Trump Agrees to Reopen Government, Gets Zero for Wall; Grand Jury Indicts Trump Confidant Roger Stone; Federal Workers Head Back to Government Jobs; CNN Cameras Roll as Stone Is Arrested
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Partial government shutdown is over. The longest in U.S. history. President Trump accused of caving. Democrats giving no money for the border wall he wants. In three weeks, we could be back to square one.</s>NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Paycheck stubs with zero dollars on them will change as federal workers head back to their government jobs. I'll talk to one federal worker to see what she will do with her first real paycheck of the year.</s>HOWELL (voice-over): A major moment in the Russia probe, the man you see here, long-time Trump ally, Roger Stone, ushered out of his house and into a courtroom.</s>ALLEN (voice-over): And flashing the victory signs.</s>HOWELL (voice-over): Indeed.</s>ALLEN (voice-over): Welcome to viewers around the world and the U.S. I'm Natalie Allen.</s>HOWELL (voice-over): I'm George Howell. NEWSROOM starts now.</s>HOWELL:  4: 01 on the U.S. East Coast. Thanks for being with us. Two major stories to tell you about this hour. First, the 35-day government shutdown, finally, it's over or at least on pause. The U.S. president backing down, reopening federal agencies but getting nothing in return. A Trump adviser calls it, quote, "a humiliating loss" for President Trump.</s>ALLEN: Also on Friday, Trump's long-time confidant Roger Stone arrested by the FBI at his Florida home. He's been charged with obstruction, making false statements and witness tampering but then re-emerges in public as defiant as ever. We'll have much more on that in a moment.</s>HOWELL: First, to the White House and the president's sudden about- face. Kaitlan Collins kicks it off.</s>TRUMP: I am very proud to announce today that we have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump backing off his 35-day standoff with Democrats today, announcing a deal to reopen the government temporarily.</s>TRUMP: In a short while, I will sign a bill to open our government for three weeks, until February 15th.</s>COLLINS (voice-over): The president's endorsement in the Rose Garden paving the way for Congress to pass spending bills to reopen the government for three weeks. But the deal is seen as a cave to Democrats where the president is forced to pay for a border wall once again.</s>TRUMP: I am asking Mitch Senate majority leader McConnell to put this on the floor, immediately.</s>COLLINS (voice-over): Trump implying if he can't come to an agreement with Democrats in the next three weeks, he will invoke a national emergency and bypass Congress.</s>TRUMP: If we don't get a fair deal from Congress, the government will either shut down on February 15th again or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and the Constitution of the United States to address this emergency.</s>COLLINS (voice-over): The short-term spending bill only includes $1.3 billion for border security and no new funding for the wall, making it a remarkable comedown for a president who declared for weeks he wouldn't waver. But today, he framed it as a win.</s>TRUMP: This is an opportunity for all parties to work together for the benefit of our whole, beautiful, wonderful nation.</s>COLLINS (voice-over): The presidential announcement, coming after a White House official says air travel delays that rippled across the nation Friday played a major role in his decision, telling CNN, this is getting worse and worse. He knows this has to end. And after members of the president's inner circle faced backlash for downplaying the financial hardship of the shutdown, Trump making a point to thank them today.</s>TRUMP: Many of you have suffered far greater than anyone but your families would know or understand.</s>COLLINS: Now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history didn't yield anything for the president. He didn't get any money for the border wall. He frustrated Republicans on Capitol Hill. He didn't do his base any favors by caving to the Democrats on their demands today and he even took a hit in the polls, as it shows most Americans held him responsible for the shutdown. Two things to watch in the coming days, one, if the president is going forward with plans to deliver the State of the Union address, which was scheduled for Tuesday and, two, what will his response be to the overwhelmingly negative response --</s>COLLINS: -- so far from his hardline immigration base -- Kaitlin Collins, CNN, the White House.</s>HOWELL: Kaitlan, thank you. The deal the president accepted was not a new deal. Democrats offered it five weeks ago.</s>ALLEN: U.S. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said they were relieved the crisis has been resolved in the short term.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CALIF.), HOUSE SPEAKER: Disagreement in policy should never be a reason to shut down government, really shouldn't, especially, again, for a period of time that has an impact on the paychecks. And I'm sad it has taken this long. I'm glad that we have come to a conclusion today as to how we go forward in the next three weeks.</s>SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-N.Y.), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Hopefully now the president has learned his lesson. We cannot, cannot ever hold American workers hostage again.</s>HOWELL: But the president's base is furious with him. This from Ann Coulter, the conservative commentator. She tweeted, "Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush. As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp to ever serve as President of the United States."</s>ALLEN: One word on that for our guest, ouch. Natasha Lindstaedt joins us from Cardiff, Wales. She's a professor of government at the University of Essex. Good to see you and thanks for being with us. Yes, he's getting it from Ann Coulter on the Right, he lost out to Nancy Pelosi on the Left. Was this one of the worst days for President Trump?</s>NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: It was a terrible day. I mean, he tried to frame it as positively as he could, saying they were going to be negotiating. He didn't really ever admit any sort of defeat. Then he tried to spend the last, you know, 75 percent of his speech distracting people about what just happened in talking about the need for the wall and all the different immigration issues that the country was facing, issues with women and children, people coming in with diseases. But ultimately, he caved. This is going to go down as the most pointless shutdown in U.S. history. It took 35 days. It probably cost the U.S. economy well over the $6 billion he wanted for the wall. It caused all kind of duress and strain to 800,000 federal workers. And it was on the cusp of causing a catastrophe in the aviation industry, with airports and airplanes severely affected by the shutdown. You know, he comes out of it and he gets nothing. The major headlines in all the news stories is nothing was given to the wall.</s>ALLEN: Is the president weakened now?</s>LINDSTAEDT: He's been severely weakened for some time now. His approval ratings are at an all-time low, 37 percent. There's 17 ongoing investigations on the heels of this recent indictment of his close associate, Roger Stone. Everyone agrees, that -- well, not totally everybody but the polls seem to indicate most people feel he is to blame for the shutdown. His base seems to be shrinking. He's getting attacked from the Republicans, with the quote by Ann Coulter shaming him for giving into this. It's clear the big winner in this is Nancy Pelosi. She didn't have very high favorable ratings before she took over the House. She's been proven to be a strong contender, facing Trump head-on, telling him he can't do the State of the Union address, saying she's not going to negotiate until he opens up the government, saying you are not going to get anything for the wall. And yet she won.</s>ALLEN: Yes, she did. She beat him at his own game, really. She showed him moxie for sure. Now we have the three weeks ahead. Mr. Trump says this will be temporary. Is there pressure on the Democrats to give up something for border security? Are they shifting toward caring more about immigration issues because of this?</s>LINDSTAEDT: Well, for the Democrats, they really have the leverage. If you saw with the recent vote, there were six Republicans who had been on the Democratic side and were just fed up with the government shutdown and for spending all this time, wasted time, negotiating over a wall. The Democrats are more united than ever. The Republicans are sort of split. So with this, you have the Democrats much stronger in their negotiation. Maybe they will be able to give a little. But I think it's going to come in the form of repairing the existing wall in place, not really in the form of providing major --</s>LINDSTAEDT: -- sacrifice to the Republicans.</s>ALLEN: It will be interesting to watch and to hear his delayed State of the Union speech when that happens. Perhaps we'll talk with you after that. Natasha Lindstaedt, we appreciate your insight, thank you.</s>LINDSTAEDT: Thank you.</s>HOWELL: Another story to tell you about, the U.S. grand jury indicted one of Donald Trump's closest advisers, Roger Stone.</s>ALLEN: The charges stem from contact he may have had with WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential campaign, when WikiLeaks released hacked Democratic emails. For more on this story, here is Sara Murray in Washington.</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Roger Stone reveling today in the post-arrest limelight, after his initial appearance before a judge in Florida.</s>ROGER STONE, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: As I have always said, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.</s>MURRAY: But only after the pre-dawn raid Stone hoped to avoid. FBI agent swarmed Stone's Fort Lauderdale home, arresting President Trump's longtime political adviser and friend, searching Stone's homes in Florida and New York.</s>STONE: They terrorized my wife, my dogs.</s>MURRAY: Hours later, Stone vowed to fight the charges against him.</s>STONE: I will plead not guilty to these charges. I will defeat them in court.</s>MURRAY: The indictment against Stone describes how he coordinated with senior Trump campaign officials to seek out stolen Democratic e- mails from WikiLeaks that could damage Hillary Clinton's campaign and then he bragged about his contacts with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.</s>STONE: I actually have communicated with Assange.</s>MURRAY: According to the indictment, Stone spoke to senior Trump campaign officials about WikiLeaks and information it might have had that would be damaging to the Clinton campaign. Stone was contacted by senior Trump campaign officials to inquire about future releases by WikiLeaks. Prosecutors also allege a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases. It's unclear who delivered those instructions and which officials Stone was in touch with about WikiLeaks. At least one of them was Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist and chief executive of the Trump campaign. But Stone was not charged with conspiracy. He faces one count of obstruction and five counts of making false statements, both related to his alleged lies before the House Intelligence Committee.</s>STONE: Any error I made in my testimony would be both immaterial and without intent.</s>MURRAY: He also faces one count of trying to tamper with testimony from New York radio host Randy Credico, at one point even threatening to steal Credico's dog. Stone has claimed Credico was his back channel to WikiLeaks, which Credico denies. According to the indictment, Stone told Credico: "Stonewall it, plead the Fifth, anything to save the plan," amid references to Richard Nixon and a character in the "Godfather" movies. A longtime political operative, Stone encouraged Trump to run for president and served as an adviser in the early months of Trump's presidential campaign. Today, Stone doubled down on his loyalty pledge.</s>STONE: There is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president.</s>MURRAY: Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.</s>HOWELL: To put all this into focus, let's bring in Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney and also a contributor to "The Washington Post," joining us this hour. Thank you for your time.</s>HARRY LITMAN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Thanks for having me.</s>HOWELL: After making a statement today when he left the courthouse, Roger Stone spoke to my colleague, Chris Cuomo, today. He's not known for being shy after publicly speaking out on camera. He explained to Chris how he feels about the charges he now faces. Let's listen.</s>STONE: Well, first of all, I always said that there could be some process crime.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Yes.</s>STONE: There's still no evidence whatsoever that I had advanced knowledge of the topic and subject or the source of the WikiLeaks disclosures. I never received any of the WikiLeaks disclosures, I never communicated with Assange or WikiLeaks other than the limited communication on Twitter, direct message which I gave to the House Intelligence Committee last September, I guess it was.</s>HOWELL: Stone denies any of the guilt in these charges. Given the case prosecutors have built against him and from your expert opinion, how serious is this for him and what does it mean for the man he once advised?</s>LITMAN: It's pretty serious and it's probably going to get more serious. What he calls a process crime is a series of lies to congressional committees who were investigating the supremely grave topic of --</s>LITMAN: -- whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election. This is not a stray or immaterial misstatement to an FBI agent. But the indictment, in addition, really implicates Stone in conduct involving the coordination and even the instigation of the release of the hacked emails that Russia obtained and then passed through to Julian Assange. In other words, I think Mueller has begun to lay a predicate for so- called substantive crimes involving effort on Stone's part to really influence the election. He's now suggesting there's a total wall, everything stops there between him and the campaign. Maybe. But we know he was in regular communication with the president himself during the campaign and there have been searches that Mueller executed today at two different places that are likely to reveal a lot of email traffic. He wasn't shy at the time about boasting to others; a different tune than he's now gave to Chris Cuomo.</s>HOWELL: To that point, we did hear the White House press secretary come out and say it has nothing to do with the president or the White House but interesting to hear how interconnected Stone is to the president from the mouth of a man who once headed the campaign as a campaign adviser and is now a convicted felon. Let's listen to Paul Manafort.</s>PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Even after Roger stopped being a principal political adviser to Trump, he continued to be an important adviser and is to this day. Roger's relationship with Trump has been so interconnected it's hard to define what's Roger and what's Donald; while it'll be clearly a Trump presidency, I think it's influenced by a Stone philosophy.</s>HOWELL: What do you make of their relationship and what it means to have Roger Stone facing charges for lying, tampering and obstruction?</s>LITMAN: I think it puts it at the threshold of grave jeopardy for Trump. For starters, there's a paragraph in the indictment, paragraph 12, which says Steve Bannon, another person who has cooperated with Mueller, was ordered -- an exquisite use of the passive voice -- was ordered to have Stone get some of these emails. Well, who is in a position to order a guy like Steve Bannon? I can only think of one person. So that's an obvious, ominous threat to Trump in a concrete way. But more generally, it is just clear, as Manafort says, that they were extremely close all through the campaign. Doesn't stand to reason that Stone, having basically secured this coup of great emails, great dirty tricks, would somehow have stood silent to the campaign and to the president. Seems implausible to me.</s>HOWELL: Harry Litman, we appreciate your time and perspective.</s>LITMAN: Thank you, George.</s>HOWELL: In Venezuela, no end in sight for the political crisis happening there. Thousands of protesters caught in the crossfire as two leaders continue their fight for the presidency.</s>ALLEN: Plus how Brexit is threatening critical food safety inspections in Britain.