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Report: "Overwhelming" Evidence Trump Abused Power; Trump, Macron Clash Over Major Issues at NATO Meeting; Protests Erupt Over Series of Gruesome Assaults; Kamala Harris Ends Her 2020 Presidential Bid; India's Crashed Lunar Lander Site Spotted On Moon. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired December 04, 2019 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church at CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, a 300-page case for impeachment. The U.S. House Intelligence Committee goes public with its findings in the Ukraine scandal, claiming strong evidence that President Trump abused his power.
All this as president Donald Trump meets with NATO leaders and some disagreements play in front of the cameras.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a tremendous amount of captured fighters, ISIS fighters over in Syria, France, would you like some nice ISIS fighters?
I could give them to you. You can take everyone you want.
EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE: Let's be serious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And later, demanding action in India. What one government official who is on a hunger strike over the latest brutal rape and murder hopes her sacrifice will achieve.
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CHURCH: Good to have you with us.
U.S. president Donald Trump is in the U.K. for the NATO meeting but the cries of impeachment are following him even on his journey abroad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Are you going to be impeached, Mr. President? (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: President Trump spent Tuesday picking fights with other NATO leaders. He blasted French president Emmanuel Macron, calling NATO brain dead as "nasty" and "insulting" and called Canada slightly delinquent over its defense spending.
But it is clear the impeachment inquiry is still top of mind and President Trump did not miss an opportunity to slam the man leading it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think Adam Schiff is a deranged human being. I think for lots of reasons other obvious he is a very sick man and he lies. Adam Schiff made up my conversation with the president of Ukraine. He made up the conversation. He lied. If we didn't do that in the halls of Congress, he would be thrown into jail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And even as the president used characterization as a defense, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee delivered the committee's report on its impeachment hearings.
The 300-page document summarizes two months of testimony and concludes there was overwhelming evidence President Trump abused his power and obstructed Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): This report chronicles the scheme by the president of the United States to coerce an ally, Ukraine, that is at war with an adversary, Russia, into doing the president's political dirty work.
It involves a scheme in which Donald Trump withheld official acts, a White House meeting, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars of needed military assistance in order to compel that power to deliver two investigations that he believed would assist his reelection campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And we will have much more on the committee's report and the next phase of the impeachment proceedings later this hour.
Meanwhile, President Trump's bromance with President Macron is clearly over. The two sparred over major issues Tuesday, including how to resolve the ISIS dilemma and NATO's relationship with Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Would you like some nice ISIS fighters?
I could give them to you. Everyone you want. MACRON: Let's be serious. There are fighters you have on the, ground fighters coming from Syria, Iraq, should be number one priority because it is not to finish it is to get rid of ISIS.
TRUMP: This is why he is a great politician because that was one of the greatest nowadays was overheard. They get along with Russia and I campaigned on it.
MACRON: It is important to have a strategic dialogue with Russia. We must do so without naivete.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Also, Tuesday, President Trump's comments that the trade war with China could drag on until after the 2020 election sent the Asian markets tumbling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm doing very well on a deal with tried if I want to make it. If I want to make it. If they want to make it, it is not if they want to make, it if I want to make it. In some ways I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal.
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TRUMP: But they want to make it now and see whether the deal is going to be right. It is going to be right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN is covering the story from all angles. Nic Robertson is in Watford outside London, where the NATO meeting will be taking place. Melissa Bell is in Paris and David Culver is in Beijing.
Greetings to you all.
Nic, let's start with you in London and day one of the NATO meeting got off to a very bad start as we saw with those intense moments between the French and U.S. president. Next, Mr. Trump meets with Germany's Angela Merkel.
But will we see more of the same, do you think?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It may be a little harder to manage that, today. Yes, there will be a photo op spread at the beginning of that meeting and yes there will be opportunity for President Trump to do what he did yesterday, which is turn that photo spray into an impromptu press conference, 52 minutes with Jens Stoltenberg, over half an hour with Emmanuel Macron.
There were 20 minutes with the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. But the schedule so much more tightly packed today. It will be difficult for the president really sort of get into it, any discourse. And also the venue will be slightly different. It is not home turf for the U.S. ambassador's residence. It's at the NATO headquarters. But undoubtedly President Trump is going to double down on his demands
to Germany to measure up and pay its 2 percent of GDP spending into defense, which is a NATO commitment, according to NATO figures, Germany in 2014 was 1.2 percent it is now 1.38 percent. It has been improving. It is improving faster than some countries like France.
But President Trump yesterday talking about possibly using trade somehow on countries that are not measuring up and are not paying their 2 percent and also sort of got into a discourse in on camera interviews yesterday, saying if they do not pay up now or when they pay, up do we get them to pay their arrears as well?
Is that strategy has now to double down, triple down, quadruple down and say there will be more to pay if you do not pay the right amount?
Undoubtedly, Angela Merkel will hear this from President Trump. What else we don't know, will there be other embarrassing moment as he did Justin Trudeau, which was to get the prime minister to say what his percentage contribution was.
Trudeau said 1.4 percent. He said they increased it by 70 percent over the past year or so, many figures have it 1.31 percent. All details, President Trump wanting to draw attention on this big world stage right now.
CHURCH: Right, thank you so much for that, Nic Robertson.
To Melissa in Paris now.
What is being said there about the testy exchange between President Trump and Macron and then, of course, the way the French leader was able to push the U.S. president into defending NATO?
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was as closely watched on this side of the Channel as it was on the, other Rosemary and partly because of the testiness of the exchanges, that really were quite extraordinary.
We just saw a little clip of them and one never ceases to be amazed at the tenseness in the listening back. But also because they exposed not just between the two men but perhaps more broadly within NATO, some of those fundamental divisions over things like the future of NATO, its strategic plans, how it should be positioning itself but also issues like jihadi fighters, ISIS, defeating ISIS in Syria, the attitude NATO should be adopting.
And through that, the broader question of how NATO should be positioning itself towards Russia, these are fundamental divisions and questions that NATO is having to grapple with.
And we were seeing what was really an extraordinary exchange because no one was expecting that photo opportunity to become such a bitter debate. And, yet I think it should be noted also, Rosemary, there was some agreement, perhaps some surprising agreement between the two men on a couple of very fundamental issues, despite and through that testiness. First of, all on the tax that the French introduced on the big digital
giants, the two men agreeing that they could perhaps work something out. This had seemed pretty divisive to begin with and angered the Americans, who planned to put tariffs on $2.4 billion of French goods, should the French not reconsider that digital tax that was introduced this summer.
But also interestingly on Russia, bear in mind that when Emmanuel Macron arrived at this meeting yesterday, he accepted, he spoke to the fact that he had attracted a lot of criticism over his mention of that fact.
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BELL: In that same interview he said that Europe should be thinking again about looking at its relationship with Russia and looking at perhaps starting a new kind of dialogue with, it.
And the two at that press conference also spoke of the need to reconsider NATO's relationship to Russia. So a couple of points that had been assumed to be profound divisions between the two men that in fact look as though they might be something they could work on, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Interesting. Many thanks to Melissa Bell. Bringing us that report from Paris.
And let's go to Beijing now and, David, President Trump suggested Tuesday that a trade deal with China might have to wait until after the 2020 elections. That, of course, spoke to, U.S. markets; Asian markets did not like it either.
How do they look now?
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are following, suit Rosemary. They likewise are down. This is reflective of the uncertainty of any phase one deal coming to fruition, let alone a comprehensive trade deal between the U.S. and China.
All of, this when you turn your head away from it for just a day, can change rapidly. The proof of that is just go back a week, that's when top officials from both sides were on the phone with one another. They had discussed some of the core concerns that they had. They said they had resolved those issues and things were looking positive.
Then we have his remarks from President Trump, suggesting that things had quickly deteriorated. When you look at, this you look at who needs this deal more and that is the question that has been surfacing.
Economically could argue that China is certainly hurting, maybe even more than the U.S. in this, certainly that is the portrayal from the U.S. administration. They suggest you look at the weakening consumer confidence, you look at the fact that several supply chains have moved to other countries.
And you look at the GDP growth, slowest in nearly three decades. Politically, President Trump could suffer here because this is something he would boasted he would bring a victory in the trade war, especially going into 2020.
Both sides seem dug in on this. In a week and a half you have more tariffs that the U.S. will likely levy against China, more consumer goods. And President Trump saying as you heard there that he could put it off. He does not have to do it in the immediate future. He seems to be in no rush, could wait until after 2020.
On the Chinese side of things, President Xi Jinping does not speak too often about this but recently he did comment, saying that he is hopeful that a deal will come together but he's willing to fight back.
And I go back, Rosemary to commentary from the state broadcaster CCTV earlier this year and they suggested that China will fight the U.S. to the end.
The question, is when will the end come?
CHURCH: Indeed, David Culver, bringing us that live report from Beijing. Many thanks.
Before I let all three of you go, I do want to just pop back to London and Nic Robertson, you mentioned, of course, we're going to see this meeting between the U.S. president and Angela Merkel.
What other things should be looking out for at the NATO meeting?
ROBERTSON: There will be the three-hour meeting where the leaders get together behind closed doors and so what happens behind there is the testiness, the friendships, certainly the difficulty trying to nail down what it is, NATO's future.
And specifically to Macron's point. And I think the points to look forward to will be the press conferences that come later in the day. President Trump does seem very loquacious, he does like to take a long press conference sometimes.
There is a lunch today for what I might call the 2 percent club, those nine nations who do contribute the 2 percent to GDP defense spending to NATO, so that will be happening.
You have Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, all countries that if you look at that location, sort of on the front line, if you, will of NATO, towards the east, where they have the greatest concerns and therefore they want the greatest support from NATO and they are dipping into their pockets.
And so President Trump having lunch with those, Britain as well, who all made that 2 percent contribution of the president wants all the countries to. Do
CHURCH: A lot to be looking for out. For Nic Robertson keeping an eye on all of this from his vantage point there in London. Appreciate it. Two months of testimony is summarized in the long awaited impeachment
report from the U.S. House Intelligence Committee and the conclusion is damning for President Trump. The new phase of the process is ahead.
Also coming up, gang raped, murdered and, burned, Indians are seething over a horrific rape case.
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CHURCH: Why many are saying an extreme crime deserves extreme punishment. That is just a moment.
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CHURCH: Well, the long-awaited impeachment report from the U.S. House Intelligence Committee says Donald Trump used his powers to seek foreign interference in next year's presidential election then obstructed Congress to cover it up.
The 300-page report summarizes two months of testimony by diplomats and administration officials, along with some new details. Alex Marquardt has our report.
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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.
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MARQUARDT (voice-over): 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.
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CHURCH: CNN political analyst nothing CNN political analyst Nathan Gonzales joins me now from Washington to talk more about this.
Good to have you with us.
NATHAN GONZALES, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: The House Intelligence Committee report says the evidence of the presidents of misconduct with Ukraine is overwhelming. The White House says there is no such evidence.
Who is right here?
GONZALES: Well, I think this is a continuation of what has been playing over the last few weeks and a couple of months, the report itself was not a particular surprise. There were elements of it that were new, including some phone records, specific phone calls that we have not seen before.
But the fact that the Intelligence Committee and Chairman Schiff came to this conclusion is not particularly surprising. And I think we are now going to see a continuation of that heading into the Judiciary Committee.
Now at the same time, the idea that Republicans think this is a witch hunt and a scam is not a surprising defense because they have been on this for a while. And ultimately I think it does come down to those voters, a few voters in the middle, that seem undecided about whether the president is guilty or not.
Most Americans have already made up their mind on one side of the other.
CHURCH: Right, and the House Intelligence Committee report also says it would be hard to imagine a stronger or more complete case of obstruction.
Do you agree with that assessment?
GONZALES: I guess I agree with it to the point that I believe that House Democrats are going to impeach the president ultimately, that there are enough people convinced in the House, they can pass at least some articles of impeachment and push this to a Senate trial.
And really at this stage of the process, that is what matters most. It matters less about individual voters or if Republicans are convinced because it just needs the majority and there are enough Democrats in the House to get it through.
CHURCH: Right, and the report says this. Just bring it up. 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.
And when you consider this and all the other findings in the report, does this rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors as set out in the Constitution?
GONZALES: Yes, that is what we will start to hear a little bit more about in the Judiciary Committee, hearing where we have constitutional scholars trying to put some real meat on that.
But it is kind of a vague or subjective terms that are being used. And I think that is why ultimately, I guess I expect Democrats, House Democrats to impeach the president. But I do not expect him to be ultimately removed from office because I do not think the evidence that has been laid out is enough to convince Republican senators that it would be necessary to ultimately move President Trump from the Oval Office.
CHURCH: Right, and of course, the committee stopped short of recommending impeachment. This report will now go to the Judiciary Committee, as you, mentioned and will be the source from which those articles of impeachment will be drafted.
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CHURCH: And then it will ultimately be up to the Congress to make a decision on impeachment, as it's laid out in the Constitution.
So how do you expect this all to play out?
You pretty much say the vote will take place with the House and you expect it to go to trial in the Senate.
GONZALES: Correct, and I think Democrats are trying to be very careful about not looking like they have already judged the outcome, that they already think it is impeached. That is why that languages is in, there why the chairman is talking about not specifically recommending it because they also want to show that they are doing their homework and their due diligence before coming to the conclusion, because, of course, the Republicans are saying they have been out to get the president forever and have already made up their mind.
But ultimately after the Judiciary Committee, and if I am right, if the House Democrats impeach the president, then we are going to have this Senate trial and I think it is going to be a media spectacle like we have not seen before, even more so than the public hearings in the House.
And ultimately the outcome, I think, will impact the electoral consequences, meaning, if we get through all of this -- and the only thing that's clear is that Rudy Giuliani messed up, Rudy Giuliani is going to go to jail, then that is dicey for Democrats politically.
But if they can connect some dots, some clear dots that show the president abused his power, I think that is powerful and it could hurt the president.
CHURCH: Nathan Gonzales, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.
GONZALES: Thank you.
CHURCH: And we'd like you to join us for live coverage of Wednesday's House Judiciary hearing on impeachment starting at 10:00 am in Washington, 3:00 pm in London.
Well, it has been more than 20 years since Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched the world's most popular search engine out of a garage in California. And now the Google cofounders are stepping down.
The current CEO Pichai is keeping his job he but is also taking over from Page as CEO of Alphabet, Google's parent company. The tech giant says Brin will also step down as Alphabet president.
Page and Brin will remain on Alphabet's board and retain voting control. It comes as Google face growing scrutiny over data privacy and its market dominance.
Still to, come across, India people are demanding justice. They are infuriated after a woman was gang raped, murdered and burned and some believe the rapists should be punished.
Planning for a politically tumultuous future in the new United States. How the founding fathers laid out the impeachment provision. That in just a moment.
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CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church. Let's check the headlines for you this hour.
The impeachment report from the U.S. House Intelligence Committee says the evidence 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, the top Republican on that committee. Democrats accused the President's allies of coordinating efforts to present false narratives.
NATO leaders are hoping cooler heads prevail Wednesday, one day after a tensed round of talks between the U.S. and French presidents on the sidelines of the alliances meeting in the U.K. Emmanuel Macron stood by his comment that NATO was 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, and the fight against ISIS.
A gruesome rape and murder sparking new outrage in India and protesters are demanding swift and deadly justice. CNN's Scott McLean has more.
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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In a country where some 100 sexual assaults are reported every single day, one case has struck a nerve.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want --
CROWD: Justice.
MCLEAN: Last Wednesday, in the central Indian city of Hyderabad, police say four men dragged a stranded woman to a hidden area near a road, where they raped and strangled her. He said the men, who have confessed, conspired to attack her. One of the men had deliberately let the air out of her scooter tire. Later, they dumped her body under a highway overpass and set it on fire. As word of the crime, spread, so did the protests.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Things were not getting better at all. But this case has triggered the outrage that you are seeing today.
MCLEAN: Days later, there was another horrific case in the northern Indian village. A drunk man allegedly lured a 6-year-old girl out of her school, with candy, then raped and strangled her. Suspects in both cases have been arrested, but that hasn't dulled the public outrage.
TEXT: Every girl is suffering from this. Every girl is scared to go after night, even after 9:00, every girl is, like, scared to go out.
MCLEAN: The crimes have caught the attention of the Indian parliament, where one member said rapists need to be brought out in public and lynched. Another lawmaker suggested offenders should be castrated. India has had this debate before. In 2012, a woman was gangraped on a bus in New Delhi, and died from her injuries two weeks later.
The case set off national protests and prompted stricter penalties for rape. Then, last year, after an 8-year-old girl was raped and murdered, the law was changed again to allow the death penalty in cases where the victim is under 12.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): If women chop off the heads of a few of these rapists, then automatically we'll see the society change for the better.
MCLEAN: But no matter the punishment, with tens of thousands of rape cases piling up in Indian courts, justice won't come easily or quickly. Scott McLean, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: My next guest is leading a hunger strike protest in response to these brutal crimes. Swati Maliwal is the chairwoman of the Delhi Commission for Women and joins me now from Delhi. Thank you so much for talking with us.
So, the details of these crimes are horrifying, and we have seen time and again, the suspects arrested, but justice never served. What all are you hoping to achieve by holding this hunger strike? You've just started it and you intend to hold it indefinitely, but what can be achieved here?
SWATI MALIWAL, CHAIRPERSON, DELHI COMMISSION FOR WOMEN: I'm going to sit on an indefinite hunger strike because I've had enough. In three years, Delhi Commission for Women, which is a statutory body, we've handled over 55,000 cases of brutality against women in Delhi, alone.
In Hyderabad, what just happened, the way the girl was gangraped and the way she was burned alive. In Rajasthan, a 6-year-old girl, the manner in which she was raped in her school dress and strangulated, her eyes popped out.
[02:35:07] Whether it's just the case of an 8-month-old baby who was raped or whether it was just all these cases, or whether it is the continuing news of all cases coming from all across the country, I think we all have had enough. The country lacks stringent mechanism to punish the rapists.
Last year, also, I had sat on an indefinite hunger strike. On the 10th day of my hunger strike, the center created a law in the country which said that from now on, at least, rapists of children will be given very stringent punishment in six months, but even that law is yet to be implemented.
There is a lack of police enforces, lack of police accountability, lack of fast track courts, and that is my demand, that astringent mechanism which includes strengthening of all these aspects need to be set-up immediately.
That's the need of the hour. It is very shameful for my country that the chief of a statutory body is having to go on a hunger strike because I'm left with no other option. The government only knows this week. They are not hearing my letters. They are not heeding to my various notices and action that we have done, so this is the only way that is left and I'm going to resolve it.
CHURCH: Now, some politicians are calling for the lynching and castration of these rapists and murderers. What should be their penalty, and why is the justice system in India so slow to respond to these crimes?
MALIWAL: Yes, the parliament is debating right now, and the parliamentarians, some of them are saying lynch them, some of them are saying whatever, but the idea is, that you are the parliamentarians of the country. You are not there to express your anger and anguish. You are there to take action. You are there to force the central government to make very concrete and lasting changes.
Delhi police right now is lacking 66,000 police personnel for the past 13 years. I think that is the need of the hour. Each and every police officer, handling 600 cases. How do you expect them to serve justice? Similarly, Delhi is lacking 45 fast track courts. And the entire country, there are so many districts in the country which are not even having a single fast track court. No police accountability is set.
For the past 13 years, the center is trying to create a software to digitize the functioning of the police across the country and that software is yet to be created. I'm a software engineer. It doesn't take rocket science to do that. So, we are not talking about these parliamentarians, they are not talking about concrete issues. They are not trying to set up systems in this country.
And it's really sad that all that they are doing is talking. I think I appeal to the parliamentarians, if you are not able to do anything within the parliament, please come out on the street. Please sit with me. Please go on an indefinite hunger strike and let's get these systems created.
CHURCH: And explain something to me. What is it that's created this rape culture in India, that men seem to think that they can do this to women?
MALIWAL: People are not scared. People feel they can get away with anything. There are so many times that rape has happened and these rapes have happened by people who were already convicted of rape or who were already involved in a rape case and were out on bail.
So, how do you ensure systems? Until the time, how do you ensure deterrence? Until the time there are no systems. So, I think that whenever you speak to a parliamentarian, whenever you're speaking to a leader, people talk about the mentality of the people. I think the mentality of Indians by and large is pretty good. I'm sitting on this hunger strike. I sat on a hunger strike before also.
There were thousands -- lots of men and women who came to me and who said that they feel for this country. They don't want this rape culture. By and large, we are a God-fearing country. We believe in respecting women, but it's very unfortunate that few criminals are out in the open and the governments fail to nab them, to punish them, and to create stringent systems in order to ensure that there is deterrence in the country against rape.
CHURCH: We hope that your protest, your hunger strike, ends in justice being served here. Many thanks to you, Swati Maliwal, for joining us. We appreciate it. And we'll take a short break here, still to come, the field of White House hopefuls just got smaller. Senator Kamala Harris is dropping out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, and we will look at what doomed her candidacy. That is next.
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CHURCH: The U.S. House Intelligence Committee has released its impeachment report, finding overwhelming evidence that President Trump abused power. The Democrats used never-before-seen phone records to show that Mr. Trump's allies tried to spread false theories about his rivals. Brian Todd has more on these call logs.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: House investigators got hold of reams of phone records of some key players on President Trump side of the Ukraine story. The phone records showing that during an important period early in the Ukraine saga, in April, they communicated with each other very frequently.
And the Democrats on the committee are using these phone records to accuse President Trump's top supporters of coordinating with each other to find information in Ukraine that would help Trump politically and pedal falls theories about Trump's opponents.
Some of the most surprising information in these phone records, they show that Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, was engage in a flurry of calls with Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and one of Giuliani's associates, the now indicted businessman, Lev Parnas.
The records show many of those calls occurred in mid-April just before former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was recalled from Ukraine. Also, John Solomon, who wrote several controversial columns on Ukraine, was also in touch with that Giuliani associate, Lev Parnas, according to these records. They show that many of those calls occurred in April when John Solomon was publishing columns filled with what Democrats called discredited conspiracy theories about Marie Yovanovitch and about Joe Biden.
The phone records also show that on April 23rd and April 24th, there were several phone calls between Rudy Giuliani, the White House, and the White House budget office. Late on the evening of April 24th, the state department called Ambassador Yovanovitch in Ukraine, and abruptly brought her back to the United States.
Now, Congressman Nunes declined to comment when CNN approached him today, about the release of this report and the phone records, and assistant to Rudy Giuliani sent us an e-mail saying, in part, this phrase here, "he was involved in gathering evidence to defend the President against false Democrat-manufactured claims of Russian collusion, including corruption that Democrats are covering up in Ukraine."
These records do not show what was discussed on those calls and, of course, there is nothing wrong with people in politics calling each other to talk or to strategized. But for Democrats, it's one of the few pieces of documentary evidence they can present in a case where they have really not had access to some key witnesses or documents. Now, as to the origin of these calls, the House Democrats say they got the phone records from AT&T. AT&T owns CNN.
[02:44:58]
AT&T said in a statement that like all companies, they are required by law to provide information to government and law enforcement agencies. And that in all cases, AT&T ensures that requests for information are valid and that the company acts in compliance with the law.
CHURCH: CNN's Anderson Cooper, spoke with the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, about those phone records.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The phone records which will reveal in this new details revealed that showing Devin Nunes, the ranking member on the House committee, allegedly having phone conversations with Lev Parnas. When did you become aware of these phone calls?
I mean, did you know during the hearings that, that these had occurred?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): You know, I can't go into specifics about when we acquired certain records, but we have known for some time of these contacts, and obviously, they are concerning.
We know that in the words of Dr. Hill, the president was having people do a domestic political errand for him. That errand being chasing dirt on Joe Biden, using the power of his office and taxpayer resources to try to coerce Ukraine into doing that.
If there were members of Congress that were also part of that domestic political errand for the president, and using taxpayer resources to accomplish it, that's a problem.
Now, our focus is on the president's conduct and those who are helping, assisting, and enabling the president in his abuse of his office and violation of public trust. But if there are members of Congress that are engaged in like conduct, that's a serious problem as well.
The evidence is quite overwhelming that the president of the United States used the power of his office, $400 million dollars of taxpayer, military assistance, to help an ally fighting the Russians, as well as they desperately sought meeting in the White House to coerce an ally into doing his political dirty work to doing these investigations that he thought would help his reelection.
The president will have to answer for that. And we will have to decide here in Congress whether this is what the founders had in mind when it provided a remedy to a president that violating the public trust and endangering the national security.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: Well, the challenge facing U.S. lawmakers right now is one, the country's founders considered hundreds of years ago. And so, they put a remedy in the Constitution if a president is suspected of committing crimes.
Jamie Gangel has more on the origins of the impeachment provision.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Do solemnly swear.
RICHARD NIXON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That I will faithfully execute.
GERALD FORD, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That I will faithfully execute.
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The office of president of the United States.
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And will to the best of my ability.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Preserve, protect, and defend.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Preserve, protect, and defend --
GEORGE BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- the Constitution of the United States.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So help me God.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So help me God.
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: 230 years ago, the founders were so worried about their fragile republic, they felt they needed an impeachment clause. How do you get rid of a president before they even decided how to elect one?
Thomas Jefferson called it a formidable weapon.
JEFFREY ENGEL, FOUNDING DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY, SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY: We have to remember that the great fear of the constitutional convention delegates was tyranny.
JOANNE FREEMAN, HISTORY PROFESSOR, YALE UNIVERSITY: They had just recently had a revolution, they had broken away from a monarchy. Power was a very big concern.
GANGEL: They trusted George Washington to be the first president to put the state's interest before his own. But Benjamin Franklin warned nobody knows what sort may come afterwards.
FREEMAN: How do we rein in a president?
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: The founders knew that they had to do something to stop tyrants and despots.
GANGEL: As North Carolina's Hugh Williamson, said, "He will spare no pains to keep himself in for life, and will then lay a train for the succession of his children."
But what would warrant impeachment? James Madison worried a president might lose his capacity, pervert his administration, or even worse, betray his trust to foreign powers.
BRINKLEY: This is a theme that George Washington hammers over and over again, no foreign influence in our early republic.
GANGEL: And in the 18th century, impeachment was certainly more civilized than the alternative.
ENGEL: Before there was impeachment, the only course would-be assassination. Better to be put on trial, Franklin argued, than to face the knife.
GANGEL: After much debate, the constitutional Congress settled on these charges: treason, bribery, or other high crimes, and misdemeanors.
ENGEL: It's actually remarkably simple. It's a crime against the state, a crime against the people. You don't need to break a law to commit a high crime.
SCHIFF: The table come to orders.
GANGEL: The founders expected the process would be partisan, but they probably didn't envision this.
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DAVID HOLMES, COUNSELOR FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS, UNITED STATES EMBASSY IN UKRAINE: President Zelensky, "loves your ass."
GORDON SONDLAND, UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE EUROPEAN UNION: Was there a quid pro quo? The answer is yes.
GANGEL: Or this?
TRUMP: A corrupt witch hunt. It was a perfect call -- a perfect call. This is a hoax.
GANGEL: What do you think the founders would think about Donald Trump? FREEMAN: Oh, boy. I'm going to plead the fifth on that one. Let me answer it this way. Tyranny was one of the main things that the founding generation was worried about. Demagoguery was a second one.
BRINKLEY: James Madison and Donald Trump have nothing in common, but the Trump character was alive and well at the time of the American Revolution. Somebody with blarney and salesmanship, a penchant for being a demagogue. Those characters have existed forever.
TRUMP: No quid pro quo.
GANGEL: But whether you think Donald Trump is guilty or innocent of high crimes and misdemeanors, the underlying questions today are exactly what the founders were concerned about.
ENGEL: What if a president perhaps have lied? What if a president work with a foreign power? What if a president started to make money off the office of the presidency? That's the president that should be removed.
GANGEL: Jaime Gangel, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: She was seen as one of the top contenders when she entered the U.S. presidential race back in January. But now, Senator Kamala Harris is ending her bid for the Democratic nomination, with her poll numbers struggling and fundraising running lowed.
Her exit means Democrats are losing the only black female candidate in the 2020 race, even with 15 contenders still running. CNN's Kyung Lah has more on Harris's decision to bow out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): It is with deep regret, but also with deep gratitude that I am suspending our campaign today.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Senator Kamala Harris, announced the sudden end to what began as a campaign of potential and promise.
At her launch in January, thousands packed downtown Oakland, California.
HARRIS: Let's do this.
LAH: An attention-grabbing moment. Harris would have another at the first Democratic debate, when she launched an attack on former Vice President Joe Biden on his opposition it's a federally mandated busing to desegregate schools decades ago.
HARRIS: And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me. LAH: The poll numbers soared, but those campaign highs would at last. Harris struggled to stake a clear position in a crowded Democratic field.
On health care, she seemed to say she would get rid of private insurance.
HARRIS: Let's eliminate all of that, let's move on.
LAH: Then, she backtracked.
HARRIS: It was in the context of saying, let's get rid of all the bureaucracy. Let's get all of the ways --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, not the insurance companies?
HARRIS: No.
LAH: And then, a lack of clarity on her message, shifting from one central theme to the next.
HARRIS: Let's speak that true.
Talking about my 3:00 a.m. agenda.
Justice is on the ballot in 2020, and that's why I'm running for president.
LAH: The costs piled up, while her poll numbers plummeted. Harris refocused on Iowa just weeks ago projecting confidence.
HARRIS: Listen, I -- we're going to do well in Iowa, and I'm sure of that.
GIL DURAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO KAMALA HARRIS: She was getting some good advice at some points in this campaign, but she followed it up with flops, she got some of her answers wrong, getting nowhere she stood on important issues backtracked.
LAH: Gil Duran was a senior advisor for Harris when she was California's attorney general.
HARRIS: This is my sister, Maya.
LAH: Sources tell CNN, the campaign suffered from infighting. Harris's sister, Maya was a campaign chair, sharing a leadership role with campaign manager Juan Rodriguez, leading to confusion among the ranks.
DURAN: If you can't find a way to resolve tensions between one of your longtime aides and your own family member, then it's not clear why you should be put in charge of a lot more than that.
I think the country was ready for a leader like Kamala Harris. I don't think Kamala Harris was ready to lead the country, but she's young and we haven't seen the last of her. (END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: Harris, California senator, by dropping out now. Before December 26th, means that her name won't appear on the California primary ballot. That means she avoids a potentially embarrassing loss in her home state.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
CHURCH: A space mystery may have been solved. Coming up, how one eagle-eyed man helped the search for India's lost lunar lander. Back with that in just a moment.
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[02:55:46]
CHURCH: The faith of India's Vikram lander has been a mystery since all contact was lost with the small spacecraft in September.
But now, pieces of the lander have been found. Thanks to an Indian engineer who scoured lunar images in his spare time.
CNN's Cyril Vanier, reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three, two, one, zero.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: In September, in historic attempt by India to become the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon. But just before touchdown, the much-anticipated Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander fell out of contact. Its final location, a mystery.
NASA tried to help locate debris from the failed lander. Releasing images taken by its orbiter of the area where Vikram was supposed to land. Weeks went by, and no one could find the crashed lander.
NASA said they thought it might have been hidden in the shadows. But an eagle-eye, the mechanical engineer from India noticed something that no one else did. "Is this the Vikram lander? Might have been buried in lunar sand," he tweeted after scouring and comparing old and new images of the crash site.
SHANMUGA SUBRAMANIAN, MECHANICAL ENGINEER, INDIA: I was able to find something that was out of ordinary in a particular spot. So, I thought this might be the debris. Because it's something that's not there, that has not been seen in the previous images.
VANIER: NASA confirmed his discovery and published an image showing the point of impact and debris field of the failed Vikram lander. It resolves the loose end in a voyage that ended in heartbreak. A blow to India's space ambitions.
That proved emotional for the director of India's Space Research Organisation, who broke down in front of the prime minister just after the Vikram went awry. But the lander's discoverer urged India not to lose heart after only its second moon mission.
A message echoed by NASA, which writes, "Despite the loss, getting that close to the surface was an amazing achievement." A message of encouragement to try once again.
Cyril Vanier, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Well done. And thanks so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me anytime on Twitter, and I will be back with more news in just a moment. You're watching CNN. Stick around.
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