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Trump Addresses Nationalism in Speech to World Leaders; Coral Reefs in Hawaii Could Be Damaged by High Temperature. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired September 25, 2019 - 00:00   ET

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

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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. Thank you for joining us. I'm John Vause and this is CNN NEWSROOM in Atlanta.

On day 977 of the Trump presidency, it happened. Democrats announced a formal impeachment inquiry accusing Donald Trump of serious constitutional violations and say he must be held accountable.

A no good, horrible day for the British prime minister as well, the country's highest court ruled against his attempt to suspend Parliament for five long weeks was unlawful and void.

And we'll hear from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their royal tour of Africa.

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VAUSE: We begin this hour with breaking news from Washington, where the Democrats in the House of Representatives are launching a formal impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says it's the president's own admission that he asked Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, which is the trigger for the investigation. The president responded almost immediately on Twitter, calling it a witch hunt and garbage and presidential harassment.

CNN's Manu Raju begins that coverage.

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MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Now after months of internal debate, infighting and about questions and the way forward, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally got behind the idea of moving forward with an impeachment inquiry, after Democrat after Democrat in her caucus called for the impeachment inquiry to begin, at least to move forward.

And the House Judiciary Committee said it's already conducting an impeachment inquiry, with the goal of moving to potentially vote on articles of impeachment of this president by the end of the year.

She's very clear what was the straw that broke the camel's back was the complaint that was issued, by this whistleblower and the president's handling of it and the substance of the allegations, the president, himself talking on the phone with the Ukrainian president about the Bidens.

That, of course, becomes an issue that she seized upon and saying that's why we need -- major reason why we need to move forward. She says it's a betrayal of the oath of the office.

At the same time, what this action really mean?

She says that there are six committees that are already investigating the president on Capitol Hill, including the House Intelligence Committee, House Judiciary Committee, will continue their investigations and ultimately they will decide whether or not to move forward with articles of impeachment.

And they if they do, the House Judiciary Committee will vote to move forward to impeach the president and then the full House will vote to impeach the president but only to remove him from office,

You need two-thirds of a majority in the United States Senate, which is led by the Republicans, to do that, which is unlikely to succeed.

So this could take a few months. Speaker Pelosi says she wants it to be done expeditiously. So while it may not lead to the removal of the president it's a symbolic but historic move since the president himself will be only the third president in American history to be impeached by the House -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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VAUSE: Jessica Levinson is a professor of law at Loyola Law School. She's also a professor of governance. She joins us now from Los Angeles.

And Jessica, of all people I wanted to talk to today, it was you because I think you know, you'll be able to walk us through everything that's happened. It's good to see you.

JESSICA LEVINSON, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: It's really good to well, at least, hear you.

VAUSE: OK. It's a big deal that Pelosi has made this move because she was really reluctant to go down this road.

But where are we now in the overall impeachment process?

It sounds all very official and kind of new but in reality those six committees that she talked about, they already deep into their own impeachment investigation.

So what changes for the Democrats and what changes for the president?

LEVINSON: Yes. So I mean, everything you said is exactly right. We're moving from an investigation which is less formal to an inquiry which does have some legal significance.

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LEVINSON: So part of the legal significance is that there have been these epic battles between Congress and the president about Congress' subpoena power when they've been trying to investigate the president.

And Congress -- and the president essentially said no, you don't have a good reason, I'm not going to. And now what changes a little bit is that Congress is going to say actually, guess what, we have a great reason. We're in the middle of an impeachment inquiry and that's our reason.

And so if they have to go to court which I think they might, then it does change the legal calculus a little bit.

What else changes?

We keep reading the words impeachment, official impeachment inquiry in the news and that's a political change.

And it is interesting to me that this is the straw that broke the camel's back for Nancy Pelosi. I think she just couldn't keep the caucus together any longer. So it makes -- you know, it changes the legal landscape, it changes the political landscape as well.

VAUSE: And now listen to the response from President Donald Trump. Here he is.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's ridiculous. It's a witch hunt. I'm leading in the polls. They have no idea how they stop me. The only way they can try is through impeachment. This has never happened to a president before. There's never been a thing like this before. It's nonsense.

And when you see the call, when you see the readout of the call which I assume you'll see at some point, you'll understand. That call was perfect. It couldn't have been nicer and even the Ukrainian government put out a statement that that was a perfect call. There was no pressure put on them whatsoever.

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VAUSE: OK, a couple of things here. You know what he said about leading the polls. That's not true. And also early in the day, Trump tweeted out that even though he was at the U.N., he had authorized to release tomorrow as in Wednesday the complete fully declassified, unredacted transcript of his phone conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine. What he did not commit to and this is important, was releasing the whistleblower report. And without that, the chances of the transcript of the phone call could almost be meaningless.

LEVINSON: Well, yes. And as you know, President Nixon also released tapes and he said great news. This is going to exonerate me. But they were out of context. They didn't include other evidence. Was there other evidence here? As you said, it's the whistleblower complaint.

So I think that President Trump is going to try hard to essentially take that transcript out of context and to say there was nothing wrong. I think it's also important to remember that a readout of a phone conversation, it loses all subtlety, it loses all intonation.

The other thing that's important is President Trump says I never pressure them. That's not the legal standard here and that's not necessarily what we're looking at. We're looking at abuse of power.

We're looking at even with a wink and a nod or what he might not view as pressuring them essentially saying, I have your military aid, you know what I also think would be wonderful if you would investigate a political opponent of mine.

VAUSE: Yes, like a mob boss sort of hints at stuff and doesn't say it explicitly.

LEVINSON: Exactly.

VAUSE: The defense from congressional Republicans has started rolling out that old line about Democrats being sore losers after Trump won 2016. Here's the minority House leader Kevin McCarthy.

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REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): I realize 2016 did not turn out the way Speaker Pelosi wanted it to happen. But she cannot change the laws of Congress. She cannot unilaterally decide we're in an impeachment inquiry.

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VAUSE: I guess that seems odd because I thought the House Speaker can actually make that decision before with this impeachment inquiry. So at this point, it's probably best to you know, tell us what exactly what impeachment is and what it is not. It's not the removal of the president from office but it could end that way.

LEVINSON: It could end that way. I mean, I do think it's interesting that people or I should say Republicans keep putting this on this idea of sour grapes for the 2016 election when, of course, what we've been seeing throughout the last three years is, I think it's important to mention, it looks like we no longer have the separation of powers in our country.

It looks like we have the separation of parties because there is -- there are real facts here, there are real questions that need to be answered.

And frankly, I think Congress already has enough to go forward with impeachment.

So you asked me, what does that impeachment inquiry look like?

I mean, it looks like these six different committees continuing with their investigations. It looks like -- frankly, I think it's not going to take that long because so much of the information is already out in the public.

I think there'll be some subpoena fights, there'll be some fights over how many people are going to testify, what they're going to testify to, how many documents Congress can get and then Congress will decide whether or not to draw up articles of impeachment. That's the next step.

I think it's very unlikely Nancy Pelosi would give the green light to going ahead with an inquiry if she didn't in some way feel comfortable with articles of impeachment. If the House votes by a simple majority, yes, we think the president should be impeached, then he's impeached.

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But as you said, he stays in office. It takes the Senate by a vote of two-thirds to remove the president. I think what we've seen here is there's no appetite in Republicans in the Senate to remove the president. I think he will still be the sitting president of the United States in 2020.

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VAUSE: We'll see. I'm not so sure about that one. Jessica, thanks for being with us. We really appreciate it.

LEVINSON: Thank you.

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VAUSE: The decision to announce his formal independent inquiry by the Democrats overshadowed the president's day at the United Nations. He did say on script that he used the platform to preach his brand of nationalism.

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TRUMP: Globalism exerted a religious pull over past leaders, causing them to ignore their own national interests. But as far as America is concerned, those days are over.

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With a lot more on Donald Trump's General Assembly address later this hour. It was a turbulent day for Britain's embattled prime minister, Boris Johnson. He addressed the U.N. General Assembly before his visit short to return to London. In an extraordinary decision, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that Boris Johnson's decision to suspend Parliament in the run-up to the Brexit deadline was unlawful. Nina dos Santos explains the latest setback for this very new prime minister.

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NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They waited outside in the rain, hopeful of victory (ph). Inside the court, they weren't disappointed.

LADY HALE, PRESIDENT, U.K. SUPREME COURT: This was not a normal prorogation in the run-up to a Queen's Speech.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): it took just 15 minutes for the U.K.'s highest court to deliver the bombshell ruling against the prime minister.

HALE: The effect on the fundamentals of our democracy was extreme. No justification for taking action with such an extreme effect has been put before the court.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Dismantling Boris Johnson's plan to sideline Parliament --

HALE: The court is bound to conclude, therefore, that the decision to advise her majesty to prorogue Parliament was unlawful.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): The effect of the decision, if there was any doubt, was made crystal clear.

HALE: Parliament has not been prorogued. This is the unanimous judgment of all 11 justices.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Outside court, a celebration.

GINA MILLER, APPELLANT: Today's ruling confirms that we are a nation governed by the rule of law, laws that everyone, even the prime minister, is not above.

JOANNA CHERRY, SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY: So there is nothing to stop us, members of Parliament such as myself and my colleagues, from resuming, immediately, the important job of scrutinizing this minority Tory government as we hurtle towards Brexit.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): The ruling was handed down just as the U.K. opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was taking to the stage at his party's conference.

JEREMY CORBYN, U.K. LABOUR LEADER: It shows that the prime minister has acted wrongly in shutting down Parliament. And I invite Boris Johnson, in the historic words, "to consider his position."

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Boris Johnson is currently in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

QUESTION: Prime Minister, are you going to resign?

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QUESTION: -- resign, Prime Minister?

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): No apology and no indication of remorse.

JOHNSON: I strongly disagree with this decision of the Supreme Court. I have the utmost respect for our judiciary.

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JOHNSON: I don't think this was the right decision.

JOHN BERCOW, SPEAKER, U.K. HOUSE OF COMMONS: Order.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): British lawmakers are now set to return to work on Wednesday.

BERCOW: I've instructed the house authorities to undertake such steps as are necessary to ensure that the House of Commons sits tomorrow.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): The ruling is yet another significant blow to Johnson's young premiership, having already lost six votes in just his first month in office and being forced by Parliament to seek a Brexit extension if there's no withdrawal deal by the end of next month.

JOHNSON: There's been no doubt. There are a lot of people who want to frustrate Brexit. There are a lot of people who basically want to stop this country coming out of the E.U.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): His plan to exit the E.U. on October the 31st is being thwarted, it seems, at every stage -- Nina dos Santos, CNN, London.

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VAUSE: CNN's European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas joins us now from Los Angeles.

Dominic, good to be back?

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Thanks, John.

Two months into office, Boris Johnson has chalked up a list of failures that would make Theresa May blush. Here is a list, he's lost the parliamentary majority; more than 26 lawmakers left the party and moved to the cross benches.

He lost all six of his first six votes in the Commons. Chances are now he didn't just lose his case in Britain's highest court, he had a series of dressings-down from all of the judges. And now he has to turn up and appear before Parliament, the one he tried to shut down the Parliament.

This is not a good run so?

Far

THOMAS: No it certainly is not yet he still is the prime minister, if these were normal times, a vote of confidence will have easily passed in the Commons and the prime minister, would have been removed, or the opposition would have called a general election, I think what you're seeing here is a government that has lost its majority and the opposition that has been standing by for the past three years, watching the Conservatives try and deal with this big Brexit issue which is defining British politics, absolutely incapable of doing so.

They're in control, they're very, very carefully now making sure that they achieve certain guidelines and point to get those through the Parliament before this reckless prime minister and in some ways, you see them now, taking control. Again

VAUSE: We watched Johnson move into Downing Street 63 days ago, he has to survive another 56 days or he will be the country's shortest serving prime minister?

Johnson and his aides are pushing through regardless. But given that stellar record of failure, will the rest of the party stick with him?

THOMAS: This is the third prime minister since David Cameron stepped away, Theresa May since Brexit, they heard their own internal election. He was the overwhelming favorite going into it, he won the race easily.

One would be hard-pressed to find an alternative for him in this divided Conservative Party that's essentially being ruled by the sort of far right Brexiteers.

Let's not forget, with all of this going on, the fact remains, the opposition has been unable to come together with one particular position that would go against the Conservative Party on the issue of Brexit.

As long as there is no unity in the opposition in terms of their position on Brexit, the fact remains that the Conservative Party is still the single most important political party in the U.K. political landscape and that's the reality of the situation.

VAUSE: What is difficult, seems worth noting, incredibly, this is a Conservative Party, the bastion of respectability and tradition, willing to stick with a prime minister in the highest court of the land ruled that he essentially misled the monarch and unlawfully shut down Parliament, a move called by British senior judges as an assault of democracy.

THOMAS: You're talking about the Conservative Party, you're talking about the Republican Party in the United States, on one side of the Atlantic, impeachment proceedings and discussions when it comes to a sitting U.S. president. On, the other side of the Atlantic, you have a prime minister who unanimously the Supreme Court of the U.K. have now argued and the proved and passed a verdict that a sitting prime minister has acted unlawfully in the advice he gave to a sitting monarch.

So the situation, these are not normal times by any means. And essentially here you have two leaders, going up against either the judicial system or against the Houses of Parliament and they're frustrated in their particular ambitions and ultimately ending up violating the laws the, Constitution and the tradition of practice in the land.

This is really extraordinary times.

VAUSE: We can add to that, this decision by the high court, how significant is that?

This court actually decided to get involved?

And in such major way in a political controversy?

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VAUSE: In the past it seems everything was done to avoid that kind of situation?

THOMAS: Right, I think the most compelling aspect of this particular vote, is that it's an unambiguously sends power back to Parliament. It's essentially saying it is the Parliament, elected by the people, are ambiguously in charge of this particular situation they should be able to sit, they should be able to debate, should be able to legislate.

And if the Conservatives and the leader are not satisfied with that, they should step away from power and there should be a general election, which is, of course, what Boris Johnson is pushing for.

So this verdict is really important in reaffirming the power and the importance of Parliament to the British political system.

VAUSE: Dominic, Thank you.

THOMAS: Thanks. John

VAUSE: As the Trump-Ukraine controversy continues to grow, the big winner in Ukrainians former foreign minister will be Russia. More on that when we are back.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. On the same day the U.S. president had promised to release the complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript of his phone call with Ukraine's leader, he'll be meeting with Ukraine's leader on the sidelines of the UNGA.

This comes as U.S. House Democrats launch a formal impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump over accusations that he pressured Volodymyr Zelensky in an effort to target his political rival in the United States.

Ukraine's former foreign minister says all of this drama is something he does not need and he spoke to CNN's Matthew Chance.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pavlo Klimkin was the Ukrainian foreign minister at the time that controversial phone call between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart took place.

When they met earlier, he expressed deep concerns about how stuck in Ukraine into the American political battle was weakening his country in this confrontation with neighboring Russia.

Ukraine is fighting a bitter war again Russian backed rebels in the east of the country and engaged in a diplomatic campaign to regain control over Crimea annexed by Russia in 2014. But this scandal was handing Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin a victory.

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PAVLO KLIMKIN, FORMER UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes, the fetish over champagne (ph), yes, definitely. It's -- for them, it's the best way to drive a wedge in our unique -- and I really mean unique -- it's not a kind of bipartisan support for Ukraine. So now the Russians should be crazy happy about that.

CHANCE: And do you hold the president of the United States, President Trump responsible for driving in that wedge?

KLIMKIN: No. But --

CHANCE: Well, he's the one who made the request to investigate Joe Biden.

KLIMKIN: But firstly, we still have to find out the facts but we also remember his position during the G7 summit and the idea to get the Russians back into the G7 without delivering on nothing.

And, for me, you could not make America great again by letting Putin feeling better.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHANCE: The former foreign minister was also sharply critical of President Trump's decision to briefly suspend the flow of military aid to Ukraine. Earlier this year, he told me it had taken the Ukrainian government completely by surprise and also sent in his words, the wrong message at the wrong time to Putin's Russia -- Matthew Chance, CNN, Kiev.

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VAUSE: On, paper, it was a fiery Trumpian speech, declaring globalism dead but Donald Trump's U.N. address was delivered with no energy, no enthusiasm and in a monotone which seemed to leave even Donald Trump bored. More on that when we come back.

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VAUSE: Welcome back. I'm John Vause with headlines this hour.

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VAUSE: The relevant confidence (ph) have prompted Trump meets campaign rally Trump. The U.S. president addressed world leaders at the U.N. on Tuesday but his heart it seems just wasn't it.

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His talking points appeared tailored to an audience at home. He said his polices are great, nationalism is great, globalism is dead.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you want freedom, to take pride in your country. If you want democracy, hold onto your sovereignty. And if you want peace, love your nation. Wise leaders always put the good of their own people and their own country first. The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots.

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VAUSE: David Sanger is with us now from Washington. David is a CNN political analyst. He's also a national security correspondent for "The New York Times."

David, thanks for being with us.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Great to be with you.

VAUSE: OK, that line we heard from the president, the future does not belong to globalists, it belongs to patriots. Almost sounded like a throwaway but, in many ways, just looking at the speakers on this first day and the order they appeared, which was purely coincidental, though, it seems to affirm what Trump was saying.

The man they called the Trump of the Tropics, Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, he was before the president. And then after the president, we heard from the man that Donald Trump calls his favorite dictator. That would be the president of Egypt, El-Sisi. And then after him came Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It was a rogue's gallery of like mines, all of whom are on board with the U.S. president, especially if you take out the word "patriot" and you replace it with "nationalist."

SANGER: Well, I think there were several remarkable things about this speech. The first was that it was delivered in the most flat tones. It had neither the fire and fury line of his first speech, and it didn't have what became the laugh line of last year's speech, when he talked about how no other president had ever been as successful, no other country, as the U.S., and people laughed at him.

So he was going to stick right to his script.

The second was, as you point out, this very remarkable discussion of nationalism, the importance of holding onto national identity, of making that that your first priority in the headquarters of the organization that was built for international cooperation or trying to find common ground among a different national groups.

And then the third thing was remarkable was how little he talked about the strike on the Saudi oil fields.

VAUSE: Also, talking about the tone, though, because it was very flat. It was monotone, had all the energy and the enthusiasm of wet letters. Yet everything that Donald Trump was talking about, they were his favorite themes. You go to a Donald Trump rally, he'll roll them out.

SANGER: Yes.

VAUSE: The crowd goes nuts, and he sort of lives off that energy. Is that the basic difference here?

SANGER: Well, it was his audience that, you know, he was interrupted for applause precisely zero times. He's not used to that, particularly when giving a speech.

But second, I thought, was notable was that he understood that he was delivering a line that a few national leaders would appreciate but that most of the diplomats in the room certainly wouldn't. And then, he was a little bit distracted.

I mean, he was there up talking to the United Nations, meeting foreign leaders on the day the Democrats are running around Washington, deciding that the moment has finally come to try to impeach him.

So his brain was back down on that problem, while his body was up at the U.N. VAUSE: And it was an interesting road. You mentioned this. You know, appearing before the ultimate institution to multilateralism, or you know, internationalism, if you like taking this particular theme.

And if you take that one step further, the motto or the theme for Tuesday's debate at the U.N. G.A. was galvanizing multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action, and inclusion. But that's not to say that the president, the U.S. president, does not see moments when the world to come together. He made the example of Iran, which Trump said, you know, is one of the greatest security threats to peaceful nations. Here he is.

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TRUMP: All nations have a duty to act. No responsible government should subsidize Iran's blood lust. As long as Iran's menacing behavior continues, sanctions will not be lifted. They will be tightened. Iran's leaders will have turned a proud nation into just another cautionary tale of what happens when a ruling class abandons its people and embarks on a crusade for personal power and riches.

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VAUSE: Because the tone was just so flat, it was monotone, there was no energy, it's hard to pick a headline out of that speech. But it does seem that, apart from joint military operations, Donald Trump sees no use for organizations like the U.N.

SANGER: Well, the tone was flat. He almost sounded bored with the sound of his own voice on this, which is why he doesn't usually read off of teleprompters.

But if you get to the substance, what struck me in that whole segment was what was missing. So, just two days ago, his secretary of state called the attack on the Saudis an act of war and said the Iranians were responsible for it.

You didn't hear the president use the phrase "act of war." You didn't even see him directly accuse the Iranians of being responsible for it. You didn't hear him say that we need to go to the Security Council and organize some kind of collective response. You didn't hear him ask for authorization to use some kind of military force. You didn't even hear him threaten that he might.

So there was something going on in here, in which the United States appears to be losing a little bit of its confidence that it's going to prove the attack was Iranian, even though the Europeans, by and large, endorsed that view, and where he seems to have no appetite in trying to put together a coalition to deal with it.

VAUSE: I want to finish up with the young climate activist, Greta Thunberg. The 16-year-old, 16 years old. She called out leaders like Donald Trump on Monday for their failure to act on climate change, and then on Tuesday, the 45th president of the United States took to Twitter for some little snark. He tweeted, "She seems like a very happy young girl, looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!"

We cover all the news about this president, but the stories essentially, they don't really change. And you know, this is sort of a growing theme of an adult man, a world leader, unable to let insults go by, unable to be the bigger person.

SANGER: Well, I think it was a patronizing line, which he shouldn't do, but certainly shouldn't do about a 16-year-old girl who's clearly took a fair bit of courage to come up out of her -- her life and show up in -- at the U.N. and, basically, call out the leaders who were there. But I think he didn't quite understand the symbolism that she's come to represent.

VAUSE: Yes. She's become quite the symbol, especially after that appearance on Monday.

SANGER: Yes.

VAUSE: David, thank you so much.

SANGER: Thank you. Always great to be with you.

VAUSE: A marine heat wave in the Pacific could lead to the most widespread loss of coral Hawaii has ever seen. It's called bleaching, when coral is stressed from the high temperatures and expels the algae living in its tissue, turning completely white. If that happens for a prolonged period of time, the coral will die.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is monitoring the heat wave with satellite.

A red toxic have has spread over Indonesia and neighboring countries, the result of pollution from slash and burn farming. Hundreds of thousands of hectares have burned in recent weeks, forcing villagers to flee and schools to close.

Authorities have long tried to stop paper and palm oil plantations from starting these fires. Greenpeace says harsher penalties for violators are needed.

And at least 20 people have been killed, hundreds more injured after an earthquake in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. This happened on Tuesday. The 5.8-magnitude quake was felt across the region, destroying dozens of homes and buildings, uprooting trees, leaving large cracks in the roads.

Well, life's a beach for Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan as they tour South Africa. That's where they'll meet up with a number of youth organizations, as well as CNN. More on that in a moment.

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[00:40:54] VAUSE: CNN has the first interview with the duke and duchess of Sussex since introducing baby Archie to the world. Royal correspondent Max Foster caught up with Prince Harry and Meghan during their visit to Cape Town. They just visited a program which uses surfing as therapy for at-risk youth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGHAN MARKLE, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX: What's so amazing about being here today is you can see there's so much good happening in the world, and there's so much positively in all this diversity and inclusivity. I think is the focus is on that, that's why it's so great that you're here today. It just highlights that, yes, there's a lot of attention on things that could be a little bit troubling in the world, but this is actually what's making a difference and what matters.

PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: No, exactly, I couldn't -- exactly. Exactly what Meghan said. I think what these -- what these kids are doing, actually, the coaches are the main thing, because they've had this quite unique experience. I said unique. It's not as unique as you would think, because so many of these communities have been through very similar romantic experiences. But they've now come into a place like this, into this shanty, to be able to not only share their experiences but to be able to help the younger generation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The royal couple, along with baby Archie, are on the first leg of a ten-day tour of Africa. And they told world wishers they're enjoying the trip.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. WORLD SPORT is up next.

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VAUSE: Wherever you are around the world, thank you for joining us. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from studio seven in Atlanta.

Ahead this hour, on day 977 of the Trump presidency, it happened. Democrats announced a formal impeachment inquiry, accusing Donald Trump of serious violations of the Constitution, and said he must be held to account.

British Parliament back in session in the coming hours after a court ruling that the prime minister's five-week-long suspension was unlawful. And hitting the beach with Harry and Meghan, the royal couple plus baby, all touring South Africa, meeting with community groups, and talking to CNN.

Only two years.

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