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Tottenham Hotspurs Welcomes Joe Mourinho; U.S. to Sanction Hong and Chinese Officials Over Violence; Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson Debates on Live TV; Pope Francis Visits Thailand and Japan; Lawmakers to Grill Gordon Sondland on Capitol Hill. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired November 20, 2019 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. It's 10 a.m. in London, four in the afternoon in Hong Kong. From Atlanta headquarters, I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN Newsroom. Let's get started.
Tottenham Hotspurs has a new manager and he's one of the biggest names in the football world.
A desperate situation for Hong Kong protesters as they tried to hold on to the university they have taken over and police close in.
More bad news for Donald Trump following marathon impeachment hearings with potentially the most critical witness still yet to come.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.
And we begin with this breaking news in the sports world. Tottenham Hotspurs has appointed Jose Mourinho as manager. Mourinho is one of the world's most accomplished managers, winning the UEFA Champions League twice with two clubs. He is also a three-time Premier League champion.
The Spurs fired their coach and three staff members on Tuesday. The team sits 14th in the league table when just six months ago, they reached the UEFA Champions League final.
So, we do want to bring in Keir Radnedge with World Soccer magazine. Good to have you with us. So, what's the response to this?
KEIR RADNEDGE, CONTRIBUTOR, WORLD SOCCER MAGAZINE: Well, I think people will still be digesting it over their breakfast corn flakes, to be quite honest. Tottenham fans were taken by surprise last night by the sacking of Mauricio Pochettino. He has had a fascinating four years, very successful in many ways but didn't win anything, and Spurs had a poor start to the season where Tottenham expected.
The appointment of Mourinho will split the fans, I think, because Mourinho has a reputation is very pragmatic coach, and Tottenham fans like their reputation as a free flowing, attacking club and Mourinho has never been famous, for all of his achievements, for playing free flowing, attacking football.
CHURCH: So, how big a challenge will this be for Mourinho?
RADNEDGE: It's a challenge that he will absolutely love. It's a terrific job for him. What I think Spurs need, it shows that they really do feel that they need to win something, which they never did under Pochettino. And I think Mourinho's track record wherever he's been in Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, here in England is that he is a man who can win trophies.
CHURCH: And they, I mean, the Spurs they sit what, 14th in the league table? So, I mean, he's got his work cut out for him, hasn't he? How is he likely to go about this?
RADNEDGE: Well, the first thing he will do is obviously assess the players that he's got. Spurs have a problem because they have a number of senior veteran players who are running down their contracts, so it's going to take a little while for them really to shuffle, reshuffle and rebuild the squad.
In the meantime, Mourinho will, I think, work on a lot more discipline on the pitch, a much-heightened defense formation. I think he will, you know, look to obviously bring Spurs up the table and prove actually that he is the right man for the job.
CHURCH: So, what are their weaknesses? What will he need to focus on here? You had talked about the discipline on the field.
RADNEDGE: Sure. The -- as I said, part of the problem is the rebuilding of the squad, and I would assume that he will have had some extensive talks with the owners and the chairman, Daniel Levy, about how much money there will be to spend on new players partly in January in the (Inaudible) but then next summer when Tottenham need to really spend a great deal of money and their chance to market.
There are older players who have done a great job under Pochettino, but they want to move on, and I think Tottenham, Tottenham need to move on to a new place.
[03:04:59]
I think they -- after reaching the champions league final last season, they really have stagnated and lost direction.
CHURCH: So, how much convincing do you think Mourinho would have had to have had to take on this challenge?
RADNEDGE: I would've thought he needed absolutely no convincing whatsoever. You know, he knows his football, he's been sitting out there waiting for a plum job to come available. He loves challenges, and this is -- and this is London and it's everything he could have dreamed of, frankly. I don't think he would've needed anyone to convince him whatsoever.
CHURCH: Well, a very happy man, no doubt. Keir Radnedge, thank you so much for chatting with us. We really appreciate you bringing us up to date on this breaking news.
RADNEDGE: My pleasure.
CHURCH: Well, U.S. lawmakers' action on the violence in Hong Kong is getting a swift response from China. The Senate unanimously passed a bill that calls the sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for human rights abuses during the pro-democracy protests.
It also requires the State Department to review Hong Kong's a special trade status every year. Beijing says the measure neglects facts and truth and blatantly interferes in Hong Kong's affairs and China's other internal affairs.
Meantime, as many as 200 protesters are still inside Hong Kong's Polytechnic University. Police are urging them to surrender and dozens have, but others promise not to give up the battle.
Nick Paton Walsh joins us now live from Hong Kong. So, Nick, what is the latest from the university campus, and what potentially comes next?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have just heard from the vice chancellor of the university speaking on the steps here, saying that he thinks they're about 100 protesters still inside the campus here and possibly only 20 of those are in fact students from here.
But it is a devastating scene frankly, to see the sheer amount of resources poured into what the protesters say was defending this university and the damage that that presence here has done.
You can see behind me what would have been a spotlight used to blind, to try and blind police, down there another construction helmet used to fire projectiles at police, loud tailors (Ph) even over here, a bottle of single malt whisky turned into a Molotov cocktail, vast amounts of flammable liquid all around here.
And just over the edge of the wall things are changing pretty fast, because the cleanup has been underway for the past few hours, and they've really, the main access towards this university significantly to the debris all out of the way, and we've just noticed the fact that two police water cannon trucks seem to have turned up on the roads here.
Now, the police are keeping a low profile and some distance, but there are literally a matter of dozen protesters still inside here, and the ones that we have seen have one thing on their mind, frankly.
None of them think that the continued defense or protection of the university, as they would have it, is worthwhile. They're all looking for ways to escape.
And in fact, that is one just on a wall down here saying that he got a room and somebody had managed to get out this way dressed in plainclothes and wondering if he could possibly do that himself. It's a fraught situation, certainly for them inside here because they
fear that if they get themselves up to police that they could potentially see some kind of violent detention. They've obviously seen the footage themselves and been around police brutality in Hong Kong in the past.
I have to say, one man, 16 years old who gave himself up this afternoon called lucky with the assistance of a priest. He seemed to go into police custody relatively calm and be led away by them. But that's certainly an additional concern of protesters, what will happen to them if they hand themselves over.
But Rosemary, I have to say to you too, the damage done to this multimillion-dollar facility is utterly breathtaking.
There is barely room or an area left unscathed, and this is not just in the legitimate you might say to fence of the walls around here. A lot of the damage happens far inside, to areas which don't appear to have been involved in the clashes at all. But it's startling to see the amount of money that's being spent on defending here.
There are boxing pads, loud tailors, endless -- endless amount of flammable liquid. I should say too, we've been into the chemical laboratory of the university here and see, and actually how that clearly have protesters in there for a number of days using the flammable liquids, possibly with some expertise, possibly without any expertise, and that may be where the police are concerned.
But essentially, the university is being used as weapons factory for the past days, and it is startling to see the damage, it's also interesting too to see the collapse really of the morale of the remaining protesters in here. Some are genuinely concerned, with some legitimacy really for their safety if they do leave. But at the same time too, the cleanup around them is moving extraordinarily fast.
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And we are left with this bizarre contradiction between the opulence of the tall high rises surround the university and the absolute devastation inside of here where people say they've been trying to protect their rights in a pro- democracy demonstration, yet have sadly left behind an institution which really should be all part of the liberal education of Hong Kong left in tatters. Rosemary?
CHURCH: It is such a worry as to what is likely to happen next. Nick Paton Walsh bringing us that live report from that Hong Kong university campus. Many thanks.
Well, we are tracking developments in the Middle East where Israel says it has again launched attacks on Syrian territory. It says the strikes are in response to rocket fire and that Syrian and Iranian targets were hit.
For more, CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us now live from Jerusalem. So, Oren, what more are you learning about this? OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's worth noting that the
Israeli military went on high alert in the north as of last week's fighting with Gaza, which was actually in the south. Whether the high alert was the result of that fighting or a result of some other operation is unclear, but there was an expectation there might be an isolation.
And we saw that begin early yesterday morning. That's when four rockets were intercepted by Israel's aerial defense system over the occupied Golan Heights. Israel struck back this morning saying it carried out strikes against a number of Quds Force targets, which are Iranian targets in Syria, as well as Syrian targets.
Those targets included weapons depots, surface-to-air missiles, headquarters and military bases. The question now where do this go from here.
It was shortly before the embassy was moved to Jerusalem that there was the last of escalation we've seen between Israeli forces and Iranian forces in Syria, and that had the potential to severely escalate and grow far worse.
That is once again the potential here and that's why this is a very sensitive situation and we will certainly keep an eye on what happens in the north and where this develops from here as the friction between Israel and Iran we've seen before grows.
CHURCH: You say the big question what happens next and what are the risks of attacks like this and what impact might this have on the wider region?
LIEBERMANN: Well, friction between Israel and Iran is certainly nothing new in the region, but this is an escalation and certainly growing of that friction with what looks like direct fighting between Israeli forces and Iranian forces, even if it's not in Iran, it's in Syria.
When this happened back in May of 2018, we said it's the closest Israel and Iran have come to direct war. And that was the assessment of many security and military analysts who looked at the situation.
If so, then once again, we are very close to a situation where Israel and Iran are directly fighting each other in what might escalate into a war. And that again remains the risk here.
Who was it that stepped in between Israel and Iran to de-escalate the situation? Well, that was the Russians who are effectively the most important player from all perspectives in Syria and the wider region, and we'll see if the Russians once again get involved here to make sure this doesn't get worse than it already is.
CHURCH: We shall watch to see. Oren Liebermann with that live report from Jerusalem, many thanks.
Well, another big day ahead on Capitol Hill as key witness Gordon Sondland gets ready to testify in the impeachment hearings. Could his testimony change the direction of the inquiry? That is next.
Plus, Boris Johnson and his chief rival are both claiming victory. But political observers say the first televised debate of the U.K. election campaign was no game-changer.
Back in a moment.
[03:15:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: In just a few hours, we will see some of the most highly anticipated testimony today in the U.S. impeachment inquiry.
Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, will be in the hot seat. Lawmakers are eager to grill him after he changed his initial testimony to suggest the president's dealings with Ukraine likely amounted to a quid pro quo.
But as Sondland and two other officials testified in Washington, President Trump will be far away at an apple plant in Texas touting manufacturing jobs.
Meanwhile, four officials appeared on Capitol Hill Tuesday, and all of them called the Trump Ukraine dealings inappropriate.
CNN's Athena Jones has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I will begin by swearing you in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Day three of public impeachment hearings featured the first witnesses with direct knowledge of the events at the center of the impeachment inquiry.
Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official specializing in Ukraine, and Jennifer Williams, a foreign policy aide to Vice President Pence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHIFF: Both Colonel Vindmand and Ms. Williams were on the July 25th call.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Daniel Goldman, the lawyer for the Democrats, laid out their case that President Trump abused his power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL GOLDMAN, DEMOCRATIC COUNSEL: In this July 25th call President Trump demanded a favor of President Zelensky, to conduct investigations that both of you acknowledge were for President Trump's political interests, not the national interest. And in return for his promise of a much-desired White House meeting for President Zelensky.
Colonel Vindman, is that an accurate summary?
ALEXANDER VINDMAN, DIRECTOR, EUROPEAN AFFAIRS FOR THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Yes.
GOLDMAN: Miss Williams?
JENNIFER WILLIAMS, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Vindman was so concerned he reported the call to National Security Council lawyers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VINDMAN: I did so out of a sense of duty. My intent was to raise these concerns because they had significant national security implications for our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Republicans meanwhile, sought to poke holes in a Democrat's case, trying to discredit the process and raising questions about the testimony under witnesses themselves. Vindman pushing back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): So, your boss had concerns about your judgment. Your former boss, Dr. Hill had concerns about your judgment. Your colleagues had concerns about your judgment. And your colleagues felt that there were times when you leaked information. Any idea why they have those impressions, Colonel Vindman?
VINDMAN: Yes, Representative Jordan, I guess I'll start by reading Dr. Hill's own words. As she attested to in my last evaluation that was dated middle of July right before she left.
Alex is a top 1 percent military officer and the best army officer I've worked with in my 15 years of government service. He's brilliant. Unflappable and exercises excellent judgment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: The panel's Republican lawyer Steve Castor established that unlike others who have testified, former U.S. envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker and former NSC aide, Tim Morrison did not view the July 25th call as problematic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE CASTOR, REPUBLICAN COUNSEL: They'll then ask you in the deposition that in no way, shape or form, in either read outs from the United States or Ukraine did you receive any indication whatsoever, or anything that resembled a quid pro quo. Is that correct?
KURT VOLKER, FORMER UNITED STATES SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR UKRAINE NEGOTIATIONS: That's correct.
CASTOR: Did anything concern you on the call?
TIM MORRISON, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL TOP RUSSIAN EXPERT: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Morrison also taking issue with Vindman's interpretation of the July 25th call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORRISON: Sir, I'm not intimately familiar with the whistleblower complaint but I did not hear a demand in that call.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: And in another key moment, Volker amended his earlier testimony behind closed-doors, in which he said the issue of investigations didn't come up in a July 10th meeting with top U.S. and Ukrainian officials. Volker explaining --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLKER: Since these events and since I gave my testimony on October 3rd, a great deal of additional information and perspectives have come to light. I've learned may things that I did not know at the time of the events in question.
I don't think that raising 2016 elections or Vice President Biden or these things I consider to be conspiracy theories that have been circulated by the Ukrainians, particularly the former prosecutor general are -- they're not things that we should we pursuing as part of our national security strategy with Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Athena Jones, CNN, New York.
[03:20:00]
CHURCH: Boris Johnson and main rival Jeremy Corbyn went head to head in the first televised debate of the U.K. election campaign. The prime minister and the Labour Party leader shook hands, but the gloves came off when they took on Britain's health care system.
CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has more.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There were no big knockout punches landed by Boris Johnson on Jeremy Corbyn or Jeremy Corbyn on Boris Johnson. The debate was feisty. Perhaps the issue that got them going the most was the issue of the National Health Service, and at the core of the argument there.
Jeremy Corbyn saying that Boris Johnson, under his Brexit deal, would open up the National Health Service the privatization to deal with the United States. The debate on that got really heated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEREMY CORBYN, LEADER, LABOUR PARTY: Full market access for U.S. products to our National Health Service. You are going to sell our National Health Service out to the United States and big pharma.
(APPLAUSE)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: This is -- this is an absolute -- this is an absolute invention. It is completely untrue. There are no circumstances whatever --
(APPLAUSE)
JOHNSON: -- in which this government or any conservative government will put the NHS on the table in any trade negotiations. Our NHS will never be for sale.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: But that was perhaps the exception of the debate when they really got into one-on-one conversation, the moderator Julie Etchingham keeping them both carefully controlled on time.
Perhaps it was Boris Johnson who had to be called in on time more often. There was a moment however where Julie Etchingham did get the two leaders to have a handshake and commit themselves to a better level of debate in parliament with less acrimony. That was quite a moment in the programming.
Also, another moment that really seems to stand out, less political, they were both asked what they thought of Prince Andrew's recent interview, television interview. On this, Jeremy Corbyn perhaps stole the edge a little.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CORBYN: Before we discuss Prince Andrew, I think we should discuss the victims that were there because of what Epstein was doing.
(APPLAUSE)
CORBYN: And I think there are very, very serious questions that must be answered, and nobody should be above the law, but the primary position ought to be, the perpetrator of those people are victims of the most appalling behavior by apparently Epstein and many others.
JULIE ETCHINGHAM, MODERATOR: Thank you very much, indeed. Mr. Johnson.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTSON: The issue of the union also came up, the relationship between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, really nothing new breaking through there.
On the issue of trust and leadership, both leaders there didn't seem to answer the questions head-on, indeed, both of them drawing a few lashes from the crowd of their answers. And when it was finally wrapping up, Jeremy Corbyn saying, vote for Labour, vote for hope, vote for change.
Boris Johnson getting back to a theme that he'd needled all the way through the debate, and that was saying that Jeremy Corbyn wasn't clear if he was for leave or remain, and that issue kept coming up, and perhaps that will be one of the takeaway issues for the audience in this debate.
But you have -- you have to look at it and say, very hard to say either one of them really sort of broke out of their normal appeal for their base, and perhaps won over voters. But this is the first in what's going to be a series of such debates.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Glasgow, Scotland.
CHURCH: Pope Francis is on a seven-day tour to Thailand and Japan. Why he chose two countries with Catholic minorities for an official visit. We'll take a look at that when we come back.
[03:25:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, Pope Francis touched down in Thailand just a short time ago for the first papal visit to the country since 1984. While there he is meeting with the Thai king and the supreme Buddhist patriarch.
Vatican correspondent Delia Gallagher joins me now from Rome with more on all of this. Good to see you, Delia. So why did the pope choose Thailand and Japan for his seven-day official visit, two countries with Catholic minorities?
DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Rosemary. This is really one of the hallmarks of Pope Francis' papacy. He says he likes to go to the peripheries, the religious peripheries where there are these minority communities.
According to the Vatican, there is only about 1 percent of Christians in Thailand, and of them there are about 400,000 Catholics, so the pope is going there to support that tiny Catholic communities. But also, it's his opportunity to meet with Buddhist leaders there and to encourage dialogue amongst the world's great religions.
And interestingly, it will be a sort of family reunion, Rosemary, for Pope Francis because he has a cousin in Thailand who has been a nun there, a missionary nun for the past 50 years, and she will be acting as his official translator for the trip. Now, Japan, where he goes on Saturday is really a place that holds a
special place in Pope Francis' heart. When he was a young priest in Argentina, he actually requested to be sent as a missionary priest to Japan. That request was denied, but he has a chance to go there now as pope.
And one of the most important visits he will make probably in Japan will be to Nagasaki and Hiroshima. He will visit with survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings there and give a speech on Sunday where he will likely condemn the continued arms race and threat of nuclear war. Rosemary?
CHURCH: All right. We'll continue to follow his trip. Delia Gallagher joining us there from Rome, many thanks.
And thank you for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me any time on Twitter. I love to hear to from you. And I'll be back with a check of the headlines in just a moment. Do stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Hello, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN news now.
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