Trump Takes Revenge Against Star Impeachment Witnesses
ALLEN: Well, Friday night was the last chance for voters in New Hampshire to hear from most of the Democratic candidates at once before casting their ballot.</s>HOWELL: And as the debate heated up, Pete Buttigieg found himself in the crosshairs over lack of experience, while former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders, they sparred over health care. Our Nadia Romero has more on where the candidates stand ahead of this primary.</s>NADIA ROMERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seven familiar faces took familiar places at the New Hampshire Democratic debate. But after the disastrous Iowa caucuses...</s>JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I took a hit in Iowa and I'll probably take it here.</s>ROMERO (voice-over): -- the stakes seemed higher than ever.</s>WARREN: We need to reestablish the rule of law in this country.</s>ROMERO (voice-over): Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders claiming victory in Iowa, leading the polls in New Hampshire and feeling the front-runner fire.</s>BIDEN: Buttigieg is a great guy. He's the mayor of a small city who has done some good things but has not demonstrated he has the ability --</s>ROMERO (voice-over): Others hoping for a memorable moment.</s>SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Bernie and I work together all the time. But I think we are not going to be able to out divide the divider in chief.</s>PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), MAYOR OF SOUTH BEND, IND., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The next president is going to have to restore the credibility of this country.</s>ROMERO (voice-over): The Democratic candidates touching on the topics that matter most to people in New Hampshire, like health care.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we do what Joe wants, we'll be spending some $50 trillion on health care over the next 10 years. That's the status quo, Joe.</s>ROMERO (voice-over): Climate change.</s>SANDERS: Maybe we pool our resources and fight our common enemy, which is climate change.</s>ROMERO (voice-over): And the economy.</s>TOM STEYER (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to have to take Mr. Trump down on the economy and he's going to beat us unless we can take him down on the economy, stupid.</s>ANDREW YANG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What we actually have to do is get the markets working to improve our families' way of life.</s>ROMERO (voice-over): With the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, the time for candidates to stand out to voters is quickly running out -- in Manchester, New Hampshire, I'm Nadia Romero, reporting.</s>HOWELL: Following the Senate trial, the president is going on a post impeachment purge. He fired two key witnesses, Gordon Sondland and Alexander Vindman.</s>ALLEN: Vindman was a top Ukraine adviser in the National Security Council while Sondland is the now former ambassador to the E.U. who connected the president to a quid pro quo. And that's not all. Our Jim Acosta reports from the White House.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump is charging full speed ahead on his vindictive victory lap, sounding like he's on a warpath against his perceived enemies. First on the president's list appears to be national security official Alexander Vindman, who was fired and escorted off of the White House grounds. His brother was forced out as well. The president all but hinted at the move earlier in the day.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'm not happy with him. You think I supposed to be happy with him? I'm not.</s>ACOSTA: It was Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, a Purple Heart recipient, who got under the president's skin, testifying during the impeachment inquiry.</s>LT. COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN, DIRECTOR FOR EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: This is the country I have served and defended, that all my brothers have served. And, here, right matters.</s>ACOSTA: Vindman's lawyer released a statement saying it's obvious why his client was fired, writing: "There is no question in the mind of any American why this man's job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House." Talking to reporters, the president was tearing into another target, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, claiming she could somehow be prosecuted for ripping up his speech at the State of the Union.</s>TRUMP: I thought it was a terrible thing when she ripped up the speech. First of all, it's an official document. You're not allowed. It's illegal, what she did. She broke the law.</s>ACOSTA: Mr. Trump is still fixated on the impeachment fight, tweeting and retweeting dozens of times just in the last 24 hours. In an interview with CNN, the Democratic House managers who presented the case against the president and the Senate are insisting Mr. Trump will never change his ways.</s>REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Yes, of course he hasn't learned a lesson, because, as we repeatedly pointed out throughout the trial, Donald Trump is a serial solicitor.</s>ACOSTA: The Democrats have just lost another legal battle with the president after a unanimous court decision to dismiss claims that Mr. Trump was violating the Constitution's emoluments clause by accepting foreign payments at his Washington, D.C., hotel.</s>TRUMP: So, I just got this. It was just handed to me. This is the D.C. Circuit. And we get one the big emoluments case. I think it was a unanimous decision. This was brought by Nancy Pelosi and her group.</s>ACOSTA: The president also has a spring in his step after the latest unemployment numbers found 225,000 jobs were created last month.</s>TRUMP: We just came out with fantastic job numbers. I think it was 230,000 or something thereabouts, which was much higher than projection. So jobs continue to be great. Our country continues to do great.</s>ACOSTA: But the president is pushing back on reports he's about to unload his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. A senior administration official told CNN earlier in the day that rumor of Mulvaney's demise, quote, "have been greatly exaggerated" -- Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.</s>HOWELL: A lot to thank you about for sure. To do so, let's bring in Leslie Vinjamuri, head of the U.S. and Americas Programme at Chatham House in London.. Glad to have you with us.</s>LESLIE VINJAMURI, CHATHAM HOUSE: Thank you, George.</s>HOWELL: Let's start with the latest debate in New Hampshire, the former Vice President Joe Biden admitting he would take a hit in that state, compared to Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg had momentum there. Who had a good night? Who's in trouble?</s>VINJAMURI: Well, I mean, this is an interesting debate now that the Democrats are looking at each other, trying to stake out their own positions going forward. But it's been an extraordinary week, I think coming into Iowa, you know, there was one sense of who was on top; certainly, Joe Biden. And then to wake up, not have the results and really, the AP not officially calling the results takes us into a very different place going into New Hampshire. I think that, again, you know, there's a lot of division. I think what comes out of New Hampshire won't necessarily be what we continue to see. But the country right now seems to be looking for a change. But it's very unclear what that change will be, whether it's about age, whether it's about more progressive politics. The Democratic Party continues to be divided between the moderates and the progressives. And I think this overlay of the impeachment has not probably helped and it probably hasn't -- it probably has had an impact on the way the candidates are being perceived across the United States.</s>HOWELL: I'm curious to ask on that question, Leslie, you know, as you describe, the Democrats divided between impeachment, divided between these issues, are they getting closer to any issue that really lands, for instance, in your hometown, in Omaha, Nebraska? Are they getting closer to that voter sentiment?</s>VINJAMURI: Yes, I mean that is a very interesting question. You know, how will Democrats in the Midwest -- you know, I grew up in Omaha -- where will they cast their votes? One would assume that it will be more of a moderate candidate. I've certainly heard any number of things coming out of that state, including an interest in Mike Bloomberg. So I think there isn't a consensus, this is a very dynamic primary season. And there are a lot of events that are taking place, as we have been seeing, external to the debates, external to the individual caucuses and primaries. They're going to have a very significant impact on how people see the candidates.</s>HOWELL: How Bloomberg factors into all of this will be interesting to see in the weeks and months ahead. Look, while the debate happened in the foreground, in the background, the U.S. president, the administration flushing out the pipes, as one of his advisers suggested, in the aftermath of the impeachment trial, firing the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council dismissed. What's the message here to others in the administration who see something and want to say something?</s>VINJAMURI: Well, the message is very clearly that this president expects loyalty, that this is not a president who gives priority to expertise on foreign policy over following his line. This has been -- we've seen this develop over the last several months. It's very disturbing. There are broader changes taking place in the National Security Council that have gone under the radar during the impeachment hearings. We've seen 60 or 70 people let go or restructuring or rethinking of the National Security Council to really shore up Donald Trump's vision of foreign policy, his way of thinking about the world, bilateral, transactional. A very different take from the previous president. But to add the layer on this that loyalty is absolutely essential.</s>VINJAMURI: I think in the aftermath of an acquittal, where the president could stand up and say, I've been acquitted, it's time to move forward, instead, he seems to be taking advantage of a current surge in his popularity to clear up shop. And I think it's tremendously disturbing for those of us who take America's role in the world, its leadership, its commitment to foreign policy, alliances and responding to any number of challenges, where we need the expertise of those who have worked in the government for so long. It's a very disturbing period.</s>HOWELL: We mention here, there is an election around the corner. The question here, what precedent does this impeachment trial and the acquittal, what does it set for future presidents, when it comes to using the power of the office to get dirt upon political rivals from adversarial nations?</s>VINJAMURI: Well, I think the question remains open. The American people are watching. They have watched this. They didn't vote. This was a vote taken by the Senate. But the Senate, the Congress, the American people have heard the evidence. There will be more that comes out in the weeks and months ahead. This is not a story that's over. The press has been tremendously important. And I think the lessons that are learned won't simply be a product of the vote. They will be a product of the process. And the idea that one would be called to account before Congress, before the Senate, before the American people, I think that's a tremendously powerful lesson regardless of the final decision to acquit.</s>HOWELL: Leslie Vinjamuri, live for us in the London bureau, thank you for your time.</s>VINJAMURI: Thank you.</s>ALLEN: Next, it looks like a ghost town, 11 million people are shut behind their doors. Still, what it's like when you're locked down in the city where the coronavirus got started.</s>HOWELL: Plus, new details on the crash that killed a basketball legend. We'll tell you how his widow is inviting fans to honor his legacy.