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Trump and Macron Clash over Turkey and Syria; Judiciary Committee to Hold First Hearing; China Lashes Out at U.S. Lawmakers Over Uyghur Bill; Greta Thunberg Finishes Trans-Atlantic Journey in Lisbon. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired December 04, 2019 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause, live from Studio 7 at CNN World Headquarters.
Ahead this, hour from the bromance to the face, off French president faces U.S. president. Emmanuel Macron, dismissing Donald Trump with just three words at the summit, let's get serious.
As the impeachment inquiry moves to the next stage, Republicans are prepared to turn the process into a circus. Sometimes distraction is the only defense.
And from protests outside Sweden's Parliament a year ago to sailing across the Atlantic, what the teenager and environmental activist Greta Thunberg can teach all of us about saving the planet.
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VAUSE: We will begin with the NATO meeting in the U.K. which has that distinct odor of a feuding family struggling to make it through Thanksgiving without a major disagreement. For one, U.S. president Donald Trump's bromance with Emmanuel Macron of France has clearly gone south.
His meeting on Tuesday with the French president was tense, to say the least. Mr. Macron refused to back down from his claim that NATO was brain dead because of Donald Trump's lack of leadership, comments which Donald Trump called "nasty" and "insulting."
The same Trump, now seemingly defending NATO, has also called the alliance obsolete in the past. The two leaders also clashed over relations with Russia and Turkey. Also, how to solve the ISIS dilemma.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a tremendous amount of captured, fighters ISIS fighters. They are mostly from Europe. Would you like some nice ISIS fighters?
I could give them to you. You can have everyone you on.
EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE: Let's be serious. There are a large number of fighters you have on the ground. From Syria, from Iraq.
TRUMP: This is why he is a great, politician because that was one of the greatest non answers I've ever heard and that's OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And the formal discussions have not even started. That happens in just a few hours from now. CNN's Nic Robertson is just outside of London.
The U.S. president gave that very public one-on-one breakdown with Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday and today he is meeting with the German chancellor Angela Merkel. Traditionally, these two have not had the best of relationships.
So what can we expect there?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes it was not clear from what President Macron said, they're literally going over President Trump's head because Macron, was as you said, taking on the president and his characterization of ISIS.
And he took him on about the future and the reason of NATO and what NATO does and what it sets as its agenda is very important. He talked about a number of other known issues, Turkey as, well.
But Angela Merkel, look, she can expect what Jens Stoltenberg, Emmanuel Macron got, what Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, got, who was literally put on the spot in front of the cameras and told to tell everyone twice by President Trump what his contributions to NATO are, what Canada's contributions are, that percentage of GDP, which is supposed to be 2 percent of GDP spent on defense spending.
And Trudeau said, well, I, think and he checked with his aides and it's 1.4 percent he said, it is 1.3 percent but actually Trudeau pointing out that it has gone up 70 percent.
So is Merkel going to be put on the spot like this?
We know that Germany has over the past few years increased its defense spending a little. But it is nothing close to what President Trump wants.
And Trump yesterday was talking about, well, when countries finally do beat that threshold, do we charge them for arrears?
He was indicating he would start trade wars against them if they did not pay up and measure up.
So is this what Angela Merkel can expect? There was a moment last night for some of the leaders who were meeting at the meetings they were having in London, Downing Street, et cetera, where there was a joke between Macron and Trudeau and Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, and Boris Johnson was there, where they seemed to be joking about the way President Trump has sort of hijacked the meetings, had long press conferences and challenged them on various points.
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ROBERTSON: And now Angela Merkel, who is used to being at the right hand of the president, maybe getting herself for something similar, an expose on camera with the president, where he gives full discourse on whatever he chooses to give discourse on -- John.
VAUSE: Indeed, an interesting day for you no doubt. Coming up we will check in with you in the next hour. Nic Robertson there live for us.
CNN global affairs analyst and executive editor of "The New Yorker" website, David Rohde is with us. It's good to see you.
DAVID ROHDE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Thank you.
VAUSE: This gathering has been about keeping Donald Trump happy. It seems Macron may have taken the opposite approach. We heard a few moments ago the, let's be serious quip. There was also the statement during their joint news conference and, defending his term "brain death" in describing NATO.
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MACRON: I know that my statements created some reactions. I do stand by.
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VAUSE: The U.S. president has not been short of a critical word when it comes to NATO but it seems it's a bit like criticizing your mother. If anyone else criticizes this alliance, then, look out, here's Donald Trump.
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TRUMP: I heard that President Macron said NATO was praying that, I think that is very "insulting". It's a tough statement but when you make a statement like that, it is a very "nasty" statement to essentially 28 countries including them, you can't just go around making statements like that about NATO, it is very disrespectful.
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VAUSE: It could be overreacting this but did Macron manipulate the U.S. president to doing the opposite of what he intended, which is defend NATO? ROHDE: It looks like it. It was a strange comment there where I wasn't sure if Donald Trump was speaking. And given how the president has mocked NATO, relentlessly attacked longtime U.S. allies, it was shocking to hear him say that.
So maybe that was Macron's intention. This undermines Trump's credibility. He is generally speaking all over the place. He is contradicting himself in that statement where he is defending NATO and saying, lecturing Macron for insulting people, while Donald Trump insults people every day.
VAUSE: What was interesting, the usual diplomacy, the normal deference you would see that would mask any underlying problems in a relationship between two world leaders, that was not there. Those issues were resolved away from the cameras, were resolved in front of the cameras. Here's part of a news conference.
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TRUMP: Turkey wanted to buy our system and the Obama administration would not let them.
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VAUSE: Who doesn't love a great split screen moment?
On the left, the way we were a year ago, the flicking evident, the handshakes, which lingered a little bit too long and then on the right, the reality. If Macron and Trump were married, is that how they would look waiting outside of divorce court?
Have you ever seen a relationship between two people deteriorate in real-time for all the world to see like this?
ROHDE: It's all very calculated. I think it was a reflection of how unpopular Trump is in France and Europe right now. Macron is standing up to Donald Trump, doing it in the public. It's a political calculation and it just shows how Trump is bluffing.
And the criticism has made him less of a threat so I think Macron thinks he can get the political points by directly fact-checking Trump. And he did it. It was pretty extraordinary to have this happening at the NATO summit.
VAUSE: This is one issue that symbolizes the chasm between Macron and Trump right now, it is Turkey. We just heard a little bit from Macron talking about Turkey. Now listen to Donald Trump when it comes to Turkey's president.
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TRUMP: As far as I'm concerned, I don't like Turkey and I get along very well with the president. I would hope that he's a very good member of NATO or will be.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: This is a very watered down schedule, very limited time allocated to a serious conversation or any kind of discussion.
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VAUSE: And given that, it's hard to see how the U.S. and France would find common ground on Turkey, which is a NATO member that has gone rogue.
ROHDE: They have gone rogue and he's sitting there, praising Turkey, defying the U.S. and Syria. I think it is disturbing, I think, that Trump is so detached from the reality of what is going on and spouting these tired talking points.
So I don't see agreement. But the danger is what Macron said, the long term drift of NATO. And this has been said many times but this is exactly what Vladimir Putin wanted and has wanted for years, a divided and adrift NATO.
I'm not suggesting that President Trump is a Russian agent. But this NATO summit, it's a tremendous achievement for Putin, if this is how badly things are going among former and hopefully future NATO countries.
VAUSE: They're celebrating the 75th anniversary of the treaty. That's why they are there. It's kept the peace for a long time but this is a rocky patch.
Queen Elizabeth held a reception for NATO leaders. And the official line, the event comes ahead of Wednesday's meeting of NATO leaders where allies will take decisions to further strengthen and modernize the alliance.
Is that statement more aspirational than anything else?
ROHDE: The undercurrent is that Trump is making more of these trade threats, the 100 percent tariffs on French goods and he threatened Germany as well. That's very bad for all of these elected leaders because the economy is very weak in Europe, the U.S. economy is strong.
You can say it is all talk but those comments drove down stock markets around the world and that's a real danger for average people in Europe and possibly inside of the U.S.
VAUSE: We are out of time but to your point about how unpopular Donald Trump, is Boris Johnson the British prime minister was not on the red carpet as leaders arrived and seems he did not want to be seen photographed with Donald Trump weeks before a general election, a man who is very unpopular.
After two months of closed door depositions and hearings, followed by very public testimony, the House Intelligence Committee finds overwhelming evidence of misconduct by the United States president. Details when we come back.
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VAUSE: The U.S. intelligence Committee has found Donald Trump abused the powers of his office in seeking foreign interference in next year's election and then obstructed Congress in that attempted cover- up.
The 300-page impeachment report comes after two months of testimony by diplomats and administration officials. And as CNN's Alex Marquardt reports, even in this stage, there are new details and revelations.
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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Overwhelming, the amount of evidence House Democrats said today, of the president's misconduct with Ukraine and his obstruction of Congress.
The new report from the Intelligence Committee stating: "The president placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S. presidential election process and endangered U.S. national security."
REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): The evidence is overwhelming that he abused his office to leverage your taxpayer dollars to have a foreign government try and cheat an election.
MARQUARDT: The 300-page report details the committee's findings after an eight-week historic investigation.
Their blistering conclusion? That it would be hard to imagine a stronger or more complete case of obstruction than that demonstrated by the president since the inquiry began.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): This is the result of a president who believes that he is beyond indictment, beyond impeachment, beyond any form of accountability and, indeed, above the law. And that is a very dangerous thing for this country, to have an unethical president who believes they're above the law.
MARQUARDT: Chairman Adam Schiff launched the investigation in September, prompted by the whistle-blower's complaint. That complaint centered around the July 25 call in which President Trump asked Ukrainian President Zelensky for a favor and investigations into a 2016 elections conspiracy theory and the Bidens.
"Our investigation determined that this telephone call was neither the start nor the end of President Trump's efforts to bend U.S. foreign policy for his personal gain," the report reads. "Rather, it was a dramatic crescendo," an effort, Democrats argue, that included Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, saying they were either knowledgeable of or active participants in an effort to extract from a foreign nation the personal political benefits sought by the president.
Pompeo was on that July 25 call and Mulvaney famously admitted to the quid pro quo before walking it back.
MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I have news for everybody. Get over it. There's going to be political influence in foreign policy.
MARQUARDT: The committee report alleges that the president's misconduct in Ukraine was not an isolated occurrence, nor was it the product of a naive president.
Trump, according to the committee, benefited from Russian interference in the 2016 election that the then candidate welcomed. Now, they say, the president is soliciting China and Ukraine to interfere, which presents a clear and present danger that the president will continue to use the power of his office for his personal political gain.
The central role of Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine policy runs throughout the entire report. It details his calls with the White House, the Office of Management and Budget and Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes.
In April, the report says, Mr. Giuliani had three phone calls with a number associated with OMB and eight calls with a White House number. Giuliani had been pushing for the ouster of U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. She was recalled in May after what the committee called a baseless smear campaign.
The report reads: "Her ouster set the stage for other U.S. officials appointed by President Trump to work in cooperation with Mr. Giuliani to advance a scheme in support of the president's reelection."
The committee also detailed the lengths the administration went to not cooperate, saying not a single document was produced by the White House. Officials were also blocked from testifying or handing over records.
In the end, the committee does not recommend impeachment, saying that will be left up to the full House.
So this report is now the baton that is now being handed off to the Judiciary Committee to serve as the basis for the articles of impeachment that they will be drafting.
Not long after this report came out, the White House responded in a statement, saying in part, this report reflects nothing more than Democrats' frustrations. Chairman Schiff's report reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger, straining to prove something when there's evidence of nothing -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein is with us this hour from Los Angeles.
So, Ron, when the Judiciary Committee starts calling witnesses, presumably a few hours from, now it states that Republicans have decided on disruption as the best form of defense. Listen to this.
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REP. ANDY BIGGS, (R-AZ): They're a bunch of brawlers sometimes on the Judiciary Committee so it should get pretty hot and under the collar as we go along. I don't think things have been done the way they've been done in the past, Mike, and so it causes some rancor.
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BIGGS: And it should be pretty -- much more feisty, I would say, than the Intel Committee was.
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VAUSE: Keeping in, mind Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are among the most hardline defenders of the president. They are the Freedom Caucus, which was born from the tea party. They are the bomb throwers. In the past, they have argued with parents whose kids were killed by gun violence.
And with the White House refusing to send any legal representation, is Donald Trump relying on these guys as the last line of defense?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: The strategy is consistent and what you are hearing about the Judiciary Committee is in a way consonant with what you saw in that statement what the White House today, no substantive attempt to respond to the allegations.
Instead, it is determination to simply portray this as a partisan affair in an effort to re-litigate the 2016 election. And that is what it will be for Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, not so much to try to rebut the Democratic arguments or to kind of poke holes in the factual narrative but to create kind of an atmosphere of partisan conflict that will help them rally Republicans, rally Republican voters.
And that is what keeps Republicans in Congress in line and also cause some independent voters to basically tune out and view this as more of Washington's endless partisan warfare, that really is the goal.
VAUSE: Democrats at least seem to be prepared, for the moment, for that switch to vaudeville. Here is one report from "Politico."
"Democrats are bracing for the GOP to disrupt the hearings with procedural shenanigans and they do not want to be baited into any unnecessary process fights that could serve as a distraction.
"During a practice session on Tuesday, Democrats played the part of representatives Jim Jordan and Doug Collins so members can be prepared for their antics."
This is nuts. But given the partisan divide of the country, is there any point trying to rise above the fray or is there more to be gained by taking the Republicans head on?
BROWNSTEIN: I don't think that is the answer. Look, we are seeing some extraordinary, some extraordinary truths about where we are politically.
First, there is no Republican in either chamber who is standing up to an institutional authority of the congressional legislative branch to conduct oversight of the executive branch.
If there is a Republican who has raised alarms about the White House systematically and totally stonewalling congressional requests, demands, subpoenas, documents and testimonies, I have not heard it.
Second, we are seeing the challenge of kind of maintaining any kind of civil debate when one party is almost completely abrogating the responsibility to deal in reality and facts, meaning, we have not just Devin Nunes and not just the House Republicans and their media report but senators now, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Richard Burr of North Carolina, essentially equating a few op-eds or Twitter comments by Ukrainian government officials with the systematic campaign to intervene in the U.S. election 2016 by Russia.
We have taken a turn to a place we really have not been in our own political debates. The essence of what we are going to see in this hearing is the two parties are operating on very different planes at this point and they are appealing to very different constituencies.
And there is probably very little overlap, very little Democrats can do to try and reach Republicans. But there is also most complete abandonment of any effort by the Republicans to reach persuadable voters.
VAUSE: The president may be at the NATO summit but he is still dismissing entire impeachment process as essentially another partisan attack. Here he is.
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TRUMP: You have a Democrat president, you have a Republican house and they will do the same thing because somebody picked an orange out of a refrigerator and you don't like it, so let's go and impeach him.
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VAUSE: The theory that a broken clock is right twice a day, Donald Trump has a point here that if a Democrat wins the White House in 2020, you can expect Republicans to go looking for a reason to impeach and then the Democrats might go looking for an impeachment for a Republican president.
Has that moment arrived when impeachment is now just another means of political point scoring? BROWNSTEIN: Look, I do not think so. If you look at this report, people who have watched the testimony I think have a very clear sense that what happened here this summer was far out of the ordinary and far beyond the boundaries of what Americans should be willing to accept their president using the power of his office and hundreds of million of dollars critical military aid, legislated by the legislative branch, in order to pressure a foreign ally into either producing or manufacturing dirt on a political opponent.
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BROWNSTEIN: And the scary part of this, John, is that if ultimately no Republican in either chamber decides this is worthy of sanction, what is the message President Trump is going to take from this?
I think Republicans have to be bracing for the possibility, the likelihood, that if they all say this is, OK this behavior is, OK there will be even more behavior like this and pushing beyond this, in terms of stretching the constitutional boundaries.
VAUSE: There has been some suggestion from Democrats that an offramp could be a congressional censure. Bill Clinton was censured but not removed from office. Again, Donald Trump was asked about this on Tuesday. This is what he said.
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TRUMP: I did nothing wrong, I heard about it and now they want to go to censure because they have no case for impeachment, so they want to go to censure. I don't want to go to censure. I did nothing wrong. I don't want to be censured for doing something wrong, I did nothing wrong.
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VAUSE: I thought the reaction speaks to Trump's confidence that Republicans have his back on the perception of what he sees as being right and wrong and also where he stands on caught trying to compromise the Democrats.
BROWNSTEIN: It also leaves no room for Republican maneuver. Part of the problem they face is that -- defending, in many cases, the indefensible. When Gordon Sondland gets up and says it is a quid pro quo, everybody was in the loop, what do you say after that?
When you have the president saying it was fine. So they are like in a position as I said not only going on the record and maybe it does not matter for many of them in the House, the GOP is now a pretty Republican district at this point.
But surely some of the senators in swing states, Cory Gardner, Martha McSally in Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, maybe even Joni Ernst in Iowa, they're going to have to decide how clearly do they want to endorse this as acceptable behavior for a president, especially given what I said in a moment ago, knowing Donald Trump. If nothing else he's a student of power and maybe more precisely a student of weakness. I think he will have a very clear interpretation of what it means if every Republican in both chambers says this is OK, I see nothing here to sanction. Certainly I think he will take that as a green light to go further, especially with a second term.
VAUSE: Yes, if past is prologue then absolutely. Ron, that is a good point finish on. Thanks for being with us.
Please join CNN for live coverage of Wednesday's House Judiciary hearing. It starts at 10:00 am Washington time. That is 3:00 pm in London. Must-see TV, I guess.
Well, from Beijing to Washington, stay out of our affairs. China's swift and severe response to the latest congressional condemnation of China's appalling record of human rights abuses.
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VAUSE: Welcome back. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.
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The impeachment report from the U.S. House Intelligence Committee says the evidence that President Trump abused his power and obstructed Congress is overwhelming. It also offers new details of phone calls between the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and other officials, including Devin Nunes, a top Republican on the Intelligence Committee.
Democrats accuse the president's allies of coordinating efforts to present false narratives.
NATO leaders are hoping cooler heads will prevail on Wednesday, a day after a tense round of talks between the U.S. president and the French president on the sideline of the alliance's meeting in the U.K.
Emmanuel Macron stood by his comment that NATO is brain dead because of Donald Trump's unwillingness to work with U.S. allies. They also sparred over NATO's relationship with Turkey and Russia in the fight against ISIS.
U.S. lawmakers have paved the way for possible sanctions targeting members of China's powerful Politburo over alleged widespread human rights uses of ethnic Muslim Uyghurs.
Beijing was outraged last week after the U.S. president signed into law a bill supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. And officials are lashing out at Washington, saying the U.S. House is wantonly smearing counter-terrorism and deradicalization efforts in the Xinjiang province.
All this comes after leaked government documents shed new light on Chinese detainment camps for Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. There are reports of torture and starvation within those camps, but China insists they're just voluntary training centers.
CNN's David Culver joins us now, live from Beijing.
David, you know, the reaction from Beijing has been unusually swift. It's been scathing. Here's part of a statement from the ministry of foreign affairs. "This act has deliberately slandered the human rights situation in Xinjiang. It has viciously attacked Chinese government's policies in governing Xinjiang. It has severely violated the international laws and basic norm of the international relations and has seriously interfered in China's internal affairs."
Notably, the Uyghur Act was passed 407-1. This is a Congress that seems unable to agree on what day of the week it is, but not when it comes to China's human rights abuses. There is no daylight between Republicans and Democrats. And that seems to be fueling this outrage and anger we're hearing from Beijing.
DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is certainly fueling it, John. And I think we need to point out that that statement you read came out shortly after this vote was held and that this bill was passed. So that tells you how eager they were to come out in front of this, and that's from the foreign ministry.
And now we're hearing several other government organizations echoing that and slamming the U.S. for how they'd move forward with this. The timing of this also comes a week after President Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Bill into law, and that, likewise, infuriated Chinese officials.
They -- they were angry that this would potentially deteriorate their reputation, and they feel like it's continuing to step on their sovereignty. That's how they pushed this forward.
Now, all of this, of course, timed in with the struggles of the economy here and something that they're hoping to get out in front of, as well -- John.
BERMAN: Yes, and on that note, to add further strain to an already strained relationship, the U.S. president is now talking down the possibility of a trade deal with Beijing anytime soon. This is what he said.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And by the way, I'm doing very well on a deal with China, if I want to make it. If I want to make it. It's not like it's if they want to make it. It's if I want to make it.
But you're going to find out pretty soon. It will surprise everybody.
In some ways, I liked the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal, but they want to make it now, and we'll see whether or not the deal is going to be right.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: These talks have been going on for 17 months, and Trump has
had a running commentary all along. And it's hard to know when he's telling the truth, when he's bluffing. But clearly, the markets did not like what he had to say.
CULVER: They did not. In fact, the Asian markets seeming to respond today, and likewise following the U.S. markets, and they are down right now. But all of this, of course, it's showing the rollercoaster that is this trade dispute. I mean, it's up and down.
In fact, we go back just a week, and there was perceived progress. We were reporting how Secretary Mnuchin and U.S. trade representative Lighthizer were speaking with China's vice premier, and they suggested that they had even reached a consensus to resolve some of the core issues, and that they were moving forward. And now, we're hearing President Trump saying this could wait until after the election.
The question is who really needs this more than the others? Because President Trump points this, that they can wait it out. They don't need this to be immediate, that they can put it off until after 2020.
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And I think it breaks down into finances versus China. Financially, China seems to need this. They're certainly feeling it. Consumer confidence has weakened here, and they're battling a slower GDP growth, in fact, the slowest that they've seen in nearly three decades.
But politically, the U.S. needs it, or more accurately, President Trump needs this. This is something that he has touted going into 2020, seeing that he would deliver a victory in this trade war. The question now is the timing, and as you point out, markets are not happy with this.
VAUSE: Yes. I guess we'll -- maybe we'll see a lot of incremental achievements or, you know, understandings over the next couple months it will accommodate some kind of deal. But yes, it's an unknown quantity right now.
David, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.
The U.S. president had a do-over on his remarks at the NATO meeting, after reporters asked him about the violent protests recently in Iran.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the United States support these protests in Iran?
TRUMP: I don't want to comment on that. But the answer's no, but I don't want to comment on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, maybe that wasn't the answer. The president said he actually misheard the question, came back to clarify. Here he is.
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TRUMP: We do support them totally and have supported them from the beginning. The question was asked do we support them, I thought, financially, and we haven't supported them. I don't know that we've ever been actually asked to support them financially, and you know, somebody asked, yes, maybe we would.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: These protests in Iran began last month after a hike in fuel prices, but has since grown into anti-government demonstrations, and there are reports that hundreds have been killed by security forces in a crackdown ordered by the government.
Well, Donald Trump was also asked about the U.K.'s upcoming election while in London. He said he didn't want to complicate the vote by speaking out. Then he went on to rehash his love of Brexit.
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TRUMP: I'll stay out of the election. You know that I was a fan of Brexit. I called it the day before. I was opening up Turnberry the day before Brexit. You were there. I mean, I recognize that many of you were there.
They asked me whether or not Brexit would happen. I said yes, and everybody smiled and laughed. And I said, yes, it's going to happen. This is my opinion. Just my opinion, the next day they had the election, and I was right.
But I stay out of it. I think Boris is very capable, and I think he'll do a good job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That would be Boris Johnson, the prime minister.
Another issue in next week's election, apart from Brexit, is the fate of the National Health Service. Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn says leaked documents prove the U.S. would like the NHS on the table in any future trade talks after Brexit, if it ever actually happens. But Prime Minister Johnson, as well as Donald Trump, the president, denied it.
Well, true to her word, teen climate activist Greta Thunberg leads by example, crossing the Atlantic on a zero-emissions sailboat to bring her message to the U.N. climate conference. Will the adults in the room listen?
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VAUSE: Looking for that special place? A new address, perhaps, which could best be described as the epitome of modern civilization. A socialist utopia, perhaps. Well, look no further than North Korea.
Samjiyon is one of the largest economic initiatives, part of Kim Jong- un to push for a self-reliant economy. On state media there was video of the smiling Kim leading a ribbon-cutting ceremony, you know, just like they do in the real world, with thousands of cheering people in attendance.
But the reality from defectors and human rights activists is that this city is built on the back of child labor, forced to work more than 12 hours a day for little food, no pay, for up to ten years.
There's your utopia.
Sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg has finished her second transatlantic journey by boat, and she makes her way to the Madrid -- to Madrid, rather, for the U.N. climate conference.
CNN's Jim Bittermann has our report.
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JIM BITTERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Greta Thunberg stepped off the boat to the cheers of dozens of supporters who had waited hours to welcome her to Lisbon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love you. Thank you so much for coming.
GRETA THUNBERG, CLIMATE ACTIVIST: It feels very good, doesn't it, to be welcome in such -- such a way.
BITTERMAN: Also there for Greta, colorfully-dressed protesters on another boat with a sign reading, "Climate Emergency."
The 16-year-old spent 20 days crossing the Atlantic in this 48-foot catamaran, La Vagabonde, choosing to go by sea rather than flying to make her trip emissions-free.
She set sail on November 13 from Hampton, Virginia, near Washington, traveling more than 3,400 miles with an Australian family that owns the vessel.
THUNBERG: Thank you so much.
BITTERMANN: The young activist will now head to Spain to join the COP25 climate summit underway in Madrid.
THUNBERG: We will continue to fight there to make sure that, within those walls, the voices of the people are being heard, and that the voices of the future generations are being heard, and that the voices from the people, especially from the global south are being heard.
BITTERMANN: Already, some at the summit are anticipating Greta's arrival.
CAROLINA SCHMIDT, COP25 PRESIDENT: She has been a leader. They have been able to move and open hearts to many young people and many people all over the world. We need that tremendous force in order to increase climate action.
LANDER WANTERS, BELGIAN ACTIVIST: I think it's nice she's sailing to the COP, and she's taking another way than taking the plane, because it's a much more sustainable.
BITTERMANN: This is Greta's second trans-Atlantic crossing by sea. Earlier this year, she traveled on an old racing yacht from Europe to New York to address the U.N. climate summit.
From the U.S., she had planned to travel to Chile for the COP25 summit, but due to violent protests against the government there, the event was moved to Madrid.
While in North America, Greta also participated in several peaceful climate protests. And with activists staging ongoing climate protests in Madrid, their most famous campaigner may soon join them.
Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.
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VAUSE: Well, that's our report, CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. WORLD SPORT starts after the break. You're watching CNN.
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VAUSE: Hello. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Studio Seven at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta.
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