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Naval Air Station Pensacola Shooter Was in Saudi Air Force; U.S. Believes Iran-Backed Groups Attacked Iraqi Bases; Trump Tells Democrats to Hurry and Impeach Him; Johnson and Corbyn Face Off in Final Debate; Firefighters Struggle Near Sydney; Woman Survives Six- Hour Cardiac Arrest. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired December 07, 2019 - 03:00   ET

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

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome live from Studio 7 at CNN Center in Atlanta. I'm Paula Newton.

Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, investigators search for a mode of after the member of the Saudi military killed three people at a U.S. Naval base.

Plus the White House has a blunt message for Democratic lawmakers ahead of a crucial phase of the impeachment inquiry.

And Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn clash over Brexit in the final debate before the U.K. election.

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NEWTON: We start in Florida, where an investigation is global in scope now after a gunman opened fire at a Naval base, killing three people. The shooter, identified as Saudi national Mohammed Alshamrani, died in exchange in gunfire with deputies. Investigators say it's far too early to draw conclusions about what led to the. Attack listen.

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RACHEL ROJAS, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: We are not prepared at this hour to confirm what may have motivated the shooter to commit this horrific act today. There are many reports circulating but the FBI deals only in facts.

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NEWTON: Natasha Chen has the latest from Pensacola, Florida.

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NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, four people are dead, including the shooter after an attack on a Pensacola Naval base, by a member of the Saudi military. Authorities are working to determine the motive.

REP. RON DESANTIS (R), FLA.: There will obviously be a lot of questions about this individual being a foreign national, being part of the Saudi air force and then to be here training on our soil.

CHEN (voice-over): Two law enforcement officials telling CNN the shooter has been identified as Mohammed Alshamrani, the president, who has stood by the Saudis, relayed a message from Khalid bin Salman.

TRUMP: The king said that the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric action of the shooter and that this person in no way shape or form represents the feelings of the Saudi people, who love the American people so much.

CHEN (voice-over): Authorities say Alshamrani was part of the aviation training program on the base, where weapons are not allowed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't bring a weapon on base.

CHEN (voice-over): Eight others were injured in the attack that began just before 8:00 AM eastern time in a classroom on the base. Among the wounded, two deputies from the Escambia County Sheriff's Office who exchanged gunfire for the shooter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The two deputies who initially engaged the suspect, one was shot in the arm and one was shot in the knee.

CHEN (voice-over): The FBI is leading the investigation and authorities caution that it's still in the early stages.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This doesn't happen in Escambia County. It doesn't happen in Pensacola. It doesn't happen to our friends and neighbors, who are members of the United States Navy.

But it did.

And it has.

So for now we are here to pick up the pieces.

CHEN: More and more people are being allowed back on base and, speaking to someone whose family lives on the base, she says it was particularly frightening because of how close it was to a library, to a mini mart, to people's morning routines.

She said people get breakfast there, gas up their cars. This has definitely shaken the community and something they will be dealing with for a very long time -- Natasha Chen, CNN, Pensacola, Florida.

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NEWTON: A spokesperson says there are more than 5,100 foreign students in the U.S. for security related training or military training. Of those, 852 are from Saudi Arabia. Earlier I talked to Col. Cedric Leighton about the screening process for letting some of these people train in the United States here's what he said.

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COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Most of them, 99 percent of them, are great people and will be people that we would want to have on our side as military allies.

But the types of selection processes that a country like Saudi Arabia has, we're dependent on those before we allow them to come into our country and the fact that these kinds of procedures did not catch this individual, we have to figure out, did he radicalize himself during his time here in the United States?

Or was this a long held plan that he had, to do something like this?

Of course, these things are unknown at this time.

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NEWTON: The U.S. believes Iranian-backed groups have launched rocket attacks on Iraqi bases that host U.S. troops. A U.S. official tells CNN the latest attack happened Thursday at an air base north of Baghdad. Iraqi officials are still investigating. But the U.S. says the attack was likely conducted by Iran-aligned militia in Iraq.

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NEWTON: The U.S. has previously expressed concern that Iran is preparing more aggressions towards the U.S. in the future.

A rape survivor in northern India has died after she was stabbed and set on fire when she was on her way to court to testify in front of her alleged rapist. The 22-year-old woman was able to tell police that five men attacked her, including the suspects she was preparing to testify against. Police earlier reported the five men have been arrested.

The White House says it will not participate in the impeachment process now underway in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee where articles of impeachment against President Trump will soon be written.

The move surprised no one since the administration telegraphed its intention days ago. Jerry Nadler, the committee chairman, took the rejection in stride, saying that, "If the president has no good response to the allegations, then he would not want to appear before the committee. Having declined the opportunity, he cannot claim that the process is unfair."

Jim Acosta has more.

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the White House digging in and signaling the administration will not participate in the next stage of the impeachment inquiry in the House, President Trump ignored the questions swirling around him. A new letter from White House counsel Pat Cipollone all but tells

House Democrats to "get lost," saying, quote, "As you know, your impeachment inquiry is completely baseless and has violated basic principles of due process and fundamental fairness."

While the letter does not specifically rule out White House involvement in the process, a senior official says that the administration will not cooperate with the proceedings.

Aides to the president are making it all about how Speaker Nancy Pelosi, predicting she will play a political price for impeaching Trump, already putting targets on moderate Democrats in vulnerable districts.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they actually go forward with the impeachment articles that Nancy Pelosi solidified the fact that she will not be Speaker of the House next year because the Democrats will absolutely --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow, wow.

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ACOSTA (voice-over): The White House complained Pelosi was barreling toward impeachment before the Judiciary Committee's Friday deadline for the administration to decide whether to cooperate in the process.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do think it's somewhat interesting though that Nancy Pelosi is set to move forward with articles of impeachment even though we haven't responded to the letter. But that shouldn't be a shock because she also wanted to move forward with articles of impeachment before we actually released the transcript.

ACOSTA (voice-over): The White House officials are still dodging some big questions as in what the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has been up to all week in Ukraine.

QUESTION: Is the president aware of what Rudy Giuliani is doing in Ukraine?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a question between Rudy and the president.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't spoken with him about that directly. But obviously Rudy Giuliani can speak for himself. He's the president's personal attorney.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Democrats are not buying the White House response, noting Giuliani was a central figure in the president's allege dirt-for-dollars deal with the leader of Ukraine. REP. JACKIE SPEIER (D-CA), MEMBER, OVERSIGHT AND INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEES: I don't for a moment believe that the president is telling the truth when he says he does not know why Rudy is there digging up dirt. As it was pointed, out he has specifically asked any number of people to take directions from Rudy Giuliani on the Burisma/Biden investigation that he so desperately wanted.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Hundreds of the nation's top legal scholars have written an open letter stating the president has met the threshold for impeachment, adding, "His conduct is exactly the type of threat to our democracy that the founders feared when they included the remedy of impeachment in the Constitution."

The president is sounding like a broken record with his grievances about the inquiry.

"Where's the fake whistleblower? Where's whistleblower number two? Where's the phony informer who got it all wrong?"

Mr. Trump is also touting the economy which created more than 260,000 new jobs last month as the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.5 percent. The president is taking credit for that performance, pointing to his record of deregulation.

TRUMP: The world is many times more expensive and I hate to say it, it doesn't make you look as good, it's very important to me as a vain person. It gives you an orange look. I don't want an orange look.

ACOSTA: The letter from the White House counsel rejecting the House impeachment inquiry ends by quoting the president's tweet, when he called on Nancy Pelosi to impeach him quickly. She appears to be doing just that as the House is on course to impeach the president by the end of the year -- Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

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NEWTON: President Trump apparently is convinced he will get a pass from Republicans in the U.S. Senate so he wants Democrats in the United States House to hurry up and impeach him. I spoke about this earlier with CNN political analyst Karoun Demirjian of "The Washington Post."

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KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: If you can keep the party together, the odds are in your favor, especially because you have to be able to turn 28 GOP senators to get to the threshold to actually oust him from office. I think the president is pretty convinced that the House was always going to impeach him once they started.

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DEMIRJIAN: That has been his cry back, which is that this is politically motivated and not on substance. Democrats are saying we pulled the trigger to go ahead with this because we have a constitutional obligation. But it seems at this point that the House is set to impeach him. You

have a war of the bodies that reflects the war of the parties that are leading the House versus the Senate right now.

NEWTON: What's interesting to me is that the public relations platform that everybody is going to take here. Some people argue that polls show about 50 percent, the country divided about whether he should be impeached.

And yet, given the jobs report, few in the Republican Party, at, least seem to want to bet against him, despite the impeachment.

DEMIRJIAN: No exactly, the jobs numbers are something that appeals to the standard measures of where the people feel the country is going. That gives some comfort to the Republicans who are in office, who are looking at that and saying the fundamentals of the economy look like they are strong. And there's no reason to depart from the president. It's still a win both in terms of loyalty and in terms of basic metrics to stick with him.

I don't think President Trump's appeal to the base of the GOP has necessarily been based on numbers. It's been based on emotions. And he's been managed to hold on that to that even throughout the more dicey parts of this impeachment inquiry.

As far as it goes for what this looks like for the president. When you combine all those factors then you have a situation where there do not seem to be obvious incentives right now for the GOP to split from him. Except if they believe that this facts pattern establishes that the president was abrogating his responsibilities as commander as chief.

Which again, not many GOP members are actually inclined to view his intent that way.

NEWTON: No, not at all, before I let you, go Rudy Giuliani, it seems that even people in the White House are dismayed as to why he's back in Ukraine and exactly what he's doing. This is a distraction but it could still be damaging for the president.

DEMIRJIAN: It's a distraction; at worst, it's reinforcing exactly what Democrats are concerned about. If Rudy Giuliani is now in Ukraine seeking information that could be used to sway the public opinion towards Trump's political rivals in the 2020 election. Again we are looking at basically a retread of the reason Democrats are impeaching the president in the first place.

A lot of people are saying why, why, now why would you do this. It's either a sign of how confident Trump is that he can completely withstand this, he doesn't have to worry about the optics of what he's doing or the substance of what Giuliani is doing or the tone deafness of not realizing that what you're doing is basically digging deeper.

This is basically the situation we are in right now; there isn't a lot of debate over the steps that happened here. Leading up to this impeachment or what Giuliani is doing right now or anything like, that it's always about the intent and who had legitimacy on their side.

That's where you see the parties at loggerheads going after each other. Why were things happening. Right now Giuliani supposed to be speaking to a lot of people in Ukraine who are affiliated with the pro-Russian regime that preceded the revolution of dignity.

So there are questions really about, is this more Kremlin fueled talking points being put out there?

We have not yet resolve that debate and it keeps getting worse and more acrimonious in D.C. The fact that he's there right now is a sign that they feel like they have some liberty to do this. That means they don't feel that in danger.

NEWTON: Adds a lot of background noise to what is already complicated impeachment process. Thanks so much for your help with trying to sort this out. Another busy political weekend. We appreciate it.

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NEWTON: Now as a crucial general election nears in the U.K. two top candidates went head-to-head in one last debate before voters go to the polls. What they had to say next, plus Germany's chancellor visits Auschwitz from the first time since taking office. What she has to say about the rise of anti-Semitism.

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NEWTON: The U.K. election is just days away from a crucially important election and time is running out for candidates to get out that all-important vote. CNN's Anna Stewart breaks down the final face-off between the two main party leaders before voters head to the polls.

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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With less than a week to go before Britons head to the polls to elect a new government, this last head- to-head debate brings much anticipation. But there were no knockout blows of facts. Leaders repeated many of the same claims, promises and attacks they have in recent weeks. Whether it was domestic policy, trust in politicians or that divisive topic, Brexit.

JEREMY CORBYN, LEADER, U.K. LABOUR PARTY: No one voted to lose their job or lose trade with Europe. They voted for many reasons. But I think we have to come together and bring this issue to an end. Not go down the road of sweetheart deals with the USA.

BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: Actually what should we should do is respect the word of the people. People do not trust in politics. Look at the promises made by Corbyn and all the other parties that they would honor the referendum result. And they are refusing to do it.

STEWART: Ahead of this debate two former prime ministers Conservatives John Major and Labour's Tony Blair spoke at an anti- Brexit rally and endorsed candidates outside of their own party. Current party leaders were asked their reaction.

JOHNSON: I have the respect for all former Conservative leaders and (INAUDIBLE) as there has been. But I don't think he's right and we have a fantastic plan to get Brexit done.

CORBYN: A vote for Labor is to invest in the future of this country. So Tony Blair and John Major are welcome to make the comments that they do. I urge them to think for a moment. Think for a moment at the reality of what nine years of austerity has done to the people of this country.

STEWART: The Conservative Party leading polls with six days left is a very long time in politics. Campaigning will not let up until the nation goes to the ballot box on Thursday -- Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

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NEWTON: German chancellor Angela Merkel said the Holocaust of World War II must never be forgotten or trivialized. She visited the Auschwitz Nazi death camp on Friday for the first time in her 14 years as the German leader.

More than 1 million people were killed there. This as Merkel stressed it was a German camp. She said it was important to clearly identify the perpetrators.

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ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY (through translator): For me it is anything but easy to stand here before you and to speak to you. I am filled with deep shame in the face of the barbaric crimes that were committed here by Germans, crimes that are unfathomable. They defy our imagination. They are inconceivable.

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NEWTON: Now the chancellor's visit comes with anti-Semitism on the rise in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. She called it an attack on the country's fundamental values of liberal democracy.

Bush fires are raging right across Australia. Firefighters say it could be weeks before they could contain the flames. We will have the latest on their efforts.

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NEWTON: Firefighters in Australia are struggling to contain a massive fire burning out of control near Sydney. A thick smoke has blanketed much of the city, turning as you see there, the sky orange and brown, CNN affiliate 9 News Network reports the air quality has dropped to hazardous. More than 100 fires are currently burning in New South Wales and Queensland, dry and windy conditions are expected to continue. Unfortunately over the next several days.

Journalist Samantha Brett spoke about the challenging conditions firefighters are now facing.

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SAMANTHA BRETT, JOURNALIST: They are just doing everything, they are back burning this entire area. They are protecting homes. In the area I'm in, they protected every single home in this area.

The flames are leaping into the air. You can see that the trees have all been burned out here. I'm looking at my neighbor, here, his home has been saved, these firefighters are really they're just doing everything they can and they are doing an incredible job.

The people in this area are telling me as well they had meetings with the firefighters three weeks ago, they said the firefighters said this is coming, let's brace, ourselves let's prepare as best we, can and they, really have.

People are always going to say that the government can do more and they are going to try and blame someone. But we've had this incredible drought, you could not predict these very hot temperatures, these very high winds.

Unfortunately this has caused this absolute catastrophe here. People on the ground are just doing everything they can to try and protect the lives and homes.

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NEWTON: Scientists say they may have found a way to bring new life to dead coral reefs. Good news. It is music, of course, to their ears. Yes, music, if they have ears. They have put underwater loudspeakers on dead patches of coral under Great Barrier Reef off Australia replicating the sound of healthy reefs. They say twice as many fish came and stayed in the places where the sound was playing.

Scientists say healthy coral reefs are noisy and young fish response to the noise. Just like toddlers, apparently, when they are looking for somewhere to settle. They said the returning fish can actually help the degraded ecosystems recover. Now she had no heartbeat for six whole hours. How a team of doctors

help bring this woman that you see right there back to life. That extraordinary story right now.

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NEWTON: Doctors in Spain are calling it an exceptional case. They can say that again after a British woman suffered a six-hour cardiac arrest and survived. Audrey Schoeman was caught in a snowstorm while hiking in the Pyrenees Mountain range.

She suffered severe hypothermia, which ironically was the condition that saved her life that's because the extreme drop in body temperature that stopped her heart also preserved her brain function.

Doctors told CNN that the human brain usually suffers major damage if the heart stops beating for five minutes, Audrey Schoeman survived for six whole hours. The 34-year-old English teacher said she now wants to get back to work. There will be a lot of interest from her students, for sure.

Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton. I will be back in just a moment with the headlines.