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Australia Experienced the Hottest Day in its History; House Lawmakers are Expected to Make History; In Panama, at least 11 Inmates are Dead, 11 Others Injured After a Shootout in a Prison; A Campaign to End Racist Abuse in Italy's Football Stadiums; PolitiFact's Lie of the Year Recipient. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired December 18, 2019 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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NICK WATT, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Nick Watt. And you are watching CNN Newsroom live from Studio Seven from CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta. Ahead this hour, one day before the impeachment vote, Donald Trump lashes out in a rambling bitter letter. The recipient called it sick. India's police fight back against protesters angry about a new law they say discriminates against Muslims.
And Australia swept through the hottest day in its history. And temperatures are expected to climb even higher in the days ahead. In the coming hours, U.S. lawmakers are expected to make history, voting to impeach U.S. President Donald Trump for abusing his power and obstructing Congress. It is very likely that the Democrat-led body will make Mr. Trump only the 3rd U.S. president in 240 years to be impeached.
On the eve of that vote, protesters across the U.S. took to the street to decry their president. In New York, they chanted, no one is above the law, and this is what democracy looks like. President Trump sees this as a declaration of war on democracy, an attack on himself and his wonderful loving family. And an attack of the result of what he calls the great election of 2016.
He takes zero responsibility for the impeachment, blames it all on the Democrats, who he claims were vile America's voters and detest constitutional order. CNN's Kaitlan Collins has the latest from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: To impeach the president of the United States for that is a disgrace and it is a mark in our country.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: On the eve of a House vote to impeach him, President Trump fired off emissive to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, accusing her of violating her oath of office and cheapening the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment. Writing in a six-page letter that read like his Twitter feed, the president claimed you are declaring open war on American democracy.
The president accusing Pelosi of defending Americans of faith by saying she prays for him. Quote, "when you know this statement is not true, unless it is meant in a negative sense."
NANCY PELOSI, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I still pray for the president.
COLLINS: In his crusade against two articles of impeachment, printed on White House letterhead the, president claimed more due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem witch trials, the president ending his letter by telling Pelosi that the American people will not soon forgive your perversion of justice and abuse of power.
As House Democrats head towards the impeachment vote, the president told reporters today he hasn't been paying attention, but made no mention of his scathing letter.
TRUMP: I have not seen it. Look, it is a hoax. The whole impeachment thing is a hoax.
COLLINS: And he made clear he takes no responsibility for potentially being the 3rd president in U.S. history to be impeached.
TRUMP: No, I don't take any -- zero, to put it mildly. They took a perfect phone call that I had with the president of Ukraine, an absolutely perfect call. You know it. They all know it. Nothing was said wrong in that call.
COLLINS: Now, in this letter, the president said he did not think it is going to change the outcome of that vote on whether or not to impeach him. But he said he wanted to put his thoughts on paper, he says for the purpose of history, and to put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record. Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: Joining me now is Scott Lucas, a professor of international politics of the University of Birmingham in England. Now, Scott, I understand the appeal of President Trump, or at least the telegraphed appeal that he's this maverick, doesn't play by the rules, does his own thing. But this letter, if PTA or -- I don't know the coach of my kids under 10 soccer team.
That person would most likely will be removed from office. But that is not what is about to happen to the leader of the free world, right?
SCOTT LUCAS, INTERNATIONAL POLITICS PROFESSOR UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: I don't want to talk about the letter, Nick. We know that Trump is going to scream witch hunt. We know that he is going to insult. We know that he is going to -- and let's be honest, lie. But this is beyond that. This is a PR attempt, because Trump, not only Trump, but Trump and some of his staff began drafting this last week.
[03:05:05] White House counsel's office saw this letter. They knew it was coming
out, because it is an attempt to take attention away as Trump appeals to his base. Look, I am the victim. I am not the defendant who is being accused of abuse of power. I would rather talk about the process here, including what happens today. I would rather talk about the evidence.
And I would rather talk about why the evidence, under the U.S. Constitution, is considered so significant that those are impeachable crimes. The letter is designed to take away from all of that, in other words, to deter what is the most serious crisis of the United States system since Watergate into a reality TV show, where you have to keep the star in order to keep the ratings up.
WATT: But the thing is, Scott, we all know that that evidence is rock solid. The Republicans know that evidence is rock solid. And it doesn't frankly matter. Let's just take a quick listen as to what Nancy Pelosi had to say about that letter. And then we will get back to what you want to talk about. OK, roll Nancy Pelosi.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reactions to the president's letter?
PELOSI: Reaction is ridiculous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have no reaction. Why not?
PELOSI: Well, I haven't fully read it. We are working. I've seen it, the essence of it, and it is really sick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: So listen, as you were saying, as I was saying, we know that the evidence is rock solid, but that is not going to matter. The House will vote to impeach the president. The Senate will then acquit him. So what does that then due to America, to democracy, to this country? I am not just talking about in year. I'm talking about 10 years and 20 years.
LUCAS: There are two things that are important here, Nick. The first is we know that the discussion, as Donald Trump and his supporters will try to frame it, will not be about the evidence. So we continue to call out the politics. You continue to call out the politics of a Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who would rather than being part of the legal, the constitutional process, throws impartiality out the window.
And says I am coordinating with the White House. You call out the politics of those who try to deny block witnesses, to block documents, defy subpoenas. And then secondly, you've put your finger on it. If Donald Trump, in fact probably when Donald Trump is not convicted because of politics, and when he continues in the White House. This does not go away.
The evidence of what he did does not go away. The threat to U.S. national security does not go away. The threat to foreign policy does not go away. And the threat to the Constitution does not go away. Because it is not only Donald Trump, but anyone in the White House who can think, if I scream loud enough, if I deceive long enough, I can stay in office despite whatever impeachable crimes I commit.
WATT: I mean, that's the thing. Listen, that call with the Ukrainian president was, I believe, the day after the Mueller report dropped and nothing happened from that. Trump perhaps felt involved and continued with this Ukraine thing. So once he is acquitted, he is going to feel he is bullet proof.
LUCAS: That is going to be up to the American people. And it is going to be up to folks like you, like others, who tried to provide understanding and provide knowledge. We have had a spectacle since Donald Trump came into the White House, and even when he campaigned in 2016. We have had a spectacle in which foreign powers have been invited to work with Trump, to cooperate with Trump.
We have had attempts by officers of the United States up to the attorney general to bury all of that. Now, you may continue to ride with this spectacle. And you may continue to follow Donald Trump's Twitter line. And I will understand if you support Trump, as my parents do. But if you do, realize the damage that you are doing, that the spectacle overtakes our values, our decency, and our system.
WATT: So you mentioned your parents support Trump. How do those conversations go with them? Do you even try to convince each other of your point of view or is it pointless?
LUCAS: It is important to keep dialog open, Nick. There are reasons to support Donald Trump away from all the legal and constitutional damage, the possible crimes that are committed. People may feel they're economically better off. They may believe that Republicans, in general, apart from Donald Trump are the party that they want to support.
You cannot just simply dismiss the people and say look, I'm not going to listen to because the man in the White House is so terrible. You have to discuss. You have to engage. Because whether Donald Trump is gone in 2020, in 2021, or in 2025, we are going to have to repair the United States. That is going to be a long term effort. And if we just shout at each other, it will just make things worse.
WATT: Scott Lucas, I really appreciate your knowledge and your insight and your time. Thanks a lot.
LUCAS: Thank you so much.
[03:10:04]
WATT: And please join us in the coming hours for special coverage of Wednesday's historic cast vote starting at 1:00 p.m. in London, 9:00 p.m. in Hong Kong, here on CNN. At least 11 inmates are dead, 11 others injured after a shootout in a prison in Panama. Numerous weapons were found inside the prison, including five handguns and three rifles. Panama's president suggesting it was some type up of cooperation with
prison staff that allowed those weapons to get inside. He has called for an investigation. India's government is not backing down despite violent protests across the country sparked by a controversial new citizenship law. Thousands of people were back on the streets for a 6th day on Tuesday, protesting the law that they see as anti-Muslim.
Police fired shots in the air and teargas. Sam Kiley is in New Delhi with the latest. Sam, what is going on?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nick, just this morning, at local time, the Deli authorities banned or issued a banning order of groups of more than four people in northeast of the city gathering together. They would be declared an illegal gathering and risk arrest. That follows the pretty violent riot that gripped that part of the city yesterday.
And it's a sign, as if we needed one, that the central government is certainly not interested in backing down under pressure either from more violent street demonstrations such as that one, or the more peaceful ones that have gripped the nation, and at least 36 different universities last weekend, for example. Amit Shah, the Interior Minister, doubled down -- doubling down on his commitment to make sure that this new piece of legislation is implemented.
And even though that it's being challenged at the Supreme Court and five different states, administrations have said publicly that they are going to ignore it, which would indeed actually put them in conflict with the law of the land.
WATT: Sam, I mean, I wonder why now. Listen, Modi has made no secret of his Hindu nationalism. We've seen, you know, the change in the status of Kashmir. We've seen that citizenship test up in Assam. Why this? Is this just the straw that has broken the camel's back?
KILEY: Well, it is not clear whether the camel is going to survive it or not. But it is part, or it's certainly seen as part of that broader trajectory. You rightly point to Assam and Kashmir, two areas, where in particular, the Muslim population, Assam somewhat more complicated because it relates to non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, too.
But overwhelmingly, particularly if you look at what is happening, Kashmir, as you say, change of status there. It is still months later, remains under a complete internet and news blackout, foreign journalists are banned from traveling there. It is extremely difficult indeed also to get to Assam, this from the perspective of the secular liberals in this country.
And many, many Muslims making up 200 million of the billion plus people, who live in India, do feel that this is part of that Hindu nationalist's trajectory, that in the end, certainly Muslims feared that they will be somehow disenfranchised or could lead to that. And from the secular perspective right across the religious and ethnic divisions, there is a strong feeling that the whole essence of the foundations of modern India returns to its secular constitution and risked being overridden by the successive laws.
WATT: Sam Kiley in New Delhi. Thanks very much for joining us. Australia's long hot summer of discontent is about to get hotter, really hot, record breaking temperature hot, details coming up in just a moment. Plus, a campaign to fight racism in football backfires. We will hear from the artist behind the images later in this half hour.
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[03:15:00]
WATT: Summer has barely begun in Australia, but already records are being broken, as deadly bush fires continue to ravage New South Wales. Australia experienced its hottest day ever on record. Temperatures reached an average national high of 40.9 degrees Celsius, the blistering heat now spreading across eastern and southern Australia, amid the country's worst drought in decades. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now with more, Pedram.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Nick. You know, the longevity of this heat wave has been what is most impressive, of course, from west the east over the past several days. And now, you kind of take a look at this. We are talking about 7:15. It seems to be approaching the evening hours across portions of Australia, 45, 46 degrees.
That is the current temperature across some of these regions. And of course, all of that extreme heat is going to begin to shift a little farther towards the east, towards the most densely populated corner there into New South Wales, where Sydney sets at 24 degrees. But we expect the highs, of course, to warm up over the next 24 or so hours.
But as you noted, 40.9, that was Tuesdays high, an all-time high. By this afternoon, once the Bureau of Meteorology gets their data compiled, we could be looking at 41, which should be shattering, essentially breaking the record from Tuesday for the all-time high, observed across the country. But, of course, this is a longstanding pattern. We have had extensive drought, extensive heat in place.
And we know heat is the number one weather killer across Australia. A lot of times tropical cyclones, tornadoes, certainly flooding situations and droughts get quite a bit of air time. But when it comes to the most deadly, it is the one element you don't see. And that's just everything that you feel. And, of course, that has been highlighted here over the past several days with this massive area of high pressure.
So as we look forward into the next 24 hours, we will expect the heat to expand onto portions of New South Wales, onto areas of Queensland as well. That is where the hottest temperatures of the year are going to be -- beginning to move their way across this region, and also some strong winds. Look at Sydney, 37 degrees.
You factor in the strong winds. It'd be over 100 active wildfires across this particular region. This is a bad scenario shaping up. And, of course, about half of those fires are considered uncontained. So we have seen that number expand in the past 24 hours. I wouldn't be surprised if that number goes up even further within the next 24 or so hours.
But when you look beyond this, we do expect some cooler air potentially to work their way into the forecast as early as Friday, before Saturday, Nick, brings back additional heat. But Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, finally looks like a trend for milder weather across parts of Australia at least. So firefighters are going to get a little bit of a break across the region.
WATT: Hope on the horizon. Thanks, Pedram.
JAVAHERI: Thank you.
WATT: A campaign to end racist abuse in Italy's football stadiums has been criticized as an epic fail. Why social media went into meltdown. That's next.
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WATT: Apparently, Italy is finally getting tough on racism in football. But you wouldn't believe how they are doing it. To many people, they have just made it worse. CNN's Don Riddell explains.
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DON RIDDELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what football's anti-racism campaign looks like in Italy, three monkeys. The countries top league, Serie A, commissioned an artist to highlight the growing problem of racist abuse in their stadiums. But it appears to have backfired spectacularly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is not as though people of color are like this. They are not monkeys. I do not think people of colors are monkeys, absolutely not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it is explained, the conclusion behind it, it could be positive. But in this art, into this manner, I don't think anyone would understand as something anti-racist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this moment, if you speak in this manner, if you express yourself in this manner, there is just no pity.
RIDDELL: From England to Bulgaria, Ukraine, and the Netherlands, there seems to have been an increase of racist abuse on football fields throughout Europe this season. But Italy is often cited as the worst offender. In September, Inter Milan's Romelu Lukaku was taunted by fans making monkey noises that caleare (pharmacy).
And then in November, Brescia's Mario Balotelli kicked the ball thrown (ph) at fans who were abusing him. Balotelli tried to leave the field but he was encouraged to stay by players from both teams. Two of the country's top clubs have been critical of the latest campaign. Roma tweeted that they were very surprised to see what appears to be an anti-racist campaign from Serie A.
They went on, we understand the league wants to tackle racism, but we don't believe this is the right way to do it. A.C. Milan wrote, art can be powerful, but we strongly disagree with the use of monkeys as images in the fight against racism, and were surprised by the total lack of consultation. This comes less than two weeks after the headline, Black Friday, in the Italian paper, Corriere dello Sport.
That article was meant to highlight Lukaku and Smalling in a positive way, but it was roundly condemned. On that occasion, the publication was indignant, accusing the accusers of racism themselves. Defending his three monkeys, the artist, Simone Fugazzotto, says that his work has been misunderstood.
SIMONE FUGAZZOTTO, ARTIST: This reaction for me, on my point of view, show how, you know, the mind is twisted by all the things that are happening right now. A pure heart can see this campaign as a really huge step against racism, because it is really brave, I guess.
RIDDELL: Fugazzotto's intentions are good. But for the second time this month, Italy is reeling from a badly misjudged anti-racism message. The casual, accidental racism indicates just how much work still needs to be done. Don Riddell, CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: Just ahead, PolitiFact says one of President Trump's lies has won the contest for liar of the year, so much winning, but with which lie?
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[03:25:00]
WATT: PolitiFact has announced the winner of the 2019 lie of the year with a few days still to go. Anyway, President Trump uttered it, of course. CNN's Jeanne Moos takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you ready for --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our 2019 PolitiFact lie of the year.
MOOS: Drum roll please. Actually, forget the drum roll. We know who the winner is. The real question is for which lie does President Trump get the title?
TRUMP: The whistleblower gave a false account. The whistleblower came out with this horrible statement. Well, the whistleblower was very inaccurate -- defrauded our country, because the whistleblower wrote something that was totally untrue.
MOOS: Or at least almost completely wrong, or even the whistleblower got it so wrong with so many o's. PolitiFact says they found over 70 instances of President Trump repeating what they consider to be a whopper, because the whistleblower's report did correspond to the president's call Ukraine's president.
TRUMP: Everything he wrote in that report almost was a lie.
MOOS: Many marveled at how PolitiFact picked just one. Really, they had a target-rich environment. Even some who have supported the president say --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is a congenital liar.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This man is a pathological liar
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At times, he is a full blown BS artist.
MOOS: Some critics are going after PolitiFact for blowing the whistle on the president's whistleblower lie. Obviously, the word fact in PolitiFact is a lie also. The not so coveted title lie of the year brought out memes, like, ha-ha, I can lie faster than you can fact check, and taunts. Well, @RealDonaldTrump, you didn't win Times Person of the Year, but at least you have this.
TRUMP: The whistleblower gave a lot of very incorrect information.
MOOS: This is actually the third time that President Trump has won lie of the year, which means at least he wasn't lying when he said this.
TRUMP: It is too much winning. We can't take it anymore.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN.
TRUMP: I consider it to be a fake whistleblower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is not a whistle. That is an airborne.
(CROSSTALK)
MOOS: New York.
WATT: Tanks for watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Nick Watt. And I'll be back with the headlines in just a minute.
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