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Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Has Been Sentenced to Death; House to Vote on Impeachment; FAA Grounded Boeing; Indians Are Outrage Over a New Law. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired December 17, 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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NICK WATT, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Nick Watt and you are watching CNN Newsroom live from studio seven at CNN's world headquarters here in Atlanta.

Ahead this hour, it is crunch time in the impeachment drama with the U.S. Senate to put Donald Trump on trial.

More bad news at Boeing, the company putting the brakes on its bestselling plane.

And India's prime minister tries to calm anger, thousands now protesting a new law, they say is anti-Islamic.

And we are tracking some breaking news out of Pakistan right now, where former President Pervez Musharraf has been sentenced to death. The former military ruler was found guilty on five treason charges, including imposing emergency rule back in 2007. He was tried in absentia because he's been living in exile since 2016. He is currently receiving medical treatment in Dubai.

The sentence can be appealed, we will bring you more on the story as we get it.

Now U.S. President Donald Trump could soon make his way into the history books, but not for the reason he'd want. The Democrat- controlled House is expected to vote on Wednesday to make the 45th president only the third to ever be impeached. So, setting up a bitter and divisive trial in the Republican-led Senate.

CNN's Alex Marquardt has more now from Washington.

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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Conducting an impeachment trial in the Senate is an enormously weighty and solemn responsibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The tables are turning, while Republicans for now control the Senate trial, Democrats today pushing their plan which they hope will gain Republican support.

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SCHUMER: Do they want a fair honest trial that examines all the facts, or do they want to trial that doesn't let the facts come out? Trials have witnesses.

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MARQUARDT: In a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Schumer called for a subpoena for four witnesses who have direct knowledge of the Ukraine affair. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, his deputy Rob Blair, budget office official Michael Duffy, and former national security adviser John Bolton, who allegedly called what the presidents envoys were doing in Ukraine, a drug deal.

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SCHUMER: Each of them will have information to share, about the charges made by the House. Information that no one has heard at this point.

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MARQUARDT: Sources say McConnell does not want witnesses. He has been working in lockstep with the White House counsel on the trial's format.

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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: Everything I do during this, I'm coordinating with the White House counsel. There will be no difference between the president's position and our position.

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MARQUARDT: Enraging Democrats like Schumer who told CNN there is a difference between discussion and working on the president's behalf.

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SCHUMER: For him to talk to the president is one thing, for him to say I'm going to do just what the president wants is totally out of line.

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MARQUARDT: Schumer hopes to model the trial on Bill Clinton's in 1999 to get his way and have more control on what happens during the trial Schumer needs at least four Republicans to join Democrats to give them a majority. Seven moderate or retiring Republicans are being targeted including

Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a vocal critic of the president. All this ahead of the full House impeachment vote expected on Wednesday. The judiciary committee, which approved the articles of impeachment, issuing their final report overnight. Blasting the president for betraying the nation through abuse of power which Democrats claim includes multiple federal crimes.

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REP. JERROLD NADLER (D-NY): This is a crime in progress against the Constitution and against the American democracy.

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MARQUARDT: For the Senate trial Chuck Schumer also told Mitch McConnell he would be open to Republicans calling their own witnesses who can also testify about Ukraine. That however does not include Hunter Biden, Chuck Schumer said.

He told CNN that the younger Biden would be a distraction. The two Senate leaders have not yet met face to face, a spokesperson for McConnell says that will happen soon.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

WATT: Richard Johnson is a lecturer in U.S politics and international relations at Lancaster University. He joins me this hour from Cambridge in England.

Richard, OK, up until this point it has been entirely partisan. But now we get to this stage where they are hammering out the rules for the Senate trial. Now is there any chance that any Republicans are going to jump the aisle and join the Democrats in insisting on some witnesses, some documents a proper trial I suppose?

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RICHARD JOHNSON, U.S. POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS LECTURER, LANCASTER UNIVERSITY: I don't expect we should expect to see the end of the partisanship. If we look, use the 1999 Bill Clinton trial as a precedent that, you know, when it came to questions like allowing witnesses that was a vote that was taken on party line votes in the Senate.

It was eventually agreed to allow three witnesses including Monica Lewinsky. But those witnesses were heard in private and didn't have the same public impact as I think the Democrats want right now.

So, you know, today's activities and the House rules committees, Republicans will put all the amendments down, Democrats are going to vote down. There's amendments that controlled that committee in '94.

WATT: And Richard, CNN just had a new poll at which shows that support amongst voters to impeach and remove the president is now down from 50 percent down to 45 percent. I mean, to my mind the Democrats don't really seem to be learning

lessons here that shorter, small, and sometimes good. They just published a 658-page report justifying Trump's impeachment. I mean, they seem to be losing if I'm right, correct me if I'm not, the public relations battle here which is key.

JOHNSON: It's been a dip in the polls, but I mean, still 45 percent of the public supporting impeachment and removal of the president of the United States is historically very high. I mean, we're getting up to the kind of numbers that Richard Nixon saw in 1974 which led him to decide to resign the presidency.

Now, look, at the end of the day, impeachment has an undoubted political element to it. There is a public relations battle to be won here. I think the likely end result is going to be a stalemate. American politics is so polarized and I don't see a way in which the outcome of this would be anything but a polarized situation.

WATT: A stalemate in which President Trump remains in office, perhaps emboldened by once again beating a rap. And, I mean, look forward to 2020, how do you think that then plays in the 2020 election, good for Trump or bad for Trump?

JOHNSON: I think in some ways Trump is relishing this. There had been reports that the president wants the trial to go on quite a long time, perhaps to even the spill over into the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries. Their Republican Senate says who don't want that because they're in swing states, where they will need some independent and Democratic support to get reelected.

So, we might be a bit of a clash between a White House which is happy to spin this out as long as possible because of what you said about emboldening the president. But there will be Republican senators w3ho would like to get this over done with this quick as possible.

WATT: I mean, what is extraordinary to me is that Mitch McConnell and the Republicans in the Senate are most likely going to succeed in blocking any witnesses, so we're not going to hear from John Bolton, we're not going to hear from Mick Mulvaney.

I mean, the optics of this are bizarre. Surely if you have nothing to hide, you allow these people to testify. Clearly, they have something to hide but they calculate that you know what, it doesn't matter.

JOHNSON: Well, in the first impeachment trial in U.S. presidential history Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial they brought in 40 witnesses to the United States Senate. So, there is precedent for this. But at the end of the day the senators, the majority of the senators will control this whole trial even though the chief justice is presiding over the trial. If the chief justice said we need to bring in witnesses, if 51 senators said we disagree with you, we don't want the witnesses and those 51 senators would prevail.

So, this really although it looks like a trial, there are many elements that are not conventional in our understanding of the trial. There are much more of a political and partisan nature. WATT: I mean, I got a text today from a friend of mine who supports

the president who keeps on going on about Hunter Biden and Joe Biden and Burisma. And is that, if Joe Biden is the candidate, is that going to be a problem going forward for Joe Biden, the fact that his son did hold the seat at 50,000 dollars a month on this board of a Ukrainian company? Is that a liability for Joe Biden?

JOHNSON: If we look beyond this trial what both parties are trying to do is to provide some kind of script for their supporters for the upcoming presidential election. For the Democrats that script is about, the president betraying his country being a crook, and trying to sell out American interests.

And for Republicans that script is the one that your friend has just articulated about Hunter Biden, about corruption, colonialism and so on.

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So both of these parties are looking for how to use the impeachment process as a way of structuring the debate of the November presidential election.

WATT: Richard, thanks very much as always for your time.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

WATT: And still to come, Boeing bites the bullet. Why the company is now suspending production over the beleaguered 737 MAX.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three, two, one. Ignition lift off.

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WATT: A satellite right now heading into orbit could bring internet connections to as many as a million people for the first time. The satellite launched Monday night aboard a SpaceX rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

So, who are those million or so people? Pacific islanders who live in a vast remote region where fiber optic or copper cable aren't really an option. The company behind this ambitious launch says the service is aimed at individual users, as well as hospitals, schools and community centers.

Boeing is pausing construction on its 737 MAX planes. The bestselling model grounded worldwide in the wake of two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. Boeing carried on making the planes hoping for a speedy recertification.

But as our Rene Marsh reports, it became all too clear that U.S. aviation authorities were on a different time table. RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: So,

this is a dramatic shift in tone by the airplane manufacturer Boeing. They've decidedly to temporarily halt the production of its troubled 737 MAX passenger plane early next month.

Now this decision comes following a meeting with the FAA last week where the FAA made it very clear. The plane would not be cleared to fly this year. And this process would stretch into 2020. But the fact that Boeing is even curbing production of the troubled plane is a huge turn of events.

Up until now, the airplane manufacturer has been positive. Even bullish saying that it was looking toward approval for the plane to fly again sometime in the fourth quarter of this year, and with that timeline Boeing said it was looking to resume deliveries to airline customers in December.

Well that's this month. It's clearly not going to happen. We are now nine months into the grounding of this aircraft. And Boeing has continued to build new 737 MAX aircrafts that were previously ordered at a rate of 42 per month.

That said, in a statement Boeing saying that they currently have some 400 airplanes in storage.

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But with all this uncertainty of just how long this grounding will drag on, Boeing essentially realized that they had to halt production because they can't deliver the planes until the FAA approves them. All that to say, this has all cost Boeing billions of dollars and the airlines hundreds of millions of dollars.

Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.

WATT: Now Brexit isn't still officially in the bag, and Boris Johnson is taking no chances. The British prime minister is reportedly making an addition to his Brexit divorce bill. Putting a stop to any more extensions. There have been a few.

The parliament is set to vote on the bill this week, and 18 newly elected conservative M.P.'s will be standing right behind Mr. Johnson. A Brexit transition period would then kick in after the U.K. officially leaves the E.U. on January 31st.

Ahead, growing outrage across India. A new citizenship law branded anti-Islamic has thousands in the streets.

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WATT: India's prime minister is appealing for calm as deadly protests against a controversial citizenship law continue to rage in the world's largest democracy. An opposition leader from west Bengal state march with thousands of protesters on Monday condemning the new law as anti-Muslim.

Sam Kiley joins us now from New Delhi. Sam, let's just start with the basics. What is the law and why are people so fired up?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the Citizenship Amendment Act which was passed by the BJP Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi a little over a week ago. He has an unassailable (technical problem).

WATT: It look like we're having some trouble with the connection there with Sam Kiley. Basically, what is going on in India is thousands of people have taken to -- do we have Sam back? There is. Sam, take it away. Yes, you're back.

KILEY: So, yes, the Citizens Amendment Act very briefly, Nick, converse's Indian citizenship on refugees or immigrants from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan so long as they are not Muslim. And that obviously for the 14 percent of this nation who are Muslim is highly problematic.

And it comes against the background of local legislation in Assam which subjected people there to a test of their Indianness. They had to prove that they had been residents prior to 1971. Against this background there's been 36 demonstrations around the country in different cities and mostly focused around universities, some violent protests in Assam where we were able to confirm four people were actually killed in demonstrations.

That information confirmed yesterday here at the main Islamic university in New Delhi. There was one on Sunday what the local students allege, and they are reinforced by their own vice chancellor was a police invasion of the campus, including the use of tear gas and the beating of students inside the library.

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Now the police have said that they have arrested 10 non-student, people they say were agitators, a lot of people alleging here that there's been some political exploitation by non-students trying to provoke violence with the police.

But there is a small demonstration highly vocal continuing again today. And the promise of many more around the country. Because, Nick, this strikes at the very heart. Critics of the legislation say of the Indian Constitution, which is a secular Constitution.

Today, indeed, a student bodies are taking to India's Supreme Court a suit to demand the overturning up this legislation on the grounds that it violates the equality and secular guarantees that are in the Indian Constitution.

The government is saying in fact it led that this is in no way they say intended to discriminate against any religious group. The Muslim of course, population and critics who are not just restricted by any means to Muslim critics are saying it most certainly does.

And of course, remember there's over 20 million Muslims in this country of well over a billion people, Nick.

WATT: Sam Kiley in New Delhi, thanks very much for joining us.

And next here on CNN Newsroom, a death sentence for Pakistan's former president. Details on the ruling just announced against Pervez Musharraf.

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WATT: We are continuing to track breaking news out of Pakistan where former President Pervez Musharraf has been sentenced to death. A court found the former military ruler guilty on five treason charges including imposing emergency rule in 2007.

He was tried in absentia because he's been living in exile since 2016.

Now for more on this, I'm joined now on the phone by CNN's Nic Robertson. Nic, Musharraf right now in Dubai, unlikely he would obviously return to Pakistan to see this sentence fulfilled. Is this just symbolic or is there more to it than that?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, it certainly an indictment to the military as well, and the military has such a strong hand in Pakistan if this isn't going to sit well with them. I think that's one of the conclusions we can draw. Two of the three judges decided in favor of the death penalty, in particular on this issue of trying to (Inaudible) the Constitution in 2007. Essentially going to extend his role.

Now he came to power through a bloodless coup in 1999 and really tighten his grip on power, sort of post-9/11 as he became president in Pakistan. And then through (Inaudible) his upheaval with the Taliban inside Pakistan he tried essentially to use that to extend his power.

Now he was at that time allowed to leave the country but returned in 2013 for elections at the time thinking that he was going to come back in and ride on a wave of popular support which absolutely (inaudible) he was being put under house arrest in connection with the murder of the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

So, when you ask he's not likely to come back. It would seem unlikely that he would come back. He's going to the country in Dubai, he would be safe from the sort of long arm of the Pakistan law, if you, catching up with him there. But this is a man himself believed has led to come back to Pakistan against the advice of lawyers, against the advice of politicians and find themselves rather than running in election placed under house arrest.

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So, I edge on answering that he will not come back obviously as I -- as I would see we can expect the military to challenge this ruling in the court in order to get a full ruling from this high court in Pakistan on this account of treason and all the other counts.

We can expect that later in the day. But when it comes to Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf, one should rule anything out. It would seem unlikely though that he would return. WATT: Yes. I mean, Nic, you know, he is no shrinking violet, we've

seen that over the years. And he stayed very much engaged in Pakistani politics even while overseas. I believe he has a program on Pakistani TV. I mean, you know, this is a man as you said who has a pretty unshakable self-belief. I mean, I'm expecting we will hear from him fairly shortly on this.

ROBERTSON: I would think that we will. And that self-belief is going to be void by the fact that the military remains strong and influential in Pakistan. That they want to see this what essentially is groundbreaking, and as much as this is a, you know, a former military officer, past president being charged with treason.

This is -- this will be felt very strongly within the military, that this indictment of a former commanding officer is something that they wouldn't want to allow to stand. And so, what Pervez Musharraf be void by that very likely when he would be void to the point that coming back and one (Inaudible) in president.

Look, we've seen with many rulers they do like -- they do like the idea of trying to clear their name. And then the -- and then the what is also been a (Inaudible) that differently when you do business in Pakistan the political pendulum swings one way and it swings the other. (Inaudible) Musharraf want to try want to go back and clear his name today about with possibly I would imagine the advice of his lawyers.

WATT: And very, very quickly, Nick, just to finish up with. I mean, you mentioned he went back in 2013 and that, you know, groundswell of support didn't materialize. Does he still have support in Pakistan?

ROBERTSON: You know, he has this small amount of support. You know, there would've been people that did well financially under him, (Inaudible) you know, he's a hard, tough ruler during a tough time in Pakistan's own (Inaudible). Really there will that. I was there in Pakistan when he came back in 2013 and (Inaudible) --

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WATT: I think, Nic, Nic, I'm very sorry. I think we're going to have to cut you off there. We run out of time. My fault for us I need to question. I'll be back shortly with the headlines.

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