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New Day

Trudeau Wins Second Term; Netanyahu Fails to form Coalition Government; FaceBook Shuts Down Accounts; Astros and Nationals Square Off; Troops Leave Syria but Can't Stay in Iraq; Putin Meets with Erdogan. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 22, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA: Back to work, back to Ottawa with a clear mandate. We will make life more affordable. We will continue to fight climate change. We will get guns off our streets and we will keep investing in Canadians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, breaking political news overnight, Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, celebrating after narrowly winning a second term. Trudeau overcame a series of scandals to hold onto his job. Of course, that revelation that he wore blackface --

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Several times.

CAMEROTA: Several times.

CNN's Paula Newton is live in Montreal with more.

So this was a nail biter, huh, Paula?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And, you know, he didn't even win the popular vote. Sound familiar? He will still get another opportunity to govern. But, listen, this is a completely different mandate for Justin Trudeau. He's going to have to bring in other parties to get anything passed, and that will include, guys, the USMCA that Donald Trump wants so much.

You know, this was an incredibly nasty campaign. I think many Canadians will agree they're just glad this whole thing is over.

You know, last night when they were giving those speeches, we were here in Montreal at Trudeau headquarters, the leaders couldn't even coordinate who was coming on air, and they all gave their either victory or concession speeches at the same time. People just want this ugly mess over.

And what was a part of the ugliness, of course, were those blackface scandals. You know, it was really interesting here, when I was last talking to you guys about this, I assumed the Canadians would punish him more. Certainly there is that relief from Trudeau. He was contrite. He was apologetic from the beginning. He was very blunt. But right now this has been certainly stinging confirmation that they were embarrassed by this and they do want him to do better.

What was so interesting here is that even after that scandal, Barack Obama came into the campaign and broke really with convention saying that the world needed progressive leaders like Justin Trudeau and encouraging his so-called neighbors to the north, his friends to the north, to vote for him. And many, indeed, did.

At issue now is a divided country, right? And we had so many different regional campaigns here. When you think that a separatist party, once again in this province in Quebec, got up to 10 percent of the seats and will make life very difficult for him. What we're looking at here is a diminished leader, both at home and abroad, and you are going to see a very different face of Justin Trudeau going forward, one who won't be as confident, and especially even when he's dealing with Donald Trump and all the issues that will be coming down the pipe for the neighbors, both the U.S. and Canada.

John.

BERMAN: Very interesting. The Obama endorsement very interesting as well. You get the sense Obama would have endorsed him to be leader of the United States if he could, not just Canada.

All right, Paula, thank you very much.

We have major political developments thousands of miles away in Israel. A new phase in the post-election chaos there. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that he has failed to form a coalition government. This is the second time he's failed to do that this year. Which now means that his main rival, Benny Gantz, will get a chance to do it.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is live in Jerusalem.

Gantz gets the chance, Oren, but can he close the deal?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, this may be a new phase in Israel's politics, but it may be a phase that can do nothing to break the political deadlock and the political chaos that Israel has now been in since April.

First, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, what does this mean for him? He suffered a major blow in the second consecutive failure to put together a government. And for the first time in more than a decade, it will be somebody else who has a chance to put together a government and somebody else who has a chance to be prime minister. Moreover for the first time since 2009, Netanyahu does not have a firm grip on control of Israeli politics. And it comes at a time when he may see, in the next weeks or months, potential indictment in ongoing corruption probes in which he has proclaimed his innocence. So that means his political future, his personal future, may be on shakier ground now than it has been in a very long time.

Who will it be trying to put together a government? His main rival in the last two elections in April and September, former chief of staff and head of the blue and white party, Benny Gantz. The problem here, and the reason this political deadlock may be set to stay here, is that Gantz also doesn't have a clear path towards putting together a government and towards being the prime minister.

First that means that Netanyahu remains the prime minister. But it means that the political deadlock looks almost certain at this point to remain.

How does the time line play out? Well, Gantz has 28 days to try to form a government. If he can't do it, then the members of Knesset, 120 members there, can come up with a different name in the next three weeks. And if they can't agree on somebody, new elections are automatically triggered, which, at this point, would be sometime in March.

For the three times in eleven months, Israel would go back to elections with once again no promise of breaking the political deadlock and getting Israel out of essentially this rut that it faces politically.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, and we think sometimes our elections are complicated.

Oren, thank you very much for explaining all of that.

[06:35:02]

So, FaceBook is overrun with political ads, many of them filled with false information. Why does FaceBook say they will still sell these? We discuss that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you feel like you're giving a green light to politicians that --

MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO, FACEBOOK: No, look --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lie, lie, lie.

ZUCKERBERG: I believe that -- that it is important for people to be able to hear and see what politicians are saying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, that's FaceBook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg defending the social media company's policy on political ads which allows candidates to make false claims, make stuff up. It comes as FaceBook unveils details of what it is doing to fight election interference. Zuckerberg is set to testify on Capitol Hill tomorrow.

Joining us now is CNN tech reporter Brian Fung.

And, Brian, we learned overnight that FaceBook actually has gone after some sites that may be connected to the Russians.

[06:40:02]

BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECHNOLOGY REPORTER: That's right. FaceBook announced yesterday that it's taken down dozens of accounts that are linked to Russia, as well as a number of accounts that it says are linked to Iran.

Now, what FaceBook said it found with the Russian accounts is, you know, a whole bunch of what it calls coordinated, inauthentic behavior, essentially fake posts, fake accounts, posing as real Americans located in, you know, what they try to get people to think of as being from swing states. You had accounts posing as black activists, as environmentalists, as gun rights groups all trying to sow division and discord among American voters.

CAMEROTA: So it's all happening again? In other words, this is -- if you liked 2016, you're going to like 2020?

FUNG: This is a repeat pretty much of what we saw in 2016, and FaceBook says, you know, it's rolled out a bunch of new policies to try and stop that from having a wider effect on the 2020 election.

CAMEROTA: OK, now back to those political ads. So they are taking money from politicians and they're just not policing the content? You can just say whatever you want in your political ad?

FUNG: Right. So FaceBook's policy for politicians in campaign ads is that they won't send those ads to third-party fact checking because they believe that politician's speech shouldn't be censored and should be given, you know, as many protections as possible. Now that obviously has raised a lot of concerns among Democratic candidates. You had Senator Elizabeth Warren, you know, putting out a fake ad of her own falsely claiming that FaceBook has endorsed President Trump for re-election. Obviously that's not true. But FaceBook says if Senator Warren wants to say untrue things in her campaign ads, she should be allowed to do so.

BERMAN: In terms of the, what would you say, coordinated, inauthentic behavior, which is my new favorite phrase, coordinated, inauthentic behavior, a lot of it was targeting Joe Biden.

FUNG: Yes, that's right. And not just Joe Biden, but also some of the other candidates as well, Kamala Harris, you know, supporting Bernie Sanders. And so, you know, what you see here is, you know, from Russian operatives essentially, you know, a sustained and coordinated campaign to try and split Americans along those partisan lines.

CAMEROTA: And more Russian bots? I mean are they being able to shut down those accounts?

FUNG: Well, FaceBook has 35,000 employees working on security according to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of FaceBook, but it's clear that the company's still struggling to, you know, gain some traction on how -- on these, you know, coordinated, inauthentic accounts. And it's, you know, speaks to the scale of the problem, and I think we're probably going to see a lot of questions for the company on that issue as Mark Zuckerberg heads to The Hill on Wednesday.

BERMAN: So he comes to testify. It's always like a state visit when Mark Zuckerberg goes to Washington with all the trappings and the formality and the pomp and circumstance. Will he be grilled on Capitol Hill? What will that be like?

FUNG: Well, this is going to be Mark Zuckerberg's third visit to Washington in two months. He was up at Georgetown University last week giving a speech on free expression, where he kind of laid out a grand, historical place for FaceBook as part of, you know, putting FaceBook essentially at the center of a big battle of ideas to prioritize freedom of speech or stability essentially. And, you know, I think you're going to see a lot of lawmakers kind of change him on that, even though the hearing is nominally about digital currency and the impact on housing that FaceBook has had.

CAMEROTA: Well, Brian, I'm not sure that we feel any better after your reporting, but thank you very much for bringing it all to us and explaining what's happening in 2020.

FUNG: My pleasure.

CAMEROTA: OK, so President Trump is still defending his idea to hold the G-7 at his Doral resort, and Mitt Romney confirms his Twitter alter ego Pierre Delecto.

BERMAN: Best name ever.

CAMEROTA: Here are your "Late Night Laughs."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Even Trump's announcement about not using his resort is a commercial for his resort.

Look, clearly, clearly, I would never use the office of president to promote one of my own properties, even the one of a kind, world famous Trump Doral, you know our motto, it's not just unbelievable, it's unconstitutional.

JAMES CORDEN, HOST, "THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN": He had a bit of trouble even remembering the members of his own cabinet. His secretary of defense is a man named Mark Esper, but in a tweet yesterday, Trump referred to him as Mark Esperanto. Instead of Esper he typed Esperanto. But things -- things got even worse because Trump took a second look at the name Esperanto and immediately threatened to deport him.

COLBERT: A journalist from Slate got the scoop of the late afternoon when she discovered Romney's secret Twitter handle, Pierre Delecto.

[06:45:01]

This is the most embarrassing reveal since we found out Lindsey Graham's secret Twitter handle is Wolfgang Scrumptious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Wow. Wow.

CAMEROTA: Anytime you say "scrumptious" in a punch line --

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: I think it works.

BERMAN: OK, it is late October, which means it is time for the fall classic. The Yankees not in the World Series. The Houston Astros are.

CAMEROTA: Scrumptious.

BERMAN: Talk about scrumptious.

The Washington Nationals, fan favorites.

Andy Scholes live in Houston, the site of game one, for the "Bleacher Report."

Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John.

You know, they're calling this World Series, you know, team dynasty versus team destiny. You've got the Astros going for their second World Series title in three years. Then you've got the Nationals trying to complete one of the most improbable comebacks in Baseball history. You know, we all know Bryce Harper left them for the Phillies before the season. They got to an awful start to the year, 19-31 was their record back in May, but they battled to a wild card. They then came back to beat the Brewers. They rallied to beat the Dodgers. Now they're playing in their first ever World Series.

And if you like super stars starting pitching, then this World Series is for you. Maybe the best starting pitching we've ever seen in a World Series. You've got Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer on the mound tonight in Houston. First pitch just after 8:00 Eastern.

All right, now to some football.

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots remaining undefeated as they just put a beat down on the New York Jets last night. The Patriots, they were up 24-0 at halftime. Sam Darnold five turnovers in this game. At one point on the sideline, Darnold said he was seeing ghosts. Bill Belichick will do that to you, I guess. Belichick even cracking a smile in this one as the Patriots win 33-0 to improve to 7-0 on the season.

And the NBA season gets started tonight on TNT. Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait for the debut of Zion Williamson. He's out six to eight weeks after knee surgery. New Orleans going to take on the Raptors as they get their championship rings tonight. That one tips off at 8:00 Eastern. It's followed by the big showdown in L.A. between the Lakers and the Clippers inside the NBA live in L.A. for opening night.

And, guess, who I have here with us now on NEW DAY, Orbit, and he's got his hard-hitting prediction for the World Series.

What do you got, Orbit?

You heard it here first, guys, Astros in four. Got a sweep coming.

BERMAN: What I heard him say was the hot dog was yummy in my tummy.

That's great. I see Andy's got the same co-anchor that I have.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.

BERMAN: Right?

CAMEROTA: I'm not nearly as cute as that. That was hilarious.

All right, meanwhile, this news this morning, U.S. troops are leaving Syria. President Trump first said they were coming home. Then he changed to sending them to Iraq. And now, this morning, they may not be welcome there. A live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:54]

BERMAN: All right, breaking news. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's president, Recep Erdogan, they are meeting at this hour in Russia. These are pictures of that meeting. They are expected to discuss the Turkish offensive in Syria. The cease fire between Turkey and Kurdish forces set to expire in just hours. And this meeting comes as Iraq's military says that the U.S. troops leaving Syria cannot stay in Iraq.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live in Erbil in northern Iraq with the very latest on that.

Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, another complication for U.S. forces here. Yes, they were told by Mark Esper, secretary of defense, that they would be repositioning in Iraqi Kurdistan. Now, that, of course, is part of Iraq and the central government of Iraq has said, no, they're just passing through.

We've had warm, welcoming-type signals from the Iraqi Kurds, so there may be some kind of fudge (ph) here possibly underway that enables them to stay in the north of the country. But as I say, that's simply not the clear cut signal that the Pentagon would like to hear from their allies in the region here. All eyes, though, really on Sochi today. This is Vladimir Putin's

favorite beachside resort where he brings his friends, so to speak. President Erdogan to have a tense conversation with him certainly because Moscow are backing the Syrian regime, who are backing the Syrian Kurds, who used to be America's ally in the fight against ISIS. Instead, today, we have a cease fire with about eight hours left in it. The clock ticking fast. And signs on the battlefield that people are beginning to position themselves in the event that these talks don't bring some kind of lasting peace, talk of supply routes being cut off or trying to be cut off, talk of other towns emptying out, pictures on state media -- Syrian state media of Syrian military forces moving north to consolidate positions.

All eyes on whether Erdogan and Putin can sort this out. They have a lot of reasons to, frankly, and they've signaled, both of them, to the end of the day they'd be happy for the regime, Turkey would, to take certain areas and for Putin potentially to act as a -- his forces act as some kind of peacemaker.

Who's not at that table? The United States. They're out of the picture here despite saying 200 or 300 troops would be remaining in (INAUDIBLE) in Syria to defend oil interests and continue the fight against ISIS. But, really, these next eight hours of negotiations absolutely key. If they don't get some kind of permanent settlement out of this, or at least semi-permanent, we could see Syria slide back into ugly land grabs again and continued violence.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, we'll see what comes out of that meeting, if we ever do really know what these two are speaking about.

Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much.

Joining us now is CNN national security correspondent, David Sanger. He's the national security correspondent for "The New York Times."

David, let's start there with what Nick was just reporting. So this meeting that is going on as we speak with Erdogan and Putin, what is likely to come out of this?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, my guess is, Alisyn, that you'll see Putin begging for a little bit of time here or playing for a little bit of time because he needs to consolidate his position. And you may well just see that Erdogan and Putin are essentially dividing up parts of Syria that previously were an American protectant (ph).

And that's really what's remarkable about this. Not only does the U.S. sort of pick up and leave and cede the ground to Putin, to Erdogan, to the Iranians and, of course, to Bashar Assad. But then, two days ago, you see the president say, well, maybe we'll keep a few troops around to protect the oil. Well, what's that tell you? That he considers protecting the oil and the oil supply more important than keeping the Russians and Assad and the Iranians out of that part of the territory. CAMEROTA: And, David, about those U.S. troops leaving. It's confusing

because first President Trump told Americans that they were coming home. That's what he wanted to do. That was his rationale. It was time for the troops to come home.

Then, very quickly, after there was a great deal of criticism from even Republicans in Congress, he said, no, they are going to Iraq. That's where they'll be fighting ISIS. And now, this morning, the news is that CNN has confirmed that they have not gotten permission from Iraq to go and be stationed in Iraq.

[06:55:05]

No approvals have been issued for those U.S. forces to remain inside Iraq. That was the statement issued from Iraq's leaders, so now what?

SANGER: It's almost like they didn't have a plan, Alisyn, isn't it? So, you know, in a normal course of events, Republican or Democratic presidency, you'd have, you know, deputies meets, principals meetings, national security meetings to plan an operation this sensitive. You'd figure out where the troops are going to go. You'd wire it with your allies, including the Iraqis so that they had a smooth way to get there. You'd try to do it in an orderly way so there wasn't a big land grab as they left and created a vacuum. None of that happened because all of this was worked out in a brief phone call between the president, President Trump, and President Erdogan, in which he just agreed to pull back, but they hadn't worked out the mechanism. So, you know, it was orders first and planning second. And that's what happens when it goes in that order.

CAMEROTA: Well, let's talk about the big picture, David, about everything that's happened over the past few weeks and months in terms of foreign policy and everything that's shifting and all of the criticism -- you know, President Trump has made some dubious decisions that have gotten a lot of criticism on both sides of the aisle. So, just to name a few, as we've been discussing, abandoning the Kurds with this precipitous pullout from Syria, thinking that having the G-7 at Doral would be a good idea, then reversing course, inviting the Taliban, you'll remember, to Camp David that got a lot of criticism, and then, of course, the entire Ukraine favor, the infamous favor debacle.

So who is advising the president at this point?

SANGER: You know, I think one of the interesting things in the evolution of the Trump administration, Alisyn, is that over time the president has taken the stronger figures that he initially brought in, H.R. McMaster, Jim Mattis, who was the defense secretary until he quit last December over Syria, and a series of others, John Bolton, whether you cared for his politics or not, people who could push back on the president. They have gradually been replaced by people who appear to have been selected for their willingness not to push back on the president. And the result is that you've got the loss of this process that we discussed before. But then also the loss of many people who can step back and say, you know, Mr. President, I would think this one out two or three chess moves ahead. And because he's not, you're seeing all these reversals. Doral was an interesting example. How many troops are coming out of Syria is an interesting example. Ukraine certainly you would have wanted people sort of pushing back and saying what does this look like if we are trading aid for some kind of political favor? What happens when this gets out, as it inevitably would? And no one's doing that, which leaves him more sort of home alone.

CAMEROTA: David Sanger, we always appreciate getting your perspective on all of these things. Thank you very much.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

BERMAN: All right, he could very well be the most important witness yet, at least on paper, in the impeachment inquiry. He is due to testify shortly.

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: In just hours, a key witness in the impeachment inquiry will testify.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What else did he see? Who else was involved? The American people need to know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't heard anything yet that would tell me that we should impeach the president of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's these kinds of offenses that the founders had very much in mind when they designed the impeachment clause.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Where is an agreement that said we have to stay in the Middle East for the rest of humanity? We've taken very good care of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ISIS isn't defeated. The Kurds feel left behind.

I'm not for having our troops in Syria, but I would have had a plan ahead of time to do it without creating chaos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

BERMAN: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

And it is a big day in the impeachment inquiry. On paper, at least, this might be the day where the most important witness yet testifies to these congressional committees. We're talking about Bill Taylor. He is the top diplomat in Ukraine. He is a highly respected foreign service officer with decades of experience. He was ambassador to the Ukraine for years. Now he is the acting ambassador. And he is best known, at least right now, for a text message. A text

message in which he questions the freezing of U.S. military aid to Ukraine for what he believes to be political purposes. Taylor called it crazy. His testimony could affect the future of this impeachment inquiry because he may be able to connect the dots on a quid pro quo.

[07:00:06]

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