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World Headlines; LVMH is Buying Tiffany; Race for the White House; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Released from Hospital; Young Elephants Captured for Sale; A Day of Mourning; Holiday Weather Worries; Home Intruder "Picked the Wrong House."; Leaked E-mails Shows Controversy Over U.S. Aid to Ukraine; Voters Chose Democracy to Reign in to their Country; U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer Ousted in His Post. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 25, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. And I'm Rosemary Church.

Let's get started.

Record turnout at the polls in Hong Kong and major gains for pro- democracy parties in local elections. We will take you there live.

Plus, new e-mails reportedly reveal how the White House tried to justify the U.S. President's decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine.

And caught between White House politics and military protocol, the U.S. Navy's top official has been forced out.

Glad you could join us.

So, we start with the impeachment inquiry facing U.S. President Donald Trump. He's long insisted he did nothing wrong blocking nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine.

But a new report by The Washington Post shows there was debate in the White House on whether it was legal after the fact. The Post cites a confidential White House review and three people familiar with the records.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN White House REPORTER: The White House has been conducting an internal review of President Trump's decision last summer to withhold nearly $400 million in security aid to Ukraine.

Now according to The Washington Post, that review is turning up hundreds of documents that suggest that White House officials and officials in the Office of Management and Budget were working to draw up a legal justification for that move after the fact.

Again, this reporting suggests that this was yet another instance of a scramble by officials to essentially catch up with another one of President Trump's decisions.

The Office of Management and Budget, though, is denying that anything improper took place. Here's a statement from a spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget, Rachel Semmel.

She says, "To be clear, there was a legal consensus at every step of the way that the money could be withheld in order to conduct the policy review. OMB works closely with agencies on executing the budget. Routine practices and procedures were followed."

Now, a senior administration official also told me that the legal justification for this temporary freeze on the aid was provided in late July alongside the formal notification that this aid was being frozen.

This official suggested that perhaps the discrepancy involves the fact that this was something that was in the pipeline, that was verbally communicated as early as late June, but ultimately didn't actually make its way into a formal notification in late July.

There is also in this Washington Post an August e-mail exchange that is highlighted between the White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget Ross Vought, which suggests that Mulvaney was asking for an update on that legal justification, again, several weeks after that notification actually occurred.

Now two senior administration officials who I spoke with said that the request for an update didn't necessarily mean that the rationale, the legal justification wasn't already in place.

But what is clear is that this is leading to increased tensions inside a White House that is facing the potential for President Trump to be impeached. We know that there have already been tensions between Mulvaney and the White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

Tonight, two senior administration officials were once again expressing frustrations with the White House counsel's office. One of those officials said that Mulvaney has not yet been informed of any of the findings in that internal view, and another official criticized the White House counsel's office suggesting they were responsible for the leak of these e-mails. That official said seems like amateur hour in the White House counsel's office.

We have reached out for comments to the White House press office, as well as the White House counsel's office but we have not yet received a reply.

CHURCH: And sources say the House could vote on impeaching President Trump by Christmas, but that's still a month away, and lawmakers aren't finished yet. The House intelligence committee and two other panels are writing a

report detailing their findings, which will go to the judiciary committee. And the intelligence chairman says there could be more hearings to come.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): We don't foreclose the possibility of more depositions, more hearings. We are in the process of getting more documents all the time.

[03:04:56]

So that investigative work is going to go on. What we're not prepared to do is wait months and months while the administration plays a game of rope-a-dope in an effort to try and stall. We're not willing to go down that road.

And what's more, the evidence is already overwhelming. The remarkable thing about this -- and we've done this with almost literally no documentary production from the administration -- is the facts are really not contested. It's really not contested what the president did.

CHURCH: And for analysis, I'm joined now by Jacob Parakilas. He is an associate at LSE Ideas, a foreign policy think tank at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Good to have you with us.

So, I do want to start with The Washington Post report, which indicates that there was an effort made to justify the withholding of this $400 million in military aid to Ukraine after the fact. Where does this take the whole impeachment inquiry? Does it move the needle forward?

JACOB PARAKILAS, ASSOCIATE, LSE IDEAS: Well, I think it supports the narrative that's already been emerging through the depositions, through the public hearings, through the closed-door testimonies that preceded the public hearing, which is to say this was a decision taken by the president and then the legal justification, the attempt to fit it into a broader policy framework came after.

Now that's needless to say not the way policy is normally made and it suggests that there was an attempt to build in a rationale justification or a legal justification for these actions rather than those actions flowing from justification in the first place.

I don't think in and of itself the revelations in The Post necessarily change the fundamentals of the equation, but I think they should be seen as another piece of evidence supporting this broad narrative that we've seen emerge over the last couple of months.

CHURCH: Right. But there seems to be a difference. Certainly, when you look back to the Nixon era where in that situation, Nixon ended up resigning rather than go through this process, and many experts seem to think these are very different times. We can attest to that for sure.

What will it take to move the needle forward, because there seems to be a lot of evidence on the table to suggest that the United States president picked up the phone and was trying to get another country involved in influencing the outcome of the election in the United States. Why, why is that no longer a problem for a president?

PARAKILAS: Well, there are a lot of issues that go into that. It's a very different media environment. The degree of polarization and partisanship, the extent to which parties are unwilling to come to compromise on each other, it's very different now than in 1974.

But the structure of these stories is very different as well. Nixon was very -- basically exercised himself trying to prevent the tape that he had made in the White House, that showed him participating in the cover-up from being released. When the Supreme Court ruled, they had to be released, that was the moment when the dam burst.

This scandal started not in the first instance but very, very quickly after the initial revelation of the whistleblower report with the release of this memorandum of conversation, which demonstrated that the president had said, I want you to do me a favor in a conversation with the Ukrainian president.

According to the Democrats' reading of the situation, and I think what a lot of people understand is the understanding of United States code on bribery, that that constitutes by itself the impeachable offense.

And everything we've heard since then is kind of supporting that. It's sort of building the narrative around it. It's not a case where there is one enormous piece of evidence that still exists.

I think that sort of narrative expectation, that there will be a smoking gun later on in this case, is leading to some of the confusion about, well, why isn't the public opinion moving? We may find the public opinion is simply set on this.

The president, whose approval rating at been stuck at 40 to 41 percent for months if not years simply just isn't going to move up or down from there.

CHURCH: Right. And Republicans keep insisting anyway that simply that call and him asking for a favor, though, is not impeachable. So, I mean, in this day and age, it seems to be if you keep saying no and keep denying it, then that seems to be sufficient.

Now, the problem for the Democrats here is the politics of it, the optics, because for them, in one instance they couldn't let this go and they needed to do something. But the other side of this, they're going to look like they're playing politics.

PARAKILAS: Well, I think the difference between this and the Mueller report and questions about self-dealing and emoluments and other things that have been mooted as potentially impeachable offenses for the president is that this relates to an ongoing issue relating to an upcoming election. [03:10:02]

This is very much about Joe Biden as a candidate for election in 2020 and whether he would be a contender against President Trump.

And I think the necessity in the minds of the Democrats, in terms of the political strategy of it, the necessity of erecting some kind of barrier to the president from using his office to put his thumb on the scale of the 2020 elections made it a fundamentally different thing regardless of the possibility of actually removing the president, which remains quite remote given that the Republicans control the Senate and that a two-thirds vote in the Senate is necessary for removal.

But I think there's an argument politically to be made for using the hearings, using the spectacle of impeachment to bring this in the public light in a way that it isn't if it's simply getting written up in newspapers, to focus public attention on it as a way of changing the political view of Trump, of changing the terrain on which the 2020 election will be fought.

And on that front, I think it's too early to say. We don't know whether public opinion will be moved significantly by this. But I think we have seen generally speaking a durable but narrow public support for the impeachment process.

CHURCH: Right. It will be interesting to see how much of this the American voter is following because that's -- I mean, I think there's, you know, there's a numbing point to this, isn't there?

So many thanks to Jacob Parakilas for joining us and sharing your analysis. We do appreciate it.

All right. I want to turn from a scandal at the White House to a scandal at the Pentagon. The U.S. Navy secretary has been forced out and convicted Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher gets to keep his rank and job for now.

We get the latest from CNN's Ryan Browne in Washington.

RYAN BROWNE, CNN PENTAGON REPORTER: One of the senior-most Pentagon officials fired Sunday night due to the fallout from a high-profile war crimes case involving Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.

Now, Gallagher had been acquitted of several more serious crimes like murder but had been convicted of posing with the body of a dead corpse. Now, the navy's efforts to punish him have become the subject of a

high-profile debate with President Trump weighing in, saying that the navy should not strip Gallagher of his status as a Navy SEAL several times, something that defense officials felt was undermining the navy's discipline process.

Now, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer had said publicly that that process should go ahead, but the Pentagon saying Sunday night that despite Spencer's public comments, he had actually arranged secret talks with the White House to strike a deal where Gallagher would be allowed to retain his membership in the Navy SEALs.

Now the Pentagon saying this is why Spencer was fired and that Gallagher will in fact retain his SEAL status upon leaving the navy.

Now President Trump tweeting that he had been disappointed with how the navy had handled the Gallagher case and he had been disappointed with the navy's inability to reduce cost overruns, something he said had led to Spencer's ouster.

Now Spencer himself writing a letter upon being fired saying that he was a strong believer in good order and discipline in the military, saying that's what sets America apart from its adversaries, and that he and President Trump just had a fundamental difference of opinion about the importance of the rule of law and the importance of good order and discipline, something that he says led to his ouster.

Ryan Browne, CNN, Washington.

CHURCH: We'll take a short break. Still to come, the results of Hong Kong's record-setting elections are in and voters have sent a stern message to the establishment. They say it's time for change.

[03:15:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, in Hong Kong, a record number of voters turned out to key local elections and handed pro-democracy parties a landslide win.

Local media report the Democratic candidates have won almost 90 percent of the seats across the city. Almost three million people showed up to vote. They overwhelmingly rejected the establishment government, which is seen as closely aligned with Beijing.

Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam says she will reflect on the outcome and listen to voters. Meanwhile, a prominent pro-democracy leader is celebrating the results.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Did you ever think this was going to happen?

JOSHUA WONG, PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST: It's a remarkable achievement and efforts of all the Hongkongers that paid the price and sacrificed for the movement. I never imagined it will happen, but now we are the majority in the district council to show our cause on freedom and democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And for more on the results, CNN's Will Ripley joins me now from Hong Kong. Good to see you again, Will. So how are people reacting to these incredible results, and how significant was this? WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly I think a lot of

Hongkongers, Rosemary, are enjoying this period of calm. I mean this was the first weekend in months that there was no tear gas, there were no protests shutting down the streets, and instead you saw Hongkongers by the millions lining up to peacefully cast their ballots.

And the overwhelming message from voters was anti-establishment, pro- democracy. But this is a city where democracy has its limits. You had Holden Chow on your last hour.

He's a pro-Beijing lawmaker who I interviewed ahead of this election, and I think he provides a much needed dose of reality in that Hong Kong may be able to elect its local leaders, but the higher-level lawmakers who actually make laws in this city are chosen in a system that overwhelmingly favors pro-Beijing voices.

And that doesn't change despite the overwhelming result this mandate, if you will, that Hong Kong voters gave, you know, in their support of the protesters and in opposition to the establishment government.

But the fact remains that government is still in control, and Carrie Lam, even though she says she will reflect on these results, she still is beholden to her bosses in Beijing.

[03:20:01]

And it was China's foreign minister speaking earlier today when he said that there will be no election that will overturn the simple fact that Hong Kong is a part of China, and that is the way it is regardless of what happens on the streets here.

So, I think what we have to watch now is where things go. When the buzz of victory wears off and reality sets in, is this a newly energized democracy movement that is prepared to take to the streets with just as much force as before, or does this vote trigger some sort of meaningful dialogue to help to resolve some of the huge gaps that exist between what the establishment government wants and what pro- democracy protesters say many people hear want on the streets of this city.

CHURCH: Indeed. Many thanks to our Will Ripley, bringing us the very latest on reaction from Hong Kong. I appreciate that.

And as we mentioned earlier, I spoke with a pro-establishment counselor who lost his seat in Sunday's race, and I asked Holden Chow to reflect on the overall outcome and his own defeat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLDEN CHOW, VICE-CHAIRMAN, DAB: Well, of course we need to admit that is a sort of big frustration for us. When we met the press this morning to carry out our concession speech, we will carry out and reveal on our own work and see what has gone wrong and how we can improve ourselves to do better and serve better in our community.

So, this is a frustration for us, of course, but as a political party, we also have to learn, learn lessons from elections and hope to improve ourselves to serve people better in the future.

But on the other hand, people expressed their views via this election, and of course there is kind of resentment towards the government. And as a political party, we are bound to press the government to do better or to sort of listen to the people.

So that is one thing. But of course, we also we need to thank the people who support us yesterday, the volunteers and everyone who support us yesterday in the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Holden Chow talking to me earlier.

Well, voters in Uruguay are awaiting the results of the presidential election there. With over 99 percent of the votes counted. Center right national party candidate Luis Lacalle Pou holds a small lead over Daniel Martinez, candidate of the leftist ruling party.

However, the margin is so narrow the race remains too close to call. Final results may not come until Friday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is promising to get Brexit done if his conservative party wins the general election next month.

He launched the party's manifesto on Sunday. It includes promises to hire 50,000 nurses, freeze income tax, and establish immigration controls. The prime minister wants Britain to leave the European Union by the current deadline of January 31st.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I don't want to waste 2020 and two more referendums. I want it to be an exciting and productive year, a year of prosperity and growth. Do you want to wake up on Friday the 13th of December and find a nightmare on Downing Street? A Corbyn -- a Corbyn-Sturgeon coalition of chaos? I say let's go carbon neutral by 2050 and Corbyn neutral by Christmas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn calls the proposal a billionaire's manifesto, adding, quote, "they bought it. You'll pay for it."

Well, the BBC's Emily Maitlis says Prince Andrew seemed authentic during her interview that aired just over a week ago. It was the first time Prince Andrew smoke publicly about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and it was widely seen as a disaster.

The prince was viewed as lacking sympathy for Epstein's victims. One of Epstein's accusers claims he forced her into a sexual encounter with Prince Andrew when she was underage.

The prince has repeatedly denied the accusation in palace statements. He has stepped back from public duties and several organizations and companies severed ties with him.

Maitlis told CNN's Brian Stelter she knew the interview would be closely watched.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMILY MAITLIS, HOST, BBC: In one way, it was a very straightforward interview. I knew that we only had one shot at this. There were no previous interviews like it. There was nothing I could go to, to try and compare it with old answers.

[03:24:51]

It was an interview about getting information, and it was an interview that I knew would be watched by women who had been girls, whose lives had been turned upside down by Jeffrey Epstein and whose lives in some cases had been damaged irreparably, and I knew there would be answers they were looking for.

So, the whole strategy as far as you can call it one of the interview was just to try and get information on every step of the way, understand the reasons he made certain decisions, understand his presence or his absence, understand why he'd agree to things, when he'd last seen Ghislaine Maxwell.

It was just about trying to get in the most forensic way possible an understanding of the whole picture because we had scraps. We had the photograph. We had sightings. We had sightings. We had little bits of CCTV. We had witness accounts, and then we had the deposition in court of the women themselves.

And for me the most important thing was just to take all the information and try, try and get a narrative that actually people sitting at home could understand.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: At one point he said he used to not be able to sweat and that partly is part of his denial about these allegations. Did he seem truthful to you? Did he seem sincere?

MAITLIS: Do you know what? It's for -- it's for other people to decide whether what they saw and what they heard made sense and whether they think he was telling the truth in what he said.

But from my perspective, he seemed authentic. He seemed candid in his desire to engage with the questions. And as you well know as an interviewer, that's all you can ask for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Prince Andrew told Maitlis he had never met the woman who made the allegations against him and suggested a photo of the two of them was fake.

Well, if you're watching internationally, thank you so much for being with us. Feast on Budapest is next. And if you're joining us from here in the United States, do stay tuned. We'll have more news for you ahead.

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[03:30:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States. You are watching "CNN Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. So let's check the headlines for you this hour.

A confidential White House review has turned up e-mails showing extensive efforts to justify President Donald Trump's decision to block aid to Ukraine after the fact. That, according to The Washington Post, the delay in aid, along with the whistleblower complaint, is at the center of the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

The Post says acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney sent e- mails in August to the Office of Management and Budget, asking what the legal reasoning could be for withholding the aid.

U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer has been forced out of his position. President Trump says it's because of how the Navy handled the case of convicted Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher. But the Pentagon offers a different account. A senior defense official says Spencer tried offering the White House a secret deal for Gallagher to keep his SEAL status.

Pro-democracy candidates in Hong Hong's local elections have defeated supporters of mainland China in a landslide. Local media report that they have won almost 90 percent of the contested district council seats. The races were seen as a test of support for the anti- government movement. Nearly three million people turned out to vote, a record for the city.

Some news is coming into CNN from the world of luxury brands. The French group LVMH has announced it is buying Tiffany for $135 a share. That values the iconic Manhattan jeweler at about $16.2 billion. A deal had been expected for weeks. Analysts have been bullish on the purchase, saying Tiffany is a good acquisition target because of its strong global brand.

Former New York mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg wants to add another title to his resume -- president of the United States. On Sunday, he officially announced he was joining the 2020 race less than three months before the first voting takes place. Bloomberg adds his name to an already long list of Democratic hopefuls. CNN's Cristina Alesci has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINA ALESCI, CNN POLITICS AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Bloomberg is trying to beat the odds with a rush of money and effort. He's betting that his personal life story, his track record as mayor of New York and as a philanthropist supporting liberal causes, as well as his role as a leading Democratic donor will help him win the nomination.

Now, let me give you some color on how he's positioning himself. Bloomberg describes himself as a doer and a problem solver, not a talker, in a letter on his website. Now, this letter frames the 2020 election as an existential crisis for the country and suggests he's the only candidate that can meet those challenges.

He says, quote, "I'm running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America. We cannot afford four more years of President Trump's reckless and unethical actions. If he wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage. The stakes could not be higher. We must win this election."

Michael Bloomberg has many accomplishments to tout, but he faces some serious headwinds. Tactically, it's very late in the primary cycle to launch a campaign. Political analysts say no one who has entered the presidential race this late has ever clinched the nomination in modern U.S. history.

And the few polling data points we have for Bloomberg don't look great for him. For example, only four percent of voters picked him as their top choice in a national poll. And there are more substantive hurdles to clear here.

For one, he's a billionaire at a time when the term is being used as an insult. Rising income inequality is a source of anger and frustration for many voters. Progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are trying to capitalize on those feelings, suggesting that billionaires should be disqualified from running.

Now, Bloomberg may also struggle to win support among black voters. Blacks and Latinos were the primary targets of a police tactic called "stop and frisk" with the New York City Police Department employed while Michael Bloomberg was mayor. It was only last week that he apologized for not stopping the use of that tactic sooner. But it's unclear whether voters believe it's a sincere apology.

All that said, Bloomberg's net worth is estimated at more than $50 billion, according to Forbes, and it's hard to overstate the advantage that wealth gives him.

[03:35:00]

ALESCI: He's also self-funding his campaign, so sources close to him have told me that the campaign has no budget ceiling. He'll spend whatever it takes to beat Donald Trump. And Bloomberg himself will spin that as a positive that he can't be bought by special interests and will make decisions based on whether he thinks they're the right thing to do, free of outside influence. Back to you.

CHURCH: Thanks so much for that. Well, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is back home after being hospitalized over the weekend. She's had a history of health problems during her service as one of the court's liberal voices. CNN's Ariane de Vogue has more now from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was released from the hospital Sunday. She started feeling ill Friday afternoon. She went to a local hospital. but then was transported by ambulance to Baltimore. That's where some of her doctors are. She was treated for an infection with antibiotics, and her symptoms went away.

She is a four-time cancer survivor. Just before this term began, she had treatment for pancreatic cancer. She said that she'll serve as long as she can do the job.

But this comes at an important time for the court. It's currently considering a petition from President Trump, who is seeking to block a House subpoena for his financial records. And when the justices take the bench again on December 2nd, they'll hear a major Second Amendment case.

Ariane de Vogue, CNN, Washington. >

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, dozens of young elephants are sitting in cages in China waiting to be broken and put on display in circuses and zoos. Why the Zimbabwean government says it is selling elephants despite getting backlash. Back with that in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Well, dozens of young elephants are being held in cages in China after they were captured and sold by the Zimbabwean government. Officials say the elephants are sold to fund Zimbabwe's conservation efforts, and that the practice is totally legal.

[03:40:02]

CHURCH: All this comes just days before a treaty goes into effect, blocking Zimbabwe and other countries in Southern Africa from exporting elephants. CNN's David McKenzie went to the heart of elephant country to investigate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thirty young wild African elephants captured, sold, and sent to China to fill amusement parks and zoos. But first, they will be broken here. This cell phone video is an exclusive look at the latest shipment from Zimbabwe. In cage after metal cage, the signs of suffering are clear. Just weeks ago, they were among family groups in Hwange National Park.

(On camera): What they do when they come and capture these elephants is they separate the youngsters, not the very youngest but the young elephant from the rest of the herd.

Scientists say that elephants are incredibly social animals. They develop bonds for a lifetime. And by ripping them away from their families and sending them off to a foreign country, they say it's extremely traumatic for the elephant that go and the elephant that remain.

(Voice-over): Despite these concerns, the trade up till now has been legal. But that window is closing. New rules preventing overseas shipments from countries like Zimbabwe come into full effect at the end of November. Zimbabwe park officials say they will abide by those new rules.

CHRISPEN CHIKADAYA, GOVERNMENT-APPOINTED INSPECTOR, ZNSPCA: There's no transparency anymore.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): But animal rights inspector Chrispen Chikadaya says he's already seen a shift towards secrecy.

CHIKADAYA: Something is not right.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): For the past year, officials blocked his team from entering the park, claiming they needed special permits that were not actually required. He feels that the already opaque sales won't end. They'll just go underground.

(On camera): What was it like being pushed away?

CHIKADAYA: I'm a government-appointed inspector, and it's our mandate to see the welfare of those animals. They don't belong to national parks. They belong to the people of Zimbabwe.

MCKENZIE (on camera): So now we've got the GPS coordinates of where we think these elephants have been kept. There are some 30 elephants that were shipped to China and caused global outrage.

(Voice-over): Animal rights activists and park sources told us that just beyond this boom gate, elephants were left behind and were getting prepped to be sent away.

But is it not possible to come in now with you just to have a look?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Yeah, nothing we can do. You know, this place for all the clients who come here, they are cleared by the manager.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): We went to management and were repeatedly refused entry. They told us there was nothing to see. But they did agree to an on-camera interview. Why is Zimbabwe selling elephants to China?

TINASHE FARAWO, SPOKESMAN, ZIMPARKS: It's part of our management plan. We have rangers in this park who spend 21 days in the bush protecting these animals. They don't have uniforms, they don't have boots, they don't have tents, and they don't have food. As an authority, we believe that the elephants must pay for their upkeep. They must also pay for their protection.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): But protection for Zimbabwe's wild elephants is far from assured. Elephants are dying, more than 200 in just the last few months, succumbing to the severe drought that's hit the region. In this lean season, elephants in the wild are suffering, too. But Ranger Oscar Sevanda (ph) says better to let nature take its course.

(On camera): Do you think it's good that some elephants are sent away to zoos in China, Pakistan, and the U.S.?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think it is right. They are (ph) pride of our country. These are animals like children.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): But these elephants taken from Zimbabwe remain trapped far from home.

David McKenzie, CNN, Hwange.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: It is a very distressing story. We'll take a very short break here. Still to come, it is a popular time to hit the road in the United States, but the weather could put a damper on holiday travel plans. We'll have details for you when we return.

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[03:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Well, Thanksgiving is typically a celebration for family and friends to gather around a table and enjoy a big meal. But as Victor Blackwell reports, the day has a different somber meaning for many Native Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Most of American history depicts a hospitable first Thanksgiving, 1621 grateful pilgrims in the new world offer a warm invitation to Ousamequin and members of his Wampanoag tribe. But the chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag calls that depiction a myth.

CEDRIC CROMWELL, CHAIRMAN, MASHPEE WAMPANOAG TRIBE: You know, we sent 19 men over to the first settlers to see why they were shooting guns and practicing arms to say, hey, what are you preparing for? They were preparing for some kind of war to take our people down. And so we sat down with them to have a discussion and there led a feast.

TALL OAK, CO-FOUNDER, NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING: All my research --

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Some elders say the so-called first Thanksgiving is not worth celebrating.

OAK: It's the one day out of the year when all of America bows their head and gives thanks for everything that was taken from us.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Eighty-three-year-old Tall Oak's Rhode Island home is an archive of Native American history. Amongst the books and pictures and relics is a copy of a 1970 speech written by his late friend Wamsutta. He had been invited to a celebration of the arrival of the Mayflower.

OAK: When he had to give the speech, he put it all together. And when he presented it to them, they said that, well, we can't allow you to read that because 90 percent of the people would walk out.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): We, the Wampanoag, Wamsutta wrote, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end.

OAK: He said he wasn't going to change it, and so he withdrew from that.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): And Wamsutta, Tall Oak, and other activists of the American Indian Movement created their own event for the following Thanksgiving Day.

OAK: We decided that we would declare it a National Day of Mourning for native people.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): And every fourth Thursday of November since, Native Americans have gathered at the statue of Massasoit on Cole's Hill in Plymouth to tell the truth that Wamsutta could not.

[03:50:04]

MAHTOWIN MUNRO, CO-LEADER, UNITED AMERICAN INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND: We still have to retell the story.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Mahtowin Munro is the co-leader of the National Day of Mourning, now in its 50th year.

MUNRO: Many more non-native people are interested in listening to contemporary indigenous voices and the messages that we bring that are important to everyone.

BLACKWELL (on camera): There's a monument every few feet here on Cole's Hill, to the pilgrim's first burial ground, to Plymouth Rock, the statue of Massasoit. But this stone commemorating the National Day of Mourning honors, as the plaque reads, the struggles of native peoples to survive today. Not just a statement of history, but an acknowledgement of the present.

CROMWELL: We're still fighting with our very own trustee, who we had treaties with, that we agreed to have a relationship back in the 1700s, and we're still fighting that fight today, to have our lands.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): This Thanksgiving, Tall Oak, the only surviving co-creator of the National Day of Mourning, hopes that you think less about the natives' contribution to a meal nearly 400 years ago and more about, as the plaque on the monument reads, the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their land, and the relentless assault on their culture.

OAK: It was a terrible way to show your gratitude after you've been given everything to make it possible for you to survive.

BLACKWELL (on camera): In the fight for sovereignty, the Trump administration's Bureau of Indian Affairs reversed Obama era recognition of Mashpee Wampanoag tribal land trusts.

Now, on the eve of a House vote to reaffirm that recognition, President Trump tweeted that Republicans should vote against the bill because it was backed by, in his words, Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren. The bill passed with broad bipartisan support but has not yet been taken up by the Senate.

Victor Blackwell, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And as Thanksgiving week gets under way, a predicted record number of travellers will face multiple winter storms across the United States. Freezing rain and sleet hit the northeast Sunday giving way to snow. And now millions are bracing for two more winter storms through black Friday with major disruptions in travel expected.

Let's turn to our meteorologist, Ivan Cabrera, who joins us now. He's been looking into all of this. It's just going to be a nightmare for a lot of people traveling.

IVAN CABRERA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It really will be and it will be two nightmares, I think, in one week, Rosemary. You are absolutely right. You set it up perfectly there. Fifty-five million of us will be hitting either the roads or the air or, well, the buses and trains. I mean, this is going to be a mess, most of us traveling by auto.

I tell you what. It is going to be raining. It's going to be pouring. It's going to be snowing as well in many areas here. Let's talk about the storm that is departing now. So that's some good news. (INAUDIBLE) some leftover snow shower at the word done (ph). Breezy conditions for the northeast today but the precip (ph) will be shut off.

I'm showing you the midsection of the country and the western U.S., not much going on here. But as we switch over to our warnings and watches, they are up. We have winter storm warnings posted. You see the watches in anticipation of that very track going from the Rockies into the Midwest.

Storm number one, because we have two. Here comes the first one as we put this into motion, back-to-back storms. Look at this thing cranking up and heading into the Midwest. This is Wednesday morning. Significant delays across the airports. It will be more of a rain event across the east here, thankfully, as everything then pushes to the East Coast by Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

And then across the southwest, a slug of moisture coming in out of the southwest. That's going to combine with number two. That's the Pacific storm that will be impacting with California. Then all of this will combine to provide us with our second storm heading into black Friday. Heavy rain but with this one, more significant snows across the Midwest as well. Some colder air gets pulled out. We combine the two storms and as far as the snowfall totals anyway, we're going to have significant snows from New Mexico into Colorado. And then a little bit less so but still, snowing big time across the Midwest and then rest of us across the east will begin to see things winding down as we head through Thanksgiving Day itself.

There are the delays as we head through the day on Wednesday. I'll leave you here with a Thanksgiving Day forecast. That's nice for the southeast. At least we'll be dry here and in portions of the north and west. And there you go, our Turkey there waving good-bye. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and to you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yeah, and to you, too. I'm very happy to be staying in Atlanta.

(LAUGHTER)

CHURCH: Seems wise, right? Thank you so much, Ivan. I appreciate it. And if you have been needing some motivation perhaps to get back to the gym, look no further. Willie Murphy is 82 years old. She would happily have you over to her home but prefers you have an invitation. Andrew Banas with our affiliate WHAM shows us why we don't want to mess with her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW BANAS, NEWS REPORTER, WHAM (voice-over): A crowd gathered around 82-year-old Willie Murphy at the Maple Wood YMCA today.

[03:55:00]

BANAS (voice-over): All of them captivated as Murphy shares the story of what she experienced Thursday night. A man knocked on the door to her home.

WILLIE MURPHY, AWARD-WINNING BODYBUILDER: He was outside saying, please call an ambulance because I'm sick. I'm sick.

BANAS (voice-over): Murphy said she called police but didn't let the man inside. Suddenly --

MURPHY: I heard a loud noise, and I'm saying to myself, what the heck is that? The young man is in my home, broke the door.

BANAS (voice-over): She tried not to panic. After all, she spends most of her days doing this, an award-winning weight lifter who just won a competition earlier this year.

MURPHY: I'm alone and I'm old, but guess what? I'm tough.

BANAS (voice-over): She says she grabbed a nearby table.

MURPHY: I took that table, and I went to working on him, and guess what? The table broke.

BANAS (voice-over): The man fell to the floor.

MURPHY: When he's down, I'm jumping on him.

BANAS (voice-over): When officers arrived minutes later, it wasn't Murphy who needed medical attention.

MURPHY: He's laying down already because I had really did a number on that man.

BANAS (voice-over): The suspect, who police say was intoxicated, was taken to the hospital. Murphy is not pressing charges. Today, she's cheered on by her friends at the gym, some even taking selfies with her. Rajen Sells says he hopes the suspect learned a lesson.

RAJEN SELLS, FRIEND OF WILLIE MURPHY: She is the wrong person to mess with.

BANAS (voice-over): Jim Maran (ph) has been friends with her for over a decade. He's not surprised Murphy held her own.

JIM MARAN (ph), FRIEND OF WILLIE MURPHY: I probably weigh close to twice as much as her. I wouldn't want to tangle with her. Don't mess with Willie.

(LAUGHTER)

CHURCH: Isn't she just marvellous? Our thanks to Andrew Banas with affiliate WHAM for that report. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. "Early Start" is next. Have a great day.

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