Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Australia Fires; Former Nissan Boss Flees Japan; Hanukkah Party Attack; Russia's Vladimir Putin Thanks Trump; Putin Marks 20 Years in Power. Aired 12-12:30a ET

Aired December 31, 2019 - 12:00   ET

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

[00:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome, I'm Rosemary Church, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Ahead this hour, nowhere to run: thousands of Australians trapped on a beach as wildfires close in.

The former head of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, has fled Japan in a dramatic move as he faces charges of stealing millions from his own company.

Newly uncovered journal entries paint a disturbing picture of the man accused of attacking a Hanukkah celebration with a machete.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CHURCH: Thanks for joining us.

Australian authorities estimate around 4,000 people are trapped on a beach in Mallacoota by a fast moving fire. The residents of this resort town in Victoria say the smoke was so thick that it blocked out the sun and turned the morning sky pitch black.

Bush fires continue to burn across the country but Victoria and New South Wales have been the hardest hit.

Let's turn to Simon Cullen, who joins us now in New South Wales.

Good to see you, Simon, with the situation there right now and across that state.

SIMON CULLEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rosemary. This continues to get worse each day. As you can see this is big smoke in the air and the nearest fire is just this few kilometers away over that mountain.

And there's ash particles falling. And in the other direction there is an even bigger fire burning out of control and in that fire tragically today two people are confirmed to have died. And a third person is missing and presumed dead.

And this is in addition to a firefighter who lost his life yesterday when the truck he was in rolled over and he was killed.

Rosemary, there are dozens of fires that continue to burn out of control and major roads have been cut. And it's too late to leave for so many people. As the New South Wales fire commissioner said, this is the worst bush fire crisis on record. It's a very serious situation facing many communities on New Year's Eve.

CHURCH: Simon, another big concern is for the 4,000 people trapped on a beach in the resort town of Mallacoota, to the south of where you are.

What more are you learning about that situation?

CULLEN: Essentially what happened there is that the cool change that came through last night brought some really strong, unpredictable winds. That has fanned the flames and those fires have moved so quickly that it's too late for many people to leave along those seaside communities. Roads have been cut.

So authorities urge people to seek shelter where they are but people went down to the shoreline. Some people taking to the water to escape the fire as it comes through. Firefighters in each of those towns, there's not much they can do at this stage apart from watch and wait to see what happens with that fire front.

It's an incredibly scary situation. We've seen images of the sky red, turning black sometimes because the smoke is so thick. And at this stage, they're just waiting to see what happens.

The authorities of Victoria are saying that if it becomes necessary, they will do evacuations by sea. So that's something quite unprecedented in Australian bushfire season.

CHURCH: It is just extraordinary for you and I as Australians, seeing many of these cities and towns unrecognizable, we visited them and I look at these pictures, I cannot believe it. Simon Cullen reporting there from New South Wales, many thanks.

(WEATHER REPORT)

[00:05:00]

CHURCH: The ousted chairman of Nissan has fled Japan where he was awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges. Carlos Ghosn flew in to Lebanon Monday, raising questions about how he avoided court imposed restrictions on his movements. David Culver is in Hong Kong and joins us now.

David, what are you learning about how Ghosn fled Japan and ended up in Lebanon and why?

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting, Rosemary, we've been following this pretty closely, trying to understand the logistics behind this fleeing from Japan.

It seems that it still remains a mystery, in fact, even our colleagues at CNN in Japan have been reaching out to sources. Sources seem baffled by this. What we do know is that Carlos Ghosn has fled Japan. We know that because he tells us so himself.

He released a statement through a public relations firm, I will read part of what he has to say, he says, quote, "I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system, where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant and basic human rights are denied."

He goes on to say, "I have not fled justice, I have escaped injustice and political persecution."

The story dates back to November of 2018. That was when Ghosn was first arrested. He spent 100-plus days in jail, Japanese prosecutors alleging that he mishandled millions of dollars worth of funds, even funneling some into his some of his friends' accounts and understating his own personal income.

He was then released in March of 2019; about a month later, was taken back into custody, was released again. So in and out of custody and he has been on bail since April of 2019.

So while still on bail -- and we have confirmed with the courts in Japan that his bail has remained unchanged -- he apparently has fled the country.

It's interesting to note this is a man who was widely praised at the height of his career, he is seen as an industry titan, someone who was a visionary, really, Rosemary, in bringing Nissan to where it is today, as somebody who is seen as making this global alliance that went even beyond Nissan. It included Mitsubishi, it included Renault.

So to have this now dramatic fall and seeming escape is turning the drama even more so into an incredible story that is being followed here.

CHURCH: It is fascinating, isn't it.

So what happens to him now and what will Japan likely do next in pursuit of justice?

CULVER: They are rather limited, if you look at the fact that there is no extradition treaty between Lebanon and Japan. They cannot simply demand that he come back.

As of now, government officials, who are mostly in Japan on holiday, are going to have to come together to figure out what is next in this case.

[00:10:00]

CULVER: As for Ghosn, he has said that he is now free to talk to the media. He plans to do so in the next week or so. We do know that he does have Lebanese citizenship and also French citizenship and seems to be rather popular in Lebanon. There was even talk before his arrest that he would be somebody who

would run for political office. So perhaps he is now seeking a new role that would seize on that popularity and allow him to live really within Lebanon without restrictions.

CHURCH: It is possible. David Culver, many thanks to you bringing us the latest from your vantage point in Hong Kong. We appreciate it.

The U.S. is facing backlash over a series of airstrikes in the Middle East. And now some Iranian leaders believe it's time to review their relationship with the United States.

Plus investigators reveal, the man accused of stabbing five people during a Hanukkah celebration had made anti-Semitic entries into his journal and had undertaken disturbing Internet research on Adolf Hitler. We will have details.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CHURCH: We have new details on the suspect accused of stabbing five people at a rabbi's home in New York during a Hanukkah celebration. Prosecutors have filed hate crime charges against Grafton Thomas after investigators found evidence of anti-Semitic statements at his home. But his attorney says he is mentally ill. CNN's Sara Sidner has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Grafton Thomas is now facing federal hate crime charges after what police say they heard from witnesses and found in his handwritten journal. A reference to Adolf Hitler and Nazi culture on the same page as the drawing of a star of David and a swastika.

Thomas' attorney disputes the anti-Semitism allegation.

MICHAEL SUSSMAN, SUSPECT'S ATTORNEY: Reverend Page and I review scores of papers which frankly showed the ramblings of a disturbed individual. But there is no suggestion in any of those rambling and pages of writing of an anti-Semitic motive.

SIDNER: Witnesses say the suspect slashed his way through a house full of orthodox Jewish worshipers, injuring five and leaving behind a terrible blood-soaked scene during a Hanukkah celebration.

Josef Gluck was inside of the home.

JOSEF GLUCK, SURVIVED STABBING ATTACK: When I first saw him, I just saw him wielding the knife back and forth trying to --

SIDNER (on camera): Was he saying anything?

GLUCK: Nothing. He didn't say a word to anyone inside. [00:15:00]

GLUCK: He spoke to me outside once.

SIDNER: What did he say?

GLUCK: "Hey, you. I'll get you."

SIDNER (voice-over): Gluck managed to get out.

GLUCK: There were kids in there so I decided to run back in.

SIDNER: Run back in and fight. His only weapon, the furniture around him, now in shambles.

GLUCK: Picked it up from the back and I put it in his face, he was two feet away from me and I hit him in his face and he started coming after me out toward the door.

SIDNER: When the attacker left, Gluck followed worried he was about to go into the synagogue next door. By then the ambulances were arriving, treating the wounded.

JOSH HANS, HATZOLOH EMS OF ROCKLAND COUNTY: It was a very jarring scene. It was a lot of blood.

SIDNER: This attack, the 13th attack on the Jewish community just this month in New York, according to the governor's office.

ROBERT JEFFREY MYERS, TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE: I don't recall them selling licenses to have open hunting season on Jews but it sure could make Jews feel that way.

SIDNER: Less than two hours later, police tracked the suspect down, using the license plate number Gluck had given them.

GLUCK: Jewish mothers could sleep more calm that night, not worried about their kids going to school the next day or their husbands going to pray the next day or shopping the next day, not knowing what's going to happen.

SIDNER (on camera): You were a guardian angel?

GLUCK: God is the guardian. I'm a messenger.

SIDNER: A day after the attack, four of the five people that were wounded have been released from the hospital -- Sara Sidner, CNN, Monsey, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Iraq is condemning the United States for a series of airstrikes against an Iranian backed militia in the region. The strike hit five of the group's facilities in Iraq and Syria and reportedly killing at least 25 people.

Iraq says some of its security forces were among the casualties and called the strikes "a violation of its sovereignty."

Despite the backlash, the U.S. insists it was responding to aggressive behavior by the militia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It was aimed also at deterring Iran. This was an Iran-backed rogue militia acting to deny the Iraqi people their sovereignty. It's Kassem Suleimani; it's the ayatollah, working to expand their terror campaign all around the world.

They took a strike at an American facility and Trump has been pretty darn patient and he's made it clear at the same time, that when Americans' lives were at risk and we would respond and that's what the Department of Defense did yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Despite that argument, Iraq's prime minister said the strikes were launched with no evidence that the militia had attacked U.S. forces in the first place.

The U.S. secretary of state will visit Ukraine Friday as U.S. lawmakers prepare to return to Washington to deal with impeachment proceedings. Mike Pompeo's trip comes as new details emerge of Trump's demand to withhold military aid to the country despite opposition from his top aides. Kaitlan Collins has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump is starting his second week in Florida at his West Palm Beach golf course today, but although he is miles away from Washington, impeachment is still at the top of his mind and in the headlines.

A report from "The New York Times" reveals new details about Trump's demand to withhold nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, with a top aide to the chief of staff accurately predicting the chaos it would cause.

Rob Blair telling Mick Mulvaney in an e-mail over the summer, well before Trump was impeached, that restricting the aid was possible, but that the White House should, quote, "expect Congress to become unhinged."

The report also reveals that in late August, the secretary of state, defense secretary and national security adviser all met with Trump to convince him to release the aid. According to "The Times," then National Security Adviser John Bolton told Trump it was in America's interests and the defense secretary, Mark Esper, added, "This defense relationship, we have gotten some really good benefits from it."

But Trump's mind wasn't changed by their united front. Instead, he responded: "Ukraine is a corrupt country. We are pissing away our money." In between rounds of golf and dinners with old friends, sources say Trump is assembling his defense team for his looming impeachment trial. He was seen golfing with former South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy on Sunday, who has been giving him impeachment advice from the outside.

But the trial remains at an impasse, with Republicans and Democrats at odds over what it should look like.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): When the American people walk away from the Senate trial, if we ever have one, I don't want them saying, well, we were just run over by the same truck twice.

[00:20:00]

COLLINS: Trump has also been on the phone with world leaders, including the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The White House says Putin called to thank Trump for sharing information that thwarted a potential terrorist attack in Russia.

Now on Sunday, the president was golfing with Trey Gowdy but on Monday it was senator Lindsey Graham who, we should note, recently told the "Daily Beast" in an interview, that Rudy Giuliani should vet that information he got while he was in Ukraine through the intelligence community first because Graham fears it could be Russia propaganda -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, traveling with the president in West Palm Beach.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: One programming note: be sure to turn in to CNN for a new documentary, John Defterios takes us around the United States to see how the shale oil and gas boom has revolutionized the nation's energy policy and transformed the global landscape.

It's part of our global energy series which examines how we can transition to cleaner energy while also satisfying our demand for more power.

"The Global Energy Challenge" is Tuesday at the times seen on your screen, back in a moment.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CHURCH: It's been 20 years to the day since former Russian president Boris Yeltsin resigned and handed the reins of power to Vladimir Putin. Putin has dominated the country's politics ever sense in a reign also marked by armed conflicts and confrontation with the West. Fred Pleitgen takes a long look back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): After nearly 20 years in power, Vladimir Putin continues to polarize, praising Russia's advances in hypersonic missile technology which Moscow just announced it has deployed for the first time and standing behind President Trump as America's leader faces impeachment.

Putin's reign began after his predecessor, the embattled and fatigued Boris Yeltsin, announced his resignation in his New Year's address on January 1st, 2000.

Vladimir Putin, the new strongman in the Kremlin, immediately laid out his ambitious plans.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): I've always said and will continue to say that the Russian state must be strong.

But his presidency got off to a rocky start. He was heavily criticized for his handling of the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine just a few months after he took office, the disaster killing all sailors on board.

Faced with public anger, Putin didn't immediately return from his holidays to manage the crisis.

He also escalated the brutal war in Chechnya, eventually crushing the breakaway republic's rebellion at an immense human and material cost. And Putin made clear he was going to be tough on terrorism.

PUTIN (through translator): We'll whack them in the outhouse.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Russian special forces raiding a Moscow theater taken over by Chechen rebels in 2002, leading to the deaths of more than 130 hostages, while more than 330 hostages were killed when Moscow's special forces raided a school taken hostage by extremists in Beslan, southern Russia, in 2004.

Meanwhile Russia's economy and overall stability started improving, thanks in part to high international oil prices, boosting the president's popularity.

After finishing two terms, Putin had reached the limit under Russia's constitution.

[00:25:00]

PLEITGEN (voice-over): His solution: he swapped jobs with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for four years.

xxx Medvedev then changed the constitution, extending the terms from four to six years before Putin's return as president.

But even while he was prime minister, it was always clear that Putin was the man in charge and the West was put on notice. Russia was returning as a force in international politics. In 2008, the Russian military invaded Georgia, occupying south Ossetia.

Vladimir Putin was reelected to his third term as president in 2012. But not all Russians were happy. Massive protests engulfed the streets of Moscow, Russian authorities crushing the opposition movement despite international condemnation.

Vladimir Putin's second stint as president has been defined by confrontation with the West. In 2014, after an uprising unseated the pro-Russian leader of Ukraine, the Kremlin invaded and then annexed Crimea.

Russia is also accused of fueling and aiding the uprising in Eastern Ukraine, which has led to thousands of deaths, and the downing a commercial airliner, killing everyone on board. International investigators blame a missile fired from Russian military equipment for the tragedy. The Kremlin has remained defiant.

PUTIN (through translator): We think there is no proof. Everything that was presented shows nothing. We have our own version but, unfortunately, nobody wants to listen to us."

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Russian forces are supporting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad against a rebellion in the Middle Eastern nation. Western countries are saying Russia's heavy bombardment and frequent targeting of civilian areas amount to war crimes.

And Putin's Russia is accused of directly meddling in Western nations' affairs, including a broad effort aimed at swaying the U.S. presidential election in 2016 in favor of now-President Donald Trump. Putin denied he meddled but acknowledged he wanted Trump to win...

PUTIN (through translator): Because he was talking about normalizing U.S.-Russia relations.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But normalizing relations seems out of the question after Britain accused Russia of using chemical weapons to poison former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in 2018. Russia once again dismissing the evidence.

Nearly 20 years after taking power, Vladimir Putin maintains a strong grip on the presidency, having largely marginalized Russia's opposition. But international sanctions and isolation, along with a weak economy, have sent his popularity into a nose dive, as some Russians have grown wary of their long-standing leader -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Rosemary Church. I will be back with the headlines in just a moment.

END