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Don Lemon Tonight

More Key Witnesses Expected To Testify This Week; President Trump Used To Lying About Everything; President Trump In Perfect Shape Despite Surprise Hospital Visit; Michael Bloomberg Apologizes For Support Of Controversial Police Tactic 'Stop And Frisk'; E-mails Show White House Aide's Connections To White Supremacy; Timeline Of Critical Events In The Trump-Putin Relationship; CNN Hero Zach Wigal. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired November 18, 2019 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.

We're just hours away from the next round of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry and we have breaking news for you tonight.

New transcripts released testimony from a U.S. diplomat in Ukraine who told investigators he had never seen anything like the phone call between President Trump and Ambassador Sondland that was heard publicly in a Kiev restaurant. More on that straight ahead.

And it's a big week in the impeachment hearings. Nine people scheduled to testify on live TV. The president has been consistently dishonest about Ukraine and the impeachment inquiry, making 45 separate false claims on just those two subjects. Tonight, we're fact checking him.

Also, ahead, the state of the race. New poll numbers in the fight for the Democratic nomination as the candidates try to appeal to black voters.

Plus, leaked e-mails from Stephen Miller, the top White House official who holds hard line views on immigration, well, they show he privately promoted stories from white nationalists and fringe media organizations. We're going to take a look at that.

And President Trump relationship with Vladimir Putin has raised eyebrows since day one. Tonight, we'll look at the time line and examine what is going on.

But let's get right to those new transcripts from the impeachment inquiry. Here to discuss Susan Glasser and Harry Litman. Susan, Harry, thank you so much for joining us. Good evening to you.

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Thank you.

LEMON: In this transcript, Susan, this new transcript, David Holmes described the Trump/Sondland phone call about the investigation saying this. "This was an extremely distinctive experience in my foreign service career. I've never seen anything like this, someone calling the president from a mobile phone at a restaurant and then having a conversation of this level of candor, colorful language. There's just so much about the call that was so remarkable that I remember it vividly."

He says, Trump was talking so loud that Sondland winced and then moved the phone away from his ear. How does this transcript raise the stakes for Sondland's testimony this week?

GLASSER: Well, look, Gordon Sondland is a key player. He was apparently the key link between President Trump and the rest of the government actually when it came to this irregular channel as Ambassador Taylor called it that was carrying out President Trump's sort of rogue foreign policy towards Ukraine.

And I think that the account of this call really is remarkable on so many levels. First of all, of course, it comes at a key moment, it's the day after Trump's July 25th phone call with President Zelensky. And so, Gordon Sondland is there in Kiev. And he is essentially going to carry out and follow up on that phone call.

And so, the fact that we can place him in a restaurant in Kiev talking directly to the president who is talking about investigations, talking about Biden. It suggests that there was a clear intent behind President Trump's original phone call, number one.

Number two, it's a counterintelligence foreign policy nightmare. The idea that the President of the United States is having an unsecured conversation about something like this in the capitol of Ukraine, heavily monitored by Russia. It's just, it's an unbelievable story. I think that David Holmes got that right. And it summed up part of what has anyone who the least bit familiar with America's national security practices just jaw dropping. It's just so abnormal.

LEMON: Harry, let's talk about the options for Gordon Sondland. Does he have any now? What about now that it is clear that he omitted crucial information from his previous testimony?

HARRY LITMAN, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Yes. I mean, it's really getting tighter and tighter for him. This call in particular that Susan just outlined, he never mentioned and it's a hard thing to have forgotten.

And it's not -- it is jaw dropping everything she says. But in addition, after he gets off the phone Holmes says to him what was that about? And that sort we have the famous in some -- in some ways the money quote of the entire hearing. Which is, hey, Trump doesn't really care about Ukraine. All he cares about is the Bidens.

So, Sondland already tiptoed back to correct and it's going to be very difficult for him to do it again. But he has disclaimed remembering a number of things that are going to be very hard to stick by. Does it apply for --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Harry, what if he pleads the fifth?

LITMAN: Yes, he can plead the fifth. And some would people say it's been waived but it doesn't matter. They won't be -- they won't go to court.

[023:05:01]

If he does, he'll be making a play for immunity. And if he wants immunity, he'll have to be giving up Trump.

LEMON: Wow.

LITMAN: I think the House would give it to him under those circumstances.

LEMON: Susan, do you think Holmes was added to the schedule on Thursday as supposed to another day to pressure Sondland to tell the truth knowing that the next day Holmes will be in the position to refute his testimony?

GLASSER: Well, look, that's a good point. They've already pressured him pretty significantly by putting out the deposition. Sondland again has, who enforced to revise his testimony already even before this moment.

You have another witness tomorrow, Kurt Volker. Another member of the three amigos. The former special envoy to Ukraine who also is apparently going to have to revise his testimony because the subsequent people who testified discussed incidents that he was asked about and said he didn't know anything about.

And so, again, you have this issue of even a couple witnesses who have come forward who seem to be more protective of the president or less critical of him are the ones who have found themselves coming under more questions as other witnesses have basically called into question their veracity.

So, you know, it's important to note that these witnesses this week are essentially firsthand witnesses who interacted directly with President Trump. In fact, you know, Kurt Volker who will come tomorrow, he was there along with Sondland at the original meeting in May. Which President Trump basically said, you know, I don't like the Ukrainians, I don't like anything about them. It's a corrupt country. And they hate me.

You know, the personalization of this policy that is at the heart of the scandal. And so, both Sondland and Volker dealt directly with President Trump.

Alex Vindman who will come in tomorrow morning. He was on the call. He was so alarmed by that original July 25th phone call. He went directly to the National Security Council lawyers.

And the other witness tomorrow morning Jennifer Williams, she was also on the call. She also found it inappropriate. These are firsthand witnesses. LEMON: Harry, Holmes said that he reported the Trump/Sondland call to

his supervisor, Kristina Kvien. And he said, "I believe I told her the whole thing. I said you're not going to believe what I just heard. And I just went through every element of the this was extraordinary."

We haven't heard about Kristina Kvien yet. Does this mean that she'll need to testify too?

LITMAN: I mean, she'll be asked. It's a remarkable dynamic that the administration is basically calling balls and strikes and telling people who to testify and who not. The career people are coming forward. And the two political ones who have are Sondland and Volker.

Keep your eye on them for this week. That's going to be the most important moment, I think of the entire hearing because they're the ones who really have the goods.

Will she come forward? My best guess is they'll ask her to, they have been not subpoenaing. But they'll ask her. And it depends. The other person we heard about besides Holmes today, Hale, was the third ranking person in the State Department. He came forward. So definitely, the career people are coming forward.

LEMON: Thank you, Harry. Thank you, Susan. I appreciate that.

This new transcript reveals David Holmes testified that he was taken aback by the conversation he overheard between Trump and Sondland at that Kiev restaurant.

Fred Pleitgen went to the restaurant to check out who else could have heard the phone call. Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. It's a really nice restaurant with great food but maybe not the best place to have a sensitive phone call.

So, we were inside the restaurant earlier today. And it's basically two floors of very open spaces. And we walked inside you could sort of hear chatter in some parts of the restaurant. There's no separation walls or anything.

And so, basically, you could hear pretty much everything someone says, especially if that person is talking very loud and is talking in English in a restaurant in Ukraine.

But I want to show you one other thing. Because according to some of the testimony, Gordon Sondland was in here with three other people. And they were actually sitting in the terrace area of the restaurant. That area is right here.

And as you can see that area now, because it's winter, is closed off during the winter time. But you can also see that that terrace area is actually right next to a sidewalk.

So, if you're talking there, very loud and in English, then people can hear you on the sidewalk. But they can also hear you inside the restaurant as well.

The other thing that really stuck to us, was there's a lot of staff members walking around there. It's a restaurant that prides itself on its service. The staff members all wear traditional Ukrainian clothes.

And when we were inside there were four or five around us at any given point in time. And so, of course, those people could be listening in as well.

But the thing that really caught us the most is that the folks who run the restaurant they told us that Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the E.U., he'd be a prominent guest here. But by far not the most prominent.

In fact, the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, he is known to come here as well. And that also means that his staff members could be here as well.

[23:09:58]

And so, if you're having a phone call with the president very loud and in English, there is a chance that Zelensky's staff members could have been hearing what was going on there as well.

So certainly, a nice restaurant. Not necessarily the place for a sensitive conversation, Don.

LEMON: Fred, thank you so much. I appreciate that.

The former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker is set to testify publicly tomorrow. The New York Times reporting that Volker plans to tell lawmakers that he was out of the loop at key moments during Trump's pressure campaign on Ukraine.

But as Athena Jones reports, Volker will have a lot of explaining to do on Capitol Hill.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Another big week in the impeachment inquiry. With public testimony from nine current or former administration officials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): The committee will come to order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Among them, former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who resigned shortly after the release of the whistleblower's report about efforts by President Trump, his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani and others to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations into Trump's political opponents.

House Democrats are likely to press Volker to clear up contradictions between his closed-door deposition on October 3rd and the testimony of other officials. Among the discrepancies, Volker told investigators, "At no time was I aware of or took part in an effort to urge Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden."

Volker also said, "You asked what conversations did I have about that quid pro quo, et cetera. None. Because I didn't know that there was a quid pro quo."

But testimony from others and texts messages Volker himself provided to congressional investigators cast doubt on that story.

Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine testified about a call in late June that he was on with Volker, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Before President Zelensky joined the call, Ambassador Volker separately told the U.S. participants that he, Ambassador Volker planned to be explicit with President Zelensky in a one-on-one meeting in Toronto on July 2nd.

In that meeting, Ambassador Volker planned to make clear what President Zelensky should do to get the White House meeting.

I did not understand what this meant. But Ambassador Volker said he would relay that President Trump wanted to see rule of law, transparency, but also specifically, cooperation on investigations to get to the bottom of things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Taylor told committee members he later came to understand that when Volker and others said the word investigations, they were referring to supposed Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections and the dealings of the Bidens.

Taylor also shared details of a key three-way text exchange with Volker and Sondland from July 19.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR: Ambassador Volker said that what was most important is for Zelensky to say that he will help the investigation. An address any specific personnel is using, if there are any.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Contradictions almost certain to come up when lawmakers grilled Volker once again, this time, before the cameras.

Athena Jones, CNN, New York.

LEMON: All right. Thanks to Athena.

The president has been dishonest about Ukraine and impeachment 45 times. We'll going to help you break down what's true and what isn't, next.

[23:15:00]

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LEMON: As the impeachment inquiry heats up President Trump has been throwing out an alarming number of false claims.

CNN's fact-checker extraordinary is Daniel Dale, he has been sorting through and found 45 ways the president has been dishonest about Ukraine and impeachment, and he joins me now. Hi, Daniel.

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Hi, Don.

LEMON: You have been fact-checking the president for a while now. But you say his lying about Ukraine has been unique. What do you mean by that?

DALE: Well, it's unique because of how comprehensively Trump is lying here. If you fact-check Trump, or just watch Trump, you know that he lies about basically every subject. What's unique about the Ukraine story is that he's lying about basically every individual component of the story.

So, he's not sprinkling in lies here and there and mixing them up with platitudes and with stuff that's true. Basically, everything he's saying about his dealings with Ukraine, about the Bidens dealings with Ukraine, about the whistleblower, about Schiff, about the impeachment process. It's all the wrong all the time.

LEMON: Interesting. As it's scrolling there up on the screen, right. We're only at number 37 now.

But listen, Daniel, the president is telling a lot of whoppers. Let's start with that, the call that he says it was perfect. And that nobody is talking about it anymore even though the call is a focus of the impeachment inquiry. What else stands out to you?

DALE: There's a lot of nonsense about the call. One of the weirder ones was his claim that he didn't even ask Ukrainian President Zelensky for anything on the call. So, most of the time he'd been arguing that there's no pressure. Or what he said was appropriate.

But at one point he was like, I didn't even ask him anything. And that of course is ridiculous. We know that he asked for an investigation of the Bidens, for an investigation of this server conspiracy theory, and for Zelensky to speak to Barr and Giuliani. So obviously, there were asks there.

LEMON: Daniel, Trump also making false claims attacking the impeachment process saying things like Republicans weren't allowed in closed-door hearings, and that no other president has faced closed- door hearings like this. Fact check that for us.

DALE: So, both of these were wrong. We know that some Republicans were kicked out of the secure room where they were holding closed-door hearings. But that's because those Republicans were not on the three committees that were holding the hearings.

Republicans who were on the committees just like the Democrats who were on the committees were allowed in. And as for this claim that closed-door hearings were unprecedented. Both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton in their own impeachment processes, those processes involved some closed-door hearings. So, this is not the first time this has happened.

LEMON: Daniel Dale, fact-checker extraordinary here at CNN, thank you, sir. I appreciate that.

DALE: Thank you.

LEMON: Nice haircut too, by the way.

DALE: Thanks.

LEMON: Breaking news that we have to tell you about. After days of questions about the president's surprise medical visit this weekend to Walter Reed, we have new information from the White House.

[23:20:04]

A letter from the physician to the president saying that the checkup was routine and handed -- and handled the way it was due to what's being called scheduling uncertainties.

A source previously told CNN that Trump's visit to Walter Reed did not follow the protocol of a routine presidential medical exam.

The letter goes on to say, quote, "Despite some of the speculation, the president has not had any chest pain nor was he evaluated or treated for any urgent or acute issues. Specifically, he did not undergo any specialized cardiac or neurologic evaluations."

Mayor Pete Buttigieg is surging in a new CNN poll in Iowa. But another poll shows he's got a big problem with a huge voting bloc. The state of the race, next.

[23:25:00]

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LEMON: New polls show good news for Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic nomination and the importance of courting black voters.

Let's discuss. Toluse Olorunnipa is here, as well as Ryan Lizza. Gentlemen, good evening.

RYAN LIZZA, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Don.

LEMON: So, Toluse, you first. New poll shows that Joe Biden show -- Joe Biden has a significant lead in South Carolina. Quinnipiac has him leading the pack by 20 points. Is it the support of black voters that has him polling so much stronger in South Carolina than he has in Iowa? Or New Hampshire?

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. That's exactly what is supporting his candidacy at this point more than anything else. It's not the fact that he has sort of struggled with fundraising or he started to lag in the polls in the early states.

But in South Carolina, because he has such strong support among black voters, he has been able to maintain a very strong position in the national race. And if that continues he's going to be very strong in other states in the south and other parts of the electorate that vote after north -- after Iowa and New Hampshire and some of the other northern states that Joe Biden could really ride the support of black voters all the way through to the convention if he's able to maintain such a large lead.

We'll have to see if he's able to do that. He has other parts of his campaign that are suffering or struggling. But when it comes to black voters that has been ironclad and that's been what's kept him afloat in this race so far.

LEMON: So, as I was looking at the numbers for Pete Buttigieg here, Ryan. Even though surging in Iowa he struggled to attract black voters. He's addressed his low polling numbers among African-American voters in South Carolina speaking at Morehouse College tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, I try not to get too caught up in poll numbers. But I did have the chance to look at the one you are mentioning. And I think I saw that strong majority of black voters in South Carolina still say that they have not formed an opinion or haven't heard enough to form an opinion at all about my candidacy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: He's trying hard to, you know -- but not really getting any traction, Ryan.

LIZZA: Yes.

LEMON: We saw in South Carolina he's at zero percent.

LIZZA: Yes. That was really eye-opening poll. Just because, you know, he has been the story since the last debate and the divergence between South Carolina and Iowa is really eye opening.

In Iowa he's surging. Right? He's surpassed Elizabeth Warren. And in the last Des Moines Register poll that came out over the weekend, he was in first place by a healthy margin. You know, at 25 percent. It's been tough for any of the candidates to hit 25 percent in Iowa.

So, he's having a moment. Iowa, you know, if you -- he has the same theory that Elizabeth Warren has had when a lot of pundits pointed out that she's doing very well in two of the early states Iowa and New Hampshire. But not taking off with non-white voters outside of those two states.

And the argument is well, you know, if you win and the national media suddenly focuses on you as a winner, that can scramble the race. That can change the views of the black voters in South Carolina and elsewhere.

Of course, the most famous candidate who did exactly that was Barack Obama, who at this stage in 2007 was not winning nationally but was starting to take off in Iowa, and of course, once he took off in Iowa it completely changed the dynamic of the race.

Now, you'll probably point out that Barack Obama also happened to be African- American.

LEMON: What?

LIZZA: And that, you know, there may have been a connection to the black community that, you know, Elizabeth Warren --

LEMON: Yes.

LIZZA: -- and Pete Buttigieg don't necessarily have.

LEMON: All right. I got you there. OK. So, Toluse, let's talk about Mayor Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City who recently filed paperwork to run for president.

Over the weekend, he apologized for supporting the police tactic of stop and frisk or stop question and frisk, which just disproportionately targets African- Americans and Latino men. What are your thoughts on his apology and the timing of it?

OLORUNNIPA: It's definitely not on brand for Mayor Bloomberg. He has said in the past that he was not going to run if he had to be apologizing for who he has and what he's done. He's actually criticized some of the other candidates including Joe Biden for apologies for previous votes --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Calling it an apology tour. That's him, Joe Biden was on apology, an apology tour.

OLORUNNIPA: Exactly. But now that he's thinking about running, he has some high paid consultants who are telling him that if you are going to run in the Democratic primary, you can't have this large chunk of the primary electorate including voters of color who are upset at your policies, who don't like the fact that you implemented this policy that you're recalcitrant about, and even after the courts threw it out and said it was discrimination.

[23:30:09]

So he decided to go before predominantly black audience at a church in Brooklyn and decide to apologize in a very public, which is very different from what he has done in the past. He is someone who is in the 70s who has made a fortune but not apologizing, realizing that the political fortunes -- his political fortunes really ride on him being able to appeal to a very diverse electorate and that means in some cases apologizing for one of his major initiatives in New York City.

LEMON: There's a race for governor down in Louisiana that really probably has the president and Republicans really rattled. More on that to come. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate it.

LIZZA: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: Thank you.

OLORUNNIPA: Thank you.

LEMON: E-mails reveal a top Trump aide pushing racist conspiracy theories from white nationalist sources, and that aide is none other than the man behind the administration's immigration policies, Stephen Miller.

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[23:35:00]

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LEMON: Newly released e-mails revealing ties between top White House immigration adviser Stephen Miller and websites linked to known white nationalists. The leaked e-mails, well, they shed new light on Miller's belief about immigration. CNN's Sara Sidner has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A trove of e- mails released by the Southern Poverty Law Center show now senior White House adviser Stephen Miller pushing theories from white nationalist sources to far-right website Breitbart.

Miller e-mails suggesting that Breitbart use ideas from the book "Camp of the Saints." "You see the Pope saying west must, in effect, get rid of borders. Someone should point out the parallels to "Camp of the Saints," he writes. It's a book hailed by racists, which depicts white women being raped by immigrants and mass immigration destroying western civilization.

Breitbart published the content, Miller suggested it. In one e-mail dated October 2015, while Miller still worked for then Senator Jeff Sessions, he touts what he saw as the dangers of allowing hurricane victims from Mexico to come to the U.S. "They will all get TPS," he writes. That's Temporary Protection Status.

He goes on to write, "that needs to be the weekend's big story. TPS is everything." Then he sends then Breitbart's staffer, Katie McHugh, an article from prominent white nationalist website, VDARE, of the dangers of TPS. The Web site VDARE has espoused the sentiment that America was made for white people and non-whites are destroying it. Miller's sentiments began turning into policy when he joined the Trump administration.

In 2018, well after Miller joined Trump's inner circle, the president tried to end the TPS status for several countries with predominantly black and brown citizens. But legal challenges so far have successfully kept the program in place.

McHugh, who gave the e-mails to the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Miller also asked her to use an article from American Renaissance, the website traffics in the idea that blacks are less intelligent than whites.

KATIE MCHUGH, FORMER BREITBART EDITOR (voice-over): He would pull crime statistics from there and then try to funnel that through conservative media in order to target people of color.

SIDNER (voice-over): In another e-mail in July 2015, Miller sent McHugh a link from the website Infowars, which peddles in conspiracy theories. The Infowars headline quotes Reverend Franklin Graham. "We are under attack. Stop all immigration of Muslims to the U.S."

A year and a half later, shortly after the president took office and Miller was in the West Wing, the newly elected president signed an executive order based on this campaign pledge.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

SIDNER (voice-over): Ultimately, the Southern Poverty Law Center says Miller's efforts with Breitbart were meant to influence policy and it worked.

MICHAEL HAYDEN, SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: What you see in these e-mails is Stephen Miller creating an appetite for the type of anti-immigrant policies Trump administration is enacted through Breitbart news.

SIDNER (voice-over): Miller did not answer specific questions about his e-mails. Instead, a White House spokesperson sent a statement. "SPLC is engaged in a vile smear campaign against a Jewish staffer. While Mr. Miller condemns racism and bigotry in all forms, those defaming him are trying to deny his Jewish identity which is a pernicious form of anti-Semitism."

HAYDEN: It's an absolutely laughable and offensive attack. I think Miller is responding with these charges of anti-Semitism because he has no other answer to it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: A Breitbart spokesperson sent a statement, that the SPLC claims to have 3- to 4-year-old e-mails involving an individual whom we fired years ago from multitude of reasons, including lying, they say, and you now have an even better idea why we fired her.

Having said that, the Breitbart spokesperson says it's not exactly a news flash that political staffers pitch stories to journalists. Sometimes those pitches are successful, sometimes not. But McHugh says she is not lying, she has the e-mails to prove her point, and she says, actually, Miller was acting more as like an assignment editor, more an editor for Breitbart than a source. Don?

LEMON: Sara, thank you very much. With Ukraine scandal causing all sorts of chaos, is President Trump playing right into Vladimir Putin's hands? We'll dig into that and the many other times the president's actions have benefited Putin.

[23:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: When the Trump administration put a hold on desperately needed aid from Ukraine, it was a big gift to Vladimir Putin.

[23:45:00]

LEMON: Jim Sciutto has our story.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Don, the president, as you know, likes to say that no one has been tougher on Russia than Trump. But we look at the record and the record doesn't quite stand up. In fact, the president has taken a number of moves during his nearly three years in office that almost inexplicably are in Russia's interest more than America's.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

SCIUTTO (voice-over): It is the dark mystery at the heart of Donald Trump's presidency.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): Why is he so chummy with Vladimir Putin?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Russians must have something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's creating a hero out of the Vladimir Putin. What the hell is going on?

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi summed it up this way.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): All roads lead to Putin.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Questions about the two men started when Trump as a candidate began singing Putin's praises.

TRUMP: I respect Putin. He's a strong leader. I can tell you that.

So smart.

Run by a very smart cookie. Much smarter, much more cunning than our president.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): More importantly, there were Trump's actions. Why would he hire a Ukraine lobbyist as his campaign chairman?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: The core question about Paul Manafort is whether he was working for Donald Trump and the American people or whether he was really working for Vladimir Putin.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Paul Manafort had worked in American politics years ago. But for more than a decade, he had advised a Putin ally, then Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Are there any ties between Mr. Trump, you or your campaign and Putin and his regime?

PAUL MANAFORT, FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: No, there are not. It's absurd.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Soon, the Manafort led-campaign made a mystifying change to the Republican Party platform.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The deadline for amendments --

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Language that had promised weapons for Ukraine in its war against Russia was blocked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): E-mails revealed (ph) that Donald Trump Jr. went into a meeting with a Russian lawyer.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): There was another strange Russian connection at Trump Tower. Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner all attended the mysterious meeting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Amazing hospitality and support.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Russian oligarch was behind it, offering campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Then came WikiLeaks. Once again, courtesy of Russia. Thousands of e-mails stolen from the Democrats flooded the air waves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was designed to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Donald Trump's response --

TRUMP: Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Donald Trump wins the presidency.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): In November 2016, Trump's victory was a political earthquake in the U.S. But in Moscow, it sparked joyous celebration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are the champion of the world.

(LAUGHTER)

SCIUTTO (voice-over): In Washington, President Trump was meeting outgoing President Obama.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Settle down, yes. You all right? OK.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): And Obama gave his successor a piece of advice. Do not hire Michael Flynn. Trump did it anyway. The new national security adviser lasted just 24 days. Flynn had lied about Russia, specifically about a conversation with then Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. They discussed what Putin hated the most, U.S. sanctions on Russia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want the sanctions lifted. They made no secret of it.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): And soon, Donald Trump started talking down those sanctions. He told The Wall Street Journal, if we get along, why would anybody need them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: United States of America needs to send a strong message to Vladimir Putin.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Congress, however, was having none of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ayes are 98, the nays are two. The bill is passed.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): In August of 2017, a tough sanctions bill passed overwhelmingly.

TRUMP: You know, wouldn't it be a great thing if we could actually get along with Russia?

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Throughout the Trump presidency, the biggest conflict at the heart of the U.S.-Russia relationship has been Russia's attack on the 2016 election.

JAMES CLAPPER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: This represented an attack on a fundamental underpinning of our democratic system.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): An attack which U.S. intelligence assessed was done to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton. But repeatedly, Trump denied that it was real.

TRUMP: I don't think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. She is saying, Russia, Russia, Russia. I don't -- maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds. OK?

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Trump would soon discuss the attack with Vladimir Putin himself at a private face-to-face meeting in Helsinki.

[23:50:05]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was nobody else in the meeting. So we have no knowledge of what went on. I can tell you one thing. The Russians know what went on in that meeting.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): After the meeting, Trump did not condemn Putin's attack on the election. In fact, he sided with Putin against America's own intelligence agencies.

TRUMP: President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today, and he just said it's not Russia. I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Perhaps one of the most disgraceful moments by an American president on the world stage in front of a Russian or Soviet leader certainly in my lifetime.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): The only possible explanation for this dangerous behavior is the possibility that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Trump also began going after NATO, an alliance the U.S. and its allies depend on, respected by the world except, of course, by Vladimir Putin.

TRUMP: They kill us with NATO. They kill us. We're paying for anywhere from 70 percent to 90 percent to protect Europe.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Putin craved membership in another international institution, the G7 group of world leaders.

TRUMP: It should be the G8 because a lot of the things we talk about have to do with Russia.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Throughout, Putin has taken an increasingly prominent place on the world stage, particularly in Syria. Last month when Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces would leave the country, many saw it as Trump giving Russia a free hand there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For Russian armoured vehicles to, you know, drive into these places with the Russian flag flying high and the American flag, you know, headed out of town, those are all just huge, huge propaganda games for a guy like Putin.

TRUMP: On an absolutely perfect phone call.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Now, it is Trump's action in another country that is threatening his presidency. And there is again a connection to Russia. His alleged attempt to extort the president of Ukraine has sparked impeachment hearings and it may also be yet one more gift to Vladimir Putin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump has wittingly or unwittingly, you know, walked straight into the warm embrace of Vladimir Putin with how he has dealt with Ukraine.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Trump temporarily withheld desperately needed aid from Ukraine, aid that Ukraine depends on to defend itself against an ongoing Russian invasion.

TRUMP: I have been far tougher on Russia than any president in many, many years.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Trump has now made that claim repeatedly.

TRUMP: I would certainly think about it. President Putin invited me.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): And still he says he may accept an invitation to join Putin in Moscow next May for a parade showcasing Russia's military might.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Now, Russia's victory day parade is deliberately a demonstration, a show of Russia's military power, power that has expanded and exercised, particularly in what's known as near abroad, that the former republics used to make up the Soviet Union.

Since Russia annexed Crimea in Ukraine, one of those countries but now a sovereign state, most western leaders have avoided going to the victory day parade.

When Putin extended the invitation, he said it would be "the right step." Not clear what that is a right step towards when by the judgment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, Defense Community, Russia is getting more aggressive against U.S. interests, not less. Don?

LEMON: Jim Sciutto, thank you. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Many studies show that too much screen time can be unhealthy for young people. This week's top 10 CNN hero is teaming up with hospitals to make screen time healing time. As a high school student working out of his parents' basement, Zach Wigal set out to prove that gamers can also be do-gooders. Today, he is making video games a part of recovery for sick kids all over the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZACH WIGAL, CNN HERO: Sometimes people believe that video games are corrupting the minds of America's youth. But video games are an incredible tool for helping kids find a source of fun and relief during really stressful and difficult times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To people who think that games are just games, they're so much more than that.

WIGAL: That's all you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have to talk about me being sick. We can play the game because that's way more cool than having to talk about me being sick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Zach provides sick children with gaming in 200 hospitals nationwide and in Canada. Go to cnnheroes.com to vote for him for CNN hero of the year or any of your favorite top 10 heroes. Thanks for watching. Our coverage continues.