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President Trump Impeached by the House of Representatives; Boris Johnson Set His Focus on Delivering Brexit; More Indians are Outrage Over the New Citizens Act; Vladimir Putin is Set to Answer International Media; Australia is Experiencing Record-breaking Heat. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired December 19, 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're watching CNN Newsroom live from studio seven at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta.
Ahead this hour, while lawmakers made history in Washington, impeaching Donald Trump as a want to be king and threat to national security, he was unleashed on stage of the campaign rally in Michigan. Counter punching, accusing Democrats of bringing pain and suffering to the republic.
The queen opens the British parliament in the coming hours with Brexit now seemingly on the fast-track following Boris Johnson's landslide election win.
And a state of emergency is in effect at this hour in Australia's most populous state as wildfires rage around Sydney.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.
WATT: Donald Trump is now officially only the third U.S. President to be impeached by the House of Representatives. Charged by the Democrat led body with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, accused of withholding aid to Ukraine, turning the screw, pressuring that country to smear his political rival Joe Biden, and in return Trump would turn the money tap back on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), UNITED STATES SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: December 18th, a great day for the Constitution of the United States. A sad one for America, that the president's reckless activities necessitate it us, are having to introduce articles of impeachment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: The vote predictably pretty much along party lines. No Republicans, and only a couple of Democrats crossing the aisle. Republicans in the House decrying the process is a sham. One equating this day to day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
Another suggesting Mr. Trump's persecution is worse than that of Jesus Christ himself.
The president, on a campaign stage in Michigan just delivered a rambling diatribe including this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You are declaring open war on American democracy. You are the ones interfering in America's elections. You are the one subverting America's democracy. We did nothing wrong. Nothing whatsoever. This was just an excuse.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: You are the ones obstructing justice. You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our republic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: Joining us now from San Francisco is Democratic strategist Caroline Heldman, an associate professor of politics in Occidental College, and from Los Angeles, KABC radio talk show host John Phillips. Thanks very much for joining us.
Listen, it's not really a big surprise that we are here with this president and coming into the day the Democrats knew they had the votes, we knew they had the votes. But it still seemed pretty massive. At risk of, John, screaming liberal bias, I want to go to Caroline first for just your, your first impressions here?
CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, as a constitutional scholar, I would hope that we would be engaging in this impeachment regardless of party. I would like to think that if a Democrat asked a foreign power to get involved in an election in the United States, that we would be impeaching that person.
Certainly, Donald Trump has been the target of a lot of partisan rancor. And I would -- that's obvious. It's not something that I would dismiss. But I don't think that that is actually what is driving this.
I do believe Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats when they say that it has a lot to do with the Constitution because Donald Trump admitted to stepping out of bounds constitutionally.
WATT: John, do you believe Nancy Pelosi? What are your thoughts in the day?
JOHN PHILLIPS, TALK SHOW HOST, KABC RADIO: Well, I think she was forced into it. Watching the proceedings today is like watching the movie "Titanic" to figure out how the story ends. All of us knew where they were going with this, and it was a very partisan process.
As Hawaii Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard said after voting present during today's debate. But opposition to it is bipartisan. I mean, if you look at the polls, you look at the Gallup poll, you look at the CNN poll, support for impeachment is upside down.
And part of the reason that it's upside down is because so many of these Democrats made up their mind before anything involving that Ukraine was ever in the newspapers. I mean, you listen to people like Maxine Waters, Brad Sherman, Rashida Tlaib who want to impeach the mother of her.
People saw this. People heard this. People noted this.
(CROSSTALK)
WATT: Right. But --
PHILLIPS: And this is why we know it's a partisan process.
WATT: But now Republican senators have made up their mind before we've even had this trial. Same thing, no?
[03:05:02]
PHILLIPS: Well, I mean, what laws has he broken? The Democrats failed to make the case today, the Democrat representatives --
(CROSSTALK)
HELDMAN: It's not --
PHILLIPS: Because they weren't trying to make the case, they were just trying to list their fest of this list of grievances, which is what they did.
WATT: Caroline, Caroline, jump in.
HELDMAN: Yes. You don't, John. You don't -- you don't have to have a violation of s specific law in order to engage in high crimes and misdemeanors. This is precisely what framers were thinking of when they put that clause in the Constitution.
It is untoward to have the president asking another country to get involved in our elections. And it's also disingenuous to talk about the American public being underwater on impeachment. It is more complicated than that.
Fifty-four percent believe that he engaged in an impeachable offense, but a sizable number of those actually don't want to use impeachment process, they want the election to determine it. But at the end of the day if you are sitting member of Congress, you have an oath to the Constitution and that is what happened today in the House of Representatives.
WATT: And listen, OK. So, tonight, the president himself had a, I think it was called a Merry Christmas campaign rally in Michigan. Listen, as we've just discussed, the Senate Republicans have already made up their mind. There is almost no chance that Trump will actually be removed from office.
Yet tonight, he was verbose, he was shouty, he was sweaty, he was red. John, why is he so sweaty if he is not actually going to get kicked out of the White House?
PHILLIPS: Come on. He's like Prince Andrew. He doesn't sweat. He was magnificent tonight. And I would also add that he raised $5 million for his reelection campaign.
If the Democrats want to make sure that President Trump can rally the Republicans behind him, and close the ranks, then keep doing what they're doing. I'll tell you this too. Not only is this putting red states and purple state, or purple and red district Democrats on the hot seat, it is also forcing all of their presidential candidates to move to the left.
In California, there is just a poll that was done that showed Bernie Sanders ahead. A Democratic socialist is ahead in a state that's going to vote on super Tuesday. That's the biggest state in the union. Pushing the Democrats to the left is not doing the Democrats any favors.
WATT: OK. You just said the president was magnificent tonight, I want to play a little bit of sound from him. He is talking about Congresswoman Debbie Dingell and her recently deceased husband. Let's roll that tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Do you know Dingell from Michigan?
(CROWD BOOING)
TRUMP: Do you Dingell? Do you ever hear of her, Michigan? Debbie Dingell that's a real beauty. She calls me up. It's the nicest thing that's ever happened, thank you so much. John would be so thrilled. He is looking down. He would be so thrilled. Thank you so much, sir. I said, that's OK, don't worry about it. Maybe he is looking up, I don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: John, magnificent? Seriously?
PHILLIPS: Yes. This is politics.
WATT: What? No, no, no, no.
PHILLIPS: It is not beanbag.
WATT: You can't just laugh that off. That is a guy attacking a woman whose husband is no longer alive. Come on, man. Really?
PHILLIPS: She is not a grieving widow. She is an elected member of Congress. And if she can't take the heat then get out of the kitchen.
(CROSSTALK)
HELDMAN: John, she should not --
PHILLIPS: This is politics. This is not the meanest thing that these people have said before breakfast. Come on.
WATT: Caroline?
HELDMAN: She should not have to have her appearance commented on by the President of the United States. I mean, the sexism in that, and the nastiness in that is, you know, classic Trump. And I would agree with you, John, that indeed, this will not help the Democrats come the election in 2020.
It hasn't actually shifted public opinion or public support for Donald Trump, so I think the polling results will be negligible. But at the end of the day, it's about putting the Constitution and the systems of checks and balances that our framers put into place for a reason. It's about prioritizing that and putting that first party above.
So, you talk about partisanship. My goodness. The Republicans we will look back in this in history and wonder why the Republicans didn't step up to put their country over their party.
WATT: So, Caroline, quickly from you, I mean, where do Democrats go now? It seems like Nancy Pelosi is not just automatically going to kick these articles up to the Senate. I mean, they're not really winning the P.R. battle at the moment. They've had all these hearings and the needle hasn't moved. What do the Dems do now?
HELDMAN: Well, Nancy Pelosi is using whatever leverage she has in order to make the process in the Senate actually work. And Mitch McConnell has said no. He is going to side with the White House, he is not going to hold a fair trial. So, she is waiting to kick it to the Senate until she gets some assurance that that will happen.
Either way, he is not going to be removed from office. He requires a super majority and Republicans have a majority in the Senate, they are not to do the right thing for the country.
WATT: And, John, looking ahead to 2020, you think he's going to win, right?
[03:09:56]
PHILLIPS: I think this is very good news for him. I mean, look, the new cycle changes so fast, we'll probably have forgotten this two weeks from now. So, who knows? But I can tell you in the short term, if I were a Democrat in a red part of the country or purple part of the country, I'd be shaking in my boots.
WATT: John, Caroline, thank you both so much.
HELDMAN: Thank you.
WATT: Britain's Queen Elizabeth will formally open parliament in the coming hours and announced the prime minister's legislative agenda following last week's U.K. election. But forget the pomp, real issues here.
Today's focus will be squarely on Boris Johnson's plans to get Brexit done quickly. Apparently, Mr. Johnson will also cement a commitment to spend more on Britain's much loved, but struggling National Health Service.
CNN's Nic Robertson is standing by live for us in London. Nic, what should we expect?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, good morning, Nick.
Forty-four billion dollars to be legally ringfence for the National Health Service. This in itself to legally ringfence money for the Health Service is significant. It's the first time that's been done.
But a lot of focus obviously on the withdrawal agreement bill. So, expect bills to be proposed on farming, on fisheries, on immigration. We can expect a bill on taxation. We can expect perhaps as many as 40 bills are being speculated here.
And one that's going to catch the attention of people in Scotland, a bill expected to lay out how the prime minister wants to strengthen the union.
And this of course on a day where we are expecting in Scotland the Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to lay out for public support for why she thinks Scotland should be able to decide for itself when it should hold an independence referendum.
So down here in London, a big day for Boris Johnson. The queen will lay all that out. There will be speeches in parliament afterwards. But already in Scotland, the noises of discontent are coming. Nick?
WATT: And Brexit. What do we expect him to say specifically on Brexit?
ROBERTSON: Well one of the things that's been outlined is essentially relates to the second phase of what will be the coming phase of Brexit. Of course, there is the Brexit deadline the 31st of January next year to get the divorce part done. And this is the legislation the withdrawal agreement bill that will be laid out and that's expected.
Boris Johnson will prioritize that and expect to push that through by the 31st of January. But there is a clause or a bit of legislation that might come about within the withdrawal agreement bill, that would say there will be no extension to the next phase.
And the next phase is due to end in December next year. And that next phase is all about the new relationship, the new trade deal with the European Union. Many people are saying that's far too short.
Boris Johnson if that -- if that part of legislation, as has been rumored, comes into play, that would mean there could be no extension on that. The risks of a no deal Brexit, people are talking about that again. But this will very much enforce or lay down just how clearly Boris Johnson intends to get Brexit done, which was his election manifesto and why he has a majority of 80 and why it's probably going to happen. Nick?
WATT: Nic Robertson in a rainy London, thank you very much.
Next, nationwide anger is building more protest spanned across India despite police efforts to block marches and demonstrations. The citizenship controversy, that's ahead.
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WATT: Police and protesters clashed after football rivals Barcelona and Royal Madrid faced off in Spain. The actual game ended in a nil- nil draw in the Catalan capital. Off the field, a CNN crew saw columns of smoke across the city skyline after protesters set barricades on fire.
Protesters held signs demanding the Spanish government in Madrid sit and talk with those demanding Catalan independence. Police asked people to leave the stadium through a separate exit for security reasons.
More massive protests are planned in New Delhi and Mumbai as fury over India's new citizenship law refuses to let up. Thousands of demonstrators were back on the streets on Wednesday, protesting the measure they view as discriminatory against Muslims.
Sam Kiley is in New Delhi and joins us now again on the phone. So, Sam, I'm assuming the internet is still not backup?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Nick, it is not. There is a heavy police presence indeed. Barricades just set up a key entry points to the area around the Red Fort, the ancient Red Fort which was supposed to be the gathering place for a march across the city in protest against the Citizens Amendment Act, an act that gives the opportunity to apply for Indian citizenship to immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan but it excludes Muslims.
And it is that exclusion that opponents of the act, which are not just bind the Muslims but many Hindus and others I've spoken today are out on the streets hoping to join these marches which they say are demonstrating against the idea that this is unconstitutional.
Now the government were responsive that this was not unconstitutional, that it relates to Indian citizens and it has remained firm and that they are going to apply this legislation to the country.
But the wide-ranging areas have been blocked for internet use in order to, one assumes, to stop coordination among marchers, which have been banned here in Delhi. They ordered the banning instructions last night. That was banned in Mumbai and Kolkata and a number of other cities.
But demonstrators and marchers have been trying to get through and trying to join (Inaudible). There's been no sign of any violence or clashes. We have had reports but we haven't been able to confirm yet with the police. But one of the two leaders of the marches' organizers have been detained.
But I just spoke to very senior policemen on the street here just outside the Red Fort. He said his officers were negotiating with a group of about I'd say 200 marchers who we're seeing in the street to try to get then to disperse as per the law that it's being interpreted by the police, rather than being detained or arrested.
So, it's very clear that the government and security forces see these marches as, quote, "potentially highly disruptive."
But also, part of what it seems to be across India, a growing groundswell of anger about this new legislation which is being really seen as efforts by the Hindu nationalists within the ruling BJP Party led by Narendra Modi, the prime minister, it's an effort to marginalize minorities. That is the criticism of this legislation because that is a criticism that Mr. Modi and his government flatly reject. Nick?
WATT: Sam Kiley in New Delhi, thanks very much.
Coming up, a once in a year event for Vladimir Putin. He will be taking questions from international reporters in a marathon news conference.
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WATT: In the coming hour, Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his annual year-end news conference where he presides over a marathon question and answer event with international media.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us now from Moscow. Fred, what should we expect?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Nick. Well, first of all, you're absolutely right. It's going to be a marathon; it pretty much always is.
One of the things that a lot of commentators speak about before the press conference actually begins is, how long it's actually going to be. I think the longest one that he ever did was about four hours and 40 minutes, and that was in 2008.
Last year it was about three hours and 40 minutes which is pretty much normal time for Vladimir Putin these days. So of course, in that time, there's going to be a lot of efforts by various groups here in Russia, but also by international journalists to pose questions to Vladimir Putin. Now, like in any other country, despite the fact that of course Russia
is this gigantic global player. Most people care about the economy. And they'll be asking questions about the economy.
The economy of course here in Russia hasn't been doing very well over the past couple of years, but especially in 2019. Vladimir Putin has actually lost somewhat of his momentum. His ratings have been dipping, he is sort of in the upper 50s which is not very good by the standards that he has had in the past.
And he's really had trouble jump-starting the economy as well. So, we'll look for that.
Of course, for us, for the international journalists, the big questions are going to be about foreign policy. And one of the things that we're looking out for is what Vladimir Putin is going to say about the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump, which of course happened last night in the United States.
There's been some Russian politicians who have already come out this morning. There was one very prominent senator who said that he very much like the Republicans believe that this was some kind of skit by the Democrats to try and prevent Donald Trump from getting reelected.
So obviously, they have been taking President Trump side on this issue. It will be very interesting to see what Vladimir Putin what has to say on all of this.
And the other thing that we are also listening to, or listening for, Nick, and I think this is very important also to Russian audiences as well, is what he is going to say about Ukraine. Of course, he recently had that meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
And really, if you look at Russian media, Ukraine plays an outsized role on what's going on there. So, we're going to look in for that as well, Nick.
WATT: Good stuff. Thanks, Fred. We will no doubt hear from you about how it all went down.
Moving on, unjust and illegal. That's what former Bolivian President Evo Morales is calling a warrant out for his arrest. Bolivian prosecutors accuse Morales of terrorism and sedition, alleging he promoted violent clashes that led to 35 deaths before and after he left office.
Morales resigned last month after a wave of protests and under pressure from Bolivian police and the military. He is now in Argentina where he was granted political asylum.
Australia just set a new record for its hottest day ever, beating Tuesday's record. Not good news for crews battling massive wildfires. More on what lies ahead, coming up next.
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WATT: Australia is sweltering, struggling with a record-breaking heat wave. It set a new record for the hottest day ever on Wednesday, beating Tuesday's record. With temperatures across the country reaching an average high of 41.9 degrees Celsius. And a state of emergency has now been declared in New South Wales as bush fires continue to burn around Sydney.
Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now with more. Pedram?
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Nick. You know, it's hard for people to relate to what's happening here across portions of Australia. Of course, these sort of temperatures in parts of the world you certainly experienced them. But the longevity of what's happening here of course, and how anomalous it is for how far above average these temperatures sit. Fifteen to 20 degrees in some cases. That's what is becoming dangerous.
And of course, 45, 46, 47-degreee observations coming in from Thursday alone. And kind of give you a global perspective of current temperatures and pick out the orange contours. The darker the orange the warmer it is.
And of course, Australia stands out by themselves as far as how hot it is. And we know it is the warm season, but of course, that is also the case across the southern hemisphere. And you see how Australia has kind of separated as far as how far above average Australia it sits is.
And even at this hour the sunset approaching, you see these temperatures into the middle 40s continuing into portions of Australia. On the immediate coast, we get a little bit of a break.
In Sydney temperatures climb up to over 41 degrees this afternoon but we've seen that dropped off into the 20s and more of a marine influence is being felt. But really, what's impressive of course the amount of records we've set in recent years, and let alone in recent days.
You notice the 40.3 which was the national average record from 2013. That record was eclipsed there come Tuesday afternoon at 40.9. And the bureau of meteorology in Australia telling us a 41.9 was observed from Wednesday after all their calculations were made, essentially shattering the record from the previous day. And of course, a new all- time record being set.
But you look at what's happening here. The air quality a major, major issue. So not only is it's extremely hot, but with the fires in place, the air quality a major issue, AQI which is the index there for air quality in Sydney has climb to over 400. And the hazardous category.
And you notice in New Delhi now it seems almost a much cleaner place at this hour when it comes to the air quality. It kind of speaks to what is happening across portions of Australia right now. Nick?
WATT: Thanks, Pedram. JAVAHERI: Thank you.
WATT: And thanks to you for watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Nick Watt. And I'll be back with the headlines in just a moment.
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