Key Backer of Volunteer Rescue Group
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello everyone. I'm John Vause, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Studio Seven at CNN's World Headquarters in Atlanta. Ahead this hour, Donald Trump is a master of the made for T.V. moment but maybe not this time. The U.S. Impeachment Inquiry will soon be live across America, bringing to life days and days of damning testimony. Facing off after a day of rage and violence. Protest is in Hong Kong back on the streets, so to police. And for the first time ever, the fire threat level around the greatest Sydney area reaches catastrophic, as dozens of fires burn out of control across two Australian states. The U.S. Impeachment Inquiry heading into what many believe could be a crucial phase with the televised public hearings said to begin on Wednesday. Bill Taylor, the top us diplomat in Ukraine will be the first to appear. His closed or testimony last month left many lawmakers stunned. He was especially concerned military he Ukraine was frozen for political reasons. The Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent is expected to describe his alarm over the President's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani's involvement in foreign policy. The ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is expected to voice similar concerns. She will testify on Friday. The new transcripts of closed-door testimony were released on Monday. Pentagon official Laura Cooper described the confusion and legal questions raised by the hold up of military aid. And Catherine Croft, a former deputy to the U.S. envoy to Ukraine said she was nervous about actually taking the job knowing the White House would change policy to suit domestic politics. CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein joins us now from Los Angeles. Ron, good to see you for the start of the week.</s>RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi John.</s>VAUSE: Just for context here, Laura Cooper, she was the Pentagon official who was being deposed when Republican lawmakers invaded the secure room on the Capitol last month. They were demanding greater access to a process they already had access to. What's interesting, her testimony spells out this decision to withhold military aid came from the very top of the administration. And there was concern at first if the President had the legal right to do so. And also, I guess, more importantly, it would make it harder for Ukraine to negotiate a peace deal with Moscow. All of this important detail, but not exactly the blockbuster evidence, which it seems you know, Democrats now need to win over some Republicans.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Well, I'm not sure there's any evidence that can win over some Republicans first. I mean, that may be an impossible bar to reach given the way politics has evolved. I mean, the cumulative body of testimony I think has far outpaced anything Democrats could have imagined that they would have received from officials within the Trump administration. We were talking about everyone here, career diplomat or not, you know, has been all the key details have come from people who are part of the administration. And the picture they have painted is internally consistent and devastating. The real question I think this week is going to raise is where are we in our politics and really in our relations to each other as a country because it is possible that starting with Bill Taylor who may be the most, you know, single most persuasive witness of all, that the evidence that is presented publicly this week is overwhelming to any kind of impartially minded listener and yet does very little to move public opinion given how dug in people are.</s>VAUSE: Let's start with the Republicans because over the weekend, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, he laid out some pretty tough new conditions for any impeachment hearing. Here he is.</s>SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I consider any impeachment in the House that doesn't allow us to know who the whistleblower is to be invalid because without the whistleblower complaint, we won't be talking about any of this. And I also see the need for Hunter Biden to be called to adequately defend the President. And if you don't do those two things, it's a complete joke.</s>VAUSE: You know, an impeachment hearing shouldn't be thought of this in terms of a criminal trial, but you know, even so, that seems to be an extraordinary demand from Graham.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Well, first of all, I mean, the identity of the whistleblower, we've long past the point where that is relevant. I mean, the key -- virtually every key element, if not every key element of their original complaint has been validated by other testimony and evidence. I mean, he's extraordinary, in fact, how much the testimony has aligned with the original allegations from the whistleblower. It's like saying someone who called in a bank -- you know, you can't -- you can't prosecute someone for a bank robbery unless you know the identity of the person who made the 911 call, you know, from viewing it. It's irrelevant to where we are now. And of course with Hunter Biden, putting Hunter Biden on the stand is really an attempt just to kind of do domestically what the President was pressuring Ukraine to do internationally, which is kind of, you know, advanced his case against the Biden's. Whatever Hunter Biden did or you know, however inappropriate it was Hunter Biden to be on the board of Burisma originally, it's not really relevant to whether the President was extorting a foreign government to do his political bidding at the cost of weakening their own security. And by -- you know, and because of that, by implication, our own national security -- and by the way, the Pentagon official who testified underscoring that what we were doing was weakening Ukraine's ability to defend itself against Russia is the piece of this scandal that really we don't focus on enough.</s>VAUSE: Right. You know, you talk about where we are as a country. Where is the United States right now? Well, you can always tell it -- tell that story with the reception that Trump's receive. Far-right activists actually booed Don Jr. when he was on a book tour. He was in UCLA over the weekend in California. These far-right activist believed that he's not conservative enough. Listen to this.</s>DONALD TRUMP JR., SON OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: The reason oftentimes it doesn't make sense to do the Q and A is not because we're not willing to talk about the questions because we do. No. It's because people hijack it with nonsense looking to go for some set -- sort of soundbite. You have people spreading nonsense, spreading hate to try to take over that room.</s>VAUSE: Also - we also have the president who arrived to the sounds of boos and lock him up at an event on Monday in New York. You can just hear it here as the band starts up. Listen to this. There's also -- but you know, you should know this raucous cheers over the weekend for Donald Trump in Alabama. This is the LSU football game. Take a listen. You know, it tells the story really doesn't it of where this country is geographically with the president?</s>BROWNSTEIN: No, no, absolutely. Look, I mean, we are -- we have been divided before as a country. We were -- we were deeply divided in the 1960s. We were deeply divided the 1850s and the 1860s. What's different now is our social divisions, our cultural divisions now align almost completely with our partisan divisions. I like to say all the cherries on the slot machine lineup. We have a Democratic Party that is strongest in Metro America, among younger voters, more diverse voters, more secular voters, more white- collar voters and the Republican Party that is the opposite of that on every front. It's a kind of a non-metro, older, blue-collar, Christian party. You know, the share of Republicans who are white Christians are the same as it was for the country 20 years ago, overall. And so what Donald Trump has done is kind of lean into those divisions. The last three presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama may have failed to bridge those divisions, but all of them came into office promising to be a uniter, not a divider. Trump has leaned into them. He's essentially governed as a president of red America, against blue America. And what that has done is create this incredible bond with a big portion of the Republican coalition, who says wherever else I think about Donald Trump, he has picked the lock, he figured out how to win the Electoral College, how to gain the executive branch power, and through that judicial nominations that can hold back all of the changes that I believe are threatening me and my vision of America. And I think as I said, this week is going to be a big test because it sort of is the moment that you know, Trump talks about whether he could shoot someone in Fifth Avenue, and all of his supporters will stay with him. The evidence that -- of what he did that he in essence, he tried to extort Ukraine to interfere in the American election, both ends of that, you know, extraordinarily explosive, will that matter in any way to a meaningful portion of the Republican coalition and thus to Republican elected officials? I don't know. I do think it will further harden the opposition he faces among voters who are skeptical of him, even if they are so satisfied with the economy. So even if he survives this ordeal, it makes this tightrope even narrower in 2020.</s>VAUSE: Ron, as always, good to have you with us. Thank you. Thanks, John. We have more now bought out on the breaking news out of the Middle East. The Israeli military has assassinated a senior leader of the militant group Islamic jihad. Baha Abu Al Ata was inside this building in Gaza. That's when it was hit by an Israeli airstrike. Israel blames him for some of the rocket fire coming from Gaza and says he was pulling immediate attacks on Israelis. Airing sirens have been heard across southern Israel as Gaza militants retaliate with rocket fire. CNN'S Oren Liebermann on the phone right now heading to the Israeli Gaza border. So Orin, what is known about the circumstances surrounding this killing? Why now and were there any other casualties that we know of?</s>OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're still waiting for reports of other casualties in the strike, the targeted killing of Baha Abu Al Ata, one of the senior leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. That strike was carried out at this point, just over three hours ago. Since then, there have been rockets fired from Gaza and powerful one's, not just one sitting the Gaza periphery, but rockets reaching all the way to Tel Aviv and in response to those rockets, in response to the tense situation and how quickly this can spiral, frankly, towards a war. Israel has shut down schools all around central and southern Israel. That gives you an idea of just how tense this is. Why now? Well, the Israeli military says Baha Abu Al Ata was one of the leaders or the leader responsible for the rocket fire, many of the rockets, the isolated rockets even that we've seen fired from Gaza into Israel over the course of the past several months. And they said he was planning on tearing out other attacks, other terror attacks in the immediate future. The Israeli military says this had been planned and approved of the course of the past week and they were waiting for the right time to strike, and that as we see from Israel, from the IDF came early this morning. How does the situation develop from here, that is what we're very closely watching at this point. Hamas, the more powerful group in Gaza that essentially runs the Gaza Strip</s>VAUSE: So Oren, just in terms of capabilities. We know Hamas is a much stronger and more powerful you know, group in Gaza. Is it their rockets which are being fired which are reaching Tel Aviv and beyond or does Islamic Jihad has that capability?</s>LIEBERMANN: That's an excellent question. Who is firing the rockets now? Based on Hamas' response, it's very possible that they are firing the rockets but we haven't seen a direct claim of responsibility saying yes, these are our rockets. Generally, in situations like this, the militant groups inside of Gaza and that includes Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and others do operate with a level of orchestration. Hamas also teams in their statements feels an obligation to respond to what they did, Israel's aggression, and currently the killing of an Islamic Jihad leader. As far as I know it and as far as I recall from the information of the Israeli military, both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have rockets powerful enough to reach Tel Aviv. And in fact, we saw sometime earlier this year or late last year, a rocket fired from Islamic Jihad reach North of Tel Aviv. So they have the capabilities, they have the rocket numbers, how much of that do they use, of course, now the critical question.</s>VAUSE: I guess also the response from Hamas, how involved are they in this response, how much they back Islamic Jihad will then determine what the Israelis do to a large extent. So that is why it is important to know who's firing what. Oren, we'll let you go. And any updates on the way we'd appreciate it. Thank you. Oren Liebermann on the line there as he heads towards the Israeli-Gaza border. The former Bolivian President Evo Morales is on his way to asylum in Mexico. He lead Bolivia for nearly 14 years but was forced to step down after weeks of protest over election fraud. His departure leaves the country in chaos on the current leader, vandalism on the streets. And as he left for Mexico, Morales tweeted that it hurts to leave the country for political reasons. And then he calls for calm to resolve any differences with dialogue. Still to come, Hong Kong's leader is taking a hard line with protesters just a day after some of those violent clashes in the five- month-long demonstrations. Officials warning they're undermining their own push for democracy. Also ahead, a prominent Russian historian accused of murdering his lover and former student. And the evidence against him is grim.