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Record Of Call Moved To Secure Server; Reports: E.U. Gives U.K. P.M. Johnson A Week To Revise Plan; Knife-Wielding Employee Kills Four At Paris Police Headquarters; Iraq Extends Curfew As Death Toll Rises; Trump Publicly Urges China to Investigate Biden; Haneda: World's Most Punctual Airport. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired October 04, 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]

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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm john Voss and this is CNN NEWSROOM live from Studio Seven that CNN World Headquarters.

Ahead this hour, is it possible for a president to self-impeach? Donald Trump does it again, this time calling on China to investigate the Biden's as CNN learns Trump discussed his Democratic opponent with the Chinese president.

The Boris Johnson Brexit plan winning support in Parliament but rejected by Brussels. Can he come up with a compromise before the end of the month? And the body count rises across Iraq as violent demonstrations sweep the country.

It has been another busy day of developments and the impeachment inquiry into the U.S. president, beginning with President Trump publicly calling for China to join Ukraine and investigate his Democratic opponent Joe Biden. There was no hiding it, no attempt at political spin, no denials. The President made the statement to a crowd of reporters on the White House lawn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, what exactly did you hope Zelensky would do about the Biden's after your phone call?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I would think that if they were honest about it, they'd start a major investigation into the Biden's. It's a very simple answer. They should investigate the Biden's.

And by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Biden's.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Sources also tells CNN during a June tell phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump discuss not only Joe Biden, but also Senator Elizabeth Warren, another front runner for the Democrat Party's nomination for president in 2020. The details of that call were moved to the same highly secured electronic system as the record of Donald Trump's now-infamous call with Ukraine's leader.

Meantime, The Wall Street Journal reporting the May recall of the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch came out to complaints from Rudy Giuliani to the President that she was anti-Trump. And Friday is the deadline for the White House to turn over a trove of documents to Congress relating to the President's decision to withhold military aid from Ukraine.

Elie Honig is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He's now CNN Legal Analyst, and we're lucky that he is with us this hour from New York. So Elie, thanks for sticking around. We appreciate it.

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: No problem, John. Glad to be with you.

VAUSE: OK, we just heard from the President -- and what sounded to many like an attempted self-impeachment, but here's the latest reporting from CNN's Jim Acosta. According to a source close to the White House, he's going for broke.

One person who spoke with Trump said about the President's view of how he's handling the Biden conspiracy theory. He doesn't see it as a violation of the law, the source added, noting Trump has theorized his opponents have been doing the same thing to him. The President doesn't see it as a violation of law. OK, so what law he may have broken?

HONIG: So he really is going for broke here and it's really a risky strategy. I do think the President has broken several federal laws here in the United States, potentially, including bribery, which essentially means some sort of illicit or illegal exchange this for that. Extortion, which is sort of the flip side of that, meaning, if you don't do this thing I want, I will hurt you in some way.

And we have a specific federal law here that makes it a crime to solicit, to ask for some sort of campaign help, contribution, thing of value from a foreign national. So I think all three of those crimes are potentially in play.

But one really important thing to keep in mind is you do not need to have a crime in order to impeach. The House of Representatives have is the right to impeach for any abuse of power or abuse of office. And I think when the President walks out on the White House lawn and talks about and openly encourages another country, not an ally, to do the same thing he's already accused of, then he's really pushing things.

VAUSE: Yes, OK. Well, the President was back on Twitter just a few hours ago, again, defending his actions. He tweeted, as the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, that's even a duty to investigate or have investigated corruption, and that would include asking or suggesting other countries to help us out.

Keep that in mind, though. I want you to listen to these statements that we've heard from Donald Trump over the last I guess going back to the campaign. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We had 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 has done creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.

If somebody called from a country, Norway, we have information on your opponent, I think I'd want to hear it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want that kind of interference in our elections?

TRUMP: It's not an interference. They have information. I think I'd take it.

Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e- mails that are missing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK. So the tweet seems almost you know, reasonable. The statements are sort of reality.

HONIG: That's exactly right. The President -- what he says in his tweet is more or less correct. The President does a very broad power to conduct foreign policy to encourage countries to root out corruption. The problem is his actual actions and his actual specific rhetoric.

And if you look at the phone call, the July 25 phone call that sort of started this all between Donald Trump and President Zelensky, the only case he talks about -- there's two cases, the Joe Biden investigation and the Hillary Clinton investigation.

It will be another thing altogether if in that call President Trump is saying, look, you have a very broad corruption problem, and I'm concerned about that. But the only case in all of Ukraine that President Trump has ever talked about are the two cases that happened to touch on his political opponents.

So I think it's sort of hard to say he's this generalized corruption crusader, when all he really cares about is getting dirt on his political enemies.

VAUSE: You know, he's -- Trump is also, you know, making the point that he has nothing to hide. He's repeatedly calling on China. Usually, that White House news conference (INAUDIBLE) to investigate the Biden's. He's part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: China should start an investigation into the Biden's. Because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN has learned that the President did discuss Joe Biden with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Elie, we'll get you to stay with us because we want to check in with David Culver who's in Beijing for details on all that.

So David, what do we know about the conversation that Trump had with Xi about Joe Biden and against Elizabeth Warren as well?

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. And in that clip you just played there from the president, initially, all the focus was on Ukraine, suddenly it shifts today to China. And I can tell you officials here are trying to figure out how exactly to respond in the midst of what is a national holiday celebration, a national day that has started October 1st and continued now.

So with regards to that phone call, according to two folks who are familiar with that discussion, they tell CNN that that happened on June 18th, and that on that call, President Trump brought up the political prospects of the former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

And in that same phone call, these sources also tell CNN that he mentioned he would remain quiet when it comes to the unrest in Hong Kong, what has been really a thorn in the side of the Chinese government here for several weeks now, 18 and all.

And so with that, coming forward, we've heard the now from Senator Elizabeth Warren via Twitter that that's essentially selling out the Hong Kong people. She's criticized that greatly saying that she wants to see the full transcript of this release.

John, put it in greater context, though. That was June 18th. 11 days later, President Trump meets with President Xi in Osaka. They have meetings there that we have over several weeks of back and forth when it comes to trade discussions, sometimes seemingly positive, other times looking rather negative.

Recently, President Trump has been mostly positive when it comes to his rhetoric on China, even on October 1st, a day that marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China, tweeting his congratulations to President Xi, John.

VAUSE: OK. David, we appreciate the update with all that. Elie, I want to go back to you. So you've just heard what David -- the details we have on this conversation. What does it say to you if anything?

HONIG: Yes, it shows a pattern, right? It's very similar to what we see with the Ukraine. Now, the Chinese exchange happened the prior month, but the basics are the same. Both times what the President is looking for is dirt on his political rivals. The China incident involves Elizabeth Warren as well. And both times he's essentially bargaining with the chips of American foreign policy.

In the China exchange, it's backing down on criticizing the protesters and the protests going on in China. And with Ukraine, it's this foreign aid, it's hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid. So look, twice is a pattern.

And we've seen the president speaking fairly openly -- surprisingly openly about this. It's got to be one of two things. Either he just doesn't realize that this is wrong, which to me is a huge problem if he's under that misimpression, or as we discussed earlier, perhaps he's doubling down here. Perhaps he's just saying, if I act like something's wrong, people will think there's nothing wrong, and I can get past this, but that's an awfully risky strategy.

VAUSE: Elie, we're out of time but I'll finish on a tweet from Hillary Clinton from Thursday. "Someone should inform the President that impeachable offense is committed on national television still count." You know, that's a good advice at this point. Elie, thanks so much for being with us. I appreciate it.

[01:10:05]

HONIG: Thanks. Anytime.

VAUSE: Newly released text messages show how the Trump administration tried to pressure Ukraine into investing at the 2016 election as well as Joe Biden. They come from the former U.S. envoy Kurt Volker who resigned last week and testified before Congress on Thursday. In one U.S. diplomat William Taylor, he says, "I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign." The US ambassador to the Gordon Sondland response, suggesting they stop talking about it via text.

In another, Taylor asks, "Are we now saying that security assistance and White House meetings are conditioned on investigations." Sondland replies, "call me." And what the former envoy Kurt Volker told Congress, sources tell CNN, he testified that he urged the Ukrainian leaders not to interfere in American politics. That's after President Trump's phone call in July.

The Washington Post reports that Volker says he warned the President's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani that claim against Joe Biden from the Ukrainian prosecutors were not credible. It's worth repeating that Rudy Giuliani was warned that essentially there was no there-there. The information he was getting about bottom was not credible.

Sam Kiley has more on that in this exclusive interview with a former deputy of Ukraine's chief prosecutor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's difficult to tell exactly what has inspired Mr. Trump's new or renewed allegations and demands for an investigation by Ukraine into the activities of Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

But perhaps some of it was been energized by allegations made in the report put together as a consequence of interviews by Mr. Giuliani with the former prosecutor-general here in Ukraine, Viktor Shokin. An interview he conducted over the phone back in January according to documents that he supplied to the State Department, now in the hands also of CNN, and also with Yuriy Lutsenko who at the time was the serving prosecutor-general.

Both individuals make allegations regarding the activities of Mr. Hunter Biden and his role on the board of a major energy company here. But the deputy to Mr. Shokin at the time, David Sakvarelidze put scorn on Mr. Shokin, and Mr. Lutsenko as potential sources for the Giuliani dossier. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID SAKVARELIDZE, FORMER DEPUTY PROSECUTOR: Shokin was deeply corrupt and he had to be dismissed. Lutsenko was deeply corrupt, and he had to be dismissed. And because of these guys we lost five years in Ukraine, five desperate years with no punishment of the corruptioners, with minus in the economy, with a lot Ukrainian leaving this country and working as workers all over the Western and Eastern Europe, and that's a tragedy. And these people do not have any moral rights to talk in the name of this country, beautiful country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY: Now, we must stress also that both Mr. Shokin and Mr. Lutsenko have denied all and any wrongdoing in this matter. But I think it is important, as this story unfolds to recall that it is very much part of the political campaign for Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Trump to get this sort of evidence or alleged evidence out and discussed in the public domain.

And also remind ourselves to the diplomats here in Ukraine had been warning against these two individuals and other similar allegations that have been swirling around in the right-wing press for some time suggesting that they were indeed fallacious. Sam Kiley, CNN Kiev.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, Boris Johnson's plan for a Brexit withdrawal, loved by Parliament, rejected by Brussels, the E.U. probably giving him a week to fix it or risk a Brexit delay. Also, the violent protests in Iraq rage on and the death toll from that unrest continues to climb. We'll tell you how the government in Baghdad is dealing with all of this violence.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. At first, the talk in Brussels was polite and welcoming of Boris Johnson's Brexit plan, but it did not take long for E.U. officials to criticize the proposal, Calling it problematic and unconvincing. Brussels has reportedly given the British Prime Minister a week to work up a better deal or risk a delay. We have more now from CNN's Bianca Nobilo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boris Johnson has spent his day trying to convince Britain's Parliament that his new Brexit proposal is worth backing. His idea removes the controversial Irish backstop and replaces it with this. Northern Ireland would remain in the single market for goods, meaning Ireland and Northern Ireland would become an all-island regulatory zone. That amounts to a new border in the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland would leave the E.U. Customs Union along with the rest of Britain. There will be no physical infrastructure at the Irish border, declarations will be done electronically. And any physical checks carried out away from the border. The Northern Ireland Assembly would then have to approve the plans every four years. That's the same assembly that hasn't been sitting since 2017. So, all in all, it's complicated. Here's how Boris Johnson laid it out to Parliament.

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There will be no need for checks or any infrastructure at or near the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Indeed, I have already given a guarantee that the U.K. Government will never conduct checks at the border. And we believe that the E.U. should do the same. So, there is absolute clarity on that point.

NOBILO: It's worth noting who was sitting right behind the Prime Minister, his predecessor, Theresa May, watching on from the backbenches. She secured a withdrawal agreement with the E.U. which could not get through Parliament. If Boris Johnson managed to get a slender majority for his proposal, he may face the opposite problem. One thing Theresa May got very used to was criticism from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. And he isn't changing his tune to the new prime minister or the new proposal.

[01:20:00]

JEREMY CORBYN, LEADER, BRITISH LABOUR PARTY: Mr. Speaker, these plans are simply unworkable. Mr. Speaker, for what we have before us is not a serious proposal to break the deadlock. Instead, these proposals are nothing more than a cynical attempt by the Prime Minister to shift the blame for his failure to deliver. We can only conclude -- we can only conclude his political advisor was telling the truth, when he called the negotiations with the E.U., a sham.

NOBILO: One group of people Johnson has got on board is the Northern Ireland DUP, and that's important, given how crucial the Irish border is to everything. But he also needs the support of every member of the European Union. And the mood music there isn't positive. Here's Donald Tusk, the European Council President, to Ireland, he says, Europe stands behind you. To Boris Johnson, we remain open, but unconvinced. Here's what Ireland's Prime Minister had to say.

LEO VARADKAR, PRIME MINISTER OF IRELAND: The proposals that have been put forward by the U.K. are certainly welcome in the sense that we now have written proposals that we can engage on, but they do fall short in a number of aspects.

NOBILO: And now it's a matter of watching the space. Bianca Nobilo, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: To Paris now, where sources tell CNN, police are holding the wife of a man who killed four of his colleagues at police headquarters. No word on why she is in custody, but investigators continue to search for a motive, an attack which has stunned the French capital. CNN's Jim Bittermann picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: What was particularly shocking for a lot of people here is the fact that this was a police on police attack. The assailant well-known, 45-year-old, who worked at the police station behind me for many years. In fact, suddenly went on the attack about 1:00 this afternoon and killed four of his fellow policemen, including three who worked in the intelligence services and one who was more of an administrator. And it was a kind of thing that just happened so suddenly that the police didn't really have a chance to react. They did finally subdue the attacker in the courtyard of the police building behind me with their service weapons, they were able to kill him.

They are now going through his apartment trying to find what motivated this attack. All of a sudden, the prosecutor said that, in fact, there was nothing to indicate that there was anything suspicious going on that he'd -- had exhibited no signs that would put him under suspicion. And they have not put the investigation under the -- in to the hands of the terrorism prosecutor here in Paris, which seems to indicate that they don't believe terrorism, the cause. They have, however, taken into custody, the man's wife. Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The death toll from Iraq's largest protest in decades continues to rise. At least 34 people have been killed in the days of unrest and more than 1500 injured. And now, the government though appears to be trying to appease the protesters with an offer of a basic wage for the poor and partially restoring internet services. Details now from CNN's Michael Holmes

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thousands of Iraqis demonstrate against the government less than a year old. Public anger and frustration visceral and the government response deadly.

Iraqi police using live ammunition, tear gas, and water cannon, trying to disperse protesting that most recently kicked off Tuesday. As clashes bled into a third day, the government imposed a predawn curfew and shut down internet access across much of the country to limit protest or ability to coordinate. It did little to quell the deadly and growing civil unrest.

Give you an idea of how this is spread, the protest initially began in the capital Baghdad. But from there, they spread to provinces and cities all across the south of the country, including the oil rich Shia dominated area of Basra, critical to the economy. Now, by Thursday morning, the government had imposed an indefinite curfew on Baghdad, Hilla, Najaf, and Nasiriya.

In some of the largest protests seen in decades, demonstrators point to corruption by the ruling establishment, economic mismanagement, and the deteriorating quality of life during a time of relative peace. In the two years since the defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq, the country has enjoyed some measure of security. But sporadic uprisings are often harshly put down by the government. They're generally not partisan issues. Instead, bread and butter issues, jobs, corruption, electricity supplies, clean water, the most basic of services in a country with vast oil wealth.

In the years since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, governments have been elected and come and gone, promising much, in reality, changing little. Rising poverty and unemployment turning into public outrage that cuts across sectarian lines.

[01:25:14]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, IRAQI PROTESTER (through translator): We are calling for our rights. This is all we want. We want an occupation and a job that would bring good to us.

HOLMES: The U.S. invasion in 2003 caused massive disruption to infrastructure in areas like electricity, water and sewage, sectarian violence and years of ISIS made things worse. Through it all, protesters say a culture of corruption has endured, thrived even. False promises of change leaving Iraq's beleaguered citizens in the crosshairs of their own government. Michael Holmes, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Survivors of the worst mass shooting in modern American history have reached a landmark settlement two years after the attack. MGM Resorts International has agreed to pay up to $800 million to those affected by the Las Vegas massacre. The gunman carried out the attack from inside a hotel owned by MGM. 58 people were killed, hundreds more were wounded or injured. The company says the settlement is not an admission of liability, but rather a step forward in the recovery process.

Still to come here, Donald Trump insists he's within his rights to ask other countries to investigate corruption. Well, is that really what's going on? We'll get some answers, that's next.

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VAUSE: Welcome back -- everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.

Donald Trump appears to be openly defying his oath of office, publicly calling on China to investigate his political rival Joe Biden. Sources tell CNN he also discussed Biden during a phone call in June with the Chinese President Xi Jinping. The record of that call was moved to the same highly-secured server as the now infamous call with Ukraine's leader.

House Democrats have released text messages from the former U.S. envoy for Ukraine. They show how the Trump administration pressured Kiev to investigate the 2016 election and also Joe Biden.

Kurt Volker spent the day testifying before Congress, the first witness in the House impeachment inquiry.

The "Wall Street Journal" reports President Trump recalled the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch after complaints from his personal lawyer. Rudy Giuliani reportedly accused her of trying to undermine the President and of being anti-Trump. She was unexpectedly removed from her post in May.

Ron Brownstein is CNN senior political analyst and a senior editor for "The Atlantic". And he is with us from Los Angeles.

Ron -- good to see you.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey -- John.

VAUSE: Now it seems Donald Trump has decided that the defense -- the best defense here for a U.S. President basically he is going to double down, you know, on the call for an investigation into Joe Biden. We heard it over and over again on the White House lawn. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They should investigate the Bidens because how does that company that's newly formed and all these companies that if you look at -- and by the way likewise China should start an investigation into the Bidens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So the strategy of a U.S. president facing impeachment for abusing the power of the office for personal gain by asking a foreign government to gather dirt on a political opponent and the best response to it is he publicly engage in the abuse of power of the office of the presidency by asking another foreign government to investigate his political rival?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I think the answer is in the way the Republican Party has enabled and excused him for three years.

First of all, I think after today -- I don't know about you -- but I think it is inconceivable that the house will not vote to impeach Donald Trump, both because of what he said publicly and the transcript and what we see in the text messages that were released today some of them only in the last couple of hours with Kurt Volker and others showing the concern of career diplomats and also the clear, clear indication that Zelensky will not getting a meeting at the White House unless he agreed to the investigation the President wanted.

So I think the House maybe a foregone conclusion at this point after today. The reason I think the President is doing this is because he wants to normalize it. And the reason I think he believes he can do that is that so many things already, that would have been utterly unacceptable before, he has found he has been able to try to, you know -- very fine people, and (INAUDIBLE) and separating children at the border.

He has been able to kind of pull the Republican Party along. And it has maintained the posture of really accepting whatever he does, like say every time he breaks the window they scoop up the glass. He is pushing it and I think it will be an extraordinary moment for the Republican Party in the next few weeks once I think the House does the inevitable after today and vote to impeach him.

VAUSE: It's clear the last couple of days that there does not seem to be any sort of coordinated strategy coming from the White House. The "New York Times" is reporting for now the White House has no organized response to impeachment. Little guidance and surrogates to spread a consistent message, even if it developed one, and minimal coordination between the President's legal advisers and his political ones.

You know -- to your point, this kind of approach for Trump, you know, it worked in response to Mueller's Russia report. Why won't it work again?

BROWNSTEIN: Well now, I actually think it is chaotic but I don't think there's no strategy. I think it is the same strategy we've seen from him at every moment of stress and crisis of his presidency which is to put enormous fuel into convincing his base that he is the victim of a kind of, you know, concerted conspiracy that is really meant to silence that.

That is his core message. And he's gone, you know, pretty deep into those waters already with words like a coup and treason and spy. You know, all of this I can even imagine what's coming next in -- in the next few weeks.

But it's all basically designed to cause his base to view this, as, you know, a conspiracy by Democrats and the deep state, not to focus on the substance and through that to put more pressure on Republicans to stand with him.

And that is going to be the critical variable here. You've heard Republican senators even today saying something I though would have been unimaginable that, you know, what's the big deal about asking a foreign government while conducting foreign policy to dig up dirt or manufacturer dirt on your political opponent.

I mean it's extraordinary what we are seeing here, and I don't think you can understates the stakes and how much this is deviating the party, destroying what had previously been norms in American politics.

VAUSE: There'll be the denial, then of course, we did. And then everybody would have done it. Who would not have done it?

[01:34:52]

VAUSE: It was -- yes. And you know, we heard a lot from the U.S. envoy to Ukraine -- well Congress did anyway -- as he was testifying. The former envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker. And he claimed -- the U.S. ambassador he claimed was fired by Trump on the advice of Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer because Giuliani said that the ambassador's anti-Trump.

There's a lot of concern about this within the State Department. But listen to what the President had to say about the ambassador during a brief news appearance on the White House lawn and about, you know, what was actually the problem with the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did you recall the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine? Do you see a problem. Why did you recall here?

TRUMP: I heard very bad things about her. And I don't know, if I recalled her or somebody recalled her. But I heard very, very bad things about her for a long period of time -- not good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: From what we know though, at this point all the evidence that we have, there does seem to be, you know, a very clear picture of how all of this played out.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Absolutely. And I think the text that have come out today -- I'm surprised how many have come out -- just on the first day of testimony really painted the picture of very explicit indications, as the whistleblower said. I mean the whistleblower in the complaint said it was common knowledge essentially in the national or bureaucracy, that Ukraine and Zelensky was not going to get anything they want -- meeting with the President, the aid -- until they agree to do the investigation that he was demanding.

And we have texts tonight supporting that argument in which Volker among others is making that clear. Two advisers to the Ukrainian government. And you know, again one step back, we are withholding from a government that is facing a Russian essentially invasion and inspired insurrection. So there is that entire angle.

And you know, are we ever going to see the transcript of what he had said to Putin about all this. I mean we could be in for all sorts of legal battles over access to his other transcripts but I do believe that based on this -- the rough transcript we already have, the texts that have been released today, and the President's own comments -- it is very hard to imagine there will not be 218 Democratic votes to impeach him. VAUSE: Ron -- as always thank you so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks -- John.

VAUSE: And we'll be right back after this.

You're watching CNN.

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COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anyone who travels knows all to well, being on time is a luxury these days, unless, that is, you're landing at this airport in Japan's capital, where chances are, you won't be late.

Welcome to Tokyo International Airport, also known as Haneda, one of the busiest airports in the entire world and the most punctual.

That's according to a new report analyzing some 58 million flights worldwide. And this wasn't Haneda's first title. It's the most punctual major airport in the world now four years in a row.

[01:39:56]

WIRE: 85 percent of all flights here were on time in 2018. Quite an accomplishment given Haneda is also the world's fifth busiest airport serving over 87 million travelers last year.

Japan Airlines, which has a hub here says technology helps. Its baggage handlers stretch before a shift. That's because they lift some 17,000 bags a day at this domestic terminal.

But some now get an extra boost with this -- a wearable exoskeleton to enhance muscles in the handler's hips and legs.

KOTARU SHINTANI, SUPERVISOR, JAPAN AIRLINES GROUND HANDLING SERVICE (through translator): With this device, the speed and accuracy of the operation has improved.

WIRE: That helped makes for shorter lines, so passengers have more time to explore Haneda's sky deck or eat. At Katsusen the specialty is tonkatsu -- fried pork cutlets.

Wow. Beautiful.

The restaurant dishes up 300 meals a day in, and most come in a hurry, which means efficiency is key.

HIDEYAKI KIMIHARA, MANATER, KATSUSEN: I believe it is a Japanese characteristic -- birth to childhood -- at a very young age, punctuality it's crucial. Japanese people are brought up with that compromise. Once you are an adult, informed control is already acting to your head.

WISE: The airport could get even more traffic next year, when hundreds of thousands of visitors descend on Tokyo for the Olympic Games. Not that anyone here is worried. Odds are -- you won't be late.

Coy Wire, CNN -- Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: We will finish here with a homecoming -- the first Emirati in space has returned to earth. Welcome home, astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri. This is the moment he landed in Kazakhstan after eight days on the international space station.

Part of a warm greeting and being (INAUDIBLE) for the Emirate flag. Mansouri underwent a medical check which given you're clear, marking a big day for the U.A.E.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. "WORLD SPORT" starts after the break.

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