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Quest Means Business

Police Gunfire at Manila Resort Not Terror Attack; Trump: U.S. Will Withdraw from Climate Deal; Farmers Share Concerns Ahead of British Elections; Polls Tighten Between May & Corbyn. Aired 5-5:30p ET

Aired June 01, 2017 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00] MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes in Atlanta. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS will begin in just a moment. But

first, two breaking news stories we've been following for you at this hour.

We are expecting a statement any moment from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on the Paris Agreement. We are also following a situation in

Manilla. Now, just a few minutes ago, the Philippine National Police chief said the gunfire at a large casino complex in Manila was part of a robbery

and was not a terror attack, although explosions were reported. We have been watching chaotic scenes at Resorts World Manila. As you can see

there, people fleeing in the middle of the night. Police and S.W.A.T. teams are still on the site there and a manhunt is underway for a gunman.

No word yet on the number of casualties.

This busy resort is an upscale complex, less than two kilometers from Manila's international airport and all terminals there have been on

lockdown in the wake of all of this. Earlier, the chief operating officer of Resorts World Manila spoke to the Philippine media. He said there was

only one gunman and that the complex is still being searched.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN REILLY, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, RESORTS WORLD MANILA: We're still investigating the situation. The PNP is on site. We have evacuated the

building to make sure that our patrons, our staff are safe. At this time, that's all the information I can give you. The building is currently in

lockdown state until we completely clear the area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, Camille Abadicio of CNN Philippines joins me now on the line from Manila. Just bring us up to date, if you will Camille, on the very

latest. Because this has been an ever-changing story for some hours now.

CAMILLE ABADICIO, CNN PHILIPPINES REPORTER (via phone): Richard, the police chief has spoken and he has said so far, there are no indications

that the incident here, as regards to Manila, was a terror attack, although the investigation is still ongoing. The situation here has calmed down

now, but the policemen are still inside clearing the rooms and the pool complex is still on a lockdown.

Just a few points in general, dela Rosa interviewed earlier, he confirms that there's only one attacker, a foreign-looking man who went inside the

building through the parking area. He was wearing a mask, or bonnet, armed with a long firearm. And he set the gambling tables on fire. He stole

millions worth of chips and he is still at large. Inside the building, they could not confirm the gunman is still in the vicinity.

To give you a background, Richard. At around 1:00 a.m., we rushed here for reports of a shooting incident, and we heard a series of gunfire and what

seems to be explosions coming from the building of Resorts World Manila, the casino. The initial information we got from witnesses that we were

able to talk to was that he opened fire on the second floor of the casino, around past midnight. And the employees and guests were suddenly rushed

out of the building.

We also talked to a man that was seen running from the building. He was still anxious and disoriented, and he told us that he was on the third

floor when it happened. And he heard the loud gunshots and saw thick, black smoke coming from the second floor. He also said he had to hide in

the bathroom with other guests. A plumber also who was getting off work witnessed people trapped on the second floor, trying to escape from the

window and he helped them to go out to safety.

There have been reports that ISIS claimed responsibility of this incident, but the national police says this is just another terrorist propaganda and

their investigations, by far, do not show any signs of terrorism. And the suspect didn't even try to harm the people. And right now, as I've

mentioned earlier, the suspect is still at large and the authorities are still on full alert. Richard.

HOLMES: Yes, obviously, with -- obviously, with a lot of trouble in Manila and elsewhere, a lot of nervous people in the Philippines. But it does

seem like it was a robbery. Camille Abadicio, CNN Philippines, thank you so much for the update.

Now as I mentioned, we are expecting a statement from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on the Paris Agreement any moment now. We will have more

on that, and what has been unfolding in Manila throughout the hour. Meanwhile, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS begins now.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. Our tour of the United Kingdom continues. We're in Shepton Mallet, in Western England, one of the

agricultural hubs. And we're here tonight as President Trump makes a decision that will impact economies from Somerset to South Carolina.

International and business leaders have called the president's decision, announced within the last hour, to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord,

an historic forfeiture of global leadership.

[17:05:00] We'll be listening and we're waiting for President Emmanuel Macron, of France, who is due to speak anytime now. We'll bring that to

you. The U.S. president described the Paris deal as it stands now as robbing U.S. taxpayers, handicapping the U.S. economy, and redistributing

America's wealth to the rest of the world. He said the U.S. needs to tap all of its energy sources to accelerate growth and that staying in the

agreement would decimate the American mining and manufacturing industries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The Paris Agreement handicaps the United States' economy in order to win praise from the very foreign capitals and

global activists that have long-sought to gain wealth at our country's expense. They don't put America first. I do. And I always will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: The pleas came far and wide, business leaders who had urged Mr. Trump to stay in the accord tweeted their disappointment after he pulled

out. Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, says, "Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America

or the world."

The GE chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt says, "Disappointed with today's decision on the Paris Agreement. Climate change is real. Industry must

now lead and not depend on government." He hasn't said, Jeffrey Immelt, whether he will also leave the business councils.

And Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella, has tweeted, "We believe climate change is an urgent issue that demands global action. We remain

committed to doing our part."

They campaigned right to the very end, just read this letter that urged the president to stay in the agreement. It was in "The New York Times" and

"The Wall Street Journal." 25 of the world's most valuable companies signed it. They join a campaign that support from all industries, all

corners, even big oil companies, and they warn, withdrawing puts U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage and opens them to retaliatory

tariffs.

Larry Summers says he never imagined that Exxon would be more progressive than the White House on climate change. Larry Summers served as President

Clinton's Treasury Secretary, President Obama's top economic adviser and chief economist at the World Bank. He joins me now from Washington. It is

always, Mr. Secretary, a delight to have you on the program. Thank you, sir. The issue now, you heard what the president said. He said, we're

withdrawing and we're going to renegotiate, and if we can't renegotiate, that's just fine. What do you make of that sort of very strong, hard line

position?

LARRY SUMMERS, FMR. U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: This is a very sad day. This is the biggest U.S. foreign policy error since entering the Iraq war. And

it's one that unlike the Iraq war, will be felt a century from now. This is the day when the United States did a lot to forfeit its claim to be a

leader among nations. We're now in a club with Syria and Nicaragua, and the rest of the world's nations are in a different club of cooperation

around a major global problem.

We're going to be poorer, because we took this step. Exxon is a fossil fuel company. They think their interest is in this agreement. God knows

all of those in the renewable energy businesses, all of those with a stake in a climate that is relatively stable, all of those who want to avoid

epidemics, who want to avoid hurricanes, they're all worse off because of what we did.

QUEST: Right.

SUMMERS: You know there are important junctures in history, when the United States renounced the League of Nations and turned its back on global

cooperation, that was a calamitous moment of isolationism. When Britain appeased Germany and failed to recognize the threat that Hitler was, that

was a calamitous moment. This decision has elements of both. It is both isolationist and it is showing disregard for a very serious threat. I

never thought I would say these words, but the President of the United States is a clear and present danger to an orderly global system.

[17:10:00] QUEST: Do you believe that it is possible, with the U.S. out -- I mean, obviously, the rest of the world continues, and China's leadership,

arguably, China moves into a much greater position of influence. Do you believe it's possible for U.S. states, for U.S. cities, for U.S. business

to maintain anything like the standards required under Paris?

SUMMERS: I think there will be efforts. I think America is enormously resilient. I think Winston Churchill got right the long view when he said

the United States always does the right thing after exhausting all the alternatives. And I think there will be the Elon Musks, the governors, of

states, the American entrepreneurs who will drive cooperation.

But make no mistake, when the United States abandons global cooperation and makes naked commercial self-interest the guiding star of its foreign

policy, as the richest nation in the world, it licenses that kind of non- cooperative behavior on the part of all others. And that is a very, very great cost. And the moral loss the United States suffered today is not

going to be redeemed by what I'm sure will be great efforts by many of our companies, many of our cities, and many of our states.

Ultimately, this will be made right. The United States will rejoin the international community, but for 75 years, people have relied on the United

States to be the adult in the room, to support global cooperation, to understand that challenges that are for more than one nation, whether

they're pandemics, whether they're security challenges, whether they're environmental challenges, have to be met cooperatively. And the United

States stepped away from that idea today. It is a very, very sad day for our country.

QUEST: Larry Summers, thank you, sir, for joining us from Washington tonight. We appreciate it, as always.

Now, joining me, the leaders of France, Italy, and Germany say the Paris Accord cannot be renegotiated. And say it is a vital instrument for our

planet and its economies. Russia has said the effectiveness of the agreement will be hindered. There is no alternative to that, which has

been seen. China has said no country can develop outside this issue of climate change. And the EU has already vowed to push ahead with China,

where Jean-Claude Juncker warning the U.S., China is ready to step up and take the vacuum, what's left from U.S. leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION (through translator): We explained to Mr. Trump in Tormina that it would not be good for the

world or the United States if America was to literally step off the world stage, because the vacuum will be filled and the Chinese are in prime

position to take on a leadership role.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Joining me now is Stephen Moore, one of Donald Trump's former economic advisers. You heard I hope, Larry Summers talking.

STEPHEN MOORE, CNN ECONOMICS ANALYST: I did.

QUEST: If you didn't I'll paraphrase, he's drawing the analogy to appeasement, he's drawing the analogy to the U.S. leaving the League of

Nations. He described it, you heard him saying, it's as a very sad day for U.S. leadership. Do you agree?

MOORE: No, I don't think. I think this is a good day for American workers. The climate change deal could have led to more than a million

jobs lost in this country. And we have a lot of workers who need jobs in this country. It would have raised electricity and energy prices by as

much as $30,000 over the next decade for the average American family. And frankly, we don't want to repeat the mistakes of Europe, which went all in

on green energy over the last decade and is now much, much, much more expensive. Electricity prices than we have in the United States.

QUEST: So, let's just be clear. Just so our viewers joining us now, Stephen. Do you accept -- let's put Paris to one side for the purpose of

this next question. Do you accept -- do you accept that climate change is real?

[17:15:00] MOORE: I think there's a lot of healthy debate amongst scientists in the United States about what's happening with our climate.

Look, the climate has been changes for a million years. It's a question of what's really happening. How much of this is a result of the sun. I'm old

enough, I may be a little older than you are. I'm old enough to remember 40 years ago when all the scientists said that we were headed to another

ice age, and now they say that we're melting.

But I'll say this, the United States, for all the scolding of America that's been going on, the United States has reduced our carbon emissions

over the last eight years more than Germany, more than France, Italy, U.K., Japan, any of these other countries. So why are they lecturing us? By the

way, for China, for China to lecture us on climate change is a big joke, because they're building dozens and dozens of new coal plants right now as

we speak.

QUEST: OK, so let's assume -- again, the idea, though, that U.S. leadership -- never mind -- let's just put the climate to one side. What

this has done, though, surely, it has removed U.S. leadership. In many ways, it's the same as Britain leaving the European Union and leaving the

debate within Europe.

MOORE: In some ways, it is. Well, I think that's the trend that's going on.

QUEST: You accept that?

MOORE: People don't want global government. We don't want to see any of our sovereignty to some global body telling us what kind of energy we can

use, what kind of tea kettles we can use, as happened in Britain. And I think there was a real reaction among Americans that this deal really does

-- one of the points that Donald Trump made in his speech today, you played some excerpts from it. He said, look, this is a deal that is not in

America's best interest. And this is a president who ran on a campaign of putting America first. This is not a climate change deal that put America

first. My goodness, why would we have to spend billions of dollars subsidizing other countries to reach these climate -- you know, these

emissions targets? We have a $20 trillion national debt. We can't afford to be spending billions of dollars sending it to other countries.

QUEST: All right. Stephen, as always on this program, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to be with us.

MOORE: A pleasure to be with you. Thank you.

QUEST: And as always, on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, you will hear both sides of the argument. You heard Stephen Moore there and you heard Larry Summers

before us.

Now, we're here in the UK and this time next week, the polls will have been closed for 20 minutes, the counting will be under way. We won't have any

results in the U.K. general election. It's turning out to be a lot more uncertain than anyone expected. After the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Welcome back to QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Wall Street. Well, all the main indices are at a record. The Dow closed at a record after it gained

134 points, sending it to its first all-time high since March the 1st. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ also hit all-time closing and intraday highs. And

I'm pleased they've managed to fix the graph at the New York Stock Exchange. Remember last week, it was red all over the place. It was green

when it should be red and red when it should be green and you couldn't really tell what's happening. Now you can see your reds and your greens

and you can get a good idea.

[17:20:00] European markets made a positive start to the month of June. The FTSE rose because the pound stabilized. In Milan, it's the index which

is surging 1 percent. There was surprised upward revision of Italy's first quarter growth. It gave a boost to the markets on the continent. And

Malan was up strongly but the Paris CAC of the big four was the highest.

Now, we're here at the Royal Bath and West Show. It's one of the largest shows, agriculture shows, and it's here in the heartland of West England.

Brexit could hammer home the industry question of what is going to happen to farmers. Here they know the importance of subsidies. They know the

importance of insuring goods -- good markets, open markets for export products. I spoke to the farmers here at the show.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the government don't support us, yes, it would have a big effect, yes. If the government doesn't come up with some sort of

subsidy, then we will lose a lot of money over it.

QUEST: And are you worried?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Um, no. No not really. It's not a thing that I can't sleep at night. Is just one of those things you live with it and we'll get

used to it. If it's not there, it's not there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it is an uncertainty, but that's a matter of choice, as to whether you spend time worrying about it or whether you meet

the challenge when it actually becomes more relevant to you.

QUEST: Is it an important election, this one, do you think?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it can be a defining election, Yes, because of Brexit. Because they decided to take it -- well, most people have decided

to take us out of the European Union.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: That is a week to go before voting. And the voters appear more skeptical of Theresa May and more accepting of Jeremy Corbyn or something

similar to that. And while some opinion polls may disagree on the precise numbers, they all agree on one thing, the lead of the Prime Minister is

disappearing fast. The latest YouGov projection has the Conservatives on 42, Labour is on 38.

Take a look at Panelbase. That has a wider margin for the Conservatives, 44 to Labour's 36. The party leaders were out on the campaign today as the

race enters its final furlong, so to speak. The Mrs. May says she's fighting to win every vote and she repeated her claim that the opinion

polls don't matter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: You know that there's only one poll that matters and that's the poll that's going to take place next Thursday

on the general election, when people actually go and cast their vote. And when they do that, the choice they have is a simple one. Because there is

only one of two people who's going to be prime minister after the general election. It's either me or Jeremy Corbyn. So, the choice people have is

do they want to -- how do they see the future? They have a choice to decide who they want to lead this country into those Brexit negotiations,

get the best deal for Britain from those Brexit negotiations, but also lead us to building that stronger, more prosperous future for our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: On that other side, Mr. Corbyn says he's fighting to win the election to form a Labour government and that he's leading a movement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY CORBYN, BRITISH LABOUR PARTY LEADER: The cynics started this election by saying nothing can change, nothing can alter, nothing can

happen. And you know what's happened? Thousands and thousands and thousands of people have come into our campaign offices, met up with our

candidates, and got out there door knocking, donating small sums of money to the Labour Party. The average donation is 22 pounds. I suspect the

average donation to the Conservatives is slightly more. Add a number of naughts to that figure. And there's a movement going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now, Matt Singh joins me from London. He's the founder of Number Cruncher Politics. So, we've been talking all week, as I've been going

around the country about these polls. But if we look within them, as your research has done, it not only shows a tightening, but it shows an absolute

divergence, doesn't it, between the type of voters going for the Tory and those going for Labour.

MATT SINGH, FOUNDER, NUMBER CRUNCHER POLITICS: Yes, I mean, it's quite normal for there to be a difference by age and by other demographics, but

what's particularly stark this time is that there's a huge divergence between younger and older voters. If you look at under 25, for example,

Labour and Jeremy Corbyn have something like a 50-point lead in some polls.

[17:25:00] Among over 65, Theresa May and the Conservatives have a 50-point lead. There really is quite a sharp difference.

QUEST: Is it your feeling that that younger voter, having been pro-remain and seen the fact they didn't vote, get, you know -- got them the result

they didn't want, might be more tempted to go and vote this time, because they've seen the damage that happened when they don't.

SINGH: Well, it's quite possible. Certainly, there have been examples in the recent past, such as the Scottish dependence referendum in 2014, where

young people, people who don't normally vote have become infused by something of a -- you know, a big political event and got involved. More

often than not, young people either tell pollsters that they're going to vote and don't, or indeed, the young people, pollsters getting hold of and

not representative of other young people. So, on the day, that can often be a surprise. But you never know.

QUEST: So, when we look at all of this, I guess, you know, I guess those of us who follow politics and follow elections can get very excited about

this. But what our viewer really wants to know is, is who's going to win? And when you ask that question, is Theresa May's winnability, if you like,

seriously under threat from the numbers that you've seen?

SINGH: Well, it's not impossible that she could lose her majority. It seems pretty unlikely. I mean, certainly the range of polls that we've

seen, I mean, the tight trend as you mentioned, YouGov got three or four- point leads. There were others that have just into the double digits. There is quite a wide range of outcomes possible. My sense is that the gap

is probably going to be at the higher end of that, given the fundamentals, the way the leaders are perceived, the way the local elections in

government and so on. But this is an unusually uncertain election.

QUEST: Good to see you, sir. Thank you very much, indeed, for joining us.

And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest here in Shepton Mallet. We will be with the band tomorrow, who join me, as always,

as we continue our travels around the country. And whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable. I'll see you tomorrow in

Windsor.

END