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Nearing Deadline For The White House To Participate In The Impeachment Hearings; Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-CA) Is Interviewed About Trump's Impeachment Hearing; Plane Crash In South Dakota, Nine People Are Dead; Severe Weather Conditions From Oregon To Maine; 2020 Presidential Candidates Battle It Out In Iowa; Elie Honig Answers Legal Questions In "Cross-Exam"; Joe Biden's "No Malarkey" Bus Tour Continues In Iowa; The Catholic Church And Sexual Abuse; Growing Problem Of Racism, Anti-Semitism, Verbal Hate Attacks Inside College Campuses. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired December 01, 2019 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alex Marquardt in for Ana Cabrera here in New York. In less than an hour, the deadline hits on whether or not the White House will use its first chance to take part in the impeachment process.

That's just one critical decision that President Trump faces as December begins and this is the same month that may end with a historic House vote to impeach him. That's only been done just twice before in the country's 243-year history.

And the White House has until 6:00 p.m. eastern time, that is less than an hour from now, to notify House Democrats whether the administration will send counsel lawyers to the Judiciary Committee's first hearing on Capitol Hill that's on Wednesday.

Then they face a second deadline. That's 5:00 p.m. on Friday, two days later, to say whether they'll take part in the overall Judiciary Committee impeachment proceeding.

All this is moving towards an even more consequential deadline. This one is for House Democrats. That's Christmas Day and that is the target date that they've set to vote on whether to impeach President Donald Trump.

So let's turn now to CNN White House Sarah Westwood for some answers. Sarah, we have just under an hour left. Is there any word on what the White House will do on this first deadline?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Alex, the White House is being tight-lipped about how they are going to handle this outreach from House Judiciary Chairman Gerald Nadler.

But a White House official speaking to CNN on Friday slammed Nadler for scheduling the first of this crucial new phase of impeachment hearings for Wednesday when the president will actually be overseas participating in the NATO conference. Now, President Trump was actually invited by the Judiciary Committee

to participate in this next set of hearings, the first one that will take place on Wednesday.

But a White House official told our colleague, Jim Acosta, not to expect the president to participate, but whether the White House will have a counsel present at this new hearing, that is an open question which we may find out within the hour.

But it does present the White House with something of a dilemma because in the one hand, White House officials and Trump allies have complained repeatedly about the lack of representation for administration witnesses throughout this process.

But on the other hand, sending a counsel to participate in this hearing could legitimize proceedings that President Trump and his allies have described as a witch hunt. So, it's unclear what direction the White House will take this.

Now, Alex, the White House also faces another deadline for Friday, this one, to decide whether they will mount a public defense later in the House Judiciary proceedings.

They also will get a chance to do so though if the House votes on articles of impeachment and kicks this over to the Senate for a trial. And it's unclear at this moment what the White House will do in this next set of hearings in the Judiciary Committee, Alex.

MARQUARDT: Yes, that's right Sarah. That is the major question, whether participating would give a sense of legitimacy to this process that they have slammed as a sham. Sarah Westwood, on the north lawn of the White House, thanks very much.

So let's talk to someone who is expected to vote on whether or not to impeach President Donald Trump. That is Democratic Congressman Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. He joins me now. He is a member of the Oversight and Reform Committee. Congressman, thank you so much for joining me this evening.

REP. STEPHEN LYNCH (D-MA): Good to be with you.

MARQUARDT: Congressman, you were initially not supportive of these impeachment proceedings. That changed, and assuming this comes to a vote, will you vote to impeach the president?

LYNCH: Well, it depends on the evidence, but I think we have -- first of all, I thought that the results of the Mueller report were not as forceful. I thought that we still needed more evidence, however. I think with the Ukraine situation, we have a lot of that evidence in hand.

We have the president's own statements. We have Mick Mulvaney's statements. We have corroborating evidence by probably four to five Republican administrative officials.

So, the evidence is piling up. So, I would say that the scales are weighted heavily towards articles of impeachment at this point.

MARQUARDT: But what about your vote?

LYNCH: Well, I'll reserve that until we complete this process, right? We don't have articles for me to vote on yet so, I would need to read the articles before I decide whether to vote for the articles. There is technicality, but a necessary one.

MARQUARDT: Congressman, we have just had two weeks of historic and incredibly dramatic testimony that was in the House Intelligence Committee.

The House Intel Committee is now going to hand over a report that they're expected to allow members to see tomorrow that the Judiciary Committee will then pick up.

But after all of this dramatic testimony in the House Intel Committee, polls have shown the public opinion has not changed on impeaching and removing the president.

[17:05:05]

Does that concern you heading into a big election year?

LYNCH: It concerns me with regard to how the Senate might vote. I think that this is one of those situations where I think public opinion often guides members of the U.S. Senate and the House for that matter.

But I think going back to the evidence that I talked about that's been brought out in these hearings, I think if members are open and thoughtful and weighing their obligation to protect and defend the Constitution, I think that members if they're doing that, will side on the basis of impeachment, I believe.

Now, we still have to draft the articles. So, which particular elements of the obstruction of justice will the Judiciary Committee proceed with? What elements of bribery often talked about as quid pro quo? What specific charges?

Because the House will have to vote in each and every one of those charges separately and there may be some members that think one or other charge is not sufficient.

MARQUARDT: Well, to that point, would you like to keep the charges and the articles narrower or wider because there is talk of course about having at least one article of impeachment that could deal with the obstruction of justice that goes back to the Mueller probe which of course is not directly linked to this Ukraine affair.

LYNCH: Right. I think you want to have a tightly scripted set of articles of impeachment. I think going back to your comments regarding public opinion, I think if we started to load up with issues that were sort of left in limbo as a result of the Mueller investigation, it may actually hurt the force of evidence that's being provided with what happened in Ukraine. MARQUARDT: Right.

LYNCH: So, I would favor a -- rather than throwing everything against the wall and see what sticks, I would really want to craft this tightly and based on the facts, based on the evidence, I think we owe that to the American people.

MARQUARDT: Congressman, we're starting to see when members go home for recess, obviously one of the big things that they're being confronted with by constituents is this talk of impeachment. I want to play for you and our viewers what happened to your fellow Democrat, Mikie Sherrill, when she was confronted on impeachment at a town hall. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you going to go along with the impeachment or will you have the courage and we can't spend the next year investigating? Let the voters decide who the president --

REP. MIKIKE SHERRILL (D-NJ): I did not run for office to impeach the president. The president crossed a line for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Congressman, what are you hearing from other colleagues who are in districts like Sherrill's about what they're facing in this impeachment question?

LYNCH: Well, I think they are feeling pressure from both sides in the so-called purple districts, districts that were carried by President Trump in the last election.

But again -- so I think those members I think will put a lot of thought into this and be even more precise in terms of weighing the evidence. But again, I go back to the bulk of the evidence that has been produced thus far. I think it's fairly damning regarding the president's conduct in this case.

MARQUARDT: So let's assume those articles of impeachment are voted on and the House does vote to impeach the president. For the benefit of the Democratic Party, how would you like to see that Senate trial going knowing that a conviction is highly unlikely?

LYNCH: Well, we've got to keep it simple. I think we've got to focus precisely on those elements that we think crossed the line with regard to the president's conduct.

It's got to be lawyerly (ph). We're not going to impeach this president with pitchforks and torches. It's going to have to be the law. And, you know, I think the managers of the impeachment process that are House members and go to the Senate will have to really do a great job in terms of telling that story.

You know, with everything that the president has done here, I think there's an obligation on the part of House members to carry this case to the Senate.

Again we're going to have to be very, very precise. And regardless of the outcome, look, if we fail to impeach, what it means now is that this type of conduct is acceptable. This is acceptable.

[17:09:56]

Now, that's what the Senate vote will decide, whether or not, you know, it is safer to remove this president or leave him in office. And I think, again, the evidence against this president and his conduct thus far has proven him unfit for office really.

MARQUARDT: Congressman Lynch, one of the names that kept coming up time and time again on the Republican side during the impeachment public hearings in the Intelligence Committee was that of Hunter Biden.

If the White House does choose to engage in these hearings in the Judiciary Committee and then calls for Hunter Biden to testify, how do you think Democrats should respond to that?

LYNCH: I think it's ridiculous. Remember, the Ukrainians never identified Hunter Biden as a suspect of a crime. So, I think the Republican effort is just to obfuscate.

They've been, you know, now I hear they want to have Adam Schiff as a witness. You know, what evidence would he be able to produce? So, they're trying to shift the attention away from the president and his conduct and all of the witnesses that have pointed to the president's illegal conduct.

They want to, you know, obfuscate and that's what -- so they've dreamed this up. They've dreamed up this theory that Ukraine really hacked the elections back in 2016 and not Russia, which plays right into Putin's hands.

MARQUARDT: Right.

LYNCH: They've basically adopted the Putin line that really in spite of 14 intelligence agencies that work for the United States, they're discarding all of that and they've got their own conspiracy theory about Ukraine doing this.

MARQUARDT: Right.

LYNCH: So, it's shameful. It's shameful, really, that they're going so low as to come up with these conspiracy theories when we have such a serious matter before us.

MARQUARDT: Well, it's a major historic week ahead on Capitol Hill. Congressman Stephen Lynch, thank so much for your time tonight.

LYNCH: Thank you very much.

MARQUARDT: All right, quick programming note, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be taking questions on the impeachment, the 2020 election and more in a live CNN town hall moderated by our Jake Tapper. That's this Thursday night right here at CNN 9:00 p.m. eastern time.

Now, much more still ahead including that plane that crashed in a blizzard in South Dakota -- only three of the 12 people on board survived. The same storm is moving through the northeast right now and we're tracking who's in the path. You are live in the "CNN Newsroom."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:00]

MARQUARDT: Nine people are dead after a plane crash that happened in blizzard-like conditions near Chamberlain, South Dakota. The victims include two children and the pilot. Miraculously, three passengers did survive.

At the time, the National Weather Service says that visibility was just half a mile at the airport when the plane took off. CNN's Nick Watt joins me now with more. Nick, what are we learning?

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, horrific weather conditions as you mentioned, Alex. That visibility and also about an inch of snow was falling every hour. Now, one local official tells us that weather was a factor in this crash.

But the FAA and the NTSB are investigating and it will be some time before they come to any form of conclusion, but the weather was horrific. That plane was supposed to be heading 6 or 700 miles west. It barely made it off the runway there in Chamberlain before it crashed.

As you mentioned Alex, three people did survive. They were rescued by first responders who had to battle that weather to get to the plane and also to take those three survivors to the hospital in Sioux Falls. Nine people dead. And we are learning a little bit more about those nine victims. One was the pilot. Two, as you mentioned, were children.

And we've also heard that two of the dead are Jim and Kirk Hansen, who were founders of a company called Kyaani, which is a health and wellness supplement company based in Idaho Falls, which is where this plane was heading.

Now, the plane itself was a single engine plane. It's a Swiss made plane. Got a pretty good safety record, but as I say, no indication yet on exactly what caused it. We saw all that terrible weather. We had that local official telling us, but it will be some time before they really figure out exactly why this tragedy happened, Alex, claiming nine lives.

MARQUARDT: All right, horrible crash. Nick Watt, thank you very much.

We are going to dig into a little bit more about the weather system that brought heavy snow to South Dakota. That is far from finished. Blizzard-like conditions are hammering much of the Great Lakes region with forecasters predicting more than a foot of snow from the Dakotas all the way to Michigan. A viewer sent us this picture showing 20 inches of snow piled up

outside his home in Duluth, Minnesota. Look at that. More than 50 million people are under some sort of winter weather alert on what is supposed to be the busiest travel day of the year right after Thanksgiving.

Thousands of flights have been delayed or canceled so far with more trouble expected as the storm moves East. Karen Maginnis joins us now.

Karen, thank you so much for being with me. Incredible pictures that we're seeing now. Where is that storm right now and where is it going?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's a complex system and it has impacted millions of folks who perhaps really enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday who were looking forward to perhaps relaxing a bit before they headed back to work on Monday.

This has been nothing but a headache for millions of people all the way from the Great Lakes, the Midwest, the Northern tier, and across the Northeast of New England. Area of low pressure is situated across the lower Great Lakes. It is going to travel towards the east.

We also have this frontal system that's going to do just kind of bring in that flow of little bit warmer air, that's why this is a fluid forecast because we've got something that starts out as rainfall.

Area of low pressure moves closer. Then we get on the backside of that. We get colder air. That's going to produce the snowfall. We have seen just numerous reports of snow, whiteout conditions.

There was just a report out of Garrett County in Maryland. That is just along the northern edge of the border and they had 36-car multi- pile up there.

[17:20:00]

Ice on the roadways -- there were reports of nine injuries and they are saying that it was people going too fast. They didn't really see the ice on the roads as you typically can't.

For New York, it looks like rain now, not everybody. If you were going to go to Albany, New York, we have seen some really heavy snow bursts here over the past couple of hours. It looks like Bridgeport, Connecticut is seeing primarily an ice event now.

Boston, your forecast changes almost by the hour. It has been extremely difficult to pin down the forecast there. Interior sections of the northeast and New England could see a foot of snowfall.

But if you are traveling to Boston, in or out of Boston, well, there could be eight inches of snowfall, there could be 12 inches of snowfall. There could be three inches of rain.

There could be 40 mile an hour gusts. There could be half a mile visibility. It has been extraordinarily difficult. And now the big problems have been in Washington, D.C. Although this is a rain event, Alex, but LaGuardia, all along that I-

95 corridor, over 6,000 delays and over 600 cancellations for today so, very problematic for travelers today.

MARQUARDT: Very problematic. Hopefully it calls down soon. Karen Maginnins, we know that you'll be keeping an eye on all of that. Thank you very much.

Now, on the campaign trail, Mayor Pete Buttigieg was in the crowd at a black church in North Carolina when the pastor blasted reporters with an impassioned plea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This rift, ain't no data behind that, that there is some rift between black folk and gay folk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:25:00]

MARQUARDT: There are still 17 people running for the Democratic presidential nomination and there is one person who could help narrow down that field, but he's not going there. Dana Bash has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN BASH, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: President Obama staying on the sidelines of the Democratic primary, some 2020 hopefuls are doing what they can to draw a personal connection to the last Democratic president especially where it all started for him, in Iowa.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is good to be back in Iowa.

BASH: Where Mayor Pete Buttigieg certainly seems open to comparisons with Obama and his message of generational change.

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-IN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was knocking on doors in rural Iowa for a different young presidential candidate with a funny name.

BASH: And if this drum line with Senator Kamala Harris in Iowa looks familiar, it's the same one that Obama marched with in 2007. In an Oowa campaign video, Harris reminisced about breaking barriers and --

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- campaigning for a senator by the name of Barack Obama.

BASH: And of course former Vice President Joe Biden has made his relationship with the president he served with central to his 2020 pitch.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Barack bama and Joe Biden. Barack and I never disagreed on a strategy.

Barack and I did a pretty good job.

BASH: In a race where most Democrats say their top priority is finding someone who can beat President Trump, Obama is giving some hints about how to do it. The former president warned the 2020 field to remain "rooted in reality."

OBAMA: The average American doesn't think that we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.

BASH: But he also gave a nod to progressives in his party.

OBAMA: I wouldn't run the same campaign today, in this environment, as I ran in 2008.

BASH: So for those looking to take on the Obama mantle, his message seems to be you need your own.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUARDT: Our thanks to Dana Bash for that. And still ahead, the two things that one Republican says will be to President Trump's advantage during the impeachment proceedings, but the president has already signaled it won't happen. You're live in the "CNN Newsroom."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:30:00]

MARQUARDT: By 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time, so that's under half an hour from now, the White House has to decide whether lawyers will participate in the House Judiciary Committee's first impeachment hearing that's on Wednesday.

And that's not the only deadline that President Trump is now facing. He also has to decide by next Friday, this coming Friday, whether or not his legal team will also be taking part in the overall impeachment proceedings.

One Republican congressman not only says that he thinks the participation is in the president's best interest, he also believes that senior officials like former National Security adviser John Bolton and the acting White House chief of staff $ should testify as well. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS HOST: We've been talking about the McGahn decision here all morning. We know it is being appealed, but if the courts rule in the future that senior officials like John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, could testify, do you believe they should?

REP. TOM MCCLINTOCK (R-CA): Absolutely. In fact, yes, I think it will be to the president's advantage to have them testify now, but he has to weigh that against the enormous catastrophic damage that would do to the doctrine of executive privilege.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: CNN Legal Analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig is here to answer your questions on impeachment in this week's "Cross- Exam." Elie, thanks so much for joining me. Now, the courts did rule this week that the former White House counsel, Don McGahn, does not have to, sorry, that he must testify, saying that presidents are not kings.

However, McGahn is appealing that decision, meaning for now, that he will not be testifying. One viewer wants to know will he and other witnesses like those who were just mentioned there be compelled to testify.

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, what's really important ruling this week out of federal court in Washington, D.C., it goes core balance of powers.

The court ruled that Congress' subpoena was legitimate on Don McGahn, former White House counsel, a key obstruction of witness in Robert Mueller's investigation.

Now, it was a very forceful ruling. As you said, the district court said presidents are not kings. The court dismissed the White House's absolute immunity argument as a fiction.

Now, there will be appeals. The White House already has appealed to the Court of Appeals. They'll likely try to get up to the Supreme Court next. And that poses a timing problem for House Democrats because even in the quickest scenario, this will take until February, March 2020 to get all the appeals resolved.

I don't think House Democrats realistically have that long given the impeachment timetable. Now, will it impact other witnesses? It should. There's no way in my mind to legally distinguish Don McGahn from Mick Mulvaney, Bolton, Pompeo.

That said, if the White House wants to obstruct, they can say we're still going to court. We still want to litigate this out in order to try to run out the clock and effectively win by default.

MARQUARDT: The accusation from Democrats against the White House was that the president was trying to bribe Ukraine. So another viewer is asking that if a prosecutor had the evidence that the House has now, could the president be indicted on bribery charges?

HONIG: Yes. So, two quick things first, well, DOJ has a policy against indicting a sitting president and you do not need a crime in order to impeach. That said, I do think the evidence here is sufficient to charge somebody with bribery -- the president with bribery.

Let's break it down. There is three parts to the federal bribery statute. First of all, public official. The president of course is a public official. Solicits or demands. [17:35:00]

It means just asks anything of value. You know, that part is a little controversial. Here the thing of value would be the investigations, the generating of campaign dirt on a political opponent.

Now, Bill Barr and others have said that's not a thing of value. I would gladly argue the other side of that case because obviously opposition research is valuable. It's one of the main expenditures that politicians have.

They spend tens of thousand, hundreds thousands of dollars. And then the third part, intending to be influenced or rewarded on official business. Here the official business is the foreign aid and the White House visit.

And the question is, are those things connected. Trump has said no. I said I want nothing. Of course we learned this week that he only said that after he knew about the whistleblower complaint.

On the other hand, all the witnesses, Mick Mulvaney, Trump himself in the call so Zelensky have said those things of course are connected. I've done real bribery cases. This is stronger than most of the real bribery criminal cases that I've done.

MARQUARDT: There are two big deadlines looming. One is under half an hour as we were just saying. The other one is next Friday. The president -- the White House have to decide whether or not they will send a legal team to attend the House impeachment hearings this week.

What is the -- are his lawyers allowed to attend without participating? And do you think that the president will choose to have them participate?

HONIG: So the president's lawyers can attend these. Still, I have enough time to make a prediction. I predict they will not. On the one hand, why would they pass on a chance to take a shot at mounting a defense, chipping away at impeachment?

On the other hand, the president has maintained along that this is unfair, that the process here is not fair to him and I think by pulling his lawyers out of it, A, he won't have to make an actual defense and I don't know that he's settled on a specific defense yet.

And B, he can continue to be -- claim to be the victim of an unfair process. So, we got 24 minutes left. I think they're going to pass.

MARQUARDT: Twenty-four minutes and counting. Elie Honig, it's going to be a huge week. We know that you're going to be watching it very, very closely. Thanks so much for joining me.

HONIG: Thanks Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right. And we're going to be right back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:40:00]

MARQUARDT: In the 2020 race, Vice President Joe Biden is on the road for day two of his no malarkey bus tour through 18 counties in Iowa. So let's get right to CNN political reporter Arlette Saenz who is following him out there. She is in Storm Lake, Iowa. Arlette, is the campaign getting the kind of response that they are hoping for from this tour?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNNPOLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Alex, one of the things that Joe Biden's campaign really wanted out of this bus tour is trying to put him in front of as many voters as possible.

And Biden, in just a short while, is about to kick off his second event of the day here in Storm Lake. You can see just down the hall, there's the crowd that's assembled for his town hall here.

But Biden is going to be making this barn storm across the state as he is trying to boost his support here in Iowa. Right now, Biden in the national polls, he's leading.

In fact in a recent poll, leading by double digits, but here in Iowa, it's a bit of a different picture. You have Pete Buttigieg who recently in our CNN Des Moines register poll was leading the other contenders in the state.

And then Biden was battling it out for second with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. And a little bit earlier today, we were at a coffee shop with Biden over in Carroll, Iowa and I asked him that question about how his support the doing nationally and why that hasn't translated to here in Iowa. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I think it is translating. I think -- that's we're here. We're here to translate. We're here to translate the polls nationally to here. Look, I feel good about Iowa and the fact that it is my impression and the (inaudible) know about this than I ever know, that I won't read about it, is that Iowans make up their mind late and they change. The front-runner ends up getting behind and the front-runner comes back. I'm running to win. I'm running not to lose. I'm running to come in third or fourth or fifth and you like that. So, I feel good about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: So Biden looking to put in the work here over these next 64 days before the Iowa caucuses, trying to meet as many voters as possible as he is trying to earn support and win here in Iowa, Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right, two days down, six to go. Arlette Saenz in Iowa. Thanks very much.

And a final reminder that the last presidential debate of the year is coming to CNN, "The PBS News Hour Democratic Presidential Debate" live from Los Angeles. You can watch it on CNN and your local PBS station, Thursday, December 19th at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:45:00]

MARQUARDT: Priests abusing children. It's a story you've likely heard before but there is something you may not know. Powerful institutions within the Catholic Church are free to self-police.

And a year long CNN investigation reveals one of these institutions, the second biggest Catholic religious order in the world has repeatedly failed to protect children from pedophile priests.

CNN's Senior International Correspondent, Nima Elbagir traveled to Europe, Africa and the United States for her disturbing CNN special report tonight, "Abuse and Scandal in the Catholic Church: The Case of the Predator Priest." We do have a warning. Parts of this report may be distressing to some viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We spoke to the prosecutor in Belgium. We went to (inaudible) about breaking the terms of your sentence. We also spoke to some children up in (inaudible) who had some really disturbing stories to share with us and of course we want to hear what you have to say about it Father Delft.

LUK DELFT, PRIEST: Nothing.

ELBAGIR: What do you mean nothing? You're a priest. You're a man of God. These children are accusing you of abusing them and you have nothing to say for yourself?

DELFT: No.

ELBAGIR: Do you know Alban? Do you remember Alban? He said he was 13 when you abuse abused him? Do you remember him? Alban in Kaga-Bandor at the compound, the Catholic compound.

He and his father spoke to us. He was crying. He said that you told him you loved him and then you hurt him. You have nothing to say.

DELFT: No.

ELBAGIR: It doesn't disturb you to hear that children said this about you?

DELFT: No.

ELBAGIR: Do you want to say anything?

DELFT: No.

ELBAGIR: Well, we will of course be speaking to the managers of Caritas about our findings. Thank you for whatever this was.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUARDT: Nima Elbagir joins me now from London. Nima that was incredibly powerful reporting that we just saw there. What kind of ramifications have you seen so far from this reporting?

ELBAGIR: Well, the Belgian federal authorities have now started an investigation based off of our findings. The United Nations has also suspended its work with Caritas and the Central African Republic. The government there has launched its own investigations and Father Delft who you saw in that clip has finally been recalled back to Belgium.

But in a move that I think illustrates everything that is wrong with ultimately the church's handling of abuse, the Salesians, the Catholic order that Father Delft is from, even after they withdrew him from the Central African Republic, it actually took about four weeks of us repeatedly going back to them to ask why is he still in country, why is he still in country.

[17:50:07]

Even after they withdrew him, they moved him to a campus in which they also held some accounts for children and I think, Alex, that just speaks to the lack of understanding and the lack of follow through that the church has illustrated in every single reaction it's had to this abuse scandal.

MARQUARDT: We saw there you door-stepping the priest. Clearly, did not want you in there and tried to get you out from the looks of it and you went all over the place for this story, Central African Republic to Belgium to the Vatican. What were the kinds of hurdles and the challenges that you've faced?

ELBAGIR: That moment that you just showed our viewers, I think that was probably one of the toughest things that we, I and the team, we had ever done because everything that we had built around with regards to speaking to these victims who had alleged new incidents of abuse by him, it all really hinged on actually tracking him down.

And tracking him down in a country that is still essentially a war zone where the government only controls 20 percent of the territory. I think that was really hard for all of us, and then just peeling back the layers of the obfuscation and the arcane laws and the walls that the Catholic Church throws up.

This year is supposed to have been the year in which the Holy Father announced that they were going to tackle not just abuses but tackle the culture as he puts it, of cover-up in the church. And what we found really is very little has actually been done, and trying to navigate that was incredibly hard.

But given what the victims that you will hear from later tonight, given what they entrusted us with, I think we all felt were strongly all the way through CNN that this was a story that we had to find a way to tell. MARQUARDT: And tell it you did -- such strong and profoundly

important reporting. Nima Elbagir in London, thank you so much.

ELBAGIR: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: And you can tune in for Nima's CNN Special Report "Abuse and Scandal in the Catholic Church." That is tonight at 8:00 p.m. only on CNN.

Swastikas, racist stickers, sexist social media posts, we will be taking a look at the growing problem of racism and anti-Semitism on college campuses nationwide. That's next.

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[17:55:00]

MARQUARDT: Syracuse University is beefing up security on campus in the wake of several racist incidents there. They include everything from derogatory graffiti against Asian, Black, and Jewish people to hateful verbal attacks and even reports of a white supremacist manifesto.

The incidents are part of what appears to be a growing problem on college campuses in the last few years. CNN's Sara Sidner has that story.

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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It appears hate incidents have exploded onto university campuses across the country. At University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, five football players have been suspended accused of circulating a meme of a KKK cross burning in a private footbnall group Snapchat.

JALEN THOMAS, VICE PRESIDENT, BLACK MALE EMPOWERMENT: These young men are adults, you know, they're juniors in college so they know right from wrong. I really don't care if it was a joke or not.

SIDNER (voice-over): At the University of Georgia, police say swastikas greeted more than a dozen students this month on the doors of their rooms at two residence halls.

Last month, a Jewish student reported the letters of her historically Jewish sorority were lit from her dorm door. And later, all hail with a swastika below it appeared.

EVAN BERNSTEIN, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: The fact that we had 201 anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses last year, which is 86 percent increase from 2016, is just staggering.

SIDNER (voice-over): At Indiana University, Professor Eric Rasmussen stirs controversy by posting and quoting this article "Are Women Destroying Acaemia? Probably." The provost blasted him saying for years he's used his private social media account to disseminate sexist, racist, and homophobic views. ERIC RASMUSEN, PROFESSOR, INDIANA UNIVERSITY: Academic freedom should

protect me even if I believed all the things the provost attributed to me.

SIDNER (voice-over): The University says they can't fire him because of his First Amendment rights. At New York Syracuse University, furious students have protested for days over their school administration's response to several hateful incidents on or near campus this month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We the students wholeheartedly reject this phenomenon and we refuse to cease our occupation until our demands are met in their totality. All power to the students.

SIDNER (voice-over): The university says over 13 days this month there were 12 incidents of hateful graffiti on or near campus and a black female student was called the "N" word.

MATTHEW MALINOWSKI, SYRACUSE POLICE DEPARTMENT: It's been busy, overwhelming at times. We need to come together as a community.

SIDNER (voice-over): They did. And now, four Syracuse students are suspended and students of other universities have been disciplined for the verbal assault of the black student.

KENT SYVERUD, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY CHANCELLOR: The incident involved 14 people leaving an Alpha Ki Rho fraternity party.

SIDNER (voice-over): This is the second time in 18 months that fraternity members at Syracuse have faced discipline for racist behavior. In 2018, 15 members of Theta Tau were suspended after a video showed them using homophobic slurs, joking about gassing Jews and spewing their hatred of Black people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I solemnly swear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I solemnly swear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To always have hatred in my heart and core.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To always have hatred in my heart and core.

SIDNER (voice-over): A year later, hateful rhetoric aimed at Blacks, Asians and Jews keeps appearing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm looking over my shoulder a little bit but I wouldn't ay I'm particularly scared because I think I know that's what they want.

SIDNER (voice-over): In a tearful address to the students, the chancellor said he understand the students' fear after his mixed race family faced attacks when they lived in the south.

SYVERUD: My wife was subjected to many racial epithets. Their car tires were slashed, my kids' dog was shot. There was little investigation. Those responsible were never found. SIDNER (on camera): The chancellor ended by saying that was then and

in the south. This is 2019 and in Syracuse, where he says hate has no place. He finally agreed to sign onto nearly all of the students' demands trying to make his campus safer and more inclusive. Sara Sidner, CNN, Los Angeles.

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[17:59:59]

MARQUARDT: Good evening. I am Alex Marquardt in for Ana Cabrera this evening.