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Global Powers Flex Muscle As Trump Focuses On Impeachment; Chicago Teenager And Her Little Brother Stop A Suspect From Stealing Their Dad's Car While They Were Still In It; Trump Lashes Out Over Impeachment During Christmas Holiday. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 25, 2019 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:41]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Merry Christmas. I'm Brianna Keilar, and welcome to a special edition of CNN NEWSROOM. Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto have the day off.

With the Senate impeachment trial looming, the president is spending Christmas out of the spotlight at Mar-a-Lago. But as the standoff between Democrats and Republicans carries on, it's still up in the air when that trial will begin.

It's been one week since the House voted to impeach President Trump on obstruction of Congress and abuse of power, but those articles of impeachment remain in the hands of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And we are learning that the speaker sent a lead tore the Democratic caucus just before the holiday where she called last week's floor vote, quote, "inspiring and overwhelming."

Let's begin with CNN national correspondent Kristen Holmes. She is in West Palm Beach this Christmas morning following the president.

And Kristen, tell us first what is on tap for the president today.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brianna, and Merry Christmas. Well, the president is spending today like he has spent most of his holiday, behind closed doors with no public events and on top of that today as you can see is turning into the most beautiful day that we've had since he came down here for his holiday and he will not be going golfing.

As of now, they have dismissed the press pool, meaning that he won't be leaving his resort to head anywhere else, to the international golf club or anything else like that. They are done for the day.

But, Brianna, I do want to note, just because we don't see President Trump doesn't mean we won't hear from him. We know he's already up tweeting. He said Merry Christmas. And this has really been a pattern we have seen even though we're not laying eyes on the president, even though he's at Mar-a-Lago and he's surrounded by these close allies and supporters. He has been really lashing out on Twitter. It is very clear that impeachment is on the top of his mind.

KEILAR: And tell us about this message that the speaker sent to the Democratic caucus. What else did she say?

HOLMES: So, it was really an end of the year letter but, of course, the most interesting part really focused on impeachment. I'm going to read part of this to you. Talked about that vote, said, "The vote on the floor was overwhelming and inspiring. And then the number of people who want to be managers is indicative of our strong case."

Now, of coursing when she's talking about managers there, she's talking about the House Democrats that will represent their case, present it to the Senate. That case against the president for impeachment. But we are still at a standoff here. McConnell would like to see -- McConnell and Republicans, excuse me, would like to see these articles of impeachment actually transmitted to the Senate and right now we just don't have a timeline for that actually happening.

KEILAR: Kristen, thank you so much. Kristen Holmes in West Palm Beach, Florida.

And let's discuss this now with our experts. We have Alex Little with us, Daniel Strauss and Josh Rogin.

And Alex, to you first. The speaker seeming to suggest there are lots of Democrats who want to be impeachment managers. I wonder if she says it's because it's a good case. This is an indicator they have a strong case. Do you think -- do you think that is what it is or do you think it's that it's very politically advantageous for the districts that some of these folks are in to be in a visible position with this impeachment?

ALEX LITTLE, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: I think it's a whole bunch of things. One, it's historic. I mean, when you go to Congress and there's not a lot of impeachments in Congress and so if you're a manager at the impeachment of the president, that's a huge deal historically. It's certainly obviously plays political in all these districts. It's going to be important for their constituents to see they're really pressing the case against President Trump but in all of those circumstances, I don't think you want to be a House manage if you have a weak case. And the Democrats feel rightly they have an incredibly strong case against the president in the upcoming impeachment trial.

KEILAR: Josh, I'd be really interesting to know who does not want to be an impeachment manager. And I suspect that there are some people because there were a lot of freshmen who came in turning red districts or purple districts blue.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that's right. If you're in a district where you have a mixed electorate, where the people are not sure if this impeachment thing is really a good political move or not, then you want to stay as far as possible away from this.

I think it's really likely that Adam Schiff would be one of the impeachment managers simply because he's been charge of this the whole thing and because he's done this before and led impeachments as a manager in the Senate before. But in the end the impeachment manager decision seems minuscule in comparison to the decision of how the trial is actually going to be run.

[09:05:02]

And that seems to be squarely in the hands of Senator Mitch McConnell, and despite Nancy Pelosi's refusal to transmit the articles of impeachment, it doesn't seem like Democrats have the leverage to influence those rules or to in any series ways. So I think that will have a much more significant impact on what we see whenever this trial does begin.

KEILAR: Yes. It's becoming so clear that it's really a statement they're making more than a deal that they're trying to strike here.

Daniel, over the weekend, we saw the House minority leader Kevin McCarthy saying that he would pick Congressman Jim Jordan, Doug Collins and Jon Ratcliffe to represent the president in a Senate trial. That's key because these are Trump fire brands who were part of -- they were some of the most dramatic parts of the hearings that we saw in the House.

If that plays out, is this just going to be a total drama-fest? Or, does the Senate trial play out a little different where we're not just going to see a repeat of what we saw in the House?

DANIEL STRAUSS, SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER, THE GUARDIAN U.S.: I mean, from the members of Congress you mentioned, it does sound like this is something that Republicans are interested in making a slugfest. These are extremely partisan members of Congress who are favorites of President Trump. They are not the ones who are trumpeting sort of a fair impeachment trial in the sense of saying let's stick to congressional rules, let's hold up tradition.

They are some of Trump's most ardent defenders here. And I think that's what we're going to see overall. The same with Democrats, too. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has continued to demand for more documents and more high-profile members of the administration to be witnesses and that's simply something that Mitch McConnell has shown strong opposition to right now.

So I don't see a lot of impartial ground here. I think it's going to be a divided event between Democrats and Republicans.

KEILAR: I want to ask you all about something that just came in here to CNN. One of our affiliates reporting that Alaska GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski, well, she was taking aim at the House process led by Democrats in the impeachment, she was also said that she was disturbed to hear Mitch McConnell say he was working in total coordination with the White House. She said this confused the process even further.

I mean, what do you think of that in terms of having Murkowski, someone that caucuses with Republicans, say really what Democrats have been saying about McConnell? What do you think?

LITTLE: I think there's three main people in the Senate that McConnell needs to look out. I think Murkowski, Mitt Romney and Susan Collins are all folks who may take that topic and listen, we care about the procedure, we care about the institutional interests of the Senate. And I think one of the things about inviting in those House managers for the Republican side, in Trump's defense, is if it really does become sort of a partisan slug fest I think they have a chance to lose more Republican senators.

You know, this is an interesting impeachment trial because unlike the Clinton impeachment, the grounds for impeachment here against the president are really substantial in a very different way that I think there are some Republican senators who deeply if they could -- there's been reports that if this was done behind closed doors about the vote you'd see 30 Republicans vote to impeach the president.

So how this process unfolds, I mean, there are some real danger zones for the president and for the Senate majority leader.

ROGIN: I just have to slightly disagree there. I don't think that the Republicans are going to lose any senators and I think we've seen over the course of the last three years these so-called moderate centrists, Republican senators, express concern and feel very disturbed about a lot of the things the president does or that Mitch McConnell does with the White House. And then in the end they end up just falling in line and I'm relatively sure that's what you're going to see here across the board.

I mean, the bigger issue is of course why it's disturbing and that's because the Senate majority leader has said that he's going to be as close to the White House as lips and teeth through this whole process which seems like a corruption of the process to the average viewer. But that's the way it's going to be. The question really is what does President Trump want? Does President Trump want this to be a circus or does he want this to be a quick trial?

Right now all indications are that he wants it to be a circus and if that's what he makes clear, then McConnell will fall in line and, you know, despite their being disturbed and very concerned all the Republican senators will fall in line. That's my prediction.

(CROSSTALK)

LITTLE: If they fall in line, I mean, what a mess that is, right? I mean, just what a sad state of our democracy.

ROGIN: That's true.

STRAUSS: Yes. But, guys, look, at the same time, like Murkowski, Romney, Collins, we've seen this before with all of them. They all stamp their feet, they all make a big show of things but then usually the impact is not as big as what they promise it to be. And I think that's going to be the same situation here. We know Collins in particular likes to make a big show of Senate procedure but usually falls in line in Republicans here and at the same -- and on the showy trial point, McConnell has indicated that he does not want a super showy trial while President Trump true to his form wants it to be a big splashy event.

[09:10:15] Made for TV event. Sort of ripped from the headlines.

KEILAR: So, Josh, at the center of all this has been Rudy Giuliani. He's facing backlash over some details on his Facebook page. He falsely claimed he was a government official. OK. A reminder, he's the president's pro bono, personal lawyer. He's not a government official. He also claimed that he was a former attorney general of the United States when, no. Yes. Actually he was the former associate attorney general under President Reagan. So both of these descriptions have been corrected. But what do you make of this?

ROGIN: You know, add it to the pile of lies and other crazy things that Rudy Giuliani has said over the last few months as he's run around the world representing the United States in a shadow diplomacy that has apparently been endorsed by the president but has thrown U.S. policy, especially in Ukraine, but not only Ukraine, into utter chaos. Remember the time that he gave Pompeo a file of smears against the U.S. ambassador? And it said White House on the top of it. OK.

So this is a pattern of Rudy Giuliani pretending to be a U.S. government diplomat. OK? You could say that since the president endorsed this that I guess in a sense he is representing, you know, the United States because the president gets to make foreign policy but as we've seen in some of these impeachment process, Rudy is schizophrenic and often seemingly corrupt shadow diplomacy has done nothing but confuse foreign countries and interject a lot of chaos into our foreign policy and I think this is just the latest example of that.

KEILAR: All right. Josh, thank you so much. Josh Rogin, Daniel Strauss, and Alex Little. And happy holidays, gentlemen.

ROGIN: Thank you.

STRAUSS: Happy Holidays.

KEILAR: Still to come, while President Trump's mind is focused on impeachment, threats from countries around the world are growing. From North Korea to Russian election interference, that's right, yet again. What should be on the president's radar heading into 2020?

And also ahead, an infant in Texas reunited with her father for Christmas after being kidnapped. We have that story coming up.

And Christians around the world are celebrating the Christmas holiday today. The Pope just gave his Christmas message to a crowd in St. Peter's square. And we're going to have that for you coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:39]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: While the President's mind is on impeachment, there is a whole lot of other stuff happening around the world. North Korea is bolstering its missile program and threatening to send the U.S. a Christmas gift and we're still waiting to see exactly what that even means.

Then in Russia, President Vladimir Putin is saying his is the only country that has hypersonic weapons. He told his top military brass yesterday that Russia has an edge in that technology.

And then in Syria, dozens of civilians have been killed in Russian supported airstrikes by Syrian President Assad against opposition forces.

So how will President Trump handle these issues going into 2020? Joining me now to discuss is Shawn Turner. He is CNN's national security analyst. He's also a former Director of Communications for U.S. National Intelligence. Good morning to you, Shawn and a very Merry Christmas.

SHAWN TURNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST (via Skype): Good morning. Merry Christmas. Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: It's so nice to spend this Holiday with you talking about impeachment.

The President obviously consumed with it even on this Holiday. There's a lot going on, obviously, at the same time that can impact our national security.

So while there's this -- and look, this is what happened, too with Bill Clinton. I know the Democrats will say, hey, look, he was able to juggle the work and juggle the impeachment. But so much attention even then was on his impeachment. What should Trump be focused on going into this New Year?

TURNER: Well, look, and this has been one of the great frustrations for the national security community for quite some time because these distractions really do keep the President from focusing on what he needs to focus on.

But you know, here's my last look, as we head into an election year and considering the fact that very little has been done to deter them, Russia has to be at the top of that list.

And I think there are two things the United States needs to be concerned about here. The first is that we understand, we know that Russia has an ongoing and continuous desire to kind of sow discord in this country and to divide us within.

And I've repeatedly said, we have to look at this through the lens of national security, because that effort means that Russia is going to try to build up some candidates. They're going to try to tear down other candidates. And the result of that is that we will have elections that do not reflect the will of the American people.

So that is a serious and ongoing national security threat that the President really needs to focus on.

The other issue with Russia is just the broader issue of Russia's sort of global expansion. We know Russia is doing a lot to kind of, you know, wield political and military influence around the world and that has serious implications for our relationships with our partners and allies.

So if we look at just Russia alone, a lot of serious implications the President needs to focus on, and the big concern I have, from my background in Intelligence is that -- and we've seen over the past couple of years that the President is not really focused on Russia.

You know, I would add to that list, you know, we are seeing this precipitous rise in domestic violence -- domestic extremism, domestic violence here in this country, kind of related to what's happening with what Russia is doing. And that's something that the President is going to have to focus on very closely as we go forward.

So a lot of people think about the issues that emanate from outside of the United States. But I think that this is one of those really serious internal issues that we need to focus on. It is a national security issue because a lot of these groups, sort of the white extremist groups and other extremist groups are taking cues from some of the foreign terrorist organization.

[09:20:00]

TURNER: So I think those two top my list, but as you said in the beginning, you know, we've got Syria, we've got China, we've got a wide range of things in the national security space that the President needs to focus on.

KEILAR: And North Korea, this Christmas gift that North Korea has promised, the President said, maybe it's a nice present. Maybe it's a present where he sends me a beautiful vase, as opposed to a missile test.

I say vase, the President said vase, which is why I'm exactly quoting him. He is really downplaying that. Should he be?

TURNER: Yes, you know, listen, you know, one of the things that we were really concerned about as the President engage with North Korea was just this idea that by engaging North Korea, the President was going to give North Korea a lot of credibility, going to raise their stature on the global stage, and then North Korea was simply going to take that credibility and walk away from the table.

Look, you know, this idea that North Korea has a gift for the United States, we all understand that it has -- it definitely has something to do with their continuing effort to develop their nuclear capability, to marry up a weapon with a nuclear warhead and to be able to declare that they are full on, you know, fully capable of nuclear power.

You know, they haven't gotten there yet. But we know that's the direction they're going. So this is a serious issue for the President to focus on. And unfortunately, the reason it's such a serious issue is because the President really did give Kim Jong-un a lot of credibility to kind of bolster his profile, when he engaged him the way that he did and then failed to walk away with anything that would reduce the tension on the Korean Peninsula.

KEILAR: Shawn Turner, thank you so much for joining us on this Holiday. Merry Christmas, sir. We'll see you soon.

TURNER: My pleasure. Merry Christmas.

KEILAR: A stop for pizza turns into a frightening experience for a Chicago teenager and her little brother. How they stopped a suspect from stealing their dad's car while they were still in it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:26:23]

KEILAR: In Chicago, a 16-year-old girl and her little brother fight off a carjacker who stole their dad's car while they and their five- year-old sister was still inside the vehicle.

I want to go to CNN's Omar Jimenez. He is joining me with more on these young heroes. And Omar, I mean, this family was just out getting pizza, then what happened?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, it's pretty incredible when you think about it. Keep in mind these kids are 16, four and nine years old when a man jumped inside their car and took off with them inside it.

Now, within moments of that happening, the nine-year-old began hitting this driver in the head with his iPad. The 16-year-old who was sitting on the driver's side was able to reach up and started choking that driver while also reaching for her dad's cell phone to call 911.

Now, this almost sounds like it's out of a vigilante movie, but they were in very real danger. Listen to how the 16-year-old described what those moments were like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IMAMA MURATAB, TEEN WHO FOUGHT OFF CARJACKER: I started shouting at him. I'm like, who are you? Get out of the car. And he starts driving really fast down the road.

And he goes on, get out of the car. I am going to shoot you.

I call 911, thirty seconds into the call, the dude just like hopped out of the car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Now in total, this only lasted four harrowing blocks really at that point. Police say when this man bailed, he got into a stolen car. It was a stolen car they were able to track to a nearby gas station where they arrested four out of five people that were in the car, though police wouldn't say if the person or if the car thief was among those that they arrested. But bottom line here, this was a dad who went in and in just those --

that small window of opportunity, these thieves jumped in and took off with his car, and in a matter of quick thinking and a bit of heroism from these kids, really, they were able to come out unscathed -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, just their instincts are amazing. It is harrowing as you describe it. Omar, thank you for that report.

And a baby girl is home with her father on this Christmas morning in Texas after police say that she was kidnapped and her mother was killed.

The one-month-old was found at a Houston home a week after she disappeared and the body of her mother, Heidi Broussard was found in the trunk of a car.

Officials say that she had been strangled. CNN's Rosa Flores is joining me now on this story.

I mean, this is just tragic, Rosa. It's also so wonderful to hear that this baby is back with her father, tell us what you've learned.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, that is the silver lining of this story. The fact that little Margot was able to reunite with her father.

But as you know, Brianna, this is not a happy Christmas story. Investigators -- we've actually learned from a source that investigators are looking at the relationship between little Margot's mom and the woman that is in custody linked with their disappearance. They know that they were friends and they're looking into that relationship.

But here's what we know about this case. Little Margot and her mom, Heidi Broussard, a woman that was 33 years of age from Austin, Texas went missing on December 12th. After a long week of intensive police work, investigators were led to more than a hundred miles away to the area of Houston, Texas. That is where they made a gruesome discovery.

They found Broussard's body in the trunk of a car and pathologists later determined that cause of death was strangulation. On the scene, they also found an infant. That infant went to CPS custody and after DNA tests, that's how we know that it was indeed baby Margot and she was reunited with her father.

Now, investigators are not identifying a suspect in this case, but we have learned from a source familiar with the case --

[09:30:09]

END