[Ripley:] Democratic candidates descended on Iowa over the weekend for a campaign trail rite of passage. The Iowa state fair. Yes, there's the 800 pound butter cow, 800 pounds of recycled butter. Also pork chops and corn dogs or in the case of Cory Booker who happens to be vegan, it was fried peanut butter and jelly. Good old American fried fattening food. And they all spent 20 minutes standing between hay bails on the Des Moines registers political soap box trying to compete with all the other things going on delivering their stump speeches and fielding questions from an amazingly well informed perhaps smallish crowd. Amid all the goofy fun, there was a series goal of course. They're there trying to convince Democratic voters to choose them in Iowa's first in the nation caucus. CNN's Rebecca Buck has more from one of the most important stops on the political calendar, the Iowa state fair.
[Rebecca Buck, Cnn Political Reporter:] Well, as presidential candidates converged on Iowa this weekend, the discussion of guns in America remained in the spotlight. For some candidates taking more aggressive policy position than they ever had before. Senators Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Amy Klobuchar became the latest Democratic candidates to urge Walmart to stop selling guns in their stores. Meantime Beto O'Rourke speaking to CNN from El Paso after the tragic shooting in his community said, he has changed his mind on the idea of national gun licenses and he now supports them. Senator Cory Booker was the first Democratic candidate for president to back this proposal. And we watch through the fairgrounds with him this weekend and asked him if he expects more Democrats to line up behind that proposal. He said, he is optimistic that more and more Democrats will be getting on board. However, Senator Bernie Sanders, not there yet. We asked him if he would support licenses for all guns, not just assault weapon. And here's what he had to say.
[Sen. Bernie Sanders, , U.s. Presidential Candidate:] Well, it's something I want to think about. I said then, 30 years ago, that assault weapons are weapons of war. They are designed to kill people in very rapid ways. And we saw that in Las Vegas and we've seen it recently in Dayton and El Paso. And I believed then and I believe now that we should ban the sale and distribution. And I believe that if you own an assault weapon, that weapon should be licensed. And I want to have more conversation and learn more about what else we might be doing.
[Buck:] Now, of course this weekend in Iowa and here at the state fair was also about these candidates continuing to build support in the crucial state of Iowa which will hold the first in the nation caucuses in February of next year. Kamala Harris signaling with a five-day bus tour frim river to river across the state that she is going to be taking Iowa seriously and intends to compete here. Meantime, some polling released last week showing Elizabeth Warren clearly on the rise in the Hawkeye state. She was greeted here at the Iowa state fair with an unenthusiastic reaction and one of the biggest crowds of the weekend. Former Vice President Joe Biden is still the frontrunner according to polling here in Iowa and nationally. But he said this weekend, when asked about Warren's rise, that he's not worried, it's still early, this is a marathon and of course, Will and Alison, we still have six months to go until the Iowa caucuses. Will, Alison?
[Kosik:] A deadly fire in Erie, Pennsylvania. Five children killed, one adult injured. The fire breaking out early Sunday morning in a three-story home that also served as a day care center. At least four of the children who died were staying overnight at the facility. I want you to listen to a neighbor describe the panic as he tried to help.
[Unidentified Male:] I heard screaming from my porch so I came down the street and saw two kids on the roof. I got them of the roof, I made entry in the house, I got low, I tried to go inside. I made it to the open living room and couldn't go any farther. I still can't breathe. It's tragic. I just hope the kids made it.
[Kosik:] The Harris family day care is listed as a provider of 24-hour, 7-day-a-week child care service. The cause of the fire still under investigation.
[Ripley:] Ten consecutive weekends of violent clashes in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy activists facing off with riot police. And now protesters swarming the city's airport.