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Full Recording Sheds Light On Controversial Conversation; President's Defense Team Begins Its Opening Arguments; Trump's Lawyers Seek To Poke Holes In Democrats' Case; Trump's Defense Team Begins Its Opening Arguments; Dershowitz: Framers Would Not Have Approved Of Charges; President's Team Wraps Up First Day Of His Defense. Aired 4- 5a ET

Aired January 26, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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


NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up here on CNN, we are hearing more about what President Trump had to say about Ukraine and Russia in a candid conversation, detailed and how this could play into his impeachment trial. Also, Mr. Trump's lawyers are making their case before the U.S. Senate. We look at their defense strategy. Also ahead here, fighting the Coronavirus, China takes a sweeping new approach to contain the deadly outbreak.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, where it's four o'clock in the morning. NEWSROOM starts right now.

Thank you again for joining us. Our top story, we are now getting a much more detailed version of a recording we brought you recently featuring U.S. President Donald Trump. CNN has obtained nearly 90 minutes of audio, which captures a conversation at a dinner in 2018 between the President and Lev Parnas.

Parnas is an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani who says he was part of the Ukraine pressure tactics. We played for you earlier the part where Mr. Trump calls for the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch to be removed. Now listen to this where he and a man we believe to be Parnas talk about Ukraine's conflict with Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BELIEVED TO BE PARNAS: They have everything there. They just right now are waiting for your support a little bit to make sure because, obviously, if they go on their own Russia won't let them do it. Because they'll cut off a lot of their revenue.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: How long would they last in a fight with Russia?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not very (inaudible) ...

PARNAS: I don't think very long. Without us, not very long.

TRUMP: Without us.

PARNAS: Without us, no. But Russia, also keep in mind, talks a game but they're not ready to play.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Parnas is someone who Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed he doesn't know, though acknowledges he may have been photographed with him as you see here. This tape though suggests otherwise. The full recording was just released by Parnas' attorney, Joseph Bondi.

He spoke with our Anderson Cooper earlier about its significance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BONDI, ATTORNEY TO LEV PARNAS: First off, we hear the President himself saying get rid of the ambassador. Fire her. Get her out of there. And this is one of the first occasions in which he attempts to remove the ambassador.

Lev Parnas as he has explained it to me was shocked that he might raise the subject of the ambassador and have the chief executive say get rid of her and fire her. He could never possibly have expected that the President would literally take that step.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Parnas' attorney there says he has shared the audio tape with the House Intelligence Committee. He also says Parnas has more recordings of the President. Well, this comes as Mr. Trump's defense team takes center stage in the President's impeachment trial in the Senate with day one in the books. Their strategy appears to be turn the tables on the Democrats. They say the real abuse of power has nothing to do with Ukraine, but removing President Trump from office.

For more now, here's Sara Murray in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT CIPOLLONE, WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: The President did absolutely nothing wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT(voice over): President Trump's defense team took to the Senate floor, arguing that Democrats have failed to make their case that Trump should be removed from office for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CIPOLLONE: Today, we are going to confront them on the merits of their argument. Now, they have the burden of proof and they have not come close to meeting it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY(voice over): They accuse Democrats of trying to overturn the last election and preempt the next one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CIPOLLONE: They're here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history and we can't allow that to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... of the House (inaudible) ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY(voice over): Trump's team aimed to poke holes in the arguments House impeachment managers presented, claiming the Democrats didn't provide context around witness testimony and using clips of witnesses from the House inquiry that bolstered Trump's defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CIPOLLONE: The fact that they came here for 24 hours and hid evidence from you is further evidence that they don't really believe in the facts of their case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:05:00]

MURRAY(voice over): They insisted Trump never made a White House meeting and security aid for Ukraine contingent on Ukraine opening investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 election, noting Trump never explicitly asked for such a quid pro quo in the call with the Ukrainian president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PURPURA, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: The transcript shows that the President did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything. The paused security assistance funds aren't even mentioned on the call.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY(voice over): And they raised testimony from some administration officials who believed Trump's call for investigations was simply a request rather than a demand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE TURNER, (R-OH): Do you believe in your opinion that the president of the United States demanded that President Zelensky undertake these investigations?

TIMOTHY MORRISON, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL: No, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY(voice over): Trump's lawyers also made the claim that the President is legitimately invested in cracking down on corruption in Ukraine and taking a tough stance toward Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CIPOLLONE: You will hear that President Trump has a strong record on confronting Russia. You will hear that President Trump has a strong record of support for Ukraine.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are honored to be (inaudible) ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY(voice over): But there's little evidence of Trump's interest in corruption saved for the call of an investigation into the Bidens, which also directly involves the President's personal interest. And while the administration has taken steps to crack down on Russia, Trump's public statements have undermined those efforts.

Over the course of their brief two-hour arguments, Trump's lawyers took shots at democrats lengthy and often repetitive presentations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY SEKULOW, OUTSIDE LEGAL COUNSEL FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: We're not going to play the same clips seven times. He said it. You saw it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY(voice over): As well as House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CIPOLLONE: Do you know who didn't show up in the judiciary committee? Chairman Schiff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY(voice over): They wrapped up just afternoon, leaving senators enough time to escape for a bit of the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CIPOLLONE: I thank you for your attention and I look forward to seeing you on Monday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY(voice over): Afterward, House Democratic managers argued the President's team did not refute the claim that Trump solicited foreign interference in a U.S. election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): What was most striking to me about the President's presentation today is they don't contest the basic architecture of the scheme. They do not contest that the President solicited a foreign nation to interfere in our election to help them cheat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY(voice over): The President's team has 22 more hours to make its case, but says it's not planning to use it all. Sara Murray, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: And they will continue making that case on Monday, as you just heard. It will include presentations for members of the President's legal team that we haven't seen in action yet, like constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz. He appeared on CNN a short time ago and gave this preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The process we're witnessing, isn't this exactly what the framers intended that it's not about tearing a ballot or taking voters' decisions away and, in fact, our impeachment is different than disqualification from running again, that's a separate thing.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, MEMBER OF TRUMP'S DEFENSE TEAM: What I'm going to argue on Monday is that it's precisely what the framers did not intend, that is to remove a duly elected president from office and prevent him from running again based on vague, open-ended and entirely subjective criteria like abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The frame is feared that those kinds of open-ended criteria would turn us into a British type parliamentary democracy, where in the words of Madison, the president serves at the pleasure of the legislature.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: When is Ken Starr going and what's his subject different from your subject?

DERSHOWITZ: We haven't discussed it. I don't know. I'll probably find that out sometime tomorrow.

But I know what I'm going to argue. I think they know what I'm going to argue. I'm going to argue some things that I haven't argued to you or on television. There will be some surprises.

But the general outlines of my argument are fairly clear. They don't focus so much on whether a crime is required. They focus much more on whether you can use the two criteria, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

And I'm going to argue very firmly that those are not appropriate criteria. If they had ever been put to the framers, the framers would have rejected those criteria as too open-ended.

In the terms of Madison, it would turn America into a parliamentary- type democracy, in which the President serves at the pleasure of the legislature, something that none of the framers really wanted. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Alan Dershowitz there. He'll speak on Monday. Well, for more on what we're hearing and what comes next, I'm joined by Amy Pope. She's an Associate Fellow at the International Think Tank Chatham House. She joins me from London.

Good morning to you, Amy.

AMY POPE, ASSOCIATE FELLOW, CHATHAM HOUSE: Good morning.

ALLEN: Let's start with the Parnas story, shall we? How do you think this will be handled or perhaps not handled by the Trump defense team?

[04:10:01]

POPE: Well, it directly undercuts the President's own statements. The President has said he doesn't even remember Lev Parnas. He had no significant relationship with him.

Obviously, we have very clear evidence that that is inaccurate. But this is sort of typical of the President. He denies what is in already in evidence, what's in full view and his better tactic or the tactic he likes to use is to deflect and to distract.

So instead we saw the President attacking the members of the House, going after Schiff, going after Pelosi, because he knows this is damaging and he needs to find another way to distract the public.

ALLEN: And now all eyes are on the handful of Senate Republicans who could tip the balance and support witness testimony in the trial. Do you think this Parnas revelation will have an impact with the senators when they try to make a decision on that?

POPE: If I'm sitting in their seats, I would think it's in my best interest to just have the evidence on the table. I mean, in the end whether that evidence actually sways anyone's point of view, it's very likely that it won't. But it's better to just have it out there, avoid a suggestion that you're trying to hide information that might be relevant, than just to have it out there and argue the case on its merits.

And if I'm sitting in one of those vulnerable seats or if I'm a moderate, I think that's the best way to move forward to persuade the American people that you are exercising your constitutional duty, which is to be a balance on the power of the President.

ALLEN: Well, the President's defense team, as we've seen, took very little time making their opening case and they pointed out they went much shorter than the Democrats. Let's talk about that as a tactic and also about Schiff coming out afterwards saying that the Trump team did not refute the claim that the President solicited a foreign country to do some work for him politically.

POPE: There's not much that Trump's legal team can do to refute that. The transcript is there. We've heard from so many witnesses that that is, in fact, what happened. So instead, their tactic is one; to distract people, two; to deflect attention, three; to cover up any evidence that isn't entirely in keeping with their claims.

And that's fair, their defense attorneys, that is their role here. They want to focus the jurors in this case. They're really looking at those handful of Republicans who might be swayed on issues like bringing in additional witnesses. They're working with what they have and I think that their strategy makes sense, given the circumstances.

But again, if I'm sitting in one of those more vulnerable seats as a Republican, I would want all of the evidence to be put on the table so that I can demonstrate that I'm fairly considering it.

ALLEN: So coming up Monday, we will hear from Alan Dershowitz, a longtime lawyer that has, of course, been in the media for some time and also Kenneth Starr. And it's interesting that when Mr. Dershowitz was on with Anderson Cooper earlier and was asked what will Ken Starr bring as opposed to what you bring, he said he didn't know, that they aren't talking to each other. These are their superstar lawyers, perhaps they don't have to.

POPE: That is a strategy that I would not recommend. Clearly, you want to make sure that their arguments are consistent with one another and they need to make sure that they're painting a picture for the members of the Senate as well as the public that is coherent. And if they're not working together, then it's hard to do that.

But it did sound like Alan Dershowitz is really going to focus on the legal angle, which is interesting because as we know the legislatures already heard testimony about whether or not this is a valid basis for impeachment under the Constitution. So why he's retreading that ground, it's not clear to me. It suggests that the facts in and of himself are not something that he's going to be disputing.

ALLEN: We appreciate your insights, Amy Pope. Thanks for joining us from London this morning.

POPE: Thank you.

ALLEN: Well, as we continue here, more about the Trump defense team and how it's striking back and making the case for his acquittal and we'll tell you how the rest of the trial is expected to unfold next week.

Plus, China cracks down on the sale of wild animals, the suspected source of this deadly new disease which continues to spread. More about it. You're watching CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:18:37]

ALLEN: Welcome back. China's all out effort to stop the Wuhan Coronavirus from spreading has led the government to ban now the sale of wild animals. A market in Wuhan that sold wild animals is the suspected source of the virus outbreak. More than 50 people now have died.

Meantime, the country's transportation lockdown has been extended to the southern port city of Shantou in Guangdong Province. Those lockdowns now cover about 63 million people in 16 cities. President Xi Jinping has ordered all infected people, approximately 2,000 patients at this point, to be treated in centralized quarantine.

Globally, almost 40 cases have been confirmed in more than one dozen countries and territories. Now, Canada also has a suspected case as well.

Our David Culver has been covering this story from the start. He's live in Beijing. Many developments here, David. Where do you want to start?

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Natalie, just in the past hour, we've got some significant developments that coming from the National Health Commission. As you mentioned, President Xi Jinping has come out with this urgent order towards local officials in particular to, by all means, stop the spread of this virus.

Well, the health officials coming out with some incredible numbers. I'm going to walk you through a few of them that they announced just within the past hour or so.

[04:20:02]

One of them is that they are deploying 1,600 medical personnel to Hubei Province to assist with the treatment of those infected. That's an addition to the already 1,300 or so that are on the ground, both military and civilian medical personnel.

And listen to these numbers, we've been talking about the shortage of hazmat suits, of protective goggles, of mask, well, they're stepping up production. In fact, the Health Commission announced that they have brought folks back from the holiday and they're ordering them back into the factories to restart production of some of these hazmat suits, because they estimate they need about 100,000 hazmat suits each and every day for Hubei Province alone. Currently, production stands at only 13,000, so they have to import a lot to make up for that number.

Meantime, President Xi is moving forward with some of his orders to protect some of the medical staff. He also wants, as you mentioned, that centralized quarantine. So what does that look like? Well, we'd imagine it would be those two hospitals, they are slated to build according to state media and they have shared some video of the bulldozers and front end loaders going on this open lot in Wuhan. We expect one of the hospitals to be built in about six days time. The other in 15 days time.

Combined, they'll hold some 2,000 patients. Now, the lockdown zone is massive, 63 million is the estimate right now, the people impacted by this. That's roughly the population of the U.K.

I spoke to one American woman who is in the midst of those lockdown zones and she explained what she's going through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANA ADAMA, U.S. CITIZEN LIVING IN WUHAN, CHINA: I woke up feeling quite desperate, sad, angry, most of this is because of lack of information and lack of knowing what's going on. My mother is worrying about me. I love her. She's 88 years old. My sister let her know that all of things I'm doing here and I don't want her to worry anymore and I'd like to see her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CULVER: For her, it's frustration and heartbreak that you could hear in her voice.

Meantime, U.S. officials tell us about a thousand U.S. citizens are within the city of Wuhan. We've learned that they are setting up a flight. That's according to the U.S. embassy in China and that flight is scheduled to depart Tuesday from Wuhan.

And there's limited number of seats, Natalie, but they're allowing folks to apply for them, U.S. citizens that is, and they anticipate that it will fly to Wuhan on Tuesday and arrive at San Francisco international airport there.

ALLEN: And we know that the airports also closely monitoring around the world those who are arriving. All of the numbers that you gave and this massive undertaking is just staggering, David. Thank you so much. We'll see you again. David Culver for us live in Beijing.

For all of the attention that this Coronavirus is getting, there is still so much we don't know about it. Meanwhile, China's healthcare system, as David just noted, especially at ground zero in Wuhan is struggling to cope.

For more on that, let's speak with Dr. John Nicholls. He's joining us now. He's a Clinical Professor in Pathology at the University of Hong Kong. We appreciate your time, Dr. Nicholls. Thank you for joining us.

JOHN NICHOLLS, CLINICAL PROFESSOR IN PATHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG: Thank you. Kung Hei Fat Choi.

ALLEN: First up for you, how does the Chinese healthcare system keep up? We just heard David talk about two new hospitals. We've seen lines of people trying to get into hospital and we've seen the caretakers, the nurses, the doctors exhausted. What is the risk to the health system in China and those who were caring for people with this virus?

NICHOLLS: Well, having personally been through the SARS outbreak in 2003, there was a big - one of the big problems with that, I thought, happened was infection in healthcare workers. And the risk factors which we see in Wuhan would basically almost identical to what happened in Hong Kong in 2003.

There's a patient overload. There's the health care burnout. There's a decrease in these personal protective equipment, crowded wards, staff fatigue. There's also in bringing staff, what we found in 2003, was basically staff who were performing procedures outside their expertise, reasonably junior staff being asked to do invasive procedures.

In Hong Kong the way in which we tackle this, we had a buddy system where to make sure every person who's performing procedure had someone to basically watch their back. We also made sure is that even people like the cleaners or the health care assistants, they were all part of the plan of helping to stop the infections within the hospitals.

The other thing which we're now have doing work on now that we've been able to stop growing up the virus is actually just to see just how long this virus can survive in the environment.

[04:25:01]

With SARS, a published study in about 2004 show that it can survive for 36 hours on stainless steel. With MERS, Coronavirus, it's for about 25 degrees Celsius. There is no inactivation, 56 degrees going in 25 minutes.

And then some studies which are done at University of North Carolina, using other kind of viruses, found that basically after about three days, you can still culture the virus and that's about 50% relative humidity. Things get even worse when you have a low temperature. There's less virus inactivation.

So I think that it's not just actually the staff, but there has to be a very big effort which is made on keeping the whole environment clean. That's both in the hospitals as well as in the community.

ALLEN: And if someone has the virus, what are the symptoms and how long does it take for those symptoms to show up?

NICHOLLS: Yes. I mean, this is also a big problem is that the study which was published in The Lancet, just yesterday or a day before, show that within the first seven days is that they may be relatively asymptomatic or may just have some mild symptoms, which means it can be very difficult to distinguish this new Coronavirus from things.

Remember, in northern hemisphere, we've got the influenza going on. So it can be quite difficult to distinguish this new Coronavirus from the other respiratory tract infections, which is going to lead to also another problem. As also has been indicated, we have quite few people who can be asymptomatic, so even though the healthcare screening can pick up those after about five to six days.

You're going to get quite a large number of people who will be slipping through the net, because after the first three or four days, there probably will be virus growing and these patients are asymptomatic. So that's why what we're now doing at the university is trying to work out just exactly in which tissues this virus will grow. Is it just confined to the respiratory tract or will it actually grow in the gastrointestinal tract. Because during SARS, one of the things which was found was that the

gastrointestinal route was a major root of infection. The recent Lancet studies said that these patients within the new Coronavirus not as many had diarrhea compared to SARS. But I think we have to look at just where the virus can be coming from, where it's going to be persisting and methods to inactivate it.

ALLEN: As you've been speaking, we're just learning that there's now been a sixth case confirmed in Hong Kong, which that begs the question as they try to figure out this virus. We know that they're selling out of masks, that they're checking people's temperatures at airports to try to assess whether they're bringing something in. How important are the steps and how much are they able to assess if it takes a while for this virus to show up for people passing through airports?

NICHOLLS: Well, I think the temperature will at least screen out those who got the fever, so they can least be put into isolation.

ALLEN: Yes.

NICHOLLS: I know there are some controversy about the filling out of the forms. We did that during SARS and also some people want to bring this in during MERS. At least it allows for contact tracing, so that if you do get someone who does turn up to be positive, you know which flight they've been on, which seat they've been in and that does make the contact tracing even easier.

As well as the temperature screening, it's painless. It doesn't hold up passengers. And so if it picks up those symptomatic patients then I think it's a good idea.

ALLEN: We appreciate your expertise. Thank you so much, Dr. John Nicholls, Clinical Professor in Pathology at the University of Hong Kong. Thank you so much, sir.

NICHOLLS: Thank you. Have a good evening.

ALLEN: You too.

Well, stories about the Coronavirus outbreak are among the most popular on our website right now, including one that argues the World Health Organization needs to sound the alarm at the international level. So far, the WHO is only declaring the outbreak an emergency in China. Read this story, decide for yourself. That's at cnn.com.

Donald Trump's defense attorneys are keeping their arguments brief and to the point, but is that the strategy that President wants? His reaction to the Senate trial straight ahead.

Plus, it is often said timing is everything and the timing of the expected unveiling of Mr. Trump's Mideast peace plan is sparking some questions. We'll go live to Jerusalem to talk about that, coming up here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers here in the

United States and all around the world. This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen with your headlines.

A ban on the sale of wild animals is now in effect across China. A market in Wuhan that sold wild animals is the suspected source of the Coronavirus, which has now killed more than 15 people.

Meantime, the country's transportation lockdown has been extended to the southern port city of Shantou in Guangdong Province.

U.S. President Donald Trump's defense team wrapped up its first day of arguments at his impeachment trial. They tried to make the case that Mr. Trump did nothing wrong in his dealings with Ukraine and that removing him from office would amount to undoing an election.

Mr. Trump's attorneys are so far keeping their defense brief and to the point with day one in the books. CNN's Kaitlan Collins looks at what we can expect as the rest of the senate trial unfolds.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There are sources who say the president is pleased with how their performance went today. Of course, it was pretty brief, only two hours. And that was the first time we've heard from the President's attorneys formally since this inquiry got kicked off with Nancy Pelosi back in September when this whistleblower came forward with this complaint.

Now, there are other people who believe that they could have been more aggressive. It's been essentially this kind of weighing debate here at the White House over how aggressive they should be because some people, including the President, want them to come out, have this full-throated defense while others say, no, you've got to know your audience here, it's a hundred senators. And if you come out and you're essentially - this boisterous performance, it's not going to be something that they are really receptive to.

[04:35:06]

So that's the question going forward.

And, essentially, their ultimate goal is to poke holes, sow doubt on this Democrat narrative. And as you heard from Pat Cipollone today, they believe the burden of proof is on the Democrats and they told the senators in the room that they do not think that the Democrats met that during those nearly 24 hours of their presentations laying out the evidence against the President talking about this pressure campaign.

The question is going to be and a lot of it has to be with the President's ultimate decision over how something went. It has to do with the coverage of it itself and a lot of that could come tomorrow during those political Sunday talk shows that sources say the President watches incredibly closely. So he'll be watching to see and, of course, they are going to have sound from the Democrats' presentations, so that really could be a better sense of how the President sees all of this.

We still have at least one more day of a White House defense where you are going to see not only Pat Cipollone, Jay Sekulow and those other attorneys that we watched today. You're also going to see Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Other news that we're following, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country's main opposition leader, Benny Gantz, are both scheduled to meet with President Trump Monday. That's ahead of the expected unveiling of the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan. But the timing is raising some interesting questions. Let's go to CNN's Oren Liebermann who's covering the story for us from Jerusalem. Good morning, Oren.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Natalie. It is exactly that timing that analysts have said is designed to help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a tough reelection campaign after he has failed twice to form a government and look at that timing. First of all, President Donald Trump is facing impeachment hearings. But on this side, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, first of all, the difficult reelection campaign. Then he has immunity hearings and he has indictment.

So it looks like that timing was intended to benefit him to change the topic of conversation about the elections and frankly to change the headlines here. In fact, the opposition Labor Party wrote a letter to the President saying the timing is suspicious. It should wait until after the elections when there is a fully formed, functioning government in Israel.

Well, what will happen over the course of this week, first, opposition leader Benny Gantz, head of the Blue and White Party is already on his way to Washington. He will meet Trump tomorrow and then will head back. Then, after that, Netanyahu also heading out. He in fact flies out just a few hours to also meet Trump. He'll have a meeting with him on Monday and another one on Tuesday as we await the rolling out, the unveiling of this long awaited peace plan from the Trump administration.

So, of course, we'll look to see details of that. We'll also look at what happens not only in terms of the timing, but also what happens in terms of election polls and how this changes the picture of the election. There was a question here as to whether Gantz would actually go to Washington to meet Trump with many here saying it was a trap laid by both Trump and Netanyahu to make Gantz look essentially like a third wheel and unnecessary spoke in all of this that could be cast aside all to benefit Netanyahu.

Well, Gantz decided he was going anyway. He says he received a personal invitation from Trump and that he would meet with him and then come back and be here back in time for Tuesday. Why is Tuesday such a big deal? Well, that's exactly when the hearings for the immunity panel begin in the Knesset on there or in the indictment cases that - in the corruption cases that Netanyahu faces, so that too will be a big day here in Israeli politics. But all of this playing out at a very crucial time with just over a month ago until the elections, Natalie.

ALLEN: All right. Oren Liebermann, for us in Jerusalem. Thank you, Oren.

Well, from the impeachment to Iowa, Democratic senators are back on the campaign trail. The major endorsement Elizabeth Warren is securing days before the Iowa caucuses, we'll have that.

Plus, what it was like on the streets of Beirut as protesters tried to storm the Prime Minister's office.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:42:03]

ALLEN: OK. America's choice news for you, with just a little more than one week to go into the Iowa caucuses, Elizabeth Warren has secured the coveted endorsement of Iowa's top newspaper. The Des Moines Register's editorial board endorsed the Senate Democrat on Saturday. It said this about Warren that she will push an unequal America in the right direction.

Warren said she was delighted to hear about the support. It comes just days after The New York Times endorsed both Warren and Senator Amy Klobuchar.

However, Senator Warren isn't the only one getting an endorsement from an Iowa paper, the Sioux City Journal editorial board endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday. It said Biden is the candidate best position to give Americans a competitive head to head matchup with President Trump. The board also said it views Senator Amy Klobuchar positively and urges Biden to consider her as a running mate.

But Senator Klobuchar is keeping her eye on the prize with hopes she can secure the nomination herself. After spending Saturday morning in Washington for President Trump's impeachment trial, she flew to Iowa to meet with voters.

CNN's Kyung Lah sat down with the Senator to see how she's juggling these two jobs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT: Exceed expectations, that is the mantra with just a little more than a week to go for senator Amy Klobuchar. She's been juggling two jobs, spending days in Washington, D.C., and still trying to campaign here leading up to Iowa caucuses.

Klobuchar flew out of Washington after the morning in the Senate impeachment trial and then landed here in Eastern Iowa. We caught up with her as she was exiting the airport and boarded her bus. She tells us she is a realist. She knows the challenge of having this very important day job while campaigning for a future one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Did I ever think those last two weeks, I wouldn't really be able to be here on the road?

And I'm not a competitive person at all, just kidding. You read about your opponents out there doing what you want to be doing but then you have to step back and think two things. One, it's our constitutional duty and it's the right thing to do and, secondly, the people are going to get it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Taking the optimistic viewpoint there, Klobuchar says she doesn't view it as an obstacle in her path, that this is simply her path. Now, on whether or not she might be able to break that illusive 15 percent viability mark here in the caucus state, she declined to answer that.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Bettendorf, Iowa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Next here on CNN NEWSROOM, the idea of night terrors took on a whole new meaning for a family who went through this month's earthquake in Puerto Rico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) ...

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: In the recording, there's a moment where we can clearly hear a woman screaming.

[04:45:04]

ERNES SOTO RIVERA, EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR: Yes.

ROMO: That's your mother.

RIVERA: Yes, that's my mother.

ROMO: So she was extremely upset.

RIVERA: Yes. Yes. Yes. She was very nervous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Hear more about what they went through ahead here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [04:49:08]

ALLEN: Beirut, Lebanon, as you can see, security forces, they're using water cannons to keep protesters from storming the Prime Minister's office Saturday. This happened amid continued protests from people over the economic conditions there in Beirut.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman was on the streets as the clashes heated up. He tells us why people say the recent government changes aren't enough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's another night of clashes here in Beirut. They began in front of the prime ministry where Friday the new steel barriers and concrete barriers were set up, but the protesters managed to rip the steel gate open.

The security forces responded with barrages of water cannons, followed by tear gas.

[04:50:01]

Now, here we are up, further away from that area. We see the army is moving in and we've heard some of the protesters chanting their support for the army which, until now, has largely stood on the sidelines in these protests.

Now, the protests are over the formation of the new government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab who formed his government on Tuesday. Many people feel that the government in its nature did not meet their demands, that they are technically technocrats. But all of them are affiliated in one way or the other or most of them with the political parties. And fueling all of this, of course, is anger over the deteriorating economy of Lebanon.

So you have a combination of political anger and, more importantly, anger over the falling standards of living of almost every person in this country.

I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Well, time is running out for search and rescue teams trying to find more than 1 dozen missing people after a powerful earthquake rocked Eastern Turkey. On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the hardest hit area. He says the government is doing everything possible to find survivors and rescue survivors. This comes as the death toll climbs. At least 31 people are dead. More than 1,500 others injured.

Well, going through an earthquake can be absolutely terrifying. Puerto Rico has been trying to recover since a deadly quake shook the island earlier this month. It caused dozens of homes on the southern coast to crumble. CNN's Rafael Romo spoke with one resident who was recording on his phone when it hit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR(voice-over): This is what it sounds like inside a house that gets forcefully shaken by a powerful earthquake in the middle of the night.

EMES SOTO RIVERA, EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR: That was a moment that I don't want to go through again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO(voice over): It was the morning of January 7th, just before sunrise a magnitude 6.4 earthquake rattled Puerto Rico's southern coast. Ernes Soto Rivera was sleeping with his family at his parents' house in Guanica, a coastal town in southern Puerto Rico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERA: That night I had this feeling that something is going to happen, that's why I left my phone recording all night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO(voice over): His feeling became reality. At exactly 4:24 in the morning, the powerful earthquake started to rattle the house.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: So you were sleeping in this bedroom by yourself.

RIVERA: Yes. Yes, I was sleeping in this bedroom by myself.

ROMO: And what happened next?

RIVERA: Yes. I jumped up and freak out and then I see everything moving over there. Everything was falling.

ROMO: Who was here in this bedroom?

RIVERA: Here was my wife and my oldest daughter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO(voice-over): Once he made sure his wife and daughter were safe, he kept on walking in the dark house with one goal in mind, he had to rescue his elderly parents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: So they were here.

RIVERA: Yes. They were here. Once I got here inside the room, my mother was here standing with my dad. She was screaming. She was very nervous.

(Inaudible) ...

ROMO: In the recording there's a moment where we clearly hear a woman screaming.

RIVERA: Yes.

ROMO: That's your mother.

RIVERA: Yes. That's my mother.

ROMO: So she was extremely upset.

RIVERA: Yes. Yes. Yes. She was very nervous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO(voice-over): There are cracks on the walls throughout the house and they plan to have it inspected by a structural engineer in case there is danger of a wall or roof collapse. And even though they still haven't fully recovered from that traumatic morning, the most important thing is that no one was hurt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERA: For just a little moment like you think everything is going to end. So, I don't know, it's like a nightmare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO(voice-over): "As long as there's life," this earthquake survivor says, "there's hope that the family can rebuild and repair what the earthquake destroyed."

Rafael Romo, CNN, Guanica, Puerto Rico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: And finally this hour, more than one dozen lions and tigers are now living their best lives out of captivity. They were saved from circuses in Guatemala in an 18-month rescue mission called Operation Liberty. Now these big cats are spending their days at a sanctuary in South Africa.

CNN's David McKenzie was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT(voice over): The first scent of a new home. And for these rescued circus tigers and lions, their last moments confined like this.

[04:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MCKENZIE: This tiger has been stuck in this cage for more than 36

hours but it's lived in cages like this its entire life, brutalized for the entertainment of humans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE(voice-over): For Animal Defenders International, it was one of their most complicated rescues, 12 tigers and five lions in total, 18 months of struggle in Guatemala. In a 30-year fight to ban animal circuses globally. So far, 45 countries, including Guatemala have.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAN CREAMER, FOUNDER, ANIMAL DEFENDERS INTERNATIONAL: You imagine, because of the performance, that the animal is enjoying themselves. And behind the curtain, we are able to show that that couldn't be more untrue.

MCKENZIE: So what is behind the curtain?

CREAMER: Brutality, cruelty, abuse, deprivation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE(voice-over): But rescued cats are costly and ADI hopes that this new dedicated facility in South Africa will be an incentive for more governments to follow suit.

The handlers carefully unload the first family of tigers. Most had their claws ripped out as cubs. Some had their canines sawed down by circus trainers. But they're still tigers. Exactly why, they say, they should have never been caged to begin with. Now, taking its first tentative steps to a new life.

David McKenzie, CNN, Free State, South Africa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: And thank goodness for that.

That is the first hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. Follow me on Instagram or Twitter @ALLENCNN. For U.S. viewers NEW DAY is just ahead. For international viewers, I'll be right back.