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Engaging North Korea Again; Activity at North Korean Rocket Facility; Link to Robert Kraft Brought Foreign Leaders to Trump Fundraiser. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired March 11, 2019 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:31:55] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: National Security Adviser John Bolton says President Trump would be, quote, pretty disappointed should North Korea carry out a nuclear test or a missile launch. Bolton says the president is prepared to engage North Korea again.
Let's bring in Ian Bremmer. He's the president and founder of the Eurasia Group and the author of "Us Versus Them: The Failure of Globalism."
So, Ian, this -- you know, President Trump has been on the record with how much he likes Kim Jong-un, how great their personal chemistry is, how they had a love affair or they fell in love, I guess, maybe I'm misstating it. And now there's evidence that Kim Jong-un is behaving badly.
So, now what?
IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP: Well, he's also historically on the record saying that he would unleash fire and fury against the North Koreans. So, I mean, we've -- we've come full circle.
It is -- even if they still engage, the fact is that that meeting was not baked. There was no agreement that was going to come out of it unless Trump fully accepted, you know, getting rid of sanctions for very little in return. And so now the one thing that Trump has been trumpeting for quite a while now, which is that the North Koreans have stopped their testing of nukes and stopped the testing of ballistic missiles, he will no longer be able to announce as an accomplishment. So, of course, you know, that's going to really put a damper on the bilateral relationship.
But, we do now have real relations between North Korea and China, North Korea and South Korea. At the foreign ministry level, even North Korea and Japan. Those are the countries that are, of course, most directly threatened by the North Korean nuclear program. It's also the country China has the most influence offer North Korea. That's much more stable now. So if we take a broad perspective --
CAMEROTA: So that's progress?
BREMMER: There's progress, just not for the Americans. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Although, yes, not for the Americans --
BREMMER: Right.
BERMAN: Because if the goal is denuclearization, that hasn't happened. In fact, in some ways, North Korea is now a de facto nuclear state and there seems to be an international acceptance of it at this point. It just is. And also the U.N.'s coming out with a report this week which apparently is going to show that North Korea is skirting the sanctions, which the president is declaring are staying in place.
BREMMER: We've been accepting a North Korean nuclear program that's been expanding for decades now. And we can't do anything about that. I -- I can't imagine that the Americans would suddenly say we're going to recognize you as a nuclear power.
But, keep in mind, it was a couple decades ago the Americans put sanctions against the Indians and the Pakistanis because we weren't prepared to accept them as nuclear powers. We got rid of those sanctions, not because they did anything, but because we recognized they didn't work. I mean the fact is we're not -- we're never going to get rid of North Korea's nuclear program. Whether or not we can stop them from hitting the lower 48 with a missile, that's something we could negotiate on. Looks a little farther away today than it did two weeks ago.
CAMEROTA: But if Kim Jong-un tests a missile, what is the president -- what is President Trump going to do?
BREMMER: I think he'll talk about tougher sanctions, but he -- what America's influence over North Korea today, given that the Chinese and South Koreans and Japanese are truly engaging, is at the margins. It was at the margins, you know, at the beginning of the Obama administration. Trump actually was able to influence North Korea more by threatening and getting the Chinese on board with tougher sanctions, but that was before China and North Korea started talking to each other at a high level. Those relations now work.
[08:35:09] So, again, American leverage here, I wouldn't say it's quite as low as American leverage over Assad in Syria, but it's really at the margins. We'll not going to be the ones driving the outcomes here. So if the North Koreans do test a missile, the first thing we should be looking at is not what Trump says. The first thing we should look at is, how do the South Koreans react and how do the Chinese react? And if it turns out that they're still willing to engage with Kim Jong-un, that's all you really need to know.
BERMAN: So you brought up China, which is a good segue into the U.S./China trade negotiations right now.
BREMMER: Yes.
BERMAN: Larry Kudlow, the economic adviser, he seems to be optimistic still that a deal is coming. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRIS WALLACE, HOST, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": Simple question, will there be a signing ceremony between the two leaders either in March or April?
LARRY KUDLOW, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: I will play that from the optimistic side. I will take the over on that, just as with economic growth.
WALLACE: Over meaning?
KUDLOW: Over meaning good, yes, positive, bullish.
WALLACE: Sometime either this month or next.
KUDLOW: Bullish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Are you as bullish?
BREMMER: I might even be more bullish. Yes, the Chinese need a deal. Their economy has been softer.
This has been handled so differently from the North Korean meeting where Trump just powered ahead and said I'm going to do it no matter what on the date, even though you had Secretary of State Pompeo saying we're not getting anything from these guys. Like, hold off. Let's not have the summit until we're ready. Trump said, I can do it by myself.
In this case, we delayed a little bit, but all the way through there's been a senior team from the United States side, a senior team from the Chinese side, and they're working out details, not just of the Chinese buying soybeans and LNG from the U.S., letting us sell some seeds, but also in coming up with their enforcement mechanism where if it turns out that they continue with forced technology transfers against American companies, continue with IP theft, that we would have the ability to snap tariffs back and the Chinese would not. That would be a -- that's the agreement they're now working on. It would be a significant breakthrough agreement. Wouldn't make us friends, wouldn't create trust, but would actually be the biggest foreign policy success that Trump would have in two and a half years of his presidency.
And I actually think that's set up to happen when Xi Jinping comes to Mar-a-Lago looking like now in April.
CAMEROTA: Really interesting. Ian Bremmer, thank you very much for previewing all of this with us.
BREMMER: My pleasure.
BERMAN: More bullish than Larry Kudlow.
BREMMER: More bullish than Larry Kudlow on this issue.
BERMAN: That's bullish.
BREMMER: Yes. BERMAN: All right, thanks, Ian.
New questions about the former owner of a massage parlor linked to Patriots boss Robert Kraft's recent arrest. What "The Miami Herald" says about her appearance at a Trump fundraiser coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:41:51] BERMAN: Time now for the "5 Things to Know for Your New Day."
Investigators have uncovered the cockpit voice and data recorders of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed killing all 157 people on board. Boeing is facing pressure to ground its entire fleet of 737 Max 8s after several countries and airlines around the world pulled the aircraft from service.
CAMEROTA: President Trump will ask Congress for $8.6 billion to fund his border wall, which is a lot more than he previously has asked for and already been rejected.
BERMAN: Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaido says he will call for a state of national emergency in a special session of parliament. He claims 17 people dead in a widespread blackout were murdered by embattled President Nicolas Maduro's regime.
CAMEROTA: Fox News condemning remarks from one of its own hosts. Jeanine Pirro questioned whether Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's religious beliefs run counter to the U.S. Constitution.
BERMAN: A new CNN poll in Iowa shows former Vice President Joe Biden leading the Democratic field with 27 percent and Bernie Sanders at 25 percent. No other Democrat cracks 10 percent.
For more on the "5 Things to Know, go to cnn.com/newday for the very latest.
CAMEROTA: Here's what to watch today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ON SCREEN TEXT: 2:00 p.m. ET, State Department speaks on Trump budget.
2:00 p.m. ET, EPA chief Wheeler speaks in Houston.
5:00 p.m. ET, House rules hearing on Mueller report.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Thank you, Deter (ph), for that music.
"The Miami Herald" says the ex-owner of a spa where Robert Kraft was arrested arranged for the Chinese business people to attend a fundraiser for President Trump. We'll talk to "The Herald" reporter, next.
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[08:47:50] BERMAN: New information this morning about the former massage parlor owner linked to the arrest of Patriots boss Robert Kraft. "The Miami Herald" reports Li Yang arranged for Chinese investors to attend a fundraiser for President Trump.
CNN's Kaylee Hartung is live in Jupiter, Florida, with the latest on this strange twist.
Kaylee.
KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. Li or Cindy Yang has not been accused of doing anything illegal. She's no longer the owner of this day spa that is at the center of a human trafficking investigation. In fact, she tells "The Miami Herald" she's no longer in the spa business.
But it's her new business that's raising new questions. "The Herald" reports that she's now running a consulting firm based in Florida. A firm that advertises to Chinese businessmen, saying she can grant them access to events at the White House, a chance to meet President Trump, VIP events at Mar-a-Lago. And "The Herald" is pointing to an event in December of 2017 where she did what she advertises. They say she arranged for a group of Chinese businessmen to attend a paid fundraiser for President Trump.
Now, there are campaign finance laws in this country to protect the integrity of our elections and who can influence them. Foreign visitors are allowed to attend political fundraisers but they can't pay their own way in because only U.S. citizens and permanent residents of this country can contribute to political campaigns.
We've learned that in the days leading up to that December 2017 event for Trump, Yang herself donated nearly $30,000 to various funds that support President Trump. Now, what would be illegal, Alisyn, is if a foreign national were to reimburse Yang or any other U.S. citizen for any fee that they paid on their behalf to attend a political event.
We've reached out to the White House, the RNC, who sponsored that particular fundraise, the Trump campaign and Yang, but all of our requests for comment have not been returned.
CAMEROTA: OK, Kaylee, thank you very much.
We will discuss this now with Nicholas Nehamas. He's the investigative reporter for "The Miami Herald" that got this story, and Sam Vinograd, a former senior adviser to the national security adviser and our CNN national security analyst.
OK, Nicholas, so this -- you know, what started this, or at least got a lot of people's attention is this photo, right, at the Super Bowl with -- between President Trump and the former owner of this massage parlor/alleged sex shop.
[08:50:06] What did you learn about their relationship? NICHOLAS NEHAMAS, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, "MIAMI HERALD": Well, you
know, it was my colleague Sarah Blaskey who was digging through the corporate ownership of this day spa at the center of the human trafficking investigation and she stumbled upon these pictures of Ms. Yang with President Trump. Now -- and a lot of other top Florida Republicans. Miss Yang says that she's simply a volunteer and a donor. She has no personal relationship with any of these people. But the level of access she's been granted is extraordinary in some sense for a small business owner from Florida in the day spa industry. And she certainly seems to have come out of nowhere.
CAMEROTA: Sam, this is where the scandal might start, if there is one, which is that in December of 2017, Cindy Yang, there pictured with the president, brought a group of Chinese businessmen to a Trump fundraiser. And does that raise alarm bells for you?
SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: This raises major counterintelligence red flags to me. We don't yet know Yang's motivations, but we know a lot about Chinese intelligence. According to our own intelligence community, they're one of the leading counterintelligence threats to our country. We know that China keeps very close tabs on naturalized Chinese-Americans. They've actually used them as assets in the past, which has resulted in major espionage charges. And we also know that there's no such thing as a private sector in China. It just doesn't really exist. So the idea that Yang was bringing Chinese investors to the United States and introducing them to the Trumps doesn't really mean the same thing as if American investors were going over to China. The Chinese government would have had to be uncharacteristically asleep at the wheel if they didn't benefit from Yang's access or, Alisyn, in some way, direct it.
CAMEROTA: I mean, Sam, one of the ironies here is that we've all been quite focused on finding out if there was any Russian influence, Russian interference in the election, but here she is bringing this group of Chinese businessmen to a fundraiser and so maybe there's Chinese influence that needs to be looked at.
VINOGRAD: The intelligence community has been screaming from the rooftops as recently as last week about the counterintelligence threat from China. The Trumps, as well as any other government official, would have gotten a counterintelligence briefing and would have been told that they didn't just coincidentally become very popular with foreigners when they became more powerful and got a political position. They would have been told that sophisticated intelligence services, like the intelligence service in China, would play to their preferences, like in the Trump's case, business.
So the Trump team, and any other operatives -- conservative operatives or GOP lawmakers that were approached by Miss Yang or the investors that she was bringing to meet them should have had their antenna raised.
CAMEROTA: Nicholas, it sounds like she has publicly parlayed her relationship with Donald Trump into a lobbying, basically, firm. I mean she's not secret about this. She has this, as you've pointed out, this Florida-based consulting business that promises to introduce Chinese investors into the president's orbit. That's what Cindy Yang is trying to do.
NEHAMAS: That's absolutely correct. And her website for this consulting business, which has since been taken down, is just completely full of pictures of her at White House events with the president, at Mar-a-Lago, with Florida Governor Ron deSantis, with Trump children, the transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, and many other Trump officials. So she transitioned sometime in 2016 when she became politically active from running this day spa chain to selling access to the White House and the president and his private clubs and businesses. That was the business model.
CAMEROTA: In terms of -- this is interesting. In terms of selling that access, if these Chinese businessmen paid for their tickets to the fundraiser in December of 2017, Nicholas, is that illegal?
NEHAMAS: If they are not permanent residents or U.S. citizens, yes. Foreign nationals cannot contribute to U.S. political campaigns.
CAMEROTA: So, Sam, she would have had to -- she brought a large group, as we understand.
Nicholas, do you know how many people?
NEHAMAS: We don't know how many she brought. She -- she -- there were nearly 100 Chinese people at this fundraiser. According to Chinese language media, she told one guest that these are all my guests, kind of gesturing widely to this group of businessmen.
CAMEROTA: OK. So this costs -- do you know how much money each ticket cost, Nicholas?
NEHAMAS: Admissions started at $2,700. Pictures were going for $10,000, according to our source. And Ms. Yang gave nearly $29,000 in the days before the fundraiser in New York.
[08:55:04] CAMEROTA: OK.
So, Sam, if these -- if she paid for these $2,700 per pop for 100 people, that would have been very generous of her. If they reimbursed her for those tickets, or if they paid, that's illegal. What happens next?
VINOGRAD: Well, so we could see Ms. Yang investigated for campaign finance violation, as you just mentioned. We could also see her investigated, as I mentioned previously, for being a foreign agent of the government of China. We don't know if either of those investigations are underway by authorities. But based upon all the red flags that we laid out, it seems more than likely to me that the Department of Justice is looking into these allegations.
CAMEROTA: Nicholas, thank you for your great reporting that has alerted everybody to this.
Sam, thank you, as always for your expertise in this field.
Obviously, we'll continue to watch this story. John.
BERMAN: All right, we have breaking news in the deadly plane crash in Ethiopia. Boeing stock diving this morning amid calls to ground its best-selling aircraft. New developments, next.
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[08:59:51] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Monday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.
And breaking news this morning on a plane that thousands of Americans, like you and me, fly every day. Pressure mounting this morning for the U.S. to ground all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.
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