New Level of Fear from Pyongyang; President Trump Lashing Out Opponents via Twitter
RICHARD QUEST, HOST, CNN: The U.S. president attacking the FBI again. This time using words like, "tainted" and "bogus" to describe their work. Moscow offering up diplomatic services. Why Russia says it's ready to mediate between the U.S. and North Korea. And the whiteout conditions in part of the United States. An extreme winter storm that's buried one city in five feet of snow in only three days. A very good day to you. Welcome to viewers joining us in the United States and around the world. I'm Richard Quest in London. And you're in the CNN newsroom. Wherever in the world you're watching and joining us, a very good day to you. Donald Trump has promised to get back to work on the day after Christmas and then on Tuesday he headed for the golf course instead. Mr. Trump spent time on Twitter lashing out over the Russian dossier, calling it a pile of garbage. It was a document compiled by a former British spy and has become part of the FBI and special counsel's investigations into Russia's meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. CNN's Ryan Nobles reports.</s>RYAN NOBLES, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: There were no events on the president's public schedule on Tuesday. So the only way we can see what he was thinking or working on is through his Twitter feed. As a result we know he was thinking about healthcare and taxes and he was also working to discredit Robert Mueller and his investigation.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Merry Christmas.</s>NOBLES: After tweeting on Christmas day tomorrow it's back to work, President Trump spent today on the golf course. The 110th day of his presidency that he has spent at one of his personally branded properties. He hit the links with PGA Tour pro Bryson DeChambeau and former PGA golfer Dana Quigley but there may have been some work discussed as well. Also joining the foursome, Georgia Senator David Perdue, a loyal republican vote for the administration but someone hoping to forge a bipartisan solution on immigration. A solution that could prove to be more difficult. After a New York Times story that quotes the president grumbling in an Oval Office meeting that immigrants from countries like Haiti, quote, "all have AIDS" and that 40,000 immigrants from Nigeria would never, quote, "go back to their huts." White House officials strongly deny the report and Marc Short, the director of legislative affairs, argues that there needs to be a plan for people living in the United States under temporary protected status.</s>MARC SHORT, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS: Congress needs to change these laws opposed to continual six-month extensions of people that are here from 10 and 20 years ago.</s>NOBLES: But while immigration including a promise fix for the so- called DREAMers, government spending, entitlement reforms and infrastructure have all been pointed to as priorities in 2018. On Tuesday, the president was focused on a failure from 2017. Tweeting, quote, "Based on the fact that the very unfair and unpopular individual mandate has been terminated as part of our tax cut bill, which essentially repeals over time Obamacare, the democrats and republicans will eventually come together and develop a great new healthcare plan." Republicans were unable to come up with a replacement to Obamacare, but as part of their new broad tax reform bill they struck the individual mandate, which requires Americans to have health insurance or face a tax penalty. Those fines equal billions of dollars and help keep the Affordable Care Act insurance market stable. Despite the elimination of the tax penalty, Obamacare remains in place and some nine million Americans have just signed up for Obamacare healthcare plans, exceeding expectations in a shortened enrollment period. Regardless of the president's pleas, there are no signs of progress on a new healthcare deal.</s>BERNIE SANDERS, (D) UNITED STATES SENATOR: Instead of bragging about more Americans without health insurance, we should join every other major country on earth, guarantee healthcare to all people, and end the absurdity of paying twice as much per capita.</s>NOBLES: And despite the sunny West Palm Beach skies, the president and his agenda remain under the cloud of the Mueller investigation, something Mr. Trump continues to attempt to discredit. Today, on Twitter, he suggested that the dossier produced by a former British intelligence officer, which the president called a quote, "pile of garbage" was the basis for the special counsel's investigation. While the dossier has been used in the investigation, it is far from the entire basis of Mueller's inquiry. And speaking of taxes, the president continuing to take a victory lap after signing that tax reform bill into law just before coming here to Florida. In a tweet he said, quote, "All signs are that business is looking really good for the next year. Only to be helped further by our tax cut bill. It will be a great year for companies and jobs. Stock market is poised for another year of success." The president wanting to make sure the American people know about this big legislative victory as he heads in to 2018. Ryan Nobles, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.</s>QUEST: Doug Heye is a republican strategist and CNN political commentator. Far from home but delighted to have you with us.</s>DOUG HEYE, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN: Good morning. It's good to be with you.</s>QUEST: Good morning. Yes, right. The president's -- the president's tweets over the last day or so about the Mueller investigation and the Russia dossier, what purpose does it serve to remind other than to discredit it.</s>HEYE: Well, it's all about discrediting. If you</s>QUEST: ... about when you go back to your state.</s>HEYE: Yes.</s>QUEST: What people are telling you that they are telling their politicians?</s>HEYE: Within the Republican Party he has very broad support. They're signing up for Trump on whatever his issues or his agendas are, that's what they sign up for. It's more about the person than it is the policy. So Donald Trump could come out tomorrow with something very different from what he's campaigned on as he's done in the past and they'll support that.</s>QUEST: So how do you -- how do you reconcile that with the polls that show a very high disapproval, very low approval numbers? I mean, the latest approval numbers in the low 30s.</s>HEYE: Yes.</s>QUEST: How do you reconcile that? If the republicans themselves are saying, hey, we like what he's doing.</s>HEYE: Well, there are less and less registered republicans throughout the country. As party I.D. is falling, it's falling for democrats as well, what you're seeing is a shoring up within the parties as the parties are cracking up themselves.</s>QUEST: Does the passage of the tax bill, the significance of that, having singly failed on several occasions to pass anything to do with healthcare, not only has he got his tax bill, he has also done serious damage to the healthcare legislation by repealing the mandate.</s>HEYE: It's very significant. One, it shows that he can move something through the House and the Senate into passage. The event that he had in the White House had a couple hundred members of Congress and republican senators behind him in unison. That's important for Trump moving forward. But it also highlights the other things that he's done that they can point their fingers at and why these tweets are distractions. They need to get out of their own way.</s>QUEST: So as we push forward into 2018, what for you and the republican movement, what is the next big fight that you have to go into?</s>HEYE: What they're looking for is potentially not a next big fight. Infrastructure is what the president's priority at least now will be moving into 2018, if they can do that in a bipartisan fashion. It's questionable as to whether or not they'll be able to.</s>QUEST: I mean, on that -- on that score it's questionable whether economically the country needs an infrastructure package. Physically yes, it certainly does.</s>HEYE: Right.</s>QUEST: But it certainly doesn't need it on the basis of economic stimulus.</s>HEYE: Absolutely. And this is one of the challenges for republicans. If you've campaigned for years and years against higher deficits, certainly in the Obama years republicans were very much deficit hawks, what we're seeing now is with the tax bill it's not such a big concern. If they get behind a $1 trillion stimulus package or transportation infrastructure package, it means that deficit reduction doesn't exist in the Republican Party anymore. That should be a problem long-term.</s>QUEST: A wonderful New Year.</s>HEYE: Absolutely. Thank you.</s>QUEST: As we continue, the United States is trying to put more pressure on North Korea. Washington is imposing new sanctions on two officials believed to have been crucial in improving North Korea's nuclear weapons. At the same time, Russia is also offering to mediate talks between the U.S. and North Korea if both sides agree. Fred Pleitgen reports from Moscow.</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, Richard, the Russians are continuing what they've been saying is their push to try and deescalate that situation there around North Korea. Of course, between the United States and the North Koreans. And a lot of this in the form of a phone call between the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Rex Tillerson of the United States. And according to the Russian version of events, both men agree, quote, "that the parties were unanimous in the opinion that nuclear missile development in the DPRK, that is of course North Korea, violated the requirements of the U.N. Security Council." However, the Russians then apparently, and again, this is according to their version of events, "urged the United States to tone down their rhetoric, said they needed to get away from a rhetoric of sanctions towards a rhetoric of negotiations." Now, of course, Richard, this is something we've been hearing quite a bit, especially from Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, over the past couple of days where he said that the Russians would be able or would be willing to mediate between the U.S. and North Korea. Now, it's really an interesting development on the part of the Russians. On the one hand, of course they're trying to take a swipe at the United States. A lot of the things that Sergei Lavrov has been saying over the past couple of days was laced with criticism of the United States. For instance, saying that the U.S. had told the Russians to relay a message to the North Koreans saying that the U.S. would try and deescalate the situation by cutting down on military maneuvers around the Korean Peninsula and then the U.S. held those military maneuvers in any case. However, the Russians certainly also have a very real interest in the situation around North Korea not getting out of control. They have a border with North Korea. Certainly they wouldn't want a huge influx of people going through that border if indeed there was a big confrontation between the U.S. and the North Koreans. And they have some trade with North Korea as well, and that of course gives them sway with Pyongyang, with Kim Jong-un, that they could potentially use to help out with the situation and to try and help tone things down and get that situation under control, Richard.</s>QUEST: Fred Pleitgen in Moscow. Now, experts are warning that North Korea may be planning a biological attack. Pyongyang is feared to be developing chemical and biological weapons along with its nuclear ambitions. The country is denying those reports. CNN's Brian Todd reports from Washington.</s>BRIAN TODD, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: We're learning tonight that Kim Jong- un has the capability to weaponize more than a dozen biological agents within just a few days if he wants to wreak havoc on the Korean Peninsula. There are reports that Kim has been methodical but unrelenting in getting his scientists to figure out how to deploy deadly agents like anthrax, which killed several Americans right after 9/11. There are new concerns that Kim Jong-un's deadly ambitions go beyond nuclear weapons. South Korean officials and independent weapons experts are growing increasingly concerned that Kim's regime has the intent and capability to develop biological weapons.</s>GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR, NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN: They are a weapon of terror in a sense because we have in our own minds these thoughts about the horror of biologicals, outbreaks of disease. This is something that frightens us.</s>TODD: South Korean government reports recently cited by Harvard University say North Korea has 13 types of biological agents which it can weaponize within 10 days. They say anthrax and smallpox are the most likely agents they would deploy.</s>JOSHUA POLLACK, WMD EXPERT, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Anthrax is virtually the ideal biological agent for weapons purposes. It's a bacterium that is very hard to -- it can survive all kinds of conditions. It can persist. It is very deadly. You can aerosolize it and spread it around with sprayers.</s>TODD: June 2015, Kim Jong-un tours the Pyongyang Biotechnical Institute. The North Koreans said it was a factory which manufactured pesticides but some machinery on display raised alarm.</s>POLLACK: It seems that they have invested a lot in imported equipment that cost them a lot and is I think unreasonable for any civilian application.</s>TODD: Equipment like what analysts say are industrial-scale fermenters which could produce anthrax on a large scale and other machinery used to convert biological agents into sprayable form. South Koreans would be in the direct line of fire, a threat taken seriously enough that South Korea holds mock drills for WMD attacks. But American troops in South Korea could also be hit.</s>TONY SHAFFER, FORMER CIA INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: A small aircraft basically overflying them, individuals who are infected infecting them. There's just no way to guarantee and protect U.S. troops from this.</s>TODD: Officials say there's no evidence North Korea has yet produced a biological weapon. But with the assassination of his half-brother this year, Kim Jong-un has shown the willingness to use his chemical weapons arsenal. And having the capability for a biological attack with the difficulties in tracing those weapons, experts say, adds another dimension to Kim's threat.</s>CHANG: With biological there's a slight element of deniability. There could be an outbreak of disease in South Korea. It would take us weeks, maybe even longer, to trace it back to North Korea. And during that time he could kill South Koreans.</s>TODD: Experts say another advantage this gives Kim is that for every dollar the U.S. and South Korea spend on preparing for an anthrax, smallpox, or other biological outbreak that's a dollar they don't spend on preparing for a possible conventional or nuclear attack from North Korea.</s>QUEST: Brian Todd reporting. As we continue in the newsroom from London, the British military says Russian ships are getting more and more bold. They're now skirting the U.K. waters and Washington is paying close attention. Also, Vladimir Putin seeking another presidential term, while the man who wants to be his opponent is now telling Russians boycott the elections. We're going to explain that decision. And three major U.S. cities are suing the Defense Department in the aftermath of a horrific mass shooting in Texas. The details are ahead.