His defense team. Sarah west wood is there for us, what are you learning about his state of mine on his vacation . Martin, President Trump is increasingliage stay agitated as state of limbo, he is in something of a routine firing all daily messages aimed at pelosi. He has been charging his advisors and his friends about what white house strategy for the senate trial should be. There is a lot of questions about that include whog will present the closing and opening arguments and who will be a member of that team. The only certainty is that the bulk of the defense to the senate, he is expected to be assisted by some of his deputies, perhaps there will be more limited roles for his outside team. And some of his fierce ens defenders in the house. They are expected also to but the president and is his team cant make decisions about exactly what this strategy will be for the senate trial as long as the situation remains so fluid nap is because Speaker Pelosi is refusing to transmit them until the senate and she has a sense. Take a listen to what a top House Democrat said about how long the standoff could last. Im talking extremes here, like into february . That is certainly possible, but im not going to get ahead of the speaker. Showing no signs of budging off of her position. Mounting pressure on republicans, more live witnesses, more goousmt collection, and even as President Trump grows more imappreciate, i imappreciate, they are remaining ambivalent and they are caught in the stand off between democrats and republicans right now. With me now is the Washington Bureau achieve o the chicago sun times. Welcome to you both. Thank you. Im going to start with you and the possibility of Speaker Pelosi with holding the articles of impeachment until as late as february is that a sound legal maneuver . What is a sound league maneuver is to understand what the procedure will be at any court you walk into, and this is a court, and what is the procedural set up. Will they have live witnesses and recorded depositions . I think she is within her rights and sound legal strategy. If it is a sham trial, maybe she shoulds these things indefensely. I think she wants to get on with it as soon as possible. What is the possible political fall yououts. For early february it is the first vote in the 2020 president ial contest with the iowa caucus and followed be new hampshire. You have this becoming a distraction for the democrat thats are slugging it out. Or you can argue that without the distraction of a candidate they dont have to relax. It could free the candidates who are running including several in the United States nat, senate. It lets them stay out campaigning, other than that i dont think a few weeks delay has a sirgt political impaimpac. What do you make of the fact that the president has not yet settled on a legal team and a strategy. Like pelosi, he is having a hard time figures out what time of person do i need to represent me. We heard names like allen durshwitz. They could have great cross chann examiners. It is on mcconnells shoulders because he controls the majority in the senate and i think it is incumbent on him to make this a real trial consistent with the senate rules and other impeachment trials. Does it really matter on the strategy if the senate is so stacked in the president s favor . Well, you know, that is the conversation. It is a fore gone conclusion, but we have not seen many of the documents that the senate wants and the house wanted. We have not heard from many of the firsthand witnesses. And maybe if we saw documents and heard from witnesses. The articles of impeachment and the obstruction of congress, we have a snad majority lead near is facilitating that obstruction by not allowing real witnesses. If youre not allowing documents and witnesses maybe get a real u outcome 37. As he said in this impeachment, it is about trumps conduct not mine. Do you think biden would do that in the middle of a campaign. This is not a problem that the whole episode has politically for biden. No matter what he does in this one he has a risk of political fallout. Hunter biden taken that job on the board of burisma created a enormous political liability. So far it has not eroded his standing in the polls. It remains to be seen if that stays the case or not, and if joe is Hunter Bidens middle name. He can say legitimately and argument for some to see what the subpoena would say, they want him to testify too in which case he could go to, he would have the option of fighting it and take that course and suffer whatever political consequence or if what the subpoena wants is to make partisan, out of bounds, and nothing to do with the charges that trump is facing, and there is nothing central to that, it will expose the flaw in the strategy of going after biden to defend trump. Do you think the republicans will subpoena him and ask him to testify . I think they want to use him as a pawn, as a trade for something else, to threaten him pulling him in to see if the democrats will back down, and the main people they want, bolten and mooul vaulvaney. And there is some legal disagreements on whether or not the president has been impeached or not. Where do you stand on that legal question. I think he has been impeached. It may be as constitutional law professor noah feldman said, they may not have been perfected. They have to go over to the the senate to seal the deal, but he has been impeached and if the case ended right now the history books would say we had three impeached president s and trump would be one of them. Great to have you both on the program, thank you. Happy new year, and to you. At least 79 people have been killed after a suicide bomb attack in somalia. Dozens of others are injured following the explosion at the capital city. Cnn International Correspondent is joining me now from kenya and what are you learning about this attack . Well, it is the compliments of the season. It is exactly this type of time of the year that the alqaeda affiliated group tend to attack. They have not claimed responsibility, but the attack bears all of the hallmarks of their modis. We know that 79 people are dead and over 100 have been injured. And this attack happened there, so without being completely certain, but obvious that innocents have died, civilians, students and of course this happens in the background of many drone attacks and africanamerican troops in that country trying to stand back, and of course it is a very sad time indeed. This time of the year when people are on their holidays, even if somali is a nonchristian country, it is amazing the so mall issue is somalis are attacked. Most of the people in this attack could be young people. Thank you for updating us on the store. Still to come in the cnn news room, newly released videos of people in Eddie Gallaghers platoon. The wait is over. Tmobile is lighting up 5g nationwide. While some 5g signals go only blocks, tmobile 5g goes miles. Beyond the big cities to the small towns. To the people. Now, millions of americans can have access to 5g on tmobile. And this is just the beginning. Tmobile, the first and only nationwide 5g network. Im a v. I. P, a very important pilot. Folks, when i drop off my cargo at 30,000 feet, i use v. I. P unlike aerosols that take on odors in the air, i spray v. I. P and trap them. So they never take off. Up here at the dewars distillery, all our whiskies are aged, blended and aged again. Its the reason our whisky is so extraordinarily smooth. Dewars. Double aged for extra smoothness. Hi, im joan lunden. When my mother began forgetting things, we didnt know where to turn for more information. Thats why i recommend a free Service Called a place for mom. We have local Senior Living advisors who can answer your questions about dementia or memory care and, if necessary, help you find the right place for your mom or dad. We all want whats best for our parents, so call today. Your colds gonna make you a zombie tomorrow. Wrong. New mucinex nightshift fights my cold symptoms so i can sleep great and wake up human. Dont eat me i taste terrible. Fight your worst symptoms so you can sleep great and wake up human. New mucinex nightshift cold and flu. Evil is how some people in Eddie Gallaghers platoon are describing him. Members of sale team 7 alpha platoon broke their own code of silence in 2018 with their opinions about retired special operations chief Eddie Gallagher and some making accusations that the elite seal committed murder and potential war crimes. He got crazier and crazier. These are portions of recorded interviews published by the New York Times where team members tell investigators their views on the platoon leader. He was toxic. Gallagher was acquitted of premeditated murder when a key prosecution witness changed his story and testified under immunity that he caused the prisoners death, not gallagher. Did you suffocate him . Yes. How . I held my thumb over his et tube until he stopped breathing. He said it was an act of mer mercy, he was afraid the boy would be tortured by them. Gallagher was charged with taking a photo with a dead isis fighter and was demoted in rank. A decision that President Trump reversed allowing the seal to retire with honor even after pentagon leaders urged the president not to interfere. Speaking through his attorney, he said my first reaction to seeing the videos was surprise and disgust that they would make up plies aboy lies about me. But i quickly realized the they were scared the truth could come out of how cowardly they acted on deployment. It showed there was conflicting stories about allegations of gallagher killing civilians and other misconduct. Were seeing only one very small slice of the story in a way that is not reflective of what ultimate result was. The reversal of the militarys punishment against the advice of top pentagon officials was so controversial that Navy SecretaryRichard Spencer was ousted. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff say that the discipline will not suffer. We will maintain good order and discipline. We will not turn into a gang of rapeing, burning, and pillaging. It is just this i ddivisiven that the president s actions introduced that is the most damaging and will have longterm effects. Gallagher med with trump and he will campaign with trump. Barbara star, cnn, the pentagon. Here to discuss john kirby cnn diplomatic analyst and spokesman, good to see you. It is my experience having spent time with troops like this they almost never speak out against one of their own and yet clearly they do in in case. And im wondering what that says to you. The seals are certainly a tight knit group of social war fa warfair swa warfare sailors. They have an obligation to speak out and speck ak up when they s something go awry. I dont discount for a moment that it took moral courage for these guys to do this. They came forward tell their stor stores, but they were doing the right thing. They also, these particular sailors live by a code of honor and they felt like they were obliging that code. I was struck by the emotion in their voices as they spoke out. The president s decision to reverse the decision, what is the impact for members. I certainly would not want to speak for all members. There are people in the military that support donald trump, there are people that support his presidency and these actions, and i know there are seals out there that support achieve Djery Baptiste gfinish gallagher, and what the president did. What worries me is that the president s actions do two things, he needlessly interfered and he did not let the process complete. He was involved with gallaghers case in pretrial confinement. So he is intervening well, well in advance of what he should be and number two it sends a message to our allies and partners overseas that we may not be hold them to goo order and discipline like we say they are. It is a good message for people being counted on to act a certain way. They are discussing the possibility of him campaigning for trump. I have been thinking about this one and i have mixed feelings on it. He is allowed to allowed to participate in his rights, but what worries me about it is that it just risks further politici e politicizing himself. At the army and navy game wearing the make America Great again hat. So when i seem people can paining on him, they might take away the message that they belove to american trump, and that is concerning to me. Coming up, why joe biden would not testify if he was subpoenaed. Try finish jetdry. Thlook at all this ink no more bit comes with. Es. Big ink tanks. Lots of ink. No more cartridges. Incredible amount of ink. The epson ecotank. Just fill and chill. Mucinex cold flu allinone. Fights. Oh no. Nonono. Did you really need the caps lock . Mucinex cold and flu allinone. When it comes to using data, which is why Xfinity Mobile is a different kind of Wireless Network that lets you design your own data. Choose unlimited, shared data, or mix lines of each and switch any line, anytime. Giving you more choice and control compared to other top wireless carriers. Save up to 400 a year when you switch. Plus, unwrap 250 off a new samsung phone. Click, call or visit a store today. Right now several candidates are campaigning hard in iowa with a month until the nations caucuses including joe biden. The former Vice President is in townshipton today. The nn political reporter is on the ground in iowa for us and biden is tweeting about comments that he made yesterday regarding the impeachment trial, what can you tell us . That is right, yesterday he stirred some controversy in his interview with the Des Moines Register panel. He said he would not testify if he was subpoenaed. He was making it clear he thinks there is no legal basis to subpoena him. And he was trying to amplify that point and i just want to read you one of his tweets this morning, he said im just not going to pretend there is any legal basis. That is the point they was making yesterday. It is about trumps part, not i. Im wondering, you have been speaking to voters here innize and what are they telling you . It is so interesting, many voters are still undecided but this this particular room this morning i spoke to a lot of voters that said they were 90 of the way to joe biden and a lot of the reason nar is they feel that some of the other candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders might drag the party too far to the left and lets listen to one of the voters that i talked to this morning, terri ford who said she was worried about what might happen with their embrace of medicare for all. I dont think were ready for that, and that is me personally. I would not be i would look at it at some point in the future, but i dont think the country is there or iowans are there right now. I think they might lose the middle part of the electorate. And that is very much the point that voters are making here. Those that settled on biden is they feel he would be the acceptable choice. Thank you, good to see you there in iowa, thank you for your reporting. Still to come, secretary of state mike pompeo might run for senate, who could replace him as the top diplomat. She came to los angeles. I was 18 years old, and we formed a little band called the stone ponieponies. The whole thing broke loose. How can we define what this is going to be. She was the queen. She was the only female artist to have five platinum albums in a row. I cant help if im still in love with you, i became the first artist to have a hit on all three charts. She was the first female rock and roll star. The sound of my voice, new years day on cnn. air pump motors lamp crashes music its the final days of the wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. Liz, you nerd, cough if youre in here shhhh. I took mucinex dm for my phlegmy cough. What about robs dry cough . Works on that too. And last 12 hours. 12 hours . Who studies that long . mucinex dm relieves wet and dry coughs for 12 hours with 2 medicines in 1 pill. Hi dad. No. Edont try to get up. Hi, im julie, a right at home caregiver. And if id been caring for toms dad, i would have noticed some dizziness that could lead to balance issues. Thats because im trained to report any changes in behavior, no matter how small, so tom could have peace of mind. Well be right there. We have to go. Hey, tom. You should try right at home. Theyre great for us. The right care. Right at home. We have breaking news in lafayette, louisiana. Five people are dead and four others are dead after a small plane crashed into a field. The lafayette fire chief says theyre still not sure how many passengers were on the plane. There was a survivor that was transported to the hospital. Three people on the ground also taken to hospital. Lets bring in peter golds who is the manager director and a cnn aifuate analyst a aviatio analyst. What is the first thing theyre looking for here . First they lock down the records of the plane. They check the qualifications of the pilot, they check the k weather, and with this many fatalities they will look at weight and balance. That is a critical thing for particularly small planes. You have to have you cant be overweight, you to have the correct balance or the plane is youre putting yourself in jeopardy. This is, you know a real tragedy. What happens in holidays is people tend to get anxious about getting to their destinations and they fly in more marginal weather and these accidents are usually completely they can be avoided. The weight factor is one of the early things that go through my minds. The weather reports say the conditions at the airport were listed as fog mist with visibility about three quarters of a mile. Does it sound bad or what does that tell you . That is not bad if youre instrument rated. If it dropped down, that could have been a problem, but i think theyre going to look as you indicated the weight and balance. The maintenance of the plane, was there any indications from the pilot to the ground that he was having difficulty when he took off. Peter lastly, would they have a black box . It is unlikely they would have a trough decisional flight data recorder. But usually with 10 and under airport are not required. And that is the best it can do, unfortunately. Thank you for your insights. Thank you. It seems like President Trump is luking for a new secretary of state. Theyre looking for potential replacements from mike pompeo. The short list comes amid growing speculations. So lets go straight now to kevin who is in washington. What are you hearing about this possibility . This is all very preliminary for now and it is seen as a contingency plan should mike pompeo decide to jump into the race. Some Administration Officials are starting to toss about some names as potential replacements. Among them steve mnuchin. He has been in the administration for the entire time. Robert obrien, john bolton, and also very close to President Trump, and lastly steven beguin who has been running north korean negotiations for the white house. The biggest question is will mike pompeo jump into that race, but Senate Majority lead every Mitch Mcconnell urged him to think about it. He sees that pompeo would win that race. Mcconnell showed that polling to him and trump said that he would be in favor of pompeo jumping in the race if it looked like republicans were at risk of losing it. Speculation is ramping up. Mike pompeo is now on twitter. It is a softer tone, a more personal look at his life. He posted pictures of himself playing cards and drinking beer and doing dishes in adidas gym shorts. He has months to decide before the filing deadline. All right, kevin, great to see you, thank you. Still to come, protests both peaceful and violent gripped hong kong for much of the year. Well take a look back at that and the other Top International moments in 2019. Hello mom. Amandas moms appointment just got rescheduled for today. Amanda needs right at home. Our customized care plans provide as much or as little help as her mom requires. Whether its a ride to the doctor or help around the house. Oh, of course tom, i am really sorry. Ive gotta go. Look, call right at home. Get the right care. Right at home. [coughs] kim is now demonstrating her congestion. Save it, slimeball. Ive upgraded to mucinex. We still have 12 hours to australia. Mucinex lasts 12 hours, so im good. Now move kim nooooo mucinex has a patented tablet that lasts 3x longer, for 12 hours. When it comes to using data, which is why Xfinity Mobile is a different kind of Wireless Network that lets you design your own data. Choose unlimited, shared data, or mix lines of each and switch any line, anytime. Giving you more choice and control compared to other top wireless carriers. Save up to 400 a year when you switch. Plus, unwrap 250 off a new samsung phone. Click, call or visit a store today. grandson wow. grandfather that was me, seventy years ago. vo some things are worth preserving. You can choose the National Park foundation to get two hundred and fifty dollars from subaru when you get a new subaru, like the all new outback. vo 2 get 0. 9 during the subaru share the love event. Cnn is looking back at some of our biggest stories from this year, we have the top Nine International stories of 2019. As the decade comes to a close, so does another tumultuous year. Cnn was there as it all happened. Number nine. Ly surely leave the job that has been the honor of my life to hold. Teresa may stepping down after failing to secure brexit. The u. K. s withdrawal from the european union. She was replaced by boris jaurns and called for an early election hoping to break the impasse. Yes they will have a overwhelming mandate from this election to get brexit done. Many of those that lost their seats blamed Jeremy Corbin saying that he just wasnt the kind of leader they want. Boris johnson vowing to get brexit down by the send of january. Number eight, the persecution of these muslims. Families cut off from the outside world. The u. S. State Department Says they leave in prison like conditions. Locked up, not for what they did, but who they are. Members of muslim minorities from chinas far west. Human Rights Groups allege that the two million members are being detailed in sprawling secret camps. The Chinese Government denies this saying theyre voluntarily enrolled in Vocational Training centers. And a holy day meant for rest and worship turning deadly. Hundreds of people are killed in a wave of bombings. This is sri lanka. An intelligence memo raised the possibility of an attack. Two of the suicide bombers were brothers, members of a prominent family. Number six power in numbers. Citizens from almost every continent flood their city centers and demand systemic change. The mass protest against income inequality has gone on for more than two weeks. 20 people have been killed. Some protestors paid the highest price, but theyre movements force dictators out of power. This morning a military Transitional Council announced the end of albashirs reign. Confronting economic inequality, fought for democracy, and reaffirmed the under estimate power of a people united. The most wanted terrorist cornered and killed. Isis lead er albaghdadi is said to have been killed. He detonated a suicide crest killing himself and three children when he was cornered in a tunnel. He died like a dog, he died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place. U. S. Special forces were in the compound for about two hours and they were able to gather what is described as highly sensitive material on isis before pulling out and flying back to iraq. Announcing a new leader of the caliphate. A symbol of the destruction of the Islamic State but not its violent ideology. Police say these were the abs of a lone gun maps whose attack started on two mosques. It claims the lives of 51 people and wounds 49. We had to lift the bodies over top of other bodies on to stretchers. There was no those people were bleeding, and there was a lot of blood. The gunman, a 28yearold self described white supremacist armed with my tear weapons and Live Streaming the massacre from a helmet cam. He posted a manifesto that was 87 pages long. Today im announcing that new zealand will ban all military style semiautomatic weapons and also we will ban all assault rifles. A power struggle in venezuela ushering violence and poverty. The Opposition Leader undering the military lead tore join him to take to the streets to force out nicholas miduro. They say it was an inappropriate inauguration of miduro. President trump recognizes guido as president. They expel u. S. Diplomats from the country. The world watched while a stark message was sent. Human rights activists say theyre being backed up. The governments own oil company, but almost a full year later, miduro remains in power more resill yant than his opponents expected. As for the ven ezuelans, they continue to suffer from government inflation and hunger. Number two abandoning a commitment and creating a vac m vacuum. Turkeys president says the military offensive there has begun. Our soldiers have been coming back over that period of time. President trump making an abrupt announcement that he is withdrawaling u. S. Troops from northern syria. The move kurdish fighters. Cedeing power to turkey, and benefitting the regional ambitions of russia and iran. At number one, a Pro Democracy Movement fights for autonomy. Protestors are clashing with police as they mark 22 years since they were formally returned to china. Frustrations were ignited with a controversial extradition bill that would see mainland chinas authority over the region grow. At their peek, they estimate two million took to the streets. The bill was suspended. Violence and Property Damage grew and so did the protestors demands. They wanted an independent investigation into police actions. The release of all of those arrested, condition thats proved unpalettable. There is no end in sight for these short political divisions and this crisis that plunged hong kong into economic recession. The worst crisis they have seen in a generation. Remember you can end your area right here bring in the new year, the new decade, new years eve live begins at 8 00. On new years eve. From Mass Shootings to Cyber Attacks, a lot of issues to tackle in 2020. What federal and local officials a r examining, that is up next. Im a v. I. P, a very important pilot. Folks, when i drop off my cargo at 30,000 feet, i use v. I. P unlike aerosols that take on odors in the air, i spray v. I. P and trap them. So they never take off. The wait is over. Tmobile is lighting up 5g nationwide. While some 5g signals go only blocks, tmobile 5g goes miles. Beyond the big cities to the small towns. To the people. Now, millions of americans can have access to 5g on tmobile. And this is just the beginning. Tmobile, the first and only nationwide 5g network. 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What are some of the biggest security risks, say, for 2020. Unfortunately what were going to see in 2020 is a continuation of what we saw in the past year. Unfortunately some of our biggest and most critical risk elements that we faced in the past year will carry over and compound into the new year. Some of the things that i have been looking at are things like mass attacks. Targeted violence, you know within our communities, Cyber Attacks are an ever present danger. Election security, were coming into the president ial Election Year and we fail to have a National Strategy on how to protect our elector rate. You cant talk about risk without talking about natural disasters. The impact of the climate and these types of disasters. One thing that is important to talk about, martin, is that all of these things, the reason why theyre compounding is they failed to act over the last year. Whether it is turmoil with dha dhs, or thousand accuracy some of the natural did sas tsa. Yeah, how many shootings were there this year in the u. S. . The simple answer is too many. We saw over 412 of Mass Shootings that affected our community. These are preventable tragedies. In the past year we have failed to enact any type of policies that will prevent these tragedies. This is a partisan politics that replaced the need to protect ourselves. To date we have done nothing. Making sure this is a crate kal risk fa critical risk factor into the new year. There was metropolitan and civil governments, and that is a great problem, it really disturbs vote in general. Martin this is one of the broadest risk factors that i deal with. The targets from a cyber attack and what theyre focused on is so broad. Last year 2019 saw an increase. 7. 9 billion records were exposed. These are personal records, the risks are around denial of service, phishing campaigns, and to your point, ransom wear. Well see that into the future. The action that needs to be done, a federal entity, state enty, cyber audited, data protection, it comes down to governance and understanding the threats. And another threat that seems to be coming from seriovere weather. When we look at 2019, one of the most costly years of natural disasters. We had nearly 10 billion in expenditures going towards natural disasters. Hurricanes, floodings, and tragic wild fires. You cant deny they have not measured Climate Change on these natural i did sas tor disasters. We have to Start Building a more proactive policy towards aid greszing natural disasters. It means more resiliency models for cities affected by rising tides, changing weather, and listen, 2019 was a tough year in terms of risk. 2020 is going to be significant, and we have to build proactive strategies to address it now. Jonathan, thank you for breaking it down by the numbers. Thanks, martin. Coming up at the top of the hour while on holiday break, President Trump ponders his impeachment trial strategy and attacks the whistleblower. Mom, why do we always come here for the holidays . How did you find greatgrandmas recipe . Were related to them . Were portuguese . I thought we were hungarian . Grandpa, can you tell me the story again . Behind every question is a story waiting to be discovered. This is the epson no more buying cartridges. Big ink tanks. Lots of ink. Print about. This many pages. The epson ecotank. Just fill and chill. Mucinex cold flu allinone. Fights. Oh no. Nonono. Did you really need the caps lock . Mucinex cold and flu allinone. Thank you for joining me, five people are dead, one passenger surviving that crash after the plane went down into a field minutes after a takeoff that occurred this morning. The lafayette fire Department Says they are not sure how many people were on the plane. Three people on the ground were also