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Lawyer Says, Second Whistleblower In Trump-Ukraine Scandal; Ukrainians Rally Against Election Plans In Rebel East; Police Severely Condemn Lawless Demonstrations; Hong Kong Anti-Government Protests Enter 18th Week; Protesters In Iraq Voice Concerns; Growing Anger In Lebanon Over Deteriorating Economy; U.K. Urges U.S. To Return Diplomat's Wife After Crash; U.K. Prime Minister Under Growing Pressure; Drone Video Shows Bound Detainees in Western China; Prince Harry's Feud with British Tabloids is Personal. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired October 07, 2019 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:00]
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN NEWSROOM: Live from CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Natalie Allen.
Coming up here on CNN newsroom, and then there were two, a second whistleblower has come forward with a story about President Trump's conversations with top Ukrainian officials.
Iraqis speak around a deadly protests plague parts of the country. Angry activists tell us they just want to be heard by their government.
And persecuted for their ethnicity, drone video out of China appears to shows the torture of Muslims at the hands of the Chinese government.
And thank you for joining us. Our top story here, there is a new whistleblower in the Ukraine scandal facing U.S. President Donald Trump. A lawyer for the first whistleblower says his team is representing a second one. He says his client works in the Intelligence Community and has firsthand knowledge backing up claims made by the first whistleblower.
But the White House so far is sticking to its defense strategy, President Trump insists that he did nothing wrong asking Ukraine's president to investigate political rival Joe Biden. He's also trying to discredit the second whistleblower, saying, they came from the so- called deep state.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more about these developments from the White House.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: We now know that there are two whistleblowers from within the Intelligence Community who have raised concerns about President Trump's call with the president of Ukraine. Attorneys for that first whistleblower now say that they're also representing a least second whistleblower from within the Intelligence Community. And this whistleblower claims to have firsthand information about many of the instances raised in that first whistleblower's complaint. That has, of course, been a key Republican talking point aimed at discrediting that first whistleblower, the fact that many of the allegations that were made the whistleblower obtained secondhand.
Now, as far as the White House reaction to the second whistleblower, they are essentially saying there is nothing to see here, folks. Here is a statement from the White House Press Secretary, Stephanie Grisham. She says, it doesn't matter how many people decide to call themselves whistleblowers about the same telephone call, a call the president has already made public. It doesn't change the fact that he has done nothing wrong.
Now, of course, despite that, we have seen the president repeatedly attacking the whistleblower on Twitter this weekend, also attacking Democrats, the media and even one Republican who dare to come out and publicly criticize the president's request that China and Ukraine investigate his political rival, Joe Biden.
Senator Mitt Romney, the former Republican nominee, came out and called President Trump's request appalling and wrong. President Trump has now fired back calling for Senator Romney's impeachment. Of course, senators can't be impeached. But the message from the president here was clear, to any Republicans who would come out, out of line and speak out against him, this is what could come.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.
ALLEN: President Trump's allies tried to defend him on the Sunday talk shows. His personal attorney is also trying to defend himself. Rudy Giuliani admits he met with Ukrainian officials about the Bidens. Here was the former New York mayor on Fox News.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: We've got an anonymous whistleblower who says that Donald Trump did something wrong. Donald Trump, like Hunter Biden says, I didn't do anything wrong.
HOWARD KURTZ, FOX NEWS HOST: Forget the whistleblower. We have the transcript of the call and the president's remarks on the log.
GIULIANI: Wait. Before you interrupt me, Howard, I know you want to defend it so bad.
KURTZ: I don't want to say anything. I'm asking questions. I am asking questions.
GIULIANI: It's pathetic. Listen to me.
KURTZ: One more question about you were on Ukraine, because you had dealt with the recent -- hang on. Let me ask the question. You dealt with the recently fired prosecutor, Lutsenko, who is now under investigation himself. He says, he told you there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens. A story in today's New York Times quote you as calling him a liar. In retrospect, well, is it not the best judgment you rely on this guy?
GIULIANI: No. He was the only guy willing to come forward. I took his evidence. I have it in a written statement.
I've got it all. I've got it all.
KURTZ: This conversation will continue --
GIULIANI: There's a lot more to come out. We haven't moved to Romania yet. Wait until we get to Romania.
Here is my concern.
KURTZ: We've got to go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: And it's not just Ukraine. On Thursday, President Trump also publicly asked China to investigate the Bidens.
[00:05:01]
The president's backers are trying to defend that too. They are also trying to change the subject.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): George, do you really think he was serious about thinking that China is going to investigate the Biden family?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS HOST: He said it right there in public.
JORDAN: I think he's getting -- I think Senator Rubio said a couple of days ago that he's getting the press all spun up about this. Remember, this is the president who has been tougher on China than any other president.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Preceding that list, the president has invited, asked Ukraine to look into a political rival. And there is now -- there is texting on that. We've seen the unfolding potentially of evidence to justify the whistleblower's complaint.
So the question is, is this how the power of the presidency should be used, to get a foreign country to interfere or meddle with U.S. elections in 2020?
ELIZABETH HARRINGTON, SPOKESWOMAN, U.S. REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: We have confirmed from Kurt Volker's testimony that there was no quid pro quo here. The favor, in fact, was getting to the bottom of what happened 2016. This is an issue that Democrats and the media was very interested not very long ago. How exactly was Russian disinformation infiltrated throughout our politics for over two years pushing an insane conspiracy theory about President Trump and Russia that was completely false?
WHITFIELD: The Intelligence Community has already said that Russia did interfere.
HARRINGTON: The Obama administration views --
SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): There are a lot of unanswered questions. Chuck, I just want the truth. The American people wants the truth.
CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: Do you not trust the FBI? You don't trust the CIA? I'm just very confused here.
JOHNSON: Absolutely.
(CROSSTALKS)
TODD: Okay.
JOHNSON: After James Comey.
TODD: You believe the FBI and the CIA, these government agencies?
JOHNSON: John Brennan. No, I don't trust any of these guys in the Obama administration.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Let's talk now with Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. Larry, thanks for coming on. Good to see you.
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS: Thank you, Natalie.
ALLEN: Well another whistleblower has now come forward in the Ukraine scandal facing the U.S. president. Apparently, he backs up the report from whistleblower number one with firsthand knowledge. What could this mean to the inquiry?
SABATO: It's important because, to this point, you've had a number of Republicans and almost exclusively Republicans questioning the first whistleblower because, supposedly, it was all secondhand information. But it's important to know that every single thing that has come out so far has undergirded the report of the first whistleblower. But the second whistleblower, if the reports are true, will be able to back that up with firsthand knowledge. So it just makes the arguments that Republicans are making less tenable.
ALLEN: Right. And then the White House, of course, continues to stonewall over the proceedings and President Trump continues to tweet his anger about it.
Well, this week, to U.S. diplomats will also go before Congress and testify. So will the White House, including Vice President Pence and the secretary of state, continue to be able to drag their feet instead of cooperating if the evidence mounts of wrongdoing?
SABATO: I think they will because Trump will expect them to and they know it's in their best interest to do it, and Pence in particular. Of course, he's not guaranteed to be on the ticket in 2020, probably will be, but I'm sure he has that in the back of his mind.
As far as dragging your feet, I think the Democrats have made clear their strategy is to ignore that if it happens, and simply focus on what they've already got. And that's important. They should not let this drag on.
ALLEN: And Republicans, if they continue to support the president in mass, only a very small handful has said this needs to be investigated, we'll talk about that. But I want you to hear from two Republicans, they happen to be running against Mr. Trump for president, address the situation. Here they are.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FMR. REP. JOE WALSH (R-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is enough we know to vote to impeach this president. He stood on the White House lawn this week, Jake, and told two additional foreign governments to interfere in our election. That alone is impeachable. This is a strong term I'm going to use, but I'm going to say it on purpose. Donald Trump is a traitor.
FMR. REP. MARK SANFORD (R-SC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So if people that just step out and say he needs to be impeached is to actually diminish and discard with the very process that's laid out by our founding fathers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: All right. What do you make of their responses to this?
SABATO: Well, there are two very different responses. I suppose they're trying to divide up the 10 percent who may be available to candidates running against Donald Trump in the Republican primaries. No one takes the challengers very seriously. They may like those two candidates, and the third one, Bill Weld, but Donald Trump is certain to be the Republican nominee.
The arguments they make about impeachment, on the one hand, former Congressman Walsh of Illinois makes a good point that many people do what Donald Trump has done as contrary to his oath of office into the Constitution.
[00:10:11]
Mark Sanford wants to see an official impeachment inquiry on the floor of the House. I don't think that that's necessary. Maybe it's wiser politically but I don't think it's necessary. And it would drag out the proceedings. And as I've suggested, that will be a very bad thing for the Democrats. ALLEN: Yes. In the meantime, speaking of Democrats, Joe Biden's rivals on the campaign trail for president, when asked said, no, they would not let their vice president's son sit on the board of a foreign company. Is this issue going to hurt Biden as the campaign moves forward?
SABATO: It doesn't help. And while the son of Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, has not been accused of any serious wrongdoing or any wrongdoing at all, as far as we know, it's also not very attractive what he did.
Now, let's remember, it's important to compare him with Ivanka Trump, who is in the White House. and who has benefited directly from her position in China and elsewhere, and I'm sure the other Trump hildren, or some of them, at least, have done the same thing. So you have to make sure you include that.
But, generally speaking, the American public isn't really happy when the children of a high official, presidents and vice presidents in particular, cash in on their mother or father's offices.
So I don't think the Hunter Biden situation will help Joe Biden. It may not hurt him especially in the Democratic contest but Trump will use it all the way through to the general election if Biden is the nominee of the Democrats.
ALLEN: All right. We appreciate your insights, as always. This -- next week will be an interesting next one to watch yet again, and we'll talk with you again. Larry Sabato for us, thank you so much.
SABATO: Thank you, Natalie.
ALLEN: Ukraine is not only caught in the middle of the U.S. political crisis, it is also facing major issues at home. Thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets in Kiev, Sunday, to protest the president's plan to hold local elections in the pro-Russian rebel-held east. It's seen as a major concession to Russia, although Ukraine's president says it is a necessary step towards a peace deal.
CNN's Sam Kiley reports on this from Kiev.
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has been coming under pressure for his proposals for peace in the east of the country, a region that, with the backing of Russia, rebels have tried to carve off at least as a semi-autonomous or entirely autonomous region against the backdrop, of course, of the illegal annexation by Russia of the formerly and legally Ukrainian territory of the Crimean Peninsula.
Any proposal coming from the new president to bring peace that would allow a degree or a substantial degree of local autonomy and indeed some form of local democracy is inevitably going to be met with some resistance from Ukrainians, and that is definitely what we are seeing on the streets during these demonstrations.
But these demonstrations also, when we spoke to people on the ground, were extremely angry about the role that Donald Trump has played, the United States being the military main backer to the Ukrainian government here, the process in which Donald Trump suspended aid for a period of time, during which he appeared to put pressure on the Ukrainian government to take action against political rivals of Donald Trump was really very heavily scorned by everybody we spoke to on the ground, wherever they stood in terms of the peace deal in the east.
One young woman said that Mr. Trump had been playing with the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, and I think wherever they stand in that debate right across the Ukraine, that it really is a strong feeling towards the activities of the Trump administration.
Sam Kiley, CNN, Kiev.
ALLEN: Police in Hong Kong are condemning the violent protests that rocked the city over the weekend. Demonstrations started peacefully on Sunday but quickly took a turn for the worst. Police accused protesters of starting fires, vandalizing buildings and attacking bystanders.
Chinese military personnel had their first direct interaction with the demonstrators, warning them they would be arrested for targeting their barracks with laser lights. They've been doing that.
Elsewhere, a taxi driver was pulled from his vehicle and beaten by a mob after he plowed into protesters. Police say the ramming was an accident.
With tensions already running high, the protesters were further angered this weekend by the government's decision to ban masks at public gatherings.
[00:15:01]
Many chose to hide their faces anyway, testing the resolve of police. At least 13 people were arrested in part for violating this new law.
CNN's Anna Coren was out among the protesters on Sunday.
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, guys, this is just a clearance operation. As you can see multiple protesters have been arrested. They sat here for about 10, 15 minutes, waiting and then suddenly they charged. These protesters -- these hard line protesters have set barricades on fire. They've thrown petrol bombs and bricks. Police have just come in and arrested. And you can see there are at least a dozen people who have been arrested.
Today is an unlawful assembly. These people can be arrested just for being here. But they also were defying the face mask man earlier. At least ten of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people marched peacefully through the streets of Hong Kong defying that face mask ban, which was put in place midnight on Friday to try and restore law and order to the streets of Hong Kong.
This has now been going on for some 18 weeks, taking an enormous toll on police. We're being told to move. The press is being told to move.
But the protesters that we have spoken today say they are going to continue to come out fighting for their city, for their freedom and for their civil liberties.
Anna Coren, CNN, Hong Kong.
ALLEN: Desperation on the streets of Iraq. Protesters continue their calls for jobs and reform. We take you to the scene and hear from the people coming next here.
Also, Brexit proposals are on the table. Britain's prime minister and the president of France consider ways to break the deadlock.
Much more of CNN Newsroom right after this.
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[00:25:00]
ALLEN: In Iraq, the violence from nationwide protests is growing and so is the number of injuries and deaths. At least four more people have died in the unrest, bringing the death toll this week to 104. Clashes with authorities have also resulted in more than 6,000 injuries even though officials deny security forces were directly involved. Activists are disputing those claims. They spoke with CNN's Arwa Damon about the trouble they've seen.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Is that all smoke from the tires? You can see that.
Security forces have been deployed across the capital. Roads are blocked. The internet shut down and media access is severely restricted.
All the fires are burning down there.
We want country we can live in. It's been 16 years, this young man yells. I am a university graduate. He doesn't have work.
Many of the demonstrators are the country's young adults, among whom unemployment is especially high.
Another man here says he studied law. The only work he found is in a hair salon. He says he's been demonstrating for days.
His friend was just killed.
They shout over each other about the government's use of force. Their friends were killed in the demonstrations, the injustice.
This man who doesn't want his identity disclosed has been filming from the start.
This is the first day. You can see in the, video all of it, there is nothing. He is saying the people weren't attacking the security forces. Our only weapon was to physically block off the street so that the security forces couldn't advance.
The demonstrators demands are not unreasonable, he says, end corruption, provide employment and improve basic services.
But the protests have grown more violent, threatening this country's already fragile security. And the rising death toll has incensed those tying to take to the streets.
This video is from day three, when there was still a curfew in place. It's really hard to look at because there is a man on the ground who has a head wound. The audio of the gunfire is just constant.
A few minutes later, another man is seen bleeding from a gunshot wound. He says, all they want is to be heard. Stop the killing, he pleads. Listen to what they want to. Send someone from the government to say I am here to talk to you, what do you need.
Baghdad's focal point for demonstrations is surrounded by a ring of security. The capital is tense, on edge. The government it's calling for calm and has pledged to address the demonstrators' demands, promises the population has heard before. But hollow words will no longer smother the people's rage.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.
ALLEN: Frustration over Lebanon's economy is boiling over in street protests across Beirut. Recently, it's become nearly impossible for people to withdraw money from ATMs or to change large sums in banks.
Adding to those worries is the emergence of a black market were dollars cost more than the fixed exchange rate, all of this as the unemployment rate for people under 35 hits 37 percent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't take it anymore.
[00:25:01]
I'm angry. I will not steal. I will not -- I can't do anything more, anymore. I can't get any job. Do you want me to kill myself or what? I'm human. I'm a human. I want to eat. I want medicine. I have a blood pressure. Shame on them. Shame on them. Shame on them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Instability and regional conflict is one of the main reasons for the lack of economic growth in Lebanon.
The United Kingdom faces an uphill battle as it calls on the U.S. to return diplomat's wife involved in a deadly crash. Police says she was driving on the wrong side of the road where the crash happened. She left the country after being named a suspect. She has diplomatic immunity, which is rarely waived (ph).
Harry Dunn was killed in the crash. The 19-year-old mother is pleading for the U.S. to return her to the U.K. to face justice for his death.
We're just weeks from that October 31st deadline for Brexit and Boris Johnson faces growing pressure from not just his own parliament but also other E.U. leaders. The British Prime Minister's Office says that he spoke with the French president Sunday to discuss proposals.
Emmanuel Macron reportedly told him to amend his plan by weeks' end. Mr. Johnson is still threatening to yank the U.K. out of the E.U. with no deal.
Meantime, the Britain's Brexit secretary is suggesting the government could be flexible when it comes to the Irish backstop.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN BARCLAY, U.S. BREXIT SECRETARY: The backstop is a unicorn that has failed to materialize three times in parliament. It's been rejected three times. It's been rejected three times in parliament. And the reason for that was the concerns of our laws applying (ph) in Northern Ireland, over which people would not have a say, and the fact that it was at odds with the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in terms of failing to secure this consent of both sides.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Ireland's prime minister says, time is tight to reach a compromise.
Up next here, alarming drone video from Western China showing what appears to be hundreds of detainees bound and blindfolded. More on the renewed concerns over a crackdown on ethnic Muslims in the region by China, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen, and here are our top stories this hour.
[00:30:57]
Another whistle-blower has come forward in the Ukraine scandal facing U.S. President Donald Trump. The lawyer representing the first whistle-blower says his team also represents this second one. He says the client works in the intelligence committee [SIC] and has first- hand knowledge backing the first whistle-blower's claims.
Police in Hong Kong arrested at least 13 protesters over the weekend, in part for wearing masks to hide their faces, which is now against the law. Anger over the emergency ban turned violent Sunday. It is now the 18th straight week of anti-government protests.
Police in the U.S. state of Kansas are searching for two men who opened fire in a bar there, killing four people. This is a security- camera image of the men police say are involved in the shooting. Officials say two of the victims were Mexican citizens. They believe the shooting was an isolated incident triggered by a dispute inside the bar.
We turn now to China, where a leaked drone video is sparking new concerns that China is harshly targeting ethnic Muslims. The footage appears to show hundreds of detainees in western China, bound and blindfolded.
CNN's Matt Rivers spoke with two former detainees who described the abuses they say they faced in similar camps.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Row by row, there are hundreds of them, seated on the ground, heads shaved, blindfolded. Their hands are bound behind their backs as dozens of guards hover in SWAT uniforms. It's unclear who these prisoners are, but western intelligence sources tell CNN they believe the video is authentic, that it shows Muslim ethnic minorities, and that the video was shot in Xinjiang, China.
Xinjiang is the western Chinese region, where the government has detained hundreds of thousands of Muslims over the past several years, according to the United States. Detainees are almost exclusively ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, who have lived in the region for generations, now housed and massive camps like this one that we saw first-hand on a trip to Xinjiang in March. We were followed by police every moment of our six-day journey.
Multiple ex-detainees and a former camp employee have told CNN that torture and political indoctrination are rampant inside the camps. Critics say Beijing has rounded up minorities arbitrarily and en masse, in a blatant attempt to destroy their cultures and wipe out Islam within its borders. Beijing has repeatedly denied this, saying the camps are merely, quote, "vocational training centers," designed to counter Islamic extremism in Xinjiang, which has seen terrorist attacks in the past.
A western intelligence source tells CNN their analysis of the video, posted online anonymously last month, shows detainees transferred by train. Analysis by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute suggests the video was shot in the city of Korla (ph) in August 2018.
In response, the Xinjiang government said in a statement to CNN, quote, "Cracking down on crimes in accordance with law is the common practice of all countries. Xinjiang's crackdown on crimes has never been linked to ethnicities or religions. Transporting inmates by judicial authorities belongs to normal judicial activities."
But, two men, one in the Netherlands and one in Kazakhstan, say the activity is anything but normal and that the video is terrifyingly familiar, because they lived through something similar.
Amanjiang Sayeet (ph), a Muslim ethnic Kazakh, says he was detained in China in 2018, never told what for. Held in his first camp for several weeks, he says he was transferred to another, exactly as shown in the video.
"We were made to sit just like that," he says. "They put cuffs on our hands and legs and masks over our heads. Lots of police were there with guns."
He was released after several months and now lives in Kazakhstan, a country on China's western border. While detained, he says the fear of what might happen was the worst.
AMANJIANG SAYEET (PH), DETAINED IN CHINESE CAMP (through translator): Watching the video, I'm still scared, because I know what the prisoners are thinking. They don't know where they're being taken or if they'll be shot dead. It's terrifying.
RIVERS: There are no publicly-known instances of shooting deaths inside the camps.
More than 3,000 miles away, Omerbek Bikali, another Muslim Kazakh, knows how it feels to be scared in custody. He lives in the Netherlands now after being detained in a Chinese camp for months in 2017. He claims he was tortured regularly and describes the camps as hell.
OMERBEK BIKALI, DETAINED IN CHINESE CAMP (through translator): I think the reason they want to torture us is, firstly, to make us physically weak so that we cannot resist.
RIVERS: Bikali says though he was transferred between camps by car, he, too, had a bag placed over his head and his hands shackled. Watching the drone video, he's overcome with emotion.
"I feel so sad," he says. "That used to be me. I cannot forget that. It's criminal."
Beijing did not respond to questions about the allegations from both men. CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of this video or the date it was shot.
Prisoners in China are regularly transported wearing blindfolds, and it's unclear whether the men are being held for criminal offenses or for other reasons.
But this drone video does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, it is a singular piece of a swiftly mounting body of evidence, including first-hand accounts, that shows China is persecuting people in Xinjiang simply because they are Muslim, committing human rights abuses in the process.
Matt Rivers, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Britain's prime -- Prince Harry, excuse me, says he's terrified of history repeating itself. We dig into why he's going after British tabloids right after this.
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(MUSIC)
ALLEN: That is drummer Ginger Baker and Cream from their 2005 reunion tour. The world of rock 'n' roll is celebrating Baker's life after he died Sunday in England at the age of 80.
Baker was a star in his own right before forming Cream, one of rock's first super groups.
Artists like Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and others shared their memories of Baker on social media. They remember him as innovative, fiery and one of the greatest drummers of all time.
The British royal family has a fraught relationship with tabloid media, to say the least. Now the duke and duchess of Sussex are preparing to enter legal battles with the tabloids. As Max Foster explains, it's deeply personal for Prince Harry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[00:40:00]
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The British royal family is no stranger to media attention, not least the duke and duchess of Sussex, who returned last week from their tour of Africa, a well-received trip, meticulously documented by the global media.
Now, however, the royal couple are preparing to enter a legal battle with the British tabloids. Harry and Meghan have accused "The Mail" on Sunday of unlawfully publishing a letter from her to her father and deliberately editing it to change its meaning.
The paper's responded, denying the charge, now adding a quote from Meghan's father, saying he was the one who only wanted parts of the letter released, because other parts were so painful.
Elsewhere, the duke's badly-advised decision to sue the owners of "The Mirror" and "The Sun" over phone hacking was taken up by "The Telegraph" as part of a discussion around Harry's war against the tabloid media.
BONNIE GREER, CNN COMMENTATOR: He's calling time. He's blowing the whistle, and he's saying, "If you intrude on our lives, we're coming for you."
FOSTER: And it's personal, and he's showing no signs of pulling back on this one. "I lost my mother," he explained in last week's statement calling out the U.K. tabloids, "and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces."
Back in 2017, he told a documentary team that he blamed the paparazzi for his mother's death. "Those people that caused the accident, instead of helping, they were taking photographs in the back seat and then those photographs made their way back to news desks."
He also lamented the media intrusion he suffered growing up in the shadows of his mother's super-stardom.
He seems parallels with that and the negative coverage Meghan has received in recent months. And he saw that coming, too. Before he met Meghan, during a tour of the Caribbean in 2012, he questioned whether he would ever find someone willing to take on a long-term relationship with them because of his public role.
And, whilst the world watched on, as Harry retraced the footsteps of his mother in Angola recently. The emotional statement released shortly after by the duke revealed his deepest fear: of history repeating itself. Warning against his wife being commoditized to the point that she's no longer treated or seen as a real person.
GREER: I think Harry and Meghan are going to do something new. I think they're going to teach us. They're going to train us in the fact that they have a public life that they will pursue until the end, and then they have a private life.
FOSTER: That's what's driving this legal challenge against the U.K. tabloids, and he's unlikely to back down until he's seen justice served for his wife, but also for his mother.
Max Foster, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: I'm Natalie Allen. I'll be back with more news at the top of the hour. Stay with us next for WORLD SPORT.
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