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Government Runs for Three Days; Former Terrorist Warns South Korea; V.P. Pence Stands Firm on Trump's Recognition of Jerusalem; Trump to Attend Forum in Davos; Arab Lawmakers Protest Pence, Walk Out Of Knesset; More Emotional Testimony On Fifth Day Of Nassar Sentencing; Political And Financial Leaders Gathering In Switzerland; Trump's Empty Desk Goes Viral. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired January 23, 2018 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR:: The U.S. government shutdown is over. But the political posturing is not. How the blame game could impact future negotiations.
The American vice president's speech to Israel's parliament outlines a timetable for the controversial U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem.
Plus, South Korea has begun calling this year's games the peace Olympics. But a former North Korean terrorist tells CNN, don't trust Kim Jong-un.
Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, I'm Rosemary Church, and this is CNN Newsroom.
It is back to work in just a few hours for hundreds of thousands of U.S. government workers. Donald Trump has signed a bill ending the government shutdown after three days. He was absent from public view during weekend negotiations, but late Monday he tweeted this. "Big win for republicans as democrats cave on shutdown. Now I want a big win for everyone, including republicans, democrats, and DACA but especially for our great military and border security. Should be able to get there. See you at the negotiating table."
Well, the spending plan comes with a catch. It only lasts three weeks. Congress will have to come up with another fix by February 8th.
So who gets the blame for the shutdown? Well, that depends on who you ask. Here's CNN's Jim Acosta.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The aye are 81, the nays 18...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR:: After pushing back that it was a democratic shutdown, the party's leader in the Senate Chuck Schumer announced it was about to end.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) UNITED STATES SENATOR: After several discussions, offers, counteroffers, the republican leader and I have come to an arrangement. We will vote today to reopen the government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Roughly three days into a shutdown designed to press for a solution for the young undocumented immigrants known as the DREAMers. Democrats gave in to republican demands to reopen the government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITCH MCCONNELL, (R) UNITED STATES SENATOR: I think if we've learned anything during this process is that a strategy to shut down the government over the issue of illegal immigration is something the American people didn't understand and would not have understood in the future. So I'm glad we've gotten past that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: But missing in the GOP victory lap was President Trump. Instead the press secretary read a statement from the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH HUCKABEE-SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Quote, "I am pleased that democrats in Congress have come to their senses."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Throughout the president kept out of view except for a few official White House photographs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: What the president did clearly worked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Now comes the hard part. While the deal funds the government for the next three weeks it comes with a non-binding agreement to find a solution for the DREAMers. In exchange for protecting the DREAMers the White House says it wants to build a border wall and family based immigration or chain migration and scrap a lottery program for some immigrants.
One senior administration official express the hard wing White House view by saying, "a wall does not equal border security." The White House won't even say if the DREAMers will receive a path to citizenship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: That's part of the negotiation process. But right now, again, we want a permanent solution for that program.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Add to that this new Trump campaign ad that pins undocumented immigrants as criminals and democrats as their accomplices.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants. President Trump will fix our border and keep our families safe.
ACOSTA: The White House seems to defend the act.
SANDERS: I think that if people are unwilling to secure or borders that there are unwilling to end chain migration, unwilling to end the visa lottery system, unwilling to fix all of the problems that we have in our immigration system, and aren't willing to negotiate and actually do things that fix that system that we know to be problematic. Then, yes, that would be a problem and certainly allow for future incidents to take place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And there's no guarantee there won't be another shutdown in three weeks, as the president's budget director described it, shutting down the government has its perks.
(BEGIN VOICE CLIP)
MICK MULVANEY, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: The reason that obviously I'm heavily involved with this on is that the Office of the Management Budget is charge with, you know, sort of implementing, running a shutdown. In fact, I found out the first time last night the person who technically shuts the government down is me is kind of cool.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: As to why the president was nearly invisible during the shutdown, a source close to the White House tells us that was by design, that's because aides to the president thought they did not want the shutdown to be about him.
Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.
CHURCH: So let's talk more about this with Larry Sabato, he is the director at the University of Virginia Center of Politics. Great to have you with us as always.
[03:05:05] LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR POLITICS: Thank you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So the government is open for business. But the whole shutdown drama has taken a toll on any trust that may have once existed between the two parties. And it appears that Chuck Schumer's performance throughout these three days has unnerved some democrats. Was he outmaneuvered, and did he make a terrible mistake using the DREAMers issue to shut down the government.
SABATO: I think he was outmaneuvered. I think he recognized it and decided to cut his losses. And you can understand why he would do that. This was a terribly designed move. I don't know exactly what the plan was but it was poorly executed.
You know, we've had 19 government shutdowns since President Ford in the mid-1970s. And the one thing we've learned especially since the big ones that began in the Bill Clinton administration, is that they don't work. It's a terrible tactic to use. It is not a substitution for legislative negotiation and compromise. It's not a substitution for an election. And yet parties persist in trying it another disaster.
CHURCH: Now the White House took a victory lap with the democrat back down but President Trump was nowhere to be seen, very unusual, where the cameras are, President Trump was not there, why is that?
SABATO: He certainly wasn't involved, that's for sure. He may have had a few phone conversations with republican leaders. But he wasn't the guy he claimed to be in the election, the man who could always make a deal. He was the only one who could fix these things. Why? I think it's because at this point he doesn't have a lot of credibility, even with many of the republican leaders.
They won't say it publicly. But they've realized they can't rely on his word. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said as much before the shutdown began when he said it would be helpful if we knew what the president was for. What kind of bill he would actually sign. Mitch McConnell is a very measured person. He wouldn't say something like that unless he was really frustrated.
CHURCH: I think too, what we've all seen with President Trump, we saw him at the bipartisan meeting with all the cameras coming into the room, and he said I will sign anything you put in front of me, then he went back to the White House and his advisers got to him and he changed his mind.
And so people have been given this impression that he is a puppet. As far as his advisers go. Is that perhaps why we didn't see him, he's feeling some level of vulnerability here?
SABATO: I doubt Donald Trump ever feels a level of vulnerability. I think he recognized that if he got involved, he would probably muck it up. That he would make it less likely that there could be any agreement to reopen the government.
So, whoever convinced him not to get involved, did him a favor. As far as Donald Trump is concerned, you can apply many words to the first year of the Trump administration. But one of them is clearly inconstancy. what Donald Trump says one day has nothing to do with what he says or does the next day. I don't know how you run a presidency on that basis.
CHURCH: And just very quickly, how likely is it that Senate majority Leader Mitch McConnell will fulfill that nonbinding agreement to find a solution for the hundreds of thousands of DREAMers in this country, and what has to be given in exchange in terms of a border wall and other policy issues? Is that exchange going to happen, do you think?
SABATO: I actually think that McConnell having made this pledge so publicly to democrats, and indeed citizens throughout the United States, he will try to fulfill it. But you just indicated one of the ways he can do it, he can place all kinds of conditions on his fulfillment of the pledge.
CHURCH: Larry Sabato, always great to get your perspective and analysis on these issues, thank you so much.
SABATO: Thank you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Well, news of an agreement to end the government shutdown sent U.S. stocks higher. The Dow closed up more than half a percent, setting another record. The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 gained almost a full percent each, also closing at record highs.
President Trump is expected to invite French President Emmanuel Macron to Washington for the first official state visit of Mr. Trump's presidency. Sources say he could make the announcement at the world economic forum in Davos. He is the first U.S. president in decades not to host a state visit during his first year in office.
Well, the White House is accelerating its controversial decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
[03:09:57] Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital does not mean the U.S. is abandoning the peace process.
In a speech to the Knesset, Pence announced the embassy would move by the end of 2019. Officials originally said it could take three or four years. Some Arab lawmakers protested and scuffled with security officials before walking out.
Ian Lee joins us now from Jerusalem with the latest on this. So Ian, Vice President Mike Pence doesn't think the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital means the U.S. is abandoning the peace process. But Israeli-Arab lawmakers let him know what they thought about that in the Knesset with their protest. And of course, Palestinians have boycotted his visit. Did Mr. Pence get the message?
IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as far as trying to sway his decision, the Trump administration's decision to keep Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, probably not. When you look at the speech that Vice President Pence gave in front of the Knesset, he refers to Jerusalem as Israel's capital six times. And he uses quite strong language when referring to it.
This has, as you said, alienated the Palestinians. Jerusalem is a very sensitive subject because it was going to be one of the final status issues that was going to be negotiated between the Israelis and the Palestinians over where the border would be, if there was a two-state agreement.
Now the vice president has said that with the U.S. declaration that Jerusalem is the capital, they're not saying that those borders could be negotiated, they're not saying unequivocally that Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem, it belongs to Israel.
But that's how the Palestinians are reading it and that's why they are not meeting with him. That's why we saw those Arab members of the Knesset to stage their protest during his speech, Rosemary.
CHURCH: And Ian, the U.S. vice president announced that the embassy will open in Jerusalem before the end of 2019. Much sooner than originally planned. How and why was that move accelerated?
LEE: Well, there's been pressure within the White House from certain people, as well as here in Jerusalem from the Israeli government that was urging the embassy to be moved sooner. When asked about this, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, well, they would like to see it moved next week.
Of course that's not feasible. You know, the original plan was to find a location, make a plan, and then build this new embassy building. Which could have taken up to six years, cost up to 1 billion dollars, so that could have been after President Trump's first term in office.
This new plan is looked at one of the two consulates that are in Jerusalem, they selected one in the neighborhood of Arnona, it's right on the green line, that was the de facto border between Israel and Jordan before the 1967 war. This consulate is in West Jerusalem.
And you know, initially Israeli politicians, the prime minister was expecting this move to happen by the end of the year, this year, 2018. But we heard from the state department that the secretary of state didn't want to make the move too soon.
He wanted to make sure that there was enough security in place before they made the official move to this building. Also, it's going to be a lot cheaper than building an entire new building, Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right. Ian Lee, bringing us up to date on those developments from Jerusalem where it is nearly 10.15 in the morning, we appreciate that. Thank you.
We turn to Syria now where Turkey says there are no plans to step back from a military offensive targeting Kurdish militia in northern Syria. America's top diplomat is urging Turkey to exercise restraint as their war planes and troops try to create a border safe zone by pounding Syrian Kurdish forces, the same forces who are U.S. allies in the battle against ISIS.
More now from CNN's Sam Kiley.
SAM KILEY, SENIOR CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Day three of Turkey's invasion of Syria's Afrin province. Targeting Kurdish militia. Adding another layer of conflict on an already shattered nation. These troops are from the free Syrian army. They're fighting alongside Turkey. But the Kurdish fighters they're attacking have been western allies, armed and trained by the U.S. in the fight against the so-called Islamic state.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We ran out of armor and food when we got there. Eleven of us got wounded in the legs and the stomach. But we took three hostages from the PKK, thank God.
[03:15:02] KILEY: The Kurds release video of the moment of missile launch and the destruction of a Turkish tank. CNN cannot independently verify it. But the Kurds are outgunned. And Turkey is a vital NATO partner. So the U.S. response to attacks on this American-backed army is muted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REX TILLERSON, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: We are concerned about the Turkish incidents in northern Syria. Having said that, in a statement I issued yesterday, we recognize and fully appreciate Turkey's legitimate right to protect its citizens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KILEY: Turkey's president is insisting that there was no going back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT (through translator): We will handle Afrin. There's no stepping back from Afrin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KILEY: The Turkish border towns are being hit from Kurd areas by rockets. A sign that the Kurds will not go quietly.
Sam Kiley, CNN, Istanbul.
CHURCH: This news just in to CNN, legendary South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela has died. He had been battling prostate cancer for the past 10 years. In a statement his family said Masekela died peacefully in Johannesburg surrounded by relatives.
As a child he learned how to play the piano and Trumpet. The Grammy- winning horn player and band leader said he used music as an instrument to spread political change during South Africa's apartheid era. Hugh Masekela was 78.
Pope Francis tries to walk back comments about a sex abuse scandal. You will hear how he explains them, or is it too late? Do stay tune for that.
Plus, a radio bomb and cyanide pills are former North Korean secret agent who brought down a passenger plane is speaking out and warning not to be fooled by North Korea. We're back with in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Pope Francis has apologized for controversial comments he made about a bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse committed by a priest. During the pope's visit to Chile, the pope defended Bishop Juan Barros. He called the accusations of that cover-up slander and said there was no proof. On Monday, he issued an apology.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPE FRANCIS, LEADER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): What are the abused ones feeling? Here I have to apologize. Because the word proof hurting. We heard a lot of abused people. I know how much they suffer in hearing the pope say to them, bring me a letter with the proof. I realize that this is a slap in their faces. And now I realize that my expression was an unfortunate one because I did not mean it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:20:02] CHURCH: Well, supporters of sex abuse victims challenged the pope's suggestion that proof is a prerequisite for believing a victim's account.
South Korea is defending its decision to invite North Korean athletes to the Winter Olympics next month. In a diplomatic breakthrough the two countries will march under a unified flag and form a joint women's ice hockey team to compete at the games.
Critics say that's unfair for South Korean athletes and that Pyongyang is stealing the spotlight. But South Korea's president says the diplomacy could help ease nuclear tensions in the region.
Well, meanwhile, a former North Korean terrorist now living in South Korea say the North cannot be trusted. Three decades ago, the secret agent bombed a passenger plane and then tried to commit suicide, but she was caught and put on trial. Now she tells our Paula Hancocks about her crime and what she learned while working with Pyongyang.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim Hyon-hui doesn't look like a terrorist. A softly spoken mother of two. Only her hands give away a traumatic past. Plucked from university at 18 for her language skills, recruited by the Workers Party to be a North Korean spy. "I was chosen among a lot of other people," Kim tells me. "I felt some pride, at least at that time."
Seven years and eight months of training in ideology, martial arts, shooting, survival in the wild. Then she received her first assignment. The mission was to block the upcoming 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, she says to threaten the South by bringing down one of their planes. "I was nervous, I was worried I wouldn't be successful."
Kim and the fellow agent boarded Korean Airlines 858 in Baghdad, Iraq, disembarking at a layover in Abu Dhabi before the plane continued on to Seoul, but it never made it. The bomb Kim had placed in an overhead locker detonated over the Andaman Sea near Myanmar. All 115 people on board the airliner were killed.
"The bomb was a small Panasonic radio," she says, "behind that were the batteries. North Korea built it so half of it acted as an explosive with chemicals and the other half could be used as a regular radio."
From the moment I entered the South Korean plane," Kim says, "I thought I was in enemy territory. That's how I had been trained. I was very nervous. For one moment the thought of, these people will die, crossed my mind. I was surprised when I thought that. I felt I was being weak I was doing this for reunification."
Kim and her accomplished were caught in Bahrain after handing over the wrong ticket with a fake passport. Her comrade killed himself by swallowing cyanide. Kim bit her suicide capsule but survived.
Brought back to Seoul, interrogated for two years before receiving the death sentence, only to be pardoned by then-President Roh Tae-woo who saw her as a victim as much as those who died at her hands. Kim says she was overwhelmed with guilt, thinking about the victims' families, about her own family who she says, would certainly be sent to a concentration camp.
She later heard rumors her parents had died. Fighting back tears, she explains why she needs to keep talking about this today. Thirty years on, North Korea will now be part of South Korea's Olympics next month. "They have not changed at all," she says, "They are using South Korea to overcome their difficulties, to achieve their goal they execute their own siblings, families. Do not be fooled, North Korea has not changed at all."
The late Kim Jong-il personally ordered the bombing of Korean Airlines 858, she says, and she believes his son and current leader Kim Jong-un would not hesitate to revert to terrorism if talks do not get him what he wants.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The world economic forum gets underway Tuesday in a very cold Davos, Switzerland. But perhaps, more chilly than the weather is the relationship between the global elite and America first President, Donald Trump.
Our Richard Quest has a perfect metaphor to explain this year's theme creating a share future in a fractured world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR:: There's snow, snow, and more snow. For days it's snowed in this rich mountain resort. For (Inaudible) what everyone knows the world is fractured. To learn what might be achieved, I've come to build an igloo.
There's a lot of snow. The principles of building this structures in the snow are the same ones to those in discussions will need to sort out the mess in the world.
[03:25:02] Immigration. Trade. Human rights. Equality. War and conflict. Climate change. These are the heavy burdens that are being carried to Davos. As everyone tries to solve the fractures in this troubled world.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No fractures on the blocks.
QUEST: There are fractures?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, they have to be perfect. Otherwise the igloo might fall in.
QUEST: And that's the risk?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the risk.
QUEST: I try my best. But in the end, fractures and all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a bit wobbly to live on this.
QUEST: It's a bit wobbly but, you know, that's what the world is like at the moment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
QUEST: So we'll just have to have a few wobbles.
If it's a fractured world, many in Davos blame President Donald Trump for doing the fracturing. And the igloo builders have a message for those who want to live in glass towers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who wants to live in a tower? I mean, you know, it just gets higher and higher.
QUEST: Donald Trump and his cabinet will cast a long shadow at Davos. Enough problems for now. We've got an igloo to build. This is hard work. How many of these blocks do we need?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fifty, maybe.
QUEST: Fifty! You want me to do 50 of these?
Dozens of blocks later, and finally, the roof.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.
QUEST: Building this igloo neatly demonstrates the issues facing this year's world economic forum. The U.S. delegation led by President Trump will be arriving with the message that no longer can it be business as usual when it comes to the USA.
That may well be true. But whatever what everyone's going to discover is that it takes many blocks, some fractured, to make and put together what is undoubtedly a shared future in this fractured world.
Richard Quest, CNN, Davos.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Join Richard in a special edition of CNN Money live from Davos, so that's all this week starting at 2 p.m. in London, 10 p.m. in Hong Kong, right here on CNN.
But first to hear on CNN Newsroom, will the mighty economic igloos succumb to its fractures? We will go live to Davos for the view from there. Stay tune for that.
And the strain in relations is clear. More on the walkout on the U.S. vice president in Israel.
We're back in a moment.
[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. I want to update you know on the main stories we've been following this hour. U.S. government shutdown is over. Donald Trump has signed a bill to fund the government until February 8th. Democrats agreed to that after the top senate Republican promised his intention to take up the immigration debate which prompted the shutdown. President Trump says the Democrats caved, tweeting this. See you at the negotiating table.
Turkey says it won't step back from its ongoing military offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish militia in northern Syria. That is even though the U.S. and the U.N. are urging restraint. Turkish troops entered the Kurdish-held Afrin area Sunday, one day after Turkish war planes pounded Kurdish militia targets there.
Ashe is falling on the evacuated towns near the Philippines Mt. Mayon. Officials say lava spewing from the volcano reached up to 700 meters high. One report says ash left one town with zero visibility. Authorities raise the threat level, warning a hazardous eruption is imminent.
The U.S. is accelerating its embassy move to Jerusalem while addressing the Israeli Knesset, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the embassy will move by the end of 2019. The Trump administration is recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. But Palestinians want east Jerusalem for the capital of a future Palestinian state. Some Arab lawmakers staged a protest and scuffled with security before walking out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We lifted a photo saying that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. It's a political position. And not all of those who were in the Knesset supported peace and his messiah policy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Joining us now is Gil Hoffman he is the chief political correspondent and analyst for "the Jerusalem post." Thank you for being with us.
GIL HOFFMAN, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANALYST, THE JERUSALEM POST: Pleasure, Rosemary.
CHURCH: This visit by the U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has been a little awkward. He is been very well received, obviously, by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But the Palestinians have boycotted the visit. And in addition to that, the Christians don't want to meet with him either. So given that, what all was achieved with this visit?
HOFFMAN: What Mike Pence did is celebrated the move that Donald Trump made that he apparently advised the President to do, which is to announce that America was recognizing the reality that Jerusalem has been Israel's capital from the very beginning. That is a move that is very popular with his Christian evangelical base in the United States and Trump wants to make sure that he gets credit for that because he fulfilled a campaign promise. That is something that politicians very often do not do. And Israelis across the political spectrum, discounting the Israeli Arabs really appreciated that decision as the political correspondent for "the post," my job is to covert when politicians fight with each other. Here in Israel, at least among the Jewish politicians, they all agreed.
CHURCH: Of course by the United States recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital they really threaten their position as a mediator in the peace talks there. What do you think the situation will be going forward? Because we know that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has essentially said the U.S. doesn't have a position as mediator anymore in those talks.
HOFFMAN: Rosemary, that is not necessarily so. What's been going on over the last couple of weeks I think is very interesting? Number one, Abbas said very openly that the Jerusalem announcement actually wasn't what stopped him from coming to the table. There were leaks of this plan that Jared Kushner has been working on with the Saudis for Middle East peace and Abbas didn't like it, so he wanted to prevent the negotiations from starting from the very beginning to kind of use the Jerusalem issue that would be understood around the world as an excuse to avoid coming to the table. And once that came out, the Jordanians and Egyptians and apparently the Saudis have also been putting pressure on Abbas to say that is not acceptable, America will continue to lead the free world even if America elected a President that we don't like very much. America is a reality that you have to deal with, you can't run away from the negotiating table. I think Abbas will come back and there will be a peace process which will have a very different approach which hasn't failed yet and therefore has a better chance of success than what's already failed.
[03:35:10] CHURCH: As a journalist, as a correspondent covering this story, do you have any empathy for the Palestinians in this situation? Where you have the United States announcing already that Jerusalem's is the capital of Israel? Who you know that the Palestinians lay claim to Jerusalem as well? Is there any empathy at all for that? And when you see the Israeli-Arab lawmakers in the Knesset protesting the words there of Mike Pence, what are your thoughts? Do you really only approach this story from the Israeli side?
HOFFMAN: Ok, so as a journalist, absolutely, we have to understand the positions of all the people across the political map in Israel and the Israeli-Arabs would like to see Jerusalem as the capital any final status kind of agreement, and Donald Trump didn't preclude that in his announcement. And very well that could be the situation. If they come back to the negotiating table that yesterday Mike Pence spoke about two states for two peoples. We noticed in that speech when he said that, that opposition lawmakers in Israel did not. More and more is coming out that the plan is actually not as bad for the Palestinians as people think. They are really putting on this show in order to try to make the plan better. But in the end of the day, Rosemary, this is intended to help them. There already a state of Israel. For there to be a Palestinian state their leaders need to make the concessions necessary to help their own people. I feel any empathy, I feel terrible for the Palestinian people, that they have leaders who are willing to make those steps toward peace.
CHURCH: Gil Hoffman, thank you so much for joining us, we appreciate it.
Americans will soon be (inaudible) by imported washing machines and solar panels. The Trump administrations is slapping a tariff or tax on large residential washing machine starting at 20 percent. A 30 percent tax will be applied to imported solar panels, most of which comes from China. That will gradually fall to 15 percent in four years. The move could signal the start of a wider Trump administration salvo against major U.S. trading partners. So let us bring in CNN Matt Rivers who joins us live from Beijing. Matt what has been the reaction in China to this new U.S. Tariff, and what impact will this likely have there?
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, predictably the Chinese are not happy with this, what you regularly hear from the Chinese government is that anything that resembles tariffs that are put up by the United States and other countries has a broader negative impact on global trade. Now you could easily go back to the Chinese and say, the Chinese government regularly engages in protectionist practices itself and it's hypocritical for the Chinese government to accuse countries of negatively influencing trade. The fact remains in the Chinese view, this is unwarranted by the United States. We can read you in part a little bit of a statement that the ministry of commerce put on this morning. They said in part, the U.S. Acting arbitrarily once again imposed restrictions on the import of (inaudible) products and large washing machines, which is not only detrimental to the overly healthy development of the industries in the U.S. but also further aggravates the Global trade environment of related products." That is where they stand as of now predictably, in a lot of ways. In terms of how it's going to impact Chinese businesses, a huge amount of Chinese exports go to the United States. Solar panels are no different. China is major producer of these solar panels. It will have some sort of economic impact on Chinese companies. I think you can expect them to try and focus more of their efforts now on the European Union market.
CHURCH: Matt Rivers joining us there from Beijing many thanks to you. After a very quick break, they were betrayed by their doctor who
sexually abused them. Now these brave young women are also speaking out about the organizations that protected him. Their emotion words coming up in just a moment.
Plus a special agent for the U.S. government says when she spoke up about harassment, she was sidelined. The actions she is taking now, we are back with that in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[03:41:40] CHURCH: Singer/songwriter Neil Diamond says he's retiring from touring after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Diamond says he will continue to write, record, and work on new projects. Diamond turn 77 on Wednesday. His biggest hits include "Sweet Caroline," "Song, song blue," and "Rosy."
More women and girls are confronting Larry Nassar in court with horrific memories about how he sexually abused them. The former doctor has pleaded guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct and admitted to sexually abusing young girls. In the past week more than 100 victim statements had been read at Nassar's sentencing. Several victims also accused USA gymnastics a Michigan state University, two organizations that employed him for ignoring their reports of abuse. On Monday, USAG announced that its top executives have resigned. Some victim say the University President need to go too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They certainly didn't stand for us. They stood up for you. They stood behind you. They safeguarded you. When people spoke out. MSU did nothing to stop this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: MSU knows what they have coming. You know that you enabled and ignored complaints from the past. I gladly say good- bye. Your time as President will be over. Shame on you for not listening to young women. I hope you spend the rest of your days thinking about your nine to 16-year-old self and how it would have felt to be a sexually assaulted and speak out about it only to be turned down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I too was sexually assaulted by Larry Nassar. Multiple times, at multiple appointments. My last "treatment" was in August 2016. A week later, he was let go by MSU. I'm possibly the last child he will ever assault.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: MSU sports medicine charged me for those appointment. My mom is still getting billed for appointments where I was sexually assaulted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: A Michigan State University spokesman says former patients of Larry Nassar will not be billed.
Special agent with the U.S. Bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives says she witnessed a culture of sexual harassment when she tried to report it she says she was shut down. CNN's Jessica Schneider has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
LISA KINCAID, SPECIAL AGENT WITH THE U.S. BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES: It's not the way you want to go out.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Lisa Kincaid marking three decades as a special agent at ATF, year she was proud to serve as a branch chief and supervisor for the ATF's D.C. Arson task force.
KINCAID: I'm proud of my service. But I feel betrayed.
SCHNEIDER: For the past four years, Kincaid says she is been side lined and demoted after she was specifically assigned by the ATF to investigate claims of sexual harassment.
[03:45:00] KINCAID: One woman claims that she was assaulted. The supervisor and a work-related function put his hand up her skirt and squeezed her thigh. This was after he had made several passes at her and she passes.
SCHNEIDER: Kincaid was then a special agent in the internal affairs division task with investigating a complaint by an agent who claimed sexual harassment and discrimination. Kincaid's probe began with that one woman's story that soon she was on her way to interviewing five other women with similar stories about the same two supervisors.
KINCAID: By the fourth interview that we knew that there existed a pattern of abusive behavior in that office.
SCHNEIDER: Kincaid turned in a nearly 300-page preliminary report to senior managers, outlining numerous allegations. They're detailed in the lawsuit she just filed against the Department of Justice. Where Kincaid claims she was retaliated against for exposing what she found. Most of the allegations are redacted, but is revealed include the supervisor allegedly shoving his hand up an employee's skirt and discussing oral sex in front of female ATF employees.
KINCAID: Throughout the whole process I was naive to think that the system was going to work. And the system wasn't going to work.
SCHNEIDER: Kincaid says upper management try to dismiss the allegations.
KINCAID: I think senior leadership tried to protect them from the very beginning of the investigation.
SCHNEIDER: Kincaid says both supervisors remained at ATF, despite those allegations since none of the women ever filed formal complaints. The ATF would not comment on personnel but said, we take sexual harassment complaints very seriously and they are thoroughly investigated. But in a motion to dismiss Kincaid' lawsuit the government says Kincaid was reassigned, because she admitted to divulging information from her investigation to her husband, a retired ATF agent. And says the inspector general did investigate Kincaid's findings and issued a paragraph summary of the results, but that report only cover the supervisors gambling while on duty and said nothing about complaints of sexual harassment. Findings last year from the Department of Justice inspector general pinpoints problems throughout the Justice Departments components including at ATF.
It says DOJ has systemic issues on how it handle sexual harassment complaints and some of the subjects of pending sexual misconduct investigations received performance awards and weren't properly disciplined. A spokesman for the Justice Department said the deputy Attorney General has convened a working group to look at the issues raised by the report. That process is nearing completion and will soon be responding to the inspector general with the department's recommendation for action. But Kincaid's attorney believes these probes a reports from inspector general dating back to 2015 have spurred no changes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happen to a woman who's an attorney who comes and talks about one of these guys sticking his hand up her dress? What's she supposed to do? There is nothing that is ever address that IG office.
SCHNEIDER: That is why Kincaid say she is speaking out. She wants to spotlight the issue outside, black and white.
KINCAID: I want to make a difference. Taking a stand hasn't for nothing.
SCHNEIDER: Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington
(END VIDEO)
CHURCH: The world's political and financial elite are gathering in Davos, Switzerland, for the world economic forum this week. All eyes will be on one guest in particular. U.S. President Donald Trump. CNN's Nic Robertson is in Davos and joins us now live. Good to see you, Nic. What sort of reception is President Trump likely to get in Davos when he arrives and of course, addresses the forum on Friday? What's he likely to bring to the table?
NIC ROBERTSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump's reputation certainly goes before him his reputation and his vision of the world is at the moment an American first. This forum is very much about finding solutions to the world's problems of coming together. Different agencies, different countries, different leaders trying to find solutions. This is about finding a shared future in a fractured world. President Trump's reputation over the past year was leaving the sort of - speaking about free trade, leaving the global climate change agreement so he doesn't come here, if you will, in the eyes of many, as a willing participant. However, Christine Lagarde from the IMF has said, thanks to President Trump's tax cuts that in part the global economy is doing well, that three-quarters of the world's GDP's are improving. Broad-based global economic growth. So he'll be able to bask in a little bit of that glory if you will.
[03:50:05] His image as a, dissenter as somebody who takes an alternate view to the principal global positions you'll find put out here, you know, there's some of them may find that jolly. His voice will come at the end of the week. Plenty of other leaders will have had a chance to put their positions forward. The Indian Prime Minister Modi speaking today at the opening speech. One of the global issues, shared future in a fractured world, what does that really mean? It means, for example, refugees crossing over the Mediterranean from Libya, coming from sub-Saharan Africa, people wanting part of the shared future of the world in a fractured world. President Trump messages as perceive here have been sort of (inaudible) if you will to finding that kind of understanding. Cate Blahett the actor today speaking about refugees. There will be plenty of voices. German chancellor, British Prime Minister, the French President all speaking before President Trump gets here.
CHURCH: Indeed. Nic, the international monetary fund predicts global growth will accelerate as a results of U.S. tax cuts. That will certainly give Mr. Trump a major boost. And presumably will be part of the discussions there.
ROBERTSON: Certainly will. And it's certainly sort of a warm message coming into this environment here. And it will be one that President Trump as we know, President Trump does like to take praise well and does like to amplify praise of his positions. But many of his positions are antithetical to the sort of free trade environment and the sort of helping each other that the Davos forum likes to be perceive as trying to achieve.
So, you know, there will be the expectation would be, I think, that President Trump will sort of take that to the bank, if you will, that he is doing good things. But as we've seen him in other forums around the world, he is not afraid, anything but, to stand up and put the America first vision that trade should be fair and balanced and rejecting sort of large sort of global organization whether it's on trade, whether we're looking to NAFTA, TPP, whether we're talking about climate change. So he is going to be a different disruptive voice here.
CHURCH: Indeed. Nic Robertson bringing us that live report from Davos in Switzerland where it is nearly 10:00 in the morning. Many thanks to you.
We will take a short break here. Still to come, President Trump once boasted about having a messy desk. So when the White House released this image, a lot of people decided to mess up his desk for him in social media. We will have the details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:55:11] CHURCH: If there's one lasting image of the relatively brief U.S. Government shutdown, it may be the photograph of President Trump sitting at a desk that was remarkably bare. So was the President really hard at work? Or hardly working? Here's Jeanne Moos. (BEGIN VIDEO)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There was a time when President Trump was proud of his messy desk.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look at my desk. Papers.
MOOS: Whether in the oval office or Trump tower.
TRUMP: Successful people have lot going on their desk.
MOOS: Not much going on in this photo, released by the White House to show the President working during the government shutdown. Online critics weren't buying it. I too conduct most of my most important work with a phone in my hand and nothing on my desk while staring vacantly off into space. Tweeted someone else, this the photo you'd take if you're visiting the White House and they let you sit at the desk. The president's desk was compared to the one used by that other genius, Einstein's desk, Trump's desk, you decide. The White House probably decided to release the desk photo, because everyone kept saying -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The President has been cut out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing in action.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has been absent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think that Donald Trump did a whole heck of a lot.
MOOS: One historian compiled photos of other Presidents' desks. Nixon could have used a dozen paper weights. But hey, Trump wasn't the only President to have his desk sanitized for a photo op. Tempted by that vast expanse of empty desk space, critics on twitter put stuff there. Stuff like a toy train, a toy phone, a cheeseburger and diet coke read one tweet, Trump didn't have anything on his desk so I put Stormy Daniels there. Someone imagined he was calling his wife. Hi, Melania, do you know where my head is? Or maybe he was on hold with the White House comment line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We look forward to taking your calls as soon as the government reopens.
MOOS: And once it's reopened, the President can make his desk cluttered again. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEO)
CHURCH: Don't you love social media. Thanks for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me any time on twitter. The news continues now with Max Foster in London. You're watching CNN. Have a great day.
