House Investigators Releasing Transcripts of testimony; Trump Still Competitive in Battleground States; CNN Team Embedded with Turkish Forces in Syrian Border Town
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And you haven't heard about the whistleblower after that, have you? Because the whistleblower said lots of things that weren't so good, folks, you're going to find out.</s>BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: Mr. Trump says, stay tuned as the Democrats prepare to release more testimony from key witnesses in their impeachment inquiry.</s>JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're in the town of Tal Abyad and we're told by Turkish officials they are finding explosives on a daily basis and defusing them.</s>ANDERSON: CNN is embedded with Turkish forces as they continue military operations in northern Syria. A horrific attack in Mexico kills nine members of a Mormon family. And the U.S. begins its formal withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Agreement. We take a look at what that means with one of the people who put the deal together. Well it's 7 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi. It's 10 the morning in D.C. I'm Becky Anderson with your newly expanded two-hour edition of CONNECT THE WORLD. And we begin for you in Washington. At any moment we could get our hands on the closed-door testimony from two key witnesses in this impeachment inquiry, now a former special envoy for Ukraine and the current U.S. ambassador to the EU. What do we care? Well their text messages have dragged them into the impeachment saga. Detailing how a shadow foreign policy was being run by Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. On Monday a slew of details emerged on the testimony transcripts of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and a former high-level aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Both transcript paint a picture of an administration that broadly interprets the use of executive power. And had no reservations about using that power to advance the President's political agenda. President Trump, meanwhile, continues to go after the whistleblower. His campaign rally in Kentucky showed off new t-shirts saying "read the transcript" -- referring to the memo of Mr. Trump's call with the Ukrainian President. But for those who have read the transcript, many say it does the President more harm than good. Our Capitol Hill reporter Suzanne Malveaux has picked apart those early pages for you. Here is her report.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN U.S. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the first transcripts from the impeachment inquiry going public President Trump's intensifying his attacks against the whistleblower who started it all.</s>TRUMP: The whistleblower says lots of things that weren't so good, folks.</s>MALVEAUX: House investigators releasing hundreds of pages of testimony from the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. The career diplomat saying behind closed doors, she was warned to watch my back because of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his associates. According to the rough transcript of the July 25 phone call, President Trump told Ukraine's new president that Yovanovitch was bad news and warned she's going to go through some things. Yovanovitch telling lawmakers, I didn't know what it meant. I was very concerned. I still am. When asked, did you feel threatened? Her answer simply, yes.</s>REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Obviously she was the object of a tremendous smear campaign. We want to know how deep that went.</s>MALVEAUX: Under pressure from the President's allies, Yovanovitch says she sought advice from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland. His suggestion, go big or go home. You need to, you know, tweet out there that you support the President. Yovanovitch also at the center of Michael McKinley's testimony. The former top aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, explaining why he abruptly resigned just days before his deposition. He says the State Department did not support career civil servants caught up in the inquiry. And he was troubled by, quote, what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance domestic political objectives. McKinley says he repeatedly raised concerns according to the transcript of his testimony and asked Pompeo to publicly state is support for Yovanovitch. That directly contradicts Pompeo's account in an interview last month.</s>MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I never heard him say a single thing about his concerns with respect to the decision that was made.</s>GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: So you were never asked --</s>POMPEO: Not once.</s>ANDERSON: Well Suzanne Malveaux reporting there. Joe Johns standing by live at the White House. Suzanne though is live for us on Capitol Hill. You report a fascinating insight into how the Trump administration runs its foreign policy given the release of this testimony. But his supporters insist that there is no evidence of wrongdoing by the President. What's your take?</s>MALVEAUX: This is their various attacks that they are taking. One of them Congressman Jim Jordan, very much a Trump supporter and defender in Congress and in this whole process. He was asked about the fact that Yovanovitch felt threatened by the President in his words, and he said that the President has every right. He can speak to any foreign leader and use the language as he wishes. And so, he really kind of dismissed that out of the hand. We have seen White House advisor, Kellyanne Conway, say while she doesn't know if there was any delay in the aid going to Ukraine. She almost kind of said, well what does it matter? Ukraine has the aid. And then finally you have this other tact which really seems to be a distraction from Senator Rand Paul and others who are echoing the President's call to unmask the whistleblower. I mean, this has led to an extraordinary split, if you will, among some Republicans who look at that as outrageous. The former Republican House Intel chair, Mike Rogers, just within the last hour, saying that he believes that this town has lost its mind because of those kinds of calls. And so, you can see where this is going. It's kind of all over the place at this point, but we will see as this unfolds in public, how this shifts. How this changes as we get more and more information -- Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Joe, this is as it's known the off-year voting day in the United States. Some states electing any governors. The governor in Kentucky has said a vote for him is a vote to punish the Democrats in Washington currently going after the President. How do you see this playing out?</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well the short version is Matt Biven has an uphill climb down in Kentucky. The President went there just last night. And if you look at the video -- as you mentioned at the top of that appearance where the president was there speaking -- you see people standing behind the President wearing t-shirts that say, "read the transcript." The President apparently referring to the July 25th call with the Ukrainian President, of which the rough transcript was released. The President asserts again and again that that was an appropriate call. However, there's more than one transcript that is now being read in Washington D.C., including the transcript of the conversation between Ambassador Yovanovitch, and the impeachment investigators, and she paints a very different picture. A picture of a President of the United States and his lieutenants essentially undermining a member of the U.S. foreign service over in Ukraine for personal gain. So that tells you a lot about where we are on this off-year election day in Washington, D.C. -- Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Joe Johns is at the White House and Suzanne is at Capitol Hill where the impeachment inquiry looms large over the 2020 election campaign. But is it? Is it having an impact on voters? Who will of course go to the polls a year from today, November 2020. According to a New York Times/Siena College poll, in the battleground state of Wisconsin Democrat Joe Biden is at 47 percent ahead of President Trump at 43. Senator Bernie Sanders, two points up against Trump, 47 to 45. Senator Elizabeth Warren polling at 46. We should note these are all within the poll margin of error. CNN's Kyung Lah spoke with voters in Wisconsin about the 2020 race for the White House. This is her report.</s>BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's do this Wisconsin. Let's turn this around and we've got a year from now to do that.</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 2020 battle for Wisconsin starts now.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, good morning. We will get you clipboard and some lift.</s>LAH: Democratic foot soldiers fanning out across the badger state. (on camera): Are people talking about impeachment here?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not what you are hearing at the coffee shop. It's not what I'm hearing when I'm at the hardware store.</s>LAH (voice-over): A year from Election Day, this is a door-to-door mission to find out what matters most to voters here.</s>TREVOR JUNG, WISCONSIN DEMOCRAT: My name is Trevor. So, what's important to you in the selection?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jobs and environment especially.</s>LAH (on camera): Do you feel that it is a house to house battle?</s>JUNG: It is, completely. You know, here you have a community that is in a county that voted for President Obama and also Donald Trump.</s>LAH (voice-over): Racine, a swing county in a critical swing state. President Trump won Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes. We need Democrat Bruce Dunn. (on camera): How long have you work for Chrysler?</s>BRUCE DUNN, WISCONSIN DEMOCRAT: 36 years and two weeks. It's not too many jobs like that now.</s>LAH (voice-over): He's live Racine's ups and downs during Trump's term, he seen some jobs come back, Dunn cares most about the economy and health care. (on camera): What about impeachment? You didn't mention impeachment.</s>DUNN: Well, I kind of don't like the impeachment. You know the people that's on his side I don't think they're going to jump ship because of it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely ridiculous.</s>LAH (voice-over): Unlike the Democrats, Wisconsin Republicans are talking about impeachment. This Racine Packers and politics party is one of the 150 GOP events in Wisconsin just this week.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These Republican people are very enthused.</s>LAH (on camera): Is impeachment then helping you or helping you or helping the Democrats?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's definitely helping the Republican Party right now. I say go for it, go bring it on.</s>SALLY FRANCIS, WISCONSIN REPUBLICAN: We're just digging in our heels deeper, to fight what they're going to do and we will do it by voting.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, my name is Elisha, I'm with the Waukesha Democratic Party.</s>LAH (voice-over): But driving Democrats, the bitter sting of 2016 and the determination to not have it happen again.</s>ALICIA HALVENSLEBEN WISCONSIN DEMOCRAT: If I can convince at least one maybe two. Every time I talk and I take a packet out, that's going to sway on election.</s>LAH (on camera): Were talking and it's snowing.</s>HALVENSLEBEN: I'm going to keep doing it through the snow. I've done it through worst. We're a swing state. We've been a swing state, but we can swing back.</s>LAH: Democrats say they knocked on more than 50,000 doors just this weekend. Now that is doubled the number of votes that President Trump won the state of Wisconsin by in 2016. Democrats say that margin is so slim it basically breaks down to less than two votes per ward. They feel they can flip the state, but it's not by talking about impeachment. Kyung Lah, CNN Racine, Wisconsin.</s>ANDERSON: Within the next hour we're going to the swing state of Michigan where voters there sound off on President Trump's performance and indeed on the impeachment inquiry. We are a year out, folks, from that 2020 election. Jury selection in the criminal trial of long time Trump advisor Roger Stone begins today. Stone arrived at court just a short time ago. He has pled not guilty to charges of obstruction of justice, witness tampers and lying to Congress. His indictment emerged from Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Which alleges that Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee about the WikiLeaks release of stolen Democratic Party e-mails during the 2016 campaign. Well a raid in northern Syria may provide some clues as to what kind of threat ISIS still poses after the death of the terror group's founder. A senior Turkish official tells CNN that the sister of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been captured in northern Syria. She was detained, along with her husband and daughter-in-law. All three are now being questioned by Turkish authorities. And what that country says could be an intelligence goldmine. Well, meantime a car bomb in Zaher Jaber in Syria killed 19 people over the weekend. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is embedded with Turkish forces as they work to clear explosives in so-called safe zones where Syrian/Kurdish militia has been pushed out.</s>JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're in the town of Tal Abyad. As you recall, this was one of the locations that saw some seriously intense fighting when that Turkish offensive began on October 9. And it's been about three weeks since major combat operation came to an end here, but still we're seeing Turkish forces who are embedded with today carrying out clearance operations. They're sweeping areas and sweeping them multiple times checking for explosives, for devices that have been left. And we're told by Turkish officials that they are finding explosives on a daily basis and diffusing them. Anywhere between 10 to 100 devices on a daily basis, according to a senior Turkish official. And just a solar time ago, a car bomb we're told exploded in the center of the town of Tal Abyad. This just coming a few days after that devastating car bomb attack that you mention took place at a marketplace. A civilian area where at least 19 people were killed in that attack on Saturday. Now no one claimed that attack, but Turkey blames Kurdish fighters for that attack, the Syrian Democratic Forces -- that mainly Syrian/Kurdish fighting force -- have denied any responsibility for that attack. But these kinds of missions right now are critical. Especially as they're seeing civilians starting to return to their homes. According to the United Nations, more than 20,000 people have returned to the town of Tal Abyad in the past few days.</s>ANDERSON: That is Jomana Karadsheh reporting. And a programming note, tomorrow I will interview Turkey's defense minister at this time on this show to get the latest on their operations in northern Syria. And more on the allegations of abuse by Turkish backed forces. We'll also discuss their strategy against ISIS. Well still to come -- officials investigating an attack that left women and children dead near the U.S./Mexican border. Those details are up next. Plus -- after years of far-right extremism, an east German city declares a, quote, Nazi emergency. More on that, after this.