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Angry Trump Lashes Out At Media, Democrats; 8 Dead As Police Fire Live Ammunition At Protesters; Boris Johnson Proposes Irish Backstop Alternative; Economic Worries Drag Down Financial Markets. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired October 03, 2019 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. You're watching another hour of CNN NEWSROOM live from studio seven at CNN World Headquarters. Ahead this hour, cornered and lashing out. As a speech but inquiry grinds on, Donald Trump goes into full meltdown mode.

Boris Johnson and his fair and reasonable Brexit plan, but is the British Prime Minister planning to lose?

And Red October. U.S. stocks plummet for a second day and a growing fears of a looming global recession.

Nearly a week into the formal impeachment inquiry and a clearly angry and rattled U.S. president is lashing out with a level of vengeance, victimhood, delusion, misstatement, and outright lying like we've never seen before.

During two joint appearances with the President of Finland, Donald Trump described himself as a very stable genius, accused Adam Schiff, one of the leading Democrats in the impeachment investigation of treason and having a mental breakdown.

He claimed the White House summary of his conversation with Ukraine's leader was, in fact, a word for word transcript. It is not and says so in the front page. And the President claims that precise transcripts in which he asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate his political rival Joe Biden clears him of wrongdoing. Again, it does not.

The President's Twitter account has also gone into overdrive. USA Today reporting Trump's set a new record of almost 800 tweets and retweets last month, and the tweets keep coming only now with added profanity.

The do-nothing Democrats, he tweeted, should be focused on building up our country, not wasting everyone's time and energy on bullshit -- yes, this is the president -- which is what they've been doing since I got overwhelming elected in 2016. Get a better candidate. This time, you'll need it. And yet another remarkable day at the White House, one moment stood out, the angry and furious response from President Trump when he was asked a simple question, a simple question, which is at the very heart of the impeachment inquiry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: The question, sir, was what did you want President Zelensky to do about Vice-President Biden and his son Hunter.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Are you talking to me?

MASON: Yes. It was just a follow-up of what I just asked you, sir.

TRUMP: Listen, are you ready? We have the President of Finland. Ask him a question.

MASON: I have one for him. I just wanted to follow up on the one that I asked you which was what did you want --

TRUMP: Did you hear me? Did you hear me?

MASON: Yes, sir.

TRUMP: Ask him a question.

MASON: I will, but --

TRUMP: I've given you a long answer. Ask this gentleman a question. Don't be rude.

MASON: No, sir. I don't want to be rude. I just wanted you to have a chance to answer the question that I asked you.

TRUMP: I answered everything. It's a whole hoax. And you know who's playing into the hoax? People like you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Joining us out from Washington is CNN Political Commentator and Democratic Strategist Maria Cardona. Also with us is Republican and former Mitt Romney, Public Policy Director, Lanhee Chen. Nice to have you, guys.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be with you, John.

HAYES: OK, so as Donald Trump was fuming, it seems that the President of Finland was chuckling. But what seems odd is that Donald Trump has answered that question before just over a week ago. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: A great conversation. The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place, was largely the fact that we don't want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating big corruption already in the Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So Maria, what does this all say to you, the refusal to answer the question at the White House on Wednesday, the level of anger it brought out of the president. What's the bigger picture here?

CARDONA: I think he's starting to realize how serious how much in trouble he really is, how serious this impeachment inquiry really is. You know, I think at the beginning, when you showed the clip, when he was actually answering the question, I don't think he knew how much trouble he was getting himself into. I don't think he knew that Speaker Pelosi and the democrats were going to move forward with this -- with this impeachment inquiry.

And then everything exploded, with the White House memo of the call becoming public, with the whistleblower complaint becoming public. And it was so clear and simple and easy to understand for the American people and frankly, the world how this man has deliberately, an egregiously abused his power and office, betrayed his oath of office, shredded the Constitution, put us in danger from a national security standpoint, and essentially has given the finger to the American people.

And that's why he is now feeling the heat because things seem to be coming out on a daily basis, if not hourly basis that underscore just how unfit this President is in office.

VAUSE: There was also a lot of anger as well on Wednesday from the President directed at the whistleblower. Listen to this.

[01:05:04]

TRUMP: The whistleblower was so dishonest. The whistleblower said terrible things about the call but he then I then found out he was secondhand and thirdhand. In other words, he didn't know what was on the call.

This country has to find out who that person was, because that person is a spy, in my opinion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, Lanhee, we're sort of at the point of the Trump presidency where that stuff just kind of seems par for the course and sort of normal. But it seems kind of truly shocking when you put it the historical context of the U.S. being the first country to pass a law to protect whistleblowers, and now you have the President of the United States calling the whistleblower a spy.

LANHEE CHEN, FORMER POLICY DIRECTOR FOR MITT ROMNEY: Well, this is all, John, I think, part of the President's strategy to discredit the whistleblower, quite frankly, to figure out some way of raising questions about the whistleblower's motives, their positioning where they're in a position to witness or to hear the contents of that call, the individual's political motivations, potentially. So all of these efforts by the President are efforts to get out ahead

of the identification should we ever know who the whistleblower is. But you know, you're right, in the sense that in the United States, we have a very strong tradition of protecting those who are willing to come forward and expose or discuss malfeasance in government, whether the state level, local level, or federal level. And we've actually learned a lot historically from people who are willing to do that.

So indeed, for the president to make these comments I think is another example of the way in which he has circumvented or perhaps written roughshod over some of the norms that we've long held dear here in the United States.

VAUSE: And another part of the strategy seems to be you know, make a removal from office if it gets that far, as difficult as possible, as higher costs, as possible. It sort of explained, you know, the tweet over the weekend or the retreat over the weekend warning of civil war.

And for anyone who thinks that this is just hyperbole and not being taken seriously, maybe they should think again because that tweet was picked up by Oath Keepers which is a right-wing arm militia, 24,000 Twitter followers, and they tweeted this.

"Here's the money quote from that thread. This is the truth. This is where we are. We are on the verge of a hot Civil War, like in 1859. That's where we are. And the right has zero trust or respect for anything the left is doing. We see them as illegitimate too."

So Maria, by now, three years into the Trump presidency, Donald Trump surely must know the impact he has when he retweet something like Civil War.

CARDONA: He doesn't care, John. He only cares about his own self- interest. He only cares about his own personal wellbeing and his image. This is what three years of a Donald Trump presidency has shown us. He has no respect for the office of the presidency. He has no respect for the American people.

And everything that you just mentioned, he has done, it's worse than just not respecting the norms. He is putting the American people in danger. He is putting the whistleblower's life in danger when he talks about this whistleblower being a spy and then says that we should treat them the way that we used to treat spies. That is essentially urging the execution of this whistleblower. When he talks about a coming civil war, that is essentially urging a civil war in this country if anything happens to take him out of office.

To me, that underscores how incredibly important it is for the Democrats to move forward with this impeachment inquiry and let the facts take us where they may. And frankly, all of these ridiculous, irresponsible tweets that he's putting out there can probably be part of the articles of impeachment, given how irresponsible they are.

VAUSE: We also think the old lines, you know, from the Russia investigation that this is a hoax, it's all fake news, that there's nothing to see here. It's all about, you know, sour grapes over him winning the 2016 election. And the President keeps repeating an allegation about Joe and Hunter Biden which has zero credibility. Here he is again today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Biden and his son are stone-cold, crooked. And you know it. His son walks out with millions of dollars. The kid knows nothing. You know it and so do we.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, Lanhee, this is the president who's you know, three children traveled the world handing out sales brochures with their father's name on it. You know, and there he is complaining about Hunter Biden.

But the fact that I think the latest poll came out today which had four in ten Republicans who believe that Biden's name came up during the conversation with Ukraine's president, only four and ten. Is that indicative of this sort of toxic of sort of confusion and conflation is actually working?

CHEN: Well, look, I think that part of what the President has been trying to do the entire time here is to create or cast doubt on Vice President Biden's candidacy however he can do that. And the goal, I think, was to sort of figure out, how can we put -- how can Republicans that is put the Biden campaign and Vice President Biden into some kind of politically compromised situation as we go into a primary contest.

And I think in that sense, what the President does by repeatedly talking about Biden, repeatedly talking about the allegation relating to Biden and his son, regardless of the credibility of that allegation is precisely this, to raise a question, to have a dialogue about it.

And, you know, to hear this issue repeated over and over again, I think at some point, people do ask the question, well, what did happen with Biden in Ukraine. And so I think that's been the President's goal all along to sort of foment this conversation. And so long as people are talking about it, I think the President feels like he's winning.

[01:10:38]

VAUSE: We also know that one of his tactics, when he was a businessman, was to use litigation against his opponents. He's making that threat now, a warning of litigation against those who are behind the Russia investigation, much along the same lines as his tweet from Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday.

"We are carefully considering our legal options to seek redress against Congress and individual members for engaging in an organized effort that exceeded their limited powers under the Constitution, and for trampling on the constitutional rights of citizens by engaging in several illicit plans carried out by legal means to remove the President of the U.S. on knowingly falsified charges allegations." You know, Lanhee, we know that Rudy Giuliani was the world's greatest lawyer, but is there any merit here?

CHEN: Well, threatening litigation is as time-honored in America as apple pie and the Fourth of July. I mean, look, litigation in some ways, I think the hope amongst those who try to -- try to seek out litigation is to legitimize a set of principles or legitimize a set of ideas. And I think that's what Giuliani and the President is trying to do.

Look, Giuliani has been an interesting figure, interesting -- you know, I sort of used that word broadly, in this entire episode, his role, the degree to which he's been involved, the degree to which he's coordinated or not coordinated within the administration is a big open question.

And so part of this is going to be interesting to see where it goes with Rudy Giuliani, and how much of this actually is authorized by the President. I bet a lot of it quite frankly is offensive to and quite dangerous to others in the administration, who are potentially implicated by his freelancing.

So Rudy Giuliani is not doing the President any favors right now, in my mind, although he might think he is because he's been a fervent defender of the President. In fact, he's causing I think, potential headaches down the line.

VAUSE: We'll just finish off on the time where we began with that -- with the question which angered the president so much, here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASON: What did you want Presidents Zelensky to do about Vice President Biden and his son Hunter?

TRUMP: Are you talking to me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Are you talking to me? It's a very famous life of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. And here's a reminder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Maria, is it worth mentioning that De Niro's character, Travis Bickle was a disturbed learner trying desperately but failing to connect with reality?

CARDONA: I think it is worth mentioning that because it's kind of a similar situation unfortunately and sadly for the President of the United States. You know, I could say he's become unhinged, but I think he has always been unhinged and a little deranged. I don't think he is well mentally.

I think he has actually had a mental decline even in the three years that he has been in office. He's completely detached from reality. The people around him know this. There has been some very disturbing recording about the meetings that have gone on inside the Oval Office, what he says, what he wants his staff to do.

There's a reporting about immigration and how he wanted a moat filled with snakes and alligators and he wanted the Border Patrol to be shooting migrants, and then if he couldn't do that, to at least shoot him in the legs to slow him down. This is not normal, John.

And so I would say to -- not just to the American people, but to the global community, you know, look at what's going on in the United States. Don't believe a word this president says. Follow the facts. Follow the evidence. Follow the truth. Truth still matters.

VAUSE: That's a good point to end on. Maria and Lanhee, thanks so much. Good to see you both.

CARDONA: Thank you so much, John.

VAUSE: Lethal crowd control. Iraqi police use live ammunition and fired tear gas as thousands of protesters take to the streets of Baghdad. When we come back, what's driving the days of protest, anger, and unrest. Also, Boris Johnson's Brexit plan sent to Brussels and the early reviews are no good.

[01:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Another day of deadly violence in Iraq as thousands of demonstrators poured onto the streets of Baghdad as well as other cities. Iraqis are protesting the lack of jobs, poor services, and corruption. Officials say at least eight people are dead, more than 300 injured in this protest.

Meantime, curfews had been imposed, the Internet has been restricted, security forces have established roadblocks leading into the capital. The U.N. is calling for calm. The Iraqi Government is promising to meet the legitimate demands of the demonstrators. Protesters though say that is not enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is the people's protest. It is not being directed by anyone. These people are all revolting and they will not stop until the government changes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The Iraqi Defense Minister has ordered armed forces to be on high alert while the U.S. embassy in Iraq says it's closely monitoring to protest. In the coming hours, the E.U. is expected to outline objections to Boris Johnson's new Brexit plan. The British Prime Minister has delivered the documents to Brussels, what he calls a fair and reasonable compromise on the so-called Irish backstop.

That was negotiated by his predecessor, intended to keep trade flowing with the E.U. but prevent a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland in a post-Brexit world. Of all the complexity of Brexit, the question of how the U.K. can withdraw from the E.U. and avoid a border with Ireland remains a pretty without a solution. And the new Johnson plan is light on how he can succeed where others failed.

And that is raising speculation he's playing to lose to blame the E.U. for rejecting his plan and for all the chaos which follows. At the Conservative Party's annual gathering, he rally the faithful, promising Brexit will happen on time by the end of this month, despite a law that prohibits Britain leaving the E.U. without a deal. Something Johnson calls the surrender bill.

[01:20:28]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, PRIME MINISTER, UNITED KINGDOM: That is why we are coming out of the E.U. on October 31st come what may.

Let's get Brexit done. We can, we must, and we will even though things have not been made easier by the surrender bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN's European Affairs Commentator Dominic Thomas joins us now from Los Angeles. OK, Dominic, here is the prime minister, a little more from him in his own words on withdrawing the U.K. from the E.U. and at the same time avoiding that border on the island of Ireland. Here he is. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNSON: We will under no circumstances have checks at all near the border in Northern Ireland. We will respect the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement. And at the same time, we will allow the U.K. whole and the entire to withdraw from the E.U. with control over our own trade policy from the start.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It's all great stuff. The only problem it seems that those two statements cannot coexist. I think it's an either-or proposition, and Johnson hasn't really explained how they can happen simultaneously.

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Right? He has not John. And so with Theresa May his deal, it was quite straightforward. They negotiated with the European Union, the withdrawal agreement was all set. And in the transition period, Northern Ireland would remain in the single market and in the Customs Union and what is called a backstop.

The backstop is a synonym for an insurance policy. What Boris Johnson has done and the changes that he's enacted here is to essentially argue that Scotland, Wales, and England should be fully extricated from the European Union, and that Northern Ireland, so they would not have to be checks with the Republic of Ireland would remain in the single market for determine period, and that every four years, the essentially the Northern Irish, and Stormont, the Assembly would get to revisit that arrangement.

The problem with that is that the removal of this insurance policy is essentially Boris Johnson asking the European Union to trust him which is something that they are simply not willing to do, and that the Republic of Ireland will not go along with this. And then the other 26 E.U. countries with the Republic of Ireland, the 27 will simply not go along with that.

So there's changes, there's proposals here, but it does not deal with the fundamental question of protecting the integrity of the trade relationship, the personal relationship of the island of Ireland or the integrity of the European Union's policy. And so this deal will go nowhere with just those few reasons.

VAUSE: It will go nowhere in Brussels, and it seems it will go nowhere in Parliament. Listen to Jeremy Corbyn. He's the leader of the main opposition Labour Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY CORBYN, LEADER, LABOUR PARTY: It's worse than Theresa May's deal. I can't say he's getting the support that he thinks he will get. And it will take us into a regime in Britain of deregulation of undercutting and I think also undermining the Good Friday Agreement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Does Johnson actually really want a deal? I mean, would he be happier to go through the motions and then blame Brussels for not compromising after he did and say, you know, when everything goes to chaos, it's all their fault, not mine.

THOMAS: Absolutely, John. Look, he's got three people to blame, the European Union, the British Parliament, and the U.K. Supreme Court, OK. So all of that works very nicely and for him. The fact remains, though, then he seems to be forgetting this, that it is his Brexit to cohort that also voted against the withdrawal agreement on three particular occasions.

But as things stand now, he is lost his parliamentary majority, therefore he cannot legislate. The last thing the Liberal Democrats want is to support a Brexit deal. They want to revoke and remain in the European Union. And there is absolutely no way that the Labour Party is going to help Boris Johnson deliver Brexit because that would be absolutely the same as essentially delivering them an electoral victory.

Now it's a risky proposition because Boris Johnson, of course, can control the narrative and will argue that it is parliament, and that it is Jeremy Corbyn that is being obstructionist here, that throughout this process, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party had been part of the problem and not the solution here. And Boris Johnson, I think is able to exploit these fractures in the opposition, and they still can potentially serve him very well.

[01:25:06]

VAUSE: And despite the fact that in Britain they'd be talking about Brexit and almost nothing else, for the past three years, they could be a few people living under a rock who have no idea what's coming. And hence, we have this new television campaign courtesy of the British government is parliament. Here's part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get ready for Brexit on the 31st of October. Traveling to the E.U. is going to change. To keep your trip on track, there's things you need to check. Check your passport as valid for travel to Europe. Check that you have the right driving documents, and check your travel insurance covers all your healthcare needs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It's all going to be fine. Just check your passport. That's going to be the only big upheaval. If Johnson was getting really honestly, I should say get ready for a snap election.

THOMAS: Yes. I mean, this is absolutely the next thing of course. And Boris Johnson can say whatever he likes, his wishful thinking, his followers will applaud him. The fact, let's not forget, parliament has voted and legislated that he cannot leave without a deal on October 31 and that he will be forced to go back to the European Union.

He can refuse to do this. There will be a vote of no confidence. And the general election will be called once an extension has been -- has been guaranteed and they get beyond that line. There is no way out of this for the Boris Johnson. He knows this full well and it allows him to keep this narrative going that it is he and the Conservative Party that are unambiguously committed to Brexit. And he absolutely wants to go into a general election where it is essentially a remain versus a leaf set up and where Jeremy Corbyn is the shadow of the potential leader if that fails.

And I think that that narrative, even those statistics, and polls show that the British public is evolving on the question of remaining in the European Union. The fact remains that the Conservative Party is still today, the main leading party in the U.K. with all of this going on.

VAUSE: Yes, it just keeps going on. Dominic, thank you. Good to see you.

THOMAS: Great. See you soon.

VAUSE: Cheers, mate. Still to come, with the Dow down more than 800 points in two days, what's driving the selloff on Wall Street, is it job growth, slowing manufacturing, the U.S.-China trade war? None of the above, says Donald Trump. It's all about him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:51]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.

Donald Trump lashing out at Democrats and the media over the growing threat of impeachment, but he's not offering much of an defense for asking Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden as well as his son, Hunter. Aids say the President has not grasped the enormity of the situation.

Iraq is on high alert after another day of deadly demonstrations. Officials say at least eight people are dead, more than 300 injured in this week's protest. Iraqis are demonstrating over lack of jobs, poor services as well as corruption. The U.N. is calling for calm while the U.S. embassy in Baghdad says it's monitoring the situation closely.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he is making a final offer on Brexit. An alternative to the Irish backstop to keep the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland open. But so, far his plan for an all-Ireland regulatory zone has received a cool response from the E.U.

Concerns over a global recession are dragging down U.S. financial markets. The Dow dropped nearly 500 points after the recent week's payroll data as well as slowing manufacturing activity, partly caused by Donald Trump's tit-for-tat tariff war with China.

And a ruling by the World Trade Organization has given the Trump administration the green light to impose tariffs on another $7.5 billion of European exports. That's because of European government subsidy to the aircraft maker Airbus. The E.U. (INAUDIBLE) Commission says there will be retaliation to the new U.S. tariffs.

Joining us now from Los Angles, Ryan Patel, a senior fellow at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University and global business executive. So Ryan -- it's been a while. Good to see you.

RYAN PATEL, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. Nice to be with you.

VAUSE: You know, October is all always a bit of a volatile month, you know, sort of (INAUDIBLE). There's lots of ups and downs. But there's also, you know, a slowdown in job growth in the U.S. with the manufacturing index at its lowest level in a decade, concerns over Donald Trump's trade war, slowing economy in Europe and Asia. But it seems the analysts are finding it kind of difficult to agree on exactly what is causing the sell-off?

PATEL: Why does it all have to happen on the same day? I mean this is what caused the people to realize a little bit more -- you talk about the last two days and the market has been historically not something that you want to see that the market goes down that much.

And then, you know, for me what really stands out of this -- yes we have a trade war we've been paying attention, we know the manufacturing data has been slowing so that's not really new news. But really if you take out all the rhetoric about this potential trade war, companies can actually, you know, if they're down a few percentage of their GDP I mean I'm not saying it's ok, but they can manage it.

What they can't manage into going forward in the future is the volatility to -- is it going be 5 percent losses, 10 percent losses?

The WTO ruling was very interesting to me because of what this means for the U.S. and the E.U. And you know what it means? Game is on now. What I mean by this is it's really about negotiations and it's trying to get the negotiations between -- and the E.U. is going to retaliate.

The question becomes are you -- is the U.S. administration going to come to the negotiation table with a real deal or is it going to treat it like the U.S.-China? And you and I both know including most people that the E.U. and the U.S. cannot afford to get into this trade war. They have their own problems going on from U.K. Brexit, obviously China and U.S. And that is what kind of is lingering in this worried financial markets.

VAUSE: Well, you know, Donald Trump has trade wars going on on a number of fronts right now. The decision by the WTO on the subsidies was an interesting one because it gave the United States permission for this tariff on $7.5 billion of European goods. But it also said that next year it will rule on whether or not the Europeans will be allowed to put tariffs on a certain amount of U.S. imports as well. So you know, it kind of -- they have a bit of explaining (ph)?

PATEL: I'm so glad you brought that up because I think, you know, they're going to check in to see the Boeing subsidies and see what the counter measures are going to be. And just to remind everyone, this has been going on for 15 years.

(CROSSTALKING)

[01:34:54]

PATEL: This is historical for the WTO to come in. And what's even more kind of funny about this is that that U.S. has pretty much stated in the past that they wanted to break up with WTO ruling and here's one ruling that is in favor of it.

So what does that mean down the road? Will they abide by something to this degree. Don't forget China has provided -- they're into this process with the U.S.-China-WTO as well. So like I said this is kind of -- this is not so much a chess match but this is a game right now.

I hate to say it -- it's a game. It's about a negotiation deal which you think that I would believe that the E.U. and U.S. would come together and be able to get a deal done because there's not that many variables, compared to the U.S. and China.

VAUSE: Makes one amiable to, you know -- the President can juggle in the air all the ones. Here is (INAUDIBLE), on you know, what is to blame for the falling stock market?

He tweeted, all of this impeachment nonsense which is going nowhere is driving the stock market and your 401(k) retirement money down. But that is exactly what the Democrats want to do. They're willing to hurt the country with only the 2020 election in mind.

Ok, you know, instability is to Wall Street what garlic is to a vampire. But is this impeachment inquiry -- is it part of the whole melange but it's not the whole enchilada?

PATEL: Were you talking to me?

VAUSE: Yes.

PATEL: I mean listen, from the business community, there's so -- I mean you talk about what's happened over the last few weeks, the business community doesn't even have time to deal with what is going on with the back and forth, back and forth of between the Republicans and Democrats. What's real, was not and I understand that's there's a lot of information.

For the business community, in Wall street, they want stability. This needs to be decided either or and to be tying to like the impeachment process into the financial market -- yes, is it a little bit concerning? The more concern is the overall health of the economy of the U.S. and really the future of how -- what is the policy going forward.

That is what's concerning for the business markets and the business leaders. Is our supply chain going to go down? What's going to happen to the deals and who's actually going to win the election in 2020? That's farm more concerning going forward and, you know, eventually is he going to be impeached or not?

VAUSE: I'll give you another very quick theory. We are at what -- record high, you know, we've been (INAUDIBLE) record highs constantly with the Dow. And when you get to that level and it has been this much of a boom for so long, everyone is looking for the first excuse to run to the exit. And everyone is sort of just waiting, poised. And they're just sort of waiting for that big selloff. I think that's where we are right now, a lot little nervousness out there.

PATEL: Well, there is. And I think, you know, what is going to be a strong indicator too is, you know, this is another tip like I like to tell you. Mergers and acquisitions are going to happen more often over the next three, four, five months. Because if we keep going down this trade war per se and the manufacturing of some of these companies get hit hard, you're going to see markets and consolidations of industries. And that' going to happen. And what does that mean for the rest of the market? That means that it is getting hurt. People are buying a little cheap but people are still investing.

But if mergers and acquisitions are not happening, and people are letting companies close and fail, that provides a bigger tale for the maybe potentially recession side --

(CROSSTALKING)

VAUSE: Yes.

PATEL: -- not risking the investment even if it's a great deal.

VAUSE: No one wants to be the last person standing when the music stops and the punch bowl is taken away?

We'll leave it at that -- Ryan. Good to see you.

PATEL: Thanks for having m.

VAUSE: Thank you. Always a pleasure mate -- thank you.

We'll take a short break. Back in two minutes.

You're watching CNN.

[01:38:10]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's one of Japan's most famous culinary export. A quick, versatile bowl of soul-warming soup served at thousands of restaurants here, but the centuries old dish of ramen noodles is getting a makeover in modern Tokyo.

In recent years, a new wave of young Japanese chefs are mixing up the classics -- making it more creative, more complex.

Frank --

FRANK STRIEGL, OWNER, TOKYO RAMEN TOURS: Hey -- Coy. Nice to meet you.

WIRE: Nice to meet you.

FRANK: Likewise.

(CROSSTALKING)

WIRE: Meet my guide to all things noodle-related, Frank Striegl. He's an American who grew up in Tokyo, speaks fluent Japanese and gives ramen food tours for a living.

STRIEGL: Ramen never gets boring because it's so dynamic, so exciting. Already -- here we are.

WIRE: Frank chooses two specialties. Back in the kitchen, owner Tomoharu Shono (ph) gets to work. The 39-year-old is meticulous, hand-picking each ingredient himself from markets across Japan.

TOMOHARU SHONO, OWNER, MENSHO RAMEN: Ramen is seen as a junk food, so we really wanted to change that image. We wanted to properly cook a high-quality dish, so we want to keep pursuing that.

WIRE: The noodles are handmade from flour milled on site.

STRIEGL: It's very much about, how do we make it even more interesting, more elevated?

WIRE: You can see it across town, with chef Masahiro Emoto. He experimented with some 200 flavor combinations before landing on this one. And he's not done yet.

MASAHIRO EMOTO, OWNER, RAMEN EMOTO MASAHIR: I want to keep on improving this dish. And that's what I found so exciting.

WIRE: When the meal comes, it's loud and a little bit messy.

Oh, that's so rich. My goodness. It's that rich, deep, savory flavor that it can only come with time.

STRIEGL: Yes.

WIRE: Love. Good. And possibly getting better with each bowl.

COY WIRE, CNN -- Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, a former Dallas policewoman has received ten years for murdering her neighbor last year. Botham Jean, a black man, was unarmed and shot dead in his apartment. But it's what happened after the sentencing which left the courtroom stunned. Jean's younger brother asked the court for permission to hug the former cop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANDT JEAN, MURDER VICTIM'S BROTHER: I don't know if this is possible, but can I give her a hug, please? Please?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Brandt' Jean said he forgave Amber Guyger for killing his brother. Incredible. You can't see it in the video, the judge also hugged Guyger. Gave her a pat (ph).

We will finish on that note.

You've been watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.

"WORLD SPORT" starts after the break.

[01:43:43]

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(WORLD SPORT)

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