Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
March For Our Lives; Three Killed in France Terror Attack; U.K. Authorities Search Cambridge Analytica Offices; Spending Bill Does Not Address DACA Dilemma; Ex-Playmate Speaks about Affair with Trump; U.S. and South Korea Plan Joint Military Exercises; Krill Help Send Harmful Carbon to Ocean Floor. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired March 24, 2018 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Half a million protesters expected to attend the March for Our Lives rally in Washington on this Saturday with many more joining them around the country and around the world. We'll have a full report on it.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Plus U.S. President signs a 2,200-page budget bill but with some protests saying he'll never do that again.
ALLEN (voice-over): Derek Van Dam just reporting about the melting ice in the Arctic caused by climate change. Also this hour, Arwa Damon is in Antarctica, reporting on natural ways that region is helping fight global warming.
HOWELL (voice-over): Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, we want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm George Howell.
ALLEN (voice-over): I'm Natalie Allen. NEWSROOM starts right now.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOWELL: 5:00 am here on the U.S. East Coast.
Students are calling it for a March for Our Lives. They say their lives are truly at stake. A half a million demonstrators are expected to attend the main rally set for Washington, D.C., Saturday as well as protests that are taking place around the world. They want lawmakers in the U.S. to do something about rampant gun violence and school shootings here in the U.S.
ALLEN: But there will be a striking absence in the crowds. President Donald Trump and many members of Congress will not be in Washington for the march. But that is not discouraging the students who organized it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't matter who will be there. What matters is that our presence is known, it matters that we'll be there. And I think it is more powerful that they will not be there because it shows, if they are not going to be there, we're still going to march. We're still going to make our voices heard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The thing is that, to us, this is not a partisan issue. It is an issue of life or death because, really, in the end of it, everyone has their own idea of how this needs to change.
But I think we all agree that this needs to change. The mass shooting epidemic we have in this country is terrible. We're really the only country that has this epidemic of it, yet every other country has mental health issues and violent video games and violent movies.
So what are we doing wrong as a country where this keeps happening?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: For many gun control advocates across the U.S., the March for Our Lives has been a long time in coming and it came from the grassroots efforts of the students that you saw there from the Florida high school, where a gunman, a former student, killed 17 people on Valentine's Day.
HOWELL: These students are determined to have their stories told, their voices heard. CNN's Dianne Gallagher has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAUREN HOGG, STUDENT, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL: Everybody was saying I love you.
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The students' movement is crashing the Capitol.
HOGG: I'm 14. I shouldn't have to think about getting shot in my school.
GALLAGHER: But before they marched on Washington...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What place do you want?
GALLAGHER: -- they had to get there. Hundreds of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students along with their parents and teachers started their journeys on Thursday.
TARYN HIBSHMAN, STUDENT, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL: We're going to make a statement that teenagers can change the world and these things can't happen without somebody doing something.
GALLAGHER: CNN traveled to D.C. with a group from Parkland. Their seats were on a plane sponsored by the gun control advocacy organization Giffords.
DARREN LEVINE, TEACHER, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL: We should never have been here, this shouldn't happen. We shouldn't have to come on a plane together at the start of our spring break to march in Washington, to walk for our lives all together.
GALLAGHER: Clad in school colors and hashtags, excited, nervous and determined to be heard.
DEMITRI HOTH, STUDENT, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL: You're not going to be able to ignore us because we're at your doorstep now. So, we're going to stay here and we're going to fight.
GALLAGHER: On just a couple hours of sleep, senior Demitri Hoth stood alongside former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, a fellow shooting survivor, demanding change at the highest level.
HOTH: Never again, never again, never again. America, we are your future. Why wouldn't you protect us?
GALLAGHER: Teachers wrangling hundreds of teenagers as they march through the halls of congress, searching for lawmakers to talk about their agenda. Even spending about half an hour with former Vice President Joe Biden, who behind closed doors talked about their unfortunate common bond to finding power in pain.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I look up to him a lot. It was very inspirational.
GALLAGHER: The pain is heard in 14-yeAR-old Lauren Hogg.
HOGG: Having to say goodbye to your parents that you love them is the worst thing imaginable.
GALLAGHER: The freshman lost four friends in the massacre at her school on Valentine's Day.
HOGG: I think about my friends every moment of every day. That's what pushes me to do this.
GALLAGHER: And though in the shadows of historic buildings, these teenagers are focused on changing their future.
RYAN SERVAITES, STUDENT, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL: I think Washington is ready for us. I think we're ready to give them hell.
GALLAGHER: Sort of sticking with what we've seen for the past five weeks, this marriage of hope an pad pain, the national cathedral hosted an interfaith vigil Friday night where they prayed to end gun violence --
[05:05:00]
GALLAGHER: -- and people spoke. And some of those speakers were the parents of Carmen, a senior, who was killed in that massacre, they talk about receiving her national merit scholarship award the day after she died and trying to use their faith to get through this, across town, fallout boy and students there celebrating before their march and hoping that they will be able to take this youth movement and change things so there will not be parents having to deal with things like this in the future. Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: One of President Trump's ideas for combating school violence is to arm teachers. Earlier, our Cyril Vanier spoke with Spencer Blum, who survived the Florida school shooting and he asked Spencer what he thought about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPENCER BLUM, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I think their number one priority is to lock the door if it is not locked and to get our students to safety, that is it, not to spend time opening a lockbox and then going out and going up against a weapon, such as an AR-15.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: You know, the United States has been at this crossroads before, many times before. In fact, for longer than you've been alive. You are 16 years old. And pretty consistently this country has chosen not to restrict guns or not in any major way.
I'm sorry for asking this but do you -- are you concerned that this might be a lost cause?
BLUM: You know, part of me says yes. But the part of me that says yes overpowers it. I know that when Columbine happened, even though I wasn't alive, it was the first of its kind. No one had seen a school shooting like that before.
And when Sandy Hook happened, everyone was in complete shock that this could have happened and it was just shock. And they were so young. It was such a tragedy. But then now that it happened to our school, we're in high school. So a mass tragedy like this, a mass shooting, it is different for us.
We understand a lot -- we understand the way the government works, we understand these laws and this legislation. We understand a lot more because we're older. And we understand our voice, our rights.
And being that this is what we know and being older, I think that we're using that. And I think that, with that, our voices, there is no way this could be a lost cause. If we're doing it, we have this march, we're on Twitter, we're on Facebook. We're using social media, which other generations didn't have.
We're using it to our advantage. And we are not going to stop until we finally get some serious change in this nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: Spencer will join his classmates and thousands of other people marching in Washington, D.C., in just a few hours' time.
The March of our Lives organizers say more than 800 sister protests are planned in cities around the world.
In Sydney, Australia, hundreds of people came together to show support for the students in the United States. They are urging the U.S. government to do something, to enact some sort of gun control laws that have kept Australia from having a mass shooting since 1996.
ALLEN: Australia very fortunate there, with how it's worked.
And Americans in Israel here, rallying in Tel Aviv Friday. Some of those Americans were survivors that were here in Tel Aviv, of the Florida high school shooting. This is how they are spending their spring break.
French President Emmanuel Macron says the policeman who helped in a deadly terror attack died a hero.
HOWELL: Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame had persuaded a gunman to let him take the place of one of the hostages inside a supermarket in Trebes, where the incident was underway. He was wounded while entering that store.
ALLEN: The gunman was killed by police when they stormed the building after a four-hour standoff. Three others were also killed by the gunman during Friday's attack. Our Melissa Bell is following developments from Trebes, France, and she joins us now.
It is unbelievable what this officer did to save people's lives. But just so tragic that in two separate areas, people still died at the hands of this terrorist.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And Arnaud Beltrame's passing overnight brings the final death toll after this spate of three separate attacks by the same man to four people, who were killed in all, with very many wounded still this Saturday morning.
This behind me is the scene of that hostage taking. It was the final part of Radouane Lakdim's attack. It was here that he holed himself up with hostages as specialist police forces gathered around waiting to carry out their --
[05:10:00]
BELL: -- final assault. And it was Arnaud Beltrame's bravery, the fact that he took this woman hostage's place that not only saved her life but allowed those special forces to move in and take down the terrorist since the officer had left his phone on as he entered the building, allowing special forces to know precisely what was happening inside.
So it was an extraordinary act of bravery that did save lives.
ALLEN: It's unbelievable. I can't imagine how his family is grieving today there in France.
Melissa, what about the person that carried this out, this terrorist?
Is there anything more known about him or his connections to ISIS?
BELL: Those connections are being investigated. What we have had confirmed from France's prosecutor, who came here himself yesterday to make that statement, is that the terrorist did enter the building here, shouting Allahu akbar. He did claim allegiance to the Islamic State.
And the question now for authorities will be to work out whether he had any real connection. We've seen a number of these attacks over the course of the last couple years, in France especially those smaller scale attacks that make fewer victims, that are carried out by a single person on the day, is that we are often dealing with people who are inspired by the Islamic State, who've been inspired by its calls for its followers to act even on their own where they can and with whatever means they have at their disposal.
Whether he was one of those or whether he was any more closely connected to the Islamic State is really at the very heart of this investigation that has only just begun.
ALLEN: We thank you so much for your reporting, Melissa Bell, there for us in Trebes, France, thank you.
HOWELL: And now Pauline Neville-Jones in London. Pauline is the former head of Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee in our London bureau with us.
Thank you so much for your time. Let's first start with this officer, his actions, his sacrifice that saved lives.
PAULINE NEVILLE-JONES, FORMER HEAD OF BRITAIN'S JOINT INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Police forces increasingly do face danger from terrorism. I think this particular officer's actions were quite extraordinary.
And I have no doubt that France will seek to reward that and make a memorial of it, as indeed we've had to do in London with policemen, for instance, who were shot and killed in front of Parliament about a year ago. So this is a very unfortunate feature of the moment of all of life in many European cities.
HOWELL: The fact that we're seeing this more and more, ISIS, of course, has lost so much ground in the Middle East.
But with attacks like this, is there is a concern that this new approach, this is what authorities will have to guard against?
NEVILLE-JONES: Well, I certainly think it's -- we already, of course, have attacks generated on the soil in Europe, sometimes by people who have been in Syria or indeed elsewhere and sometimes by people who are simply followers and radicalized in Europe.
It is one of the concerns of the security services in Europe that some of those individuals who have been in Syria will return home, will succeed in getting into the country and will carry out acts of terror on home soil. We don't know about this man. It looks, on the face of it, as if it
is more likely to have been someone who was radicalized in France. There is a rather high rate of Moroccans -- and he is of Moroccan origin -- who have gone down that path.
And they will also look at who was he associated with, was he helped in this particular attack and so on. The fact that he hijacked a car means that one of the things that very often provide leads to the police, which is the assistance given to somebody with a vehicle, that isn't an obvious lead.
But he was on their radar as a criminal rather than as a terrorist. And that is one of the challenges faced by security services, is what you do about the people who aren't obviously suspects that you need to watch but who lie on the fringe of your interest.
And the French did assess this man and assessed him as not actually going to resort to violence. And he may indeed, even since they made that assessment, have been radicalized. All of those things we shall, I've no doubt, in due course, discover.
HOWELL: You point out that he was on the radar but the question always comes down to when does a person become radicalized. That must be a very difficult thing for investigators to pinpoint.
How do authorities stay ahead of something like that, to find out when a person --
[05:15:00]
HOWELL: -- becomes radicalized if they are already a known suspect?
How do you stay ahead of something like that?
NEVILLE-JONES: The answer is very difficult. There are technologies that are coming into use, particularly facial recognition, so that, without necessarily having to expend a great deal of resource on an individual.
And following someone is immensely resource intensive. You can, nevertheless, keep some track of people's movements by facial recognition techniques. But these are all at relatively early stages. And the honest answer to your question is it is a great challenge and prioritizing, therefore, the use of your resources between people whom you really do believe are a threat and those whom you have assessed are not -- not going to resort to violence even if they are -- have some radical religious beliefs, that is a category that is very difficult.
And I think all security service people will say to you that that is the one that they spend a lot of time trying to get right.
HOWELL: The former head of Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee, Pauline Neville-Jones, thank you so much for your time today and the insight into what investigators have to do to stay on top of this. Thank you. ALLEN: Investigators in the U.K. conducted a search of Cambridge Analytica's headquarters, the firm at the center of the Facebook data scandal. We'll head to London for a report about that coming up.
HOWELL: Plus a porn actress and a former "Playboy" model both speaking out about their alleged affairs with Donald Trump before he became president. We'll have the story as NEWSROOM pushes on.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ALLEN: This is a story that affects just about everybody on the planet if you're on social media. British authorities went to the London offices of Cambridge Analytica Friday and it wasn't because of a friend request. They executed a search warrant at the data firm, which is at the center of the Facebook data scandal.
HOWELL: There are reports that harvested data from tens of millions of Facebook users without consent. And that it used the data in political campaigns, including the campaign of the U.S. president, Donald Trump.
Let's get the latest now, CNN's Isa Soares is live in London.
Isa, tell us more about these raids.
What exactly are investigators looking for?
ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. We just got on the last 15 or so minutes --
[05:20:00]
SOARES: -- to the commissioner's office to find out how long the raids went on. They started late last night. They went on until about the early hours this morning, about 3 o'clock or so.
And they have been waiting for this warrant for about four days. Some people here were scratching their heads, if they wanted to get their hands on data, they should have got in much quicker. The question is now if there is anything for them to actually grab.
But we know that they went in yesterday and what they are trying to find out and trying to ascertain what kind of data they have, any sort of -- how the data was used, in particular, for political purposes as we have seen from the exposes all throughout this week in terms of Cambridge Analytica using that data from Facebook from that professor from those 50 million or so Facebook users and using that to target political advertising.
So the commission basically said it is just one of a possible wider investigation into the use of personal data for political purposes. So this is the first time that Cambridge Analytica will be facing this
scrutiny. They are the ones that always look into every candidate's political aspects, every aspect of our lives.
But now the tables are turning and we don't know how long it will take but we expect Cambridge Analytica to, in many ways, face the music in the coming days when its former CEO will have to appear in testimony to testify about what kind of data it actually did have because, only last month, he said he never used Facebook data.
HOWELL: Also we're talking about Cambridge Analytica, Facebook as well and the name synonymous with Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, our Laurie Segall actually spoke with him in an exclusive interview. Certainly we want to direct our viewers to check that out on cnn.com.
But the question to you, Isa, what have authorities said about him?
What do they want to know about him and whether he might have to testify there?
SOARES: Well, on this side of the pond, as you well know, there are people called investigators, lawmakers calling for Cambridge Analytica as well as Zuckerberg to come and testify in terms of what he knew and how much of that information was passed on to the professor at Cambridge University, who created this app.
But people here, at least lawmakers here, don't feel that his apology with that interview that you mentioned there, with Laurie Segall, whether that went far enough. And there are several reasons for that.
One is that he didn't answer critical questions, which really are along the lines of he knew about this back in 2015.
Why didn't you do something about it then?
Have you spoken -- have you contacted the 50 million people that have been -- whose data is being passed on?
And also, you know, why has it taken you so long to come forward and apologize, given that "The Guardian" went to you weeks in advance, telling you that this story was coming out?
So many questions being asked and many people thought that it was just really a political response that he gave rather than a really credible one and one from the heart -- George.
HOWELL: We'll have to see where this goes. Isa Soares, live in our London bureau, thank you, Isa.
Cambridge Analytica's reach goes well beyond just the U.S. president. It also worked for the super PAC of his new national security adviser, John Bolton.
ALLEN: Sources tell CNN Bolton's super PAC even used some of the controversial Facebook data at the heart of this scandal. CNN's Drew Griffin is looking into this. Here he is from London. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SR. INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cambridge Analytica's work for the John Bolton super PAC was the very beginning of using improperly obtained Facebook data from tens of millions of Americans, according to whistleblower Chris Wylie.
CHRISTOPHER WYLIE, FORMER CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA EMPLOYEE: They were one of the first clients of Cambridge Analytica to buy into the psychographic messaging that was developed, using the 50 million Facebook profiles that were misappropriated.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): A spokesman for John Bolton's super PAC denies knowing of any alleged impropriety by Cambridge Analytica and the contract stipulates that Cambridge Analytica would follow the law and obtain all necessary permits.
That contract obtained by CNN shows the Bolton super PAC in 2014 initially paid Cambridge Analytica more than $450,000 for behavioral microtargeting with psychographic messaging -- in other words, using data in an entirely new way.
GRIFFIN: So you are not trying to change people's votes or win people's votes at that time. You're trying to change their minds.
WYLIE: We want to change their perspective and change how they see things. This is a really key element of what Cambridge Analytica does.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): For example, Cambridge Analytica used Facebook data to identify groups in Arkansas, like this so-called cluster --
[05:25:00]
GRIFFIN (voice-over): -- mostly male, 40 to 60 years old, that would be most influenced by imagery that depicts politicians getting jobs done with subjects like economy and national security.
According to Wylie, that information from Facebook was then used to create specific ads targeting those people whose personality traits they had just uncovered, like this 2014 ad Bolton's super PAC created to support Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton in his race for Senate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He will project U.S. strength at home and abroad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: So one neighbor might get a different message from the second neighbor?
WYLIE: Yes, exactly. It is not even neighbors. It might be people in the same house get a different message. The messaging would be crafted to pick at underlying mental vulnerabilities.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Cambridge Analytica was the brainchild of Steve Bannon and funded by Republican conservative billionaires Rebecca and Robert Mercer. Since 2014, Robert Mercer has donated $5 million to John Bolton's super PAC. The super PAC in turn has spent $1.2 million on contracts with Cambridge Analytica.
GRIFFIN: Late Friday Cambridge Analytica sent CNN a statement, saying that the company is not the politically motivated, unethical company that some are alleging. The statement goes on to say the source of the allegations against the company is not a whistleblower or a founder of the company but goes on to say, "Christopher Wylie was a part-time contractor who left in July 2014 and has no direct knowledge of our work or practices since that date."
Meanwhile lawmakers here in the U.K. and in the U.S. want answers on exactly what those practices are and whether or not Cambridge Analytica misused personal data from Facebook -- Drew Griffin, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: In a moment here, we investigate another story that is affecting President Trump. The Playmate and the porn star, what these two women are saying about their alleged affairs with Mr. Trump before he became president.
HOWELL: Plus the president signed a massive spending bill to keep the U.S. government open and running but he also issues a dire warning to Congress about it. Stick around.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:30:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOWELL: Coast to coast and live around the world, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell.
ALLEN: I'm Natalie Allen. Thanks for saying with us. Here are our top stories.
(HEADLINES)
HOWELL: The government has avoided a shutdown, at least until October, after President Donald Trump signed into law a massive spending bill to keep federal agencies up and running, emphasis on massive here because the bill is a 2,200-page monster.
ALLEN: You wonder how many in Washington read it. It details $1.3 trillion of government spending. Mr. Trump had threatened to veto it just before signing it the president made this promise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I say to Congress, I will never sign another bill like this again. I'm not going to do it again. Nobody read it. It's only hours old. Some people don't even know what -- $1.3 trillion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Despite the president's misgivings, a large increase in military spending won him over. He also received $1.6 billion for border security.
HOWELL: But the bill does not address the dilemma of so-called DREAMers. Their protection from deportation was taken away by President Trump last year leaving them in limbo. Yet the president said Democrats were to blame. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: DACA recipients have been treated extremely badly by the Democrats. We wanted to include DACA. We wanted to have them in this bill. 800,000 people. And actually it could even be more. And we wanted to include DACA in this bill. The Democrats would not do it. They would not do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: The Trump administration is once again trying to block transgender people from serving in the United States military. Last year an all-out ban against transgender persons was blocked in federal court. The new policy is directed at those who require surgery or medication specific to being transgender.
ALLEN: Here is part of the White House statement.
"Transgender persons with a history of diagnosis of gender dysphoria, individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery, are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances."
HOWELL: No doubt, fair to say this is almost certain to spark another legal battle in the courts. The American Civil Liberties Union immediately denounced it as "reckless and unconstitutional."
ALLEN: Stormy Daniels' attorney says he has proof his client had a sexual affair with Donald Trump. He offered an intriguing hint at what that is. Daniels, a porn actress, is suing the president --
[05:35:00]
ALLEN: -- over a non-disclosure agreement she says is void. Mr. Trump denies an affair took place.
HOWELL: But then Daniels' attorney tweeted this image, an image of a disk. He didn't say what that disk contains.
But read the tweet's caption, "If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is this worth?"
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL AVENATTI, STORMY DANIELS' ATTORNEY: That DVD contains evidence substantiating the relationship and the tweet is a warning shot. I want to be really clear about this. It is a warning shot.
And it is a warning shot to Michael Cohen and anyone else associated with President Trump, that they'd better be very, very careful after Sunday night, relating to what they say about my client and what spin or lies they attempt to tell the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: That is the attorney for Stormy Daniels. And a former "Playboy" model is speaking out about her alleged 10-month affair with the president. He denies this as well.
ALLEN: Karen McDougal is suing the publisher of the "National Enquirer" tabloid, which she says bought her story just to kill it, thereby protecting the candidacy of Donald Trump. Her attorney calls it collusion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to litigate and do what we need to do get to the bottom to the extent to which there was collusion between this quarter-billion dollar company that's owned by a personal friend of Mr. Trump, a lawyer that, not coincidentally, represented the players here, who are negotiating with Trump people and Michael Cohen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Let's talk more about the developments in Washington, D.C., involving the president. Many things to discuss. Amy Greene is a researcher of U.S. political science and author of "America after Obama." She is live for us in Paris.
Amy, good to see you, thanks for being with us. You're a political scientist. I don't know where this issue comes up in your professional career. But we'll talk about the two women, who say that they had affairs with Donald Trump many years ago and they are giving interviews on the record this week.
Will this be an issue that catches up with him in any significant way, do you think?
AMY GREENE, SCIENCES PO: Stormy Daniels and now I think Karen McDougal is a slow-burning issue for the president. We've been talking about this for a week now, about the fact that this just won't go away for the president.
Clearly Stormy Daniels is not going away. She is not threatened by the president. She is not threatened by this non-disclosure agreement, which many experts have questioned the authority of it, suggesting that it amounts effectively to a gag order. And so essentially you have this person, who is absolutely not afraid
to persist, to continue to fight this battle in court, taking the risk that the judge might force her back into private arbitration but also with the potential victory from her of having this open to a public disclosure, you know, process.
And so that could mean naming defendants, naming her that her party sees as responsible for this, potentially deposing the president. So this week has been a particularly whirlwind week in a series of whirlwind weeks for Washington.
But this seems to be the slow-burning issue that isn't going away very quickly. At this point, I'm not sure that many people in the United States and public opinion actually doubt that this affair happened. But the legal ramifications of it are certainly not likely to go away anytime soon.
ALLEN: Right. He has been very quiet over it. No tweets, no comment, and that's not characteristic. But let's move on to the next issue and that is the revolving door inside this White House.
He is bringing in John Bolton as the next national security adviser to the president. The reaction in Washington has been swift. He is considered a dangerous person for this job because of his positions he's had in the past on Iran and North Korea.
What do you think about Bolton being seated next to this U.S. president?
GREENE: This is a person who was questioned by the Republican Party as far back ago as 2005, when George W. Bush was seeking to nominate him, and somebody who inspires a degree of fear in terms of the opinion and proximity he will have to the president.
Obviously as national security adviser, he is supposed to be the fair broker, filtering information coming in from the different defense and intelligence agencies, presenting to the president a host of options and function of that intelligence.
So really this has to be a firewall for the president and, again, someone who will give him the honest truth about any number of issues but pulling from, again, the expertise of different agencies.
One of the doubts, even the Republican Party mentioned and wrote about this more than a decade ago, is John Bolton's tendency to distort facts in order to paint a more bellicose picture of reality so as to prepare either leadership or the American people for --
[05:40:00]
GREENE: -- military conflict.
So essentially what you have is President Trump, you know, filling his foreign policy team -- and you can talk about Pompeo and Haspel as well, with people who really are going away from what President Trump mentioned during his candidacy, which was less American interventionism.
And what you have is a purely hawkish team. So going into these talks with North Korea, you can ask yourself the question, who is the president bringing along with him?
And if you have advisers who are particularly hawkish toward North Korea, John Bolton called for a strike against North Korea before it had the opportunity to develop fully its nuclear capacities, you can wonder what message the president is sending.
But in any case, one thing that we might be able to conclude or to deduce is that the president is effectively beginning now to surround himself with like-minded people rather than going through the motions of surrounding himself with fair brokers. You can say that he has more ideological compatible advisers and secretaries around him.
ALLEN: You mentioned North Korea. What will this mean to the upcoming talks having Bolton in the picture? We'll wait and see. Amy Greene, we appreciate your analysis. Thank you for joining us.
GREENE: Thank you, Natalie.
HOWELL: CNN travels along with the U.S. Navy as they prepare for joint military exercises with South Korea. We'll have a look inside -- aboard, rather, the U.S.S. Wasp -- ahead.
ALLEN: Plus it's one of the most important ocean organisms you've never heard of. Why a tiny creature living in the waters off Antarctica is so vital to the environment. Our Arwa Damon reports -- coming up.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ALLEN: More hopeful signs to report from the Korean Peninsula. North Korea --
[05:45:00]
ALLEN: -- has just accepted South Korea's proposal to hold high-level talks. Those talks will happen next week at the border truce village of Panmunjom in the Korean demilitarized zone. Both sides will send a three-member delegation with the hope of easing tensions between these two countries.
HOWELL: Earlier this month the U.S. president accepted an invitation to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, this in hopes of securing North Korea's denuclearization.
That historic meeting, though, has not been finalized. It is expected to happen by May. Now while those talks move ahead, the U.S. and South Korea are preparing for their joint military drills, it's an annual drill that typically provokes outrage from North Korea. ALLEN: But our Paula Hancocks has reported this week that North Korea understands these will go on. Our Ivan Watson reports from a U.S. Navy ship, positioned in the Philippine Sea.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is an example of how the U.S. projects military might into the Asia Pacific region. We're aboard the U.S.S. Wasp, it's a U.S. Navy ship in the Philippine Sea.
And the military is demonstrating how Marines and sailors work closely together out here. We're also being shown the F-35B Lightning II, it's a brand new warplane that has been described as the world's most expensive weapons system.
BRAD COOPER, REAR ADMIRAL, U.S. NAVY: For our enemies, these new capabilities simply make us more lethal. We have the ability to bring a greater degree of lethality to the fight and ultimately win in combat.
WATSON (voice-over): Officials at the Pentagon tell CNN the U.S.S. Wasp will be participating in annual joint military drills conducted in South Korea in April. The war games involve tens of thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops and sailors.
WATSON: Just last year, the U.S. was engaged in major shows of military force in the region in response to North Korea's ballistic missile launches and nuclear weapons tests. But what a difference a few months makes, now that President Trump says he is willing to meet face-to-face with North Korea's leader.
What we're seeing here is a demonstration that, if this experiment in diplomacy fails, the military will continue to provide the first line of defense to the U.S. and its allies in the region -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Okinawa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: And now we'll take you to Antarctica coming up here to learn about a tiny creature that is having a global impact. Our Arwa Damon is there for us.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(SPORTS)
[05:50:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ALLEN: We have been reporting from Antarctica all week and the effects of global warming and increasing levels of carbon monoxide that is in the atmosphere. HOWELL: One tiny creature in the waters of Antarctica is helping to offset the harmful emissions. Arwa Damon takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are whales just about everywhere, feeding on krill. Krill are tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that are about the size of your pinkie. And they form this massive swarms that can stretch for tens of kilometers.
Krill are one of the main reasons why these Antarctic waters were in a part of a proposed conservation zone and its balance is essential to our very existence. These waters and wildlife are a carbon sink, moving carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean. And that though it is still being studied is the Antarctic's potential to act as a buffer to climate change.
I didn't know much about krill before we came here. Certainly not that they were a keystone species holding the Antarctic food web together or that they themselves move carbon, ultimately to the ocean floor where it can be sequestered for millennia. The journey of carbon starts with algae which photosynthesizes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
THILO MAACK, MARINE BIOLOGIST AND GREENPEACE CAMPAIGNER: Krill feeds on algae like kids in a McDonald's restaurant. It's sloppy feeding the remains of the algae, just things to the -- to the -- to the deeper water and the same is true for the krill poo.
DAMON: Yes, it's a conversation about poo, carbon-rich krill poo that ends up at the bottom of these dense cold waters. And krill swarms can move down to depths of 2,000 meters. And it's not just the krill that play that role, so to do the whales that feed on the carbon-rich krill, masses of it.
But these are also the main krill fishing grounds. It is a regulated industry but it's one that Greenpeace and others want to see restricted to outside of the main wildlife feeding grounds.
MAACK: The krill-catching vessels, they're catching krill 24 hours a day for the whole of the Antarctic summer.
Long Tang, Long Tang, Arctic Sunrise, Arctic Sunrise, over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, Sir, this is Long Tang.
DAMON: Back on Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise, marine biologist and Greenpeace campaigner, Thilo, is radioing the fishing vessel for details of their catch.
MAACK: Can you tell something about the volume of the catch that you delivered to (INAUDIBLE), the volume of the catch, the weight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this (INAUDIBLE) we have catch 3,600 pounds. DAMON: That may sound like a massive amount and it is. Krill do have the largest biomass of any species on earth, but its numbers have decreased, though it's unclear whether it's from climate change or other factors.
And Greenpeace is pushing for action before we reach a crisis point especially in a region as vital to our survival as this one. Greenpeace's mission is also aimed at documenting the fast and wild beauty of this enthralling ecosystem to show just what's at stake of being lost.
[05:55:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It feels really intense.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Intense (INAUDIBLE).
DAMON: This is the view as dawn breaks. I never even imagined anything like this. I don't have words. I'm honestly lost. It's just -- it's literally taken my breath away. It's such an extreme beauty, my brain doesn't even know how to process it.
ANDREAS SOTO, MECHANIC, ARCTIC SUNRISE: It's beautiful, huh?
DAMON: Andreas Soto, a mechanic on the Arctic Sunrise first came to the Antarctic eight years ago and has returned numerous times as a tour guide.
Do you love this place?
SOTO: I really do. I'm missing -- when I'm at home, I see the picture, I'm really missing this place. As you can see, it's beautiful, really calm and really amazing place. I think it should be protected.
DAMON: Man has been unable to dominate this unforgiving region, but that does not mean that it's immune to human destruction -- Arwa Damon, CNN, the Antarctic.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Thank you to watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. For the United States, "NEW DAY" is next. For viewers around the world, "AMANPOUR" is next.
