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Hong Kong Protests Intensifying Around University; Pete Buttigieg Ahead in Latest Iowa Poll; Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman Involved in Naftogaz Shakedown. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 18, 2019 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:30:44]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Well, protests across Hong Kong intensifying overnight. Police there are engaged in violent standoffs with students at a university that has been the base of operation for some of the protestors.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Demonstrators have been throwing gas bombs and bricks, police responding with teargas, rubber bullets, water, cannons. The threat, at least, of live ammunition.

CNN's Anna Coren is there with the details. Anna, this is really a pressure cooker of a situation, right? Because you have all those students holed up in the university, fearful for what would happen to them if they were to leave. The police, trying to force them to leave. How is this going to end?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a really good question. And I think we all ask that on a daily basis. As far as these protestors are concerned, the hundreds that are trapped inside Polytechnic University not far from where we are, they are not surrendering. Police have called on them to surrender, surrender and -- surrender peacefully. But they are staying put.

And we've seen some dramatic pictures in the last couple of hours, of a rescue of protestors climbing down from one of the windows, down ropes, and some motorcyclists picking them up and speeding away whilst police fire tear gas at them. It really is quite extraordinary.

But I just want to show what is happening here. There are thousands of protestors that are taking to the streets not far from Polytechnic University, to try and divert police resources. And there have been these ongoing street battles between the protestors and police. Petrol bombs have been hurled; multiple, multiple rounds of tear gas canisters. And they're just forming this new roadblock.

We've seen some frontline, hardline protestors with some homemade petrol bombs, LPG cannisters strapped together. There have been fires, shop fronts lit up. And the idea is that if they can get enough police away from the university, that those people trapped inside will be able to get away. Now, as I say, the police have said that everyone inside must

surrender. There you go, there's a petrol bomb that's ready to go. And we've seen so many of those fired this evening.

There's a bit of a lull at the moment. But, Jim and Poppy, as we know, these things just pick up and the violence that we've seen, certainly over the last week, has just escalated to a point that we never thought we'd see here in Hong Kong.

SCIUTTO: So concern, there are district council elections there that many of those protestors want to happen. They want to use their voice in that context as well, but there's concern they'll be cancelled.

COREN: Yes. There is real concern. And there's rumor that the city's chief executive, Carrie Lam, will cancel those elections. That could be in her favor. According to polls, there are going to be so many people turning out to vote for pro-democracy candidates. So if those elections are cancelled this Sunday, I can imagine the anger will -- it will just reach a point that will further boil over, if that is possible.

SCIUTTO: Goodness.

HARLOW: Anna, thank you for being there. It's incredibly important work. To you and your team, we are very, very grateful. We'll stay on top of this very closely.

[10:34:15]

All right. So ahead for us, back in the U.S., Mayor Pete Buttigieg leads in Iowa according to a new poll there. And that means he could be the target on the debate stage this week. We'll take a look at the numbers and the challenges for his campaign, ahead.

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SCIUTTO: A new CNN-Des Moines Register-Mediacom poll shows Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg solidly ahead of his competitors in Iowa.

HARLOW: In the poll of likely caucus-goers, the South Bend, Indiana mayor climbed to 25 percent, ahead of Senator Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar. Let's take a close look at the numbers. Our senior political writer and analyst Harry Enten is here.

Wow, in a month.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

HARLOW: Oh, yes.

ENTEN: Big, big movement, I'll tell you that much. And you can just see it here on the screen. I put together the June, September and November numbers, and look at Buttigieg, going from 15 percent in June. He dropped down, only nine percent in September. Then up to 25 percent there.

Warren, on the other hand, going in the wrong direction. She went from 22 to 16. But look at the Biden numbers here. Twenty-three in June, 20 in September down to 15 percent in November. And one other thing I'll point out here is, Harris has fallen off the map, down only to three percent. Klobuchar, now in fifth place at six percent. We'll see if she is able to generate some more movement, going forward.

[10:40:07]

SCIUTTO: I don't imagine Joe Biden's particularly excited about those numbers, but let's talk about Trump support in Iowa. It's a big state in the general, but it also reads -- tells us something about the impeachment, doesn't it?

ENTEN: Yes, I think so. If you are of the belief that the impeachment inquiry --

HARLOW: Yes.

ENTEN: -- would in any way sort of take away some of Trump's support among Republicans, uh-uh. Eighty-five percent of Republicans in the state of Iowa approve of President Trump's job performance. That's actually plus-four since March. So if anything, Trump's becoming more popular.

HARLOW: Right. And more Republicans believe that it will help their changes to get him re-elected, than Democrats think it'll help Democrats to win. That's interesting too.

So there was a big gubernatorial race. The Democrat, able to hang on in Louisiana largely because of turnout from African-American voters. And that made me think, Harry, over the weekend, what does that mean for Pete Buttigieg? Because that's where he struggled so much.

ENTEN: Yes. So I think, you know, if you were just to look at the Louisiana 2019 results, you saw John Bel Edwards win re-election by about a little over two percentage points over Eddie Rispone.

And what was so key there, if you look at sort of the trend lines, is these are the three most popular parishes in Louisiana counties or parishes: Orleans, East Baton Rouge, and Jefferson. And what we saw there, that's where Edwards made the biggest gains. Jefferson particularly was a Trump plus 15 back in 2016. Edwards won it by 14, those are the suburbs. That's something we've seen continuously in these gubernatorial elections, those suburbs moving towards the Democratic side.

SCIUTTO: And that, does it not, pose issues for President Trump in 2020? Because you've seen a similar movement. You saw it a bit in Kentucky --

ENTEN: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: -- you saw it in these other races in Philadelphia, the Cincinnati suburbs --

(CROSSTALK)

ENTEN: Right. I think the two key lessons here. One, as Poppy was pointing out, was huge African-American turnout in Louisiana compared to the primary election a month ago. We've seen huge turnout. Orleans had a huge boost in turnout, African-Americans, about 30 percent versus the primary a month ago.

And also, the suburban areas becoming much more Democratic, not just in the north any more. It's in the south as well, going to be very interesting to see how places like Texas and Arizona --

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ENTEN: -- sort of move in 2020.

SCIUTTO: Yes. 2018, similar, had a similar dynamic.

ENTEN: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: Harry Enten, great to have you, as always.

ENTEN: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: CNN investigation, following the money in the Ukraine probe and allegations of a shakedown. We'll have the details, next.

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[10:47:00]

HARLOW: All right. The name Dale Perry, do you know who that is? He is an energy executive. But one day, he may be remembered as someone who helped trigger the impeachment investigation of the president.

SCIUTTO: In this exclusive CNN report, our senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin explains why.

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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You probably don't know Dale Perry, but history may record this energy executive as one of the first who sounded the alarm about what would become President Trump's impeachment inquiry.

In April, Perry's former business partner Andrew Favorov, now a director at Ukraine's state-owned gas company Naftogaz, says two shady characters had approached him with a secret plan to take over the management inside Naftogaz.

Those two shady characters, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, are two low- level Soviet-born businessmen from South Florida, and they were trying to clear the way for their own gas business. GRIFFIN: You said he took it as sort of a threat, a shakedown.

DALE PERRY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, ENERGY RESOURCES OF UKRAINE: A shakedown. Because he said, look, either I join them and become the CEO, or they're going to find someone else to be the CEO and remove all of us -- all of us meaning the top management of Naftogaz.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Naftogaz was finally making a profit. Its new CEO had spent five years cleaning up the corruption-plagued giant. The effort had support of anti-corruption leaders across Ukraine and the world, including U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

But Parnas and Fruman said they were working on getting rid of the ambassador.

PERRY: They were suggesting that President Trump had already agreed that, yes, they would remove her. Andrew Favorov isn't talking, but two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN Perry's description of the events is correct.

Perry was so alarmed, he wrote a letter that eventually reached the State Department, but it may have been too late. A short time later, what Parnas and Fruman predicted happened. The U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was removed, stunning anti-corruption officials in Ukraine.

Now we know from American diplomats, Parnas and Fruman had powerful help.

GEORGE KENT, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: I became increasingly aware of an effort by Rudy Giuliani and others, including his associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, to run a campaign to smear Ambassador Yovanovitch --

GRIFFIN (voice-over): While Rudy Giuliani was using Parnas and Fruman to help him push his conspiracy theories about the Bidens and that Ukraine was behind the election-meddling in 2016, Parnas and Fruman were using Giuliani for their own scheme, to oust a U.S. ambassador getting in the way of their plans for a gas business.

Sound far-fetched? Former federal prosecutor Ken McCallion has seen it before in Ukraine, and says the House impeachment inquiry is exposing the real issue: money.

KEN MCCALLION, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: It's really not about the Bidens, it's not about a DNC server being hidden in Ukraine. It's really about the money. It's a fight for control of Naftogaz and the natural gas resources.

[10:50:08]

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Parnas and Fruman may have begun their plan in 2018. Parnas hired Giuliani for half a million dollars. A federal indictment alleges they also began donating hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign funds to Republicans causes, giving them incredible access to political fundraising events including at least 10 with President Trump. Both have pleaded not guilty.

"The Washington Post" even reports Lev Parnas told the president he needed to replace his U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and Trump reportedly agreed. This would all make perfect sense except for one thing: Parnas and Fruman had zero experience in the gas business and could not have acted alone.

MCCALLION: Parnas and Fruman, with no background in the oil, gas, natural resources area, all of a sudden decided to form a company, which you can only do in Ukraine or Russia, really, with the blessing of the powers that be. And in this case, this would be Firtash.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Firtash is Dmitry Firtash, Kremlin-connected oligarch who made a fortune selling Russian gas to Ukraine. He's been fighting extradition to the United States since 2013 when he was charged in a bribery scheme. He's declared his innocence and has hired prominent Washington lawyers to lobby the Trump administration to drop his case.

Attorneys for Parnas and Fruman refuse to answer questions about Dmitry Firtash. But in an odd arrangement, Firtash's attorneys hired Lev Parnas as a translator. Sources tell CNN Parnas has bragged Dmitry Firtash was bankrolling his lavish lifestyle of private planes and bodyguards, telling them, I'm the best-paid interpreter in the world.

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SCIUTTO: Follow the money.

HARLOW: Wow.

SCIUTTO: That advice always sticks. Drew Griffin with that report, thanks very much.

HARLOW: All right. The president's unscheduled visit to Walter Reed Medical Center this weekend is raising some really important questions. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us next on that.

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[10:56:51]

SCIUTTO: There are hard questions this morning after President Trump made an unannounced, unscheduled visit to Walter Reed Medical Center this weekend for what he called phase one of his annual physical. Is that a credible story?

HARLOW: Yes. I mean, that's not really how physicals work, is it? Let's bring in our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. This is -- matters a lot. It's about the sitting U.S. president. And it is odd to say the least.

SANJAY CUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, it's very unusual. You know, typically when the president of the United States is getting a physical exam, it's a pretty big deal. I mean, the hospital knows, there's corridors that are sort of closed off, you know, privacy ensured.

It doesn't sound like the entire hospital knew that this was even happening, so that was interesting and unusual even for this White House, who in the past had given the appropriate heads up and protocols.

Also, the tests that they talked about, these basic labs and things like that, I visited the White House Medical Unit in the White House itself, and they can do most of these things there. So why did he need to go to the hospital? What was specifically happening that they couldn't do at the White House? Why was it being done four months early? We don't know the answer to these questions. We may not know the answers to these questions.

I will tell you the White House, I mean, they've been very clear on this, saying the president wasn't having any sort of symptoms or any sort of problem that took him to the hospital, because that is the first question I think any medical person would ask.

SCIUTTO: Right (ph).

GUPTA: You know, if you go to the hospital surprise -- unannounced, what prompted that? And keep in mind, you know, we do know a little bit about his health history here from the previous exams.

TEXT: President Trump's Physical Results, February 2019: Weighs 243 pounds; BMI is 30.4, which makes him clinically obese; Takes Rosuvastatin to treat high cholesterol; Total cholesterol of 196 -- HDL 58, LDL 122; Blood pressure measured as 118/80

GUPTA: We know his height, we know his weight, for example. But we know that makes him clinically obese. We know that he has an issue with high cholesterol, has a form of heart disease. So, again, I only bring that up to say, if you go to the hospital unannounced and that's your background, these are important questions to ask.

SCIUTTO: And just in terms of what this -- what the standards of behavior are here, there's no law that requires the president to release this kind of information. But fact is, practice does -- or has at least, prior to this presidency, required some amount of openness, is that right?

GUPTA: Yes. I think -- I think over the last, you know, 20 to 30 years in particular. But you're right, there is no requirement that the president disclose any of this information, there's no requirement that he even have these tests done. I mean, that's all sort of at his own prerogative.

But it was really, you know, with Paul Tsongas, when he ran for president. And then we found out after the election, that he would have -- he would have had a hard time -- he would have actually not survived office. That's when I think medical records-sharing became more common.

HARLOW: Quickly before you go, Sanjay, update us on what is happening with what the president said he would, you know, work to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes that attract so many children. Now what's happening?

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, you know, he talked about this two months ago. We've been waiting, you know, to hear the specifics of the plans. Was this -- the ban actually going to happen. Today we're hearing, obviously, that it doesn't look like it's happening from The Washington Post."

But let me just tell you really quickly, because we got a statement from the White House that said that basically, "President Trump and this administration are committed to responsibly protecting the health of children. At this time, we are in an ongoing rulemaking process." So we'll see what happens.

[11:00:05]

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes, that's not what the president promised -- we should be clear -- very publicly, two months ago. Sanjay Gupta --

HARLOW: Thank --