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House Democrats Move Closer to Articles of Impeachment; Bolton Says White House Blocked Twitter Account; Brexit and the U.K. Election; Colombia Protests; Indonesia Fires; Australia Fires. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired November 23, 2019 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome everyone, live from the CNN Center I'm Michael Holmes.
And ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, Donald Trump shares his impeachment defense.
How much of it is true?
Mike Pompeo's role, what's revealed in newly released State Department documents.
And an accusation against Republican congressman Devin Nunes, one of President Trump's biggest defenders.
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HOLMES: Welcome, everyone.
Newly released documents from the U.S. State Department show how the White House helped arrange a phone call between the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, there on the right of your screen, and the U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, on the left.
That call took place on March 29th. It was one day after Giuliani delivered a packet of materials to the State Department, containing unproven allegations against U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, as well as then U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.
Then there is this new allegation from Joseph Bondy, who is a lawyer representing an indicted associate of Giuliani. Bondy alleges Republican congressman Devin Nunes was actively trying to dig up dirt on the Bidens. Bondy says his client, Lev Parnas, claims he helped put Nunes in touch with this man. That is the disgraced Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. Bondy says Nunes and Shokin allegedly met in December in Vienna and tells CNN that his client is willing to give details under oath to Congress.
Nunes declined multiple requests for comment.
Now the public testimonies of 12 witnesses were consistent in asserting the president's July 25 phone call with Ukraine's leader amounted to a quid pro quo. Now the U.S. House could vote on impeachment by Christmas and send the whole thing to the U.S. Senate in the new year for trial. We get the White House reaction now from CNN's Jim Acosta.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Still stinging from a week full of damaging testimony in the impeachment inquiry, President Trump is dug in, refusing to answer some of the looming questions hanging over his administration.
One top White House official tried to stop us from asking the question.
ACOSTA (on camera): Any response to Fiona Hill?
Mr. President, Fiona Hill says that the idea that Ukraine meddled in 2016 is false.
Can you respond to Fiona Hill, Mr. President?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're done.
ACOSTA: Can we ask a --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're done.
ACOSTA (voice-over): The president would not respond to testimony from his former adviser on Russia, Fiona Hill, who told lawmakers this week that Mr. Trump's theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election is false.
But the president kept repeating that debunked claim on FOX.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They gave the server to CrowdStrike or whatever it's called, which is a country -- which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian. And I still want to see that server.
ACOSTA: But that's not true. He will testify that's peddling Russian propaganda.
FIONA HILL, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL: This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.
ACOSTA: Well aware that Democrats are moving toward impeachment in the House, the president is now looking to Republicans to save him during a Senate trial.
White House officials tell CNN a trial could actually give Mr. Trump a political boost. TRUMP: You know who I want as the first witness, because, frankly, I want a trial?
ACOSTA: The president turned to FOX News to respond with falsehoods and fabrications. Mr. Trump continued to claim he barely knows European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland, who testified there was a quid pro quo with Ukraine.
TRUMP: Now, with this guy, who, by the way, I hardly know him, OK?
QUESTION: Sondland?
TRUMP: Yes, I have spoken to him a few times.
ACOSTA (voice-over): That's not what Sondland says.
SWALWELL: And he has spoken to you often?
SONDLAND: What's often?
SWALWELL: Well, you said at least 20 times?
SONDLAND: OK, if that's often, then it's often.
ACOSTA: The president also slammed former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, insisting she was out to get him too.
TRUMP: But this ambassador that everybody says is so wonderful, she wouldn't hang my picture in the embassy.
ACOSTA: But the president offered zero proof to back that one up either.
The president may want to consider a different figure in the Ukraine saga, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who has yet to testify.
[03:05:00]
ACOSTA (voice-over): But tweeted that, "The White House refused to return access to my personal Twitter account, out of fear of what I might say. To those who speculated I went into hiding, I'm sorry to disappoint."
But the president says that's not true.
QUESTION: Did you guys freeze his account?
TRUMP: No, of course not.
ACOSTA: The only question Mr. Trump would take from reporters on the inquiry, his feelings about the whistleblower.
TRUMP: The whistleblower, I don't think there is. I consider it to be a fake whistleblower. ACOSTA: GOP officials say expect to see a trial in the Senate as the president is likely to be impeached in the House. One source said Republican leaders are already looking to the Clinton impeachment trial as a guide. The White House officials are eyeing that trial as an opportunity to bring in a slew of their own choice witnesses, from Hunter Biden to the whistleblower -- Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.
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HOLMES: As Jim Acosta just mentioned, former national security adviser John Bolton says he was locked out of his Twitter account after leaving the White House. He said Twitter finally solved the issue for him.
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QUESTION: Why did the White House block the access to your Twitter account?
JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: They attached software to it. And Twitter unattached the software.
QUESTION: Are you concerned that they're trying to stop you from testifying?
BOLTON: I don't know -- you'll have to ask the White House. But I can say definitively we have regained control of the Twitter account. Twitter detached the White House software.
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HOLMES: The White House denies it was responsible for locking Bolton out of his account.
Earlier I spoke with political analyst Michael Genovese about the allegations made by Giuliani's indicted associate, Lev Parnas, about Congressman Devin Nunes.
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MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: The person we're talking about, Lev Parnas, is a character, he's a loose cannon, I'm not sure he's very trustworthy, he would like to make a good deal because he's already under indictment. He has been close to Rudy so he knows a lot.
The question is what does he know and what is he willing to give up?
I think before we jump to too many conclusions we ought to wait because Parnas is not the most trustworthy or reliable person.
As far as Nunes is concerned, if he has done this, it would have a devastating impact. But you have to remember Devin Nunes is struggling to establish his credibility and his seriousness. He has gotten a lot of criticism, people have made fun of him and made him almost into a clown like figure. So he needs to do two things in his own mind: one, maintain and
demonstrate his loyalty to the president but also to show that he is a player, that he is serious, that he really can influence history. So he has a lot to do to make up for his earlier flubs and flaws.
But I think, on this story, it's better to wait before we draw too many conclusions.
HOLMES: Yes, he is suing a parody Twitter account called Devin Nunes' Cow, we should remember. We saw pretty much all the Republican major defenses knocked down by the testimony of the last week.
Despite the evidence, can you see any Republican defecting, voting for impeachment in the Senate, despite what's been established?
GENOVESE: In our hyper partisan world, you wouldn't expect that. So it's a very different world than we had during Watergate, when the evidence became overwhelmingly clear, almost as it is today -- was more so then -- and Republicans finally had to say the weight of the evidence is going to dictate where I go.
And they turned on President Nixon. Today I think there are three reasons why Republicans have been staying so loyal. One is fear: they are afraid of the reprisals and Donald Trump will go after them with all he has got. And he has got the bully pulpit behind him.
Number two I think is tribalism. There's such hyper partisan that you circle the wagons and when your team is being attacked, you simply defend it as a reactionary would.
The third thing I think is cowardice, I think they are just afraid to admit what's going on because they think politically it would ruin the party and it might very well. If the worst-case scenario is true, it would ruin the party.
So the question is where are their loyalties?
Are they to the Constitution and to the country?
Or are they party and to Trump?
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HOLMES: You think that would be an easy question. But apparently it is. Not when it becomes to the Republican arguments, you have expert after expert in the impeachment inquiry. Testifying about one key, fact that Ukraine had no role interfering in the 2016 election to help Hillary Clinton.
The intelligence community says the same thing. Yet the Republican defense gives credence to that debunked theory. There are obviously, as you pointed out, politics involved.
But how is damaging is spreading the untruth if it furthers the Russian narrative? GENOVESE: It does and I think Fiona Hill was adamant about that. But you have to remember the Republicans are under very strict order from the White House to stay on script. The president refuses to admit any fault. He won't even let them say, OK, what the president did might not have been very good but it's not impeachable.
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GENOVESE: They won't even give that much.
The question then is, what does that do to our public discourse?
Lies are like pollution: the more you vomit into the system, the more everything in the environment gets corrupted and polluted. So as long as the Republicans stay loyal, the truth is a casualty in this.
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HOLMES: Joe Biden has some strong words for Republican senator Lindsey Graham. He spoke to CNN's Don Lemon in the key state of South Carolina on Friday.
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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Let me ask you because Lindsey Graham now, who you've worked with, who was a friend, who I know there's video of him saying you are the nicest person he's ever met. You're the greatest man.
And now he's asking the State Department for documents for you and your son.
What do you say to Lindsey Graham and folks like him?
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're asking Lindsey Graham, they have him under their thumb right now. They know he knows if he comes out against Trump, he's got a real tough road for re-election, number one.
I am disappointed and quite frankly I'm angered by the fact. He knows me. He knows my son. He knows there's nothing to this.
Trump is now essentially holding power over him that even the Ukrainians wouldn't yield to. The Ukrainians would not yield to, quote, "investigate Biden." There's nothing to investigate about Biden or his son. And Lindsey is about to go down in a way that I think he's going to regret his whole life.
LEMON: What do you say to him?
BIDEN: I say, Lindsey, I just -- I'm just embarrassed by what you're doing for you. I mean, my lord.
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HOLMES: We're going to take a short break. When we come, back Hong Kong gearing up for a crucial election this weekend. But the city is on edge as fears of more violence can break out.
Also still to come renewed clashes on the streets of Colombia as protesters continue to march against the president, how government is responding to the turmoil -- when we come back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
Israel's prime minister promising to accept any court decisions he might face with Netanyahu also claiming once again that investigators acted illegally. The attorney general announced charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust against Netanyahu on Thursday. This coming after three separate criminal investigations.
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HOLMES: With less than three weeks to go Britain's election campaign is heating up.
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HOLMES: And Brexit is front and center. The leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party says that if his party wins, he will campaign for neither Leave nor Remain if there's a second Brexit referendum.
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JEREMY CORBYN, LEADER, U.K. LABOUR PARTY: My role and the role of our government will be to ensure that that referendum is held in a fair atmosphere and we will abide by the result of it.
And I will adopt as prime minister, if I am at the time, a neutral stance so that I can credibly carry out the results of that to bring our communities and country together rather than continuing an endless debate about the E.U. and Brexit.
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HOLMES: Corbyn is vying to become prime minister at the December 12 election, a vote called by his Conservative rival, the incumbent, Boris Johnson.
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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: Let's be in no doubt. I didn't want to have an election now. No prime minister wants to have an election on December 12. We had to do it because Parliament is blocking Brexit.
They were given every opportunity to pass it and they were given every opportunity to pass it and they passed a law to insist that we extend it beyond October the 31st.
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HOLMES: During questions from the audience, Mr. Johnson said he will spend more money on public services, a break from the austerity policies of the past decade.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, is preparing to hold a crucial election of its own. Millions are expected to vote for district council seats on Sunday in what is considered a referendum on the protest movement. Demonstrations began almost six months ago now and police are concerned about violence on Election Day, CNN's Will Ripley with more.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A city in turmoil prepares for Election Day. Political banners in tatters, like Hong Kong's reputation. Nearly six months of this and now, politics took a dark turn.
Junius Ho, a prominent lawyer and pro-Beijing lawmaker stabbed at a campaign event earlier this month. Jimmy Sham, a pro-democracy protest organizer and outspoken LGBT activist beaten with hammers by at least four men and left for dead. Not only did both survive, they are still campaigning.
Sunday's district elections are widely seen as a referendum on Hong Kong's highly-unpopular government. A government pro-Beijing lawmaker Holden Chow stands firmly behind.
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HOLDEN CHOW, PRO-BEIJING LAWMAKER: We want democracy which is pragmatic and fix Hong Kong situation.
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RIPLEY: Chow says he and his colleagues face almost daily intimidation.
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RIPLEY: How many times has your office been bombed?
CHOW: Four times in total.
RIPLEY: Do you see that as a threat?
CHOW: Under this kind of atmosphere, you can tell that people are very much having a kind of a fear and people have grave concerns.
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RIPLEY: Undaunted, candidates carry on, putting their best face forward. Here is the question nobody knows the answer to. What happens this weekend? Will there be more violence? Will there be a huge voter turnout? Can Hong Kong actually pull off what protesters say they've been fighting for all along? Democracy?
At least as close to democracy as Hong Kong gets, citizens only elect their local leaders. The chief executive and legislative council who actually make laws are selected by a system stacked in Beijing's favor. The establishment always has the majority.
Hong Kong's short-term stability and long-term survival greatly depends on finding a peaceful compromise says pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui.
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TED HUI, DEMOCRATIC PARTY CANDIDATE: Sadly, I think this doesn't end until the government can take a few more steps. Just a very slight sorry that's not enough.
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RIPLEY: He embedded with protesters for two days at the height of their standoff with police at Poly U.
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HUI: I witnessed that they are just defending themselves.
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RIPLEY: Police said they only reacted when protesters provoke. Hui is calling for calm this weekend on all sides.
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HUI: For those who just want to vote peacefully and voice -- have their voice out, this is their chance to show, you know, their power.
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RIPLEY: Less violence in the streets means higher voter turnout and he hopes more power for the pro-democracy movement -- Will Ripley, CNN, Hong Kong.
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HOLMES: To Colombia now, where a curfew is in effect after antigovernment demonstrations turned violent, police patrolling the streets of the capital, reports of looting and confrontations have put residents on edge.
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HOLMES: A CNN reporter in the city describes a place ripped by fear and chaos, some people defying the curfew, gathering outside the president's home, to protest. At least three people have been killed in the unrest, the president promising a national conversation to address the concerns of protesters.
As firefighters tackle dozens of deadly bush fires in Australia, the flames taking a significant toll on the koala population. The danger the species is facing -- next.
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HOLMES: A thick, toxic smog smothering Pakistan's second largest city. Schools in Lahore closed for the second time this month. People being told to stay inside because the air quality has reached the hazardous level. The smog is a mixture of industrial pollution and burning waste and farm fires in nearby India.
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HOLMES: One of the world's largest rain forests is on fire. CNN's Ivan Watson heads to Borneo to see how Indonesian firefighters are battling the blazes to save the animals and precious resources in harm's way.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fighting on the ground and in the air.
(on camera): These are aerial firefighters. Right now, we're on a water-bombing mission.
(voice-over): Helicopters dump giant buckets full of water on the flames.
(on camera): Bombs away.
(voice-over): Firefighters say this crisis was ignited by man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the fire coming, I think, from human, yes.
WATSON (on camera): You think humans started this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, of course.
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HOLMES: That story continues to unfold on the CNN documentary "Borneo Is Burning." Tune in for the next airing and about 12 hours from. Now 3:30 pm in New York 8:30 pm in London. Now fires are also raging in Australia. Putting wildlife at risk, as
these deadly bush fires ripped through the eastern part of the country. Lynda Kinkade takes a look at one koala's miraculous rescue from the intense flames and the danger that hundreds more still face.
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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Singed and scorched, a koala cries in pain after being plucked from burning bush in Australia. This is how we first met Lewis, a very lucky little guy, who had the good fortune of being spotted by a rescuer, who literally gave the shirt off her back to save his life.
This is Lewis now, badly burned but well enough to munch on a few gummies, reunited with his guardian angel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was climbing with the tree and he had flames up on his back legs, so I just covered him with my T-shirt. I just got him off the tree and it was so hot.
KINKADE (voice-over): Lewis has been given fluids and oxygen, with the worst wounds on his hands, feet and nose His caretakers at the koala hospital in New South Wales said he is making the best of it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's a very old koala. Most of the koalas we've had are very young. But he's -- look at him, he is eating really well. And he thinks this is all right.
KINKADE (voice-over): The hospital has received over $1 million in donations on a GoFundMe site which is in dire need this season. Officials estimate hundreds of koalas has already died in the recent bush fires. Experts say their population is already vulnerable.
The Australia Koala Foundation said their numbers are dwindling and they are at risk of extinction if the population continues to shrink. Rising temperatures, which dry out their habitats is one reason for the decline.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very little would actually survive in here unscathed. Wallabies, kangaroos, deer would get out because they can run. But koalas just really can't.
KINKADE (voice-over): Deforestation and disease are also taking a toll. Sam, the koala who was famously rescued from a fire in 2009, was later euthanized because she had a severe case of chlamydia, which has ravaged the koala community.
The staff taking care of Lewis hope his fate will be different in a time when the death of even one koala could one day be one too many -- Lynda Kinkade, CNN.
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HOLMES: Thanks for being with us on CNN NEWSROOM, everyone, I'm Michael Holmes. I'll have your headlines in just a moment.
