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Hillary Clinton Uses Mean Girls Clip To Hit Back At Donald Trump In Election Row. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired March 7, 2019 - 02:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Trump's former fixer announces behind closed doors he has more information and documents to share with Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project.

An embattled Chinese tech company makes a bold move. Huawei files a lawsuit against the entire U.S. government.

And lawmakers scramble to find a solution to Britain's record number of knife crimes. But a mother tells CNN she has her own ideas to solve this problem.

Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause. Good to have you with us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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VAUSE: Trump's former fixer, Cohen has wrapped up his testimony to Congress, handing over key documents on the Trump Tower Moscow project. Cohen said his statement to Congress in 2017 about the Moscow deal were changed by one of the president's attorneys.

Cohen admitted he lied about the project but only because that's what the president wanted. Cohen spoke briefly after the closed door hearing.

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MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER LAWYER OF DONALD TRUMP: The hearings went very, very well. I believe that all of the members were satisfied with the statements and the responses that I gave to them.

I told them that any additional information that they would want, they should feel comfortable to reach out to my counsel and I would continue to cooperate to the fullest extent of my capabilities.

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VAUSE: Michael Genovese is the president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University. He joins us from Los Angeles.

Here's what Cohen told the House Oversight Committee last week about the 2017 testimony he made before the same committee.

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COHEN: There were changes made, additions, Jay Sekulow, for one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were there changes about the timing?

COHEN: There were several changes that were made, including how we were going to handle that message.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you finished?

COHEN: Yes, the message, of course, being the length of time that the Trump Tower Moscow project stayed and remained alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: According to CNN sources, Cohen filed new documents showing edits to the false written statement that he delivered to Congress back in 2017. Also last week Cohen claimed the president had directed him to pay hush money to two women that claimed to have had marital affairs with Trump.

That was money reimbursed to Cohen in 11 payments of $35,000 each. Now here's six of those checks signed by the president and obtained by "The New York Times." You see the president's distinctive signature on these checks.

The point here is Cohen may be a liar and going to jail for lying to Congress but he is a liar with documentary evidence that appears at least to support his claims.

MICHAEL GENOVESE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, he's an imperfect witness. We know that. But if he brings documents that can support what he's saying, then all of his imperfections can be wiped away.

But there's so many moving parts to this, so many different -- your brain gets full. All day, every day, 24/7, new information and new ideas and new challenges. It is very entertaining. It is very interesting. But it is also overwhelming.

And so therefore we -- we can't lose sight of the most elemental fact and that is that we're talking about the president of the United States and his team possibly engaged in a series of criminal acts.

Now Cohen, as I said, is not the perfect witness. He's lied under oath already. And the Republicans can tear into his character as much as they want. But the documents will speak for themselves.

VAUSE: And -- usually these cases, prosecutors will tell you there's no such thing as a perfect witness, won't they? GENOVESE: That's right. Especially if you look back at the old mob hearings, when the stool pigeon was one of the people who worked as a mobster.

If you're going after criminal behavior, who better to talk to than the criminals around the person you're going after?

So Cohen has intimate knowledge over an extended period of time of Donald Trump and his behavior and his practices. So while he is maybe not the man of the finest character in the history of the world, he certainly knows what he's talking about. And if they can support his claims with documents then everything falls into place against the president.

VAUSE: It is also a tough day for the president's Secretary of Homeland Security. Kirstjen Nielsen was grilled by Democrats of the Trump administration's harsh immigration policy. Here's part of the hearing.

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REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D), MISSISSIPPI: Are we still --

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THOMPSON: -- putting children in cages?

KIRSTJEN NIELSEN, DHS SECRETARY: To my knowledge, CBP never purposely put a child in a cage if you mean a cage like this.

THOMPSON: Purposely or whatever, are we putting children in cages as of today?

NIELSEN: Children are processed at the border facility stations that you've been at. Some of the areas --

THOMPSON: And I've seen the cages. I just want you to admit that the cages exist.

NIELSEN: Sir, they're not cages.

THOMPSON: What are they?

NIELSEN: They are areas of the border facility that are carved out for the safety and protection of those who remain there while they're being process.

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VAUSE: OK, so the answer is yes, they're still putting children and people in cages.

Why get into this debate over the definition of a cage?

GENOVESE: Remember, John, you know, cages aren't cages. Up is not down. I'm absolutely amazed from watching this testimony this afternoon at how little the secretary knows or admits to knowing.

They don't know the numbers. They don't know where people are. They don't know the number of families that are separated and they don't know where people are going. Now either they're so incompetent that they need to be removed from office or they're misleading the public.

But this is utterly amazing. You're talking about human lives here and they treat them just like puppets and props. They don't even know the basic facts of what they're doing.

VAUSE: The other story out of Nielsen's testimony was the number of arrests at the southern border in February surged last month. Nielsen said the U.S. is on track to apprehend 900,000 migrants at the border this year. For context, 2006 was the last year to reach over 1 million apprehensions.

Total apprehensions have remained under half a million since 2010, way down from the figure 1.7 million in 2000. But the point here is this is a surge in number of a train which was downward spiking until now. So this is a problem which Trump owns.

GENOVESE: And the numbers, if true, are alarming and they should be cause of concern. You can't have a purely open border. But how you treat people as they come in as they are asylum seekers who are not even getting hearings, as they're asylum seekers who are being turned away.

So you've got a mixed-up group here of people who want to come for economic reasons, people who want to flee poverty and flee oppression, violence, families that want to come here.

So there's multiple people, many of whom are asylum seekers, and they're not getting what the law demands that we give them.

VAUSE: You look at this failure to stem the illegal immigration, which was a big Trump campaign promise. The past week or so, the president failed to get a nuclear deal with the North Koreans and failed to rein in the North Koreans, it looks like.

It almost shows he's failed to actually do anything about the trade deficit, which has hit an all-time high, a record high. This is a very long losing streak on some very big issues for the president. This is the man who campaigned on being the can-do guy. He was the out of the box, he was going to strike all these deals. He's struck out big time and that says a lot about what he can and can't run on in 2020.

GENOVESE: I think you're wrong there, John. I think he'll run on whatever he chooses to run on. He'll say whatever he wants to say, whatever he thinks will work for him. Reality has never been an impediment for Donald Trump in his campaigning or when he's running the government.

So he'll look for what sells. He's a salesman, he'll try to sell. His base is already in his back pocket. They will follow the pied piper anywhere. The question is, will the Democrats put up a candidate who can match him, not in verbiage but in substance?

If they can, they can beat him. If not, Donald Trump could very well be reelected in 2020.

VAUSE: We're out of time but his approval numbers are very similar to -- to Obama and I think George W. Bush around this time. Yes, certainly he could be looking at a second term. Michael, thank you.

GENOVESE: Thank you, John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Trump's former campaign chairman could spend the rest of his life behind bars. Paul Manafort pled guilty in a Washington court to conspiracy and witness tampering. That sentence will happen next week.

Chinese tech giant Huawei says the U.S. Congress acted as judge and jury and executioner by passing a law to stop federal agencies from buying Huawei products. The U.S. said the products are a security risk because they could be accessed by Chinese intelligence.

Huawei say those claims are unfounded and is suing the U.S. They claim their intelligence was hacked as well as source code. CNN business reporter Sherisse Pham joins us now from Shenzhen, China.

This is all over section 889 of the National Defense Authorization Act and that's the bit that says Huawei is a security risk.

SHERISSE PHAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. Huawei is challenging part of the law saying look you have said the United States, you have said for years that we pose a cyber security risk and pose a national security risk.

But this law by naming Huawei specifically and banning federal agencies from --

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PHAM: -- buying Huawei products, Huawei is arguing this is unconstitutional because by enacting that NDAA, it is punishing Huawei without trial. This is one of the most aggressive pushbacks that we've seen come from this company. Let's listen to Guo Ping at the press conference. Have a listen.

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GUO PING, HUAWEI DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: The U.S. government has long branded Huawei as a threat. It has hampered our service and the story on emails and the source code. Despite this, the U.S. government has never provided any evidence supporting the accusation that Huawei poses a cyber security threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHAM: Huawei is saying show us the proof. It is essentially forcing the U.S. government's hand there. And we shall see. Huawei has filed this lawsuit in Texas where its American headquarters are located. And the government has 60 days to respond -- John.

VAUSE: You got to ask the question, though, what are the chances in court?

Huawei is a huge Chinese giant but to become a huge tech giant in China they've got to be close to the Communist government and we know the links between the senior executive and the Chinese government as well.

Basically are they going to get into a whole lawsuit to prove that they're not linked -- they're not going with the state to say they're not a security risk.

How do they argue this case?

PHAM: It is pretty unlikely that -- that the links or alleged links between Huawei and the Chinese government will come up as part of the trial. You bring up a good point. What are the chances that Huawei will get a favorable ruling from the lawsuit?

A lot of people been referring to a previous lawsuit dealing with Kaspersky Labs which is based in Russia. That lawsuit, it challenged a very similar part of the NDAA. It was a little different bit but similar. A judge ruled against Kaspersky, saying just because the sanctions are harsh and -- and -- and -- and sweeping it is not necessarily a punishment.

And -- the United States Congress has -- has the right to -- to protect national security. If we're looking for precedent, that's one place to look to see what Huawei's chances are in U.S. court.

VAUSE: One more legal question. I know this is out of your area. All of this is happening in the context of this ongoing dispute between Huawei and the U.S. government and the CFO officer and executive has been detained and in the United States because of allegations to avoid U.S. sanctions.

There's ongoing trade negotiations with Beijing. There's a lot more going on around all of this than just this one claim by Huawei.

How does that play into it?

Does that play into the legalities of all of this?

PHAM: Great point. We have to look at this globally. Huawei say they're under attack. These are allegations that are broad. This is not just about a national security risk or cyber security risk. The CFO held in Canada, she's being held on charges that the company violated U.S. sanctions on Iran.

So you know, these allegations have dogged Huawei for years, that is basically kind of skirts the rules when it comes to doing business and, as a result, it has been able to grow into the global behemoth that it has become.

The U.S. say we're trying to get on a playing field here. So it is a little ironic that Huawei is suing the United States and saying your treatment of us is unfair.

Let's remember, you know, a lot of U.S. tech companies are locked out of the Chinese market. They do not necessarily have the same access, the same recourse to transparency of law and fair legal systems in China.

Could you imagine an American company suing the Chinese government the way Huawei is suing the U.S. government?

That's a pretty hard one, John.

VAUSE: Not for a long, long time.

PHAM: Yes.

VAUSE: Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Next up on CNN, British police are dealing with more suspicious packages, one linked to explosive devices at a British transit hub.

Also Britain is facing a record number of knife attacks. Whey the crimes are on the rise and what is being done to stop them.

Also a shocking story of sexual assault in the U.S. military and --

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VAUSE: -- it comes from the first American woman to fly in combat. She's now a senator and fighting for change.

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VAUSE: The ISIS caliphate is almost gone. For those that remain in the stronghold, they're the battle hardened. No one imagined the small town of Baghouz held so many people when this offensive began.

U.S.-backed Kurdish forces say more than 30,000 civilians been evacuated since the beginning of February, 9,500 in the past three days. Among them are ISIS fighters that have surrendered or been captured.

Aid workers are struggle to care for thousands of women and children in an overcrowded camp in the Syrian desert. They say dozens of infants have died.

Two sisters who fled Saudi Arabia will be allowed to stay in Hong Kong another month while they seek asylum. The woman said they were abused by relatives in Saudi Arabia and last year before a family vacation, both applied for Australian tourist visas.

When they tried to leave Hong Kong for Melbourne they were stopped by authorities who rebooked them on a flight to Riyadh. The women refused to go and have been hiding in Hong Kong ever since. A human rights attorney fears the women could be prosecuted before they even asylum elsewhere.

A day after three explosive devices were found around major London transport hubs, police are investigating a suspicious package in Glasgow that may be tied to the others. Here's CNN's Phil Black with the details.

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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The police are still working to determine who sent these devices through the mail, why and crucially are there any more yet to be identified.

Transport hubs have been warned to look out for packages that look similar to those delivered to offices near Heathrow and London city airports and Waterloo Station. At least two packages had postal stamps from the Republic of Ireland.

It is possible that this plot may not target places just related to transport. On Wednesday, yet another suspicious package was found a long way from London, this time at Glasgow University.

Buildings were evacuated and the package was destroyed by police using a controlled detonation. Police in Scotland say they're now coordinating with police in London, who are investigating those devices found and destroyed only the day before -- Phil Black, CNN, London.

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VAUSE: Meantime Prime Minister Theresa May will host a summit in the coming hours to deal with a record number of knife attacks. She faces criticism that the police force may have contributed to the surge in attacks. But grieving families want less talk and more action as CNN's Nina dos Santos reports.

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NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN EUROPE EDITOR: This is what the U.K.'s knife crime epidemic looks like. Filmed in South London more than a year ago, a man tries to smash his way into a car with a Rambo knife, after its driver pulled out unexpectedly. Another scene, this time at a fast food outlet in the north of the capital. A fight breaks out and within seconds, three blades are brandished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the (INAUDIBLE) are you doing on this street?

DOS SANTOS: Knife attacks claims 285 victims across Britain last year, the highest tally since records began in 1946. In the first three months of 2019 alone, 10 teenagers have lost their lives.

Rachel, thank you very much for agreeing to tell us your story. Please sit down.

Rachel Webb's 15-year-old son, Kyron, died a year and a half ago, after a trivial dispute with two other boys.

RACHEL WEBB, MOTHER OF KNIFE CRIME VICTIM: The young boys were in their group and they made a song. And Kyron said on a Snapchat video that he didn't like the song. And that potentially is the reason that we were given as to why he's no longer walking the Earth.

DOS SANTOS: Wasn't a gang member, his mother says, but he was found to be carrying a knife at the time. Five months after losing one child, another if Rachel's sons was also stabbed. He survived, but the family's scars remain.

WEBB: Those three individuals that were involved in the incident on October 17th, it left my son dead, but it left two young boys in prison.

But the ripple effect destroyed three families. My youngest two, they're twins. When they go on the road, they're now frightened of seeing teenagers.

DOS SANTOS: Knife crimes rose 30 percent last year across the country to almost 43,000, a trend blamed on cuts to policing and community services.

Are all of the youngsters who are carrying knives in gangs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I think a very small minority are in gangs. I think what's now happened is that young people carry knives for protection and the bizarre thing is, statistically, seven out of 10 individuals who get stabbed get stabbed by their own knife.

WEBB: So, that's -- that was Kyron at the time when he died.

DOS SANTOS: Rachel says the solution isn't just policing but better prospects for youths. She plans to meet her son's killer in jail this year with a message to turn his life around.

WEBB: You now need to complete what Kyron was building. You got potential. I don't want to hear, oh, I'm sorry. I want you to now make something of your life.

DOS SANTOS: Message of hope, not hate, to prevent things like these -- Nina dos Santos, CNN, London.

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VAUSE: R. Kelly is back in jail, this time for not paying child support. The accused sexual predator owes more than $160,000 to his ex-wife. Kelly was free on bail after being indicted last month for aggravated sexual abuse. He's due back in court next week. Now to a stunning revelation from a military hero. U.S. Senator Martha McSally was the first American woman to fly in combat. She told a Senate hearing on military sexual assault she was raped while serving. Kyung Lah has her story.

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SEN. MARTHA MCSALLY (R), ARIZONA: So, like you, I am also a military sexual assault survivor.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Survivor and senator, representing Arizona now and revealing today that she was once a young Air Force member who felt she couldn't speak up.

MCSALLY: In one case, I was preyed upon and then raped by a superior officer. I stayed silent for many years, I didn't report being sexually assaulted. Like so many women and men, I didn't trust the system at the time.

I blame myself. I was ashamed and confused. And I thought I was strong, but felt powerless.

LAH: McSally's story even more astonishing because of who she is. McSally crushed military and societal barriers, America's first female fighter pilot to fly in combat. She sued the Department of Defense over a policy requiring all women to cover themselves off base in Saudi Arabia, a policy that the DOD would change.

A proud veteran, McSally told me as she launched her Senate run how central her military career was to her identity, but when she eventually reported the assault to her superiors --

MCSALLY: I was horrified at how my attempt to share generally my experiences were handled. I almost separated from the Air Force at 18 years over my despair. Like many victims, I felt the system was raping me all over again. But I didn't quit.

LAH: McSally had survived assault before joining the military, telling "The Wall Street Journal" that at age 17, her high school track coach sexually abused her. The coach denied the --

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LAH (voice-over): -- allegations to "The Journal."

MCSALLY: Are you going to be a fighter pilot?

LAH: During her unsuccessful run for the Senate as a Republican, McSally talked about the hard times she suffered as a younger woman. Now as a U.S. senator appointed to fill the late Senator John McCain's seat, she is fighting for change in the military on behalf of survivors like her.

MCSALLY: We must fix those distortions in the culture of our military that permit sexual harm towards women and, yes, some men as well. LAH: The Air Force released a statement after McSally spoke in that subcommittee hearing writing, quote, "The criminal actions reported today by Senator McSally violate every part of what it means to be an airman.

"We are appalled and deeply sorry for what Senator McSally experienced and we stand behind her and all victims of sexual assault. We are steadfast in our commitment to eliminate this reprehensible behavior and breach of trust in our ranks." -- Kyung Lah, CNN.

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VAUSE: CNN is partnering with young people around the world for a student-led day of action against modern-day slavery on March 14th. We're asking, "What makes you feel free?"

Here is Sian Lea, the managing director of an organization working to end human trafficking in the U.K.

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SIAN LEE, SHIVA FOUNDATION: Freedom to me is the ability to make choices, to be able to choose who I associate with, where I work, where I live, what I do day-to-day. I think to not have a choice is one of the worst situations to be in and I'm really pleased that I don't have to ever face that.

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VAUSE: Tell the world what makes you feel free. Share your story using #My Freedom Day.

It was bad news for Trump. Ahead, some analysis on what the numbers mean for the U.S. economy, the biggest trade deficit in the United States ever.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. Thanks for staying with us. I'm John Vause. An update of the top news stories this hour.

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[02:30:00] The U.S. trade deficits surged last year, scoring past the previous record from 2006 by $69 billion to reach more than almost $900 billion. That contribute the (INAUDIBLE) firstly, tariffs -- Trump's tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods that helped slowed Chinese economy.

Number two, Trump's threatening tariff increases which about Americans to import goods ahead of that price increase. Three, Trump's tax cut is that treating consumers spending on imports and finally a strong dollar which weakened demand for American goods. As an economic indicator the trade deficit is mostly ignored, it's always been that way since the father of modern economics, Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations nothing can be more absurd than this whole doctrine of the balance of trade.

But these numbers do matter to one person in particular. The President of the United States who campaigned on reducing America's reducing trade deficit.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We racked up $13 trillion in trade deficits over the last two decades. But those days are over. We will no longer tolerate such abuse. We won't allow our workers to be victimized, our companies to be cheated and our wealth to be plundered and transferred. America will never apologize for protecting its citizen.

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VAUSE: And so it matters to the President that it matters to everyone else. Joining us now from Los Angeles is comedian-actor and most importantly for us, economist Ben Stein. Mr. Stein, good to see you.

BEN STIEN, AMERICAN COMEDIAN: Nice to see you, sir.

VAUSE: OK. It's always good what you get --

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STEIN: Although, I think it's out of subject comedian might be more relevant than add that economist, but OK, go ahead.

VAUSE: Yes. I mean, that's the point, right? You know, the trade deficit is kind of useless. It's an indication where the economy has been rather where it's heading.

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STEIN: -- that an indicator of anything important and all of this at all it's just an indicator to the fact that we like to buy a lot of things from foreign countries and those foreign countries usually can make good quality products.

VAUSE: Yes.

STEIN: And low prices and there's a good reason why we -- why we buy things. There's a good reason why we buy things from China, it's a good thing why we buy things from India and Brazil. And this seems it doesn't happen by accident. There's a reason for it. And the reason happens to be a compelling reason. It's just in the law of market supply and demand.

VAUSE: Exactly. So, but we just had a quick look at the numbers there, if you look at the imports, we're up, what? 7-1/2 percent, exports were six percent for 2018. In the context here as compared to the previous high 10 years ago, when the U.S. was importing a lot more oil back then. So, you know, it seems, you know, this has been a real surge in imports. And the argument is that everything that Donald Trump has been doing and all policies he has implemented to try and to reduce the trade deficit has actually -- had the opposite effect.

STEIN: Well, I don't think it has one effect, one way or the other, sir. I think it's just happening, it's not -- Mr. Trump can't change it, he can't change except by the most of the county and measures it so that have a very, very negative effect on American consumers. It's just happening, it's like saying it rained more in Los Angeles in 2019 than in 2016. Well, yes, that's true but you can't attribute that to Trump and you can't attribute trade numbers to Trump either.

It's just the fact that countries can -- some countries make things more cheaply than we can and therefore we buy those products from those countries. It's nothing very complicated or sinister and it's not much Mr. Trump can do about it.

VAUSE: Well, you kind of touch on it, you mean that a sure way of, you know, narrowing this deficit, if you look back at, you know, what happened 10 years ago is by having a recession and, you know, if you implement those tough policies then you will close that trade deficit.

STEIN: I know, but we don't want to have a recession. We -- the last thing we want in the whole world is to have a recession. We want to have a robust economy and if people want to sell us lots of things at good prices and they're good quality products, why not buy them from those people. And let those people take the money they make and buy U.S. Treasury Bonds instead.

I mean, we need to sell a great many Treasury Bonds in order so that it will fund our Federal deficit, so why not do it by the sensible way of buying a lot of products from Japan, and China, and India, and Brazil, and so forth? Why not do it that way? That's just -- that's the way it's always been. That's what Adam Smith would have recommended. There's no reason not to do it that way.

VAUSE: I'm glad you mentioned the Federal deficit because that is, you know, mostly a far more important number. And the balloon for the first four months in the fiscal year, compared to year early up by 77 percent to $310 billion. I'm no expert, but when a government has taxes and doesn't reduce spending this seems to be a fairly predictable outcome.

STEIN: Well it's, you know, I hate to say this because I am actually -- I voted for Trump, I'm probably going to be the only person on your show today said that I'm proud that I voted for Trump.

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[02:35:00] STEIN: But this idea -- this idea that somehow you can lower taxes and collect more revenue has never been a winner. It's never worked. It didn't still work under Mr. Reagan, it didn't work under Mr. Ford, and it didn't work under either Bush's. It doesn't work, period. You have to raise taxes if you want to collect more revenue. And Americans just don't want to have their taxes raised but they must -- they must have eventually do that.

Look, we're running up a Federal trade -- a Federal -- sorry, budget deficit at the rate of over a trillion dollars a year. At this rate we are going to be bankrupt very soon. We'll generally accept accounting principles basis we are already bankrupt, we are already bankrupt. Now, this is not Mr. Trump's fault. This is because of -- well, should I say, projections that started long before he became President or even dreamed of going down the escalator and becoming President.

It is just set up that way, we have enormous entitlements have enormous ways of spending money and we keep cutting away from taking money in. It's going to be a disaster, there is just no ways around it. I know my dear friend and my idol Mr. Buffet said it's not going to be a problem, but it's not a problem for him because he's 88 and he's the second or third richest man in the world.

But for most of Americans it's going to be a real problem, when a guy run and says, I'm sorry, your Social Security checks are going to bounce. That's going to be a problem.

VAUSE: We also have a situation that just as, you know, the Trump Administration is, you know racking out and blowing out the National Credit Card and it seems Americans are doing exactly the same thing in their own personal lives. 2018 closed with a record amount of credit being owned by Americans almost $900billion, close to a trillion dollars. I mean, do you see that as some kind of indicator that there is, you know, trouble on the horizon for the economy?

STEIN: I -- that doesn't worry me at all because that can be controlled, I mean, if people take in their belts a little bit that could be controlled. But it's the Federal Government deficit that's the real problem. That's the one which is going to be a major shock when one day the Wall Street Journal has a big headline saying, U.S. denies ability to be paying debt or U.S. ability that we pay debt in doubt. That's going to be a tidal wave of shock throughout the world.

The U.S. debt has been considered the ironclad rock-solid indicator of value in the world for almost a hundred years. If it's going to suddenly stop, oh, it's going to be real problem.

VAUSE: Yes. It's coming as the Federal Reserve is taking increase interest rates as well. So, you know, the era of cheap money is coming to an end, which will complicates a whole lot of things as well. Mr. Stein, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.

STEIN: An honor to be here, sir. Thank you, sir.

VAUSE: Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump. Trump trying to make crooked Hillary happen again? It won't. And the former presidential candidate telling her in a Mean Girl.

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[02:40:36] VAUSE: Thunderbolt and lighting, very, very frightening me. And here are the images to match the lyrics from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Wild weather in Southern California caused this spectacular lightshow, with thousands of lightning strikes, it's not the first time, there's been some unusual winter weather this year. Last month, there was snow in parts of Southern California, yes, that include the beach front City of Malibu.

Snow in Malibu, lightning strikes, oh, it's crazy. OK. Donald Trump did not hold back mocking Hillary Clinton on Twitter when she announced she was not running for president in 2020. But she's inkling right back just as a true Mean Girl would. Here's Jeanne Moos.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We had expected out of, say, Mariah Carey.

MARIAH CAREY, AMERICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER: And I was like, why are you so obsessed with me?

MOOS: But Hilary Clinton is no Mariah Carey, nevertheless when Hillary finally said --

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not running.

MOOS: And President Trump mocked her by tweeting, aw-shucks, does that mean I won't get to run against her again? She will be sorely missed. 17-year-old Hillary fired back with that famous meme from Mean Girls.

RACHEL MCADAMS, CANADIAN ACTRESS: Why are you so obsessed with me?

MOOS: Now, we've occasionally seen Hillary's youthful side. Throwing balloons and eventually shimmying.

CLINTON: Woo, OK.

MOOS: But those who complimented her use of the meme allowed it might not have actually been her idea. Hillary Clinton, OK, maybe Hillary's social media manager is the best Trump troller ever. Jokes another, Hillary Clinton's gay intern searching for that Mean Girls gif. RedOne tweet, Now That's likeable, a reference to this.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're likeable enough, Hillary. No doubt.

CLINTON: Oh, thank you so much.

MOOS: Someone even Photoshopped Hillary to look like Mean Girls character Regina George. But this wasn't the most bizarre use of the meme ever. That happened last year when the Twitter used to represent Iran supreme leader threatened to eradicate Israel, calling it a malignant cancerous tumor, to which is Israel's embassy in Washington replied, Yep, with the exact same Mean Girls meme.

MCADAMS: Why are you so obsessed with me? MOOS: Meme-Diplomacy, it was dubbed, if it's good enough to secure

secure the Ayatollah, maybe Hillary figured it's good enough to poke President Trump. Jeanne Moos, CNN. Sing it, Mariah.

CAREY: Why you're obsessed with me?

MOOS: From New York.

CAREY: Boy I want to know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: That Mariah Carey clip is kind of creepy at end, wasn't it? Anyway, thank you for watching CNN Newsroom, I'm John Vause. "WORLD SPORTS" starts after the break. You're watching CNN.

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[02:45:00] (WORLD SPORT)