Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Trump Heads To Texas To Make Case For Wall; Trump Belittles Competing O'Rourke Rally; CNN Team Witnesses Intense Fighting In E. Syria; Battle Rages As Terrorists Cling To Last Syrian Enclave; U.K. Posts Slowest Growth In Six Years; Possibility Of A "No-Deal" Brexit Has Businesses On Edge; Russia and China Taking the Lead on Global Affairs; Russian Gun Rights Activist Says She's No Spy; A Town Being Swallowed by the Sea; Aerosmith Frontman Helps Young Girls in Need. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 12, 2019 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: -- wasn't true when he said that during the State of the Union. It is still not true in a campaign rally held in El Paso. So why does Trump keep lying?
Plus, nowhere to run nowhere to hide on the front lines in the battle to take the last piece of Syrian territory from ISIS, a CNN exclusive. Just who is running the world? The old global order has been upended by an incredible convergence of events creating an unprecedented opportunity for Moscow and Beijing to fill the void.
Well, here we go again with just four days before the U.S. government runs out of money, congressional Republicans and Democrats say they have a budget deal which will avoid another shutdown, but once again the wild card is the U.S. president who's given mixed messages of his intention to sign off on the agreement.
Sources familiar with the deal tell CNN more than $1 billion has been put aside for new fencing but specifically not a concrete wall. And that's a lot less that the almost $6 billion demanded by the president for his wall on the southern border. So far no word from the White House if this budget deal will be approved by Donald Trump but the signs are not encouraging.
Judging by the President's words tone and demeanor at a campaign rally in the border city in El Paso -- El Paso, Texas, well, for the past week the prison has been repeating outright wrong information about a dramatic fall in the city sky high crime rate after the construction of a wall or the Mexican border and he did it again but this time lashing out of those who try to correct him with actual facts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I spoke to people that have been here a long time. They said when that wall went up, it's a whole different ballgame. Is that a correct statement? Whole different ballgame. I'll give you another example and I don't care whether the mayor is a Republican or a Democrat, they're full of crap when they say it has it made a big difference. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Political Analyst Michael Genovese joins us now from Los Angeles. Boy, that was quite the statement, Michael, coming from the president.
GENOVESE: It was a wonderful spectacle. His rallies and speeches often are. You've got the adoring crowd there. He was on good form and so it was a really a great show.
VAUSE: Yes. Long before he arrived in El Paso, the county officials made it clear that he'd been making these false and misleading statements about this city and the border wall that the information he had was wrong. Listen to one of the city officials here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEE MARGO, MAYOR OF EL PASO, TEXAS: Remarks that the president made in the in the State of the Union were stated originally almost verbatim by our Attorney General some weeks ago and that's where the erroneous comments came from that were not correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So that was the mayor, we also have the FBI. They looked at the numbers and found violent crime peaked in 1993. Border fence construction began in 2008 and was finished the following year and yet despite all of that, the president said all of these people in his words are full of crap. This just seems to be unashamed willful ignorance of reality because the lie or the wrong information is just so much better for his argument.
GENOVESE: Well, I think there are two reasons why he continues to mislead. One reason is because it works for his base. His base will believe anything he says, they'll applaud anything he says, and anything that runs counter to what President Trump says they'll discount.
The second reason I think it's important is because he needs to keep propping himself up, to keep saying these kinds of things to make himself look and feel more important. You know that from the very start he's been doing this, his inaugural crowd was bigger than Obama's. Of course, it wasn't. He won the popular vote, of course, he didn't.
Why do you keep on engaging in things that are easily checkable upable, because they work for your base and you need it psychologically to defend your own ego.
VAUSE" I'm glad you went to the crowd sizes because that's a good segue because again, just a few hours ago battle over crowd sizes is about a mile. A potential president candidate Beto O'Rourke had his own campaign style of event that was much to the derision of Donald Trump. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: What a young man who's got very little going for himself except he's got a great first name. He is -- he challenged us. So we have let's say 35,000 people tonight and he has 200 people 300 people, not too good. In fact, what I do, what I would do is I would say that maybe the end of his presidential bid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes, except it's not true. The reality in crowd for Bet0 O'Rourke and he's been a rock star within the Democrat Party about 7,000, maybe more. Fire officials apparently said the venue the president held his event could have a capacity of 6,500. No more than 6,500 were let in, others may be turned away. That is entirely clear right now. This is clearly a very important issue for the President.
[01:05:09] GENOVESE: John, stop dealing a reality. It confuses things and it makes the President very unnerved. Again, I think there are deep psychological reasons why the President absolutely needs to be bigger, to be better. And when he's not he simply makes it up. His adoring crowd believes that the Pied Piper can say and do anything and they will follow him.
And so, I mean, his speech tonight was wonderful entertainment. It was very formulaic. You identify a problem, you identify an enemy, you attack the enemy, you build up the crowd to fever-pitch. He was still -- this is two years after the election, they were still talking about lock her up, lock her up, lock her up. And some of the things he was saying about the Democrats were just beautifully fantastic.
One is that if the Democrats get elected, they want to take away your cars. The other thing he said is that when the Democrats win, you won't even be able to buy a cow. Those kinds of absurdities lead to applause. They lead to cheering inside the arena. Outside the arena you see 7,000 people in a counter-protest.
VAUSE: Well, let's stick with the absurdities because you know, the President is in El Paso to sell the need for this border wall. To that end, Republican and Democrat lawmakers have reached a budget deal which will see some funding you know, not for a concrete war but for fencing. It will avoid another government shutdown. And again on the issue of the shutdown, the President seems to in his own world. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know what, if we didn't do that shutdown, we would not have been able to show this country, these politicians, the world, what the hell is happening with the border. That was a very important thing we did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You have to jump through a lot of hoops and twist yourself into a lot of self-delusion to get to that point.
GENOVESE: Well, and that's partly because he went on stage knowing that the deal was not going to be very good. He was going to get $1.37 billion, less than a fourth of what he's demanding. And so the deal is pretty bad. He's got him to use smoke and mirrors to try to confuse and to make it look like he's a victor. The problem is if he accepts the deal, his base will turn on him a little bit, and the Democrats won't give him much credit. If he rejects the deal --
VAUSE: Yes, you know -- sorry --
GENOVESE: I was going to say, if he rejects the deal, his is happy but the nation turns on him. So I think he's caught between a rock and a hard place on this.
VAUSE: Yes. He's walled in, I suppose you would say. And just because anyone has any doubt about the hours put in by Donald executive time Trump, Monday morning came this really frightened tweet. No president ever worked harder than me cleaning up a mess I inherited. 7:43 a.m. second tweet of the day and that says a lot about you know, what is uppermost in the President's brain.
GENOVESE: Well, everyone around him says they admit he watches T.V. a lot. He is addicted to television. His work habits are variable. Some days he works fairly hard, some days he has a lot of what they call executive time. He is not the most hard-working president. I mean we've had presidents in the past like Ronald Reagan who took some executive time here and there, and then we've had workaholics like Jimmy Carter.
So on the one hand, you don't want to say you have to have you know, a 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 scheduled meeting after meeting after meeting, but you want to have the right balance. For Trump, he can't reach the balance. He's so obsessed with television that he keeps watching.
VAUSE: Yes. They spend hours on the phone fearing about the coverage, his friends so just his time goes for a long period apparently these days in the Oval Office, but Michael, thank you.
GENOVESE: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: Well, four days into a military offensive by U.S. back forces to retake the -- to retake the last remaining piece of territory held by ISIS not just in Syria but anywhere, and CNN is on the frontlines.
The terror group is held up in the small town of Baghouz Al-Fawqani. CNN is there and over the past few days they've witnessed intense shelling and air strikes reducing what's left of the self-declared Isis Caliphate to brothel. CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman along with his team have also been caught up in the fighting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have to leave our position now because the morning began with heavy exchange of machine-gun fire followed by loud explosions. We went up to the roof and started to take incoming rounds, then a some sort of explosive device landed just next to the building we were in. Now, we have to pull out because it appears that there's been a serious ISIS counter-attack and we've seen some of the SDF troops pulling back as this goes on. Although some of the officers are urging them to go forward but what ISIS fighters were doing we're taking advantage of the early morning fog which is often their tactic to try to make advances and it appears indeed they have and that's why we have to move back. I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN reporting from the frontlines in eastern Syria.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, as the top U.S. commander in the Middle East prepares to step down, he's warning ISIS will remain a threat. Central Command General Joseph Votel stopped in Cairo on his farewell tour. And as CNN's Barbara Starr reports, he had a lot to say about ISIS and the impact of a drawdown of U.S. troops in Syria.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: President Trump very much wants to declare in the coming days that ISIS has been pushed out of all the areas in Syria it once controlled. This will happen as soon as that last fighting is done in ISIS's last stronghold in the southern part of the country. But here tonight in the Middle East, General Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command sounded a much more strategic long-term view about his concerns about what ISIS is still capable of.
GEN. JOSEPH VOTEL, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It's an important objective for us to take that away from them but it doesn't mean the end of the organization. And we are going to have to continue to put military pressure on them, the Syrian democratic forces well and we will help them.
STARR: STARR: General Votel, of course, is not contradicting the president but he does point out it's easier to put pressure on Isis if you're right there on the ground.
VOTEL: It's always easier when you're there on the ground. But in this case, our president has made a decision and we're going to execute that.
STARR: And General Votel notes that initially, the U.S. began the campaign against ISIS from bases inside Iraq so working remotely can work out. Barbara Starr CNN, Cairo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Major General Mark MacCarley joins us now from Los Angeles. He's a retired U.S. Army officer. Major General, good to see you. It's been a while.
MAJ. GEN. MARK MACCARLEY (RET.), UNITED STATES ARMY: My pleasure.
VAUSE: We have seen moments like this before, the battle for Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria and now this last enclave in eastern Syria. Only this time ISIS fighters retreat, they have nowhere to run so barring the unlikely event of a negotiated surrender. Are you expecting a level of resistance from ISIS that we haven't seen before?
MACCARLEY: John, what you looked at and that clip from (INAUDIBLE) is sort of representative of the last-ditch effort on the part of anywhere from 500 to 1,000 ISIS fighters within Fawqani. That said, the expectation, I think the reasonable expectation is that Fawqani will fall. But just because I say that doesn't necessarily mean that we should unfurl the victory flag, have a big parade down Broadway in New York and declare victory over ISIS, far from it.
When I referenced 1,000 or so fighters in Fawqani, there are thousands who have to use an army term gone to the ground. And what that means, you translate that phrase it means that they're out someplace they become invisible, they can surface at a later time and the assurgency which is not just about maintenance of territory, a caliphate -- the caliphate absorbed western Iraq and eastern Syria. But this is a conflict about ideology and we have not yet won that battle.
So all credit, if there's credit to be allocated, there's credit to SDF, the Kurdish fighters who have led this conflict. There is credit to the Arabs who have served in the SDF and other associated units. We've got to give credit to the U.S. Armed Forces, our air force, our army advisers on the ground. But at the end of the day, this fight is not over and that's what I see.
VAUSE: Which -- yes, let me -- sorry to cut you but the U.N. counterterrorism director sitting put that out in a warning on Monday saying ISIS or ISIL you know, they've had these major losses but that does not mean -- and the work that you know, it should lead to any complacency. This is part of the report which was delivered on Monday. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:14:56] MICHELE CONINSX, U.N. COUNTERTERRORISM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: ISIL has retained its global intent and global networks with the presence not just in Iraq and Syrian Arab Republic but also in many other regions of the world. Of all international terrorist organizations, remains the most likely to carry out a large-scale, complex attack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And the report goes on to say the danger posed by ISIS internationally has actually increased because foreign fighters are returning home. It goes onto detail how a terror group is finding new ways to raise money through mobile payments systems in West Africa. They used blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
The specific details may be new, but the overall findings seem to come as a surprise absolutely no one.
MACCARLEY: 100 percent concur with that. Especially as both the proponent who addressed the subject just a minute ago, and as well what we're seeing in West Africa. As ISIS has morphed, it has found ripe territory for engaging the same sort of activities that are disruptive, that are reflective of all it stands for. So, once again, no victory at this particular point.
VAUSE: Well, that begs the question. If the U.S. president follows through with what seems to be his plan to declare an end to ISIS because they no longer hold significant real estate in Syria or Iraq, will that be his very own mission accomplished moment?
MACCARLEY: My personal opinion, yes, far from it. And there is something that we should reflect upon, and it gets back to whether the U.S. should continue its presence, for instance, in Syria or in Iraq. And we can go through a lot of foreign policy conversations about whether or not intervention, whether or not, long-term presence in a country such as Syria is the right thing to do.
But the -- an answer to all that is sort of a simple formula, and the president kind of commented and gave us the response which I think is very accurate as to the consequences of quote declaring this victory.
And in January 3rd, the president came up and said, he was asked about Iran. And as we all know Iran is a big player. Saw the vacuum, Iran moved in, supported its proxy ally, Hezbollah. They're so -- the Russians moved in at the same point in time ostensibly to fight ISIS but for all other political purposes.
But what the president said on January 3rd was this, "Yes, Iran is withdrawing some folks," but quote, "I don't care what the Iranians will do in Syria." So, to me, that says that with the collapse of ISIS, at least, those ISIS fighters that claimed territory, they're positioning themselves here or there.
What we've created is a vacuum in which Syria becomes a further playground, a place where Iran can exert its influence and that's quite frankly absolutely inconsistent with the president's position vis-a-vis Iran in every other area of conversation.
So, in effect, we've created a platform for Iran in which Iran will have greater ability to whether negatively or negatively influence the foreign policy scene.
VAUSE: So, let me just get to the (INAUDIBLE). So, you are saying essentially what -- the U.S. troops should stay because there is an argument that's a small force, it's had an incredibly positive impact -- you know, that they can be a lot more effective if they in-country rather than trying to monitor the situation and deal with the situation from neighboring Iraq.
MACCARLEY: Absolutely. Certainly, from my vantage point and my experience, and what we have achieved with 2,000 most professional soldiers on the ground, in both an advisory capacity, and also in terms of guiding our air interdiction and close air support.
The benefit of our presence even with 2,000 soldiers which is less than a brigades or 3,000 or so. Not the numbers, but the fact that the -- we are there, and we are saying that we are not going to abandon our position. And basically -- I'm going to use that word, give it away to the Russians. Give it away to the Iranians. And that inconsistency is just unacceptable.
VAUSE: General, good to see you. Thank you.
Businesses hate it, but in Britain, they've got a lot of it, and then some. The uncertainty of Brexit and how companies are bracing for the looming Brexit deadline.
Also, a Louisiana town about to be swallowed by the sea, why this could be a preview of what is yet to come but on a much bigger and much more terrifying scale.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:22:10] VAUSE: Well, Venezuela is set to mark Youth Day with more widespread protests against President Nicolas Maduro. His rival, self-declared President Juan Guaido is urging demonstrators to keep up the pressure on Maduro until he resigns.
In the meantime, Guaido is to banning the Maduro government, allow much-needed humanitarian aid into the country. He tweeted a video on Monday which shows him and members of the opposition delivering their own shipment of vitamins and nutritional supplies. There's no word on where the aid actually came from.
Once again, the British prime minister will go before Parliament in the coming hours to deliver her latest update on Brexit. And with only 45 days until the Brexit deadline, U.K. economic growth has hit its lowest level in six years. All this as the E.U. continues to stand firm refusing to budge on the backstop the so-called insurance policy intend to of -- intended to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
And the E.U.'s chief Brexit negotiator says it's up to Theresa May to find a solution to the standoff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHEL BARNIER, CHIEF BREXIT NEGOTIATOR, EUROPEAN UNION (through translator): I heard Theresa May, herself say that she hoped to open a dialogue with the opposition. So, here's what I can say, something has to give on the British side. Clarity of movement is needed in the United Kingdom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Britain's economy has hit the brakes harder than many had expected. Growing interest 1.4 percent last year, 0.2 percent of the final quarter of the year. This number is way down the British government, says, "Hey, this isn't Brexit. It's a slowdown in China."
Try and telling that to business, they're on the edge right now with the possibility of a chaotic divorce from the E.U. If there's no deal by March 29th, that could mean big delays at border crossings. CNN's Ana Stewart, went for a ride with the truck driver because she did, unaccompanied.
He was transporting car parts back home to the U.K. She managed to get his views on Brexit in a little song.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GORDON TERRY, TRUCK DRIVER: When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore.
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Gordon Terry's been driving a truck for 25 years. And today, he's my chauffeur through France.
TERRY: Even if I say so myself, I'm a fairly good crooner.
STEWART: We've been on the road for two days. Hauling car parts made in Italy to a factory in Liverpool, England. For three hours to the channel crossing at Calais, we have plenty of time to talk politics.
TERRY: There's only one Brexit.
STEWART: Which is?
TERRY: No deal Brexit.
STEWART: No matter what. Even if it means businesses have to close --
TERRY: It will create more industry. It will create more work for the youngsters that they think we're robbing them of.
STEWART: So, in your mind, short term pain.
TERRY: Yes.
STEWART: But long term gain.
TERRY: Long term gain.
STEWART: His bosses at Alcaline Haulage don't see it that way.
DAVID ZACCHEO, OPERATIONS MANAGER, ALCALINE HAULAGE: We've spent hundreds of thousands of pounds, just to -- for the eventuality of a no-deal Brexit.
[01:25:04] STEWART: David Zaccheo is Alcaline's operations manager. His trucks make 10,000 channel crossings each year. Hauling parts for major car makers like Jaguar, Land Rover.
ZACCHEO: There's a little bit of red there today.
STEWART: Zaccheo tracks its rigs in real time. Troubleshooting potential delays that could shut off supply.
Wow, this is one truck, I mean, how you got on?
ZACCHEO: This is one truck. So what we literally see, what's -- you know, what's actually happened.
STEWART: Most of the parts hit the assembly line as soon as they reach their destination. It's called just-in-time manufacturing, and Zaccheo's clients swear by it.
Some are stockpiling parts, others shifting production out of the U.K. ahead of the Brexit deadline. Worried a no-deal could grind things to a halt.
What's the worst case scenario? What's it look like?
ZACCHEO: There will be just blockades, vehicles parked up because we don't know what's going on. We're not sure ourselves what's going to happen.
STEWART: We're coming off the motorway now. We are approaching the border at Calais, so we can go over to the U.K. Currently, we don't need to show any customs forms. The U.K. is part of the E.U. Customs Union, part of a single market. This is what could change come March 29th.
U.K. port officials say a customs check could lead to miles of delays on each side of the border. This is how Alcaline's coping, buying a helicopter to ensure it can deliver parts on deadline. The backlog could hit the Eurotunnel where nearly 1.7 million trucks passed through last year.
We go through a security check, and within minutes, we're on our way again. Onto a train that will carry our truck under the channel. Terry rides in a separate coach with the other drivers. The shuttle is a marvel of modern engineering and a main artery of the European economy.
40 minutes later, and its back on the highway. Now, on the U.K. side where businesses are hoping for more direction on the road ahead. Anna Stewart, CNN, at the channel crossing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: She does that on weekends just for fun. Next up here on CNN NEWSROOM. Donald Trump has made it clear, the U.S. is out of the global leadership business. And right now, it's not a very deep bench when it comes to which countries can step up and fill the void.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour. U.S.-backed forces are locked in a battle with ISIS in the terror group's last Syrian enclave.
This exclusive footage shows some of the fightings around Baghouz Al- Fawqani. One woman who fled the town, says food is running low and ISIS is using human shields.
British government says Brexit is not to blame for the economy growing at its slowest pace in six years. Where these numbers show just 1.4 percent growth in 2018 and only 0.2 percent in the final quarter of the year. And congressional negotiators have reached an agreement in principal to avoid another U.S. government shutdown. Sources say it includes more than a billion dollars for border fencing but specifically prohibits a great big beautiful concrete wall. No word yet if the White House is actually on board. Government funding runs out on Friday if there is no deal.
If the past few weeks are any indication the remainder of the first term of the Trump administration will be a cycle of confrontation and standoff followed maybe by last-minute compromise -- wash, rinse, repeat.
Add to that a president who is under multiple investigations and reportedly watches cable news coverage of said investigations for hours every day. It leaves the White House not so much focused on domestic issues but barely able to cope with anything else like the diminishing role of American leadership around the world. And even if there was time Donald Trump has made it clear there is not the desire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America is booming. America is thriving. And America is winning because we are finally putting America first.
It's America first to me. It's all about America first.
They don't put America first. I do. And I always will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: In the past, when there has been an absence of U.S. global leadership Britain has filled the void but at the moment the British are engaged in collective navel gazing as the biggest political crisis in a generation plays out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Brexit continues to mean Brexit.
JEREMY CORBYN, BRITISH LABOUR PARTY LEADER: The most important issue at the moment which is Brexit, they have failed again.
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: It's not too late to save Brexit.
DONALD TUSK, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COUNCIL: I have been wondering what that special place in hell looks like for those who promoted Brexit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So if not London, then maybe Berlin. In years past the (INAUDIBLE) erudite Chancellor Angela Merkel has shown moments of courage and character but such bold moves cost her politically and have been a stark lesson for all those who aspire to replace her. And just for argument's sake, next in line, France whose Emmanuel Macron is grappling with his nationwide unrest over economic reforms. Some analysts suggest that could pose the biggest threat to his presidency.
All of this seems to lead the way open for Moscow and Beijing, the Boris and Natasha of international diplomacy.
For more now, we are joined by CNN's global affairs analyst David Rohde. David is also an executive editor of the "New Yorker" online.
Ok, so David-- that's quite a setup. Thank you for sticking around.
You know, there is this tendency to think of Russian President Vladimir Putin as this uber overlord somehow manipulating every international event to his advantage. You know, that's always a bit of a stretch but I think is it a fair assumption that he's recognized a series of global events and trends and he's managed to use them to his advantage?
DAVID ROHDE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes, I would agree with you. And I think the sort of theme across all the crises you mentioned is I think growing inequality in Europe and the U.S. and a sense that the rich are getting fantastically rich and average people are struggling whether it's in France or Britain and the U.S.
And that's led to a sort of a rise of this nationalism that Trump embodies this focus on if these elites, you know, weren't mistreating you, if they would put America first as Trump says, we can solve these economic problems that are frustrating people sort of across the developed world.
VAUSE: You know, over all though, in terms of actually filling that leadership vacuum, Moscow seems sort of more focused on the disruption and mischief.
Beijing though is actually already working to fill the void. Not only do they have this, you know, the One Belt One Road Initiative which is basically a $900 billion pot of money to spend on infrastructure and transportation across Asia.
Here's part of the report from "The Financial Times". "Unlike the Marshall Plan, the U.S.-led aid program that bolstered western European allies after the Second World War, China's attempt to win over the Philippines, Japan and countries along the Belt and Roads" routes involve a mix of military, economic hard and soft power."
And to that end China is seeing this surge in tourism and surge in academic research -- you know, soft power. And they are talking about this unique system of state-led capitalism and there's no significant presence, you know, making the counter argument.
ROHDE: Yes, I would agree that the Chinese are playing a much longer game. And I think making more headway in materials of emerging as a global power. They're putting enormous amounts of research in to artificial intelligence and trying to dominate certain parts of, you know, development in term of technology. So I agree.
And then I think Putin is incredibly adept at taking credit for things that Russia is, you know, essentially not that responsible for. The Russian economy is not strong. They're independent on oil sales. It's population is not growing at the rate it needs for it to become more of a world power.
So I would agree. I think the Chinese are making large gains in response to Trump's sort of withdrawal of the United States from the world.
[01:34:57] And Russia is sort of, you know, very, very good at projecting its power but it's really the Chinese that are becoming more and more I think impressive and more and more dominant in different parts of the world.
VAUSE: And there are real world immediate consequences to the U.S. stepping back. For example, you know, relations between, you know, American allies Japan and South Korea are at a very low point right now. In the past Washington would step in, defuse the tension, take an active role.
But not this time. Bloomberg is reporting "Trump has shown little interest in the alliance since abandoning his military pressure campaign against North Korea last year focusing instead on U.S. trade deficit and military expenditures with both countries. The U.S. Leader skipped a pair Asian summits in November to focus on midterm elections, did not hold trilateral meetings with Abe and Moon at the subsequent Group of 20 gathering in Argentina."
In other words, he has snubbed them all. You know, the U.S. president has often been described as a day trader. Is that one reason why, you know, there hasn't been any investment in this alliance? He just fails to see the long-term benefit.
ROHDE: Yes. And he's all about domestic politics. And you know, people have predicted this for a long time, the emergence of sort of a multi-polar world that it would shift from, you know, one super power the U.S. or the super power -- you know, two superpowers -- the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
And Trump has accelerated the withdrawal of American influence, you know. He's rattled NATO. He's been very disdainful to the European Union. As you talked about in he's doing nothing in as these tensions emerge between long-time U.S. allies.
And so the Chinese are filling that void but they're still not as powerful as the U.S. nor is Russia. And it is leading to this sort of confusion. Traditional alliances are weakening and changing and there's no one calling the shots that this could be a transition.
There could be a new equilibrium reached or it could be increasingly chaotic. If there is a global economic downturn, you'll see chaos and I think many, many tensions and a very dangerous situation.
VAUSE: Very quickly, David -- you know, usually sort of geopolitical changes, they happen slowly over time. One power will rise, another one will fall. This reworking of the international order though, I mean you touched on this. It seems to be happening, you know, in relative terms, very, very quickly almost sort of at light speed.
ROHDE: It is and it's Trump. I mean I think he's attacked, you know, the international trading system. He's attacked NATO, you know, arguably the most successful alliance in modern history. And he is, you know, withdrawing from all these international organizations and agreements that have governed the post World War II order.
Maybe it will help him, you know, win reelection but it's no question that it is radically accelerating trends that, you know, people saw this again a multi-polar world. And I think it's quite dangerous because we just don't know where all this is leading.
VAUSE: It's unchartered territory for sure. David -- thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
ROHDE: Thank you.
VAUSE: She's pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for acting as a Russian agent, but Maria Butina, rather says she's actually no spy.
CNN's Brian Todd has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA BUTINA, ALLEGED RUSSIAN SPY: It's very important.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For the first time the alleged Russian spy and gun advocate Maria Butina is speaking out and firing back saying if she had really been a Russian agent, she would have been the worst one imaginable.
BUTINA: I would be invisible Russian spy, you would never see me in public. I would be the most unseen personal on earth.
TODD: Instead the 30-year-old who pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to being an unlawful, unregistered agent for a foreign government says she was unfairly accused of trading sex to get political access.
BUTINA: For the last 40 days, me being called whore, it's very hard.
TODD: Prosecutors later retracted that accusation blaming it on a misinterpretation of her text messages. But government lawyers did imply in court papers, they believe she was using her boyfriend, Republican operative Paul Erickson to further her objectives.
Erickson, seen here singing "Beauty and the Beast" with Butina in a recording studio, recently was indicted on unrelated charges of money laundering and wire fraud. His lawyer says his full story hasn't yet come out.
Butina is speaking out in a series of exclusive interviews with James Bamford, author of several books on intelligence, who wrote an article on her in the new edition of the "New Republic Magazine". In audio clips of those interviews which Bamford shared with CNN, Butina talked of being surprised by federal agent when they raided her apartment last year, a couple of months before her arrest.
BUTINA: I just cleaned my apartment and I was baking banana bread.
They told that they have search warrant. So I opened the door, they just walked in so I was pushed back.
TODD: In the interviews which were conducted before and after her arrest, Butina emphatically denies she was a spy. Bamford notes she was never charged with espionage, the lesser charge she pleaded to included admitting she tried to infiltrate Republican political circles and influence U.S. relations with Russia through her inroads with the National Rifle Association and other group.
But Butina has claimed she did that simply to improve U.S.-Russian relations. And because she wanted to expand gun rights in Russia.
[01:40:01] Bamford sides with Butina saying he doesn't the believe she did anything covert. As for the prosecutor's claim that Butina worked at the direction of Aleksandr Torshin, a Russian banker with ties to Vladimir Putin --
JAMES BAMFORD, AUTHOR: The facts show that she was not a spy, that she was never paid, never directed by the Russian government.
She didn't work for Torshin. Torshin couldn't tell her what do. He couldn't fire her. He couldn't reassign her. He couldn't demote her.
TODD: But prosecutors say Butina did update Torshin on her efforts to meet influential Republicans. Former intelligence officers tell CNN they don't believe Butina was a trained spy on the Russian government payroll. But they say that doesn't mean she wasn't cultivated by the Russians to give them sensitive information.
ERIC O'NEILL, NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST, CARBON BLACK: The FBI conducted a pretty airtight investigation. We have serious e-mails between her and her Russian handler. We have Twitter communications. They got her phone records. And many of those e-mails point to her as a Russian intelligence operative.
TODD (on camera): Still, James Bamford says he believes the prosecution of Maria Butina was unfair and motivated by politics and the desire for publicity.
We reached out to the prosecutor's office for response to that. A spokesman for the prosecutor said because the case is still pending and Butina is awaiting sentencing they could not comment.
Brian Todd, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Next on CNN NEWSROOM the Louisiana town packing up and moving 40 miles inland because of rising sea levels. Details after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Add insects to the growing list of casualties of climate change. New research says 40 percent of the world's insect species are facing extinction over the next few decades with potentially catastrophic impact on the planet. Scientists blame climate change along with pollution and habitat loss. The bugs maybe annoying but they are a key component to many of the world's ecosystems and food chain.
Polar bears searching for food have invaded a remote village in northeastern Russia, home to about 2,500 people now all afraid it seems to be going outside or even send their kids to school. Officials declared a state of emergency after dozens of sightings of the bears since December. The bears have attacked people and made their way inside buildings. Scientists say melting sea ice has force them from their natural habitat.
[01:44:54] What had been the coastline of the U.S. state of Louisiana is slowly moving inland disappearing meter by meter because sea levels are rising. And that's not opinion -- it's fact, period. It's true, period. And proven, period.
In fact 98 percent of one coastal town is already completely under water. This drowning of Louisiana is happening faster than expected -- a dramatic example of what might happen on a much bigger scale in the not too distant future.
Here's CNN's Bill Weir.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bye.
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When these kids are old enough to start families, their hometown will be under water.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my grandma's house.
WEIR: Their great, great, great grandparents settled here during the Trail of Tears. And for the first hundred years they farmed this land.
(on camera): You just raised that exact house above?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, yes.
WEIR (voice over): But in the last 30 year old they had to raise their homes a few feet to stay dry and then a few feet more. Until before and after satellite pictures proved what they already knew -- 98 percent of the town Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana has disappeared.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I always talk about water is our life and our death. Once we weren't able to farm anymore, the waters, the shrimp, the oysters, the crabs that sustain our people now was killing us. It's killing us.
WEIR: Every hour of everyday a piece of Louisiana about the size of a football field slips into the sea -- every hour, every day.
It started when America tamed, locked and the diked the mighty Mississippi, choking off the natural flow of mud that built this land.
But these days, as it sinks, polar ice melts. Seas rise, big storms just keep coming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has been a lot of change in just last say five years.
WEIR: And those to who study the drowning of Louisiana say it is happening faster than anyone predicted.
TOR TORNQVIST, CHAIR, EARTHA ND EVNVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, TULANE UNIVERSITY: What maybe five years ago was the worst case scenario is now what we might call a fairly likely scenario.
WEIR (on camera): That's terrifying.
TORNQVIST: It is terrifying, and it basically means that climate change is here in full force.
Weir (voice over): So Isle de Jean Charles won a first of its kind federal grant -- $48 million to move them about 40 miles north. The state recently closed on 500 acres of old sugarcane fields.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to have baseball fields, fishing ponds, wetlands, homes along the back.
WEIR: But before they can even break ground.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'd like just had a tribal meeting today.
WEIR (on camera): They are getting a harsh lesson in just how hard it is to convince Americans to uproot and retreat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anybody else is probably not moving.
WEIR: Really.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So yes.
WEIR (voice over): Half of the 40 families who live here say they will never leave while others still aren't convinced it's the right move.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This so-called climate change thing,.
WEIR (on camera): You put it in quotes --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
WEIR: So-called. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
WEIR: But Isle de Jean Charles is just a tiny sample of how expensive and difficult the future will be. According to one estimate from the United Nations between 50 and 200 million people will be displaced by climate change by the year 2050. And most of those are the planet's most vulnerable. Fishermen and farmers who live on the edge.
(voice over): And if it is this hard moving a village, imagine moving Miami, or New Orleans.
(on camera): Do you have children?
TORNQVIST: I have an eight-year-old daughter.
WEIR: do you think she will ever be able to say take out a 30-year mortgage in New Orleans?
TORNQVIST: I don't know. I don't know. That's -- I wouldn't bet my money on it. Let's put it that way.
WEIR (voice over): But he says it's not too late to stop burning the carbon that is cranking up the global thermostat, not too late to stop worst-case pain.
But that will depend more on human nature than mother nature. And as people argue, the seas rise every hour, of every day.
Bill Weir, CNN -- Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: It was a haunting and disturbing song 30 years ago, dealing with a social issue few wanted to confront. But now the song "Janie's Got a Gun" is changing the lives and helping the victims who Aerosmith once only sang about.
(MUSIC)
[01:49:38] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
VAUSE: It's been 30 years since Aerosmith recorded "Janie's Got a Gun". For a band not known for tackling social issues they went all in with this song about sexual abuse, rape, incest, victim-blaming and murder. The song would earn Aerosmith their first ever Grammy Award.
And now all these years later they are back together on Grammy Night in Los Angeles not to celebrate their success but the power of a song which has made and is making a real difference in so many lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN TYLER, AEROSMITH: I'm deeply honored and humbled to see each of you here for Janie's Fund. Look at this room. I love us. I love us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Front man Steven Tyler wrote the lyrics. His inspiration was a magazine story about parental child abuse, an issue rarely discussed and the almost neglected at the time. But Tyler always wanted to do more beyond this one song.
And from "Janie's Got a Gun" came Janie's Fund, a charity for abused and neglected children. And just like they did last year on Sunday night, Tyler, Aerosmith, and some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry raised some serious cash for his charity -- $2.8 million.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYLER: One in five girls are sexually abused before they are 18 years old that means mentally, physically and emotionally as well. But experts confirm that the abuse is vastly under reported. So it's likely many, many more children are harmed in this way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It's a long way from when Tyler started the foundation in 2015 with half a million dollars of his own. But at 70, one of the hottest living rock and roll stars of a generation says he's finally found what's good for his heart and good for his soul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWD: One, two, three.
VAUSE (voice over): This is Steven Tyler's second cutting ceremony at Janie's House in Tennessee which will accommodate up to 14 girls at a time -- all victims of abuse and neglect. Here they'll go school, receive counseling and deal with the kind of trauma most could never imagine.
TYLER: I am 70 and in this kind of stuff is still happening to me. It's just -- it's God. Just when the world keels over you can turn into a butterfly.
VAUSE: Janie's House grew its wing from one of Aerosmith's biggest hits.
TYLER: Well, I sat down with the piano and I started plinking out Janie -- and then I said Janie got a gun and I thought, wow, all right. Well, that's as good a lyric as any.
[01:54:56] VAUSE: The Grammy-Award winning song was a hit worldwide. At the same time Tyler who has his own checkered past with drugs and sex has had to deal with his own demons.
TYLER: I went away to a place for co-dependency and I happened to meet many, many of the girls there that had been physically, verbally, and emotionally, and obviously sexually abused.
Years went by and it's just the right time happened. I just suggested, you know, what if we had a Janie's House.
VAUSE: The first Janie's House opened in Georgia two years ago and to continue to fund his charity Tyler went where he knew there was no shortage of money -- Hollywood. Hosting a star-studded Grammy Awards viewing party for the second year -- this one gathering on Sunday raised almost $3 million.
JANE LYNCH, ACTRESS: When you talk to Steven about Janie's funds his eyes light up and you can't help but get wrapped up into the joy of this work for him which is helping abused and neglected girls and giving them a second chance at life.
SHARON STONE, ACTRESS: The majority of people, of families have in some way been touched by sexual abuse which means that we should be talking about it openly every day.
VAUSE: And there alongside Tyler on Sunday -- the Janie's girls he's helping.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The day-to-day life is pretty difficult but with good support like Steven and all these wonderful people here, we are actually able to work towards, you know, making those days better.
TYLER: For the time that they're there, there is just poetry on the walls and they have bunk beds and one gets the top and one gets the bottom and they can write on the wall and it's their place of solitude and safety.
(MUSIC)
VAUSE: And so what began with those four dark and haunting words "Janie's Got a Gun" has now evolved -- "Janie's Got a Home.
CROWD: Yes.
TYLER: All right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. A lot more news with Rosemary Church after a short break. You are watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church with your next two hours of CNN NEWSROOM.
Let's get started.
[01:59:58] An up-close look at the battle against ISIS. The terror group is cornered in its last enclave in eastern Syria and we have an exclusive report.
END
