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Trump on Trial; Race for the White House; Coronavirus Outbreak; Trump Travel Ban; Trump Middle East Plan; Conservationist Death; Super Bowl LIV. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired February 02, 2020 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The next steps: how the Trump impeachment trial will proceed when it resumes on Monday.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Also ahead here at this hour, the battle for Iowa. Democrats vying to replace the U.S. president go all out the weekend before the country's first caucuses.
HOWELL: Plus a growing outbreak: what's being done to fight coronavirus and stop it from spreading.
ALLEN: Welcome to our viewers from the United States and all around the world, live from Atlanta, G.A., I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: I'm George Howell from CNN headquarters. NEWSROOM starts right now.
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HOWELL: Early morning here in the United States, 4:00 am, and we start with what will be a busy week. Two major events playing out politically here in the U.S.
First, the U.S. president's impeachment trial, it's drawing closer to its end. The verdict, almost certain to be an acquittal.
ALLEN: While that plays out in Washington, Democrats in Iowa will hold their caucuses, deciding which of their presidential hopefuls they would like to see take on the president.
In the impeachment trial, we're already seeing the impact of the Senate vote to block witnesses and documents. It means we may never see emails the Justice Department is acknowledging for the first time. Dozens of them exist that apparently outline the president's role and involvement in the Ukraine aid freeze.
And while the Republicans appear united that the president should not be removed from office, some of them say his conduct was wrong but don't expect an apology from the president. Jeremy Diamond has more on that and how the trial will come to an end.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: With the question of witnesses in the Senate trial now put to bed, President Trump is preparing for his imminent acquittal in the Senate.
But that Senate trial acquittal, it won't come before the president makes his State of the Union address in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. That was what the president was initially hoping for.
He and his aides hoped he could enter the House of Representatives, that chamber where he was impeached just a couple of months earlier, and enter that chamber as a newly vindicated president. But that will no longer be happening.
The White House had been telegraphing to Senate Republican leadership as recently as Friday evening that they would like to see the president acquitted before that speech. But when that was clear that was not going to happen because of disagreements between Senate Republicans and Democrats, the president approved the resolution that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell was putting forward, setting up that acquittal to happen on Wednesday.
Now the question is, what happens once that acquittal actually goes through?
And the last time that there was a president who had been impeached by the House of Representatives, acquitted in a trial in the Senate, that was president Bill Clinton. He came out in the Rose Garden and apologized profusely to the nation, saying he was profoundly sorry for his actions.
I've been talking with sources close the president, who tell me not to expect anything like that from President Trump. There will be no act of contrition from this president after he is acquitted from the Senate, according to those sources.
That is despite the fact that we have seen a growing number of Republicans, including most recently the Republican senator, Lamar Alexander from Tennessee, saying that the president's actions were wrong, he acted inappropriately even if it did not meet the bar to remove the president from office.
But despite that, don't expect the president to take that tack at all. Instead, it appears the president will simply be claiming vindication and once again insisting that his conduct on the phone call with Ukrainian president and in general as it relates to this you Ukraine saga was perfect -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, traveling with the president in Palm Beach, Florida.
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HOWELL: Jeremy Diamond with the facts. Now let's put it into focus with Amy Pope, joining us this live hour in our London bureau.
Good to have you with us. AMY POPE, CHATHAM HOUSE: Good morning.
HOWELL: This is a president, Amy, who will not apologize, even as some of his fellow Republicans now admit what he did was wrong, they say. But it doesn't cross the bar they push to be considered as a high crime or misdemeanor.
So to be an impeached president by the House but likely acquitted by the Senate, can the president shake that legacy or does this stick with him?
POPE: The president has wrapped himself in this legacy. He's notorious for being controversial, for doing things that would have ended the presidency of any other president.
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POPE: And he seems to revel in that. I mean, this is a president who said very famously he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and there would be no consequences for it, right?
So this president will be -- continue to be followed by this impeachment indictment effectively by the House. But ultimately there's so many things that he's done that is inconsistent with the role of the presidency in the past that I'm not sure it matters anymore.
HOWELL: Let's talk about the trove of emails. These emails that shed due light on the president's direct involvement in withholding Ukraine aid, these emails will not come to bear as evidence in this impeachment trial.
Does the content of what was said in those emails, does it matter now in pursuit of this Senate case and also in the minds of American voters?
POPE: In terms of American voters, I think that the Senate Republicans are making a miscalculation.
If it is, as Lamar Alexander says, well, we believe this president did it but I don't think it's an impeachable offense, then why not put out that evidence?
Why not have a full and fair hearing and come to that conclusion?
Right now, they're handing a talking point to the Democrats that they didn't have a full and fair hearing and that they effectively shut down the trial, there was no fair trial at all.
And they could simply, by putting out that information, by allowing someone like John Bolton to testify, they could have ended that line of attack. But instead they have chosen to end this as quickly as possible. That actually, I think, is harmful in terms of their case in November 2020.
HOWELL: Well, the implications there, we will wait and see, of course, yet to be seen. Amy Pope, stand by for a moment. There's another story we would like to get your thoughts on in just a moment here.
ALLEN: Well, for Democrats looking to replace Donald Trump as president, all eyes will be on Iowa this week.
HOWELL: We are just a day away now from the first votes of the primary season that's being cast. This will happen Monday evening in the Iowa caucuses. The outcome may give us our first glimpse who could take on Mr. Trump in November.
Candidates are busy criss-crossing the state, making their final pitches. The field remains crowded with 11 Democratic presidential hopefuls but earlier this week, Monmouth University released a poll showing Joe Biden and senator Bernie Sanders neck in neck.
ALLEN: We have two reports; CNN's Arlette Saenz and Ryan Nobles look at the candidates' final pushes in the Hawkeye State.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe Biden spent the past week on the ground here in Iowa, hammering away at the same message, that he is the Democrat best equipped to defeat President Trump in a general election.
At stop after stop, Biden has argued that the attacks from the president and Republicans show that they are concerned about facing off against the former vice president come November if he is the nominee.
And Biden has also argued that the character of the nation is on the ballot. He's trying to draw this contrast, creating this face-off, this matchup between himself and President Trump, including when it comes to values and leadership style. Take a listen to one of the final message he's leaving here with Iowans in the final days before the caucuses.
JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. Tell him who we are. We choose hope over fear. We Democrats choose science over fiction. We choose unity over division. And we choose truth over lies, repeated lies.
SAENZ: Now Joe Biden recently told me that he sees Iowa as a tossup. He thinks there's a chance several candidates emerge from the state all bunched up together. He also said that New Hampshire is an uphill race for him, citing the two senators who are from the neighboring states of New Hampshire.
And what Biden has told me is that he sees South Carolina as his firewall. His campaign argued that Super Tuesday could be a major advantage to them because of the demographic diverse makeup in those states.
His campaign is arguing if the candidates emerge from Iowa and New Hampshire with just a small difference in their delegate counts, that will be beneficial to Biden because they see success in the road ahead in states like South Carolina and Super Tuesday states.
But Joe Biden and all candidates know that if you win, if you come out of Iowa with a win, you're going to have a lot of momentum heading into those other early states. And that's something that all of these candidates including Joe Biden are hoping for come Monday -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, Waterloo, Iowa.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bernie Sanders wrapped up Saturday night before the Iowa caucuses with a big rally in Cedar Rapids that featured the band Vampire Weekend.
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NOBLES (voice-over): It was part of a busy day for Sanders, making up for lost time as he was in Washington serving as a juror in the Senate impeachment trial. Sanders does believe the energy in the Democratic Party is behind him and his campaign.
Part of his closing argument here -- yes, he's still talking about issues like saving Social Security, ending college debt, free college tuition and of course, Medicare for all.
But he is also homing in on the message of electability. He believes he can beat Donald Trump and he is now attempting to convince Democratic primary voters it's time to get behind his campaign. Take a listen.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe that we are the strongest campaign to defeat Trump. Certainly I hope that we're going to win. But if we do not win, we will support the winner. And I know that every other candidate will do the same. We are united in our understanding that we must defeat Donald Trump.
NOBLES: Ultimately Sanders said that the party will have to unify behind a candidate because Donald Trump is the big problem that Democrats have to contend with. They do feel good right now. His campaign feels as though the momentum is behind the Sanders campaign.
They're not setting expectations here in Iowa but they certainly believe that Sanders could come out on top here on Monday night -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
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HOWELL: Now Amy Pope back live in London with analysis.
Amy, all roads go through Iowa right now. This will clearly be a defining moment between this divide with left-leaning candidates and centrist candidates. We just saw that in the reporting between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
Who do you see as a front-runner here? Who is in danger?
POPE: Well, the polls are all over the place. So I'm not better positioned than anyone to pick the front-runner but what I think will happen and frankly what I hope will happen was that Iowa will narrow the field. I mean, we still have a very crowded field of candidates who are running for the Democratic nomination.
Ultimately that's not terribly helpful in terms of the ultimate election battle between Trump and whoever it is. And it's important if the Democrats are going to be successful here that they start to coalesce around front-runner.
So at the very least, Iowa should start to winnow out the number of candidates and start to see it really become a battle between a handful.
HOWELL: So the importance of this particular event in Iowa, help our viewers understand how important it is with regards to even a second place finish here, getting that momentum from Iowa.
How does it impact the candidate if the chances turn out that they turn in second place here?
POPE: It's mostly symbolic. Right?
This is primarily about messaging. Iowa in and of itself is not so many delegates that it makes such an impact on who becomes the nominee. And likewise, when you look at whether Iowa has predicted who will become the nominee, it's about 50-50, just slightly more than 50 percent, which means that, in practical terms, in real life, it doesn't matter that much if you are at the top of the candidate field.
It does help push out people who are no longer really viable and make clear to them and to their donors they're not really going to progress. But in the end, it's really symbolic. Everyone wants to say, look, I'm the front-runner. Stay with me. Put your resources towards me, fund me as they go into New Hampshire and the other primaries.
HOWELL: Amy Pope, thank you.
POPE: Pleasure.
ALLEN: He's the one witness Democrats really wanted and his revelations about President Trump and Ukraine are reverberating around Washington. Next here what we're learning from John Bolton's upcoming book.
HOWELL: Plus, new cases of the coronavirus keep appearing around the country, plus first death outside of Mainland China.
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[04:15:00] (WORLD SPORTS)
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ALLEN: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. The United States is set to impose a strict new travel ban on people who recently visited China in an effort to keep the coronavirus threat from growing inside the United States.
HOWELL: That's right. In the meantime, that virus is proving lethal outside of China. Philippines health officials say a coronavirus patient in Manila died Saturday. It's the first death beyond China's borders where more than 300 people have died.
ALLEN: In the U.S., a strict new travel ban takes effect Sunday that will deny entry to foreign nationals who recently visited China. Americans who visited Hubei province will be quarantined for two weeks.
HOWELL: Our David Culver on the story in Beijing.
David, given the number of confirmed cases we know about in China, there's a growing concern those numbers could, in fact, be much higher than we're being told.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, George and Natalie. Part of that is based on the folks that we have spoken with who are the midst of this lockdown zone. The folks we have spoken with, mostly health care professionals, relayed to us there are several cases in which people have either experienced the symptoms and pushed off getting a test.
Doctors not being able to give them the test or if they get the test they don't immediately get the results. In one case, one person said his mother actually passed away and she experienced all the same symptoms and it also seemed that his sister-in-law contracted the virus and was confirmed to have it.
But doctors never officially confirmed his mom to have it. Off record he was told by a doctor him that she, in fact, had it. These are cases that are not getting into the total counts. So Hong Kong researchers are coming up with that number 75,000 or more than that that they believe last week could have been part of the infected total count.
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CULVER: There are containment efforts stepping up. Part is the hospital construction that's underway. I should say in one case, completed as of today, the first of two hospitals built in just about a week's time. So it is rapid. It is impressive. It's something that state media is quite proud of because they have been showing it quite often.
That hospital, expected to open to patients officially tomorrow, should have about 1,000 beds. That's the capacity. And then a few days later they're going to open up a second hospital that will hold about 1,600 patients. All of this part of the effort to try to stop the spread but there's also extreme measures in place.
We know for example in a city just outside of Wuhan, that they have told folks only one person is to leave the house every other day. That person can go to the grocery store and go back and that's going to be the case until said otherwise.
There are some exceptions; if you have the need for medical attention or if you work at the supermarket or pharmacies. But it's pretty extreme. That's what we're seeing.
HOWELL: David, from what you have seen simply personally there in Beijing, what's it been like just to go out on the streets?
What is the concern among people?
What's the concern among your team as you continue to bring us the news there?
CULVER: Yes. We have taken precautions on our own as well. Even when we were in Wuhan, more than a week ago now, we were likewise prepared for any sort of sanitation we needed to go through, wearing the face masks even before it was mandatory we were doing that. You're seeing that more and more here.
The vast minority are the folks not wearing face masks walking around. That's something that is just not happening. Everybody seems to be taking that precaution. You hear some stories about folks who are not really finding the needs that they are looking for at a grocery store, for example, the surplus of basic necessities.
But it was interesting today, George, because the premier actually spoke to that a little bit and he said, this is what's striking to us, that daily necessities could be more of a challenge to get going forward.
And he asked provinces in particular to keep open the supply lines. You have to put that into context because this is a country that has prided itself on its prosperity. Now to be warning of potential shortages or challenges of getting daily necessities, that's significant.
HOWELL: Indeed, David Culver, live for us in Beijing. David, thank you.
ALLEN: Well, let's talk more about this crisis with Mark Eccleston- Turner, who lectures on global health law at Keele University in England.
Mark, thanks so much for coming on. Good morning to you.
MARK ECCLESTON-TURNER, KEELE UNIVERSITY: Good morning.
We just heard our reporter talking about the continuous issues there in China but I want to talk about other cases we have learned about. A University of Massachusetts Boston student in the U.S. was confirmed Saturday to be the eighth case of the virus in the U.S. on Sunday, the first death outside of China was reported. That in the Philippines.
Talk with us about how this is spreading beyond China.
Is the world staying ahead of it or is it looking like it will get worse before it gets better?
ECCLESTON-TURNER: Well, I think that's of speculation during times like this isn't particularly help. Obviously this is an awful outbreak. It's a rapidly unfolding situation and therefore the information we're getting about the virus changes quite rapidly. What we do know at the moment is that this is actually a virus which is not spreading rapidly or massively.
So things like seasonal influenza spread much quicker and much more virulently through a population than this coronavirus does. We have seen the first death outside of China, however, it's important to recognize that the mortality rate for this virus, the number of people who have died from it once being infected is around 2 percent.
That's very low. So while we have seen cases in the United States and in Europe, actually they are very limited. There appears to be limited human to human transmission outside of China and those people who have it overwhelmingly make a recovery from it.
The ones who sadly do die, appear to die from it, appear to have underlying health conditions and which makes their recovery much harder.
ALLEN: Well, you've said the global community should be doing all it can to assist China in its efforts to contain it, that this is an important act of global solidarity to assist China.
Do you think that's happening?
ECCLESTON-TURNER: I think we have seen some actions from some states, which is showing acts of global solidarity.
But we're also seeing actions from many governments around the world, which are deeply unhelpful when it comes to controlling this virus. So we have seen number of governments closing their borders or denying visas to people traveling from China or stopping international travel from China.
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ECCLESTON-TURNER: The scientific evidence tells us that this sort of action doesn't work. Closing borders doesn't stop cases coming to your country during outbreaks such as this. We know this is unhelpful. We know scientifically it doesn't work.
But we also know it's probably illegal as well, that closing borders at this time and denying visas from China appears to breach the international health regulations which is binding international law, which needs to be upheld and followed by states. All these actions do is cause a culture of fear. They don't work. ALLEN: Mirroring what you just said, World Health Organization
officials, you're a consultant there, also said drastic international restrictions on trade and travel aren't necessary.
Let's look at the latest steps by the U.S. and get you to comment. The State Department has warned Americans to avoid all travel to China due to the rapidly spreading outbreak. Also, foreign nationals who traveled to China in the last two weeks and aren't immediate family members of U.S. citizens or permanent residents will be temporarily banned from entering the U.S.
Are these prudent and necessary steps or is this overreaching?
ECCLESTON-TURNER: So based on the advice given by WHO that those are unnecessary steps. And they may also be illegal as well. So this may be a breach of the international health regulations by the United States government for placing unnecessary restrictions on trade and travel.
The only thing -- the only impact this has is it increases fear and stigma in the community and it has an economic impact.
ALLEN: Yes. And China is seeing that, other countries as well that do trade with China. Some medical experts said that China could do more, that only very fragmented information is available right now.
For example, is it known how person to person transmission is occurring?
And "The New York Times" has reported that China was slow in getting out the information when this first broke out to the world.
What do you think about how China has been handling this now after a less than stellar start?
ECCLESTON-TURNER: I think one thing that's clear is China is now taking this outbreak very seriously. It appears to be engaging with the international community, sharing information with WHO.
They shared a lot of data with WHO. One thing I'm particularly concerned about is this mass quarantine in effect in China. That appears, from my understanding, to be quite an overreach.
I'm worried about the human rights implications of holding 50 million people, the overwhelming majority who do not have coronavirus and are at no risk of spreading it, holding them in this quarantine.
I think there are real human rights implications for that. And I'm worried about that being an overreach from China in trying to bring this outbreak under control.
ALLEN: We have heard from a lot of people on lockdown and what they're trying to do to keep their sanity right now, being very restless, not being able to go anywhere or do anything. We really appreciate your expertise. Thanks so much, Mark Eccleston-Turner. We hope to talk with you again. ECCLESTON-TURNER: Thank you.
HOWELL: And still ahead, what we're hearing from the former national security adviser's upcoming book, his claims go to the heart of charges against the U.S. president but John Bolton won't be heard as a witness in the impeachment trial.
ALLEN: Also ahead here, many Nigerians thought they were friends with the United States. We'll tell you why a new travel ban is making them reconsider that.
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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world this is CNN NEWSROOM I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: I'm George Howell with the headlines we're following this hour.
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ALLEN: He's long been at the top of the Democrats' wish list even before "The New York Times revealed what's apparently in John Bolton's upcoming tell-all book.
HOWELL: That did not stop Republicans from blocking the former national security adviser and anyone else from being called to testify at the impeachment trial. Brian Todd has this.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's been that most prominent ghost of the impeachment process, not called to testify in House hearings, blocked by Republican senators from testifying at the trial.
But former national security adviser John Bolton's latest revelations of President Trump's dealings with Ukraine have exploded in Washington.
According to an unpublished manuscript by Bolton, reported by "The New York Times," President Trump directed Bolton in early May of last year to help pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Trump's political opponents.
Bolton said Trump told him to call Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to make sure Zelensky would meet with Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
That order from Trump to Bolton, more than two months before Trump's fateful call with the Ukrainian president, would be the earliest known instance of Trump trying to exert political pressure on Ukraine to find dirt on Trump's opponents.
A.B. STODDARD, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: The revelations we have seen so far are pretty explosive. He is a fact witness, the closest we could have heard so far in the Democrats' case to a firsthand account with the president, firsthand testimony about a shakedown in Ukraine.
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STODDARD: He is the most damning witness because he's closest to the president.
TODD (voice-over): CNN has not seen a copy of Bolton's manuscript. According to "The Times," the manuscript says that when Trump gave that order to Bolton, Rudy Giuliani, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House counsel Pat Cipollone were in the room.
Trump denies giving Bolton that order, in a statement saying, quote, "I never instructed John Bolton to set up a meeting for Rudy Giuliani to meet with President Zelensky. That meeting never happened."
According to "The Times," Bolton writes that he never made that call to President Zelensky. But that's not Bolton's only new revelation.
According to "The Times," Bolton says in a forthcoming book that Trump told him last summer that he wanted to keep holding back American military aid to Ukraine until Ukraine investigated Trump's political rivals.
But secretary of state Mike Pompeo seemed to rebut that, saying the president had legitimate reasons for holding back aid to Ukraine.
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: When we were talking about, hey, does it make sense to continue to provide this assistance to Ukraine, he had valid concerns about how we were going to do it and how we would protect America if we did do it.
TODD (voice-over): Bolton's latest revelations and House testimony from his former aide, Fiona Hill, paint a portrait of a national security adviser who was in on many of the critical conversations at the heart of the impeachment scandal, a man who confided in his aides his concern about the Trump team's pressure on Ukraine.
FIONA HILL, FORMER WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIAL: He, then in the course of that discussion, said that Rudy Giuliani was a hand grenade that was going to blow everyone up.
TODD (voice-over): But without any impeachment testimony from John Bolton, will any of his revelations matter?
STODDARD: It's true that if the worst revelations have already been reported, it might just fizzle out, overtaken by other events.
TODD: Still the White House has attempted to block John Bolton from publishing his book, saying it contains classified information. Rudy Giuliani has denied to "The New York Times" that that earlier meeting with Trump allegedly ordering Bolton to contacted the Ukrainian president ever took place.
And Giuliani says Mick Mulvaney and Pat Cipollone were never involved in any meetings on Ukraine. Mick Mulvaney has not commented -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Brian Todd, thank you for the reporting.
The Trump administration is expanding its travel ban now to six additional countries. All immigrants from Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria will be banned and green card lotteries will be restricted from Sudan and Tanzania.
ALLEN: As you see here, most of the new countries are in Africa. The move comes after President Trump's original ban on several countries, most are largely Muslim. Nigerians are taking the new ban especially hard, given what they thought, which is that they were close and had close ties with the United States.
HOWELL: They are curious about why this happened. Stephanie Busari has this from Lagos.
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STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN PRODUCER: Nigeria has long considered itself a strong ally of the United States, which is why news that had been added to the travel ban came as shock in Africa's most populous country and largest economy.
Officials here immediately pointed to Nigeria's partnership with the U.S. in its fight against terrorism as a reason against adding the country to the travel ban list. But the country's ties extend far beyond that. As well as been a strong military partner and ally in Nigeria's fight against terror group Boko Haram, the U.S. is also a major trading partner with Nigeria and has diplomatic relations going back to the 1960s.
The Trump administration has defended its travel ban and said it is important for national security and that some of these countries simply have not met U.S. security standards.
President Buhari's administration has responded by setting up a committee to work the U.S. government and Interpol to assure that Nigeria complies with global security standards, a spokesperson said in a statement.
"Nigeria remains committed to maintaining productive relations with the United States and other international allies, especially on matters of global security."
Still, on the streets of Lagos and across Africa, the ban has been met with anger and disbelief.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's absurd. It's sort of like we should be allowed to go into United States and do business and trade and very important stuff there.
BUSARI: When it was first introduced three years ago, the travel ban quickly became known as the Muslim ban by the president's critics. The expanded ban, which now includes Nigeria, Eritrea, Tanzania and Sudan is now dubbed the African ban because it primarily targets African nations.
U.S. lawmakers have criticized the expansion as discriminatory and racist. Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat in the U.S. Congress, lashed out at the ban on Twitter, saying, "As a son of Eritrean refugees, let me be clear.
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BUSARI: "The president's travel ban on African countries contradicts our American values and the promise and refuge our country has offered to immigrants and refugees for centuries. It is wrong and we must oppose it."
The ban does not affect nonimmigrant visas issued for tourism or medical or educational reasons. But American citizens with spouses in these countries may now find it difficult to apply for their partner to join them in the U.S. -- Stephanie Busari, CNN, Lagos.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Stephanie, thank you.
Now to the U.S. president's Middle East plan. That plan being slammed by Palestinian leaders and now being rejected by the Arab League. The group issued a statement after meeting in Egypt on Saturday. It calls the plan a setback and says that it won't cooperate, quote, "in any way."
ALLEN: President Trump announced the plan with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It allows Israeli sovereignty over West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley and also requires a Palestinian state to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.
HOWELL: There has been an outpouring of grief over the death of a conservationist in Mexico. When we return, why human rights activists are pointing a finger at illegal logging.
ALLEN: Also ahead, we find out how law enforcement officials plan to keep football fans safe during one of the biggest sporting events in the U.S. coming up Sunday.
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HOWELL: The president of Mexico is vowing to fight the criminal groups allegedly responsible for the death of a popular conservationist. ALLEN: Wait until you hear about how.
He was a conservationist. He was known as the defender of the monarch butterfly.
HOWELL: Yes.
ALLEN: Seems like he may have run afoul of illegal loggers. CNN's Matt Rivers has more on his legacy and the deadly violence plaguing the country.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Homero Gomez Gonzalez dedicated his life to protecting the monarch butterfly in Mexico. He posted videos all the time like this one from three weeks ago. But it would be his last. He disappeared the next day.
Gomez's body was found this week in a well, officials say, with signs that he had been suffocated. There's lots of illegal logging in the area and Gomez had campaigned against it to protect and preserve the habitat of the butterflies.
Authorities think his work may have put him in conflict with people who wanted him dead. While Gomez's life was unique in Mexico, falling victim to organized crime is horribly common; 35,588 people were murdered in Mexico in 2019.
People are angry.
Asked why he was here, this protester says, "We're here protesting because there's been too many massacres in this country. We just want to live in peace."
Hundreds marched to Mexico City last week as Mexico's public security ministry released data showing last year was the country's most violent in recent memory. Experts say the violence has largely been fueled by criminal groups, operating with near impunity across the country. Involved in everything from drug trafficking to extortion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't feel safe. No one feels safe.
RIVERS (voice-over): The march was led in part by the LeBarons, a Mexican American family that lost three women and six children in a November attack in northwest Mexico.
They were ambushed by armed gunmen, shot in their vehicle, lit on fire. This is what remains.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just opened my eyes to the incredible insecurity and the fear.
RIVERS (voice-over): President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador or AMLO came into office in 2019, promising an end to surging levels of violence. He wants to address what he calls the root causes of crime, namely economic insecurity, stop militarizing the drug war, he says. Eliminate poverty and the violence goes down.
There is a new strategy, he says, no longer facing violence with violence. There is no longer a war against narco trafficking. And he's even popularized a saying, abrazos no balasos, hugs not bullets. But given the record number of murders last year, marchers say his policies aren't working, at least so far.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you'll listen to his policies, everything makes sense. He's a bright guy. But at the end of the day, here we are.
RIVERS (voice-over): The World Wildlife Fund says the monarch butterfly population has rebounded in Mexico. That is Homero Gomez's Gonzalez's legacy. He was laid to rest Wednesday as the man who saved the butterflies. Now Mexico has to figure out how to save people like him -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: That is just an example of what's going on with conservationists versus those who don't respect nature and human life. Just terrible.
HOWELL: This is an incredible person who dedicated his life to butterflies.
ALLEN: Yes, something very peaceful and important.
What can you say?
HOWELL: Still ahead, one dog owner is grateful that a group of veterinarians saved his dog's life. Now he's spending $6 million to make sure everyone learns about it. That story is next.
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[04:50:00]
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ALLEN: All right, football fans, today is the big day or commercial fans.
HOWELL: A lot of commercials.
ALLEN: Big day for fans. The Super Bowl LIV kicks off hours from now in Miami. The San Francisco 49ers face off against the Kansas City Chiefs.
HOWELL: Everybody has their pick for this one. It is one of the biggest sporting events in the United States, around 100 million people watched the game just last year.
ALLEN: And J.Lo and Shakira will be performing.
HOWELL: A lot of people will be watching that, of course.
With all the excitement comes a great deal of security concern as well. A major sporting event creates big challenges for law enforcement.
ALLEN: CNN's Rosa Flores takes a look at some of them.
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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hosting Super Bowl LIV in paradise is a security nightmare. The NFL says the hundreds of thousands of fans are expected at three venues in three south Florida cities along an international border that is invisible and a known corridor for illegal sex, drugs and merchandise.
LT. BRANDON EARHART, U.S. COAST GUARD: Basically, right about here is where the cruise ship security zone begins.
FLORES: The law enforcement presence begins miles away from Hard Rock Stadium over water, with the big guns of the U.S. Coast Guard in full display.
EARHART: That is a deterrent as well as if we have an actual threat, they could go to disabling fire and actually remove the engines.
FLORES: At Miami's Bayfront Park, one of the concerns is hidden in the skyline.
Since the Las Vegas shooting, the urban landscape is considered a potential threat.
THOMAS JONES, ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT, FBI MIAMI: The team members can stand on the handrails.
FLORES: And while the FBI doesn't disclose tactics.
JONES: In regards to high rise buildings, no, those security concerns are being addressed.
FLORES: The agency says it is sharing intelligence with local, state and federal partners like Customs and Border Protection, who alongside Miami-Dade police have been training for the unthinkable.
ALEJANDRO RODRIGUEZ, MARINE INTERDICTION AGENT CBP: A terrorist threat, a terrorist threat is going to be our biggest concern.
FLORES: That's why the fully armed agents are trained to rappel into packed venues from Blackhawks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See what we got here.
FLORES: Meanwhile, other agents are intercepting counterfeit merchandise, mostly from China, by the boxload.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Counterfeit Super Bowl rings, caps, jerseys, you name it, anything that goes along with the big game itself.
FLORES: While the full security strategy is secret, Florida's attorney general has one message for criminals:
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to get you.
FLORES: Rosa Flores, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: The Super Bowl always comes with highly anticipated commercials.
[04:55:00]
ALLEN: But this year one ad about the University of Wisconsin's veterinary school, yes, there's a link here.
HOWELL: Right.
ALLEN: Is already standing out from the rest. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOUT, CANCER SURVIVOR: Hi, I'm Scout and I'm a lucky dog. And it's not just because I found this cool stick or that I was in the WeatherTech commercial on the big game last year. It's that I'm a cancer survivor.
I had a tumor on my heart and only a 1 percent chance of survival.
ALLEN (voice-over): Yes, Scout's owner and the boss of car accessory company WeatherTech David MacNeil paid $6 million for the ad to highlight Scout's battle with cancer.
HOWELL: That commercial encourages viewers to donate to the Wisconsin school. MacNeil says that's where the 7-year-old dog underwent treatment to fight a tumor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID MACNEIL, CEO, WEATHERTECH: So he's doing fantastic and basically we started off right away with chemotherapy and radiation, therapy then we went into experimental immunotherapy. Their programs are amazing at Madison School of Veterinary Medicine are amazing and now he has a couple very small dots in his lungs, some very small tumors.
So he's going through some wide field radiation on his lungs this week and next week but he's doing -- he's living a very high quality life right now, thanks to the great doctors at the school.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOWELL: Then when asked why he didn't donate to the school directly, MacNeil said that he wanted to raise awareness about cancer in dogs and for viewers to show their own support.
ALLEN: We'll look for that when we watch the game.
Next here, the latest on the day's top stories. We're not going anywhere. No.
HOWELL: We'll be right back after the break. Stay with us.
