[Christi Paul, Cnn Anchor:] If you know someone who should be a CNN hero, let us know, CNNHeroes.com And make some great memories out there today. We're so grateful for your company as always.
[Martin Savidge, Cnn Anchor:] Thank you very much for watching. There's much more ahead in the next hour of CNN's NEWSROOM. We turn it over to our colleague, Fredricka Whitfield. Hey Fred.
[Whitfield:] I love you Christi, Martin. You all have a great day and a great morning.
[Paul:] You too.
[Whitfield:] Very busy.
[Paul:] Yes.
[Whitfield:] We've got a busy afternoon ahead straight ahead. Thanks so much. It is 11:00 Eastern hour. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. NEWSROOM starts right now. Extremely busy weekend for presidential candidates as well especially for Republican contenders with just four days to go before the next GOP debate right here on CNN. Take a look right now at live pictures from Iowa where Republican Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and frontrunner Donald Trump are campaigning today. They're going to tailgate parties outside Iowa versus Iowa state football game. In other politically key states, Ben Carson is hitting the trail in South Carolina, and John Kasich and Carly Fiorina are stumping in New Hampshire today. The candidate pool did shrink by one, just yesterday when former Texas governor Rick Perry said he was suspending his campaign. And then, take a look right now, live pictures out of Columbia, South Carolina, and this is where Democrat Bernie Sanders will be campaigning. He is conducting a number of town halls today in South Carolina. Right now, Benedict College, a historically black university, is where he will be for this town hall. That's scheduled to get under way at any moment now. All right. That's where we also find senior political reporter Nia Malika Henderson. So Nia Set the stage for us. Bernie Sanders will be there at the historically black college and university there at Benedict. Why this college? And what will his message be?
[Nia Malika Henderson, Cnn Senior Political Reporter:] Well, this college is really a must stop campaign stop for anyone who wants to reach out to the African-American community. Think back just in March, Barack Obama came through here and he had a really packed rally talking about education reform. He campaigned here. Very frequent visitor to Benedict College as well as Hillary Clinton in that neck and neck race for voters in South Carolina. What we do know is that Bernie Sanders is struggling to get traction with African-American voters. Hillary Clinton has really devised a southern strategy, a firewall that really is built on support from African-Americans. If you look more recently at polls of voters here in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton is getting about 70 percent support of African-American voters. If you think about Biden, he's getting about 20 percent. Bernie Sanders, not very well known here. He's at 3 percent. Today, he's going to be on stage talking about
[Whitfield:] So, Nia, we also know that Bernie Sanders' message has been, you know, government belongs to the people, not necessarily billionaires and, that he says he wants to end outsourcing. But I wonder his message today, particularly at this HBCU, is he targeting his message primarily to the African-American audience when he takes the stage there?
[Henderson:] You know, we see him do some of that because if you remember, he did face some criticism from the Black Lives Matter crowd, a movement that is very much interested in criminal justice reform. He has since hired a press secretary who is African-American and she typically introduces him and talks about issues like criminal justice reform, like raising minimum wage, like affordable college. These are issues, I talked to people in the crowd, those are the kind of issues that they want to hear today. I imagine he will tailor his message to the crowd but he's also going to take questions. Normally when I've been at Bernie Sanders' town halls it's all Bernie. He talks maybe for about an hour, almost in like a lecturing style. Today he said he's going to take questions. That will be a different kind of feel for this event. Also different is there's not much Bernie Sanders signage on the stage. There's a giant American flag, there's a giant South Carolina state flag and there's Benedict College signage as well. They have purposely done this. They know that as of now people don't really know Bernie Sanders. They see this as an introduction of Bernie Sanders to African-Americans. They hope that his message resonates. And they'll just have to see. It could be the beginning of a long fight. They know it will be tooth and nail with Hillary Clinton who has done much better outreach to African-Americans.
[Whitfield:] All right. So Nia Malika Henderson, thank you so much there at Benedict College there where at any moment Bernie Sanders will come out and he'll hit that stand, that podium right there. And when he does talk, we'll take as much as we can live. Thanks so much Nia. All right. Republican front-runner Donald Trump is campaigning in Iowa today. He's expected to tailgate at the Iowa state football game in the next few hours. A new Quinnipiac poll shows that Trump leads in that state with 27 percent. Ben Carson climbing to 21 percent, Ted Cruise is third with 9 percent followed by Jeb Bush at 6 percent. And Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who led in Iowa back in July, has now fallen to tenth place. CNN political reporter Sara Murray is following Trump today. So with four days to go before the next debate, you know, is the main focus of criticism, you know, from the other GOP candidates?
[Sara Murray, Cnn Political Reporter:] Yes, the interesting thing about today is, you know, we're going to have Donald Trump basking in the glory of leading in the polls here in Iowa, and then a lot of other guys who want to knock him off of that pedestal. One who has been particularly vocal about that is Senator Rand Paul who is campaigning in Iowa yesterday and said it's time to go to combat with Donald Trump, who he called a fake conservative. So I imagine we're going to hear more from that today when all these guys are at the tailgate. And we'll
[Whitfield:] And then Ben Carson putting up another strong showing in these latest polling numbers. You know, is it his message, is it his personality? Is it that he said he doesn't want to engage, you know, in a tit for tat kind of fight with Donald Trump? Is that what's driving his popularity?
[Murray:] When I talked to voters in Iowa and they talk about Ben Carson, they sort of see Trump and Carson as both Washington outsiders who speak their mind. But Ben Carson really aligns more with the values, particularly in a place like Iowa, which has a strong evangelical population. They see Ben Carson, they saw him at a prayer breakfast, they see that he was a doctor. And when you dig into these polls, his numbers about trustworthiness, whether he shares the same values as you, they're just through the roof. And I think that's a lot of what we're seeing behind Ben Carson's rise right now. He's sort of the more morally palatable alternative to Donald Trump.
[Whitfield:] Ok. And of course, Donald Trump trying to ride that wave of momentum particularly after getting off the late night with Jimmy Fallon last night. We've got a little bit of that coming up straight ahead and we'll dive into that. Sara Murray, thanks so much. Appreciate it. And don't forget. Of course, it's days away now, CNN will air the next Republican presidential debate that's Wednesday starting at 6:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. And there are new details now, today for the hunt for the Arizona freeway sniper. Police have detained someone they're calling a person of interest. Oscar de la Torre Munoz was taken into custody less than 24 hours ago and charged with possession of marijuana. But he has not been charged in connection with the highway shootings. Over the last two weeks, 11 vehicles have been struck by bullets or projectiles of some sort on or around the Interstate-10 area which runs through heart of Phoenix. Joining me right now on the phone is Bart Graves, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety. So thanks so much for being with us. Help us understand, what does this mean, this person of interest; that this person was detained but the charge involves marijuana possession. Where is this investigation going?
[Bart Graves, Arizona Department Of Public Safety:] Well, he is someone that we wanted to talk to regarding this case and others. He is not our prime suspect. He is just someone that frankly the media's been focused on. But we did spend a lot of time with him yesterday. We did not charge him specifically with these crimes, the I-10 shootings. But he did have some other problems in the criminal justice system. So I think it's an outstanding warrant that we booked him on.
[Whitfield:] Sorry to interrupt but what makes him particularly interesting as it relates to the shootings?
[Graves:] Well, that we we have been getting a lot of tips, and a lot of leads. It's fair to say that some of those resulted in us locating him and talking to him. So it is our hope and police work that one lead points to another so that's why we talked to him.
[Whitfield:] And then there were at least a couple of reported shootings or some sort of projectiles hitting vehicles this week that didn't necessarily fit the pattern of the earlier strikes. What are the parallels that you see, and what are the concerns that you have as to whether it is the same person or persons responsible or if there may be some copycat out there?
[Graves:] Well, I think Director Milstead was quoted in the local paper here as saying that we have three different scenarios we're looking at. We're looking at a couple of weekends ago bullets, actual bullets being used fired at some vehicles. And then pellets being used since then and that's, I think, what you're referring to this week. A road rage incident that occurred where shots were fired over the Labor Day weekend. Three different scenarios that we're working and investigating right now. And we, frankly, don't know if this is the result of one person or not.
[Whitfield:] So how do you allay the fears of motorists, those who are trying to avoid I-10 altogether or those who simply can't? It is part of their regular commute.
[Graves:] The director's been very clear about this is a personal decision of whether people want to use Interstate 10 or not. The Phoenix Metroplex is a sprawling, constantly crawling urban area and people have to because of the growth of suburbs in the West Valley, people have to use Interstate 10 to get to south 10 if they're working or school or wherever. So we're finding that a lot of people are still using Interstate 10. We're not seeing a huge decrease in traffic. Our concern, and they calling us with tips about unusual behavior they see on the road, and by the road, and we're checking all of those out no matter how inconsequential these people think it may be, they're calling us anyway. And that's what we've encouraged them to do.
[Whitfield:] All right. Bart Graves, thank you so much. Keep us posted. I know you have had a lot of work to do as this investigation is ongoing thank you. All right. Still ahead, a former tennis star, James Blake, body slammed by an officer in a sting operation gone wrong. CNN's Boris Sanchez has the details on the officer who did this Boris.
[Boris Sanchez, Cnn Correspondent:] Fred, James Blake has a serious message for the NYPD. You'll hear his response to this incident, plus the officer who took him down is now facing even harsher scrutiny. We'll explain, next.