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Trump Pressured Ukrainian President to Investigate Biden's Son; U.S. Sending Troops to Saudi Arabia and UAE; Hong Kong Enters 16th Weekend of Protests; Epstein Accuser Alleges Sexual Abuse by Prince Andrew; Canada and U.S. Wildlife at Risk. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired September 21, 2019 - 03:00   ET

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

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Ahead this, hour Donald Trump under fire over accusations he pressured a foreign power to investigate a political rival. We will have the very latest on the growing whistleblower scandal.

It is being described as the largest climate change protest ever. Organizers say millions of young people marched to demand leaders do more to help the environment.

And a troubling new study about the world's birds. Scientists warn billions have been lost in the past 50 years.

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HOLMES: And we begin with the story of a whistleblower complaint, a U.S. presidential candidate and how he wanted a foreign government to get dirt on a political opponent, I know we are not talking a 2016, we are talking about right now.

A source confirming to CNN that President Trump pressured the president the Ukraine to investigate the son of former U.S. vice president Joe Biden. "The Wall Street Journal" reports it happened around eight times. Eight times in a single phone call back on July 25th. Kaitlan Collins picks up the story.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump's second state visit overshadowed today, as he faced questions about a whistleblower's complaint he made an alarming commitment to a foreign leader.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is just another political hack job. That's all it is.

COLLINS: The president accused the whistleblower of being political, but conceded he doesn't know who it is. TRUMP: I don't know the identity of the whistleblower. I just hear it is a partisan person.

COLLINS: He blasted the complaint as ridiculous, even though he hasn't seen it.

TRUMP: No, I haven't. Everybody has read it. They laugh at it.

COLLINS: And he maintained all his conversations have been aboveboard.

TRUMP: It was a totally appropriate conversation.

COLLINS: But he said he's not sure which one the whistleblower is talking about.

TRUMP: Well, figure it out. You're supposed to be the media. Figure it out.

COLLINS: Asked if Congress will get to see the complaint, Trump waved away the question.

TRUMP: There is nothing. It is nothing.

COLLINS: While he downplayed the matter, the president didn't deny discussing Joe Biden with the Ukrainian leader.

TRUMP: It doesn't matter what I discussed, but I will say this. Somebody ought to look into Joe Biden's statement.

COLLINS: That is what his attorney Rudy Giuliani was going to do before canceling a trip to Ukraine earlier this year after facing backlash.

Giuliani wanted to discuss Biden's potential role in the government's dismissal of a prosecutor investigating his son. And in a rambling appearance on CNN Thursday night, Giuliani denied, then admitted seconds later he asked the Ukrainian government to investigate the family.

RUDY GIULIANI, TRUMP ATTORNEY: No. Actually, I didn't. I asked the Ukraine to investigate the allegations that there was interference in the election of 2016 by the Ukrainians, for the benefit of Hillary Clinton, for which there already is a court finding...

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: You never asked anything about Hunter Biden? You never asked anything about Joe Biden --

(CROSSTALK)

GIULIANI: The only thing I asked about Joe Biden --

CUOMO: -- and his role with the prosecutor?

GIULIANI: -- is to get to the bottom of how it was that Lutsenko who was appointed -- CUOMO: Right.

GIULIANI: -- dismissed the case against AntAC.

CUOMO: So, you did ask Ukraine to look into Joe Biden?

GIULIANI: Of course I did.

CUOMO: You just said you didn't.

COLLINS: The conversations Rudy Giuliani did have with Ukrainian officials, including the president's representative, are now under investigation by three different House committees, who are demanding information, while some Republicans say it is overblown.

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): I think there are people in the intelligence community and other parts of our government who just have it out for the president.

COLLINS: And as sources now telling CNN that President Trump did pressure the Ukrainian president to bring up investigations into Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, during his last known phone call with the Ukrainian leader, that was at the end of July.

We are told that that aid package for Ukraine didn't come up during that call but now, knowing that the president did pressure him to investigate someone who very well could be his political opponent in the next election, there are going to be questions raised about whether or not the president threatened to withhold that aid package so Ukraine would then investigate Joe Biden -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

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HOLMES: Let's bring in legal analyst Areva Martin, joining us from Los Angeles.

Good to see you, Areva. You this on the face of it is pretty extraordinary, the suggestion that a president is trying to get a foreign government to act against a U.S. citizen presidential candidate, to harm that political opponent. If that is the case, how damaging is this?

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Incredibly damaging, Michael. What we are learning is it was not one or two times or even three or four.

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MARTIN: But apparently in this phone call Trump had in July with the Ukrainian president, it was eight attempts on the part of Trump to pressure the Ukrainian president to engage in this investigation of what we now know to be what Trump believes to be the next candidate for the Democrats.

And if that is true -- and we don't have all the information because the Trump administration will not allow this whistleblower, who had the courage to come forward, to make a complaint -- the Trump administration including the attorney general of the United States, will not allow that complain to be handed over for Congress, which is what is required by law.

So we can't even investigate, there is no transparency with respect to what was said, the context in which it was said. But it is very troubling, incredibly disturbing, if in fact the reports are true and that Trump did use his office to pressure another government to investigate one of his opponents.

HOLMES: And the interesting thing here as well is that the Republican talking points -- and in many, many ways the administration talking, points -- we do not know what is in the whistleblower report.

But as you point, out the DNI and the Department of Justice and it would appear, perhaps, the White House are stopping people from seeing that, report, the, allegations.

Speak to the optics of blocking a whistleblower report, if there is nothing to see, why block it?

MARTIN: That is the first. Thing. If you are not guilty, if there is nothing wrong with what you, did which we saw Trump defend his actions -- he is so quick to deny and deflect.

So he first says well, I, did not say anything wrong but despite what I said, it was not a problem whatsoever. But he will not allow that report to become a part of the record for Congress. He will not allow Congress to even have access to that report, so it does raise questions.

If you did nothing wrong, why are you hiding the report?

And it completely undermined the whistleblower statute, which was enacted to that people can come forward, like in this situation, and report these egregious acts even when they involve the president.

And this is really incredible when you think about how little facts there are and yet there is this deep state conspiracy that we have seen over in over again with the Republicans and their talking heads like Giuliani.

We heard the Ukrainian officials say there is no evidence that Hunter Biden broke any laws or violated any Ukrainian laws yet we continue to hear Rudy Giuliani make these claims of wrongdoing on the part of Biden and his son.

HOLMES: You could argue they are accusing Joe Biden of interfering with another government while the accusation is that this president is doing exactly that for political reasons.

MARTIN: We do have evidence, Michael, of slow walking that has taken place with respect to aid that Congress had already approved for the Ukranian government.

So even though there may not have been an exact quid pro quo talked about in that July phone call, we do know that it was after the investigation or after the complaint was made that the funds were actually released.

So that rises again all kinds of questions about the legitimacy of the response we are hearing from Trump and about his -- what appears to be his blatant misuse of power.

HOLMES: On the face of, it, if these allegations are accurate, it just seems utterly extraordinary.

What options does Congress have if the administration does continue to keep this lid on this complaint?

I mean, the whistleblower, can he go directly to Congress?

Can they subpoena him?

What can they do to get this out?

MARTIN: Well, the statute appears to allow for the whistleblower to go straight to Congress and to make his claim. But you can imagine that this person must be under tremendous pressure.

We don't know who this person is. He or she has not been identified and apparently is getting pressure not just from the White House but from the attorney general's office not to make this complaint known to Congress.

So we saw one of -- a U.S. congressman from California tonight make a direct appeal to the whistleblower, please come forward. Please make your complaint known to Congress and now we are waiting.

It remains to be seen whether that person will have the courage to come forward and to actually disclose what they witnessed, what they observed, directly to Congress.

HOLMES: Well, one hopes the whistleblower's name is not known. You have the president saying he does not know who it is but then saying --

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MARTIN: A partisan.

HOLMES: Does he know?

Does he not?

And what does it mean if that whistleblower is now unprotected?

I have to leave it there, Areva Martin, always a pleasure. Thank you.

MARTIN: Thank, you Michael.

HOLMES: A week after the attack on Saudi oil facilities disrupted the global oil supply the U.S. sending more troops to Saudi Arabia, also to the UAE. They are to focus on air and missile defense. Houthi rebels in Yemen have claimed responsibility for that drone and missile attack.

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HOLMES: Washington, though, says it was Iran. The U.S. president slapping new sanctions on Tehran, targeting Iran's central bank and international investment funds, two pillars of Tehran's economy. Iran, of course, denies it was responsible.

The power of youth was on full display all across the world when millions of people participated in a massive climate strike. Students organized the walkout, hoping to put pressure on lawmakers and world leaders to act on climate issues. Our Nina dos Santos takes us to rallies around the globe.

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NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Australia, they gathered in hundreds of thousands, determined to make their voice heard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seems that the only people standing on the wrong side of history on this issue, is our government.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): A message of anger, desperation, but also hope.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really want to change the future because it's our future and I want to grow up in a good place.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm here for my kids' future. Honestly the politicians are doing absolutely nothing and I'm sick to death of it.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Friday's Global Day of Action began in the Pacific Islands, countries that have already been impacted by rising sea levels.

In Asia, too, students demanded action from their political leaders.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our education won't be important if we don't have a life to live for anymore.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): It is a call to action that reverberated around the world. In the Philippines...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- a better (ph) world, responsible (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- a better (ph) world, responsible (ph).

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): -- in India --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do we want?

Climate action! When do we want it?

Now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we want?

Climate action! When do we want it?

Now.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): -- and in Africa.

DOS SANTOS: Here in London, thousands marched on Parliament, many of them children, accompanied by their parents and who'd made their own homemade signs. The message was the same, the world over. It's time today's current leaders took stock of the environmental legacy they're leaving behind.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not going to have a vote in 18 months. I don't have that kind of political power yet. So I'm exercising my voice the only way I can.

UNIIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to kind of make people think, you know, actually, this is something I really need to be thinking about, something I really need to be acting on.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): It was a similar theme from protestors in the French capital.

And also in Germany, where activists shut down roads.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): A lot of people support our movement, but we want to go a step further because politicians decide on our future. We urgently demand that something happens.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): A year ago in Sweden, Greta Thunberg began a weekly school strike for climate. Today, on those same streets, students gathered in the thousands, while she travels the world, advocating for change. A tribute to the power of one individual too young to vote, yet influential enough to make world leaders listen -- Nina dos Santos, CNN, London.

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HOLMES: A rare sight in Egypt; hundreds protesting in Cairo's Tahrir Square. They accused President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of corruption, demanding he step down. An exiled military contractor called for the protest on Facebook, saying that the military was wasting millions of dollars on luxury projects and presidential palaces.

President Sisi calls these claims lies. Cairo police have arrested dozens and used tear gas to clear the crowd.

There are more protests in Hong Kong for the 16th straight weekend. A protest march kicking off in one district but patience by police and Beijing's supporters is wearing thin. Police warning the violence we have seen in past weeks could spiral out of control. Paula Hancocks following all of it for us in Hong Kong.

What you are seeing so far as this gets underway?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michael, this is the march at this point. There is thousands of protesters that we can see here in this district of Hong Kong. They had a rally just a little earlier and they are pushing for more democracy.

This is a legal protest, meaning that the police have agreed this allowed to happen. They have a couple of hours from now and then they have to disperse. But we know also in a few hours' time, quite close to here, in fact, this is where there's going to be the two-month anniversary commemoration of one of these kinds of brutal, scene we saw, suspected groups and gangs that actually set upon many protesters.

There were dozens of injuries and arrests as well in subsequent months, so there are a couple big protests going on.

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HANCOCKS: And also just to point out, on the other side, there has also been a pro-Beijing presence, there are a number of walls where protests are putting up notes and posters with positive words towards democracy. Those have been torn down, in part by these pro Beijing presence. They say they want to clean up Hong Kong -- Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, there was such massive support for those protesters early on, literally millions. But as it has turned more violent, perhaps, darker, has the public support shifted?

HANCOCKS: Well, there was a background briefing by a senior police commander, just yesterday and he said that there were serious concerns to the level of violence. They thing it is getting out of control. They are concerned they'll have to start using live ammunition, potentially.

When it comes to Hong Kong itself, even those pro democracy supporters who don't condone some of the violence we are seeing on the front lines, they don't support it but they are not publicly saying that they should stop.

There seems to be an understanding that some of this needs to happen. But of course, there is still (INAUDIBLE) police (INAUDIBLE) this is vandalism but this is criminal and should be stopped.

HOLMES: Yes, it will be interesting to see what happens on China's national, day October 1st. I know you will be covering that as well. Paula Hancocks on the ground for us there in Hong Kong. Appreciate, it Paula. And good to see you.

Next up here on CNN NEWSROOM, accusations against a member of the British royal family. You will hear from the alleged victim and details of Prince Andrew's denial. That is coming up.

Also, the bird population in North America in freefall, 3 billion lost in 50 years. We will speak to one of the authors of that report coming up. (MUSIC PLAYING)

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HOLMES: One of the women who says she was sexually assaulted by Britain's Prince Andrew is revealing new details of her story. The allegations come after the death of Jeffrey Epstein. He, of course, the high-profile millionaire who was facing sex trafficking charges when he was found dead in his jail cell.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre had accused Epstein of keeping her as a sex slave. Now in an interview with NBC News, she says an associate of Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew after a night of partying.

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VIRGINIA ROBERTS GIUFFRE, EPSTEIN ACCUSER: Prince Andrew got me alcohol, it was in the VIP section, I'm pretty sure it was vodka.

He was like, "Let's dance."

I was like, "OK."

We leave Club Tramp and I hop in the car with Ghislaine and Jeffrey.

She says, "He's coming back to the house and I want you to do for him what you do for Epstein."

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GIUFFRE: I couldn't believe it.

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HOLMES: Well, Buckingham Palace responded to those allegations, writing, "It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation."

Now a new study has found that bird populations across North America have been plummeting for years. According to the study in "The Journal of Science," nearly 30 percent of the population, nearly 3 billion birds have disappeared from the U.S. and Canada since 1970.

The findings do not point to any one direct cause but sharp population declines are usually due to a loss of habitat.

And joining me now to talk about this is Arvind Panjabi. He is a avian conservation scientist, one of the authors of this important study.

I mean, the number is just staggering.

Is there a single cause?

ARVIND PANJABI, AVIAN CONSERVATION SCIENTIST: No, there really is not a single cause because we are looking at the whole bird community here. There is really a multitude of causes.

That said, I think there are some important causes that we need to think about. More than half the birds that have been lost are associated with farmlands and rangelands and the places we grow our food.

So I think we need to think carefully about the changes in the way we are growing our food today, from 50 years ago, the increasing intensification, increasing pesticide and herbicide, inputs and how that is affecting the suitability of those areas for birds and other wildlife.

HOLMES: According to the, study this is quote, "an overlooked biodiversity crisis." Speak to that, the impact of these losses and the impact going forward.

PANJABI: Sure. So this research focused on loss of abundance. Most previous research on bird declines has been focused on the threat of extinction.

Here we are not so much concerned about the threat of extinction for some of these common birds but rather what the steep decline in abundance is telling us about the world.

And because these birds are so abundant in the ecosystems, they play central roles, both in the pollination of plants and dispersers of seeds for ecologically important plants and trees and also as regulators or consumers of insects and as food for other species in the food webs.

So the ecological impacts of this bird loss is really quite extensive.

HOLMES: I saw the rather apt quote that they are canaries in the coal mine, of sorts, and I suppose the question is how to turn it around.

Can it be turned around?

PANJABI: We are dealing with a multitude of species here in this analysis and, like you mentioned, we just talked about the causes for declines are not likely to be the same for all species.

But we do need to identify causes of decline, because when we do, then we can develop appropriate solutions and take action. We have had lots of experience with this in the past, with DDT and bald eagles as well as wetlands.

You, know wetlands is one of the bright spots in our report. Waterfowl and other wetland dependent birds are the only group of birds that are increasing and that is because we have put a lot of effort into protecting our remaining wetlands and enhancing them and investing money in their conservation.

We need to do the same now for our other ecosystems that are at risk.

HOLMES: And I think one of the other things that it points out is that bird populations are shrinking at rates that you don't really see, obviously, so it is important that this is taken note of.

And this is not just the U.S. This is global and I think there is an area in Germany that lost 25 percent of the birds in the area.

PANJABI: Well our report focuses on North America but there is a lot of parallels with patterns that we have been seeing elsewhere, especially in Europe with the decline of farmland birds.

Now most other parts of the world don't have long term monetary programs in place to actually detect and measure these changes. So like you said, yes, it can be hard for the public to notice these changes in bird abundance over such a long period of time.

But it is important we have these monitoring programs so we don't have the shifting baselines of what we expect to be a normal abundance of birds. These data are important to show us that birds used to be a lot more abundant.

HOLMES: A very important and hopefully not a harbinger of bad things to come.

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HOLMES: So hopefully people do take note about this. Arvind Panjabi, thank you so much.

PANJABI: Thank you. It was a pleasure speaking with you.

HOLMES: Important story.

Now the second match of the Rugby World Cup just wrapped up and I am delighted to report Australia defeated Fiji 39 to 21.

In other action, France and Argentina are underway this hour. Everyone's eyes are going to be also on New Zealand, the All Blacks versus South Africa, the Springboks. Alex Thomas joining us now from Yokohama where that match is set to begin in a few hours.

Tell us about the Australia-Fiji match, the scoreline does not really reflect the angst that match caused me for almost most of it.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And you would not be the only Wallabies fan watching from around the world, Michael, to have been feeling slightly nervous at some stage, Fiji getting the first part of the game as early as the 7th minute.

Then when they scored again early in the second half, they were 21 points to 12 up and suddenly a huge upset on the cards from the world and Olympic rugby sevens champions who were not quite able to translate that dominance in the shorter form of rugby into the 15-a- side game and sure enough that really sparked Australia to life. They responded, well scoring four further the tries ultimately over

the full 18 minutes, outscoring Fiji by six tries to two. That number of tries mean Australia get a bonus point as well as the win, 39-21, the final score.

Remember when they met at the last Rugby World Cup in England four years ago, it was 28 points to 13 to Australia. We're kind of disappointed; it feels like they have not really improved in that respect but it did give the two-time Rugby World champions a huge fright.

But as you say, Michael, the game of the day and the game of the pool stages, in many people's eyes, is taking place here at the Yokohama Stadium behind me in just over 2.5 hours time. New Zealand against South Africa, world number 2 against world number 4.

But in many people's eyes this is a possible dress rehearsal for what the Rugby World Cup final could be because they will not meet again after the pool stages, assuming they get through, until the final.

And they have two of the strongest teams you're going to see, New Zealand coming up with a third successive Rugby World Cup. That has never been done before. They won the last two in a row.

But South Africa stopped them in the recent rugby championship, that Southern Hemisphere International competition during 16-all on New Zealand. So it really is a symbol of their resurgence under Coach Rassie Erasmus. So South Africa, the Springboks as they're known, so many of their fans have been here, have been flooding past, us, kind of glad they are not coming past right now while I'm live to you, because they are noisy, bunch I can tell, you and they have every reason to shout right now. It is going to be an absolute thriller.

HOLMES: Good to see you. Enjoy. Thank you for that, Alex Thomas.

Now thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael Holmes. I will have the headlines in a moment.

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