Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Puerto Rico Gov. Rossello Announces He Will Resign; S. Korea: N. Korea Fires Two Unidentified Projectiles; Mueller Sticks To Script In Congressional Testimony; Boris Johnson Takes Over As UK Prime Minister; Records Tumble In Belgium, Germany And The Netherlands; Scorching UK Temperature Could Hit Record 39 Thursday. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired July 25, 2019 - 00:00   ET

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

[23:59:41]

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he essentially resigned in that video, Don. And he said, after listing a long list of what he perceived as the greatest achievements of his administration, he finally said he had discussed it with his family, that he had listened to the people, and he is resigning as of Friday, August 2nd. Now, who will take his place, that is also a big fact that came out in his message, the secretary of justice, Wanda Vasquez. They want to paint the picture of what it looked like right now in old San Juan.

The streets that we have seen being filled with anger and frustration over the last 12 days have now become a party, a celebration. Fireworks have gone off, flags are waving. People are jumping and dancing and celebrating and hugging. It is a festive environment on the streets of old San Juan at this very hour.

What led up to this, I think it is important to mention. You were talking about the chats. That was the last straw. This was, for the people of Puerto Rico, way beyond the chats that really did offend a lot of people when they were leaked and you can read the governor speaking to his inner circle and exchanging the insults that you mentioned off the top, there, Don.

But for them this is about getting rid of corruption. This is an island that has had an economic storm and a natural disaster with Hurricane Maria and now this latest storm, the political storm of governor Ricardo Rossello becoming the embattled governor refusing to resign for 12 days, despite the growing demand on the streets.

There was a major highway that was shut down on Monday by the people and truckers and there were more than 1 million people there, who eventually made their way to old San Juan to continue to protest at the governor's mansion. The protesters said that it was not going away until he stepped down. That was the promise.

And that is what we are seeing play out now, that the pressure was mounting and building so much that the governor filmed a video that he was resigning, that Friday would be the last day. And now it is a big party on this island, Don. It is a big party but the question will be, how will the island move

forward?

What will be next, now that the governor has stepped down?

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, according to the reporting and to Leyla, Ricardo Rossello has announced that he will resign and it will be effective Friday, August 2nd, at 5:00 pm Eastern time. He is resigning as the governor of Puerto Rico, announced in a video message on Facebook just moments ago.

Our correspondent, Leyla Santiago watched that video. Massive protest was spurred. As you can, see there is some right there. Moments ago, you can see people cheering in the streets of old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Of course all of this was brought about, his resigning after more than a week of protests, like you are seeing, now the protests were angry.

These are celebrations now -- demanding that he stepped down over group messages that included homophobic and misogynistic language and the sick language and jokes about Hurricane Maria victims.

We will continue to update you on this story as is warranted but the governor of Puerto Rico stepping down, effective Friday, August 2nd, at 5:00 pm. I'm Don Lemon in Washington. I now go to my colleague, Anderson Cooper, his program already in progress.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And, Don, thank you.

I'm John Vause at CNN Center in Atlanta. More on that breaking news out of Puerto Rico and the governor, Ricardo Rossello, stepping down as governor, effective a week from Friday. That will be August 2nd.

He had earlier promised not to run for reelection but that was not enough for hundreds of thousands of protesters, who continued to take the streets for weeks, demanding his resignation.

There are other issues here for the protesters. Initially, it was widespread corruption within his administration, a belief that the federal aid which was making its way to Puerto Rico was not being well spent and somehow his administration had very little concern for those hardest-hit victims of Hurricane Maria.

And then, of course, a week or so ago came 800 pages or more of leaked text messages or chat messages between Ricardo Rossello and those closest to him within his administration.

Those messages ridiculed the dead, the victims of Hurricane Maria. They were misogynistic. They were homophobic and they angered so many people on that small island, a U.S. territory. And they turned out on the streets, night after night.

Right now there's a heavy security force outside the governor's mansion there in San Juan, the capital, that has been a focal point for many of these demonstrations over the last couple of days and the last couple of weeks. There was a massive demonstration on Monday, more than 1 million

people came out to protest and demand that Rossello leave.

And that, of course, was the moment when they shut down a major highway as part of their demonstrations as well. There has been tear gas used by the police continually throughout the days of the protest to dispersed these crowds.

[00:05:00]

VAUSE: We are now looking at live images there on the right-hand side of our screen. In fact, this is now effectively what appears to be a celebration. They are celebrating a win. They have been demanding that Rossello stand down and he has done just that a week from Friday.

What you see in the lower left hand there is outside the governor's mansion. That is the security forces put in place and, as I mentioned, it is the governor's mansion there in San Juan, in the capital which has been a focal point for these demonstrations over the last five weeks now.

We have been monitoring the story with Leyla Santiago. She has been reporting extensively over the last couple of weeks about the cause and the reasons for these demonstrations, where they have been heading and now we have reached this point where anger, frustration and demands for resignations have now turned into celebrations and jubilation on the streets of Puerto Rico.

And of course, this is not how governor Ricardo Rossello wanted this to play out. He had hoped to stay in office long enough until the next election. He had hoped that an offer to not stand in that election would have been enough for these protesters, would have been enough of a concession that the demonstrations would end and he can stay in office.

But it did little and in fact, it may have even angered the protesters even further because, over the weekend, amid the sort of halfhearted apologies for these text messages and for the corruption within his administration.

Here is Leyla Santiago again with us on the telephone from San Juan with more on the reaction there.

And Leyla, we can see by the jubilation in the streets there are a lot of happy people there at 12:06 am on a Thursday in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

SANTIAGO: Yes, quite a difference From the last time you and I spoke when I was on the streets of San Juan and tear gas had just been dispersed. It has been 12 days of protests for the people of Puerto Rico, who have been calling for the governor to resign.

Now the last straw, those chats that were leaked. But that is not exactly what this was about. That was just the boiling point. So many Puerto Ricans were waiting for this very moment because they see this as the first step in getting rid of corruption on the island. There are people jumping in the streets. I have seen the fireworks

that went off when it was announced, a lot of hugs, some tears. What has been 12 days of anger and frustration and demand has now turned into pure celebration on the streets of San Juan in front of the governor's mansion.

This came as governor Ricardo Rossello took to Facebook Live to resign. He listed a whole list of what he perceived as the greatest accomplishments from his administration and then, finally towards the end, said, after speaking with his family and after listening to what people had to say, he decided that he would resign on Friday, August 2nd.

His successor will be the secretary of justice, Wanda Vasquez, and that is interesting because it is supposed to be the secretary of state. But the secretary of state was also involved in those chats and so he resigned. Next in line is secretary of justice.

And I have to tell you, John, I asked a few people in the protest what they thought about her. And there were not a lot of happy faces when I mentioned her name, because a lot of people here believe she is too close to the governor Ricardo Rossello, that she would not be impartial, as one man told me, and the protests would continue if she were to become governor.

So there is a big question now.

Now that these protesters have accomplished what they set out to do, what will happen next?

Will they continue to protest against Vasquez?

Will the streets be calm again?

How will they move forward as they come up to the next election?

All of that now, where we will have our eyes on, as we see what is next for Puerto Rico.

VAUSE: Leyla, there will be questions for the morning. Right now, at nine minutes past midnight on Thursday, it is a time for celebration and the protesters who have been out there, demanding that the governor step down. He is stepping down a week from Friday and, of course, the question will be, will his replacement be acceptable?

By all indications, from what you are telling us, no, she will not be. We appreciate the update. We will check in with you later. Leyla Santiago on the line there from San Juan.

Well, his testimony was arguably the most --

[00:10:00]

VAUSE: -- anticipated on Capitol Hill in years. Robert Mueller in the hot seat. Democrats hyping it as must-see TV, expecting Mueller to finally pull back the curtain on his Russia investigation. But in the end, the hearings were more like stale reruns, a Cliff Notes version of the 400-plus page report, no bombshells, no smoking gun.

For seven hours, the former special counsel dodged, deflected, declined and occasionally answered questions from two congressional committees about Russian interference in U.S. elections and the role President Trump may or may not have played three years ago.

And the big headlines, stuff we already knew. Russia meddled in the 2016 election and continues to interfere. Mueller says Donald Trump's conduct was problematic. He was not fully cooperative but the report neither exonerated him nor concluded he committed a crime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: So, the report did not conclude that he did not commit obstruction of justice, is that correct?

ROBERT MUELLER, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL, RUSSIA PROBE: That is correct.

NADLER: And what about total exoneration? Did you actually totally exonerate the president?

MUELLER: No.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), CHAIR, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: And when Donald Trump called your investigation a witch hunt, that was also false, was it not?

MUELLER: I'd like to think so, yes.

SCHIFF: Well, your investigation is not a witch hunt, is it?

MUELLER: It is not a witch hunt.

SCHIFF: When the president said the Russian interference was a hoax, that was false, wasn't it?

MUELLER: True.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So despite all that, President Trump said it had been a very good day for himself and Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The performance was obviously not very good. He had a lot of problems but what he showed more than anything else is that this whole thing has been three years of embarrassment and waste of time for our country and you know what?

The Democrats thought they could win an election like this. I think they hurt themselves very badly for 2020.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Joining me now from Los Angeles, CNN's senior political analyst Ron Brownstein and former assistant U.S. attorney David Katz.

OK. So if this was meant to be the movie version of the Mueller report it seemed to be not so much "All The president's Men" but maybe more like "The English Patient." And from the Trump-cheering FOX News, the headline, "Unmitigated Train Wreck," to the conservative "The Wall Street Journal," "The Mueller Show Goes Bust."

"Mueller and Dems' Low-Energy Performance Was an Optics Disaster," read one headline in "The Washington Post." Over at the liberal- leaning vox.com, "Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Congressional Testimony on Wednesday Was a Farce and a Tragedy."

So, Ron, to you, at the end of the day, were there any winners from this?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No. And the biggest loser was the American public. All the people in the American public, who have not been able to read a 440-page written in dense legalese, are studded with double negatives of the sort that even you know the one sound bite you could find from Jerry Nadler and the special counsel is a double negative, which is kind of affirmative.

I think Bob Mueller made -- obviously made a choice that he was going to be as minimally responsive as possible. And he was going to in essence accept no civic responsibility to help Americans understand what he concluded, what happened and why beyond what he put in his report.

He would not even really reaffirm his report. He would not even read from his report, only responding in these kind of grunts when Democrats did so.

I mean, he did the country a great service by, you know, plowing through this incredibly difficult investigation, but I think he -- there was a failure of imagination on his part, I think today to understand what his real role is in this entire play.

And part of it is to help the country understand what happened. No one is better positioned to do so and yet he chose not to.

VAUSE: And to that point there was one answer from Mueller during his first appearance which sort of indicated that he believes the president had committed obstruction of justice. But then in the second hearing, he was forced to clarify. Here's both of those exchanges,

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): I would like to ask you the reason again that you did not indict Donald Trump is because of OLC opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?

MUELLER: That is correct.

I want to go back to one thing that was said this morning by Mr. Lieu, who said, and I quote, "You did not charge the president because of the OLC opinion."

That is not the correct way to say it.

As we say in the report and as I said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, David, and to expand on Ron's point, could Robert Mueller here avoid all that confusion had he just been more responsive in his answers?

As you know, Ron said he did not want to move beyond the simplest of statements or quotes from the report.

DAVID KATZ, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, Mueller is not about the optics. Mueller I think performed a very valuable service and I think that he made quite an impression today, because think where the inquiry would have been without Mueller having appeared.

Now, there is a groundwork. Mueller said some very important things. And he said it --

[00:15:00]

KATZ: -- to the nation and there are some people who don't watch CNN who really don't know anything about the report.

They heard today it is not a hoax. It is not a witch hunt. There is very strong and compelling evidence of a conspiracy of Trump accepting help from the Russians and knowing for his events that he would do things in coordination with what the Russians were about to do to help his campaign because the Russians wanted him to lose and wanted Hillary to be defeated.

And as for the obstruction of justice, there is a roadmap of four different counts of obstruction of justice where every single element was met. Everybody knows that if you meet every element of four crimes, you get charged. The only reason President Trump was not charged is because of this OLC opinion.

And so Mueller performed a very valuable service by putting in front of the Congress what the Congress has to do. People maybe wanted Mueller to be the nation's savior and he is not. Congress is going to have to be the savior, the Democrats have the majority, they have the right to bring impeachment articles.

I think they are going to bring them and if I can say one last thing because I worked with Adam Schiff in the government under the Department of Justice, under the Reagan administration, Schiff would be doing this if a Democrat had received this help from Russia just like Mueller would be doing this if a Democrat had become president receiving the same kind of shameful assistance and obstructing justice the same way President Trump is very persuasively accused of doing in the Mueller report.

VAUSE: Ron, just very quickly, did the Democrats build this up too much?

This was just another moment when, you know, a day of reckoning had finally arrived for Donald Trump and it wasn't?

BROWNSTEIN: Sure, it was very clear. Mueller had made clear he was not going to cooperate. And I don't really agree. I think it was much more than optics. I think all the things you, said he didn't say. He did not say that Congress needed to be the one to deal with this

He did not say that the president had met the conditions, even though he kind of walked through them. In fact, he disputed that conclusion and you know, he had the opportunity today without going beyond the boundaries of the report, to simply tell the story to the American people what the Russians did, what the Trump campaign did in response and what the Trump presidency has done in response to his investigation.

I don't see how that was a violation of his studied non partisanship, to provide a common set of facts to the American people instead of allowing each side to kind of have their own portrayal of this.

In fact, you can argue that that would be a non partisan civic service but I think his vision of his role was simply to print and it is part of a general pattern which many of our institutions are struggling to deal with the magnitude of the departure from traditional norms that this presidency represents.

I just think it was a failure of imagination on his part not to provide more guidance to the country about what he thought happened and what he thought congress if anything can do about it.

VAUSE: Almost 200 times though, listen to this, Mueller deflected or declined to answer a question. Here's a sample.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUELLER: I direct you to the report.

I'm relying on the report.

I send you back to the report.

I can't beyond what is in the report.

I am not going to get in that.

I can't get into any discussions on that.

I can't get into it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, David, was that because of the restrictions placed on Mueller by the Department of Justice and those last-minute guidelines?

Or was that because he was just reluctant to say anything more?

KATZ: Well two things, number one Mueller was a Department of Justice employee. He was not an independent counsel the way Starr was. And so he felt very much bound by these rules.

And because he is a particularly rule-bound guy, that is obviously one of the reasons why a Republican, Rosenstein, in a Republican administration, picked this Republican, Mueller, to investigate the Republican president.

So they knew a lot about Mueller's character and how Mueller would act. They knew that he was not the kind of person who would duel it out with Barr. Yes, Barr got the better of him because Barr is a street fighter and I do not think it is bad that Mueller is not a street fighter.

Mueller has the personality he has, that is why he was chosen. But in his own way Mueller left a lot of things. He said there's 14 different investigations the FBI has underway of the Russian influence and what Russia has done to us.

One of the reasons I think he said that is to make it very difficult for Barr to disapprove those FBI investigations going forward or to try to squash the indictments that could be coming down because of that misconduct.

So I think there was a lot of things that Mueller brought up, I think that they're going to continue the investigation, the next people are going to be the obstruction of justice people themselves like Don McGahn is going to be called to the stand. Now there is a dramatic high-optics witness.

They're probably going to call Corey Lewandowski to the stand. He was not a government official of any sort and they will call other people -- John --

[00:20:00]

KATZ: -- that will demonstrate what is going on. They have to win some of those cases in court --

VAUSE: Right.

KATZ: -- but I think today leads toward an impeachment inquiry the Democrats have shown that they can legislate and help the country protect health care, increase domestic spending and they can also impeach and I think they are going to go forward with impeachment inquiries in the fall, but they have to go through the courts and they had to have this day. They had to get Mueller on the record to say what was in the Mueller report. They can't wait around for people to read the highlights of a 448-page report.

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) We're getting really short on time. I want to get to Robert Mueller and the moment when he was confused, struggling to recall key details. Have a look at this,

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it accurate to say your investigation found no evidence that members of the Trump campaign were involved in the theft or publication of the Clinton campaign related emails?

MUELLER: I don't know. I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On July 22nd, through WikiLeaks, thousands of these emails that were stolen by the Russian government appeared, correct?

That is on page 6 of the report.

This is the WikiLeaks posting of those emails.

MUELLER: I cannot find it quickly, but please continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The filmmaker and activist Michael Moore tweeted this, "A frail old man, unable to remember things, stumbling, refusing to answer basic questions. I said that in 2017 and Mueller confirmed it today. All you pundits and moderates and lame Dems who told the public to put their faith in the esteemed Robert Mueller, just shut up from now on."

You know, Ron, did this all eventually just sort of played into the hands of Donald Trump?

BROWNSTEIN: Look, the substance, as we have been talking about did not play into the hands of Donald Trump. The things that Mueller said today about the conduct of the president were extremely damaging.

But played into his hands, I believe, was Mueller's refusal, conscious refusal to knit this together in a way that would help Americans understand what happened and thus make their own judgment about what to do next.

It is possible that Americans may conclude that even if they believe the offenses of the president justify impeachment at the outset, it's still not worth it in the practical, given how far we are into his presidency and the unlikelihood of the Senate, you know, moving forward, whatever the house does but the fact is that I think Mueller himself in this position today where he often seemed unsure, kind of tentative and so forth, because, precisely because, he did not set forward at the beginning a clear version of events which would have been everyone then responding to his narrative instead of his trying to be picked apart page by page of this voluminous report.

VAUSE: Just very quickly, Ron. Last question to you because what we learned is that, you know, Mueller made the point that Trump could be indicted once he leaves office.

Does that mean that Donald Trump as he runs for reelection in 2020 is now the candidate who has the most to lose?

He is facing possible indictment if he lost office and then a possible jail term.

BROWNSTEIN: Absolutely.

KATZ: He absolutely has a huge amount to lose. I'm sorry.

(CROSSTALK)

KATZ: He absolutely has a huge amount but he has a huge amount to lose anyway. His son might very well be indicted by a succeeding administration so might Kushner. So there's a lot that Trump wants to win but the Democrats want to win really bad, too.

That's what elections are about and they are going to fight this one out, you know, battle royal. Get ready for 2020.

VAUSE: OK, Ron -- just finish your -- just jump in, Ron.

BROWNSTEIN: John, that is a very unusual situation where the president precisely could face indictment, not only on the obstruction charges but also potentially the campaign finance violations with the cover-up payments to the women in the National Enquirer.

Yes, I mean it is one more log on a big fire, that has some people predicting, we may have 160 million people vote in 2020, the highest turnout since 1908 before women had the right to vote. It would not be surprising, given everything that's at stake if we see that kind of engagement.

VAUSE: OK. There is a lot in all of this obviously. It's great having you both with us. Ron and David, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

KATZ: Pleasure being here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: We will take a short break. When we come back, South Korea says North Korea has fired two unidentified projectiles into the sea.

So why now?

What will this do to the tensions on the Korean Peninsula?

What will this do to potential nuclear disarmament talks in the United States?

We will have a lot more on that in just a moment.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:25:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

VAUSE: North Korea has fired two unidentified projectiles into the sea off its east coast according to the military officials in Seoul. It's raising concerns and questions about what it will do to tensions on the peninsula. Steven Jiang joins us now.

So at this point, details matter, what was fire, where was it fired and in what direction and what was being tested here and at this point what do we know?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER, BEIJING BUREAU: John, as of now, the U.S. and South Korean leaders are analyzing data for these two projectiles fired from the east coast of North Korea on Thursday morning. We, know that they traveled at about 400 kilometers and reached 50 kilometers before landing in the waters between North Korea and Japan.

The timing of these launches are interesting because it really came at a time of increasing uncertainty about the future of nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang. Pyongyang has been voicing its frustration with both Washington and Seoul.

In may that they launched two short-range missiles similar to what they did today. Also on Wednesday the U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, who is a noted hawk, was visiting South Korea and on the same day the North Koreans released a photo of their leader, Kim Jong- un, inspecting what appears to be a submarine, obviously a signal about the country's military capabilities.

All of this was following the summit between President Trump and Kim in the DMZ in South Korea. They did agree to resume talks but nothing has happened since so North Korea could be getting impatient and frustrated and this is one of their ways of expressing that -- John.

VAUSE: A cry for help and attention possibly from Pyongyang. I guess we'll see. Steven Jiang, live in Beijing.

Another short break and when we come back on CNN NEWSROOM, the U.K.'s new prime minister vowing to finish what the old prime minister failed to do: complete withdrawal from the European Union.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:31:24] JOHN VAUSE, CNN HOST: Welcome back everybody you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour. Crowds in San Juan Puerto Rico are cheering as Governor Ricardo Rossello announced that he will step down a week on Friday. After more than a week of protest over his administration, he's been embroiled in a scandal of a group messages between him and his inner circle which include homophobic and misogynist language. Justice Secretary Wanda Vazquez will likely take his place as governor.

(INAUDIBLE) officials say the North Korea has fired two unidentified projectiles into the sea of it's east coast. South calls it a threat and is urging the north to suspend activities like this which will hurt efforts to ease tension on the Korean Peninsula.

Democrats hoping for a bombshell or a peak of the, you know, workings of Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Bob Mueller on Tuesday, as the former special counsel spent seven hours before Congress rehashing the takeaways from his 400 plus page report. Despite Donald Trump's insistence, Mueller again said his report does not exonerate the President nor doesn't conclude that he committed a crime.

The U.K. has a new prime minister and the same old problems. Boris Johnson officially formed a government as the invitation of the Queen on Wednesday. And while the Brexit deadline is less than a 100 days away, Mr. Johnson at least sounded confident in his first official remarks outside number 10.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Now and only now at this extraordinary moment in our history. And after three years of unfounded self doubt it is time to change the record to recover our natural and historic role as an enterprising, outward looking, and truly global Britain. Generous in temper and engage with the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: As for Theresa May, her final appearance as Prime Minister in the House within this week. Quite the turmoil which marks (INAUDIBLE), her farewell remarks where give hint have within rather of humility as well as gratitude.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THERESA MAY, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: To serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the greatest honor. The heavy responsibility is our outweighed by the huge potential to serve your country but you achieve nothing alone. And as I leave Downing Street, my final words are of sincere thanks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Journalist Josh Boswell joins us now from Victoria in Canada.

So Josh, good to see you and just like, you know, BoJo's here at Winston Churchill who rose to power in time of national crisis, Boris Johnson moves to number 10, the looming self-inflicted disaster known as Brexit. And at this moment, in history, BoJo has a clear vision and a clear plan. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNSON: I'm standing before you today to tell you the British people, that those critics are wrong. The doubters, doomsters, the gloomsters, they are going to get it wrong again. The people who bet against Britain are going to lose their shirts because we are going to restore trust in our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VASUE: So that's it. Just like Disneyland, if you can dream it, you can do it, just believe in Britain and Boris in magical way all of your problems?

JOSH BOSWELL, JOUNALIST: Yes, it's a very positive message John.

VAUSE: Absolutely.

BOSWELL: But I wonder whether he's going to have the substance to back it up. Now, I think that's the image that he's trying to project with this new cabinet that he's appointed today and we've seen a really hard-line Brexit group ushered in. He's absolutely decimated Theresa May's old cabinet, removed half of them.

[00:35:08] And so he's launching to project his image of, you know, he's going to get Brexit done. Of course this is a very bombastic man, this is somebody who is very good at speeches but maybe not so good at following up on the claims that he makes. And so we yet to see whether he's actually going to deliver.

VAUSE: Well, you mentioned this, you know, cabinet purge that Boris Johnson, was one of his first act (ph) as prime minister, more than a dozen ministers have been said pushed or recently jumped almost all of them remainders replaced by Brexit true believers, many rewarded for loyalty or as former Tory now Independent MP Nick Boles put it. The hard right is taken over the Conservative Party.

The -- that's right, the libertarians, the no-deal Brexiteers control it top to bottom. Liberal One Nation Conservatives have been ruthlessly called, only a few neutered captives are being kept on as window dressing.

You know, it's a cabinet which been described as the most right-wing since the days of Margaret Thatcher. And it seems, it's a case of (INAUDIBLE), full speed ahead to October 31st, Brexit was draw deal be damned.

BOSWELL: Yes, that's right. And I there's a real mix here, there's hard-line Brexiteers. And, you know, obviously the right of victory party there and the conservatives and that goes along with this, you know, more conservative, more right wing, both economically and socially as well. And -- but then also he's appointed people based on their loyalty.

And so, you know, we've that an (INAUDIBLE) president over perhaps, you know, being the hardest Brexiteer. So, you know, you've got Liam Fox who was the International Trade Secretary and Penny Mordaunt who is the defense secretary. Both of them are hard-line Brexiteers, but they were ousted and that's because they supported Jeremy Hunt in the conservative leadership election. So he's really evaluating the loyalty there.

But in terms of, you know, how far-right this is, you can look at Sajid Javid for example, takes a lot of his cues from Margaret Thatcher who's a very right-wing prime minister. And, you know, he's wanting to reduce taxes and, you know, pursue a classic liberal economic agenda.

And on the other hand, you do see some proposals, from Sajid Javid as well that might go against that. He's taking a leaf out of labor's book, the opposition left-wing opposition's book by suggesting that we might have 100 billion pounds infrastructure package, taking advantage of low interest rates on borrowing and which would be, you know, boosting the UK's economy, trying to spread the wealth around the country. But he's also suggesting a Brex -- a no-deal Brexit emergency package that --

VAUSE: Right.

BOSWELL: -- that he finds roll out in the case of a no-deal Brexit where you'd have reduced taxes for business and that's of course a, you know, economically literal or, you know, a right-wing idea.

VAUSE: Yes. Let's listen to Sajid Javid, he is Boris believer, not so much a believer but more Boriver (ph), here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAJID JAVID MP, CONSERVATIVE POLITICIAN: The prime minister has already sent out of his key priorities that includes making sure that we leave the European Union on October 31st. And that we take advantage of a huge economic opportunities that lie ahead. So that's what I'll be focusing on, there's lots of work to do. So if you allow me, I'm going to get on with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: What are these huge economic opportunities that lie ahead what? Selling boiled rocks for soup because the economy is in recession that that was plummeted in (INAUDIBLE) have collect. All those things are predicted should there be a no-deal Brexit?

BOSWELL: Yes, it's looking pretty severe those predictions and that's I think why he is -- you know, announced this plan previously before he was actually put into that position when he was in the conservative leadership election. He said, you know, he would have this no-deal Brexit package to save the economy essentially. But in fact, it's a bit of an admission that this is going to be very damaging to the economy if we do have a no-deal Brexit.

And some of the other opportunities that have been touted have been of course a trade deal with the United States, but that's looking like it's going to be very difficult to negotiate especially with the recent spat we've had diplomatically and ambassador to Washington, having his emails leaked which are critical of Trump and then Trump blowing up over that and saying --

VAUSE: Yes.

BOSWELL: -- didn't work with it. It's going to be hard.

VAUSE: Yes. But, you know, hard days ahead but Boris has said, Boris Johnson the Prime Minister over (INAUDIBLE). Josh, thank you.

BOSWELL: Welcome.

VAUSE: Well, the hot and bothered, Europe has a vicious heat wave takes hold and it could get a whole lot worse, with the very latest forecast after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:42:03] VAUSE: A searing heat wave is baking Europe for a second time this summer. Records have already tumble to Germany, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Paris on Thursday could see another old time high that would smashed the high temperature recorded in Paris. And it was 40.4 degrees way back in 1947.

In Britain, it gets hot in Britain but they don't like to heads of the local rivers, and beaches to try and keep cool. The barely could touch 39 degrees. (INAUDIBLE) it's like even in the UK have never seen. On Friday, we are expecting a little bit to cool down.

Derek Van Dam joins us now. Is that like 39 degrees? I've never seen 39 degrees in the UK?

DEREK VAN DAM, WEATHER ANCHOR: It has been decades since we've experienced temperatures like that in he U.K. And when you talk about hottest temperatures on record ever, we're talking Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands shattering record highs.

These records have stood for nearly two centuries John, in Belgium, specifically back in 1833, that's when we saw the heat get up to about this warn, but it surpassed that yesterday and today. More record high is expected for you.

We do have 20 countries across Europe at the moment with heat advisories set in place. It's all thanks to this ridge of high pressure. It's allowing from maximum sunshine and maximum heat to build in.

There is some relief in store but not before. We have the potential for setting that all time record high temperature in Paris. And when we speak about the city of light, it's incredible to think about this amount of heat because they are six degrees away from doubling their average high temperature for the day.

When we compare that to Tehran for instance, we know that this is a very erred and very hot location. They'll be warmer than that in Paris today. And so far surpassing the Mercury and the thermometer there with temperatures really nearing the lower 40s which, again, it has a potential to break records for all time heat.

But we do like to see the reds and the oranges replaced with greens and yellows that means cooly weather is in store, relief is in the forecast for the U.K. this weekend all the way to Germany, the Belgium region as well as The Netherlands.

You can see the temperature's tumble over the next couple of days. John, back to you.

VAUSE: And closely advise, stay indoors, drink more some water. If you don't have air conditioning, obviously trying to get into a fan, but if the -- well the temperature is over 30 degrees, I mean, don't use a fan because it's just basically release hot air. The little stuff you can do is trying to stay cool. OK.

OK, Derek, thank so much. And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. World Sports are up (INAUDIBLE).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:00]