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Donald Trump Raises $100 Million For Reelection; Whistleblower Complaint Sparks Trump-Ukraine Scandal; Pope Francis Appeals For Peace In Christmas Day Message; Baby Reunited With Dad After Her Mom Was Killed; Forty Days Counting Down To The Iowa Caucus. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired December 25, 2019 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: To say there was big political news in 2019 may sound like the biggest understatement of the year. So many headlines, it's hard to remember them all and imagine it all happened in one year. CNN's Chief Political Correspondent, Dana Bash has the top nine political stories for you of the year.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It has been quite the year in politics. Here are the top nine political stories of 2019. It didn't get as many headlines as other big political stories, but make no mistake about it--
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Conservative judges.
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BASH: The President's success in getting his judges on the bench will have implications for years to come. Thanks to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who is focused like a laser on this, the Senate confirmed a record 50 circuit court judges. McConnell took to Twitter, already the most in any President's whole first term since 1980.
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TRUMP: The Constitution of the United States.
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BASH: President Trump announced his re-election campaign the day he was inaugurated, a historically early start that his team took advantage of raising more than $165 million, nearly $100 million in this year alone.
BRAD PARSCALE, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Much more efficient two years out to find a possible voter, possible donor. It's a considerable advantage that the other side won't have because you just can't replace time.
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BASH: Control of those big coffers, not only his re-election campaign but the Republican Parties contributed to the President's firm grip on the GOP in various ways became even more clearly the party of Donald Trump in 2019.
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SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Take back our democracy!
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BASH: Democrats 2020 presidential field took shape early in the year as the most diverse ever. More women and candidates of color running for a single party than ever before the first openly gay candidate, a major contender.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The top 12 Democratic Presidential Candidates are at their positions.
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BASH: It also the biggest. CNN's October debate, was the most crowded stage in the history of Presidential Primaries.
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KLOBUCHAR: I want to give a reality check here to Elizabeth because no one on this stage wants to protect billionaires. Not even the billionaire wants to protect billionaires. We just have different approaches. Your idea is not the only idea.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think as Democrats we are going to succeed when we dream big and fight hard. Not when we dream small and quit before we get started.
KLOBUCHAR: Oh, I would--
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BASH: Seven in December, thanks to the party's increasing fund-raising and polling thresholds. No question, defined the Democratic Primary fight this year more than this, do voters want an ideological revolution or a candidate focused on relief from Donald Trump? At the top of the field, Senators Bernie and Elizabeth Warren are the revolutionaries promising sweeping change.
While Former Vice President Joe Biden, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar say increment's change is more realistic. Nowhere was this more on display than health care.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Build on Obamacare and add a public option.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 71% of democrats support Medicare for all.
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BASH: Stay tuned for the answer in 2020. 2019 started with a historic new class of House Democrats a record number of women sworn in, and many more firsts. The first Muslim-American woman the first Native- American women, and the first female House Speaker in history reclaimed the gavel.
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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): I'm particularly proud to be woman Speaker of the House of this Congress, which marks the 100th year of women having the right to vote.
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BASH: Speaking of Nancy Pelosi, going head-to-head with President Trump is one of the 2019 story lines starting with the longest government shutdown in U.S. History.
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PELOSI: Federal workers will not be receiving their paychecks. The President seems to be insensitive to that and thinks maybe they could just ask their father for more money, but they can't.
TRUMP: The State of the Union speech has been canceled by Nancy Pelosi, because she doesn't want to hear the truth.
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BASH: In October, a clash over the President deciding to pull troops out of Syria and a Pelosi walkout. The President tweeted a photo of Pelosi having what he calls an unhinged meltdown and she only image making it her social media cover photo.
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PELOSI: Article I is adopted.
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BASH: The year ended with the Speaker reluctantly leading the House and making Trump only the third President in history to it is impeached.
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PELOSI: I pray for the President all the time.
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BASH: After nearly two years, Robert Mueller concluded his Russia investigation with a 448-page report. On the key question of collusion, Mueller's probe did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in the election interference activities.
It noted ten instances where the President may have obstructed justice writing, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. Much to the outrage of Democrats Attorney General William Barr tries to play it as exoneration.
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WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The evidence developed by the Special Counsel is not sufficient to establish that the President committed and obstruction of justice offense.
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BASH: Democrats were hoping Mueller would clear it up but his nearly seven-hour testimony, slow-moving and drama-free did not. Then a whistleblower complaint that Trump urged the Ukrainian President to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter in exchange for nearly $400 million in U.S. military aid.
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TRUMP: That call was perfect.
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BASH: Moderate vulnerable House Democrat who has resisted impeachment before changed their minds and called for an inquiry, and an equally reluctant House Speaker announced the House would do just that.
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PELOSI: The actions taken to date by the President have seriously violated the constitution.
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[14:40:00]
BASH: A day later the White House release a rough transcript of that July conversation. In it was what Democrats would focus their impeachment inquiry on an apparent quid pro quo. The impeachment would make its way through the House Intelligence Committee with closed door witness testimonies followed by several days of notable public testimony.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GORDON SONDLAND, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE EUROPEAN UNION: Was there a quid pro quo? As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and the White House meeting, the answer is, yes.
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BASH: Former Trump Russia Adviser Fiona Hill called out some of the President's team for carrying out a "Domestic political errand" and a warning.
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FIONA HILL, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S FORMER TOP RUSSIA ADVISER: Russia security services and their proxies have deed up to repeat that interference in the 20920 election. We're running out of time to stop them.
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BASH: Republicans attacked the process, generally side-stepping the facts.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't make your case against the President because nothing happened.
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BASH: Democrats drafted two articles of impeachment abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, which passed the Committee and later the full House on party line votes. The year ending with Donald J. Trump the third President in history to be impeached. So how does it all end? We're going to have to wait until 2020. Dana Bash, CNN, Washington.
BOLDUAN: Dana, thank you so much. So another Christmas day tradition to note. The Christmas message from the Pope in his seventh Christmas as Pope Francis called for peace and urged the Catholic faithful to embrace the light of Christ to help end conflict and injustice around the world. Listen to this.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: May the Lord Jesus bring light to the Holy land where he was born as the savior of mankind and where so many people struggling but not discouraged still await a time of peace, of security, and prosperity. May he bring consolation to Iraq amid its present social tensions and to Yemen suffering from a grave humanitarian crisis? I think of the children of Yemen.
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BOLDUAN: Joining me now is CNN Religion Commentator Father Edward Beck. Father thank you for being here Merry Christmas.
FATHER EDWARD BECK, CNN RELIGION COMMENTATOR: Merry Christmas, Kate and happy Hanukkah to you.
BASH: Thank you so much. What did you hear in the Pope's message to the faithful today?
BECK: That whole theme, Kate, of light into the darkness is such a central theme here, and the Pope said there's a lot of darkness in the world. There's a lot of suffering in the world. And he names a lot of those places and he talks particularly about refugees and migrants and interestingly for Christians this is a feast about a refugee family, I mean, the Holy family fled Israel into Egypt because they were goings to be killed. That child was going to be killed. It was oppression.
So we have a feast highlighting a refugee family of light coming into the darkness. Meaning God's presence, and the Pope is saying, so even if you are suffering and in despair and he spoke very movingly about migrants and refugees in the speech in particular, he said you're not alone. There's light coming into the darkness and it's here. God isn't so far. God is close. That's what I heard as the primary message today.
BOLDUAN: And you mentioned the darkness. I mean, that was something that he mentioned multiple times that I was struck by the darkness in our hearts in our relationships, in the world. At a time which things seem - it sounds almost too small to say it this way. So polarizing and so polarized here and really everywhere. How do you encourage folks to let the light in? It dies seems so dark if we're just being honest.
BECK: Well, I think if you do look around, though that darkness is dispelled by light of kindness, of good works, of charity. I was talking recently to a Jewish friend of mine about Hanukkah and it is so interesting to me that the theme of Hanukkah is very similar. I mean, God's presence with the Israel like people, the McCabe's who defended a Greco-Syrian Army which was against all odds and then the that the menorah light in the temple only had enough oil for one day but somehow lasted eight days.
That's the miracle's God's presence. Light was in the darkness for those people as they reclaimed the temple. For Christians, it's the same thing. That God's presence is close to us so that we feel alone. The incarnation, what Christians celebrate today is that God chooses to become human to actually enter the despair, enter the suffering, to show we're not alone in it. People sometimes think that the darkness dominates.
[14:45:00]
BECK: But I also think we have examples of the light all around us. Sometimes we have to look for it a little bit, with a little bit more acuity, but I think it's there.
BOLDUAN: I love that, what you just said. I'm going to carry that around with me all day long. What do you think on this day, what do you think is the most important part of the Christmas story? That people need to hear right now? BECK: I think the most important part is that God becomes human, but not in a regal kind of way. This is a different kind of King. I mean, born in a stable homeless a refugee. I think to some ways that no matter what your situation is and everybody has suffering. Everybody has despair. You can have money and be very unhappy and very despairing.
You can have a beautiful house and you can still be lonely. No matter what your economic station is no matter what your familial station is, no matter where you are, that God finds you where you are. Seeks you out where you are. I think that's what I would love for people to feel today.
That even if they're celebrating this day alone and these holidays alone, and it can be lonely for a lot of people, that you're not really alone. There's a deeper presence, and there is abiding presence of love come into the world that wants to envelope you and sustain you.
BOLDUAN: Hmm. Father thank you for being a vehicle of that lightness. Thank you so much.
BECK: Thank you, Kate. Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas. +
BOLDUAN: Thank you, you, too. Coming up for us, it was a stop for pizza. Just a stop for pizza and it ends in a terrifying struggle. How young sibling were able to, managed to fight off a carjacker it's a remarkable story. We'll be right back.
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[14:50:00]
BOLDUAN: A Christmas blessing for a family still struggling with the tragic death of a missing Texas mom Heidi Broussard. Her kidnapped baby, a baby girl, returned to her family. CNN's Rosa Flores has more on this emotional reunion. Watch.
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, we have learned from a source that little Margo's mom and the woman who is in custody linked to her disappearance were friends and police are very interested in learning more about their relationship.
Here is what we know about this case. Little Margo and her mom Heidi Broussard went missing in Austin on December 12th after a long week of police work investigators say that leads led them to the area of Houston, Texas. That's where they found Broussard's body in the trunk of a car.
And pathologists determined that the cause of death was strangulation. On the scene they also found an infant. That infant went to CPS custody and after DNA testing determined this infant was little Margo and little Margo was reunited with her father just before Christmas. Authorities have not identified a suspect in this case, but CNN has learned through sources that indeed the individual that is linked to the disappearance of Heidi Broussard is her friend, Megan Fieramusca. Fieramusca was arrested on two charges of kidnapping and one charge of tampering with the corpus and she is been held in custody on $600,000 bond and authorities say that more charges could be added. Now we've contacted Fieramusca's attorneys and she returned her emails on Saturday when she said that she was going to meet with Fieramusca. She has not returned are emails sense. Kate.
BOLDUAN: Rosa thanks you so much. Then there this a couple of Chicago kids, siblings with remarkable composure and courage under terrifying circumstances 16-year-old and her 9-year-old brother fighting off a carjacker who tried to steal their father's SUV while they and their younger sister were in the car. CNN's Omar Jimenez has details and also who police are still searching for. Omar?
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, keep in mind these kids are 16, 9 and 4 years old. When a man jumped inside their car and took off with them in it, the 9-year-old started hitting this guy in the head with his IPod. The 16-year-old who was sitting behind the driver seat reached up and started choking the guy, while also reaching for her dad's cell phone to call 911.
And again all of this happening after their dad ran into just grab pizza and left the car running. Seemed like a routine night. Throughout all of this, they were in some very real danger, despite this sounding almost like a movie at some points. Here is how the 16- year-old described what it was like in those moments.
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IMAMA MURATAB, FOUGHT OFF CARJACKER: I started shouting at him. Who are you? Get out of the car! He started driving really fast down the road. And then he goes, get out of the car I'm going to shoot you. I called 911. 30 seconds into the call, the dude just like hopped out of the car.
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[14:55:00]
JIMENEZ: Now all of this only lasted a few blocks. Police say when this guy bailed, he bailed into a stolen car a stolen car that was later tracked and they arrested four of the five people that were in that car. Unclear if he was among one of them. Bottom line these kids are safe thanks to their own heroic actions. Kate.
BOLDUAN: And it's really remarkable being able to fighting him off with an IPod. I mean, it's really remarkable that they had this courage in those moments. Omar thank you so much.
Coming up for us just 40 days from today put it on the calendar friends, it is the Iowa Caucuses. And the very first contest in the 2020 Presidential race. So what are the candidates focused on as the sprint to the beginning begins? CNN NEWSROOM continues.
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