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UK and European Union Reach Post-Brexit Trade Deal; U.S. Military Command Turns Botched Airstrike into Christmas Joke; The Top Stories that Consumed Washington, DC This Year. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired December 24, 2020 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
SARA NELSON, INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: Thank you.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Well, after four years of uncertainty, Brexit is finally a done deal. What today's announcement means for the U.K. economy as it struggles under this crippling pandemic.
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GOLODRYGA: Happening this morning, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that a long-awaited post-Brexit trade deal has been reached with the European Union. Johnson firing up a celebratory tweet, declaring the deal is done.
Here's what the PM had to say about it this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We've taken back control of our laws and our destiny. We have taken back control of every jot and tittle of our regulation in a way that is complete and unfettered.
[14:35:03]
From January 1st, we are outside the customs union and outside the single market.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: The deal coming together just days before the Brexit transition period is set to end on December 31st.
I want to bring in CNN's Richard Quest, business editor at large and host of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" for more on this.
Welcome news finally for the U.K., Richard, but this really came down to a battle over the fishing industry at the end. But it feels lick it was more of a battle over autonomy.
What's the potential impact of these last-minute changes to the Brexit trade deal?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: So now Britain will now leave the E.U., you know, the beginning of this year, but leave the umbrella. Until now, it's been under the same rules and regulations. Now it really does have to go its own way.
And although today, they announced a free trade agreement, which is limited in scope, there's no deal on services, the U.K. still is very much on the outside. It is no longer part of that club.
And that's what they wanted. They wanted sovereignty. They wanted their rules back. In the language of Brexit, what's actually happen is a fairly hard Brexit, which means that the U.K. really will be on its own, except when it chooses to accept E.U. laws and E.U. restrictions and E.U. regulation.
GOLODRYGA: And this new Brexit deal, how might it affect the daily lives of people living in the U.K.?
QUEST: I think it's going to affect -- I mean, everybody says -- everybody says it will affect them. Until now, the U.K. has been out of the European Union, but as I say, it's had this umbrella of a transitional period.
Let me give you one small example. Starting from next week, the U.K. citizens will no longer be able to go through passport lines of the E.U. members. They'll have to go through other nations, third countries. They'll be lumped with everybody else.
You won't be able to take your pets across to the continent with a pet passport. Little things, and, of course, business -- business will have to fill out customs forms even though there won't be any tariffs. No tariffs, no quotas.
GOLODRYGA: We know that President Trump has sort of been dangling a bigger and better trade deal --
QUEST: Yeah.
GOLODRYGA: -- with the U.K. and the United States, something that Boris Johnson had been hoping for as well.
What does it mean now, given that we have a new Biden administration coming in?
QUEST: Right. The first and most important thing, they have solved the Northern Ireland question. They don't have to worry, because Joe Biden, the president-elect, had said if there is any risk to the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, there will be no U.S./U.K. trade deal. So, that's been solved.
Now there really has to be a question of, because I think there's such a strong deal with the E.U., the U.S. is now in a much better position to do a deal to move forward. Both prime ministers -- both former prime ministers, David Cameron and Theresa May, have both tweeted their support today. Bearing in mind, David Cameron is the man, the reason why we're in this mess.
GOLODRYGA: Right.
QUEST: He's the one who decided to have the referendum in the first place. But he says congratulations, good luck.
Theresa May failed to get the deal. She failed to get the withdrawal agreement, but Boris Johnson, again, she wishes him well.
The big deal now is the U.S. trade deal. How quickly can Johnson and the president-elect put together a trade deal in 2021? It won't be easy with Congress.
GOLODRYGA: It won't be easy, but as you mentioned, a bit easier now that Northern Ireland has been worked out.
QUEST: Yes.
GOLODRYGA: Richard Quest, thank you for breaking that down for us. A bit of good news at least for those folks in the U.K. right now. Happy holidays.
QUEST: Thank you, and to you.
GOLODRYGA: And a Christmas Eve Day error from the U.S. military. A tweet and press release send out this morning from the military's Africa Command turned a major mishap, a botched airstrike into a Christmas joke.
CNN's Barbara Starr joins me now.
Barbara, I read this tweet and I've had to re-read it multiple times. Have you ever seen strategic command make light of a kinetic kill mission and a failed one at that?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Bianna, first of all, happy holidays. And not exactly, not exactly perhaps what they really going for. This started when African Command put out a press release earlier today. The press release dated December 10th, December 10th, about a mission they conducted on December 24th, today.
What it spells out is a strike they conducted in Somalia against a target of the al Shabaab terror network in that country. That is a terror network that has caused devastation and tragedy for years to the people of Somalia.
[14:40:01]
So, they go on and talk about it. Now, I just want to start by quoting, we all make typos, right? But they go on and compound the problem. They say the initial assessment said that the strike damaged the compound and several al-Shabaab fighters fled, thwarting nefarious activity.
Damaged the compound? I think you can read that to mean they actually missed destroying the target, which is the only reason U.S. aircraft launch strikes. They go for destruction, and thwarting nefarious activity. To the best of my knowledge in covering the Pentagon, I've never heard that's a stated U.S. military mission.
Let me go a step further -- besides the press release with the wrong date, and I can't tell you if it happened on the 10th or the 24th. We haven't sorted out that typo, but they go on and say one of the reasons they did this strike is because al-Shabaab had been, quote, and let's take a look at it, on the naughty list, a reference to today being the Christmas holiday around the world, but Somalia, of course, is a Muslim country, perhaps not exactly the most sensitive of remarks by the U.S. military to the Muslim world.
Why is all of this so important? We're not just here to talk about African Command's poorly worded tweets. Somalia is a country that has suffered so much, and right now it's exceptionally vulnerable, because the U.S. military is in the middle of withdrawing 700 American troops from that country.
There are U.S. warships off the coast trying to assure security as troops withdraw. They are trying to -- this is the end of the Trump admiration trying to bring U.S. troops home or get them out of these frontline positions.
But even as the Trump administration tries to do this, it is still the case that the al-Shabaab network, these terrorists are in Somalia. The bottom line, it's the people of Somalia, men, women and children, of course, who have suffered so much -- Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: There are literally lives on the line, Barbara Starr, and quite an embarrassment for this tweet to have gone out. Thank goodness for your eagle eyes in flagging it. We appreciate it. Thank you so much.
STARR: Sure.
GOLODRYGA: Well, the impeachment of a president, a historic election, and a reckoning on race. The nation's capital was ground zero for some of the year's biggest stories. We'll recap them, coming up next.
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[14:47:05]
GOLODRYGA: The nation's capital this year was consumed by epic political battles. Front and center, a historic presidential race for the White House, reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic.
CNN's Abby Phillip takes a look at the stories that rocked Washington in 2020.
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ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: 2020 was a presidential election year for the history books, an unpredictable Democratic primary, a pandemic, and a president refusing to concede. Here are Washington's most unforgettable stories of 2020. (voice-over): A brazen assassination within days of the New Year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iran is vowing harsh revenge after the U.S. killed its top general, Qassem Soleimani.
PHILLIP: The operation carried out after an order from a president under siege in a different way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The clerk will call the roll.
PHILLIP: President Trump had already become one of the just three U.S. presidents ever to be impeached, and during his reelection fight under a cloud.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM: If 67 senators, two thirds of the U.S. Senate vote to convict, he will be removed from office.
PHILLIP: Meantime, a quiet killer had already arrived on America's shores.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first case of the fast-spreading coronavirus confirmed in the United States.
PHILLIP: By late January, Trump moved to establish a White House COVID-19 task force and suspend most travel to and from China.
ALEX AZAR, HHS SECRETARY: Foreign nationals who have traveled in China will be denied entry into the United States.
PHILLIP: Meanwhile, for the Democrats, a crowded primary contest was winnowing down in the frigid flatlands of Iowa. The caucus night would end with a cliff-hanger.
BLITZER: Right now, zero percent of the precincts have reported the results.
PHILLIP: Back in Washington, after Senate Republicans largely resist new witnesses, Trump was quickly acquitted.
The 2020 presidential race already under way in earnest, but assumed front runner, former Vice President Joe Biden languished at the back of the pack.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looks like he's headed toward not even placing in the top four.
PHILLIP: Until a key endorsement from South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn helped turn the tide.
BLITZER: CNN projects that Joe Biden is the winner in South Carolina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've seen in a 72-hour period from Joe Biden going from a joke to a juggernaut.
JOE BIDEN (D), THEN-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I guess we can say hi, right?
PHILLIP: As Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders plotted his last stand, the reality of COVID-19 hit.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360": Abby, Senator Sanders is cancelling a rally tonight, right?
PHILLIP: Anderson, it's the first time we've heard of a campaign event being canceled due to coronavirus concerns.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were just hearing from deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, that they're also cancelling the rally here in Cleveland tonight.
PHILLIP: The next day, a rare Oval Office address --
[14:50:00]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My fellow Americans --
PHILLIP: -- as the threat of the virus became impossible to ignore.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, THE LEAD: Trading had to be halted for 15 minutes, as to prevent a freefall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The NBA overnight suspending its entire season.
PHILLIP: President Trump continued to doubt the severity of the virus in public, second guessing the science.
TRUMP: By April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. I hope that's true.
PHILLIP: And pushing unfounded cures culminating in this unforgettable moment. He later claimed it was sarcasm.
TRUMP: I see the disinfectant which knocks it out in a minute, one minute. Is there a way we can do something like that? By injection inside or almost a cleaning, as you see gets in the lungs.
PHILLIP: As most of the nation grappled with shutdowns, the country erupted in protests over racial injustice, and into flames.
President Trump seizing an opportunity to make the unrest an election issue.
TRUMP: I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem.
PHILLIP: A president with a penchant for drama, staging his own dramatic march.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now he's standing there looking around about what was frankly a pretty undignified approach to St. John's Episcopal Church. PHILLIP: After months of isolation in the White House, due to the
pandemic, the president eager to escape hatches a plan to return to the campaign trail.
TRUMP: The event in Oklahoma is unbelievable. The crowds are unbelievable. They haven't seen anything like it.
PHILLIP: But those expectations didn't become reality.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This event has fallen well short of the Trump campaign's own expectations.
PHILLIP: I've been watching this space all afternoon. It is virtually empty.
Back in Wilmington, Delaware, the Democratic primary came to a quiet, virtual end.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: CNN is projecting Joe Biden now has the number of delegates needed to officially secure the Democratic presidential nomination.
PHILLIP: And Democrats and the nation lose a civil rights hero.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: I, like so many Americans, owe a great debt to John Lewis.
PHILLIP: After a drown-out primary fight and in a year of racial strife, Biden chose to make history with his vice presidential trip.
BIDEN: Your next vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris.
PHILLIP: As both political parties barrel toward election day with their virtual conventions, a sudden loss of another icon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, set off a political earthquake within weeks of election day.
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
PHILLIP: In days, Trump selected Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett as Ginsburg's replacement, an ideological opposite. Announcing his pick in a Rose Garden ceremony designed to evoke a scene from another era. That scene would soon take on a different significance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president of the United States now confirming to the world that he and the first lady of the United States have both tested positive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The announcement of the formal nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett seems to have been a super spreader event.
PHILLIP: Despite multiple Republican senators testing positive for COVID-19, the Senate moved quickly to confirm Barrett, solidifying a 6-3 conservative majority and reshaping the Supreme Court for generations.
By election night, a record number of Americans cast their ballot by mail or in person. But it would be days before a result would be clear.
BLITZER: CNN projects Joseph R. Biden, Jr., is elected the 46th president of the United States.
PHILLIP: The election was over, for everyone but President Trump and many of his supporters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Trump administration is still refusing to say that Joe Biden is president-elect.
PHILLIP: As Biden moved forward, building a diverse cabinet, President Trump launched a failed bid to overturn the results oh of the election, and moved to purge disloyal officials.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president fired a key official at the Department of Homeland Security.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT: The Supreme Court speaking and rejecting President Trump's last-ditched effort to steal the election from Joe Biden.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The jig is up. The president of the United States has no other recourse.
PHILLIP: On Monday, December 14th, the Electoral College met to make Biden's victory official.
Though Democrats nationwide lost seats in the House and control of the Senate now hinges on two January runoffs.
In the last days of the year, a chaotic president issuing and threatening vetoes, and announcing controversial pardons.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president uses his final days in office to throw Washington into turmoil.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-four hours after pardoning corrupt congressmen, Medicaid scammers and war criminals, the president is at it again. This time, the big three are his disgraced campaign chair, Paul Manafort, his campaign operative and self-described dirty trickster Roger Stone, and real estate tycoon Charles Kushner.
PHILLIP: American democracy ended the year intact but damaged.
[14:55:03]
BIDEN: Good evening, my fellow Americans.
In the New Year, there will be a new president leading a divided nation.
In 2021, can anything restore America's shaken faith in our democratic process and institutions?
Abby Phillip, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: A year like no other indeed. Our thanks to Abby for that.
Well, say so long, 2020, and hello 2021 with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, live from Times Square, New Year's Eve starting at 8:00 on CNN.
And still ahead, as millions of Americans anxiously watch for some kind of resolution on a relief deal, there's no indication the president has changed his mind on signing the bill. Instead, new reports show just how fixated he is on overturning the election.
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