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Coronavirus Outbreak; Trump on Trial; Deadly Earthquake in Turkey. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired January 25, 2020 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A rising death toll: the coronavirus claims more lives in China and spreads farther beyond its borders.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): We'll tell you how health officials are trying to stop the spread of that virus and the impact that it's already having.
ALLEN (voice-over): Plus, the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. How House Democrats wrap their opening arguments and what we expect from the president's team in the hours ahead.
HOWELL (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm George Howell.
ALLEN (voice-over): And I'm Natalie Allen. From CNN World Headquarters, NEWSROOM starts right now.
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HOWELL: The coronavirus has now spread to about a dozen locations outside of Mainland China, specifically Nepal, Malaysia and Australia, the latest countries to confirm that people there now have that disease. It's also spread to Europe, with France reporting three cases.
ALLEN: The virus first surfaced in Central China about six weeks ago. Since then, more than 40 people have died and about 1,300 have been infected. The government has shut down transportation in about 1 dozen cities in a bid to keep this disease in check.
HOWELL: And keep in mind, the week-long Lunar New Year holiday. It's already underway. But the transportation lockdowns mean that more than 30 million residents are unable to travel outside of their cities.
ALLEN: You can see that car right there being redirected. And a short time ago, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam announced that the city's disease contingency plan has been upgraded to emergency level. Lam also says schools will be suspended until February 17th.
HOWELL: And now, CNN live in Beijing, our David Culver on the story there.
And, David, tell us more about the measures that are in place. The reaction to those measures. And how people are dealing with so much uncertainty.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. A lot of uncertainty, George. And this massive containment effort cannot be understated. I mean, you are talking about 30 million people. That's the size of some European nations.
I mean, they are trying to not only restrict the movement out of those areas, some 12-plus cities but also, restrictions within. In fact, within the city center of Wuhan, we have learned that they have banned vehicles altogether.
Some images coming out of Wuhan are giving us a better idea as to what life is like within the lockdown. I'm going to walk you through a few of them.
First, one at a pharmacy. Imagine going to your local pharmacy and seeing this, not only large crowds in a rush to get some of the medical items but also, the folks working there, in hazmat suits covered from head to toe. Concealing themselves for obvious reasons. They don't want to be exposed to any risk.
And then the state media is putting out this video of construction that's underway in Wuhan. They're planning to build a hospital in six days' time. You can see several of the front-end loaders and bulldozers on a piece of property there. They're expecting that will have about 1,000 beds.
We've just learned, according to state media, there are plans to now build a second hospital that will accommodate some 1,300 patients. And that is expected to be built in about two weeks' time. So they're moving rapidly with this, according to state media.
And, lastly, deployments are underway, especially, medical personnel. Military medical personnel, about 135, are headed into Wuhan. And another roughly 1,200 civilian medical personnel, talking about nurses, doctors, are going to be going in, in deployment teams of six.
And they've got another 1,200 or so set aside to go in at a later time. So the response has been huge.
But at the same time, we're hearing how desperate things are within. My team and I overnight had been in touch with some of the healthcare providers, who are within Wuhan at four different hospitals there. And they portray what is a very dire situation.
I mean, it's rather desperate to hear the shortages that they're dealing with, lack of protective goggles, masks, hazmat suits. The government says they plan to import about 14,000 hazmat suits, 110,000 medical gloves, to try to assist with this.
But as one healthcare worker put it to us, George, they feel as though they are going into battle without armor. HOWELL: David Culver there, reporting on the sense of desperation
there.
David, if you don't mind me turning the table to ask you the same. Your team, you were there in Wuhan. You were able to leave just in time as that city was locked down. Tell us more about the urgency and the uncertainty that so many people face there, including our own CNN team.
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CULVER: It was rather symbolic leaving because there was this smog mist looming over the city. Kind of speaking to the lack of clarity within Wuhan right now.
And as we were leaving on the train, I keep thinking back to one couple that we saw. And my colleagues asked them why they weren't boarding the train. And they said they had just put their young son on the train along with his grandfather. And that they were sending him during the festival, the spring festival, normally a celebratory time, to go stay with relatives here in Beijing.
They decided not to go because they didn't want to expose their relatives here to any more potential risk. So at a time when families are supposed to be together, having to make the tough decision to be apart.
HOWELL: That really says it all especially during this time. David Culver live with reporting in Beijing. David, thank you.
Chinese authorities believe the seafood market in Wuhan that could be the source of this deadly coronavirus. CNN has obtained video inside the market. We warn you, though, going into it, this video, it is disturbing to see these images in the market.
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HOWELL (voice-over): They were filmed in December by a concerned customer. It shows that live wild animals were also for sale. We're talking about snakes, porcupines, raccoons, dogs, even beavers.
It is believed that the virus was transmitted by an animal. But it's still unclear what type of animal might be the source.
Some of those who initially contracted the -- contracted, rather, the virus were employees at the market. The video was posted on Chinese social media, a site there. But it has since been deleted.
The market declined CNN's request for comment.
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HOWELL: With tens of millions of people in China under a travel restriction, transportation companies are now putting their own policies into place. When speaking on CNN "First Move," the CEO of a Chinese railway says they've already suspended all tickets to Wuhan and put sanitary measures in place to try to contain the spread of the virus. Let's listen.
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JACOB KAM, MTR CORPORATION: Now we have learned our lessons from the SARS epidemic crisis. So now, we have put in place various measures, including at the port -- port health has put in temperature -- body temperature measurement as well as health declaration.
And in addition to that, we have actually enhanced the cleaning of our premises, our trains. And also raised the hygiene requirements for our own staff. Because all these have to be done together in order to reduce the risk to our passengers, as well as to our staff.
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ALLEN: Well, last hour, we looked at the potential economic impact of the virus spreading. And of course, one industry likely to be hit hard is tourism.
The question, what can be learned from past outbreaks?
For more, I am joined by Gloria Guevara, she is the CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council. Gloria, also the former tourism minister of Mexico.
And we know that you were closely involved with the Mexican outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus in 2009. First I want to ask you, that travel ban in China having major repercussions on their already ailing economy.
How challenging is it to try and stop some 30 something million people?
Is China being overly cautious?
Or prudent?
GLORIA GUEVARA, WORLD TRAVEL AND TOURISM COUNCIL: We want to be very careful. China has a lot of experience. As we know, they had in 2003, the situation before. And they have learned from there; 90 percent of the economic impact in these types of crises is related to the panic.
We need to be really careful especially because it continues 10 percent of the world GDP and one in 10 jobs depend on this important industry. So we need to be very careful of the closing of the airports, the massive cancellations because, depending of how they manage the crisis, we have analyzed that recovery can be different.
Minimum -- we have seen from 10 months to 19 months. So the impact could be severe in their GDP and to recover, it could be quite a task.
ALLEN: Right. Foreign tourism from China has almost tripled in 10 years.
If Chinese tourists aren't getting on international flights, what could be the impact on other economies? We know that, at this time, usually, Japan gets an influx of Chinese tourists.
GUEVARA: The impact is significant because the Chinese travelers not only in volumes. It's important. More than 200 million Chinese travel all over the world.
But also, the extent. The Chinese are one of the top two or three nationalities that spend the most. So they impact in countries like Japan, the U.S., Europe and others is quite significant.
Now for the Chinese economy, according to our data, 11 percent of their GDP depends on travel and tourism.
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GUEVARA: So this is something very relevant because growing at 7-6 percent for tourism in the last years.
ALLEN: You talk about the importance of there not being a panic over this, that it should be managed. Talk about managing it as tourism minister of Mexico. You were involved with the outbreak of the H1N1 in 2009. Thousands died.
What was learned from that disaster that China and the world should utilize now?
GUEVARA: Well, the coordination between the private sector and the public sector is fundamental. We need to work together in order to make the best measurements.
At the same time, the proactive and transparent communication is always key so that the travelers, they know. And they know exactly what to do, they should cancel or not the reservations. If they should change for another date. Or if they should just travel.
In the case of Mexico, for instance, I was heavily involved also in the recovery, which was during my time. The recovery can be very hard because of the -- how the crisis was managed.
Shutting down destinations is not ideal situation. You need to know the facts. You need to understand. And that working relationship and coordination, as I say, with the private sector and other countries, is crucial to manage these type of situations.
ALLEN: Well, we appreciate your insights and your expertise talking about this. Gloria Guevara, thank you so much.
GUEVARA: Thank you.
HOWELL: Democrats wrapped their opening arguments for why they think the U.S. president should be removed from that office. Listen.
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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Whether you like the president or you dislike the president is immaterial. It's all about the Constitution and his misconduct.
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HOWELL: And as that sinks in, the U.S. president's attorneys prepare their case. The latest on that ahead.
ALLEN: Also, underway in eastern Turkey after a powerful earthquake killed dozens. Hundreds more, injured. Searches go on. We'll have a live report about that.
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ALLEN: As the U.S. Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump enters its next stage, an audio recording has emerged that could very well serve as evidence. That is, if Republican senators allow it.
HOWELL: That is the big question. It comes to us from an ABC News report. And it appears to have been made by one of Rudy Giuliani's indicted associates. It's said to have captured the U.S. president ordering the firing of the then U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Listen.
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LEV PARNAS, INDICTED ASSOCIATE OF RUDY GIULIANI: The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start, is we got to get rid of the ambassador. She's still left over from the Clinton administration.
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TRUMP: What the ambassador (INAUDIBLE)?
PARNAS: Yes. She's basically walking around telling everybody wait, he's going to get impeached. Just wait.
TRUMP: Get rid of her. Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK?
Do it.
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HOWELL: That's audio of the U.S. president speaking to a man that the U.S. president says he's never met. That is the question. If this audio is ever going to be heard as evidence during the impeachment trial.
It won't be today. That is because the president's defense team will start its opening arguments in just a few hours' time. Democrats wrapped up theirs on Friday. House impeachment managers made their best case for why they think Mr. Trump should be removed from office, as our Jeff Zeleny reports for us.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Democratic impeachment managers finished their opening arguments after three days in the Senate trial, making their case on the second article of impeachment, that President Trump obstructed Congress. Of course, it's still an open question.
Will there be enough Republicans to join Democrats to call for new witnesses, to call for new evidence?
There are indications at the end of the House impeachment managers' case that there, in fact, are not enough Republicans. Republicans are holding the line, saying they do not need more witnesses.
Of course, the final vote on that will come next week. But Chairman Adam Schiff, in the closing moments of the third day here, made the case to senators why this is not about if they like President Trump; it's about the Constitution.
SCHIFF: Whether you like the president or you dislike the president is immaterial.
It's all about the Constitution and his misconduct. If it meets the standard of impeachable conduct, as we have proved, it doesn't matter whether you like him. It doesn't matter whether you dislike him.
What matters is whether he is a danger to the country because he will do it again. And none of us can have confidence, based on his record that he will not do it again because he is telling us every day that he will.
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ZELENY: So with that, the first half of this historic trial is, indeed, over. The Democratic impeachment managers making their case. Now President Trump's lawyers on Saturday at the Capitol, begin making their defense of President Trump.
Of course, pushing back on both articles of impeachment and pushing back on his conduct.
The question, still, will there be enough Republican senators to join those Democrats to call for new witnesses or new evidence?
Indications that there has not been enough movement at this point. But the swing senators still holding their judgment until the final case is made -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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ALLEN: So here is what we expect as the president's defense team gets its turn before the Senate. It is set to get underway in a little under five hours from now. That's 10:00 am, local time, in Washington. It is the beginning of the defense team's opening arguments.
But it won't last very long, maybe just around three hours. One of the president's lawyers described Saturday's shortened session as being like a movie trailer to set up the full presentation next week.
HOWELL: A lot to talk about. To do so, let's bring in Leslie Vinjamuri, the head of the U.S. and Americas Programme at Chatham House, joining us live in our London borough.
LESLIE VINJAMURI, CHATHAM HOUSE: Thank you, George.
HOWELL: Let's talk about what will be a pivotal day, pivotal few days ahead for the president's defense team, preparing to make opening arguments. We will hear some of that Saturday. The thrust of it on Monday.
But what do you expect to hear mainly from the president's side in defense of that phone call?
VINJAMURI: Well, I think, what we're hearing is that the approach that will be taken on the Republican side will be that the president had a very clear purpose in calling for investigations. And that was to root out corruption in Ukraine, which has been a long-standing concern for the U.S. government in the context of that political transition.
And I think that they will try to stick very carefully to this. And as you said, the majority of that will be coming next week. There is a fear that there won't be enough Americans watching today.
Remember, two-thirds of Americans are following this. And what we're seeing from the polls, as you know, George, is that Americans, Republicans and Democrats, would like to see an impartial trial; 73 percent of Republicans polled want to see a fair trial.
So I think people are watching. They're tuning in.
But there is a question, at what point will they start to think it's going on too long?
HOWELL: There are two audiences, aren't there, Leslie?
There is the public and certainly those Republican senators who are at the heart of this trial that's playing out.
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HOWELL: One thing the public got to hear is the audio from Lev Parnas. This is a man that the president says he does not know. But let's listen to the president speak to this man that he says he does not know.
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LEV PARNAS, INDICTED ASSOCIATE OF RUDY GIULIANI: The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start, is we got to get rid of the ambassador. She's still left over from the Clinton administration.
TRUMP: What the ambassador (INAUDIBLE)?
PARNAS: Yes. She's basically walking around telling everybody wait, he's going to get impeached. Just wait.
TRUMP: Get rid of her. Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK?
Do it.
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HOWELL: What's the implication or rather the impact, for the public as they hear that?
VINJAMURI: Well, I think this is tremendously disturbing obviously to see. But I think that regardless, you know, our position on this, what the -- what the polling suggests is that the public is remaining largely fixed in its positions.
There are -- 40 percent of Americans would like to see the -- President Trump removed from office. But it's, again, the general view is fixed along partisan lines with respect to this overall trial.
The exception to that, you know, as I mentioned before, is that people do want to see a fair trial. And that holds across the political spectrum. So when the video clip that you just -- that you just played, it's interpreted differently. It's seen differently by Republicans and by Democrats.
HOWELL: It is seen differently, depending upon the point of view, political point of view. The case that Democrats have laid out here in the last several days.
Do you believe that it compels or rather sways the minds of any Republican senators?
VINJAMURI: You know, there's -- there is a question, as you put it, as to whether it sways the minds. That is distinct from whether or not it sways the political positions and the votes that Republicans will take either on the very important question of whether to subpoena documents and witnesses or when we get to a final vote.
I don't think that it's going to -- it doesn't look, right now, that it's going to change that vote. You know, it was a very passionate, very persuasive few days. Undoubtedly, it will be affecting how Republicans think.
But what we haven't seen in the Republican Party, on any number of issues, setting aside impeachment, whether it's questions of foreign policy, domestic policy, even when Republicans, perhaps, haven't agreed, they have backed the president of the United States and they have stayed largely together.
We do have a question mark about whether or not there will be four Republicans. We're watching those four Republicans, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, to see whether they might move on this question of supporting the request for a subpoena of witnesses.
But overall, the Republican Party has really hung together on this question of impeachment.
HOWELL: That question about witnesses and documents should be decided later in the week. We'll, of course, follow it. Leslie Vinjamuri, live for us in London. Thank you, again.
VINJAMURI: Thank you.
ALLEN: And next here, it is a race against time as the death toll continues to rise in Eastern Turkey. A look at the search and rescue efforts underway for those still missing from an earthquake.
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HOWELL: Welcome back. Search teams are digging through rubble. This after a powerful earthquake that hit Eastern Turkey. At least 22 people were killed and more than a thousand others injured.
ALLEN: Let's go to our senior international correspondent Arwa Damon. She is following this for us in Istanbul. We see the searches going on right there.
Arwa, what's the latest?
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We just saw some pretty dramatic videos of people continuing to be rescued from underneath the rubble of their collapsed homes. At least 39 people have been rescued.
And we also saw a dramatic clip that showed one of the female rescue workers on the phone with people trapped underneath the rubble. She is trying to calm them down, trying to reassure them that help is coming.
Now in terms of the latest numbers, what we know is that some 20 people are still believed to be trapped underneath the rubble; 22 people, though, have lost their lives. And over a thousand injured.
This earthquake struck at about 9:00 pm on Friday. It was fairly shallow. Its effect felt in a number of not just small cities and towns in Turkey but also all the way in Turkey's neighboring countries, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
And as everyone across the country watches what's happening here, there is, of course, sorrow for those lives who have been lost, for people who have lost their homes, for the wounded.
But there is also fear because Turkey is no stranger to earthquakes. It has had some fairly devastating ones. In 2011, you had another earthquake also in the eastern part of the country that killed hundreds of people. In 1999, you had a catastrophic one not too far from Istanbul where we
are, that killed about 17,000 people. But the country lies on two major fault lines. And there are great concerns over what many here call the big one.
It is expected to also severely impact where we are in Istanbul. And there are fears about what the next earthquake may bring. And there are also fears and concerns as to how ready the government and the nation actually are for it.
ALLEN: Understandable. We hope -- we saw a video of a woman being pulled from the rubble. We hope there are more scenes like that. Thanks so much, Arwa Damon, for following this story for us.
And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: I'm George Howell. The news continues with "QUEST'S WORLD OF WONDER" after this. But first, your world headlines right after the break.
