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Hong Kong Voting In Local Elections; Impeachment Inquiry; Race For The White House; Navy SEAL Showdown; Pence Visits Troops, Bypasses Baghdad; Syracuse Students Protest Response To Racist Incidents; Pope In Japan. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired November 24, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over): Going to the polls: Hong Kong elections are seen as a referendum on months of protests. We'll take you there live to see how it's going.
Voters in a crucial swing state in the United States tell us what they think of the impeachment inquiry against President Trump and whether it's affecting their views.
Also ahead here, Michael Bloomberg's massive advertising buy. We look at how much the billionaire is spending even before he declares he's running for president.
These stories are all ahead this hour. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Live from Atlanta, I'm Natalie Allen. NEWSROOM starts right now.
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ALLEN: Thank you again for joining us.
Our top story is from Hong Kong. It is witnessing one of the most peaceful Sundays it has seen in months as voters head to the polls for local elections. So far more than 1 million people have turned out to vote for district counselors.
The election is considered a referendum on pro-democracy protests, which have rocked the city. Activists say they are voting to voice frustration with Mainland China. Live to Hong Kong and our Paula Hancocks is covering this day for us.
What's it look like from where you are?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Natalie, in this neighborhood, you can see the candidates behind me have showed up to do the last-minute canvassing. Joshua Wong is making a speech at the moment. He actually wanted to stand in this constituency but the electoral commission labeled him a separatist, which he denies.
But he is certainly here to drum up the pro-democracy vote. Looking at the figures, 47 percent of those eligible to vote had voted by about a couple of hours ago. We saw that the number of those voting in the first six hours of today eclipsed that of 2015, the last time these district council elections were held, which just gives you an idea how high of a turnout this could turn out to be today.
Even though it is only local elections, district council elections, this is the first time Hong Kongers have been able to put their vote in place and show whether they are pro-government or pro-protesters.
The pro-democracy movement is hoping they have a strong showing today so that they can prove they still have a lot of support behind them. It's difficult up until now to know how much support they had.
ALLEN: And if this vote shows they have tremendous support, does that put more pressure on Carrie Lam there to make concessions?
HANCOCKS: In theory, it could. But to be fair, Carrie Lam has had an awful lot of pressure early on in this movement. Potentially a million people came out on the streets to push for more democracy. She managed to not respond too much to the sheer numbers of people that came out onto the streets. It's unknown how much pressure she will feel from this vote.
What it will do is give an exact figure as to what the support is. The government up until recently has been saying there is a silent majority that has had enough of these protesters, the violence, the chaos, the disruption to daily life. But they have never had any kind of proof of that. The pro-democracy movement has not had proof to the contrary.
This will give an indication of overall Hong Kong, where does the support lie. Many of the pro-democracy defend what has become now quite violent protests when it comes to the clashes between police and protesters.
That has been supported by some protesters, saying they have to use violence and they claim they still have the support of Hong Kong. Today will show whether or not that is the case -- Natalie.
ALLEN: Yes. And where it goes from here. Thank you, Paula.
As we mentioned, Hong Kong has been shaken by almost six months of violent street clashes. During one of those demonstrations, an unarmed protester Patrick Chow was critically injured when a police officer shot him.
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ALLEN: He is now speaking with CNN's Nick Paton Walsh about his injury and what happened. We warn you first, this story contains graphic images.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These wounds were felt across Hong Kong. PATRICK CHOW, INJURED PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTER: This is the most pain area.
WALSH (voice-over): Patrick is one of a handful of protesters to be shot by police in this unrest. Yet his injuries sparked the last 10 days of extreme violence. A student, age 21, his voice is husky on the hospital breathing tubes.
WALSH: So you are missing a kidney?
CHOW: Yes, I am missing a kidney.
WALSH (voice-over): Chow is out on bail, faces possible court charges and is legally advised not to discuss how he came to be here.
In this graphic video that captures the shooting, Chow is in black.
WALSH: What did you think when you saw the pistol?
CHOW: It's ridiculous. We'd done nothing and he take out his gun and pointed, not point at me, pointed at a white guy, the white jacket guy.
And I said, why, why point at him?
He done nothing and we have done nothing. He point at me. And bang. And I fall -- and I am sit on the ground.
WALSH (voice-over): His father sits behind in support.
WALSH: Are you proud of what he did?
WALSH (voice-over): The police officer has gone on leave but been identified online by protesters, his children threatened. Police have said the officer had feared his gun would be snatched.
WALSH: What would you say to that policeman who shot you, if you saw him again?
CHOW: Why did you shoot the people with no weapons?
WALSH: Would you forgive him if he said to you he was scared?
CHOW: No, no. Never forgive. He took my kidney.
WALSH: Do you worry that the hate is here to stay now in Hong Kong?
CHOW: Hate has become more bigger in Hong Kong now but because it's the government and police. Police is -- they ignore the human rights. It makes their hate become bigger and bigger.
This generation has been chosen, so we have to keep fighting for our demands until we get what we want.
WALSH (voice-over): Demands and violence that daily drive further and further away from compromise -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Hong Kong. (END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Of course the protests in Hong Kong have caused protests around the world in various countries. One of those countries, Colombia: the U.N. says it welcomes the Colombian president's offer of a national conversation.
The goal: to end days of violent unrest in the nation's capital. At least three people have been killed after tens of thousands of demonstrators started protesting in Bogota on Thursday. They say they are angry over the way the government is run and over rising unemployment. Their president now promises to fight corruption.
Next here, the latest on the impeachment process in the United States. Rudy Giuliani pushing back on documents showing the White House coordinated his interactions with the U.S. secretary of state. We will have Giuliani's response to that.
Plus, CNN travels to Florida to gauge reaction to the impeachment proceedings. We will show the prevailing attitude in Trump country.
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ALLEN: Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, is disputing reports that the White House helped coordinate his interactions on Ukraine with U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
Documents from the U.S. State Department show the White House helped put him in touch with Pompeo last month. Giuliani said he didn't need any help calling Pompeo. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the latest from the White House for us.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: As we are learning more information in Congress about the Ukraine scandal that is threatening President Trump's presidency, we are also now learning that the White House helped arrange a phone call between the president's personal attorney and secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
This is according to documents released by the State Department, following a Freedom of Information Act request from the nonpartisan American Oversight organization. Essentially it shows the White House coordinated with Rudy Giuliani's assistant in order to schedule a call with secretary of state Mike Pompeo back in March.
Now the timing of this is particularly interesting. The phone call that the White House helped schedule between Giuliani and Pompeo took place on March 29th. That's just a day after Giuliani actually provided documents to the State Department, outlining allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
Allegations that, of course, have not been substantiated, as well as allegations about Marie Yovanovitch, who at the time was the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and was ultimately ousted from her position a couple of months later by the president of the United States.
Now Rudy Giuliani is denying any White House involvement. Here's what he said on Saturday.
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QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?
RUDY GIULIANI, ADVISOR TO DONALD TRUMP: Who's to say we're doing it?
QUESTION: Do you think it's appropriate for the White House to be involved?
GIULIANI: I don't know if it's appropriate or not but they weren't doing it. The first thing is, the White House wasn't coordinating anything. So the answer to that is no. And that's a false premise.
The second one is what?
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QUESTION: Did the White House arrange calls with you and Secretary Pompeo?
GIULIANI: No. I'm capable of making my own calls. I actually know how to use the phone. My -- well, of course I'm not going to discuss my conversations with the secretary of state.
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DIAMOND: Now despite Giuliani's denials, we actually have documents that show this communication, emails between Madeleine Westerhout, the president's then assistant, as well as Rudy Giuliani's assistant, Jo Ann Zafonte.
So it is very difficult for Giuliani to deny this White House involvement. This does offer more evidence, more indication of Secretary Pompeo's involvement and knowledge of these efforts to pressure the government of Ukraine to actually investigate the president's political rival, Joe Biden.
We already learned earlier this week in testimony from the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, that Secretary Pompeo was actually in the loop at key moments.
He also showed emails that included mentions of investigations. Secretary Pompeo was also on those emails -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.
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ALLEN: Another issue we're following, Republican congressman Devin Nunes is pushing back on allegations he traveled to Europe last year to dig up dirt on the Bidens. Lev Parnas is one of Giuliani's indicted associates.
His attorney tells CNN that Parnas is willing to testify before Congress about putting Nunes in touch with the disgraced former Ukrainian official who claimed to have negative information about the Bidens.
And Nunes allegedly traveled to Vienna last December to meet him. Nunes refused to comment to CNN but told a right-wing news outlet the story was demonstrably false. For more on this I'm joined by Natasha Lindstaedt. She's a professor of government at the University of Essex.
Good morning to you, Natasha.
NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Good morning. Nice to see you.
ALLEN: You, too. All right.
Where does this new story about Nunes go?
Are the allegations against him serious?
Any surprise that Giuliani always appears to really not worry about a thing?
LINDSTAEDT: Right. OK. Great questions. I think everything with Nunes, you would think this would be pretty serious. You would think he would have needed to recuse himself because it looks like there have been meetings that have been taking place, where he was trying to get information about the Bidens and about this false narrative that there was some sort of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.
That might help us understand why he was so adamant that everything was a circus. He didn't really want this to go much further and for this type of information to be revealed.
Everything involving Giuliani is about trying to just confuse people. From one day to the next, he is saying something different. He is going on different TV shows, showing off his phone as evidence of all of these different meetings taking place between him and the State Department, saying that they were trying to investigate the Bidens and then saying that they weren't.
But this confusion effort to confuse the public is working. We'll talk about this a little bit more later. But it's just so difficult to tell what's going on from one moment to the next.
The key factor, though, is that -- and this is something we can talk about a little bit -- the State Department is more involved in all of this than initially thought when we first heard about this July 25th phone call between President Trump and the president of Ukraine.
ALLEN: Well, despite the Republican efforts to confuse and dismiss this process, what's your opinion about the testimony that we saw wrap up this week?
Did Democrats help provide a process and prove an impeachable act by the president?
What are your thoughts?
LINDSTAEDT: Well, in theory, the testimony was incredibly damaging. It set out very clearly that there wasn't just this official channel of foreign policy, which may have been involving Vindman, Fiona Hill and Bill Taylor, but there was this unofficial channel that involved all of these incredibly important people, not just the president and Rudy Giuliani but Mike Pompeo of the State Department, vice president Pence, the acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.
All of these people had one objective: they weren't working toward promoting democracy in Ukraine, fighting corruption in Ukraine, trying to help stave off Russian aggression. They only had one objective: to have the Ukraine president announce on TV they were investigating the Bidens and the 2016 election.
And Gordon Sondland made it really clear. There was a quid pro quo. Everybody was in the loop. Everybody knew about this.
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LINDSTAEDT: And the other testimony also revealed that though Trump didn't say explicitly that he wasn't going to visit the Ukrainians or give military aid to the Ukrainians unless they announced this investigation, actions speak louder than words.
Because the military aid was being withheld but not one national security official agreed with that. So we learned a lot of these things about this quid pro quo and this unofficial channel to further Trump's personal interests.
ALLEN: Meantime, the White House hasn't done that much to counter all of the testimony. It's not offered up a defense.
Do you think that will change once -- if this goes to the Senate?
LINDSTAEDT: I think they're just going to carry on, trying to distract, trying to put the focus on the Bidens, put the focus on the fact that we never got a chance to talk to the whistleblower.
Also one of the key Republican talking points is the Ukrainians got the money in the end, that they didn't know about the bribe or this quid pro quo was taking place. So in the end, everything was all fine.
And a lot of Devin Nunes' initial statements talked about the fact that many Americans don't like that Congress is not actually working on legislating, that this is a circus, this is a big distraction from real issues that affect American voters. So I think they will keep homing in on these types of themes. And that may be something that works with Republicans and some independents.
ALLEN: Right. And that's why Nancy Pelosi keeps reiterating the point that they want to move quickly on this and perhaps could impeach by Christmas. We want to look how all of this playing outside the Washington Beltway. We'll turn to voters and how they're reacting to the impeachment process in just a moment.
Stick around with us, Natasha, for that.
As another week of public impeachment hearings wraps in the nation's capital, you might expect outrage from Trump voters in Florida, the solidly Republican Panhandle in the north of the state. But as Martin Savidge tells us, most Trump supporters in the swing state say their interest in what's happening in Washington is, well, pretty low.
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MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Critics of President Trump may see the public impeachment hearings as damning and devastating for the president.
(on camera): But Trump supporters, not so much. This is the deeply red Panhandle in the key battleground state of Florida.
(voice-over): Trump voters we talked to say either they don't care or they aren't watching.
SAVIDGE (on camera): Have you been following the proceedings at all?
LAURA DUKES, REPUBLICAN VOTER: No, sir, I have not.
SAVIDGE (on camera): By choice?
DUKES: By choice.
ANDREW MCKAY, NEWSRADIO 92.3: Good morning, 7:18 here on NewsRadio 92.3 and AM 1620.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): You won't find conservatives angrily vetting on local talk radio, not even a Trump firebrand, Congressman Matt Gaetz.
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): The training helicopter issue is one of the --
SAVIDGE: He takes calls for half an hour and only gets two on impeachment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE CALLER: I want to see Congress get back to work on the people's business.
SAVIDGE: In Pensacola, pro- and anti-Trump protests draw fewer than 30 people, total.
What is history to others elsewhere is political ho-hum here.
JANE WILKINSON, REPUBLICAN VOTER: I did watch it the first day, a little bit.
SAVIDGE: She wasn't impressed. Instead, Jane Wilkinson was frustrated, calling the process biased and unfair.
WILKINSON: It's hard to watch it. In fact, I'm not watching it anymore.
DUKES: And I just think they're not going to change my mind, how I feel about him.
SAVIDGE: Whether it's an accusation of quid pro quo or bribery, no amount of witnesses or testimony, they say, will change their support for the president. CURRIN: It's just a political show. He hasn't done anything wrong. We've read all the information and we've looked at all the things that have occurred.
SAVIDGE: But, Democrat Bill Caplinger has been following the hearings closely. He's confident Trump voters will come around to what he sees as the president's crimes.
BILL CAPLINGER (ph), FLORIDA VOTER: Not all of them, but some of them.
SAVIDGE: Jane Wilkinson says Democrats shouldn't hold their breath.
WILKINSON: Well, for me, it's not going to change my opinion. But I feel like that is what they're thinking.
SAVIDGE: Stephen Ennis puts it in a nutshell why Trump supporters are so casual about impeachment. It's because they believe, for all the political sound and fury, in the end, none of it matters.
ENNIS: Democrats are obviously hell-bent to impeach the president and it's probably going to happen. It'll never go through in the Senate. The Senate will never vote that way. So it's just -- it's just a waste of time.
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ALLEN: Let's go back Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor of Government, for us.
Clearly from that report, the impeachment show was wholly ignored by Trump supporters.
Any surprise that it didn't move the needle it seems?
LINDSTAEDT: In some ways. I'm not surprised that Trump supporters aren't changing their minds on this. They aren't likely to change their minds.
[04:25:00] LINDSTAEDT: But some of the fresh polls are concerning for the Democrats. If we looked at the average of all the polls, 81 percent of Democrats are still in favor of impeaching; 12 percent of Republicans and 41 percent of independents.
The most recent poll that came out from the 17-20th of November is the most worrisome. There is a big shift among independents. Now you have 49 percent of independents opposing impeaching the president.
The poll also revealed a plurality of people watching the impeachment process are getting their news from FOX News, which presents a completely alternative narrative of what's going on.
A lot of this gets to the fact that voters care about the issues. They care about health care. They care about the economy. They do feel this is a distraction from this. And there were concerns among those polled, that said this just looks very partisan to them.
For the moment it looks as though the Democrats are becoming more and more certain that Trump should be impeached but they're not able to move independents. The one thing we have to caution is this poll was taken before Gordon Sondland's testimony and Dr. Hill's had taken place. That might change people's minds a little bit.
I don't think someone could be more clear that there was a quid pro quo. We will have to see how this all unfolding once we move to the Senate trial and if it sways the minds of independent voters.
ALLEN: And Fiona Hill was quite the closure -- or closer -- for the testimony, to be sure. All right. We appreciate your insights. Thanks so much for taking the time to be with us, Natasha.
LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.
ALLEN: A health scare sent Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to a Baltimore hospital. She was admitted Friday night after having a fever and chills. Ariane de Vogue has more on her condition.
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ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT CORRESPONDENT: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86 years old, fell ill Friday afternoon. She went to a local hospital on her own but was transported by ambulance to a hospital Baltimore, where some of her regular doctors are.
She was admitted and treated for a possible infection with antibiotics. A court spokesperson said after that treatment her symptoms got better. It is worth noting she was at the court Friday morning when the justices met for their closed door conference.
It's believed they discussed an emergency petition from President Trump, who's seeking to block the release of his financial records. The court is on a brief recess now. But they are in the middle of a momentous term.
Earlier this month she missed one day of arguments due to stomach flu. Otherwise, she's been an active participant on the bench -- Ariane de Vogue, CNN, Washington.
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ALLEN: Big money and high stakes politics: next, Michael Bloomberg is flexing his financial muscle in the political arena. You wouldn't believe how much he plans to spend if he runs for president, just ahead.
Plus, this man could be rattling the very top of the U.S. Navy and the White House. A closer look at the SEAL showdown a little bit later.
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ALLEN: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. If you're just joining us, we want to catch you up with our top stories this hour.
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ALLEN: The Iowa caucuses are rapidly approaching. February 3rd is the date. Democratic contenders like Joe Biden are hoping for a strong showing. But unlike his rivals, Biden has also been thrust into the middle of the impeachment drama, even though there is no evidence he did anything wrong regarding Ukraine.
With impeachment now likely heading to a Senate trial, a Republican senator is seeking government records on Biden and Ukraine.
Biden's response?
Do it.
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QUESTION: Lindsey Graham is asking the secretary of state for all your documents and contacts relating back to Ukraine in 2016.
JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, first of all, they can have all the documents. There is not a single person, not a single, solitary person in Ukraine or in Europe or in the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, or our allies, that said anything other than I carried out the policy without one single moment of hesitation of the United States government in dealing with corruption in Ukraine. And so -- but it does disappoint me.
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ALLEN: Well, Michael Bloomberg may be signaling a formal entry soon into the presidential race. And he is spending big to do it. The former New York City mayor is shelling out $37 million on a TV advertising blitz over the next two weeks. CNN's Cristina Alesci has more about it.
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CRISTINA ALESCI, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: A source familiar with Michael Bloomberg's plans tells me these ads will have biological information about the billionaire businessman, a sign that he may jump into this race as soon as this week. Make no mistake: this is Michael Bloomberg flexing his financial muscle.
[04:35:00]
ALESCI: Based on everything I know in my reporting, this $37 million price tag, calculated by research firm Cantor CMAG, is just the beginning. The spending is already drawing fire from progressive candidates, who don't want to see billionaires running and who say they are buying votes.
For example, Bernie Sanders reacting to this particular ad by saying in a statement, "I'm disgusted by the idea that Michael Bloomberg or any other billionaire thinks they can circumvent the political process and spend tens of millions of dollars to buy our elections.
"It's just the latest example of a rigged political system that we're going to change when we're in the White House."
Look, Michael Bloomberg is making the political calculation that this kind of spending will benefit him way more than the attacks will hurt him. There are three main reasons for that.
One, he has faced this criticism before when he ran for mayor. He spent hundreds of millions of dollars his own money and, guess what, he won three times. After he left the mayor's office, he spent billions of dollars on liberal causes like gun safety and climate change.
And he poured $100 million into the midterm elections to support Democrats. All of this means he has made a lot of friends in the Democratic Party, making it less likely that moderate Democrats will attack him.
Third, and this is the important one, he is continuing to spend the money on liberal causes at the same time that he may be gearing up for a presidential campaign, making it clear to the Democratic Party he's not going to abandon those causes as he potentially runs for president.
Now for all of these reasons, Michael Bloomberg will spend $37 million and likely much more. Of course that's not going to stop his rivals from highlighting Bloomberg's vast resources. Senator Kamala Harris weighed in.
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SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's a lot of dough. You know, listen, we've got to get money out of politics. Just let me be honest with you. I have to raise a ton of money to be competitive.
And there are billionaires who are thinking about getting in the race and it gives them a competitive advantage. Literally money gives people a competitive advantage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALESCI: Competitive advantage for sure. People will start seeing the Bloomberg ads this week across some 100 markets. It's a huge ad buy. And it's just the beginning. Back to you.
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ALLEN: During a weekend campaign event, Elizabeth Warren echoed Bernie Sanders when she offered her view of Bloomberg's TV advertising budget. Here she is.
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SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Elections should not be for sale, not to billionaires, not to corporate executives. We need to build a grassroots movement. That's how democracy is supposed to work.
QUESTION: When you have a billionaire that's potentially entering this race, going to spend however much of his own money to beat President Trump, (INAUDIBLE)?
WARREN: I just don't think this will be about TV ads versus TV ads.
I think the way Democrats are going to win in 2020 is when we build grassroots (INAUDIBLE) all across this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: For more on what Bernie Sanders is saying about Michael Bloomberg, here's CNN's Ryan Nobles.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are now less than 80 days away from voters going to the polls here in New Hampshire. Of course the first primary in the 2020 presidential campaign.
And Bernie Sanders spending the entire weekend here in the Granite State making his pitch to voters and focusing on the pending candidacy of Michael Bloomberg. Sanders crushing Bloomberg for his massive media buy, where he placed tens of millions on TV ads on behalf of his campaign.
Sanders said a billionaire buying his way into the race is no different than a corporation trying to have a heavy influence, as has been done in the past.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SANDERS: Mr. Bloomberg, to the best of my knowledge, has very little grassroots support but he has decided, because he's worth $55 billion, that he can run for president of the United States and spend more money on TV ads, I suspect, than any candidate in the history of the United States.
So what our job is, is to fight for democracy.
(APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: Democracy means that billionaires cannot buy elections. Democracy means we move to public funding of elections.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: Sanders making the point that one of the reasons he got into this race for president was to get money out of politics and that billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, the other billionaire in this race, do more harm than good when it comes to that goal.
Sanders also making the argument not only can he win the Democratic primary but he can also win the general election. They were handing out buttons like this that says, "Bernie Beats Trump."
[04:40:00]
NOBLES: They are trying to push back on this narrative that a Sanders nomination would mean the Democrats would be in a difficult position to beat Trump.
Sanders makes the argument that, in many of these polls, he is doing better than Donald Trump and doing better than some of his Democratic opponents in the head-to-head matchup. The Sanders team believes that if they can convince Democratic primary voters that he can beat Donald Trump, they can get a full buy-in to his campaign -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Manchester, New Hampshire.
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ALLEN: Next here, it is the White House versus the U.S. Navy over this man. Developments in the Navy SEAL showdown with President Trump. That's coming up here.
Also, in a city still healing from the aftermath of nuclear weapons, Pope Francis is calling for people to learn from their mistakes. His historic visit to Japan, ahead.
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ALLEN: The Secretary of the U.S. Navy is pushing back against a "New York Times" report that he threatened to resign if President Trump puts a stop to the Navy's review of this man, Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.
Here's a reminder of who Gallagher is. The Navy demoted him after he was found guilty of posing with the dead body of a young ISIS prisoner. Gallagher was acquitted of murder. The president reversed the demotion and tweeted he wouldn't let the Navy punish Gallagher.
An administration official tells us, and this is a quote, "There is extreme concern over decision-making being pulled from the Navy."
But here's what Navy Secretary Richard Spencer is saying about reports he threatened to step down over this.
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RICHARD SPENCER, U.S. SECRETARY OF THE NAVY: Contrary to popular belief, I'm still here. I did not threaten to resign. Let us just say we are hear to talk about external threats.
[04:45:00]
SPENCER: And Eddie Gallagher is not one of them.
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ALLEN: The Navy Secretary says he supports the review of Gallagher, which is now underway.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced visit on Saturday to Iraq, where he stopped at a military base in western Iraq and served a Thanksgiving meal to American troops. But he conspicuously bypassed Baghdad out of security concerns.
We get more from CNN's Arwa Damon.
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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: His visit was unannounced, a surprise visit, seemingly at least on the surface, as an early Thanksgiving celebration for U.S. forces stationed in Iraq.
[03:20:00]
DAMON (voice-over): Vice president Pence and his wife arriving to the Al-Asad airbase in Anbar province to thank the troops for their service, highlighting victories in the fight against ISIS and serve troops stationed there a Thanksgiving meal.
But this trip comes against a backdrop of a very turbulent Iraq and a very turbulent region, for that matter.
Iraq has been embroiled in deadly protests that have seen a fair level of criticism being leveled by the United States and others towards the government in Baghdad and Iraqi security forces for their handling of these demonstrations.
We do know that the vice president did not visit Baghdad; instead, speaking by phone to the Iraqi prime minister. We don't know the details of that conversation. The vice president and his entourage did then travel to Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, meeting with the president of Iraqi Kurdistan there, something that may be viewed as a snub to Baghdad.
But perhaps it was an attempt to try to emphasize to the Kurds, not just in Iraq but in Syria as well, that the U.S. still views them as being a key ally. Vice president Pence making a clear point to say that the Americans and the Kurds share blood ties.
But at this stage it is unclear if that sort of rhetoric is going to be successful when it comes to any sort of damage control that the U.S. does in terms of repairing its image in Iraq, Syria and across the region -- Arwa Damon, CNN, Istanbul.
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ALLEN: A closer look at an alarming series of racist and anti-Semitic incidents at a university in the U.S. They have sparked more than a week of protests at Syracuse University. Now police have arrested a student for graffiti appearing to show support for those protests. Students say the school's response hasn't been enough. CNN's Polo Sandoval has more from Syracuse.
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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A tipping point came on November 13th amid a string of racist incidents in and around the Syracuse University campus. At least a dozen cases of racist and anti-Semitic graffiti in two weeks that prompted student activists to stage a peaceful occupation of the university building that lasted eight days.
It wasn't until university chancellor Kent Syverud signed off on 16 of the activists' 19 demands that they ended the protest on Thursday. Among them, expulsion for students involved in hate crimes, mandatory diversity education for new faculty and roommate options based on mutual interests.
University official Marianne Thomson said she hopes students felt heard and validated.
MARIANNE HUGER THOMSON, DEAN OF STUDENTS, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: I hate that our students feel the way that they do now but I understand it. But I do have heart because they came with solutions. They came wanting to talk. And the university listened and will continue listening.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): But student activists are not satisfied. On Thursday, they started their call for the resignation of Chancellor Syverud and other university officials, citing a lack of confidence in this administration.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He never signed the demands as we had originally asked. He never came for help with us. And so as far as we're concerned at this point, once we have called for his resignation, we have a line drawn in the sand that we cannot retract from.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): These two student movement organizers asked not to be identified due to security concerns and their mission to speak under a unified face voice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're asking him to resign respectfully. A lot of these issues started when he came here in office in 2014.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): In spite of the new measures and added security on campus, these two minority students say they feel threatened and unheard.
Chancellor Syverud responding in a Friday statement to CNN, "These events would have challenged any leadership team. We didn't get everything right.
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"And we have learned a lot. My focus has been and remains on our students, who have clearly and thoughtfully expressed their hurt and frustration and what the university can do better. And we will."
This week the university suspended four of its students for participating in a verbal assault directed at an African American student. This incident one of many that left the campus in crisis and a group of young activists not willing to compromise -- Polo Sandoval, Syracuse, New York.
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ALLEN: Next, an emotional visit four decades in the making. This is live video from Japan. The pope honors victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His message on nuclear weapons, when we come back.
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ALLEN: Live video here for you coming from Hiroshima, Japan, the latest stop by Pope Francis. It is the first visit by a pope to that country in nearly four decades. This part of the trip likely to be deeply personal for the pope.
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ALLEN: He's taking part in a gathering at a memorial to those killed when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Pope Francis has condemned nuclear weapons, saying they offer a false sense of security. For more on the pope's trip, CNN's Vatican Correspondent, Delia Gallagher joins us.
Tell us more on what he is wanting to achieve here. DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Natalie, a very important day on the pope's four-day trip to Japan. He just arrived in Hiroshima. This is the very site at the peace memorial where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb. He will be giving a speak shortly likely condemning nuclear war and the arms race.
Before arriving here, the pope was in Nagasaki. He met with survivors of that bombing, saying a world without nuclear weapons is necessary and possible. He also made a plea to the international community to, instead of spending money and resources building up nuclear weapons, to devote that money to the world's poor and to the environment.
On Monday, the pope will be meeting with Japan's new emperor and will meet with Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and with survivors of the 2011 disaster. You remember the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that happened in March of that year, Natalie.
ALLEN: All right. We'll wait and see what his remarks are. Delia Gallagher for us, thank you so much.
Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. I'll be back with another hour of news right after this.
