Manafort Hearing after Breaking Plea Deal; Trade Agreement with China; Marriott Hack
HARLOW: A major threat from President Trump on the heels of one of the most critical moments for the president so far at the G-20 Summit. In the middle of a trade war with China, the president is threatening to slap China with more than, well, more than $260 billion in additional tariffs. He also said this week he wouldn't rule out additional tariffs that would hit things as popular as iPhones. Ouch. This comes as President Trump is set to meet with Xi Jinping on Saturday. The two leaders looking to see if they can strike a trade deal. With me, CNN's senior economics analyst and former Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore. Also the author of this new book "Trumponomics." Thank you for being with us. Good morning.</s>STEPHEN MOORE, CNN SENIOR ECONOMIC ANALYST: Hi, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: So, as you know, some long-time U.S. China, you know, relation experts say not since President Nixon's official visit to China in 1972 has a meeting between the two countries been so critical. Of course Nixon called that the week that changed the world. Is that how important this meeting is?</s>MOORE: Well, I think it's pretty critical. I think you -- you really nailed it. This is one of the most important opening negotiations with China that we've had in probably 30 or 40 years. You know, when I talked to my White House sources, Poppy, what they're saying is they're not too confident that we're going to get a deal, but they may get a deal to get a deal.</s>HARLOW: OK.</s>MOORE: And that would, I think, calm some of these financial markets. I mean I think one of the reasons we've seen this roller coaster ride on stocks that you all have been reporting at CNN for the last several months is precisely because everybody has their eye on how these negotiations are going. Look, I happen to think Trump has a very strong case. We're in an abusive relationship with China. They do cheat. They do steal. And we can't go on with that.</s>HARLOW: Well --</s>MOORE: We'll see whether or not China makes the -- any kind of concessions or not.</s>HARLOW: Well, they made a bunch. As you know, that long list of over 150 demands that came back to the White House. But the president said, look, there's a few sticking points on there and we're not going to budge until they budge on those. You said on November 16th, quote, we're in a cold war with China right now. It's very clear how you feel about China at this point. What does President Trump need to say to President Xi this weekend?</s>MOORE: By the way, you know, that statement, I think that's the way Donald Trump views China right now, that we're in an adversarial position with China. That they have not acted like a friend, but more as an enemy of the United States in terms of a lot of their trade practices. Trump -- there's nothing more than Donald Trump would like to do than get this thing resolved in a way that helps the United States --</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>MOORE: And creates what he call as level playing field. One of the things that I've heard from some of my White House sources who are going to be going -- who are over there now in Argentina is they worry that, you know, China may, on paper, agree to things, but, you know, it is sort of like the old Soviet Union. You've got to have the Reagan principle of trust but verify.</s>HARLOW: Right.</s>MOORE: They're worried that, you know, China will agree to things on paper, but not follow through with it. So this is still, I think, a very early stage in these important negotiations.</s>HARLOW: Right. Let me ask you, Stephen, though, before you go.</s>MOORE: Yes.</s>HARLOW: On human rights, the administration has said they will bring up human rights when the president meets with President Xi this weekend. You've got not only the human rights abuses against a million Muslim, you know, yeegors (ph) in the country, you also now have two young Americans, age 19 and 27, who have not been allowed to leave China since June. And that's not a fact that I think a lot of American people know, but that should be very important to the president.</s>MOORE: I agree with you.</s>HARLOW: Are you at all concerned -- are you at all concerned that as he has done with Saudi Arabia, President Trump will be willing to place business interests of the United States in getting a trade deal with China ahead of all else, ahead of human rights issues?</s>MOORE: Well, look, I think they're all important, no question about it. I can't speak for the president on, you know, those human rights negotiations, but you're exactly right, there are horrible human rights violations. They've moved in the wrong direction on human rights over the last ten years in Beijing. But the -- in terms of the big economic picture, which is what I focus on, Poppy --</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>MOORE: You're getting a deal with China. If we can get this done, the American economy is -- and the global economy will explode. I mean the -- what's at stake here is really huge for the economy. Not just for the next couple of years, but potentially for decades.</s>HARLOW: OK.</s>MOORE: And I would love to see an arrangement where both countries agree to lower tariffs, you know, free trade is good for the world, but China is not -- I like what Trump has basically been saying for the last couple of years, which is I -- Trump says, I didn't start this trade war with China. They started this with us, you know, ten years ago and we finally have a president who is calling them out on it.</s>HARLOW: Yes. Well, it's sort of like kids, you know, in kindergarten. It doesn't really matter who started it. Who's going to stop it? I guess we'll see. Stephen Moore, thank you.</s>MOORE: Thank you, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: The New York attorney general is investigating a huge data breach at Marriott Hotels. The hotel chain says its guest reservation system was hacked, potentially exposing the personal information of, get this, half a billion people. Our chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here. Half a billion.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: It's the how many people and how long this went on that is really terrifying here. I mean this is if you stayed at a Marriott property over the past four years. They realized this was happening on September 8th by sometime in November they realized that an unauthorized party had gotten into their reservation system, had copied and encrypted and tried to take out all of this information. These are the brands. If you've stayed at any of those Starwood Marriott brands. Here is what was exposed. They don't know how many duplicates there are, so that's where the 500 million number comes from.</s>HARLOW: OK.</s>ROMANS: But they know that 327 million, at least of them, lost their name, address, phone number, e-mail, gender, passport number, date of birth, arrival and departure information and then, for some, credit card numbers and expiration dates. Now, those had some encryption on them, but Marriott doesn't know yet if the encryption stuff was also exported and could have been breached. The security experts I'm talking to, they are less concerned really about the credit card numbers, because you would see that on your credit card bill.</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>ROMANS: They're worried about all that other information.</s>HARLOW: I'm worried about all that other information.</s>ROMANS: Where someone could open up unauthorized accounts in your name.</s>HARLOW: Yes. Right.</s>ROMANS: Several -- several of the security experts saying, you know, you should seek a credit freeze at Transunion, Experian and Equifax and you should go to the Starwood Marriott website and their -- they have some things they're offering to help you monitor the web. But this is very -- a very big unauthorized party. I don't know who it was yet.</s>HARLOW: Yes, just -- just one they're making clear it sounds.</s>ROMANS: Unauthorized party, which I think is really interesting.</s>HARLOW: OK. Thank you, Romans. Important reporting. We appreciate it Also this, just into CNN, a just has set a 2:00 p.m. hearing today for former FBI Director James Comey, seeking to quash, Comey is, that subpoena, by the House Judiciary Committee to appear next week. That's because it's behind closed doors. He's repeatedly said he'll show up and he's happy to testify but only in public if the entire American population can watch. All right, we'll see what happens today at 2:00. A quick break. We'll be right back.