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Sen. Mitch McConnell Says, We're At An Impasse Over Impeachment Trial; Saudi Arabia Sentences Five To Death In Khashoggi Killing. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 23, 2019 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

RYAN NOBLES, CNN ANCHOR: Kimberly, is that your take, as well? Do you agree with The Washington Post publisher on the outcome of this trial?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, my analysis is that Saudi Arabia knew that they had to deliver some heads on a platter, and all of the junior people involved in this plot are the ones taking responsibility and getting the long sentences, whereas those that the U.N. and U.S. Investigators found responsible leading all the way up to MBS himself, the crown prince. They are getting away with a slap on the wrist.

And here you go with the news dumped right before a holiday when it's going to get less attention. It's a very savvy move if you're trying to avoid the U.S. public paying a lot of attention to this news. But I don't think The Washington Post or the U.S. media or Capitol Hill are going to let this go so easily.

NOBLES: So the question is does the Trump administration, Kimberly -- obviously, President Trump has offered up excuses for the Saudi government's role in all of this. How do you see President Trump and the White House responding to this verdict?

DOZIER: I think they're going to embrace this as the Saudi government going as far as it can go. What they've been doing publicly is saying they are encouraged by the kingdom's moves to hold various people responsible. But they had sanctioned Saud al-Qahtani, the senior adviser that the prosecutor in Saudi Arabia said there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute. It will be interesting to see if those sanctions remain as one signal from the White House to the kingdom that they haven't gone far enough.

Essentially, senior administration officials I've spoken to about this issue and other long-standing issues they have with Saudi Arabia, such as the textbooks that have hate speech towards Jews, towards Christians, towards people who convert from Islam, they haven't changed that text yet. That kind of thing, the officials say that we're encouraged that they keep trying to work these problems, whereas they have hard words with them behind closed doors.

NOBLES: So we've learned that Khashoggi's family -- and there were some other western diplomats that attended the trial -- what do you view of the significance of having folks like that in the room?

DOZIER: Well, according to The New York Times, the folks like that are not allowed to speak about what they saw or heard. But that does go some way within Saudi society to show that they have been included and that the death of Jamal Khashoggi is in some way being honored.

But, again, we also have heard that members of Khashoggi's family in Saudi Arabia have felt fearful of speaking out and have felt torn between wanting to see justice and wanting to be able to continue their life in Saudi Arabia without recrimination or any sort of crackdown from the government.

NOBLES: All right. Kimberly Dozier, obviously a very important story. We appreciate your perspective. Thank you for being here.

DOZIER: Thank you.

NOBLES: And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

NOBLES: Unsurprisingly, Eddie Murphy getting rave reviews for hosting Saturday Night Live 35 years after he left the show. Murphy bringing back some of his classic characters and creating some new ones. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURPHY: I passed kidney stones with more personality than the two of you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a little rude.

MURPHY: Face it, kid, the both of you together couldn't Velcro my sneakers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not exactly a Christmas character, I'm seeing.

MURPHY: What the hell do you mean I'm not a Christmas character? Look at me. I'm green. I'm green, and all the children love me. The kids love me, and I'm a Christmas character, you jerk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this man saying a polar bear got inside the workshop?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I believe he is. But, sir, there's an electrified fence around the perimeter --

MURPHY: It don't matter about no electrified fence. The bear came right through the fence, it looked just like Jurassic Park. It just ran through the fence. These bears are out there and they're hungry because of global warming and they have smelled that fresh meat and went crazy. The bears are coming for us, you all. (END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: This was certainly appointment viewing in my House. Dean Obeidallah joins me now. He's a Contributor for The Daily Beast and CNN.com Opinion. He's, of course, the host of the Dean Obeidallah Show on Sirius X.M.

Dean, if you're an Eddie Murphy fan, you really got a little bit of everything. Bringing back some of his iconic characters from his days at SNL, we saw him there as Gumby, he also did Buckwheat, Mr. Robinson and Velvet Jones. I mean, what was the highlight for you?

DEAN OBEIDALLAH, CNN.COM OPINION CONTRIBUTOR: Ryan, first of all, I think this is one of the best SNLs ever, and I worked at SNL for eight seasons. I've got to tell you, it really was everything you want to see in comedy. If you like SNL, like Eddie Murphy, this was it.

To me, I loved the monologue when you had Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan come on stage, Dave Chappelle, and paid homage to Eddie Murphy for blazing the trail for them. As comedians do, they made fun of him a little bit. That was great. I also loved Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood, the sketch they did here. And I looked back at one they did 35 years ago when Eddie was on the show when he talked about white flight.

In this one, it was updated, he talked about gentrification, how white people are coming back now and pushing black people out.

So I think it was timely, it was well done.

[10:40:01]

Eddie Murphy had a phenomenal night there. And I hope he comes back much more often annually. It would be great to see him back.

NOBLES: Yes. I'd like you to go a little bit more into that. I was really impressed how they were able to take those iconic characters that we know so well and apply them to the current time. And the Mr. Robinson sketch is a perfect example of that, talking about gentrification. I mean, how much did that impress you the way the writers were able to weave in everything that we loved about those old characters but make them relevant to what we're dealing with today?

OBEIDALLAH: Well, that's -- the writing staff at SNL is phenomenal. And what they do when old, you know, famous hosts come back who have been on the show years and years ago, they'll look back at the old sketches. That's part of what they do. I used to work in the research department at SNL. That's what I would do, gather them and give them to the writers.

So it's not a coincidence, they look at it. They do the preparation and see what Eddie was talking about 35 years ago, which was white flight, and update it to now with gentrification.

And I also think that Eddie was under appreciated in his team on SNL dealing with race issues, challenging white America on issues like white privilege before we even used the term white privilege in other sketches. So that was great.

Also the Gumby sketch, there was a moment there as Gumby where he lashed out at Lorne Michaels and NBC, why haven't you had me on for 35 years? And that sort of hints to some bad blood between Eddie and the show that is now resolved and I think it was great he had that moment to do that comedically.

NOBLES: Yes. Of course, that wasn't the only bit of news that Murphy made. He lashed out at Bill Cosby and now Bill Cosby's representatives are pushing back, and that was after he took a jab at Cosby in the opening monologue while talking about his new baby, his tenth child. Let's play that clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURPHY: If you would have told me 30 years ago that I would be this boring stay-at-home house dad and Bill Cosby would be in jail, even I would have took that bet.

I'll tell you, who is America's dad now?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: So, Dean, quickly, a Cosby spokesperson issued this statement that said in part, quote, one would think that Mr. Murphy was given his freedom to leave the plantation so that he could make his own decisions, but he decided to sell himself back to being a Hollywood slave. Really strong words from Cosby's people. What's your take on this?

OBEIDALLAH: I think that line, which is despicable, Eddie Murphy is doing a joke. In the past, to be clear, Eddie Murphy has defended Bill Cosby, not on these allegations but other issues, praised him at times, 2015 when he came back for the 40th anniversary, Eddie Murphy, he would not do comedy mocking Bill Cosby then.

Since then, Bill Cosby has been convicted. He is in prison right now now. I think the joke was fair. It was edgy. And it's unfortunate Bill Cosby, it seems, wanted to try to take the attention away from Eddie Murphy's triumphant return to SNL.

NOBLES: All right. Dean, I agree. I hope they bring Eddie Murphy back often after seeing what we saw on Saturday.

Dean Obeidallah, thank you so much for being here.

OBEIDALLAH: Thanks, Ryan.

NOBLES: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00]

NOBLES: With 2020 just days away, we are counting down some of the biggest stories in business this year. CNN's Chief Business Correspondent, Christine Romans, looks back at 2019.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The unicorn bubble burst, the longest U.S. auto strike in 50 years, the tech backlash and the U.S.-China trade war, these are the top business stories of 2019.

Number nine, fake meat starts a real food revolution.

This year, corporate America and Foodies went wild for plant-based protein and two companies drove the craze, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, inking deals with big-name chains.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: Burger King will begin selling meatless whopper.

ROMANS: Beyond Meat's massive Wall Street debut --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beyond Meat's 163 percent spike --

ROMANS: And demand so high, Impossible Foods briefly ran out of burgers.

Plant-based meat appeals to consumers worried about their own health and the environment.

Number eight, Amazon abandons plans for a New York headquarters.

In 2017, CEO Jeff Bezos and Amazon launched a highly publicized bidding war.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amazon is shopping for a second headquarters.

ROMANS: New York City emerged as one of the winners. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had said HQ2 would launch New York as a rival to Silicon Valley and New York Mayor de Blasio promised it would benefit locals.

But HQ2 did not get a warm welcome from everyone in the Big Apple.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amazon pulling the plug on plans to build a campus in New York City.

ROMANS: Progressive New York politicians, like Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, criticized the billions in promised tax breaks and state grants.

Amazon didn't like the heat and killed the deal.

Number seven, the unicorn bubble bursts.

Wall Street had high hopes for the market debut of startups worth at least $1 billion.

QUEST: Lyft is leading a herd of unicorns. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your Uber has arrived.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Slack shares rockets.

ROMANS: But enthusiasm quickly became disappointment.

QUEST: The year's biggest IPO is struggling --

ROMANS: The problem, the companies aren't profitable. And In the case of Uber and Lyft --

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Uber released stunning statistics about sexual assault.

ROMANS: -- are rocked by scandals.

[10:50:01]

But the most disastrous IPO --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: WeWork was one of the highest flying startups, and now it can't get its IPO off the ground.

ROMANS: Investors didn't like WeWork's huge losses and the unchecked power of founder Adam Neumann. WeWork postponed its IPO and pushed out Neumann but not before handing him a billion-dollar exit package.

Meanwhile, the company laid off thousands to cut costs.

Number six, companies get political.

In 2019, corporate America refused to stay quiet on controversial issues.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Walmart is announcing major changes in its gun policies a month after 22 people were killed in a shooting rampage at a Walmart.

ROMANS: Following the lead of retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods, Walmart exited the handgun market completely, stopped selling some ammunition and banned open carry in stores. But it didn't stop there.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Walmart's CEO sent a letter to Congress today demanding lawmakers do their part to stop gun violence.

ROMANS: It wasn't an accolades in 2019. Some companies were hurt by their political affiliations.

Like SoulCycle and Equinox, consumers boycotted after their billionaire owner held a high-dollar fundraiser for President Trump. And China briefly blacklisted the NBA when a general manager tweeted his support of the Hong Kong protesters. The league scrambled to backtrack only to face backlash back home.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Bipartisan outrage today at the NBA for apologizing to the government of China. ROMANS: The NBA has spent years and millions trying to grow in China.

Number five, the G.M. strike.

It was the longest nationwide auto strike in 50 years.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Contract talks between General Motors and the United Auto Workers broke off --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are just some of the workers that are protesting, 50,000 nationwide.

ROMANS: For six weeks, UAW members stood on the picket lines while both sides negotiated the future of a changing auto industry. The union won raises and Affordable Health Care but failed to get G.M. to shift production back to the U.S. It also couldn't keep three plants from closing, including a plant the president repeatedly promised Ohio voters he would save.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Lordstown, Ohio. Get the damn plants open.

ROMANS: The strike cost G.M. nearly $3 billion.

Number four, the Boeing 737 Max Crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A devastating plane crash in Ethiopia with no survivors --

ROMANS: This was the second fatal crash of Boeing's 737 Max within five months, killing 346 people in all. Boeing's planes were grounded, and a flaw in the automated flight software blamed. The investigation sparked uncomfortable questions for Boeing about regulatory oversight, training standards and if the company had rushed the 737 Max to market.

Boeing's CEO admitted to Congress and the victims' families the scrutiny was deserved.

DENNIS MUILENBURG, CEO, BEOING: We've been challenged and changed by these accidents. We've made mistakes, and we got some things wrong.

ROMANS: Boeing continues to work on a software fix.

Until then, the 737 Max remains grounded.

Number three, the big tech backlash heads to Washington.

Following years of criticism over data abuse and misinformation, regulators cracked down on big tech in 2019. The FTC hit Facebook with a record fine.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: $5 billion, that's how much Facebook is being forced to pay up over privacy breaches.

ROMANS: 50 attorneys general launched an anti-trust probe into Google, and Facebook CEO faced bipartisan fury in six hours of congressional testimony.

The GOP claimed liberal bias while the Dems attacked lies in political ads.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): Do you see a potential problem here with a complete lack of fact-checking on political advertisements?

MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO, FACEBOOK: Well, Congresswoman, I think lying is bad.

ROMANS: A few companies like Twitter took action, banning political ads, but time will tell if this brings real oversight to big tech.

Number two, a strong U.S. economy.

Despite a global slowdown, the U.S. economy remains solid. Like the U.S. consumer, spending money and keeping the economy growing. Unemployment is at a 50-year low.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The last time it was that low, The Beatles Come Together song was at the top of the charts.

ROMANS: Major averages on Wall Street keep hitting record highs.

Hope for U.S.-China trade deal kept stocks climbing, but you can also thank the Federal Reserve.

In 2019, the Fed cut interest rates, not once, not twice, but three times. Central banks wanted to counter uncertainty over trade.

Speaking of, number one, the U.S.-China trade war.

China and the U.S. finally reached a phase-one agreement, but 2019 saw major fallout from the 19-month-long trade war. Trade talks seemed to move ahead, then stalled leaving progress uncertain. Meanwhile, both countries slapped tariffs on products worth hundreds of billions of dollars, slowing economic growth, shrinking the manufacturing sector and stalling job creation there.

[10:55:07]

A significant slowdown from the prior years.

While U.S. farmers, many who supported Trump, felt like collateral damage in his trade war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he's sort of backstabbing the main people who got him into office in the Midwest.

ROMANS: American business and consumers pay for tariffs.

The phase-one deal is an important first step, but not the grand course correction Trump promised at the start of the trade war.

It's a narrow agreement that leaves the thorny issues for 2020. (END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBLES: All right. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Ryan Nobles.

At This Hour with Kate Bolduan starts after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]