Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
U.S. Government Shuts Down; Germany's Leadership Tops U.S., China and Russia; U.S.-Russia Ties Still Strained under Trump; Trump's First Year in Office. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired January 20, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): We continue with the breaking new this is hour on CNN, now into the government shutdown. This is where we are and we look at what's next. I'm George Howell.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And I'm Natalie Allen. Four hours ago, the U.S. government officially began shutting down.
HOWELL: Friday it all started with a glimmer of hope. The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, went to the White House to meet one- on-one with the U.S. president, Donald Trump.
ALLEN: But that was just the beginning of a day filled with drama, arm-twisting and political posturing, lots of it. Democrats wanted to use their leverage to get a deal on the so-called DREAMers. Republicans wanted to use their leverage to get funding for border security.
HOWELL: Shortly after 10 o'clock on Friday night, senators started casting their votes. The procedural measure needed 60 votes to pass, it only got 50 votes. Five Democrats voted with the Republicans. Four Republicans voted with the Democrats.
ALLEN: The White House blamed the outcome, calling Democrats -- blasted the outcome, calling Democrats, quote, "obstructionist losers." Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, also criticized the Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: almost everybody on both sides doesn't understand how we ended up here because most of this stuff we agree on. Well, there's only one reason we ended up here, the shoehorning of illegal immigration ended this debate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: That was the majority leader. We also heard from Democrats, Democrats calling this the Trump shutdown, pointing out that the Republicans have control of the executive branch of the House and Senate. So it took almost two hours for the vote to become official and that is almost unheard of.
ALLEN: Through that time, even though the outcomes was a foregone conclusion, the finger pointing and the arm twisting continued. Our Phil Mattingly on how it all went down.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, at one point on Friday, with the clock ticking towards that midnight deadline, it appeared, at least according to some Democrats, that there was an opening to prevent a shutdown, to prevent the Republicans in Congress, the Democrats in Congress, the president, Republican Donald Trump in the White House, from actually seeing things totally fall apart.
Senate minority leader Democrat Chuck Schumer, over to the White House for a one-on-one meeting with the president, a meeting where Senator Schumer would later say he put money for the wall, something Democrats have been deeply opposed to, on the table for a potential deal, which is a deal that would never come.
Even furious lobbying at the last minute after the government had already shut down into Saturday morning on the Senate floor in live view for everyone, there was no solution, no resolution and one clear fact: things are probably going to get worse before they get better.
Instead of trying to figure out the pathway forward, instead, Republicans and Democrats now framing who is to blame.
For Senator Schumer, there's only one answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHUMER: Every American knows the Republican Party controls the White House, the Senate, the House. It is their job to keep the government open. It is their job to work with us on a way to move things forward.
But they did not reach out to us once on this C.R. No discussion, no debate. Nothing at all. It was produced without an ounce of Democratic input and dropped on our laps.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: And for Republicans, it's very clear. They believe and they're very comfortable, aides tell me, in their current position, the idea the House passed a four-week spending bill. That bill includes a six-year extension of the Children's Health Insurance Program. That is where they stand.
They are unlikely to move off of that. Maybe they trim a week off the length. But that's about as far as they're going to go.
Now compare that to where Democrats are. Democrats have made very clear, DACA, the DREAMers, a huge issue for them. And not only do they want some agreement on what happens next with that issue, they want actual policy proposals on the table before they are willing to agree to anything.
The divide between where the two parties right now are is immense. The question is what's going to bridge it. The answer, at least according to some people, could be the president. But nobody's technically sure what his role will be going forward.
Obviously, he had the meeting with Senator Schumer. Didn't lead to anything. Senator Schumer saying the president needs to take yes for an answer while the White House, in a statement before the vote actually was finalized, calling Democrats "obstructionist losers." Clearly there's a long way to go and no clear resolution -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Based on the last government shutdown five years ago, this process will be expensive for taxpayers --
[04:05:00]
HOWELL: -- costing approximately $6 billion a week.
ALLEN: That's why they are coming back to work today to maybe resolve this. But there's also confusion over what exactly happens when the federal government quits many of its functions to help us understand it. Here is CNN's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 850,000 government workers locked out of their offices and left out of their paychecks. That's what happened when the government shut down in 2013. And it would likely be the same this time.
Many services would be stopped or delayed for the public. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, would back down on its flu tracking, even as the nation faces the worst outbreak in several years. Some senior nutrition programs would be paused; 200,000 passport applications went unprocessed during the shutdown in 1995.
Congress funds much of the science research being done in this country. In 2013, the shutdown meant that some experiments went on hold and suffered costly losses of data.
In space that same year, NASA put a monitoring system for looking for dangerous asteroids on hold for about two weeks, reportedly. A big one, by the way, is expected to brush by Earth on February 4th.
As for the 417 national parks, the administration wants to keep limited access where ever possible. But services would be reduced in all 19 of the Smithsonian's museums, would shut their doors after this weekend. Beyond that, not everybody would be out. For example, in the
military, there's a lot of worry about the impact on the military. There would be some discomfort no doubt for some military families if their pay was delayed, other benefits, that sort of thing.
But Congress has previously gone out of its way to keep that from being too egregious. And the troops would stay on duty. Indeed, roughly 1.9 million government workers would keep at it since their jobs are considered essential: air traffic controllers, security officers, food inspectors, prison guards.
Social Security checks would also go out as would be expected for the senior population out there. The post office would remain open. But in virtually all of these cases, people would be working without pay until the shutdown is over. That could cause them some difficulties undeniably. And it could all be pricy for us, too. One current estimate, shutting down the government could cost taxpayers $6 billion a week.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: All right, Tom Foreman, thank you so much.
So this shutdown punctuates a milestone for this president. It's his first year in office. So let's put this in perspective with Inderjeet Parmar. Inderjeet, a professor of international politics at City University of London, live in our London bureau this hour.
Inderjeet, let's start with this news of the hour, this government shutdown here in the United States. You see Democrats blaming Republicans and Republicans blaming Democrats.
But with regard to leadership, the U.S. president actually had some thoughts on leadership in the face of a shutdown before he became president. Let's listen and we can talk about it on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top. And the president is the leader and he has got to get everybody in a room and he's got to lead.
If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the President of the United States. He's the one that has to get people together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: From the president's mouth to the questions that some are asking, Inderjeet, about where the president's leadership is now.
INDERJEET PARMAR, CITY UNIVERSITY LONDON: Well, we know from President Trump and Citizen Trump's style, he flip-flops, depending on the situation and he's always going to put himself in a good light as having provided the best possible leadership. And anybody who disagrees with him, has got to be something negative about them. But I think, when we look at the back and forth of the blame game,
which has now started, we tend to see the rivalry between the two parties and so on. But actually, we rise above and we look at it a little bit from a higher perspective.
What we see is actually a great deal of agreement between the two sides on a range of things. The Mexican wall, which is deeply unpopular, the Democrats are offering something in the tune of $18 billion over 10 years for that to be built, with an immediate down payment close to $2 billion.
They were offering support for thousands of more ICE agents to continue various kinds of raids and extra spending on the military budget.
So what this really seems to be pointing toward is less of a disagreement but a ramping to the Right around an very anti-immigrant agenda which appears to be supported by both main parties.
Even if the Democrats are holding out on the DREAMers' question, the fact is, the Republicans and President Trump are going to even more extreme lengths to remake, what is an American?
[04:10:00]
PARMAR: And what is their attitude toward immigrants at all?
We saw last week from some of the remarks reported that President Trump prefers Norwegians and people like them as opposed to people from countries like -- areas like Africa and Haiti and so on.
HOWELL: Hmm. So again, the breaking news at this hour, certainly the government shutdown. But this day, in particular, gives us a chance to look at a year in review of President Trump's first year in office, looking at his approval ratings at historic lows.
But let's take a snapshot also of how the rest of the world has looked at this. Gallup's latest survey puts his approval rating across 134 countries at a historic low of just 30 percent. Let's take a look at the graphic, if we have it, this significantly below the two presidents that came before him: 2008, under George W. Bush, global approval of the U.S. leadership was at 34 percent.
Also let's talk about the U.S. influence around the world. Germany, now the top rated global power; China edges out the United States by a hair and Russia trails by just a few points, Inderjeet.
So a year in review with the snapshot of global leadership, your thoughts?
PARMAR: Well, President Trump made it very clear from, during the campaign, that if you like there's a clear line from the inaugural address a year ago, then the U.N. -- the speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September and then the national security strategy in December and actually, yesterday, General Mattis with the national defense strategy. That is the United States sees a large part of the world, including
China and Russia, as enemies and as revisionist powers and they have declared America first. And they have decided that they are going to extract and transact as much business as possible to be able to extract as much -- sort of for their vital interests.
They have, basically, put forward a very powerful military style and a militarism and they've downplayed diplomacy. So when you look at the status of, for example, Rex Tillerson, the State Department, large numbers of diplomats and ambassadors unappointed, soft power is gone. Hard power is back.
And I'm afraid people have reacted. Nations and states and the people of other countries have reacted and decided that the United States is not really that interested, if you like, in cooperation as much as they are in extracting their own value from relationships.
And they are now looking to other leadership, looking far more after their own interests. And I think this loosens up the international system in various ways, except for the military aspects of it, which appears to be tightening around what the United States is doing in East Asia and in Europe and in the Middle East.
HOWELL: It is important to point out though, however, the president's base supportive of the things that we have been seeing playing out over the last year. So, certainly, we'll have to see how this plays out in the year head.
Inderjeet Parmar, thank you so much for your time, live for us in London.
ALLEN: The North Korean threat has loomed over Donald Trump's first year in office. Coming up here, we'll go live to Asia to see if maybe year two will be any different.
HOWELL: Plus, we look at the impact of the Trump presidency on U.S. ties to Russia. NEWSROOM pushes on after the break.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:15:00]
(HEADLINES)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOWELL: One year ago, Donald Trump came to office promising a hard line on Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: From this day forward, it's going to be only America first. America first.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: And the president has ratcheted up the pressure diplomatically via speeches and of course via Twitter. Mr. Trump fired some verbal missiles at North Korean leader all year, among other things, calling him Little Rocket Man.
HOWELL: Mr. Trump did, however, get China to help back new U.N. sanctions against North Korea, mostly in response to the nearly 2 dozen rockets launched by Pyongyang over the last year.
ALLEN: That brings us to today, where North and South Korean athletes are one step closer, who would have thought it, to competing together at next month's Olympics.
HOWELL: At this hour, Olympic officials have gathered at their headquarters in Switzerland to decide if they will allow the athletes to take part. That's because regulation deadlines to participate have already passed. Officials from the two countries agreed to include North Korean athletes as sort of an Olympic diplomacy.
ALLEN: Paula Hancocks is following it for us from Seoul, South Korea.
Certainly Kim Jong-un has Olympic ambitions but he is holding fast to his nuclear ambitions as well.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Natalie. And I don't think anyone is surprised by that. He's been fairly consistent in the message, that he will continue to push forward on that nuclear and missile program.
What we have seen, though, is certainly a difference from North Korea in the way that it is dealing with the United States. A year ago, before the U.S. president, Donald Trump, was inaugurated, you heard North Korean officials suggest that they were looking for a different relationship, a new relationship with the new, incoming Trump administration.
There almost seemed to be some hope that there could be some kind of a breakthrough and they haven't actually launched any missiles for about three months over that period between the election and the inauguration.
But then, of course, it degenerated fairly quickly. There were more missile launches, there were personal attacks on the North Korean leader by the U.S. president and also a quite remarkable statement at the United Nations General Assembly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The United States has great strength and patience. But, if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing and able but hopefully, this will not be necessary.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HANCOCKS: So not only did the relationship between Washington and Pyongyang deteriorate significantly over the year, also the personal relationship between the leaders, the fact that there were these personal insults that Mr. Trump was --
[04:20:00]
HANCOCKS: -- using, Little Rocket Man, quite often bringing that up in tweets and in speeches. And then you also had an unprecedented response from the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, rebuffing everything he had said.
So it's quite remarkable just how bad the relationship got between the U.S. and North Korea. Clearly there are no diplomatic ties between the two countries. So it was never good to start with.
But from the beginning of the year, that hope that there could be a different relationship to where we are today, where North Korea is effectively sidelining the United States when it comes to negotiations, they are looking south. They are saying to South Korea, let's discuss the upcoming Winter Olympics.
And as I said, the U.S. effectively being sidelined.
ALLEN: Absolutely. And both leaders criticized this past year for their sophomoric antics toward one another, over something so important as nuclear weapons. Paula Hancocks for us there in Seoul, we thank you.
HOWELL: We want to go now from the Korean Peninsula to Russia. President Trump campaigned on having better ties with Moscow. But one year into his presidency, where are things now?
ALLEN: The Trump campaign has faced accusations of Kremlin collusion and Russia was hit with new U.S. sanctions over its role in Ukraine and the U.S. election.
HOWELL: Let's bring in CNN's Matthew Chance, following the story live from the Russian capital this hour.
Matthew, it's good to have you with us. One year on the books now.
Do Russians feel that things are things better off or worse off than before?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's certainly true, I think, to say that this year has not panned out the way Russians anticipated it would at the beginning of the year, when Trump was inaugurated back in January of last year.
Literally, they cracked open bottles of champagne on the floor of the Russian parliament because they believed that this wasn't just a victory for Donald Trump and the Republican Party, it was a victory for them as well because as a candidate, Donald Trump had voiced all these opinions that were very much in step with the opinions of the Kremlin on issues like NATO expansion, on the cooperation on the war against terrorism and international secretary.
Trump even hinted at recognizing Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. So they thought this was going to be a transformational presidency when it came to the U.S.-Russian relationship. In fact, it didn't work out that way.
And what the Kremlin says is that the failure of the U.S.-Russian relationship to improve has been one of the major disappointments of the past 12 months.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHANCE (voice-over): It didn't take too long for the high hopes to fade, for the disillusionment toward Trump in Russia to really set in.
[03:25:00]
CHANCE (voice-over): He may have been portrayed as the Kremlin's preferred candidate. But his vision of better relations with Moscow never materialized, the victim of an anti-Russian media witch hunt, according to frustrated Russian officials.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop spreading lie and false news. This is good advice for CNN.
CHANCE: Are you concerned the investigations into Russia will turn up more secret meetings?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please, stop the spreading lies and false news.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you give us a question?
TRUMP: I'm not going to give you a question. You are fake news.
CHANCE (voice-over): But it's not just insults Russia and Trump shared. Despite denials of contact, details emerged of private meetings between Russian nationals and Trump campaign figures.
CHANCE: Why did you arrange that meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come join me for the show tonight.
CHANCE: Yes, we will definitely.
CHANCE (voice-over): Like organized Trump talent, set up by a representative of a Russian pop star (INAUDIBLE) Donald Trump Jr. released his own e-mails showing that he had been told the meeting was to pass on damaging intelligence about Hillary Clinton.
CHANCE: Did the Russian authorities give your family information to pass on to the administration?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talk to my lawyer. CHANCE: We talked to him. He said you wouldn't comment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I wouldn't comment.
TRUMP: Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along with Russia?
Wouldn't that be nice?
CHANCE (voice-over): It was that promise to transform U.S.-Russian relations that was one of Trump's most consistent campaign themes. His criticism of NATO, calls for security cooperation with Russia and hints at ending sanctions all made him Russia's preferred candidate.
Trump's failure to deliver amid investigations into collusion and tightening sanctions was all the more disappointing to the Kremlin, despite two meetings and numerous phone calls between the two leaders.
CHANCE: Do you sometimes sit in your office in the Kremlin, thinking about how badly U.S.-Russia relations are going and regretting the day that Donald Trump was elected?
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): What we see is merely the --
[04:25:00]
PUTIN (through translator): -- growth of anti-Russian hysteria. And, yes, I regret it. It's a pity because acting together, we are more able to solve the acute problems that exist in the world.
CHANCE (voice-over): But a year on from Trump's inauguration and the grand celebrations held in Moscow as he was sworn in, that dream of a U.S.-Russian partnership seems more distant than ever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE: George, there's no sense in which it's getting any closer, either, that dream because in the next couple of weeks, the U.S. Congress, if all goes according to plan, is expected to consider ratcheting up the economic sanctions against Russia.
That could plunge the already difficult relationship between the two countries into an even deeper crisis. Back to you.
HOWELL: Snowy day there in Moscow, Matthew Chance on the story. Thanks, Matt.
ALLEN: So again, our top story, the U.S. government is shut down on this, the one-year anniversary of the Trump presidency. Ahead here, we'll have the first reaction from the White House.
HOWELL: So as the shutdown begins, so does year number two of the Trump administration. A look ahead at what to expect in the second year as NEWSROOM pushes on after this.
(MUSIC PLAYING) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. We are live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: I'm George Howell. Following the breaking news this hour, if you are watching coast-to-coast in the States, Hawaii, Alaska, the U.S. government is shut down, this after the Senate failed to clear a critical vote on government spending.
ALLEN: A procedural vote late Friday night needed 60 votes to pass. It fell 10 short.
[04:30:00]
ALLEN: Five Democrats voted with the majority Republicans. Four Republicans voted against the short-term funding bill.
HOWELL: It's not known how long the shutdown could last. But each party, one blaming the other.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCONNELL: I think our friends on the other side took some bad advice, really bad advice. I'd hate to have to be trying to explain this myself. They ignored the governors, including seven Democrats, who wrote Congress, begging us, begging us to extend S-CHIP for 9 million children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHUMER: Tomorrow marks a year to the day President Trump took the oath of office on the Capitol steps. Unfortunately, a Trump shutdown would be a perfect encapsulation of the chaos he has unleashed on our government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Immediately after the government shutdown went into effect, as you can imagine, the blame game began.
HOWELL: Predictably Democrats blame Republicans, Republicans blame Democrats. But earlier, our Jeff Zeleny framed it most accurately, an American shutdown. Here is Jeff with more on where we go from here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SR. WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: On the one-year anniversary of President Trump's inauguration, a federal government shutdown. The Senate failed to pass the House-passed version to keep the government open. That funding deadline expired at midnight on Friday.
President Trump will be waking up on Saturday here at the White House, now presiding over his first government shutdown. Not since 2013 has there been a government shutdown.
Then, of course, it was President Obama's, a 16-day government shutdown, to be exact. At that point, then Donald Trump, private citizen Donald Trump, said it was the president's responsibility to lead the way out.
Now indeed it is this president's responsibility to do the same. Of course a predictable fight broke out Friday evening between Republicans and Democrats.
The White House called it a Schumer shutdown, of course referring to minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Senator Schumer called it a Trump shutdown. Regardless of what you call it, it is an indeed an American government shutdown.
But the White House came out with a blistering statement at the stroke of midnight about the shutdown.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said this, "Senate Democrats own the Schumer shutdown. Tonight they put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children and our country's ability to serve all Americans."
So, again, going after Democrats there, the White House press secretary. What they failed to mention were four Republicans; four key Republicans also voted against this in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, first among them, who, of course, had been close to this president.
Now the pathway forward is unclear. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell proposing an three-week solution to February 8th. President Trump will still have to weigh in on that.
But the underlying issue remains the same, immigration. That is the central issue here that neither side has been able to agree upon. Democrats were pressing for immigration to be included in the spending measure. Republicans balked at that. That's why the shutdown is happening.
President Trump, starting his second year in office, here in Washington, was scheduled to fly to Florida. Next week was scheduled to be in Davos, Switzerland. Both of those trips are in question as the shutdown now becomes official -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Let's talk about it now with our guest, Leslie Vinjamuri, professor of international relations at SOAS University of London.
Leslie, thanks for being with us. We have that statement from the White House. We have not heard, specifically, from President Trump. And one analyst said earlier on our program, what he wants from this is to look good, no matter what.
How does he wake up on this anniversary of his first year as president, looking good, when the government is shut down?
LESLIE VINJAMURI, SOAS UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: I think it is the sort of the ultimate capturing of what we have seen over the last year, which is a lot of dysfunctionality and a lot of division, a lot of partisanship within the United States. And of course reflecting across the world and now turning up in those global leadership polls that have come out from Gallup, with the United States' approval from people around the world shrinking from 48 percent down to 38 percent.
This won't play well for Donald Trump. Of course he won't like it. But for Americans, more generally, of course, vital services, the crucial services will remain open. But the bigger story here, of course, is the failure of the Congress to strike a deal.
Remember, this is in the context of only nine days ago, the very inflammatory and profane language used by the president to describe immigrants from Haiti and Africa. So it's hardly surprising the Democrats don't want to give ground on the DREAMers, on immigration. This is just incredibly important. But the symbol here is tremendous. And I think it really --
[04:35:00]
VINJAMURI: -- draws us back into what we have seen over the last 12 months of Trump's leadership, which is an America that isn't articulating and speaking the values and taking the leadership line that it has in the past and for so many years, not only have the policies begun to change, some haven't, surprisingly. But the general stance of this president and of the country has dramatically changed. And it's reflected in the polling.
ALLEN: Right. And what are the issues, Leslie, going into year two that are the most critical for the world and whether or not the United States is now a major player in those issues?
VINJAMURI: I think, of course, if we are going to talk foreign policy crises, obviously North Korea is certainly at the very top of that list and there has been some movement as we have seen recently. Donald Trump wants to claim responsibility. It's not clear that his bluster and the harder line and the uncertainty of where the administration stands on this has pushed it forward.
Nonetheless, there is some movement. We'll have to watch that certainly during the Olympic Games, a very interesting moment.
I think the Iran deal really is a very big question over the next several months. The president, much against his will, has -- against what he initially intended to do -- and I think he's not been happy about it -- has continued to certify that he's supporting that deal America remains in. But remember, in this last round, he's attached very difficult conditions that the Europeans and others re-negotiate the terms so that they consider a deal to look at ballistic missiles, to look at Iran's other activities and making demands that could easily lead to, eventually, the chipping away at and even unraveling of that deal.
That would be very dramatic change from where we were heading 12 months ago. So I think watching that and watching of course the ongoing politics of the current administration's stance with respect to Israel, Jerusalem, the embassy and how that plays out in the context of the Middle East.
But I think, perhaps one of the biggest stories, of course, is going to be this ongoing competition and relationship between U.S. and China, which should be where a lot of the international focus is.
Remember that, under the Obama administration, there was a lot of energy put into negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, opening up that region and really forging America's position through a trade agenda in that region.
And one of the first things that Donald Trump did was to take America out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And we have seen China, over the last 12 months, continue to articulate a regional, if not a global vision.
There's lots of reasons to be skeptical that China could ever displace the U.S. as a global leader. Nonetheless, its numbers, if you look at these global leadership polls or even 1 percentage point above America's right now and that strategic relationship is really one that needs to be managed carefully and needs to be watched very closely on a number of dimensions.
ALLEN: Certainly, President Trump was very successful in his attempts to wipe out the legacy of Barack Obama on so many issues. Leslie Vinjamuri for us, Leslie, as always, we thank you.
We also saw this first year of the Trump presidency and the downfall of ISIS. We'll get into that part of our story as we push on here, looking at one year of a Trump presidency.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:40:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOWELL: His first year in office, before he entered one year ago, President Trump vowed a more aggressive strategy against ISIS, a terror group already losing ground at the time but under Mr. Trump's tenure, it lost cities like Raqqa, its self-proclaimed capital, and Mosul.
Intense fighting left much of those cities in ruins.
ALLEN: As president, Mr. Trump also laid out a plan that could lead to more U.S. troops in Afghanistan. And he accused Pakistan of aiding terrorists. In his first tweet of 2018, he said this, "The United States has
foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan with little help. No more."
HOWELL: From the president's approach to ISIS in Syria and Iraq and U.S. cooperation with Pakistan, let's put it all into focus with our senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, live in Irbil, Iraq, and our correspondent Alexandra Field, following the story in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Thank you both for being with us today.
Arwa, let's start with you.
With regard to the two areas where the U.S. is focused on fighting ISIS and terrorism, what are the perceptions one year on from Iraq, from Syria, with the prospect of more U.S. troops possibly just seeing how this plays out moving forward?
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's very difficult for people to give you precise answers when you ask them about how they feel about the bombardment of Iraq and Syria that did lead to the eventual pushout of ISIS from these areas.
Remember, candidate Trump promised to bomb the hell out of ISIS. And that most certainly was one campaign pledge that he did fulfill. But at the same time, also bombing the hell out of the civilian population that ISIS they was holding hostage.
He designated more authority to U.S. military commanders on the ground, when then allowed them to pursue a more aggressive policy. Now militarily speaking, this was welcomed by the Iraqi security forces and by the forces inside Syria that the U.S. has been supporting.
But when it came to the civilian population, especially in two key cities, Mosul and Raqqa, it was absolutely catastrophic, it was devastating. We spent two days in Mosul in the old city and you still see bodies --
[04:45:00]
DAMON: -- littered down some of the alleyways. You still see people digging through the rubble, looking for the remains of their loved ones. And this is six months after fighting there ended. One of the local officials we spoke, the head of the municipality, said that by his estimates, there might be thousands of bodies that are still buried underneath the rubble.
And people really don't understand how it is that this, "bombing the hell" strategy, which is what it seems to be and what it really felt to be to them was the only way to eradicate ISIS from these various different areas. More broadly speaking, there's a lot of skepticism about what
America's intentions really are. But when you extrapolate from that, there is a certain sense of relief perhaps that, this time, the U.S. is intending to stick it out and not just withdraw its military troops as soon as combat is over.
HOWELL: That indefinite U.S. presence in Syria, I remember Rex Tillerson saying that it's crucial to national interests to maintain a military and diplomatic presence. So we certainly see, Arwa, where things go from there. Thank you.
Let's now cross over to Alexandra Field.
Alexandra, so with regard to the rift between the United States and Pakistan, what is the perception of relations now there and where things go from here?
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, George, the message that was coming from Washington wasn't simply just different than the message that Washington has sent in to Islamabad in the past. Of course the means of delivering it was entirely different.
When we talk about President Trump, we so often have to talk about his Twitter account. That is what took people here so much by surprise when they began the year, getting that cryptic warning from President Trump seemingly out of nowhere, talking about the aid that the United States is giving to Pakistan and then proclaiming "no more."
That's what prompted frankly an angry response in Pakistan. You had the national security committee quickly refuting those tweets, rebutting it, defending their own counterterrorism efforts here, calling the language coming from the United States "totally incomprehensible."
But again, this is not dissimilar to what we have heard from Washington in the past. They have long said that Islamabad needs to do more, that Pakistan needs to do more to root out the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network within its borders and they used the suspension of aid to incentivize cooperation from Pakistan in the past.
The Trump administration started its year with similar language directed at Pakistan. When they announced the Afghan policy, they said that they would expect Pakistan to do more to support these counterterrorism efforts, to do more to root out those terrorists.
But again, it was this tweet that was dropped seemingly out of nowhere that left people here scrambling to understand what it all meant. And it really took days to get some clarification from Washington, which has come within the few weeks that have followed.
We now understand from officials in Washington that what the president was talking about or what it has been translated to is the fact that you'll see a suspension now in terms of security assistance to Pakistan. That could affect about $1 billion worth of annual spending. But the
message from Washington is also that this is not a cut to aid, again, a suspension. And they're saying that they believe it will incentivize more cooperation from Pakistan, an ally of the United States -- George.
HOWELL: All right. A lot of changes to talk about. Alexandra Field, live in Islamabad, Pakistan, Arwa Damon live in Irbil, Iraq. Thank you both for your reporting. And we'll stay in touch with you.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We'll have more news right after this break.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:50:00]
(SPORTS)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ALLEN: Good or bad, President Donald Trump has certainly had an impact around the world in his first year as the U.S. president. But one statement, in particular, threatened to unravel decades of delicate foreign policy in the Middle East.
In December, he announced the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and would move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv.
HOWELL: Keep in mind, that was one of the president's campaign promises. But the move sparked international condemnation and violent protests that took place throughout the Middle East.
The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, slammed Mr. Trump, saying the U.S. is no longer an honest broker in the peace process. Now the U.S. is cutting its contribution to U.N. humanitarian aid for Palestinian refugees.
ALLEN: Let's talk more about it with CNN's Ian Lee. He's live for us in Jerusalem and Ben Wedeman in Cairo, Egypt.
First to you, Ben, the issue of Jerusalem has some leaders snubbing the vice president as he arrives in the Middle East and Egypt is the his first stop.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed. Vice President Pence, his trip to the Middle East was twice rescheduled because of domestic complications in the U.S. and also because of the very angry reaction in the region to that decision to move -- rather to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Originally, Vice President Pence was supposed to meet with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar (ph) and the Coptic pope. Both of those individuals declined to have those meetings in addition to, of course, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, who -- those three were supposed to meet during his visit to the Middle East.
Now we understand that he will meet today with Egyptian president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and afterwards have a dinner with him. But that's it. Then he goes to Amman, Jordan, where he is only going to be meeting with the Jordanian King Abdullah before going to Israeli for two very full days of meetings there.
And really if you look over the last year, what we see is sort of a dog's breakfast of confused American policies in the Middle East. The Trump administration wants its cake and eat it, too.
For instance, it wants an anti-Iranian alliance on the one hand but on the other it's alienating many of its Arab allies by this decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. So if the first year is anything to go by, the second year of the Trump administration will be interesting, to say the least -- Natalie.
ALLEN: Thank you, Ben, live there for us --
[04:55:00]
ALLEN: -- in Cairo.
Now to you, Ian, in Jerusalem. Certainly the Palestinians so angry over that unilateral move by Mr. Trump. And now they say the U.S. won't be involved in any peace talks. But the issue is where it goes from here. Certainly, the vice president will be welcomed by Mr. Netanyahu.
IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. He does have a full day. But to point out that that is a full day or his trip is packed with meetings with Israeli officials and doing things with Israel.
Now Palestinian officials say frankly they don't want to meet with him. And this comes after that Jerusalem announcement, which angered Palestinians to a point where they said that the United States can no longer be part of this peace process; that the U.S. has to take a back seat. And it's time for someone else to step in and try to be a neutral arbiter to this process and that PLO's central council came out and said that they want the United Nations to take up that mantle to help bring about this peace process.
But it seems like we are the furthest away we could possibly be, especially after that Jerusalem announcement. Now in President Trump's speech, when he made that announcement that they were going to move the embassy and that Jerusalem would be the capital, he said that this measure does not determine the final status of Jerusalem.
But then, he came out later, in a tweet, and said he took Jerusalem off the table, which many Palestinians and many people in the Middle East see as the United States taking this unilateral action. And, Natalie, this is just what's making so many people mad and it is going make it difficult to move forward with the peace process.
ALLEN: It will be interesting to see the reaction to Mike Pence as he arrives there in Israel and in Egypt.
Ben Wedeman, Ian Lee, as always, we thank you both.
HOWELL: The full impact of the government shutdown won't be felt for several weeks. But if it goes that long, that's the question, there are some people who will feel it immediately. One poignant example: the people who clean congressional offices.
ALLEN: Yes, check this out, this tweet from Democratic congressman Seth Mulden in Massachusetts.
He said, "I was just stopped by the older gentleman collecting our office trash.
'Excuse me, sir, did they pass the vote?'
'No, they did not. I'm sorry, sir.' I said.
'Then I need to stop working by midnight,' he said anxiously, 'so I need to hurry to finish.'
The spirit of the American worker."
Thank you for watching our program. I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: That really puts it in perspective, doesn't it?
I'm George Howell. Our coverage continues on the U.S. government shutdown with "NEW DAY" right after the break.
