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Trump University Settles Lawsuit; Hardline Conservatives Tapped for Key Posts; Trump Presidency Looms over APEC Summit; Zika Is Here to Stay; Bollywood Actor Attacked in Paris; U.K. Teen Wins Battle to Have Body Cryopreserved. Aired 12-12:30a ET
Aired November 19, 2016 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Staying out of the courtroom. The U.S. president-elect settles a lawsuit that will prevent him from having to testify about Trump University, this as he makes several controversial picks for his national security team.
Plus: frozen for the future. A teen who died of cancer gets her wish to be cryogenically preserved.
From CNN World Headquarters, I'm Cyril Vanier, welcome to our viewers around the world. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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VANIER: Friday was a busy day for U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump, he continued to put together his team and tapped hardline conservatives to fill key national security posts. We'll tell you a lot more on who he picked in just a moment.
First, though, Donald Trump agreed to settle his Trump University case, a settlement that cost him $25 million. It covers about 6,000 former students of Trump's now defunct real estate seminars. And it will keep the president-elect out of court as he prepares to take over the White House.
Here's CNN's Paul Vercammen with more.
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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dan Petrocelli, the lawyer for Donald Trump, emphasized this both in court and when he came outside after, he said in no way is the president-elect acknowledging any fault or liability in this case.
He said this will allow President-Elect Trump to focus on the matters at hand, which is fighting for America.
DAN PETROCELLI, TRUMP LAWYER: We felt very confident in our position but, at the end, President-Elect Trump was prepared -- set aside his personal interests and focused on the monumental task that he faces in bringing this country together and fighting for the important issues and all the people that he represents.
He wants to spend his time and his energy, his focus, his talent, his ability on fighting for Americans.
VERCAMMEN: And many times leading up to this trial, for years, Donald Trump had said he would never settle but, again, his lawyer seemed to be happy with this deal and both sides were jovial during the proceedings and after the proceedings. It didn't seem for either of them that they had been bludgeoned into this move.
In fact, Jason Forge, who is the plaintiffs' attorney, a former hard- charging federal prosecutor, said that they were not going to require any payment from the plaintiffs. He also said that this would be spread out and that every single plaintiff would receive at least half of their money back from what they paid for those classes, Donald Trump University.
They said all along that they felt the university was nothing more than a sham. Now back to you.
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VANIER: And besides settling the Trump University case, the president-elect was also announcing his choices for his national security team. They are Republican senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general, House Republican Mike Pompeo as CIA director and retired Army lieutenant Michael Flynn for his national security adviser. As Sara Murray reports, they are all highly controversial.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump unveiling the first layer of his national security team, a trio of picks signaling the president-elect has little interest in moderating the hard-line views he campaigned on.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: We have to be tough and we have to be strong.
MURRAY: Trump announcing retired General Michael Flynn for national security adviser, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Congressman Mike Pompeo for CIA director, each one of them known for their unyielding and at times controversial views.
LT. GEN. MICHAEL FLYNN (RET.), FORMER DIRECTOR, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: Yes, that's right. Lock her up.
MURRAY: Flynn has been lauded as a talented battlefield intelligence officer. But he could fuel concerns that Trump White House is a haven of intolerance. He's made a habit of voicing concern about Islam, which he once called more of a political ideology than a religion.
Sessions is known for his staunch anti-immigration positions in his two decades in the Senate, but he's also echoed Trump's calls for Hillary Clinton to face a special prosecutor for her use of a private e-mail server, a threat Sessions could turn into a reality if he's confirmed.
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: The evidence indicates to me that this should be fully investigated. I cannot say Mr. Comey has not completed a full investigation, but it seems like he has not.
MURRAY: As for Pompeo, the House Intelligence Committee member has been a fierce critic of Clinton's handling of the 2012 attack in Benghazi.
REP. MIKE POMPEO (R), KANSAS: How come not a single person lost a single paycheck connected to the fact we had the first ambassador killed since 1979? How come no one has been held accountable to date?
MURRAY: The Kansas Republican arguing there was a cover-up surrounding Benghazi as the panel investigating the failed to find new evidence of wrongdoing on behalf of the Obama administration or --
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MURRAY: -- Clinton.
Trump unveiling his picks with little pomp and circumstance, blasting out a press release with his selections as he remained ensconced in Trump Tower. The president-elect now set to hunker down at his gulf club in Bedminster for a weekend of nonstop meetings.
Among those on his schedule, 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, former chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public schools Michelle Rhee and General James Mattis.
A source tells CNN Romney has long wanted to serve as secretary of state, but a Cabinet post in a Trump White House would surprise many, given the tone between the two men during the campaign.
MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud.
TRUMP: He's a sad case. He choked.
You know what a choke artist is?
MURRAY: The lingering question is whether Donald Trump would actually choose a more moderate Republican, a Democrat or even one of his former rivals to fill one of these top level cabinet positions or whether the series of marathon meetings this weekend is essentially just for optics -- Sara Murray, CNN, New York.
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VANIER: CNN intelligence and security analyst Bob Baer joins us now from New York.
Bob, I want to ask you, what do the picks tell us about the next administration and the agenda that's going to be pursued? BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: It tells me that Trump is going ahead with a policy he ran on, which isn't always the case. These are hardliners. Flynt (sic) has got very definite partisan views, Pompeo does as well.
These guys are hardliners. They're far right. And I expect they're going to carry those changes out once they take over, take their positions in January.
VANIER: Each of these picks, each of these men comes with their own dose of controversy.
But tell us about their abilities.
Are they well suited to do the jobs that they are likely going to do, provided, that is, that they are confirmed by Senate for those who need to be confirmed?
BAER: Well, Flynn is definitely controversial. He is not liked within the military particularly. His connections with Russian have been questioned, getting paid by the Russians, working for RT, the Russian television.
You know, as far as I'm concerned he says some very smart things but they get progressively more radical and more, again, partisan.
And as for Pompeo, he is a -- he's from out of Congress and the CIA doesn't like people out of Congress because they are partisan and he was very partisan on Benghazi. He is very partisan on Iran and I expect he's going to take those positions to the CIA.
You know, the CIA has been politicized for years and it's not getting any better. I was counting on Trump -- I was hoping that Trump would appoint a professional in that position.
VANIER: About Mike Pompeo specifically, does it concern you -- should it concern us and Americans that he doesn't have specific and long- standing background in the intelligence field?
BAER: I think it should concern us that he doesn't really know the intelligence field. I mean intelligence is very complicated. The world has gone beyond the Cold War. It's not Russia against the United States. The Middle East in particular is a complete mess and it's very difficult to understand.
For instance, how can we be, you know, going after Iran, yet in the field and in Iraq, we are providing Iran's air force?
How do you reconcile that?
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VANIER: You are describing the current situation.
BAER: Yes. But he's going on and he's saying let's go after the Islamic State with our air force, which means in effect allying with Iran. And yet then turn around and go after Iran and rewrite the nuclear treaty and if we don't, go back to isolating Iran. Nobody has explained how you are going to play out this gambit.
VANIER: That's Mike Pompeo; Mike Flynn as well has been very vocal on cracking down on radical Islam.
Do you think the two of them may drive American foreign policy in a new direction?
BAER: I don't think they will be making any changes in the Middle East.
Where do you even start?
A lot of terrorism, the ideology is coming out of Saudi Arabia. No one has come up with a solution of how you get Saudi Arabia to stop supporting radical Islam.
And what do you do about the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations?
If you move the embassy for instance to Jerusalem and not establish a Palestinian state, you're -- it's -- none of these -- all these people have appealed to the domestic audience but I've heard none of them address the actual problems that exist in the Middle East or with China or with Russia.
What do you do about Russia and Crimea?
You simply can't say, hey, Putin is someone we can deal with. We could really deal with him.
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BAER: We can talk him into leaving Crimea and places occupied by force.
So what do you do about the Eastern Ukraine?
VANIER: Bob, let me just be clear here. You are telling me essentially that they are hardliners, they're a lot more right wing than people who have been in power and guiding American foreign policy for the last four to eight years.
But you are also telling me that they are constrained by America's interests -- is that correct?
And that they are not going to be able to change that much on the international scene?
BAER: They're not dealing with reality, no. This is -- I think -- I think Donald Trump was surprised he was elected. He didn't have a transition team in place. He didn't have coherent policies and now he is tapping hardliners on the Hill and whatever he can find them for a lack of better options.
Hillary Clinton had a transition team in place. She thought she was going to win. And I think Trump woke up and said, what do I do now?
And he is casting around for anybody, names that he thinks he can trust but this isn't Trump's world, picking foreign policy people. He is truly at a loss.
VANIER: All right, Bob Baer, CNN intelligence and security analyst, thank you very much.
BAER: Thank you, Cyril.
VANIER: Barack Obama is heading to his final international summit as U.S. president. He will probably be facing some tough questions from world leaders on trade and on his successor, Donald Trump, as he prepares to take office.
The World Health Organization lowers the international emergency level on the Zika virus but says concerns remain. We'll tell you why -- just ahead.
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VANIER: The incoming U.S. president will likely be a hot topic at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru. U.S. President Barack Obama landed in Lima just a couple of hours ago. And world leaders at the summit are expected to throw Mr. Obama some questions about free trade and trade agreements, which President-Elect Donald Trump opposed throughout his campaign.
Here's Athena Jones.
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ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Obama arrives here in Lima, facing some difficult conversations during this APEC summit. There's no denying that the White House expected a very different result from the election. President Obama said many times that he did not expect Donald Trump to be elected president.
Well, now that Donald Trump has been elected president, there's a lot of uncertainty about the direction that U.S. foreign policy is going to take in the coming years.
One thing we know is that President-Elect Trump has been skeptical of a series of international agreements. Chief among them is the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He has called that 12-nation trade deal a disaster.
We know from congressional leaders on Capitol Hill that that deal is not going to come up for a vote in the lame duck session of Congress. That means that it is dead. That's a big blow to the Obama administration's efforts to rebalance foreign policy --
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JONES: -- in the U.S. toward the Asia Pacific region, which is a powerhouse on the economic front and important militarily as well.
The White House says that the president will try to make the case that the U.S. should remain engaged in that region. But it's unclear just how effective he's going to be able to be.
We know that China stands ready to fill the void left by the failure of the TPP with its own massive multi-nation trade deal. The White House says that that deal would lower or eliminate tariffs but wouldn't have the same high standards, standards protecting things like intellectual property, the environment, labor standards.
It wouldn't have those same high standards that the TPP has. And it would leave U.S. companies at a disadvantage. So this is going to be potentially a difficult trip for President Obama, who is scheduled to meet with China's president, Xi Jinping, and Australia's prime minister Malcolm Turnbull during the trip. Back to you.
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VANIER: The World Health Organization has declared that the Zika virus is no longer a global public health emergency. But concern over the virus is far from over. The mosquito-borne illness caused widespread fear when it was linked to pregnant mothers and birth defects in Brazil earlier this year.
World Health Organization officials say the change in Zika status will help them focus now on a long-term approach to fighting the disease.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not downgrading the importance of Zika. In fact, by placing this as a longer-term program of work, we're sending the message that Zika is here to stay and WHO's response is here to stay in a very robust manner.
We are dealing with long-term issues here, we're dealing with management of neurological complications in children and adults. We're dealing with family planning issues. We're dealing with health system issues.
We're dealing with maternal reproductive health issues and we're dealing with a long and comprehensive research and development agenda that needs to be multiyear and has been published by WHO just last month.
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VANIER: And do bear in mind that pregnant women are still being urged to take great precautions in mosquito-prone areas.
Now the U.N. says rebel groups in Eastern Aleppo in Syria have agreed in principle to let in food and medicine. But Syria and its main ally, Russia, have not approved the relief plan. Activists say Friday was one of the bloodiest days yet in Aleppo with
46 people killed. A word of warning: this video does contain some graphic footage. Activists say it shows some of the victims of the government airstrikes that have been just relentless over the last four days.
More than 1,000 people have died in Aleppo since the cease-fire collapsed two months ago.
In neighboring Iraq, ISIS is claiming responsibility for an attack on a wedding in Anbar province.
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VANIER (voice-over): Officials say a suicide car bomb drove into the party, killing 20 people and wounding 40 more. Witnesses told CNN that the groom was among those killed.
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VANIER: The Iraqi air force says it killed 26 ISIS fighters in airstrikes near Mosul on Friday. The first location was near the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul. Airstrikes hit an ISIS vehicle and several positions. A similar strike was carried out near the village of Omar Khan (ph), south of Mosul.
A Bollywood actress who fought off attackers in Paris says she will not let the incident change her life. Masked men attacked Malika Sharawat (ph) and her boyfriend at his home in November. They both suffered minor physical injuries but are traumatized. She described the assault to CNN.
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MALIKA SHARAWAT (PH), ACTOR: Coming back at night around 9:30 with my boyfriend and we were in the apartment building, in the lobby. Suddenly three men just attack us from behind. Their faces were covered with masks. They had tear gas cans in their hands.
And it was an absolutely horrific experience. But having said that, I mean, it's really hit home that there are millions of underprivileged men and women, children, who live with this kind of terror on a daily basis because of their circumstances and because where they stay. So it's been a very, very humbling experience for me.
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VANIER: American reality TV star Kim Kardashian was robbed just four kilometers away in early October. Paris police declined to say whether the crimes may be linked.
A cancer-stricken teenager is granted her unusual wish to have her body frozen so that, someday, somehow, she could be brought back to life. That is only part of the story. That's all coming up on CNN.
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VANIER: A British teenager who lost a battle with cancer has won her fight to have her body cryogenically frozen. CNN's Samuel Burke explains the bizarre legal case and the odd science behind it.
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SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A final wish from a young British girl just 14 years old, who knows she won't survive the rare form of cancer she is battling.
"I have been asked to explain why I want this unusual thing done. I'm only 14 years old and I don't want to die. But I know I'm going to. I think being cryopreserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up, even in hundreds of years' time.
"I think that in the future they might find a cure for my cancer and wake me up. I want to have this chance. This is my wish."
The girl's divorced parents disagreed with each other about carrying this out, the father writing, "Even if the treatment is successful and she is brought back to life in, let's say, 200 years, she may not find any relative and she might not remember things and she may be left in a desperate situation, given that she is only 14 years old and will be in the United States of America."
Friday we learned the judge allowed the procedure to be carried out a few weeks ago. The girl's lawyer said it wasn't revealed to the public initially out of respect for the family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Having a very experienced children's solicitor involved and in addition to that, the medical professionals and a social worker, who happened to be on the case already, enabled the judge to be confident that this was an articulate, intelligent girl, who had clearly thought very hard about what she wanted.
BURKE: To cryogenically freeze a body, the patient should be pronounced dead as soon as possible after the clinical death. So when this young girl died here in London on October 17th, the first step was to immediately cool the body using an ice bath.
Then the blood is flushed out and replaced with a special non-toxic anti-freeze to prevent ice crystals forming, which would damage the cells. After that, the body is packed in dry ice for transportation. And when it arrives at the final destination, the body is slowly cooled down to even lower temperatures over several days and then placed in a storage tank filled with liquid nitrogen.
Many experts say cryogenics has never been proven to work, remaining in the realm of science fiction. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) cryonic (ph) patients are refugees from (INAUDIBLE) because they won't survive if they stay here. And it's a very uncertain trip to the future. But that might still may be better to be in (INAUDIBLE) future than being dead.
BURKE: There are only three cryogenic centers in the world, Moscow, Arizona, and Michigan, where this young girl's body is now, with her hopes that it won't be her final resting spot -- Samuel Burke, CNN, London.
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VANIER: Wow.
All right. One of the perks of my job is that I get to talk frequently to a lot of people who are very passionate about what they do. One such person is Derek Van Dam, our meteorologist.
And I know you are very excited about the topic you're going to be telling us about today. There's a new satellite launch that's going to improve essentially the way weather is read.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Revolutionize, actually. So the question I have for you is, you're a father. I'm a father to be.
What if there was technology available to improve lead time in preparation for your family for an oncoming tornado or a flash flood or even a solar storm?
VANIER: OK. I'll take that.
VAN DAM: OK, well, we probably want that information. The United States has got the answer. They are about to launch Saturday evening what is known as GOES-R, this is the geostationary operational environmental satellite. It's going to --
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VAN DAM: -- dramatically change the way you and I look at weather and improve the accuracy of what we predict.
This is the Atlas capsule that the satellite is encapsulated within that is about to be skyrocketed into space, 36,000 kilometers above. It will take 14 days to get there. We went behind the scenes at Lockheed Martin in Denver, Colorado, to see how they developed this. Take a look.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This spacecraft will impact 300 million people a day.
VAN DAM (voice-over): This is GOES-R, the next-generation of U.S. weather satellites that will revolutionize the way you get your daily forecasts. The information from this satellite will be like going from analog to ultra HD resolution with one flip of a switch. This is what weather satellite imagery used to look like, grainy black and white images that were hard to read. And this is what it will look like now with this super high-resolution imagery from the GOES-R. The first weather satellite, Tiros I, was small and circular with two television cameras that polar orbited the Earth.
By the 1970s, NASA began the GOES missions, geostationary satellites that continuously monitored the U.S. instead of circling the Earth. Today's GOES-R satellite will also have an even more advanced sensor that will record images simultaneously in 16 different wavelengths, 11 more than our current GOES satellite.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In six months it will return more data than all the other U.S. geostationary weather satellites have downloaded in the past 40 years.
VAN DAM (voice-over): For several years it has been like we upgraded our forecast models to high definition but were still shooting with standard definition cameras. But now by starting with a higher resolution image, with more detail, the goal of prediction models meteorologists use will instantly improve.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a severe storm somewhere in the United States over a 1,000-by-1,000 kilometer area they can take a picture every 30 seconds. So that means as you string those together, you can have almost a not quite real-time movie of a storm as it's developing.
VAN DAM (voice-over): But it's not just earthly disasters the satellite is protecting us from. The spacecraft also has a solar ultraviolet imager that will monitor what is called space weather or rather eruptions from the sun that can impact Earth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trillions of dollars of our economy is weather related or can be impacted by weather and the GOES satellite helps to provide warning.
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VAN DAM: You know, there are a lot of nervous scientists looking at this very closely because this is an $11 billion venture for NASA. So if it fails tomorrow there will be a lot of heads rolling.
VANIER: All right, Derek Van Dam, always a pleasure. Thank you very much.
Thank you for watching. We'll be back with the headlines just after this.
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