Donald Trump Is Backpedaling On A U.S. Pledge To Roll Back Tariffs On China; Michael Bloomberg Prepares To Throw His Hat Into The Democratic Presidential Race; House Democrats Release More Key Testimony In The Impeachment Inquiry Against President Trump
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Closing bell on Wall Street in 60 minutes from now, the end of what an interesting and exciting week with the records, and then not. Today is no record, down 54. Solidly down and there are strong reasons for why the market has fallen at key points throughout the course of the day. We'll get to that because those are the markets and these are the reason why. Donald Trump is backpedaling on a U.S. pledge to roll back tariffs on China. He says he is very happy to keep them in place. Meanwhile, Michael Bloomberg prepares to throw his hat into the Democratic presidential race -- a late contender. And now opponents ask whether billionaires like him should exist at all. And Bob Iger's big bet. It is the CEO's status company's future and his legacy on their new streaming service. We are live in world's financial capital -- live -- picture that and a stunning day ahead the weekend in New York. It is Friday. It is November 8. I am Richard Quest and of course, I mean business. Good evening. We begin tonight with a week of trade optimism coming to a somewhat bitter end. President Trump has struck a defiant tone on tariffs against China and the idea that they'll be lifted. He says he is content to leave them exactly where they are, even as U.S. and Chinese negotiators are working on the deal Phase 1, which would lift the tariffs.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, they'd like to have a roll back. I haven't agreed to anything. China would like to get somewhat of a roll back, not a complete roll back, because they know I won't do it.</s>QUEST: They know I won't do it and when he said those words the market went down. You can see the stock goes to session lows. The Dow is still off more than nearly 50 points or so. Kristen Holmes is from the White House. So is this just negotiating? Is this just part of the strategy of keep them guessing? Because, you know, we led our program last night on the fact that there was every possibility those tariffs would be lifted, or at least rolled back if Phase 1 was signed?</s>KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. CORRESPONDENT: Well, Richard, the trade war continues today after those comments, and essentially President Trump was dismissing these claims by Chinese officials that he or the administration had agreed to any of them these rollbacks. It certainly caused a damper. A lot of people who had a lot of optimism about a trade deal being reached are starting to believe that perhaps they were a little too optimistic. And of course, you said they saw that in the stock market as it started to decline there. And again, this has been going back and forth, back and forth. If this is President Trump's tactics, we know that in the past, it certainly hasn't worked when it comes to the stock market. As soon as he starts pulling back on any kind of trade deal, we see the market go down further and further. But right now, you know, President Trump continues to say the same thing, which is, they don't really -- excuse me, we don't need the deal as much as they need the deal. So I'm content to just let it wait out. But I want to just mark here, we have talked to a lot of farmers across the country. You know, a lot of these tariffs have been put on these farm goods and it's been very hard for them.</s>QUEST: But at what point does this backwarding and forwarding become risky with the election next year? At some point, if traditional wisdom is to be believed, he is going to try and get a deal so he doesn't go into an election, sort of on the back foot on tariffs?</s>HOLMES: Well, absolutely, that's going to be the goal of the White House. The administration has said that, but the big question is whether or not he can actually get it done. And as you said, this back and forth back and forth with China, these setbacks that we then end up seeing in the market, this does not help the cause of these teams who are on the ground trying to get this done. So even though there are, you know, all of these different components here, yes, an election is not something he wants to go into without a deal made. But can he actually get that done? And right now, both sides are holding strong and this really did not help particularly when you had these Chinese officials saying positively that they were going to have these rollbacks in tariffs and that that meant things were going in a good direction. This really shuts that all down.</s>QUEST: Good to see you. Have a good weekend. Thank you, Kristen from the White House. Now Donald Trump is shrugging off a potential challenge from a familiar foe, the billionaire businessman and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He is preparing to enter the race for U.S. President.</s>QUEST: He has ruled out to run in March. Now, however, he says he is thinking about it and his entry would shake up a Democratic field in which the centrist candidates seem to be lagging behind. Donald Trump says he is not worried.</s>TRUMP: I've known Michael Bloomberg for a long time. If you go back early on, he had -- he said a lot of great things about Trump. But I know Michael, he became just a nothing. He was really a nothing. He is not going to do well, but I think it is going to hurt Biden actually. But he doesn't have the magic to do well. Little Michael will fail.</s>QUEST: Little Michael, who has done nothing. He is owner by the way, just to remind you of one of the largest financial news services and trading platforms in the world and is comfortably worth more than $40 billion or $50 billion. Little Michael has done nothing. Harry Enten, since we're all talking about ourselves in the third person, Harry Enter is the data guru. Thank you for joining</s>QUEST. HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: My pleasure, sir.</s>QUEST: And tell me about Bloomberg entering the race. Does it change the dynamic?</s>ENTEN: Look, I don't necessarily think so at least in terms of the polling. I think the real question is whether or not the donors who have been abandoning Biden or holding back their money -- remember, Joe Biden didn't raise that much money compared to Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders last quarter, whether or not now they're really going to hold back and of course, you need money to run a presidential campaign. So I think that's the real question as to whether or not how that would affect this race.</s>QUEST: Right, but of course, Bloomberg doesn't need money.</s>ENTEN: No.</s>QUEST: He is worth over $50 billion. If he uses a fraction of it, he is self-funded.</s>ENTEN: That's exactly right. It's more about the donors who Biden needs who also like Michael Bloomberg, but in terms of actual voter support. Look, Bloomberg has been pulling generally two to three percent nationally before he decided not to get back in there. I'm just not necessarily sure he'll pull a lot of support from Biden's. It's about the donor class.</s>QUEST: He was popular in New York. He managed to do more terms and change the rules.</s>ENTEN: Yes.</s>QUEST: He got three terms in New York, but does it play well in the rest of the country? That brash, New York in your face, tell it like it is. They've had Donald Trump do that for four years. Why do they want another?</s>ENTEN: Well, that's I think exactly the question, especially in the Democratic sentiment. Remember, we had another New York City mayor who ran before. Bill de Blasio went nowhere, absolutely nowhere in the Democratic field. And I am quite skeptical if I'm being honest with you, Richard that someone who basically ended his term on bad notes with African-American voters is going to be able to appeal that constituency, which is the main base of Joe Biden support.</s>QUEST: Okay. But is there not an argument against Bloomberg that says, where have you been so far? The rest of us have been schlepping around doing these debates left, right and center. What makes you think that you've got the right to just come join the party late because you can afford to?</s>ENTEN: Yes, I think that's exactly right. And obviously, we're talking about a Democratic primary field, not a Republican primary field. Billionaires have been lashed out against in the Democratic primary field so far.</s>QUEST: Well, let's have a listen to what Elizabeth Warren and others have said on that very point.</s>ANDREW YANG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm friendly with Mike and he is a great philanthropist, or was a really stellar mayor. But I will say it's going to be very, very difficult for him to jump in right now and somehow replace the thousands of conversations that many of the candidates have had with voters in New Hampshire and Iowa and around the country with ad buys. There are limits to what money can do. We're seeing some of the limits of what money can do with other candidates. And so I think he is going to have his work cut out for him if he jumps in.</s>SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not enough just to have somebody come in -- anybody -- and say they can buy this election. It's not enough. When billionaires, millionaires, and corporate executives get their PACs and get their fortunes and say we want a bigger</s>QUEST: But you see, I think Elizabeth Warren's argument is somewhat forcing this on that one. You can hardly say that about Mike Bloomberg. He's just a billionaire who is buying his way in. The man was mayor of New York City and has run an extremely profitable successful news -- he has lived his life in public affairs.</s>ENTEN: Yes, that's exactly right. He was the main catalyst. He spent so much money on the air. His Super PAC has spent so much money on the air during the 2018 campaign getting Democrats elected to the House of Representatives and getting their majority. So I think that that line doesn't necessarily play as well. But one number that I think is so important is that if you look and you ask Democratic primary voters, are you satisfied with your choices or do you want more options? The vast majority say they're satisfied with their choices. And so to me this Bloomberg getting is answering a question that no one really asked.</s>QUEST: Right. But tell me, does that quite -- is that question announce a valid -- when you say are you satisfied with your choices versus are you satisfied and then add somebody that they may be more. They are satisfied until somebody better comes along.</s>ENTEN: It's certainly plausible. But you know, Fox News asked this question at the end of last month, and basically they said that only six percent said that they wanted Michael Bloomberg. They would certainly vote for him versus in the 30s said they would definitely vote against him. So to me, Michael Bloomberg is not necessarily the answer. Someone like Michelle Obama might have been.</s>QUEST: All right. But now finally, billionaires. What's the statistics saying about billionaires in the race, and the American voters' love affair or distaste with money?</s>ENTEN: I would say this -- it is that the Democratic primary electorate loves the wealth tax, and we already have a billionaire in Tom Steyer who is running and you know where he is going right now? Absolutely nowhere. He is polling it one to two percent despite the fact that he is spending millions of dollars on the air. I'm not sure Bloomberg will be any different.</s>QUEST: Good to see you, sir.</s>ENTEN: Thank you, sir.</s>QUEST: Have a good weekend. Thank you.</s>ENTEN: You as well.</s>QUEST: The House Democrats have released more key testimony in the Impeachment Inquiry against President Trump. The transcripts reveal that Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman told lawmakers the request for a Biden probe was coordinated with the White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. The former top White House Russia adviser, Fiona Hill's transcript says she testified it was clear, the Ukrainians had to start an investigation for a meeting with President Trump. Now just for these names, we need to remind ourselves who they are. Fiona Hill and Alexander Vindman. Fiona Hill is the former National Security Council staffer. She was responsible for Russia and Ukraine. And she has testified that the former National Security adviser, John Bolton was suspicious of why the Ukraine security aid was being frozen. And Vindman, the top White House expert on Ukraine. He was actually on the famous call between Trump and Ukraine's President and has said, he raised concerns over what he heard with the top lawyer. Manu Raju joins me now. These transcripts are being released. I wonder what more we get when we go to hearings next week? You know, I can -- I see a philosophical significance of a hearing being held. But if it's just the deposition and then the transcript release, and then the same person says the same thing on public vote, what do you really gain?</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot of Democrats believe that the American public still has not fully grasped exactly what they have learned through the course of this investigation that has been going on for several weeks, but consistent themes are emerging. Witnesses are describing this effort going outside diplomatic norms to try to pursue these investigations, urged the Ukrainians to investigate the President's political rivals in exchange for a meeting that the Ukrainians had sought in Washington and also at a time when the aid -- military aid -- roughly $400 million in military aid had not been turned over to the Ukrainians despite its approval in Congress. Democrats believe by having these public hearings that it will be able to shine light on exactly what was happening beyond what we've been reporting in the media, beyond just the depositions, and the thousands -- now more than 2,000 pages of transcripts that we have been going through, they believe when American voters see this themselves is going to help them to draw the conclusion that many Democrats have that the President abused his office, deserves to be impeached. So in many ways, Richard, it is a political move by the Democrats to try to make their case to the American public that the President deserves to be impeached.</s>QUEST: As I understand it, Manu, correct me, please, so far, nobody has come along and said, I had a conversation with Donald Trump, where he said hold the aid until ...</s>RAJU: And that's what the Republicans are going to say. There has been no firsthand conversations that we're aware of, but there have been many people who have contended that this is exactly the instruction that came from the President. For instance, one witness, Bill Taylor, the top diplomat from Ukraine, the U.S. diplomat in Ukraine had testified that he was told by the Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland that President Trump had told Sondland that he wanted to withhold everything, including the military aid until there was a public announcement that those investigations would happen. Then when Sondland testified, as you recall, he revised his testimony to later say that he informed a Ukrainian official that the aid was likely contingent on that public declaration of investigations, but Sondland that he didn't recall how he knew that. So that's going to be the challenge for Democrats. But there is plenty of evidence showing the President was directly involved, even if people didn't talk to him directly -- Richard.</s>QUEST: Let's put this into the perspective, though, of the election. All of this could be absolutely true. And the President might come out and say, hey, yes, it's all true. I mean, he sort of suggested as much Giuliani suggested as much as in his Cuomo interview. But the American public might say well, yes, so what? It was our money. You were trying to do it and people do nasty things in politics and yes, you shouldn't have done it but we don't care.</s>RAJU: And that's exactly the argument of the Republicans have been increasingly making, that what he's been -- what he's done is not impeachable. It's something that any President would normally do. What these witnesses are testifying, though, about was this is highly unusual? They are career officials, experts in this area, there are ways of carrying out foreign policy, and this was certainly not that. The question though is, will the American public agree, and what we're seeing from poll after poll is that the American public does not believe the President acted accordingly, but the American public is still split on the notion of impeaching and removing him from office.</s>QUEST: Well, the first and the second of those two halves, Manu, one of course, is we sort of know something was done wrong, but then you get back into partisanship with total partisanship. Good to see you, sir, have a good weekend.</s>RAJU: Thank you.</s>QUEST: Now, when you and I return, big moves at the House of the Mouse. Disney gets ready to release its streaming service. Also, the executive exodus continues, this time Gap's CEO steps down. We need to understand the reason behind it.