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Evidence of Assange's Work to Influence 2016 Election; Trump's Currency War; The New 007. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired July 16, 2019 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:00:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello! Thanks for joining us. I'm John Vause, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Ahead this hour, Donald Trump's latest controversial tweets, they're called racist, xenophobic, over the line, and that's surprisingly just from members of the president's own Republican Party.
Plus, special guest privileges. Surveillance documents show how WikiLeaks Julian Assange used his influence inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to help get Donald Trump elected in 2016. And later reports that James Bond franchise is being both shaken and stirred with the next 007 nothing like any James Bond we've ever seen.
Well, Donald Trump may have just gotten exactly what he wanted. Last week at a social media summit, he lamented at time when a single tweet could dominate the news cycle for days. It could take off like a rocket ship he said.
Over the weekend, he tweeted one of his placement inflammatory comments of his presidency telling four congresswomen who are among his most vocal critics to go back to where they came from. It seems the president is planning on riding this rocket ship for as long as it lasts. CNN Kaitlan Collins brings in -- begins our coverage reporting from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you're not happy in the U.S., if you're complaining all the time, very simply you can leave. You can leave right now.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump says he has no regrets about his racist attacks on Democratic lawmakers who were all women of color.
TRUMP: All I'm saying that if they're not happy here they can leave. They can leave.
COLLINS: Instead of walking back his remarks, today Trump defended telling four Democratic Congresswomen to go back where they came from.
TRUMP: It doesn't say leave forever. It says leave if you want.
COLLINS: Where they came from is the United States. Three of them were born here and the fourth is now a U.S. citizen who arrived as a child and refugee. Facts the president ignored today.
TRUMP: These are people that hate our country. Hey John, they hate our country. They hate it I think with a passion.
COLLINS: Trump claims he's not being racist.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think the tweets were racist?
TRUMP: Not at all. No.
COLLINS: But when asked about white nationalist groups that have identified with his remarks, the president responded with this.
TRUMP: It doesn't concern me because many people agree with me.
COLLINS: Instead, Trump attempted to employ a tactic he's used before, accusing his opponents of what they've accused him of.
TRUMP: Speaker Pelosi said make America white again. Let me tell you that's a very racist -- that's a very racist statement.
COLLINS: But Pelosi said the President was the one pushing to make a miracle white again not her. Trump who often airs his own grievances on Twitter claimed the lawmakers should leave because --
TRUMP: All they do is complain.
COLLINS: A source telling CNN it was the president's idea to address the attacks as his own cabinet members struggled to defend his remarks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I find them racist. I understand what the president's comment is. I'm not concerned by the president's comment.
COLLINS: Few Republican lawmakers have been willing to condemn Trump's comments and some spent the day avoiding the issue altogether.
STEVE MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY, UNITED STATES: I hadn't read that but I'll go check it out.
COLLINS: Now, Republicans have been hesitant to criticize the president so far but we are starting to see some of that push back here in Washington grow. Will Hurd, a Republican congressman from Texas called the president's remarks racist and said that they were uniting Democrats at a time when currently in the Democratic Party, there is civil war he said.
So far it's still been silence from Republican leadership. Kaitlan Collins, CNN the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And with us now from Washington D.C. is host of Honestly Speaking with Tara Setmayer who's also a CNN Political Commentator. Good to see you.
TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: OK. So you know, critics of the President as well as a lot of academics, they say this "go back home comment" or "go back where you came from" comment, it's not meant to be taken factually, it's more of a belief that you know, only white people are really entitled to be the real Americans, sort of the rest are here conditionally on the approval of all the white people.
And Congresswoman Omar picked up on that point during a news conference late Monday. This is what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): He's launching a blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the United States of House of Representatives, all of whom are women of color. This is the agenda of white nationalists. Whether it is happening in chat rooms or it's happening on national T.V. and now it's reached the White House garden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: As we saw at the end of Kaitlan's report, the president is not concerned about his comments being regarded as racist because he says he believes a lot of people agree with him. OK, so you know, assuming that you know, he is correct about the level of support, the reality is there is no shortage of public support for a lot of things that are actually racist.
You know, there's a lot of support for the Japanese internment during World War Two. That still made a racist policy. So you know, public support doesn't actually mean that something is not racist. So how does the president sort of argue this out?
SETMAYER: Well, he doesn't care. He doesn't realize that he is the president of the entire United States, not just of his base or of the people who seem to go along with these white supremacists, these white nationalism tropes. He has yet to get that.
And it seems as though he never will unfortunately, and this is what we're dealing with here in America that we have a president that does not -- has no interest whatsoever in representing everyone. And he continues to otherize people of color. He's done this time and time again. This is not a one-off unfortunately.
VAUSE: Well, with that in mind, Senator Lindsey Graham among a small number of Republicans who sort of tepidly criticize the president, here he is on Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Mr. President, you got a win. Just knock it down a notch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In what way? GRAHAM: Well, we all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of Communists, they're anti-Semitic, they're anti-America. Don't get that aim higher. We don't need to know anything about them personally. Talk about their policy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: This was extraordinary. In one breath, Lindsey Graham he called these women America hating, anti-Semitic communists while urging the president not to engage in personal attacks and focus on policy.
SETMAYER: Yes. You know, Lindsey Graham is one of the biggest hypocrites of the Republican Party out there. I mean, he was one of the first to come out in 2015 and 16 when he was running against Donald Trump and told the American people that Donald Trump was a racist and that he was a lunatic and all these other adjectives that Lindsey Graham used to describe him, and then he fell in line because he finally had some relevance and some access to power that he hadn't had in a long time so he decided to sell a soul for access to the president.
He goes golfing. He brags about that. And now he's trying to give advice to the president of what not to do when it comes to this. Listen, as a Conservative, I find a lot of what these four women -- their viewpoints to be objectionable. I don't agree with their worldview. But that doesn't mean that we should run around authorizing them and telling them to go back to their home countries when three out of the four of them were born here in America and Omar is a naturalized citizen.
That should be -- what this country is founded on was descent. And the president of the United States runs around saying that he wants to make America great again and how much he loves America. Donald Trump hates what America stands for. He hates what America -- what makes America great.
And what makes America great is the freedom to dissent. Duly elected members of Congress like these four women whose constituents voted for them freely. He hates the rule of law. He doesn't like when people question him. I mean these are things that are natural American rights that the president seems to dismiss.
VAUSE: And keeping in mind there is an election coming up in 2020, and Matt Wolking who heads Trump's campaign Rapid Response Team in a tweet initially denied the president actually used those words go back to, but then after realizing people could read, blame reporters.
Here's part of the tweet. Members of the media are misleading Americans by using flagrant quotes and not telling the whole story. It's 240 characters. It's pretty hard to take anything out of context. You know, how is that not gaslighting on steroids?
SETMAYER: It is gaslighting on steroids. It's straight out of the propaganda 101 book. You know, I hate to ever refer to Nazi Germany but they were masters in propaganda. And one of the things they used to do is repeatedly you know, repeat the lie, repeat the lie, and then people will believe it's true.
They also used to call the press "the lugenpresse" which is the lying press, which is what the President of the United States continues to do. We're fake news. We're the ones who are enemies of the people when that's actually projection. This campaign and this president puts out fake information and lies constantly.
The Washington Post is the fact-checkers. They say over 10,000 lies or misstatements coming out of the President of the United States, yet we're the ones that are -- that are the -- are supposed to be the fake news. We have to continue to call it out. We can't normalize any of this. We have to call racism when we see it, and we cannot sit allow the president's minions to basically whites playing to people of color what it means to be on the other end of racism.
VAUSE: You know, it's important to remember the context here and it's hard to ignore Donald Trump's previous racial slurs so we won't. You mentioned this earlier but here's an example.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best.
They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists.
You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:10:00] VAUSE: And so when you take the rhetoric, you mix it with the administration action and policy, writer Stephen King came to this conclusion. First you stoke hatred and fear of minorities, then you round them up put them in camps. Next, you send out raiding parties to get those who've been driven into hiding. The armbands come next, right.
I mean, you know, some people said that's extreme, that's unreasonable, but why you know -- is this not sort of the path this is all heading towards?
SETMAYER: I mean, it feels like that. You know, I'm pretty hawkish when it comes to border security. I worked on the issue of immigration for several years when I worked in Capitol Hill as a staffer. And so I'm pretty ruled law when it comes to things. But what's going on our southern border is un-American.
This is -- this -- I haven't seen it this bad in my lifetime and the President of the United States and members of Congress are in a position to fix it. And Trump doesn't want to fix it. He wants to keep immigration as a Bogeyman for him so that he can stoke that racial resentment because it's very -- a very powerful unfortunately, motivator in this country still. So he has no interest in actually fixing this. So what does he do?
He dehumanizes people that are trying to come here for a better life. Now, we need to fix the system. It's broken in a lot of areas. But the dehumanization part of all of this is what concerns me.
VAUSE: I just want a fix on this because this country, you know, the -- Winston Churchill said the Americans will always do the right thing when every other option is well virtually exhausted. But this is a country which is relied on great men and great leaders to take it in the right direction. When the leaders do not live up to that, it seems to flounder, and it seems to have mob rule.
And this is the country which does great things when it has a great leader you know, at the helm. And there is a you know, serious concerns that you know, that's not what we have right now, and you know, we're heading towards maybe the armbands or somewhere like that.
And you know, like you say, a couple years ago, that seemed impossible, now it doesn't seem so impossible.
SETMAYER: And the reason it doesn't is because of how many people in the United States are seem to be going along with this. Donald Trump is who he is. You know, there's really not much more he can say after the Access Hollywood video where he bragged about grabbing a woman by her genitals that would surprise me coming out of Donald Trump's mouth.
He showed us who he is and it's always who's going to be. What's been the most concerning to me is how many Americans have enabled this and seem to still be OK with it. How many people around him are still enabling him? Members of Congress, elected officials is deciding to make a Faustian bargain with the devil in order to keep power.
This is the problem. Where is the accountability? So where's it going to be? It's going to have to be with the up to the rest the same Americans who did make a decision in 2020 to vote Donald Trump out of office. We cannot continue to normalize this at all. We have to call it out as we see it. You know, we're a long way from the shining city on a hill and the beautiful words of Ronald Reagan.
We're closer to what Adams once said was that every great democracy eventually commits suicide. I hope we're not down that path.
VAUSE: Yes. Well, we're sitting in Andrew Jackson territory as presidents go at least according to many historians out there.
SETMAYER: Yes, no kidding.
VAUSE: Tara, thank you --
SETMAYER: Well, there is a bust of him in the White House isn't there?
VAUSE: Yes, there is --
SETMAYER: That should tell you everything you need to know. VAUSE: Yes. Thanks, Tara.
SETMAYER: Thank you.
VAUSE: A new Trump administration rule makes it nearly impossible for Central Americans to seek asylum at the southern border of the U.S. essentially blocking those who've traveled to the United States by land through Mexico. The new rule throws the future into question for thousands of asylum seekers. CNN's Ed Lavandera has one family's story.
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ED LAVANDERA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In March, Idania Toledo Dela Rosa and her husband left Cuba with their son to seek asylum in the United States. They flew to Nicaragua on a visa and then traveled through Central America and Mexico to reach this shelter in Juarez, Mexico.
She said, when they arrived here in Juarez in mid-May, the family had no idea that there would be so many people here seeking asylum and that there would be so many obstacles to get across into the United States, and she says she's trying to reunite with her son who lives in in Florida.
Their four-month-long journey has them at America's doorstep. They can see downtown El Paso from inside the shelter where they've been living since May. But taking the last few steps just became even tougher.
The Trump administration has put a new rule in place that bars migrants traveling through Mexico from claiming asylum at the U.S. Southern Border. Immigration officials say it will dramatically limit the ability of Central Americans, Cubans, and migrants from places other than Mexico to seek asylum at ports of entry.
Right now, more than a dozen shelters in Juarez alone are filled with migrants waiting to seek asylum.
KEN CUCCINELLI, ACTING DIRECTOR, CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES: The President of the United States should be doing what he is in the immigration space and that is on focusing on trying to fix an obviously broken system when we look at the border when he's getting almost no help from Congress.
LAVANDERA: As they sit and wait in Mexico, Daniel Sigas says his family is running out of options.
[01:15:10] TEXT: They have no choice. They can't go back to Cuba.
LAVANDERA: He says where they come from, Cuba, they are scared of the government. Here, in Juarez, they are scared of everything that's around them, everything that beyond these walls.
Immigrant Rights advocate say U.S. asylum laws are one of the vital cornerstones of American Immigration Policy, while President Trump has called asylum laws, absolutely insane.
TRUMP: Some of these people are holding their country's flags and waving their country's flags and then they talk about the fear they have of being in the country that the flag they were waving freely.
LAVANDERA: In reality, migrants waving their homeland's flags are an extremely rare site on the southern border.
There is a sign in Juarez, Mexico that every migrant watches closely, when they arrived at the border, migrants register for their number in line, to cross into the United States, more than 11,000 people have had their number called, and each day, a few more numbers are added to this tally, but nearly 18,000 people, according to Juarez officials, are waiting, that's almost 6,000 people left in limbo.
The question now is how long this new rule will last, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU, is already promising to mount a legal challenge against it. The country of Mexico is criticizing it as well, so it's unclear exactly what the real life implications will mean for the thousands of people waiting to apply for asylum on the U.S. southern border, Ed Lavandera, CNN, Delhi, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come here, Nepal, Bangladesh, and parts of India are ravaged by deadly flooding and landslides, impacting millions in the region, with warnings it could get a lot worse. Plus, fears are growing that Ebola could spread even further in Central Africa, the new case is reported a major transit hub which have been uninfected until now.
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VAUSE: A huge fire broke out near a music festival on an island of Croatia, forcing partygoers to evacuate. Large plumes of smoke could be seen just out of the main stage. For now, performances are on hold and concertgoers have been taken to a nearby town, still no word on the cause of the fire.
More than 100 people are dead across Nepal, Bangladesh and India, after extreme flooding caused by monsoon rains. The highest death toll was in Nepal, where search and rescue efforts are being ramped up.
Meantime, officials in nearby Bangladesh are bracing for the worse, and India says more than 5 million people are directly affected by this and across the region. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes to safer ground.
[01:20:08] Live now to New Delhi, and CNN's Bureau Chief, there, Nikhil Kumar, so Nikhil, what is the very latest we have on this incredible monsoon season which is just spreading and causing so much distress across the region?
NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: That's right, John, so as you mentioned, more than 100 people dead, that number has been rising steadily over the weekend, and this is really the start of this rainy season. The rains had been delayed in certain parts of the country.
So, we expect to hear more authorities on the ground. We spoke to an official yesterday, who told us that they expected these numbers to go up, as the rain spread around the region in India and in Bangladesh. In the eastern -- in the Northeastern (INAUDIBLE) of Assam, more than 4 million people are affected by this.
They've set up hundreds of shelters to move people who are most vulnerable, away from their homes to safety. The same situation in the State of Bihar, which borders Nepal over there, more than 2 million people are affected by these rains and by these floods. Excuse me. And the landslides in the area and tens of thousands, as you mentioned, have been moved into these shelters.
And this, of course, John, comes just weeks after we were talking about heat wave, so authorities are, very quickly, having to shift gears from dealing with extreme heat to now dealing with the threat of floods and the risks that that entails, John.
VAUSE: Nikhil, we appreciate the update, the live update there from New Delhi. Let's go now to our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri with more on this. So, Pedram, Nikhil, sort of, touched on this at the end last week.
All we talked was about the heat waves and the monsoon rains were late arriving and all the misery that was causing. And now, what, a week or so later, we've got, you know, widespread monsoon flooding, more than a hundred people dead.
This is, sort of, part of the changing weather system, weather pattern that essentially these countries will have to adapt to at some point.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGIST: That's right. Well, said. Yes, you know, it's exactly, these countries that are most impacted by such changes in our climate and, of course, you are seeing this at its peak across portions of India where you have tremendous rainfall, of course, it is the monsoon season, but you work your way into portions of even Nepal.
We're talking about not just monsoon or rains, at least, the amount that you typically see, but something on the order of three to five times greater than that, at least, on a daily basis that is causing some of these problems, as noted in the previous story there, previous interview, we've had tens of thousands, if not 100,000 plus in places such as India, that are now in shelters.
Bangladesh, upwards of 40,000 people have been displaced and images as such coming out of these regions, kind of showing you the displacement of the folks on a really large scale, even taking with it everything from livestock to any dry goods they can into higher grounds (INAUDIBLE) to essentially be able to survive this particular event taking place.
But, really, important to note the monsoon, as we talked out here, of course, a late start, and take a look, the green lines indicative of where normal rainfall should be from the beginning of June, towards present day, middle of July. The blue bars, that's where the average rainfall is, and we've been, kind of, below average here, all the way up until recent days.
And, of course, a major spike well above average there, in the past several days on the monsoonal department, but the current position of the monsoon is well to the north, approaching the Pakistani border.
We've had a disturbance cruised by this region, of course, the terrain, the landscape across this region really enhances the rainfall and some of the countries impacted have been noted, India, Pakistan unto even Myanmar, getting severe impacts of flooding in recent days.
And you look at these numbers, upwards of 500 millimeters of rainfall in the peak of this particular event on Saturday, and that's equivalent to nearly a year's worth of rainfall in the city such as say, London, in this particular area, coming down in just one day, really shows you why this is all been happening, an additional rainfall in the forecast, but far less, John.
VAUSE: Yes, it's just a miserable situation right now. I'm looking (INAUDIBLE) anytime soon. Thank you, Pedram.
JAVAHERI: Yes, thanks.
VAUSE: Well, the terrifying and deadly Ebola virus, once again, spreading across Central Africa with reports of the disease has reached the Congolese city of Goma, it's a major transit hub on the Rwadan border and home to more than 1 million people.
Unlike the outbreak in West Africa, five years ago, there are now vaccines and experimental treatments. But healthcare workers still face community mistrust, limited resources, violent attacks in civil war, making it difficult to contain this latest outbreak. We have more details now from CNN's David McKenzie.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ebola survivors --
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When Ebola latched onto Roger Wasakundee family, denial came with it.
My sister got it first, he says, we didn't want to believe it was Ebola. She stayed at home and we buried her.
Through the intimacy of family, the virus spread to his aunt, his mother, father, to him. It took days to persuade them to seek treatment at a center like this, where doctors told Roger that his father and aunt had died. So when they told me I had Ebola, he says, I thought I would die too.
In medical terms, stopping the spread of Ebola should be simple, identify patients quickly, isolate them, trace their contacts, but halting this outbreak has been anything but.
[01:25:10] The epicenter is anchored in a conflict zone, where authority often comes through violence, which breeds fear.
This fear makes it difficult to stop a chain of transmission, says Sylvester Zongway. What we needed was to break that fear. Zongway, a health worker for French medical NGO at Lima, says that in the city of Butembo, they wouldn't let outsiders in.
When responders came to take the sick from their homes, he says, they didn't know who they were. They believe they would take them over there to die. That's what created resistance. Earlier this year, unknown assailants burnt down two treatment centers. All told, there'd been more than 130 attacks on health outposts.
Lima's solution, integrate an Ebola reception center and something people already knew, an existing clinic.
So we're at a center where they receive patients who could have Ebola. But what's incredible about this, is it's right inside a hospital. That they negotiate with the community. They're hiring youth from the community, and this could be one of the answers. But it's still the only center of its kind. Many victims still die in their homes, refusing to seek treatment. And survivors return to a fearful community.
Many people don't believable Ebola even exists, says Roger, if people can except this crisis, then we can end it. David McKenzie, CNN, Butembo DRC.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, he maybe holed up in a tiny room in the Ecuadorian embassy, but it seems Julian Assange of WikiLeaks still impacted the outcome of the 2016 U.S. election. Coming up, the exclusive details reveal by surveillance.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM, I'm John Vause, with the headlines this hour. Four Democratic congresswomen are fighting back after days of racist attacks by Donald Trump.
The women (INAUDIBLE) said all critics of his administration say they disagree with the president's policies and will continue to speak out, but Donald Trump claims they hate America and should go back where they came from, and plainly believes they are not real Americans.
Millions of people in South Asia are being impacted by flooding and landslides caused by monsoon rain. More than 100 people have died across Nepal, Bangladesh, and India. More rain is expected in the region in the coming days.
[01:29:56]
Remarkable new details have revealed how WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange worked behind the scenes to influence the 2016 U.S. election and he did this in the President Trump's favor. In this CNN exclusive, Alex Marquardt details the evidence found in scores of surveillance reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election, Ecuador's Embassy in London turned into a command post for WikiLeaks. At its helm, the Web site's founder, Julian Assange, who is living there in political asylum.
In stunning new detail, hundreds of security reports, videos and photos obtained exclusively by CNN and verified by an Ecuadorian intelligence official described how Assange released stolen Democratic emails directly from the embassy and who he met with, world-class hackers and Russians tied to the Kremlin.
The explosive material when lined up with the timeline in the Mueller report paints a striking picture of how Assange orchestrated the game- changing document dumps from just a few rooms in the embassy.
The exclusively-obtained surveillance reports show that the WikiLeaks founder, who had been given asylum in 2012, wielded enormous power in the building, rivaling even the ambassadors, with whom he would regularly clash. As these exclusive security photos show, he even got physical with the embassy guards.
The documents described how Assange demanded and got high speed Internet, phones, even a special guest list that allowed certain visitors to not show identification or be searched. Even as it hosted him, Ecuador hired three different security companies to carry out surveillance of Assange, including Spain-based U.S. Global, which compiled the reports obtained by CNN.
The never-before seen cache of documents says Assange installed his own recording devices and used sound machines so he couldn't be listened to, all of which may have played a role in his election interference.
Assange has denied working for the Kremlin or receiving the stolen emails from Russia. WikiLeaks did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. FIRST LADY: He is temperamentally unfit to hold an office.
MARQUARDT: It was June of 2016, Trump and Hillary Clinton were the de facto nominees. It was looking like it was going to be a bitter election.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit and even theft.
MARQUARDT: That month, according to the Mueller report, WikiLeaks communicated secretly with unidentified online personas who turned out to be Russian hackers. Meanwhile, the number of visits paid to Assange at the embassy dramatically picked up. The reports exclusively obtained by CNN show one frequent visitor was this man, Andy Muller-Maguhn, a hacker whom the Special Counsel wrote may have assisted with the transfer of these stolen documents to WikiLeaks.
ANDY MULLER-MAGUHN, GERMAN HACKER: If you look at the Internet from a perspective of people in power --
MARQUARDT: Muller-Maguhn had appeared on Assange's short-lived show on R.T., the Russian T.V. network that gets its marching orders from the Kremlin. The security log showed that R.T.'s London Bureau Chief, Nikolay Bogachihin (ph), also visited that month twice. And during one visit that lasted only five minutes, he gave Assange a USB drive.
Bogachihin defended his visits to Assange, telling CNN, R.T. has produced multiple programming featuring Mr. Assange. Within that process, everything that is intrinsically involved in the production of content took place.
Muller-Maguhn declined to comment to CNN, but told "The Washington Post" he never had the hacked materials before they were released.
But U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded R.T. actively collaborated with WikiLeaks, playing a significant role in Russia's efforts to help Trump win, which R.T. denies.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Russian hackers have breached the computer network of the Democratic National Committee.
MARQUARDT: On June 14th, 2016 the Democratic National Committee announced it had been hacked and accused Russia of being responsible. Trump dismissed allegations of Russian involvement, instead suggesting the DNC hacked itself.
Five days later, according to the exclusive documents, Assange got new equipment for data transmission. The embassy's security attache even helped install it.
On July 6, WikiLeaks reached out to the Russian hackers who used the names Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks. Those are covers, the Mueller report says, for Russian military intelligence. "The Democratic National Convention is approaching," WikiLeaks warned the Russians, "and Clinton will solidify Bernie Sanders supporters behind her".
Eight days later, the group received encrypted files, according to the Mueller report with the name "Big Archive".
That same day, Assange met again for more than four hours with Muller Maguhn, one of at least a dozen times they met at the embassy before the election, according to the security reports.
[01:34:58] On the day the Republican National Convention kicks off, the security photos show a man in a mask and sunglasses arriving at the embassy. A guard left his post and collected a package. The documents suggest this was an arranged meeting. It's unclear whether that was related to a message sent the same day,
July 18th, when WikiLeaks told the Russian hackers, according to the Mueller report, that they received the files and would release them this week.
Four days later, WikiLeaks released a trove of stolen files and all hell breaks loose. More than 20,000 emails from the DNC, showing the preference of top officials for Clinton over Bernie Sanders.
When the Democratic Convention opened, it was consumed by chaos.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody settle down, please.
MARQUARDT: The DNC chair had to step down. And Trump pounced.
TRUMP: Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.
MARQUARDT: As the election entered its final weeks, Russia, according to Mueller, wrote WikiLeaks offering more files. "You won't be disappointed," the hackers wrote.
After receiving several files from the Russian hackers in the immediate days prior, WikiLeaks started posting 50,000 emails stolen from Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, revealing infighting and bickering.
JOHN PODESTA, FORMER HILLARY CLINTON'S CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: If this was about transparency, they'd put them all out. So, they're dribbling them out.
MARQUARDT: Mueller's team suspects that transfer took place on September 19th, the same day Assange met again with hacker Andrew Muller-Maguhn, according to the security reports.
In the last month before the election, WikiLeaks released batch after batch of Podesta email.
TRUMP: This just came out.
WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks.
MARQUARDT: Transcripts of Clinton's paid speeches to Wall Street, staffers criticizing her terrible instincts.
TRUMP: WikiLeaks.
This WikiLeaks is unbelievable.
MARQUARDT: The U.S. government decided to get involved, according to a U.S. official and documents obtained by CNN, warning Ecuador, stop Assange or there will be consequences.
Just three weeks before the election, Ecuador cut Assange off, no more phones, Internet, or guests. Shortly after, the embassy relented on guest restrictions. And at 1:00 a.m. on October 19th, the security materials obtained by CNN show two WikiLeaks staffers showed up and took away about 100 hard drives. Security guards wanted to examine the hard drives but they couldn't. The WikiLeaks personnel were on that special list of people not to be searched.
One of the Ecuadorian ambassadors who worked at the embassy during Assange's stay told CNN he was never pressured by his government to give Assange special treatment.
But this past April, Assange's world came crashing down. The asylum, his lifeblood was taken way by Ecuador's new president citing his participation in U.S. election meddling. British police carried him out of the embassy.
And the U.S. Justice Department unsealed secret charges, but not for anything related to the election. Instead, it was for soliciting and publishing classified Pentagon materials in 2010.
Assange maintains his innocence.
Right on cue, Russia came to Assange's defense, top officials accusing the U.S. of violating his rights, saying "the hand of democracy squeezes the throat of freedom".
Julian Assange is currently in a British prison awaiting his extradition hearing, that is due to take place next February in 2020, almost a year after he was arrested. The extradition process is expected to be long and complicated and if U.S. prosecutors get their hands on him, there is a long list of charges, including 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for obtaining and publishing those classified Pentagon documents, meaning he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Alex Marquardt, CNN-- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Next on CNN NEWSROOM, the U.S. and China already locked in a trade war so could a currency war be next?
[01:39:18] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Wall Street will start today at new record highs. All three indexes saw minimal gains on Monday. Even so that came after Friday's all-time highs.
Investors are watching the big banks and tech firms this week with second quarter earnings being reported. So now report's that China's economy had its slowest quarterly GDP growth in at least 27 years has had a little impact on the U.S. buyers.
Here's a snapshot from a time in the U.S. way back when -- maybe it sounds familiar. It was a time a big tax cuts especially for the wealthiest of Americans, easy monetary policy was rocket fuel for economic growth and the stock market boomed.
Washington's lawmakers embraced a lasses-faire economy shying away from regulations on big business while at the same time moving to limit immigration. It was a time when a Republican White House with a policy best described as American First raised tariffs believing industry and jobs would be protected.
And when other countries responded in kind they calculated wrongly that the U.S. economy was strong enough to win a trade war and that no one actually wants that trade war because eventually the global economy crashed.
The U.S. stock market and markets around the world quickly followed. Next came the currency wars to boost exports. Countries devalued their currencies to make their products relatively cheaper on world markets and then put it all together and you have this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On October 29th, 1929 reality finally caught up with the stock market and what went up came crashing back down. Panicked investors sold 16 million shares in a single day, many for just pennies a share.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Sure there are some differences but the echoes of the roaring twenties are being heard as we head into 2020. On Wall Street analysts believe President Trump may soon move to weaken the U.S. dollar to boost the economy. He has made no secret that he believes the U.S. dollar is overvalued, inflating the cost of exports.
If the U.S. dollar is devalued, history has taught us other nations will follow suit and that is a what's called a currency war. But when it comes to this U.S. President well, history is not his strong suit.
Remember that stuff about the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln?
TRUMP: Great president, most people don't even know he was a Republican right. does anyone know? A lot of people don't know that. We have to build that up a little bit more, let's take an ad -- let's use one of those PACs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Then there was the Frederick Douglass, known as leader of the Abolitionist Movement who was born more than 200 years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and has been recognized more and more I noticed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Global business executive Ryan Patel joins us from Los Angeles. Ryan -- good to see you.
RYAN PATEL, GLOBAL BUSINESS EXECUTIVE: Likewise. Great to see you -- John.
VAUSE: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This is a President who admits he's not a big fan of book reading. To be fair what we've done is sort of paint in some very broad brushstrokes here.
But on Monday CNN reported it could trigger a currency war, Bank of America warning in a recent note to clients, we think direct foreign exchange intervention by the U.S. is a low but rising risk. This is Goldman Sachs strategist Michael Carlow. This came in as note to clients.
[01:45:06] It went on to say Trump's sudden trade moves have created a perception that anything is possible. And that seems to be into play right now. With this U.S. President what was once, you know, considered simply unthinkable or crazy or, you know, absolute lunatics, you know, is on the table now, whatever it is.
PATEL: Yes. And this is probably one of the few things where I think the administration actually thought this through truthfully. Like how could they do potentially get into the currency trade war and you have a feeling that with the trade war between the U.S. and China that this was something of a leverage.
Now you mentioned could we get -- you know, could the U.S. government intervene, extreme intervention into devaluing the dollar. That to me personally is kind of highly unlikely. I don't really see him going to that but do I see them getting away from the strong dollar policy, putting out rhetoric out there.
That could easily cause 5 to 10 percent of devaluation. And we saw Bank of America analysts saying they prefer him doing that versus trying to get into and pushing the Fed and Treasury to do certain things that then to your point will lead to countries backing, you know putting higher imports on companies here in the U.S. which then will lead to American consumers buying less.
VAUSE: And you know, with regards to, you know, history as prologue we have seen the movie before, you know, first from the tariffs, And then you get into the currency inflations. I mean admittedly, you know, the currency wars in the 1930s had enough of the crash. It didn't cause a crash but it made the depression longer and more painful than it should have been.
PATEL> Yes and in this case, our economy is so kind of interconnected so when interest rates go down there could be a band aid. But when you talk about importing and we are still more tide globally in trade perspective so then just think about this. When the dollar gets weaker, what happens?
Companies can go overseas and they can increase their sales, the U.S. companies can be more competitive. However what happens when you do that and then the actual countries tariff them, your prices go up and then all of a sudden the U.S. economy -- the GDP and the U.S. will go down -- will go down and now we are back to square zero and this is where it will hurt more than history in the past. This is what's scary about this is that this will hit much, much more quicker in the pockets of the American consumer.
VAUSE: There's the thing, there are institutions and there are mechanisms to resolve these kinds of issues but they are dependent upon believing in the authority of the international body like the World Bank.
This current administration has no belief or faith in those institutions and so in that context this threat of a currency war seems to be a logical conclusion to the path of the Trump administration.
PATEL: Well if you were to ask me this two years ago and said it is a possibility, I would've simply been very honest to you and like I don't think so. But seeing what happened in the last year and six months, what the rhetoric of the Trump administration has done and what they've, you know, fully have set out to do and their rhetoric, I don't know how you would think that this is not a possibility.
You know, I think that is what they want you to believe and I believe it because, you know, we've seen a lot of different things the last few years that I have never seen when it comes to how you use tactics and how you ignore even the diplomacy ways in the past.
VAUSE: Let's finish on this since we're out of time but you know, a currency war, there are shorter winners but long term everyone loses, right?
PATEL: Right. And always.
VAUSE: Yes. Thanks mate -- good to see you.
PATEL: Likewise.
VAUSE: Still to come big changes apparently coming to the next James Bond film. 007 will still have that license to kill but chances are (INAUDIBLE) better than every other Bond and doing it all while wearing heels.
01:47:38] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: There's a lot of buzz about a major shake up coming from the iconic James Bond movie series. 007 -- not just getting a new face, according to the "Daily Mail", he will become a she. Actress Lashana Lynch is tipped (ph) to take on the lead role after the next James Bond film which is currently in production in Europe.
Sandro Monetti is the editor in chief of "Hollywood International Filmmaker" magazine. He is with us from Los Angeles. Good to see you.
SANDRO MONETTI, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKER MAGAZINE": It's a great day for inclusivity -- John. VAUSE: Ok. Riddle me this one then, Batman. In every 007, the lead
character has said and been this. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN CONNERY, ACTOR: Bond, James Bond.
GEORGE LAZENBY, ACTOR: My name is Bond. James Bond.
ROGER MOORE, ACTOR: My name is Bond. James Bond.
TIMOTHY DALTON, ACTOR: Bond, James Bond.
PIERCE BROSNAN, ACTOR: My name is Bond. James Bond.
DANIEL CRAIG, ACTOR: The name is Bond. James Bond.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Ok. So the new 007, James Bond, if she's a she -- I mean you know, it will be a bit silly if it's a she -- wouldn't work if her name is Jane Bond or Jill Bond or Julie Bond or Jenny Bond? She's not James Bond is she -- it's not a James Bond movie.
MONETTI: It's a great way to freshen up the franchise though, isn't it? It really is.
You know it doesn't matter if it is a woman I'm just glad that 007 is still British. Now if it was American that would be utterly appalling. But let me tell you how this is going to work in the script. Close to the start of the movie M is going to say "Come in, 007" and we are expecting Daniel Craig in and in walks this beautiful black women. So there is a change and she's British.
VAUSE: So will she be 007 and James Bond -- I mean how does that work?
MONETTI: She will but code name has switched because in the storyline Daniel Craig has retired from the Secret Service after the events of Specter. He's on the beach on Jamaica enjoying a martini when suddenly he gets pressed back into action and he has to work alongside his replacement. She is resistant to his charm and James Bond --
(CROSSTALKING)
MONETTI: Well exactly, and after years battling Specter, you now have to battle me too and his sexist attitude is not really appreciated. His greatest opponent.
VAUSE: Ok. Well this idea of, you know, of the main character of the James Bond film being a woman has been well received by some critics from the "Daily Beast". Lashana Lynch, a black woman is taking over as 007. It's about damned time.
Forbes says casting Lashana Lynch as 007, meant James Bond 25 have his case and eat it too. Well the political correct killjoys at "The Guardian" notes that the new 007 is a black women. Don't make her a Bond girl.
You know, it's all rainbows and lollipops for a black woman to get this role but the idea of black men, Idris Elba, never got off the ground, why is that?
MONETTI: Well he would have been a great shout but everything in Hollywood comes down to money and the fact is that the bond films have been hugely commercially successful with Daniel Craig in the lead. And so whereas James Bond himself isn't changing the franchise is and that is good. A great deal of credit goes to Phoebe Waller Bridge who is the creator of female-driven espionage series "Killing Eve".
She was brought into polish up the script and, you know, this female 007 idea has got her fingerprints all over it and I think we can be really excited about Bond again.
VAUSE: She won't Bond, so it's not a James Bond movie -- that's my point. A big plus of the Bond franchise especially so in the most recent years has been the physicality on a lot of the scenes, you know. In the old days it used to be a sort of a bit more suave. These days it's sort of Bourne Identity stuff. Back in 2010 not even Angelina Jolie could pull that off with the secret agent beats up 20 guys, and doesn't break a nail look. Have a look. Here we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe it's your department. Mine is catching her so we can find out.
ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS: You got me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: All a bit of a flop while "G.I. Jane" with Demi Moore was a huge flop. Here is a reminder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cut her loose. Let her go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to be clear O'Neil.
DEMI MOORE, ACTRESS: You're just saying, no better no worse
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Damn that girl is good
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a lot of people who don't want to see you finish this.
MOORE: I'm going to go through this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So how does the studio solve this problem.
MONETTI: You know, it's a different time 2010 -- ancient history. Female heroes are just -- it's in the culture's zeitgeist now. WE have a female Dr. Who. We've got a female 007. We've got an African American Little Mermaid. The times they are changing.
[01:54:56[ And yes, it is fantastic. So those movies you mentioned there were great movies at the wrong time.
VAUSE: Right.
MONETTI: The world is now ready for female 007. You know, the door has been kicked open and the female 007 is going to sashay through it.
VAUSE: Ok. The door has been kicked open. Does that mean the door has been closed on this type of scene in the James Bond film?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You look just like your photograph.
CONNERY: You are one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, but I think my mouth is too big.
CONNERY: No it is the right size, for me that is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: -- a tacky scene like that.
MONETTI: You know, you ask a good question. You know, how does it close on this. No, James Bond should never change. It is going to be very interesting to keep him as the same sexist, misogynist dinosaur he's always been. How he reacts to the new world is going to be fascinating I think.
So the world around him is changing but 007 should never change.
VAUSE: I smell --
MONETTI: Or James Bond, anyway.
VAUSE: I SMELL disaster. I think it is a great idea. I hope it works. I don't think it will.
MONETTI: It opens in April 2020. We'll see. I'm predicting hit.
VAUSE: Ok. Sandro -- thank you very much. Good to see you. Thanks for coming in.
Ok. And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
The news continues here on CNN right after a very short break.
Thanks for being with us.
[01:51:25[ (COMMERCIAL BREAK) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The targets of President Trump's latest tweet storm are firing back. Four Democratic congresswomen tell the President, they will not stand for his racist comments.
Plus, a CNN exclusive on how WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange turned one room, one room in the Ecuadorian embassy.
[02:00:00]
