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New Day Saturday

Trump Facing Legal Challenges Over Emergency Declaration; Workplace Shooting: Five Employees Dead, Five Police Officers Wounded; Mueller Probe: Special Counsel Says Paul Manafort Deserves up to 24.5 Years in Prison for Financial Crimes; Russia Investigations: Prosecutors say They Have Evidence Roger Stone Communicated Directly With WikiLeaks; Joe Biden is Speaking at High-Profile Security Conference in Germany; Republicans Warn Trump Against Decision to Declare Emergency; Violent Unrest: Chaos in Haiti Amid Anti-Government Protests; Payless Closing: Discount Shoe Store Shutting Down all U.S. Stores. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired February 16, 2019 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:00]

BLACKWELL: But how much is that one Jersey? All right, Andy--

SCHOLES: We will find out.

BLACKWELL: Andy thanks so much.

SCHOLES: All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: NEW DAY

HARTUNG: A terrifying situation here in Aurora, Illinois. Multiple people killed, multiple civilians injured and five police officers injured by gunfire.

BLACKWELL: Robert Mueller asking a federal judge in Virginia throw the book at Paul Manafort, arguing that the former Trump Campaign Chairman deserves up to 24.5 years in prison.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the first time, we learned that actually the Special Counsel's office on the record was investigating Roger Stone as part of this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sarah Sanders, interviewed by the Special Counsel, the President's press secretary sat down with Bob Mueller's team late last year.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn't need to do this, but I'd rather do it much faster.

ANN COULTER, AMERICAN COMMENTATOR: The only national emergency is that our President is an idiot. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Republican lawmakers have warned the President for weeks not to declare a national emergency. He felt that he was out of options to get funding for that border wall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN HOST: Its 8:00 a.m. in the East. Good morning everyone I'm Kaylee Hartung in for Chriti Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell. Well, good Saturday morning to you. This morning Democrats are wasting no time. Several are hitting the trail from New Hampshire, South Carolina, Georgia to Iowa, all of them are - to share their rebuttal to President Trump's emergency declaration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D) CALIFORNIA: I believe that there is a need and always should be a need and we should see it as a priority border security. Border security should always be a priority for our country. The question is, where do we need to put the resources to make sure that our border is safe? And what the President is doing right now is irresponsible and a misuse of public resources.

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D) NEW YORK: It egregious example of abuse of power. I don't think that the Executive Branch should be used for emergency powers in this kind of circumstance. And he is using political ploys to do what he wants, when he wants and it's wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARTUNG: And the President admitting just moments after declaring a national emergency that he didn't need to do it. This morning as the President wakes up, at his Golf Resort in Florida, lawsuits are already being filed to block his executive order.

BLACKWELL: Let's get to CNN White House Reporter, Sarah Westwood, traveling there with the President at West Palm Beach, Florida. Sarah, good morning.

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Good morning, Victor and Kaylee. And yes, President Trump directly tying that emergency declaration to the failure of Congress to fund his border wall, and that's a connection that could undermine his administration's expected argument in court, which is that this declaration was not an attempt to circumvent Congress when it refused to appropriate what Trump thought he needed for the border wall.

Now, with this declaration, the Trump administration will try to unlock an additional $6 billion in federal funds that will come from a few different sources. That will come from Treasury Department, forfeiture funds from the Pentagon's drug interdiction program and also from military construction funds.

Now there are a couple of things that Congress can do to try to slow down or stop this from happening, and one of them is to pass a resolution of disapproval that something House Democrats have already said they plan to pursue. Another is investigating. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, he's a Democrat. He's already saying he plans to hold hearings to look into the process that led up to this declaration.

Trump administration could also face some other challenges in court, for example special interest groups, they can challenge the constitutionality of this declaration. And also landowners, who hold private property along the border, they are expected to bring cases in court to try to stop the government from using eminent domain to seize their land when they need to build the border wall in certain parts along the Southern border.

So the Trump administration facing a number of roadblocks as they try to get that $6 billion. The only money right now that they are guaranteed to get their hands on, Victor and Kaylee is that $1.4 billion in the bipartisan spending package that Trump side yesterday,

BLACKWELL: All right. Sarah Westwood for us there in West Palm Beach, thank you.

HARTUNG: And joining me now CNN Political Analyst and Washington Post Congressional Reporter, Rachael Bade. Good morning, Rachael.

RACHAEL BADE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND WASHINGTON POST CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Good morning.

HARTUNG: You wrote an article in The Washington Post titled "A recipe for disaster'? Trump's border emergency drags the GOP into a risky fight ahead of 2020". Can you paint that picture for me the different scenarios that Republican lawmakers find themselves in at this moment.

BADE: Yes. So privately Republicans are grumbling because the feel like the President has sort of unwittingly pulled them into his own 2020 reelection campaign, in a way that they didn't really want to go.

I mean, the President feels personally that declaring a national emergency and building his border wall is going to really be welcomed by the base and that's going to help his own reelection effort in 2020. But there are a lot of Republicans who are very divided on this. And they face this sort of double-edged sword as they figure out how are they going to vote on this issue when Democrats force them to do so in a few weeks.

[08:05:00] Now, if they support the President, they're going to be going against what they purport to be their own principles, which is you know the Constitution, separation of powers that Congress has, the power of the purse, and a lot of them feel like they don't want to support this privately.

But if they oppose it, and they go against the President, they're going to anger his base and they could be seen as going against the border wall, which is very popular with Republicans, so they're in this really difficult position. And a lot of them, frankly, don't know what to do. HARTUNG: Are there Republicans you can point to specifically as those just being in a lot of trouble right now when they think about their own political future and the ramifications of their decision here?

BADE: Yes, of course - I mean, if in 2020 Senate Republicans are going to be defending 22 seats to Democrats only 12 seats up in 2020. So look at these Republicans from purple states, people like Thom Tillis in North Carolina. He has been an ally on the President on a bunch of issues.

But on this, he's putting his foot down, and he said, look, a future potential President Bernie Sanders, could try to declare an emergency and enact the Green New Deal, which would totally upend a lot of business regulations and could really have an effect on the economy. This is not something Republicans want to see happen. And so he's put his foot down and said, "I do not support this".

But I do think it's telling there are a lot of people who are up in really red states, places like Texas, John Cornyn, who again is another Trump ally, who was very critical of this idea. And ever since Trump has announced it, he has really backed off and he has not said how he's going to vote.

And again, this just highlights this predicament that Republicans are in where they don't particularly agree with the President, but going against him could alienate those Republicans in Texas, and Cornyn's got to watch out for that too.

HARTUNG: Republicans, even some of the more vocal critics of President Trump, they're not really speaking out about how they would vote should that opportunity arise. Why is that?

BADE: The White House right now has been reaching out to a lot of staff on the Hill Republican - staff on the Hill and also lawmakers, pretty much encouraging them to keep their powder dry. Just wait till you see the final wording of our emergency declaration. And also wait to see what the Democratic resolution disapproving this whole move by the President actually looks like.

I think some Republicans are hoping that Democrats overreach and put something very partisan in this resolution, disapproving this move, and that would sort of give them a reason to vote against the Democrats and vote with the President.

But, yes, they're in this pickle. And right now, I think, until they're actually pressed on that vote in a couple of weeks, I think a lot of them will probably not say their position publicly, because they can't win either way.

HARTUNG: We've seen Mitch McConnell flip back and forth over whether or not declaring a national emergency would be a good idea for the President. He said he supported it in that final hour, but after the declaration yesterday, he didn't say anything. What kind of example do you think that he's setting?

BADE: So McConnell is one of those people that advised the President against doing this. The Senate Majority Leader does not clearly - privately does not think this is a good idea and he thinks that it divides the party and puts them in this awkward position, whether they're going to have to decide whether to support the President or repudiate him.

And so, a few weeks ago and even in the days leading up to this declaration, McConnell was telling the President don't do this, don't do this. And he had thought he convinced the President to his way of thinking. Well, guess what, Trump changed his mind and decided he wants to build his wall, and he's going to do it by any means necessary, so he ignored McConnell's advice.

So now McConnell has come out in support of this, but very tepidly so. There's not a lot of passion when he talks about it. It's very clear that the only reason he's doing this is because it was the only way to get the President to sign a funding deal that had come out of Congress that does not include his wall money. It seemed like almost a tit-for- tat kind of thing. So you know McConnell's very reluctantly embracing this.

HARTUNG: OK. Rachael Bade, we really appreciate your time in perspective. Thanks so much.

BADE: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: We've got the latest now on that deadly shooting in Aurora, Illinois. At least five people are dead, five police officers wounded after man started shooting at a manufacturing business.

Authorities say the suspect who was being let go by the company was killed in a gun battle with police. CNN Correspondent, Scott McLean is in Aurora with the latest. Scott, good morning to you. What have you learned?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Victor. Well, this is an industrial complex, an industrial building. But it's actually located in the middle of a residential area, which made for a very chaotic scene yesterday, as you can imagine.

What we know is that yesterday afternoon police got several 911 calls coming from inside of this building, reporting shots fired. And when they got here, they immediately took gunfire from the suspect 45 year- old, Gary Martin. Initial reports were that he was shooting from a window.

[08:10:00] Two police officers were shot initially and then when more officers arrived as backup, three more were shot at that point. Then police believe that he retreated deep inside the building. And we're talking about a sprawling complex, some 29,000 square feet. Again, lot of industrial equipment inside and there are plenty of places potentially for him to hide.

The Police Chief said that at one point there were 13 different teams of law enforcement who were inside to locate Martin or to help get victims out of there and get them to the hospital. In all, it took an hour and a half for police to locate Gary Martin. When they got to him, he shot at them. They say, they returned fire. He was ultimately killed. Five employees were killed. One was injured along with those five police officers as well. Now, as you mentioned Victor, Martin was fired yesterday from his job - a position that he held for 15 years.

What is not clear is whether his victims were targeted or whether they were random. It's also not clear whether he started shooting right away or maybe went back to his car or his home to get a gun before he started firing. Here's how the police chief responded when asked about his motive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF KRISTEN ZIMAN, AURORA, ILLINOIS POLICE: I hate that we have to use the term "Classic Workplace Shooting" and that pains me to do so. At this time, I don't know. Again, we can only surmise. With a gentleman who's being terminated that this was something he intended to do, I'm not sure.

Right now we know that he was acting alone and that's what we're trying to determine right now is maybe to give us some clues inside into his mindset. And if he had planned this or if it was premeditated in any way, at this point we just don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: What we do know, though, is that all of this was carried out with just a handgun. Witnesses said that it had a laser sight on it. Police did search his apartment. They will hold the press conference later on this morning, where we're hoping to learn more about these victims. We don't know any names right now other than all of them were male, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Still some questions there. Scott McLean, thanks so much.

HARTUNG: And still to come here on "New Day", lavish spending and secret income are caught up to Former Trump Campaign Chairman, Paul Manafort. Special Counsel Prosecutors say he deserves to spend essentially the rest of his life behind bars.

BLACKWELL: Also ahead, we speak to a team of nurses who were trapped in Haiti as the political crisis there turns violent.

[08:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Special Counsel Persecutor say, former Trump campaign Chairman, Paul Manafort acted out of greed. His lifestyle of defrauding banks, the IRS, other federal authorities, may put him in prison for the rest of this life. Manafort was convicted last year for bank and tax fraud and other financial crimes relating to work he did for Ukrainian politicians. He will be sentenced next month.

HARTUNG: Meanwhile, the Special Counsel's Office revealed in a new court filing that prosecutors have evidence of Roger Stone's communication with WikiLeaks relating to the release of those Democratic e-mails that were hacked.

The information came from dozens of search warrants on various accounts used to make the transfer of the stolen documents. They also show the timing and promotion of their release. The full extent of Stone's communication is still yet to be revealed.

BLACKWELL: we've got Michael Moore, former U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia back with us. Good to have you good again.

MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY, MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA: Glad to be back.

BLACKWELL: Let's start here with Manafort and what we learned from this filing. Let's put it up on the screen here a remarkable line out of this filing. Given the breadth of these Manafort's criminal activity, the government has not located a comparable case with the unique rate of crimes and aggravating factors - another case like this one.

MOORE: I mean, I think, that's significant. But I think you got to remember too, we're talking about in a sentencing memo when they're asking the judge to look at - look at what ManaFort is likely to get.

I mean, he's in a unique posture. I mean for man his age, he's obviously not doing well in prison, when you look at him now, when he comes through--

BLACKWELL: Court appearances.

MOORE: Right.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

MOORE: Whether he gets 10 years or whether he got 25 years, I mean, to him that gets mighty close to a life sentence either way.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

MOORE: And so I think the government knows that. And they were operating within the confines of the federal sentencing guidelines which were advisory to the court. The court will look at things like the amount of money, have you done other crimes, did you have a record, have you accepted responsibility, did you attempt to block or obstruct the investigation as it went forward or did you cooperate. All those things get put in for the judge to look at.

So I think maybe the government said there's a lot of money at stake here. We could track that. He's continued to be uncooperative. We know that from the memos that have come out that, he's continued to lie to investigators, not cooperated. And then we've got sort of Mantafort in the middle of this web of deceit that goes out and it's starting to pick up people very close to Trump.

BLACKWELL: Their recommendation is 19.5 to 24.5 years. You think he'll end up in there and where do you expect? MOORE: I think that's the range. I mean, you never know with the federal judge. I mean, there's a great deal of discretion that goes with the court. But my guess - and a lot of times you see judges hit somewhere in the middle.

The problem from Mantafort is that he has his other things that have sort of been out there around him where he's continued to do wrong. He hadn't come in and just owned up to what happened and cooperated completely, and I think that's going to hurt him. I think he's playing for a pardon.

I believe that. I will tell you that. I think he's hope all along is that he can convince the President he's still on his side, that he is going to cover for him, that he'll continue to lie. Maybe the idea that he could blow some smoke and put a smoke screen up, so Mueller doesn't see everything, I don't think it's going to do him any good. But I think he's playing to that audience. So one and more is to that and as to the audience with the judge.

BLACKWELL: All right, talking about audience of one and playing to - the President, was talking about Roger Stone--

MOORE: Sure.

BLACKWELL: --this latest filing from the special prosecutor's office. And let's pair this with the filing that we saw last month when Stone was indicted, suggesting then that there was a senior member of the campaign who was instructed to check with Stone about next e-mail dump from WikiLeaks.

MOORE: Right.

BLACKWELL: This latest filing Mueller says it now has evidence - the team has evidence of Stone's communications with Guccifer 2.0, essentially the Russian government and with WikiLeaks.

[08:20:00] And I want to revisit with you, as I did with one of the President's supporters a few moments ago, the Special Counsel's mandate--

MOORE: Sure.

BLACKWELL: --was to investigate any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump. Is that not yet right there?

MOORE: I think it's classically within the discretion, within the mandate of the Special Counsel here. A lot of people want to argue that, well, we don't have an e-mail from Donald Trump or a phone call from Trump going to Vladimir Putin, so there's no collusion, that's not how these things work.

We've talked a little bit about the hub-and-spoke conspiracy and how you got somebody or some group in the middle of that. And then you get all these tentacles that go out from that or the spokes of the wheel, and then this connection of criminal activity or wrongdoing, collusion, conspiracy that join these people.

So you may not have this spoke speaking directly to the spoke on the bottom, but they're connected by this idea of doing something wrong.

BLACKWELL: Yes

MOORE: And I think that's what you're seeing. So every time you have, whether it be Mike Flynn, whether it be Roger Stone, where these actors who may be acting on behalf or at the request of Trump or somebody close to him.

When they're doing something wrong, that's part of that's conspiracy, and it's to complete that common purpose of either having an impact on the election or having some other collusion or conspiracy with the foreign government. And that's a problem for the President as we get closer.

This e-mail is going to be particularly. Remember that Mueller has other things.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

MOORE: We're just learning in file as these little bits and pieces. But even when we think about what he did with Manafort. When you go in and say, look, we can prove somebody lied that meant that he had the truth already. And we're starting to see that we know Mueller's got other pieces to the puzzle that have not been made public.

Judge also sort of indicated that when she talked about Kilimnik and things and whether or not that was a key player and a key part of the investigation. We're not seeing everything. But as we start to see these bits and pieces now coming out as we get closer into the investigation wrapping up, I think. We know that there's a lot behind the scenes that going to tell the full picture once we see it.

BLACKWELL: Bits and pieces. We get a little bit and another piece every time there's another filing, that's it. Michael Moore thanks so much.

MOORE: Glad to be with you.

BLACKWELL: All right, Kaylee.

HARTUNG: Well, Victor as the field of Democrats making a 2020 run expands; the buzz is surrounding someone who hasn't decided to run, Former Vice President Joe Biden. He will be speaking at high profile security conference in Germany next hour. We've got the details ahead.

[08:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARTUNG: Welcome back to "New Day", I'm Kaylee Hartung in for Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell, good to be with you. Next hour former Vice President, Joe Biden, he will be speaking at the Munich Security Conference. He's expected to talk about America's role in the world. HARTUNG: And Biden, he's been toying with the idea of running for President in 2020. If he decides to run, it looks like he'd have the support of Democratic voters. Look at this CNN poll. It shows 62% of Democratic and Democratic leaning voters say Biden should run. And half of Americans say they would likely support him.

BLACKWELL: CNN Political Reporter Arlette Saenz, is live from Munich there. Arlette tell us more about what we're expecting from the Former Vice President?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, victory and Kaylee no clues on whether a Vice President Joe Biden will offer any hints about 2020 here in Munich. But he's really going to be focusing on sharing what his world view is and the role that he thinks the United States should be playing on the international stage.

He's also going to be participating in a panel on election integrity. But this all comes, as he's still considering whether or not he's going to run for president in 2020. This weekend you have a lot of democratic 2020 hopefuls out in early states like South Carolina and New Hampshire.

But for Biden's it's a little bit different. He is a regular attendee of this conference here in Munich and it also gives him a chance to showcase his foreign policy credentials. He has decades of experience not only from the Senate but also his eight years as Vice President and that is an attribute that him and his team would likely promote should he decide to run for president in 2020.

Now but with that experience also comes a long record where his critics could potentially take aim during a Democratic primary. Now Biden is not the only potential 2020 democrat here in Munich today we also have Former Governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper. He gave a talk this morning on trade and the transatlantic alliance.

And the conference also, a short while ago, heard from Vice President Mike Pence who said that America is stronger than ever under President Trump. Vice President Joe Biden is likely to give a contrast to that in his upcoming speech in the next hour, Victor and Kalyee.

HARTUNG: Arlette Saenz live in Munich, thank you so much.

Now let the legal challenges begin. President Trump's national emergency, which he himself admits, he didn't need to do, immediately facing legal challenges this morning. Up next we'll talk a democratic Congresswoman, Chrissy Houlahan about what her party plans to do.

[08:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: President Trump will face challenges in court, already is actually, and in Congress over his declaration of a national emergency at the border with Mexico. The move partially sidesteps Congress to unblock billions of dollars in funding for construction of a border wall.

Joining me now a freshman Democratic Congresswoman representing Pennsylvania 6th, Chrissy Houlahan, Congresswoman good to have you this morning.

REP. CHRISSY HOULAHAN (D) PENNSYLVANIA: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: So let's start here. You have called President Trump's declaration of a national emergency irresponsible. Do you also believe it's illegal?

HOULAHAN: I believe that this is a unintended use of the national emergencies abilities of the President. I agree with Senator Klobuchar and saying that this is not indeed what it was intended to be used for it. Instead it should have been for something like the September 11th attacks or a natural disaster that is unexpected.

But just because you are unhappy with the bipartisan and bicameral work that the Congress just went through, and you're unhappy with the results of that that compromise, does not mean that we are in a national emergency.

BLACKWELL: The expectation is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will lead this effort for the House to reject the national emergency which would force the Senate to take that up within 18 days. This is not, I guess, opposition to the national emergency, is not strictly along party lines. I want you to listen and everyone at home to listen to a couple of Republican senators and their opposition to the declaration of a national emergency.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R) MAINE: I continue to believe that this is not what the National Emergencies Act was intended to be used for.

[08:35:00] It was contemplated as a means for responding to a catastrophic event like an attack on our country or a major natural disaster.

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R) SOUTH DAKOTA: What about if somebody else thinks that climate change is the national emergency and then what will they do and how far will they go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Senator Rubio has spoken against the declaration of an emergency, Senator Johnson of Wisconsin, what's your degree of confidence that when the vote comes up in the Senate that any of these Republican senators will speak with their vote in rejecting the declaration?

HOULAHAN: Well, I certainly hope that they do speak with their vote. As indicated by their statements, it would seem as though they should speak with their vote. I think that we're in a slippery slope situation as many of them indicated.

I worry that if we reappropriate money that has already been appropriated for national security is interests to other areas, that we're putting our troops in harm's way potentially and the unintended consequences of this declaration of a natural emergency or subsequent declarations of natural emergencies around things like climate change, I think are very worrisome and very - we don't want to set this precedent.

So I'm hoping that on both sides of the aisle we call this out and we say that this is an inappropriate use of this declaration.

BLACKWELL: You're a veteran Air Force, if I have that right.

HOULAHAN: Yes.

BLACKWELL: And let me ask you about the concerns of military readiness, because The Military Times is reporting that the funds that could be used and what that would be taken from through this national emergency declaration could delay developments or construction of a new vehicle maintenance shop in Kuwait, dry dock repairs at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, F-35 hangar improvements at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, ongoing hospital construction at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, that's in Germany obviously, new family housing builds in South Korea and Italy and Wisconsin.

What's your degree of concern for what this now delays for the U.S. military?

HOULAHAN: So in addition to being a military, and in fact, a third generation of veteran family, I am also on the Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee and I sit on the Readiness Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee and we did have hearings about this recently, and my concern is the exact concern that you've just read out.

We went through a process as a Congress to appropriate and allocate resources to national security interests and those resources that were appropriated ought to be committed to those particularly line-item ideas that we had identified as being needing of funding.

We should wait for the President's proposed budget which should come in another three weeks from now that should be a statement of his values and it should go through the congressional process of allocating funds, that's the way the process is supposed to work.

BLACKWELL: Are you expecting or hoping for any consultation if the President decides to use some of those funds to come to Congress and ask for priorities?

HOULAHAN: Well, in effect, that's what just happened. We just had a three-week process with two sides sitting down at the table and coming together with a very, very complicated deal. A very, very complicated compromise that allocated resources as the Congress is intended to do to different line items, different ideas. That had to do in some cases with the border security and other cases with other kinds of security, in other cases with the Environmental Protection Agency, and that in fact all is what happened.

We were asked to weigh in on it. We did. We voted on it. We put it forward to the President. He approved it and then he decided that he didn't like the final answer.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about Syria. The Commander of the Syrian Defense Forces has come out just in the last few hours and said that the ISIS controlled area, the Caliphate as it were, is now been reduced to 75,000 square feet. But there are still ISIS fighters there. He expects to announce victory over the Caliphate in the next few days.

What should happen next? The President wants to pull out. General Votel told our Barbara Starr this week that if he were asked in December when the President made that announcement that he would not have advised to pull U.S. forces out. What do you think should happen next?

COLLINS: So I agree with General Votel. I also, as I mentioned, sit on those Committees and we have had hearings on Syria, in particular as well, and there definitely was a degree of anxiety on the part of those witnesses that I had - that I listened to.

That they felt as though it wasn't the appropriate thing to do at this time to withdraw those troops for a number of reasons, because they felt as though they would be leaving people behind who needed more help and more support, because they felt it would be too quick of a withdrawal and not a thoughtful enough withdrawal. And they felt that it would therefore be putting our troops in harm's way. And so I am anxious about the idea that we should be pulling out of Syria.

BLACKWELL: All right, Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan at Pennsylvania 6th thanks so much.

HOULAHAN: Thank you.

[08:40:00] HARTUNG: Trapped in Haiti by violent anti-government protests several nurses from Canada had to launch a GoFundMe page to pay for their own evacuation. We'll talk to one of them, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARTUNG: Eight nurses from Canada have launched a GoFundMe page to raise money for an evacuation out of Haiti. They're trapped at a Christian charity compound because of violent anti-government protests there.

BLACKWELL: We spoke to one of the nurses and we'll hear from her in just a moment. Meanwhile, those protesters are demanding that the Haitian President resign because of soaring inflation, fuel price hikes, accusations of corruption. Here's CNN's Zain Asher.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZAIN ASHER INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over): Protestors running from tear gas, clashes with police, barricades and fires, stores looted, these are the scenes of anger paralyzing Haiti's largest cities after more than a week of deadly unrest.

[08:45:00] The demonstrators are demanding their President's resignation. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm in this situation because of the Haitian President. I can't go to school. He is a thief, he must go. If not, we'll burn down this whole country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER (voice-over): Accused of corruption, the administration remained silent for days this outrage grew. Then in a televised address on Thursday the President issued a defiant response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)