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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Britain Votes to Leavr EU. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 24, 2016 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:30:02] ALI VELSHI, ECONOMIC ANALYST: And that's where I'm more on Trump's side on this one. Why this can happen in the United States because fundamentally, it was take to control of your country back ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

VELSHI: ... and working people don't like trade deals. If you're in the richer country, it hasn't worked for them, it's worked for companies and has worked for the so-called Elites and the immigration issue, and combined, it's just a general, were have nuts that haves control the economy, even though the leaders of the leave campaign were haves. They were highly educated ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

VELSHI: .... elites in society but that's where i see the similarity. It's a have versus have not campaign. Not the details.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. I have to -- I could talk about this forever. One last quick comment, John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That is a flow-through, absolutely. The haves versus have-nots. You've heard that echo. And there are differences between the left and right and ethnic nationalism but there's a flow through on-trade in particular and there's something else is different about the U.K. which is for all the influx of immigration, they haven't had the history of value assimilation. And that's something that's more native ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

AVLON: ... to the United States. So that is a check on some of these forces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't celebrate the melting pot.

BANFIELD: Just great, great thoughts from all of you and I really do appreciate it. Especially getting all of these voices in at once in such a critical issue. Sara, thank you, John Avlon, Errol Louis, Ali Velshi Ryan Lizza, thank you to all of you. I appreciate hat.

Look at your numbers right there with 15 points away from the ouchy 500 and we've dancing and toggling back and forth between it over the last couple of hours. How's your old portfolio there? Did you check it? Don't. Probably better not. We're going to take you back down at the Wall Street, see how things are going there. The shock waves, reverberating or people finding this a haven for cheap stocks? That's next.

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[12:35:06] BANFIELD: Breaking news, guys. There's the big board. 497 points down. That doesn't sound very good, does it? All of this after U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union. You may have heard the term Brexit, you may have known last week what it was but I guarantee you know this week what it is. It's the decision, the referendum in that country to leave the European Union and now it's official, although, it hasn't actually happened yet.

So these numbers that you're seeing now, I don't know it want to get use to them, but who knows that they're going to get better, faster? Huge market drop this morning, by the way. If you slept in, it's good thing. Because the first minute, one minute of trading, it dropped over 400 points.

We've had our people all over the map today running after this story chasing it. Alison Kosik is been at the New York Stock Exchange. I know she's available right -- yeah, you were back. Hello. Alison Kosik ...

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hello.

BANFIELD: Walk me to -- you know, I always asked what's the mood there. I'm not so sure even wan to know what the mood is because I figured It's pretty busy. But just this whole idea of volatility, the numbers that keep bouncing back and forth between 450 and 500. What is the thing that actually looked like in the end?

KOSIK: OK, so what you're seeing, as you watch the DOW kind of accelerate at those losses and you're seeing these losses stick at this point, you seeing just the turning of the market after we got news that it didn't expect. You really saw the market expecting voters in Britain to vote to stay in the E.U. The market didn't expect Britain, you know, British people to vote to leave the E.U.

So, this is was the market that was caught off guard. You know that because throughout the past week or so you've seen investors buy-in into the market. So the selloff is kind of an unwinding of those positions and unwinding in a big way. Now some say this is a one off, another say that the gloom of the uncertainty of the outcome of this vote, something that that gloom could hang over the market for some time. Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: All right. Alison, keep an eye on things for us, if you will. Certainly appreciate that.

KOSIK: OK.

BANFIELD: Just a couple of months ago in London, President Obama was warning voters to reject Brexit. So what is the United States president saying about it now? We're going to get you reaction directly from the White House and that's important when you look at numbers like this. That's next.

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[12:42:38] BANFIELD: So there you have it again. The big board now up and over down 500 points. And this is been sort of a story of the morning. I said it before. I'll say it again. If you slept through the first minute of the market, probably not a bad thing. It lost 400 points in one minute and then it just got worse from there. But going back and forth between about 450 down to 500 down. We'll see how the next few hours play out.

On this side of the pond, the exact ins and outs of the British vote seem to be less important than the question of how exactly it's going to impact people right here in the U.S. Like your 401(k) and what about the exchange rate? The pound sterling. How does that affect you? Your mutual funds. European assets and the portfolio. How about that whole global ripple effect. What's going to be different next time you travel to Britain?

We have a couple of answers for you and more in London. Nile Gardiner is conservative commentator who runs the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation. And Nicolas De Santis is also with us now.

So, what I'd like to ask the both of you, because I really like to frame this with respect to how Americans may not even have known what Brexit was last week and are really getting a fast schooling in what it is this week . How the two of you can be diametrically -- I don't think they can hear me. Can you two hear me? You know what I think the bugaboos of live television. Wait, can you hear me? I think it might be happening. Can you both hear me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can hear you loud and clear. Thank you.

BANFIELD: This is magic. Well, thank god it's Friday. All right, I almost lost the two of you but thank god you're with me and with me would be the key clause here. You both have differing viewpoints on why Brexit was either good for the U.K. or bad. And maybe from an American perspective, you can help me muddle through it. Nile, why don't you try first?

NILE GARDINER, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: Sure. I think Brexit actually is a great opportunity for Britain and for the United States. I think it's a declaration of sovereignty and self-determination by the British people. I view Brexit as a very positive development. It's going to lead to a stronger Britain on the international stage. I think it's going to lead to Britain being a better ally and partner for the United States.

[12:45:04] It's going to strengthen the Anglo-American special relationship and also I think it's going to advance economic freedom and economic prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic. So a lot of benefits, I believe, for the British people and also for the American people as well.

BANFIELD: So Nicolas, you know, if you read the writings of Nile, you suggest, why would it be great to be shackled to big entity along way away that makes your decision about taxes, et cetera, how can that not be a terrible thing?

NICOLAS DE SANTIS, GOLD MERCURY INTERNATIONAL: I completely disagree with this comment. I think basically this is not about taking control back. This is about losing control. We're not now going to be having a say in what the rest of Europe is doing. We're going to lose trade deals. The Spanish market collapsed today. Many markets are collapsing. The pound is collapsing. If that's what Brexit wanted to achieve, they've done a fantastic job.

BANFIELD: Nile, he's not wrong. I am looking at the big board right now. We're down another 30 points since this interview began and no one really thinks this is just a tiny little blip because it's going to take at least two years or so to actually extricate yourself from the E.U. Why are you saying this is still a good thing?

GARDINER: Yeah. Yeah, I think, you know, the markets are going to stabilize. I think there's a bit of uncertainty at the moment and that's impacting the markets but in the long run, I think you're going to see those markets stabilizing. The British economy is in very good shape, actually.

I might mention, actually, the Spanish economy is not doing so well and you have youth unemployment around 50 percent in Spain. And Spain, of course, one of the biggest members of the European Union. The E.U. actually hasn't been great for Spain. The single current I think is been bad for Spain but Brexit is about sovereignty. The right of the British people to make their own decisions, to make their own free trade deals, to decide their own laws. It's about supremacy of British courts and it is about taking back control.

And I think that, you know, the same values that the American people hold so dear, the principles of freedom, liberty, economic freedom, these are the exactly same ideals actually that the British people hold dear as well. I think that Americans should welcome Brexit as something that is a tremendous opportunity, actually, for America and for Britain.

BANFIED: And so, Nicolas, why wouldn't, say, a President Obama visit whoever your next prime minister is going to be after David Cameron shockingly stepped down this morning and actually crop up a nice bilateral trade deal between the two nations? I mean it's not as though the U.K. isn't the -- what? Fifth largest economy in the world. It's a global power. How could that have all just evaporated?

DE SANTIS: Well, I think first going back to the Spanish economy and unemployment. When your friends are in trouble, you go a help them you don't abandon them. So the strategy of they're in trouble, let's leave them and it's a corpse, is really a complete lack of solidarity.

Why did Obama come here and his speech clearly, you can see that he mentioned the thousands of Americans that died in the beaches of Normandy in Italy, and many other parts of Europe to defend and create peace in Europe and the U.S. been defending that peace. And many people say that NATO has been defending that peace and in the NATO charter, nothing says there that they will stop war -- among the members of NATO, it's an external defense force. So yes, that's why Obama came here and told us, stay in the E.U.

BANFIELD: Nicolas De Santis and Nile Gardiner, I appreciate both of you joining me. I certainly hope you can both get along after this because it's just seem a little surprising from this side of the ocean that you're so diametrically opposed over there. Thank you for your time and thank you for your insight. Do appreciate it.

DE SANTIS: Thank you.

GARDINER: Thank you very much. Thanks.

BANFIELD: We'll back right after this.

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[12:52:50] BANFIELD: Brexit. U.K. decides. Last week, you might not have known what Brexit was and today you do because of this. The big board. Dow's down 533 points, folks we've been open for couple of hours. Its 400 points in the first minute. That's the kind of day this Friday. Those of us in the U.S. had no say in this. This is ripple effect. We're on the sidelines of what was probably the best described as a messy divorce over there in Europe. We're getting some reaction now from the highest levels of government. The President himself, President Obama after hearing the news made this statement and I'll quote him directly. How about that. "The United Kingdom and European Union will remain indispensable partners of the United States."

Michelle Kosinski is watching things on -- unfold at the White House. She joins me live now. This is not a great week for the president. And he's probably not to keen about this decision given the fact it was only a few weeks ago, Michelle, he was touting the benefits of staying in the union.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is a surprise. I mean he went over there at the end of April and delivered this -- and what end it up being a kind of lecture to the British people, which didn't sit well with many of them. He spent something like 20 minutes talking about why he felt that the U.K is stronger in the E.U. and the U.S. as well is stronger if there's an alliance, a coalition.

All right, remember, the president is all about partnerships, working collectively. So he made this impassioned plea for Britain to essentially come to its senses, at least in the White House's view, and stay in the E.U. So this had to have been a surprise. I mean many people here have been watching the results come in late into the night.

You have to think that the White House was doing the same. So we heard the statement initially from the president. Definitely a disappointment. Definitely a concern about what comes next specifically to U.S. markets. How much this volatility will affect the economy here. How long the volatility will last. Of course, it's in everybody's best interest for this not to be catastrophic.

So today, the White House is trying to put the best face on it. Emphasize the relationship that the U.S. has with both the U.K. and the E.U. And we also heard from Vice President Biden today who's in Ireland speaking at a university and he spoke to what he sees as some of the fears that he finds congruent in the U.S. that may have led to the Brexit. Listen.

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[12:55:16] V.P. JOE BIDEN, (D), UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: "But as the United States having a long standing friendship in the United Kingdom, one of the world's great democracies. We fully respect the decision they have made. And I want to ensure all of you in the room that America's special bond with the United Kingdom runs deep and it will endure. And our relationship with Ireland and the European Union will remain the corner stone of our global engagement."

BANFIELD: The vice president. Michelle, thank you for that. Just a quick reminder to our folks out there that DOW was down 517 points. Michelle is going to keep watching from the White House and Wolf Blitzer is going to keep watching things with CNN. He starts right after this.

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[13:00:08] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ACHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London, 7:00 p.m. in Brussels. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks --