Sentence for former illinois governor Rod Blagojevich who had about four more years left after being found guilty of corruption charges back in 2011. So here was President Trump speaking about this moments ago. We have commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich. He served eight years in jail. Thats a long time, and i watched his wife on television. I dont know him very well. Ive met him a couple of times. He was on for a short while on the aparprentice. Seemed like a nice fellow. He served eight years in jail. He has a long time to go. Many people disagree with the sentence. Hes a democrat, not a republican. Lets go straight to the white house to our chief White House Correspondent jim acosta. Lets just start with former governor blagojevich. Why blagojevich . Why now . Reporter well, i think there are several reasons why, brooke. I mean, one thing we should point out is that the president has been considering this commutation for Rod Blagojevich for some time. It is worth noting that blagojevich was a contestant on the apprentice. In addition to that, his wife has been pleading for leniency for some time now, but there are some common denominators in all of this, brooke. As the president is, you know, facing this stinging criticism that hes been too involved in the u. S. Justice system over the last couple of weeks, you know, in the aftermath of his acquittal in the impeachment saga, you know, he is, once again, sort of beating his chest over the u. S. Justice system and granting these commutations and these pardons. In addition to the blagojevich commutation hes granting pardons to bernie kerik and Michael Milken who as you said was convicted of securities fraud after a whole slew of scams during the 1980s. The president talked about both of those actions when he was talking to reporters just a short while ago. Heres what he had to say about that. We have bernie kerik. We have mike milken whos gone around and done an incredible job for the world with all of his research on cancer, and hes done this, and hes suffered greatly. He paid a big price, paid a very tough price, but hes done an incredible job, and yeah, these are all people that you have to see the recommendations. I rely on recommendations. Now, you heard the president say i rely on recommendations. If you go through a White House Press release on these pardons and commutations that just went out to reporters a short while ago, there are a number of trump world and fox news figures mentioned prominently including Rudy Giuliani and so on, and so there were some friends in high places who were urging all of these actions on the part of the president. The other thing that is worth noting in the case of Rod Blagojevich, i mean, this is a former governor of illinois who was convicted in his own quid pro quo. Remember, he was offering a senate seat in exchange for favors in that whole saga, and so the president , you know, he is feeling emboldened right now. He is willing to stick his neck out and doing something here that may be politically unpopular and come back to haunt him in this 2020 Election Campaign cycle because blagojevich, milken, and kerik were all convicted of very serious crimes, brooke. And to your point on abr apprentice, Rod Blagojevich in between his impeachment and imprisonment thats when he went on president Donald Trumps Celebrity Apprentice and got fired. Helps to have friends in high places, absolutely. Thank you. Lets discuss all of this, dana bash is with me. Shes cnns chief political correspondent, paul callan is here, former prosecutor, and dana, just on the blagojevich point, you know, its important, you know, and paul can do this on talk about a corruption trial, corruption with a capital c, but in terms of politics, were there not republicans who spoke up airing their own concerns because of how corrupt this case was . Its so yeah, the answer is yes, there were, and its so interesting. Jim was just talking about the fox newscast of characters who are vouching for these people. Vouching in support ocf some of these people like bernie kerik. When it comes to Rod Blagojevich, its almost all democrats. The former governors fellow democrats from illinois, dick durb durbin, Jesse Jackson and others. Thats the point the president maid, well, this guy was a democrat, that might be, but regardless of his party i can tell you just in talking to Congressional Republicans as this came out, theyre not happy, and i talked to one senior congressional source on the republican side who said it just looks bad. And this is somebody who kind of has their pulse on the republicans on capitol hill. Now, is there anything they can do . No, but it speaks to really the core and the heart of what republicans are now and have been battling for some time, which is the notion of swampiness, of corruption. I mean, its already a dicey thing, not just for the president running for reelection, but more importantly for these hill republicans in the senate in particular, theyre facing an uphill climb to keep control of the senate, and they dont think that this particular commutation helps. And another one, paul callan, mike milken, as we said he was the face of financial scandal in the 80s, and hes someone who falls under these acts of clemency today. Yes, very, very interesting that milkens object list. You know, he was sort of the king of junk bonds and all of that stuff that was going on back in the 80s. The president benefitted quite a bit from those junk bonds, using them to finance a lot of his investments in atlantic city. I dont know if theres a direct connection to milken back in those years and the president , but certainly they were both very much involved in that rahrah economy that eventually collapsed afterthe 1960sst 880s. Kerik was Police Commissioner under guess who, Rudy Giuliani, and is kind of famous for how he and the mayor dealt with and guided new york through the aftermath, the terrible aftermath of the 2001 attacks. Terror attacks. Yeah. This whole list of commutations or pardons coming down today not lost on any of us, were two days out from the sentencing of his good buddy roger stone. What message is this sending . Well, i think that hes issued so many pardons at such a surprising time. You know, usually president s issue these things as theyre going out of office because theyre not going to be criticized for it. Here hes doing it right before the election, and it sounds like if he adds stone to the pile later on, theres already a pretty big pile, and the public may have gotten used to the president issuing these pardons. A piece of all of this, too, dana, is the attorney general bill barr and the president today did admit that he makes his attorney generals life harder. Here he was. I have total confidence in my attorney general. Do you agree with his statement that you should stop tweeting about Justice Department issues . S everybody has the right to speak their mind, and i use social media, i guess i use it well because here i am. Im here. I do make his job harder. I do agree with that. I think thats true. Hes a very straight shooter. We have a great attorney general, and hes working very hard. I do make his job harder, dana. I see you shaking your head. He makes his job harder and bill barr was on tv last week essentially saying, yes, you know, the tweets makes my job harder. That was a moment of selfawareness that we dont really see from the president that often. I think we should point that out. But on this, i think its really interesting that as the pardons and the commutations, as that is coming forward, as the president is getting on the plane with the chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the senate, lindsey graham, a statement came out from lindsey graham, from the Top Republican in the senate, mitch mcconnell, from the Top Republican in the house Kevin Mccarthy doing a joint statement announcing their support for bill barr. Theres no way thats an accident. They are circling the wagons, they are making clear not just to the press but to the president theyve got his back, you know. It doesnt say back off, but it certainly sends a signal, im not sure if its a signal that the president is going to get. Maybe hell get it more clearly on this plane ride. What he also said, paul, was that he, President Trump, is the chief Law Enforcement officer, which, no, thats actually the attorney general bill barr, and im just wondering, you know, given his complicated history with Law Enforcement, what do you think of that . Well, you know, the president is hes breaking all the molds as he has ever since he was elected president. In the modern presidency, president s have stayed away from getting involved in sentencing in criminal cases. That was always left in the hands of the prosecutors, federal prosecutors who handled the case as someone who you know, they were familiar with the facts of the case. Now, theres nothing in the constitution that requires that. Technically the president is the head of the Justice Department, and technically he can make whatever recommendations he wants. And he dunoesnt have to go through the office you have an office of pardons, you have to submit an extensive application, and he doesnt have to go through that at all. He can just rely on his constitutional powers, make a sentence recommendation or issue a pardon. Hes throwing the book away, though, that was drawn over a long period of time by a lot of lawyers who wanted to make sure that the process looked fair and didnt look like it was being influenced heavily by politics. But does he have the right to do it . Yeah, he does have the right to do it. Paul, dana, thank you. President trump cannot quit blasting his predecessor in this new rant, President Trump is trashing president obamas economic record after obama touted the fact that the recovery started under his watch. Plus, for the first time mayor Michael Bloomberg is set to join his democratic rivals on the debate stage tomorrow night after surging in the polls. How is he preparing for that . And what is john bolton doing . After refusing to speak up during the president s impeachment trial, hes now accusing the white house of censoring his new book. Well talk about that. Youre watching cnn. Im Brooke Baldwin. Back in a flash. Ology to help make banking easier, like. Pnc easy lock, so you can easily lock your credit card when its maximum limit differs from its vertical limit. And clover flex, for when you need to take credit cards when no one carries cash. Or requesting a call to help get a new credit card one that hasnt followed the family goldfish. Pnc make today the day. [ siren ] doug give me your hand i can save you. Lots of money with Liberty Mutual we customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. You too, have a great day. Five years ago. I had psoriasis everywhere. Head to toe. People were afraid i was contagious. Alright, ill be back in one hour. My skin hurt. I felt gross. Whats up jay . Hows everything . 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Now, in response to that tweet, President Trump blasted what he calls a, quote, con job, claiming that obama had the weakest recovery since the great depression, and that he, trump, has the best jobs numbers in u. S. History. So to the white house we go to our correspondent there, john harwood. And john, what exactly prompted these latest tweets . Well, the president is trying to run for reelection and Barack Obamas trying to make sure that his legacy is not forgotten. But in the dispute, if you could call it that, between these two men, president obama has the high side. He made a simple factual observation that he signed the recovery act a few months later, the economy was out of recession. The following year it started steady job growth, and both of those things, job growth and overall Economic Growth have continued nonstop until then. Now, President Trump simply cant leave well enough alone here. Any president would brag about this economy running for reelection. He has a solid, not great, but solid and resilient economy, thats true, but what is not true are the things that President Trump went on to say, that it was a boom of the Trump Administration to that we were headed for a Major Economic downturn if not for his election, and three that we have the best jobs numbers ever. None of those are true. Thank you for running through that. Aust president obamas National Council of advisers. So gentlemen, thank you both for being here, and first i just i want you both to listen to what white house trade adviser Peter Navarro said about obama, trump, and the u. S. Economy. If you compare job growth in the last, you know, 36 months of president obamas term, it was 227,000 jobs on average, and President Trump also good, but 191,000 jobs per month on average. Dont both president s deserve credit for good economies . If you lived through the obama years, which everybody watching this show did, they remember what it was like. Back in the obama biden years, it was horrible. We had this new normal of a growth under 2 . These are numbers from the bureau of Economic Analysis over 4 Economic Growth, four quarters under president obama. We have not seen growth above 4 on a quarterly basis under President Trump. Its a good economy now, its a great economy now, all im asking you is wasnt it a good economy then . No, it was not. It was a horrible economy during the obama years. Okay. You guys heard that exchange, austin douglas, austin first to you. Going into this conversation, can we just all agree that the economy was good under president obama or he got it there, it was great, and then also now currently under President Trump . Austin and douglas, yes . Yes . Yes. Yes. Austin, im looking at you. Looking at me, i have said yes, and ive tried to be i have problems with the tax cut. I think it was a mistake that President Trump passed, but i have always tried to be balanced and say its the longest expansion on record, twothirds of it was under obama, a third has been under President Trump. Let us tip our hats to both of them, and let us hope that it continues for a long time more. Douglas, to you, just on, you know, it seems the thing is President Trump doesnt want to acknowledge that he inherited this Strong Economy from president obama, and is that because he has made that one of his key reasons . This is a president who wants to be reelected, and so he doesnt want to share credit. Is that fair . He wants to get reelected, and i think its a personality trait that he doesnt want to share credit. Any president would want to tout that the economy is good under their tenure, and that would continue if theyre reelected, and that certainly makes sense for President Trump. I think he does deserve some credit for things that improved the growth rate in the economy. That would be the tax cuts and jobs act and regulatory approaches. The evidence is in favor of him. He also made things worse in the economy. This trade fight in china has dramatically slowed Economic Growth not just in the u. S. But worldwide. He owes all parts of that. And deficits for both of them. Both have big deficits. This is just the reality of it. No ones paying attention to the deficit. Lets not make our policy judgments based on tweets by interested parties or Peter Navarro look at the facts. Former president obama, all the things that have happened during the Trump Administration, why do you think president obama chooses to weigh in on the economy . Look, it was the anniversary of the recovery act. It certainly seemed like he was pro proding the president because he thought it would set him off, and it clearly did set him off. Ive always said that we ought to apply what i call the trump policy protocol, which is lets not spend any more time debating the meaning of Donald Trumps policies than he spent coming up with them, and at the end of this sentence weve already violated protocol. The president when he was running was saying that the true Unemployment Rate was 63 , and then the month he was elected said look at how low the Unemployment Rate is. It went down from 63 to something less than 5 . So. Let me just throw these on the screen. I know that President Trump claims that he has the best jobs numbers. A check of the numbers shows president obama averaged 220,000 jobs a month in the last three years of his presidency versus 191,000 a month in the first three years of the trump presidency. We like to work in facts, so there you go. Douglas, we mentioned the challenge we mentioned the challenge. I want to get to the deficit, the challenge that both administrations faced regarding the deficit as both president s tout the economy. You know, no one is talking about the record deficit. So can we just move this conversation forward, douglas to you . Where is the u. S. Economy heading . I think the u. S. Economy in the near term has been extraordinarily resilient, remains resilient, and is unlikely to face a downturn in 2020 or 2021, but out past there, i am deeply concerned that the history shows that sovereign countries that dont Pay Attention to their books get themselves in trouble. Thats not something we need to do. We have the complete ability to control our future, but the reality is the federal budget is on an unsustainable course, and there need to be deep course corrections on the tax, spending ad growth side. We need faster growth, control of our spending programs and more revenue. Theres no way around that. No one wants to talk about the tough choices there. Appreciate you calling it out and bringing it up. Douglas, thank you, austin, thank you. Thank you. 2020 now, the former new york mayor Michael Bloomberg surging in the polls, which has launched him onto the debate stage for the very first time tomorrow night. How hes getting ready to face really tough questions on his record. And the breaking news this afternoon, President Trump commuting sentences and issuing pardons for a slew of convicts including the former illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Stay here. Butter poached, creamy and roasted. Or try lobster sauteed with crab, shrimp and more. So hurry in and lets lobsterfest. Or get it to go at red lobster dot com car vending machines and buying a car 100 online. Vented now weve created a brand new way for you to sell your car. Whether its a year old or a few years old, we want to buy your car. 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With moderate to severe treplaque psoriasists uncover clearer skin that can last. In fact, tremfya® was proven superior to humira® in providing significantly clearer skin. Tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. Serious allergic reactions may occur. Tremfya®. Uncover clearer skin that can last. Janssen can help you explore cost support options. The race for 2020 is entering a whole new phase this week as more diverse nevada holds its caucuses,and a new face joins the democratic debate stage tomorrow. Former new york city mayor Michael Bloomberg has just qualified to face off against his rivals, and its a big deal. This is the first time voters will get to hear from the billionaire whos been criticized for trying to buy his way into the white house. Eric weirson worked along side bloomberg for nearly nine years. Thank you so much for being here. Good to see you, brooke, how are you doing . Its been a wild afternoon, but im hanging in there. Let me ask you about your opinion piece for cnn. Com that argues bloomberg would be better off actually sitting this debate out tomorrow night. Why do you think that is . Well, hes obviously going to do the debate, so i think thats thats something of the past, but i think that i would have recommended that he stay off the debate stage. Hes going to have a big target on his back. Everybodys going to be gunning for Michael Bloomberg. Expect to see a lot of fireworks. I think that mikes going to be wellprepared. I think hes going to hold his own. Why is it fair that bloomberg gets to stay off the National Stage he wont, but had he, you know, why would it be fair for him to pass and avoid tough questions until after the votes . Well, i dont think it would be i think my argument was that, you know, this is really a debate for the democrats that are voting in nevada, and since hes not really going to be part of the caucuses in nevada that that might be confusing. I thought that might be the rationale. Hes decided hes going to face his competitors, face the opposition, and i think hes going to be ready. You also point out, and im quoting you, bloomberg is not exactly warm and fuzzy guy. He has a good sense of humor, but its dry and a bit racy meaning it rarely comes out in a public forum. So that in the back of my henad. Let me play this clip from his 2005 mayoral race when bloomberg was running for reelection as a republican and the president at the time was george w. Bush. Heres a clip. Lets talk about Michael Bloombergs support of the party and the president , whose policies have hurt this city . Not on this policy, i didnt. Oh, you know, you have supported right wing politicians including the chairman of your own campaign, mike, who voted for that disgraceful piece of legislation. Couldnt agree more, freddy. Gave them money excuse me a second, you gave them money, mike, and you cant have it both ways. You cant disclaim responsibilities for the policies you politically and financially support. Go and fight for the city, freddy, and i cant have everybody in washington vote for everything id like. I wish they would, but they dont. What did you make of that clip, and to your point about his dry, you know, drier wit. How is he on style in your opinion . Well, look, heres the thing. You know, Michael Bloomberg, hes been fully vetted by the people of new york. He was mayor for 12 years of the worlds most important city. Theres really not a republican or a democratic way to run new york city. Everyone has to pick up the garbage whether youre a republican or democrat. I think that the clip you played there shows that mike can get a little bit irritated, maybe a little bit hot under the collar. I think if hes able to keep that in check, hes able to get in some good jabs, i think hes going to come out. Tens of millions are going to see the highlight reel. As long as hes able to defend himself, get in a few jabs here or there, hes going to come out okay. You were his chief media adviser at city hall, what is his biggest weakness in these debate settings specifically . I think that hes the most cerebral of the candidates. Hes obviously the smartest guy. Hes been the most successful, and i think that sometimes its hard talking about yourself, you know, when youve accomplished as much as Michael Bloomberg has accomplished, you tend to down play that. You want to come across as humble, but at the end of the day, i think that this Michael Bloomberg represents the democratic partys best chance to take on donald trump in 2020. I think that its really a twoman race as far as im concerned. Outside of attacking President Trump on that debate stage, though, if you were advising him ahead of tomorrow, which democratic candidate do you think he should i think he needs to contrast himself with Bernie Sanders as far as im concerned, its a twoperson race. Its Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg. I think theres going to be a lot of noise. Theres going to be the bidens and the klobuchars and the pete buttigiegs, theyre going to try and get their shots in, but i really think that mike needs to stay above the fray. I think he doesnt need to lower himself to the mayor of mayberry. I dont think he needs to talk about the differences between joe biden, i think he needs to take on the real differences between him and Bernie Sanders. Arick wierson, thank you, that is tomorrow night. Tune in this evening on cnn, sanders, buttigieg, and klobuchar take the stage this evening with one hour each and then thursday its biden and warren. That starts at 8 00 eastern live from las vegas. Back to our breaking news today, President Trump is granting pardons and commutations to some of the most notorious political figures of the past few decades, including former illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, and the president s former National Security adviser john bolton for refusing to release new details about his upcoming tellall in a speaking appearance, but he is accusing the white house of trying to sensor his book. Stand by. This commutes been pretty rough, huh . Its great actually, ive been listening to audible. Its audiobooks, news, meditations. Gotta go hey you know, i do think its weird youve started commuting when you work from home. Ill be in my office. Download audible and start every day off right. Othroughout the country for the past twelve years, mr. Michael bloomberg is here. Vo leadership in action. Mayor bloomberg and president obama worked together in the fight for gun safety laws, to improve education, and to develop innovative ways to help teens gain the skills needed to find good jobs. Obama at a time when washington is divided in old ideological battles he shows us what can be achieved when we bring people together to seek pragmatic solutions. Bloomberg im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. For adults with moderately to severely active crohns disease, stelara® works differently. Studies showed relief and remission, with dosing every 8 weeks. Stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. Some serious infections require hospitalization. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or flulike symptoms or sores, have had cancer, or develop new skin growths, or if anyone in your house needs or recently had a vaccine. Alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems. These may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. Some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. Talk to your doctor today, and learn how janssen can help you explore cost support options. Remission can start with stelara®. Former National Security adviser john bolton is speaking out publicly for the First Time Since President Trumps impeachment trial ended. Passages of boltons book leaked during the trial in which he alleges the president directed him to help with his Pressure Campaign against ukraine to dig up dirt on democrats. During the speech a Duke University bolton talked about his book but said that he worries it will be censored by the white house, and now there are calls from the public to boycott boltons book if and when it is released. Cnn National Security correspondent kiley atwood is with me. Was he just giving a speech to sell his book . He definitely didnt hide the fact that he has a book to sell, right . He talked specifically about the fact that he hopes his book is not suppressed. He said that there are parts that have to do with ukraine, obviously. That is the main question here. What does he know about President Trumps policy decisions on ukraine that others dont know, and he said that the parts on ukraine are essentially sprinkles on an ice cream sundae, but also said well have to see what happens with censorship, so as you said there, brooke, indicating that the white house is censoring what bolton has to say. Now, of course the white house has said actually, theres classified material in the manuscript as it stands now, and they fired back today saying it is ridiculous to assert that the white house is trying to sensor john boltons book and that they are just going through with traditional protocol here, making sure that theres not classified material that leaks out, but bolton made it very clear that he wants it to be released as soon as possible. Whats the white house saying . Yeah, the white house said today no, we are not censoring it. We are going through this protocol. We are reviewing all elements of it, because they said, essentially, if this classified material gets out it could harm americans, so this is something that they traditionally do with all former officials who write about their time when they were in the u. S. Government, especially when they were in the white house dealing with the decisions of the president. Now, the other thing that bolton did was reiterate some of his criticisms of President Trump and his Foreign Policy agenda on iran and north korea, specifically on north korea saying that the past two years were two years that were wasted and that north korea was able to continue working on its Nuclear Program while the u. S. Got nothing out of it because there was no indication that north korea was ever going to give up its nuclear weapons. All right, kiley, thank you. Coming up next, amazon chief jeff bezos shelling out 10 billion from his own pocket to fight the climate crisis, where the money for his new earth fund will go. And cnn is on the ground in syria where the u. N. Says the greatest humanitarian horror story of the century is currently playing out. Please dont miss this. Well show you the dire conditions that a half a million children are enduring right now. Liberty biberty cut. Well dub it. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. About being a scientist at 3m. I wanted them to know that innovation is not just about that one aha moment. Science is a process. It takes time, dedication. Its a journey. Were constantly asking ourselves, how can we do things better and better . what we make has to work. We strive to protect you. At 3m, were in pursuit of solutions that make peoples lives better. 100 online car buying. Carvanas had a lot of firsts. At 3m, were in pursuit of solutions car vending machines. And now, putting you in control of your financing. At carvana, get personalized terms, browse for cars that fit your budget, then customize your down payment and monthly payment. And these arent madeup numbers. Its what youll really pay, right down to the penny. Whether youre shopping or just looking. It only takes a few seconds, and it wont affect your credit score. Finally a totally different way to finance your ride. Only from carvana. The new way to buy a car. Plike. Zelle. To conveniently makesend money sier, to your babysitter. For overtime. Or pinacle, to tap into your organization in the office, on the go, or in the stopandgo. Pnc make today the day. Amazon chief jeff bezos is investing his own money to the fight of climate change. He just committed on instagram to a whopping 10 billion to address the crisis with creation of the bezos earth fund. His amazon employees have been publicly pressuring him to do something proactive. Bezos said that the fund will back ientists, activists and organizations working to preserve the planet. With me now cnns chief climate correspondent is with me and 10 billion. Thats a lot of ozeros. Thats a lot to you and me. Its a great cause. What made him do this . Pressure from his own employees and from the rest of the world and from consumers who are realizing that this is the biggest story in the world and we wont be ordering toothbrushes through china from amazon unless we have a goldilocks climate at thend of this srnl. There is a group called amazon employees for climate justice. Hundreds of them walked out last fall. To get in front of that the day before, bezos said, well, we are going to adhere to the climate Paris Climate Accord goals, but that is a pittance compared to what this Company Really could do. Just to put it in perspective, hes worth 130 billion, what he is promising less than 8 , thats the equivalent of a median american of his age giving about 14,000. Meanwhile, somebody like bill gates who is number two on the list worth 30 billion less has given 40 billion into causes like this, not just Disease Eradication but new energy solutions, and thats the big question is its very nebulous, where will the money go . Thats my next question. Where does 10 billion get you in this fight, and what kind of impact would it have . Thats there are plenty of ngos out there planting trees and trying to get clean cook stoves for families in india, and they could use every cent they could get, absolutely, but planting trees is not going to get us out of this. Its all about getting off of carbon yesterday, and many of his employees point out that amazon web services, their cloud computing, they work with fossil fuel industries to find new pockets of oil and gas faster at a time when science is saying we cant afford to burn the stuff we already know about. Thats not to mention all the ships and trucks, and planes it takes to get our toothbrushes to our doorstep. If he was able to harness the power of that company, amazon is the only Retail Company that doesnt participate in whats called the carbon disclosure project, and this is, you know, how you get as, bs, and cs at restaurants, they give these grades to Companies Based on damage theyre doing to the planet. And they cant even grade amazon because theyre not theyre not even playing ball. They give as to walmart and microsoft, again, bill gates company, which not only vows to be carbon negative by 2030 but by 2050 they vow to remove all the carbon theyve ever burned since 1975 because theyre going to come up with machines to suck this stuff out of the sky. Thats the race, stopping the stuff were putting up there and pulling down whats already there, and a company like this to whom much is given, much is expected. Got two more minutes with we have two more minutes with you yochlt v you. You have travelled the world and you know about the Carbon Footprint and planting the trees and where is the need the greatest . This is the space, right . We all think about maybe i should change the lightbulbs and take the bus instead of flying, and that is good. Everybody should, and all of the experts say that we should be conscious of the fact that our little decisions add up in big ways, but about 50 companies are responsible for 75 of the heat trapping pollution put into the skies since the 80s and they are the big fossil fuel companies most of them and the grip on politics, and you see, as you can see the tide is shifting when you are seeing a commercial for a fossil fuel company, it has a windmill in it or a banana peel, because we are working for you, but in the financial disclosures, they are investing 1 or 2 into the lowimpact ideas. 98 is chasing more oil and gas, and that is the way that the economy is set up, and so it is the biggest challenge that humanity has faced is to get off of that and the conversation among citizens and consumers is driving the sorts of things. You are seeing almost an airline a day is saying that we promise the figure out a new path forward and so it is playing politics always lags the Popular Culture in that way, but i think that this is another sort of crack in the wall. And it is interesting that even the companies who do get the as on the disclosure and the efforts and oftentimes, they are lobbying against the carbon tax which is going to put a cost on how much you burn, and who knows how much this election might change that conversation. Sure, it might. I think that my take away is 10 billion is a lot of money, but he has work to do. Thank you, bill weir. My pleasure. And keeping on the breaking news this afternoon out of the white house where President Trump has granted a string of pardons and commutations two days before the long time friend roger stone is about to be pardoned and is todays actions a signal to his old friend . Can my side be firm . And my side super soft . 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Officials are sounding the alarm on what they call the biggest humanitarian horror story of the 21st century. It is coming as the Syrian Regime has released a brutal attack leaving over 9 Million People displace and 500,000 of them are children. Arwa damon has been in Idlib Province and she is across the border in turkey and many of the syrians are afraid of a widespread massacre by their own government. Reporter the numbers of those displace and trying to outrun the encroaching war and violence are jumping dramatically by the day and 60 of them are children. Right now, we are talking about more than half a million children who have been displaced since december. There is not enough humanitarian assistance. The scale of this crisis is by far greater than what humanitarian organizations are able to supply. Temperatures are freezing. Everyday, the assad regime is gaining even more ground despite the statements being made by turkey warning Bashar Al Assads forces to move beyond the demarcation line, and that was meant in theory two days ago to be a deescalation zone inside of idlib. Listen to words of the humanitarian coordinator said about what is happening inside. He called it the biggest humanitarian horror story of the 21st century. It is not just the violence that the people are fleeing from, but they are deathly afraid of being surrounded by the regimes forces. They are afraid of a widespread massacre. They are afraid of being detained by the Regime Forces and disappearing into the regimes prison system. They are afraid of the regime moving in and cutting off the roads that lead to the border crossings with turkey and not because the Turkish Border is empty, but because they know what humanitarian aid supplies move in, they are moving in from the two vital border crossings and they are afraid of the cold and of the children getting sick. There is not enough hospitals. Theres not enough medical facilities, and they are, too, under fire and bombed and forced to shutdown as the regime is continuing with this ground offensive. Of course being backed by the russian air power. People inside asked us time and time again where are we supposed to run, now that there is nowhere truly safe to go to. Ar arwa damon, turkey. Thank you for shining the lite on all of these, you know, children. If youd like to help the people in syria, cnn has a list of the vetted organizations working on the ground there. And you can find the list by going to cnn. Com impact. Im Brooke Baldwin and thank you for being here. The lead with jake tapper starts right now. Remember, during impeachment when the republican senators said that President Trump really cared about taking a stand against corruption . The lead starts right now. Breaking today, a pardon and clemency spree. President trump is giving a get out of jail free card to the man who tried to sell Barack Obamas senate seat, and he pardoned a former nypd commissioner who was also convicted. And now, it is Bernie Sanders who is the front runner who is pulling away. The judge says that she is going to sentence trump
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