here i am. And i will tell you this. What matters to me most is my reputation. And thats what i am fighting for. And thats why i am here telling you the truth of not only what i know but the truth of what happened in the trial because if you read the reports of the trial, you wouldnt even know what happened there. The Political Campaign as voters go to the polls, the attack against raqqa, and an exclusive interview with governor Chris Christie of new jersey when we continue. Funding for charlie rose is provided by the following and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose tomorrow is election day, after a year and a half of one of the most di vicive campaigns in american history, americans will choose their next president. Over the weekend donald trump and Hillary Clinton made their closing arguments and rallies across crucial swing states. Clinton campaigned today in pennsylvania. Michigan and North Carolina. Trump spoke to voters in pennsylvania, michigan, North Carolina, florida and new hampshire. On sunday fbi director james comey announced that the agency had not changed its opinion that clinton should not Face Criminal Charges after review of new emails. Today cbs news poll gives Hillary Clinton a four point lead overdone ald trump nationally. Joining me now is my friend and colleague John Dickerson of cbs news. He has been covering this campaign, let me begin with this question, where are we at this moment on a monday afternoon before voting starts tomorrow . Well, where we are is that there was some tightening in the polls, what looks like is happening is donald trump is trying a kind of twopronged approach. One is he going into democratic states in minnesota, michigan, trying to break through the democratic wall. That is a very tough thing to do. What republicans worry about is that he is chasing fools gold, that he is chasing some closeness in the polls but there is a reason those states go for democrats in the end. And when barack obama is in michigan whipping up the vote there, it it is going to be time wasted. So that puts his other path through the traditional battleground states and has been said many times before but bears repeating because 16, because 18 states go for democrats in the last six years, they, Hillary Clinton starts with a, an advantage, 242 roughly electoral votes that she starts with. And as a result, she has a faster path to 270 than donald trump 678 he has to win a combination of a lot of states. And that makes it very hard for him especially when hes not up in those states. Reporter . Rose theres also this. Two of the most least popular candidates to run for the presidency. It seemed as you subbinged when trump was in the news, his numbers went down. Cline in their support. To as on yes, and when they were in the news, it it was often because they were bruising their own achilles heel, if that is the way it works which is to say for donald trump, he was involved involved in fights that his instincts cant let him get out of people said if we worry about his temperment and judgement which is a big achilles heel for him, people thought he couldnt occupy the office of the presidency because he lacked impulse control. When you get in a fight with a gold star family, thats what is happening. When you continue a fight about the weight of a miss universe, are you demonstrating that fear in public in realtime for voters. Hillary clinton when she was answering questions on the email server t both reinjured that sense people had that she sort of made her own rules. But then in her explanation about the server and her explanation about the relationship between the state department and the clinton foundation, it was raising questions a fresh, because the answers didnt sparkle with transparency for voters who felt even when she was explaining something, that they werent getting the straight story. Rose is all this going to make governing even more difficult. I have already had conversations with leaders, particularly on the republican side who are looking for those first steps from Hillary Clinton to get a sense of whether she will be a sort of barack obama late term fellow who has said im going to use my pen and phone to whip congress into shape or whether she will come in with that more accommodationist, sort of behaving like she did as a senator, recognizing there are shared powers and she needs to make accommodations accommodatio republicans even if they are in the minority in the senate. Or is she going to make or is she going to appeal to the left wing, the sort of bernie sanders, Elizabeth Warren wing. Rose we know candidates are running around as fast as they can to as many airports as they can but they seem to be focusing at least on three states. Pennsylvania, florida and North Carolina. Why are they crucial and who they who are they crucial to. Mostly for donald trump. He has to win, if Hillary Clinton wins the 240 electoral votes that traditionally traditionally go to a democrat from virginia and north cart linea she gets 270. If she wins those two plus virginia and south florida she gets 270, it is easy for her. Trump has to rack up florida, North Carolina, ohio, nevada nev inform looks like it might be gone. Colorado, new hampshire. He has to put together a lot more states. If he could seal pennsylvania from the democratic colume that opens it up a little more for him. Codo pennsylvania, ohio, iowa and then maybe one more depending on what it is. So for her it could be an early night when the virginia closes at 7 00 and North Carolina at 7 30. So well be looking to those states both to see if she can tap ture the battleground states and hold her state of pennsylvania which is the kind of most, kind of Tipping Point state for the democrats. If donald trump loses florida, is it over . Yes, i think it is. Not only because he needs florida, because its a big electoral rich state but it also will suggest something about both the turnout of latino voters but it also means Hillary Clinton will have done well enough, probably, with suburban College Educated white women voters which romney won by six points but which she has been up by 25 points in one national poll. Those voters, if you expect them to vote similarly you could imagine them voting the same way in colorado or in North Carolina. Other states that if she wins plus virginia, then she is over 270. Rose thank you so much. I will see you tomorrow. All right, thanks, charlie. Rose back in a moment. We turn now to raqqa syria, u. S. Backed millic militia groups are launching an operation to liberate the isis stronghold and headquarters. The coalition will include arab, kurdish and turkish fighters. U. S. Defense secretary ash carter welcomed the announcement with french and British Defense officials also pledging aerial support. Isis seized raqqa in january 2014 turning the city into its tragic headquarters. The news comes as the battle for mosul continues in iraq putting isis on the defensive in two of its most critical cities. Joining me now from wash torntion eric schmitt of the New York Times. Eric, thank you for joining us. Good to see you, charlie. Rose tell me what this means coming now. Right, well, if you think of this as a onetwo punch, mosul is the first punch, we are now into week four of that campaign as you said. This is the second punch. And its coming from a different direction. The idea is to put pressure on the Islamic State from both sides. Its headquarters in iraq and its headquarters in syria. So this phase is the beginning of an encirclement by these kurdish and arab fighters on the ground, these militia that are backed by u. S. Special forces to encircle raqqa which is essentially the administrative capitol of the Islamic State. And basically cut it off from resupply of fighters, of ammunition, while they train up additional arab fighters who will go into the city and actually fight block to block. Rose one of the dimensions her is having people on the ground who are willing to come in and fight isis in syria, correct . Thats right. Thats what has been hard. Up until now, the u. S. Is basically relied on this coalition of kurdish and arab fighters but its predominantly the kurdish fighters that have taken a string of towns all along the syrian turkish border, now theyre needing to expand that force which now numbers around 30,000 overall, but only about a third of those are arab fighters. And they want to send arab fighters into the predominantly arab city of raqqa so you dont have sectarian violence. And right now they dont have enough of those. And so theyre going to use this period of time while they encircle raqqa to also train up Additional Forces to go into the city itself at some later date. This will be a huge, if in fact they are successful in mosul and raqqa, a huge vicary. I assume for president obama. Absolutely. Absolutely, charlie. Its unclear whether this will actually happen by the time of the inauguration next january, of course. This is because were still talking about weeks of operations just to ensierk el and envelope this city much less to go in and take it down. So experts i talked to yesterday when this news broke from were sceptical the president would actually see the city fall, the city of raqqa, that is, fall, but you never know. And in fact he could argue in historys sake that they began the initiative, they began the attack while he was still president. Absolutely. Rose lets assume both efforts are successful in mosul, in the reasonable future, lets say within six months. What is the implications for isis and the terrorism that they represent . Well, on one level its very important. It that you are basically taking away and defying the Islamic State its caliphate, its religious state. And of course thats how they distinguish themselves from other terrorist groups including alqaeda. And that they have actually been able to establish a state, that governs, collects taxes, it administers the citizens within its reach. If you take that away, it is still a very potent terrorist organization, but its more like its pred certificator, alqaeda. And of course it will still pose a danger to the people in the region, it still has networks, of course, to europe, and most of all, the concern for americans, of course s that through its social media, it can reach in and basically touch people here in the United States and hopefully inspire them to carry out attacks. Who is the leader of the coalition. The leader of the coalition. Its interesting, charlie, that you have, obviously you have iraqi forces in the lead. But you have some 5,000 american troops on the ground playing a very prominent role in iraq, both advising and assisting on the ground, and of course, leading the air strikes against the Islamic State in iraq. And the other side, in syria, you have this coalition of militia. Of course its in the a state that you are dealing with, as they have in iraq. It is a coalition of various militia, kurdish and arab fighters, primly, although turkey has contributed some as well. And the u. S. Is a much smaller presence. Only about 300 or so special forces that are on the ground advising. So the u. S. Plays a very Important Role in helping to plan and carry out the attacks. Of course carrying out the majority of the air strikes. But the prenom predominant forces on the ground are iraqis and syrians, syrian kurds and arabs in syria. Eric, thank you so much. Youre welcome, charlie. Rose well be right back, stay with us. We turn now to exclusive interview with governor Chris Christie of new jersey. He has served as governor since january of 2010. Last friday a jury convicted two of his former aides in the so called bridgegate trial. Bridget kelly who served as his deputy chief of staff and bill ba roney executive director of the Port Authority were found guilty on all accounts. Bun of baronnies Associates David wildstein pleaded gimentee earlier and became thes were keutions star witness. The three were accused in 2013 of conspiring to close access lanes leading up to the George Washington bridge in a scheme of political retaliation. The lane closures resulted in five days of gridlock in fort lee, new jersey. Looming over the federal trial was the extent of governor christies knowledge of the plot, evidence presented by the defense and prosecution suggested christie was told about the lane closings. That federal prosecutor paul fishman has said he only sought indictments against people he believed a jury would convict beyond a reasonable doubted. Governor christie was questioned under oath for 12 hours. Once considered the gops leading candidate for president , the scandal has been detrimental to his reputation and political career. The governor who leads Donald TrumpsWhite House Transition Team in the event trump becomes president was passed over for the Vice President ial nomination despite his early endorsement of the republican president ial nominee after christies own campaign for the nomination failed. He says he has been waiting for three years to tell his side of the story and clear his name. I spoke with him on sunday at his home in new jersey. And here is that conversation. Governor, thank you for doing this. You have been waiting for awhile to talk about what happened at bridgegate. What is your reaction to the verdict . Well, charlie, you know, my first reaction was that the jury confirmed what i thought on january 9th, 2014. Nearly three years ago, i had 24 hours to make decisions back then. And i thought there were three people responsible. David wildstein, billed barony and Bridget Kelly. And here we are, three investigations later, federal grand jury investigation, investigation by Democraticled Legislature and what is the conclusion. The conclusion is that there were three people responsible. Rose and the question is, though, what does it say about you and your staff, that these people who worked for you, did this . Wildstein didnt work for me, bill baronee was appointed by me, i take full responsibility for him, but not for wild steen, never for wild steen, that was baronees choice. But let me be clear on the folks close to me, my staff. I thought about this in the last week. I have had 25 people serve on my senior staff over seven years. And i have one person who didnt get it. One out of 25. So i dont think it says anything about me. I think it says everything about that person. The fact is if 24 other people have served with great honor and intig rit and effectiveness and im so proud of all of them. Some of them are still with me. Some of them have gone on to other things in the private sector or public sector. M very proud of those people. But im deeply disa ponted, as i said, with that one person who decided to commit a crime. Rose why do you think she did it . I wish i knew, charlie. I wish i knew. I never could figure it out. It was one of the most abjectly stupid things ive ever seen. Think about it, you know me. Im pretty good at this political game. I am up by 25 points for reelection in a blue state and they decide theyre going to create a traffic jam in a town that say democrat town that i wound up winning. Rose she showed some evidence of being scared during her testimony. She even testified you had thrown a bottle of water at her. I cant imagine someone like that doing something and not telling you because she would be damn worried about the fact that if you discovered it, how you would react. Well, first thing s she wasnt scared of me. And that incident about a water bottle, complete fab ri kaition. Rose never happened. Never happened. And there were a number of staff people in the room during the briefing she referenced and cabinet members who will tell you that it never happened. And even a u. S. Attorney himself on the steps of the courthouse after the trial said that both defendants had completely fabricated their testimony. So dont take my word for it, charlie. Take the u. S. Attorneys word for it who investigated this case for 15 months before bringing charges and bringing charges only against Bridget Kelly and bill baronee with the cooperation of David Wildstein. But let me Say Something else. I have to tell you, the idea that some one would think that this type of thing made any sense is a complete mystery to me, always has been. I dont know that we will ever know the real story about what happened. But i know what the jury determined. The jury determined that her story was untrue. And that she was responsible for what happened along with bill baronee and david wild stiern. Those are the facts. Rose here is what the New York Times said in an editorial. Mr. Christie remained the offstage villain, f