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tv   The Lead With Jake Tapper  CNN  February 18, 2020 1:00pm-2:00pm PST

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children. if you'd 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. i'm 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 obama's 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 pal
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roger stone on thursday as the president flips out over the case threatening to sue everybody all over the place. this is cnn breaking news. welcome to "the lead." we begin today with breaking news after weeks of house and senate republicans claiming in the impeachment trial that president trump cares gravely about battling corruption. president trump this afternoon officially forgave crimes by powerful men who abused the powers for personal gains. and the post acquittal campaign of punishing the enemies and rewarding the friends and a world in which the prosecutors are seen as the bad guys and the criminals the good guys. the president announced that he is commuting the sentence of former illinois governor rod blagojevich who was a one-time star on his tv show "the celebrity apprentice." he plead guilty to trying to sell a open senate seat, as he
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put it on one moment. >> i have this thing, and it is [ bleep ] golden. i'm just not giving it up for nothing. >> president trump also pardonning former new york police chief bernard keric who was convicted of tax fraud, and allowing his office who wanted to do business with new york city to renovate his office and a gift that keric accepted and hid. this is two of the list of seven pardons and four commutations that the president announced today and what were the actions to benefit these two well connected powerful men who abused their position might mean when it comes to possible similar actions for the felonious trump aides such as paul manafort and michael flynn and roger stone. and now as kaitlan collins is reporting that he is making the moves just two days before his
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friend and confidant roger stone is to be sentenced. >> reporter: today, the president commuted the sentence of white collar criminals and commuted the sentence of the former illinois governor. >> yes, we have commuted the sentence of rod blagojevich. >> reporter: he was serving 14 years after essentially trying to sell barack obama's open senate seat for personal gain. he once appeared on "the apprentice" but he was fired on the show by trump. >> rod, you are fired. >> reporter: and lately trump has paid attention to efforts by his family to get him out of prison. >> i know that the president has a lot on his hands. >> i watched his wife on tv. >> reporter: and trump came close to commuting the sentence before being talked out of it by illinois republicans who said that he would have blowback of the pay-to-pay scheme that he campaigned against it. >> it was a prosecution by the
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same people, comey, fitzpatrick and the same group. >> reporter: today, the president pardoned former new york city commissioner bernie keric who was found guilty of eight felonies including tax fraud and lying to white house officials. >> yes, i pardoned bernie keric, a man who had many recommendations from a lot of good people. >> reporter: and the president has watched keric on fox news where he appeared last night. keric was also heavily involved in the case of eddie gallagher, the navy s.e.a.l. who was accused of war crimes who trump recently cleared. >> this is a retaliatory action by the admiral who has over seen this corrupt, and unethical and criminal investigation and should be booted from the navy s.e.a.l.s. >> reporter: he did not stop there, and he pardoned the owner of the san francisco 49ers eddie debartolo, and michael millken who is also known as the junk
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bonds king who is said to wipe clean his securities fraud scheme. >> he has paid a price, but he has done an incredible job. >> reporter: and the president would not say if he is considering leniency for his long time friend roger stone who is to be sentenced in two days. >> i have not given it any thought. >> reporter: and sources say that is not true and he has thought of pardonning him in recent weeks as others have lobbied him to do so. >> i am actually, the chief law enforcement officer of the country. >> reporter: and now, in total, jake, the president issued seven pardons and four commutations and he only mentioned the most prominent of the white collar offenders there, and only one had to do with drug offenses and one had to do with a stolen car ring. >> and now the discuss this is david cicilline who is serving
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on the house judiciary committee, and thank you for joining us. is the president's commutation and the pardonning of rod blagojevich, and michael millken and bernie keric inappropriate in your view? >> of course it s. this is. this is the president who is saying that he is genuinely concerned about corruption, and that is when he had this bogus investigation against his chief political power. the president of the united states is pardonning people who have power and abusing their positions for financial gain. and everyone in the country is entitled to equal justice under the law and so ju the sense that his cronies are entitled to one set of rules and everyone else has to follow another set of rules. this is a set-up of the considerationings of p ings for
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and paul manafort and others. and so when he said i have not thought about roger stone, that is laughable. >> and so these are not the first controversial pardons and commutations, would you -- and i don't know where you were in 2000, but would you have an issue with the pardon of marc rich that president clinton granted despite the fact that a lot of people thought that he should haven't done that and do you think in general that maybe there should be a rethinking of the pardon power for the president, and not just this president but any president? >> well, i think that past presidents have used restraint. i certainly haven't agreed with every pardon that have been issued for the past presidents, but there is an office of the office of pardons and you go through the process, but the president is issuing pardons the people who have abused the positions of trust and public corruption cases, and it is undermining the confidence in the way that the government is
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supposed to work. and he said that roger stone has been treated unfairly, and you know who has been treated unfairly? kevin bailey who has been 20 years in prison who was recently freed by the innocent project and those are people who have been treated unfairly, but to use the pardon power to take care of friends or the set the stage to provide the pardons or the clemency to your close associates is dangerous. what the president is doing is issuing these pardons on the eve of roger stone's sentencing so that he can now consider pardonning him and paul manafort and michael flynn, and that is dangerous and different, because when you are pardonning friends and close associates engaged in activities that have involved the president, a pardon in that context is very different. >> this is something that the president said about his involvement with the justice matters including the roger stone case. >> just so you understand, i chose not to be involved. i am allowed the be totally
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involved. i am actually the chief law enforcement officer of the country, but i have chosen no tot not to be involved. >> is he wrong about the authority? >> no, he is not the chief police officer of the country, and we have a chief attorney general who is the office that is not working for the president, but for the american people, and to uphold the constitution and the rule of law and improper for the president of the united states to mettle or interfere in any way in individual cases, sentencing recommendations. over 2,000 officials of the department of justice have condemned it and called on the attorney general to resign, but no, the president does not have the right to mettle in the individual cases in the justice department. our whole system is premised on the notion of blind justice and it does not matter who you are,
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but you are entitled to equal justice. and the people who know the president get one way of treatment and the people who don't get another kind of justice is not the way it is supposed to work. >> and frankly, the president is more emboldened than ever, and what options do you and haother house democrats have to check his power? >> well, we will of course have hearings on this, and there is a process that the president is expected to follow and in granting pardons or clemency. we will try to bring attention to this issue on behalf of the american people, and continue to do the oversight, but this the danger when you have a president who is engaged in grave misconduct and in the face of the overwhelming evidence to that, the republicans in the senate refuse to convict the president, and so he does feel like he can do anything that he wants and not accountable. that is the message that the senate sent to him, and when senator collins said that the president learned a lesson, and he did, it is that he can do
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whatever he wants. we cannot allow the president to behave this way, and the house is going to conduct the oversight responsibilities and ultimately the american people will have to decide in november if we want to have a four more years of this conduct of the president who believes he is above the law and corrupt the presidential election and corrupt the department of justice and mettle in the administration of justice and that is ultimately going to be decided by the voters in november. >> thank you, congressman cicilline. and coming up, "the apprentice" is not only thing that governor blagojevich and the president have in common. and coming up, we will take you inside of the coronavirus containment center. stay with us. my watch lists. karl! he took care of my 401k rollover. wow, you call a lot. yeah, well it's my money we're talking about here. help from a team that will exceed your expectations. ♪
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your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. we are back with the breaking news. if you think that president trump's announcement this afternoon came out of nowhere, that he is pardonning the former new york city police chief and
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commuting the sentence of illinois governor rod blagojevich and just go through the archives to find out where his favorite channel has hosted. and his wife has appeared there many times, and this is rod blagojevich's wife, patti, on fox. >> do you think that you are getting anywhere with the request with the president to pardon your husband? >> he has a lot on his hand, and all you have to do so look at the show tonight. but when he mentioned my husband last may, it did give us a tremendous amount of hope. >> and so, this is the way to get a pardon is to get friendly fox hosts to take on your cause and you appear on the channel until the president tweets it and then orders it. >> and the other way is to have a pending sentencing or possible
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jail term for someone who might have a lot of information on the president who is an acquaintance with the president. >> and he has not flipped. >> and roger stone who has not flipped and you want to remind roger stone and paul manafort who is having a tough time, and actually having been in jail for a bit to hang in there, and hang in there and i know to use the pardon power and guess what, maybe not until november 4th, the day of a election day, but he is going to use it then and he is signaling it then. >> and then accused of fraud and lying to officials and corruption and similar to what we have seen from president trump's associates and friends. >> in is the trump and who he is. he said to drain the swamp and look at the three here. keric, and tax fraud he was convicted for and michael milken and then of course rod blagojevich who is trying to sell a senate seat, and this is the scourge of corruption for
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blue-collar people, but he said that he didn't think that blagojevich has done anything that other politicians has done. and he thinks of a bad thing, and well, everybody does it, and he said that he seems like a nice guy. and just to be clear, he didn't try to sell obama's seat, but he withheld children's hospital contributions until he got a contribution. so for trump, it is like a bomber, and jim comey on the fbi and the wife on fox news and "celebrity apprentice" and this is a perfect trumpian storm. >> and to be clear, you were out of the loop on the marc rich pardon which i talked about earlier, and what would attorney general barr's involvement in all of this? theoretically, he was part of the discussions? >> well, we don't know that, but normally the pardon attorney does a extensive background investigation and talk to the prosecutors and get the
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recommendation. commutation is different than pardon. they look at age and illness and things like that, and the pardon attorney's office is an extinct animal and i don't know what kind of input they have, but the question is where is barr on this, and with milken, trump is again undermining the prosecution and saying it is a novel idea and this is not a novel prosecution idea and putting down the prosecution, and where is barr to stand up for, hey, we stand up for the prosecutions. >> and while he has been bad mouthing the prosecutors for a time now, and the delegation of illinois said they are disappointed with the decision to commute his sentence, and dick durbin said that blagojevich and the people of illinois should hold him accountable. and so there is bipartisan unity, and my question is if the five members of the illinois delegation going to do anything?
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>> well, probably not. what we have seen from the republicans so far, they could argue to give the president license to essentially do what they wanted to do, because of what happened previously in the administration, and obviously, the impeachment comes foremost to mind and so, they are going to be concern and that is about it. and so what we might be thinking the about months from now might not necessarily be these comm e commutations and pardons of the average people, right? that is something to get the bi-partisan support, and progressives and there are two people on the list who were women who were caught up in the drug trade and served multiple years in prison and whose sentences have been commuted. we have seen the president make the argument that he is on the side of criminal justice reform in a way that democrats have not been, and we have seen alice marie johnson and other folks on the list and particularly the two women used in the same way that donald trump has used them.
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>> that is not a -- >> no, if you are looking at the numbers barack obama actually commuted a process of nearly 4,000 people in the first two years and trump has done 200, and 24 people have pardons of which five were ordinary people, and 19 were connected to the white house, and so he has the lowest record when it comes to commutations and pardons. >> and now, you said that trump called the case stupid and i recall it. >> and stupid is not what the attorney general takes into consideration, and part of the criminal justice system. in terms of the integrity of the public system, it is gone, because there is no system at all, and he is choosing whoever he wants to choose and tends to be whoever has his attention at the moment. if you want people to respect the power of the executive, you have to make them feel like he is looking at the merits of the case and not whatever happens to catch his attention that night on fox. >> and whether or not they are
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his friends. >> and people he can put in the tv ads and think about that, you are pardonning the people so you can make appeals to certain communities in an election campaign and not entirely stupid as a pure political matter and yes, as sympathy, you might shea the margins, but it is a heck of a reason to. >> well, everyone, stick around and we have more to talk about ignoring the noise and the judge in the roger stone case is making a big announcement next. as parents of six, this network is one less thing i have to worry about. (vo) why the aceves family chose verizon. we all use our phones very differently. these two are always gaming and this one is always on facetime. and my oldest is learning to be a pilot. we need a reliable network because i need to know he's safe. as soon as he lands, he knows he better call mama. mama! (vo) the network more people rely on, gives you more.
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and we are back with the politics lead and amid the pardons and commutations from president trump, the long time adviser roger stone is going to be sentenced thursday by judge ami berman jackson, and despite the running commentary and interference from president trump. the president today backed stone's request for a new trial based on the admissions of a jury forewoman, and the judge says she will consider that separately. and his tweeting is putting him at odds with his own attorney general as sara murray explains. >> reporter: a federal judge says that roger stone is going to face sentencing as planned
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thursday despite the objections of stone's attorneys. in a 15-minute call with stone's attorneys and prosecutors, the judge did not address any of the background erupting in the stone case. >> major breaking case happening now, all four federal prosecutors have resigned. >> reporter: all four resigned after the justice leadership intervened to rescind a recommendation of 7 to 9 years for stone. president trump has suggested that the judge is biased. today, trump took stone's side again. >> i think it is a really, really rough thing that happened to roger stone. >> and appearing to quote a fox news contributor, trump tweeted that jackson has a request for a new trial with the ambiguous and biased statements from the foreperson of the jury. almost anybody would order a new trial. i don't know about judge jack
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so jackson, and i just don't know. and the judge said that she will consider whether he should get a new trial on a separate time line from the sentencing, and ob the me -- in the meantime, she will look at any sentence to be handed down and any sentence that he would not want to serve it while this is pending, jackson said. if he is sentenced to prison time, it is possible that the president could pardon him. >> are you going to pardon roger stone? >> i don't know at this time. he has been going through the process and i do believe he has been treated unfairly. >> and the president said that he is allowed to intervene, and he has lavished praise on attorney general william barr. >> the attorney general is a man with sbintegrity and i have chon not to be involved.
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i am allowed to be involved. >> reporter: and now, the judge says anybody to intervene in the politically sensitive cases is to be on hold, and there is also to be another conference call on this issue tomorrow. >> thank you, sarah m murray. and now, we will look at the strategy of michael bloomberg joining the debate stage for the first time. ♪ hey! you know, i do think it's weird you've started commuting when you work from home. i'll be in my office. download audible and start every day off right.
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we are going to win this election not because we are buying the airwaves as mr. bloomberg is, we are going to win this election because we are
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putting together the strongest grassroots movement that this country has ever seen. >> democratic frontrunner senator bernie sanders this afternoon calling out former new york mayor michael bloomberg by name. the latest salvo of the two who are topping a new marist poll, and bloomberg at second at 19 with sanders at 31%. and so that is opening the door for bloomberg to be on the debate stage in nevada, and the first time he is going to face his rivals. today, elizabeth warren said that it is a shame that mike bloomberg can buy into the debate, but now primary voters can look at how curious candidates will take on donald trump is a live demonstration of how we each take on a egomaniac billionaire. ouch. jeff zeleny explains that he is expecting much more incoming. >> we are a democracy and not an
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ole gar oligarchy and you won't buy this election. >> reporter: and bernie sanders is laying out the debate format for mr. bloomberg. >> we say to mr. bloomberg, you are certainly not going to win when you have a record in new york that included racist policies like stop and frisk. >> reporter: sanders is establishing himself as the candidate to beat in the democratic primary fight, and taking a commanding lead over bloomberg in a national poll, and with the long-time frontrunner joe biden falling behind. >> and if trying to figure out all kinds of ways of how do we stop bernie and the movement. but they are not going to succeed. >> reporter: bloomberg will get the first face-to-face opportunity wednesday. after qualifying to join the democratic rivals on stage for the first time. the former new york city mayor who is spending more than $400 million in ads alone in hopes of
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making a super tuesday splash has been tangling with sanders. his campaign is using and online video to accuse sanders of failing to control the vitriol of some of his supporters and still bloomberg tenne enters th debate with controversial policies of his own, stop and frisk, and sexual allegations, and other parts of his life. and the democratic competitors are waiting for this moment. >> we are asking you the choose between the revolution and the billionaire who is hoping to buy your way in. >> reporter: and yet, bloomberg is presenting another ad presenting himself as a partner to barack obama, one of the most revered figures of the party. >> he has been a leader in the country for the last 12 years, and mr. michael bloomberg is here. >> reporter: now all of this is happening as the democrats in nd
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are scrambli -- in nevada are scrambling for votes. and democrats here are trying to avoid a meltdown of the iowa caucus situation. one challenge is melding in-person vote with the campaign votes saturday, and the campaigns are still curious how is it going to work. >> thank you, jeff zeleny reporting from las vegas. and looking at bernie sanders, he has a commanding lead in the new nbc/pbs/marist poll. and bloomberg is second place with 19%, and biden is 15%, and warren with 12, and klobuchar, 9 and so this is just one poll, but after the popular vote win in iowa and winning in new hampshire, he has more money, more organization, and ahead in all of the national polls, and bernie sanders is the fro frontrunn frontrunner. >> yes, he is going to be in a
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state that he did well, and strong with the latinos there. and as you will see in the poll, he is very good with the african-americans as well, and he is essentially tied with biden and so it is sanders who has been able to consolidate the conservative wing, and we will see what happens on the debate stage. biden faded more generally in the race. and bloomberg has really, i think that he has taken a bite out of biden. in terms of the moderate voters and conservative voters, and he is in everyone's living room all of the time and i have joked that i have never seen so many african-americans on political ads as i have with michael bloomberg and he is on all of the channels that african-americans watch like cnn and own, and he has been able to connect with the african-american voters so much which is surprising given the background and so he is going to have a target on his back in
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this debate. >> and aisha, the nevada caucus is saturday and then the following saturday and then it is a national campaign of three super tuesdays in a row in which you need money and organization. sanders has it. bloomberg has it. does anybody else? >> well, that is the thing right now, and you will see it in the debate tomorrow night someone trying to really this could be the last stand for some of the candidates who are trying to show that they belong in the race. biden is not wanting to have a bad showing in nevada and south carolina is the last stand, right? he needs to show himself. you will have warren, and they are going to be trying to make sure that this doesn't become a bloomberg and sanders race. at this point, you do see the progressive wing lining up behind sanders mostly, and then you have a split with bloomberg and biden and all of the others, and klobuchar and buttigieg, and
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so the question is does this end up being something that ultimately helps sanders, because you have the rest of the vote split. if you is people staying in, it could be like what happened in 2016 with trump where you have all of the others who didn't consolidate and it helped trump. >> and mat ti, otmatty, one of that they are going after bloomberg is the safety net programs, and he says he wants to help people save for retirement, but bloomberg also in 2012 supported cutting them. >> there is a way to slow sli decrease the benefits or raise the eligibility age for medicare and social security, and there's a way to have more copay on the medicaid which is two things, one, the users of the services will pay more and two, they will think twice before they use the services. >> well, bloomberg has a long
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record of calling for cuts. it is not surprising that he is supporting austerity and cuts to the programs. the sanders' campaign used that attack line very well against joe biden. so obviously, are they going to use it against bloomberg more than anyone else. and bernie sanders is the frontrunner by everyone -- >> not by everyone. not me. >> and you and i have had a discussion for a long time, and people thought that it was finished and warren had it locked up, so that is astonishing no matter of what you think of him. quickly, a lot of people, and a friend of my mother's said, why do you like bloomberg, and it is because of the ad with obama, and he did not endorse him in 2012, and reluctantly did in 2016, but these ads are
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shameless, but they are working. >> and homeless republicans like you, crystal, who like the idea of bloomberg? >> because he is a republican. president obama endorsed him and you buried the lead. there is a clip of obama praising him. but you can believe him instead of president obama is what i would say on behalf of mayor bloomberg. >> and coming up a special look at the biocenter containment center that americans are calling home for the next week because of the coronavirus. woman: my reputation was trashed online.
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>> the health lead now, and special biocontainment center used in the ebola outbreak has been reactivated for 13 americans with the coronavirus. all of them were evacuated off of a cruise ship in japan to u.s. soil and moved to the specialized facility in omaha,
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nebraska. nick watt has a look inside as the experts are trying to keep the virus from further spreading. >> reporter: for 13 americans evacuated from the diamond princess cruise ship, this is home for at least the next two weeks. there's a tv, wi-fi, expert care, but -- >> no clothes. no toothbrush, no brush. no nothing. >> reporter: she's in the quarantine unit right now, but jerry serrati's husband carl has tested positive for the virus. we spoke to him on the phone, and he is upbeat being treated by a doctor and nurse with hazmat suits. >> we feel that we are doing something good for the national good. these are u.s. citizens that need to come home and we want to make sure they are doing it safely. >> reporter: this unit was
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designed for victims of the ebola outbreak, and for those with bioattack or those with a communicable disease like this one. >> today, the risk is minimal, but if it is turning into the global pandemic, we could have a significant problem. >> reporter: earlier in the month, researchers found that the coronavirus can survive on glass, metal or plastic for nine days if the surface has not been disinfected. china central bank is deep cleaning or destroying potentially infected cash. chinese authorities have calculated this coronavirus death rate at 2.3% among those infected and that may fall. right now, it is higher than influenza which is hovering around 0.1%, and other previous outbreaks of sars with a 9.6%
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outbreak, and mers with 35%. there are another 92 americans right now on board of another cruise ship docked in cambodia, and we no e that the woman who left that ship has since tested positive for the virus, and the concern is if she did infect other passengers before she went. jake. >> thank you, nick watt. how the confidential conversation of a therapist and patient are now being used by thump administration to keep undocumented kids behind bars that. story is next. digital transformation never stops. verizon keeps business ready for what's next. (man) we weave security into their business... (second man) virtualize their operations... (third man) and could even build ai into their customer experiences. we also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. like 5g. (woman) where machines could talk to each other and expertise could go anywhere. (woman) when it comes to digital transformation, verizon keeps business ready. ♪
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try to win by attacking, now, we know the trump strategy- distorting, dividing. mr. president: it. won't. work. newspapers report bloomberg is the democrat trump fears most.
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in the national lead, he ran for his life and he has been in u.s. detention since. his imprisonment extended because after he spoke confe den shally or so he thought with a therapist, notes were passed to immigration officials and used against him. in a new report from the washington post, 17-year-old kevin useda fled after gang members of ms-17 sought him. and now he has more trauma that is adding to the trauma. we have more on the story. and thank you for breaking the story and coming n. you write that this information sharing is legal technically, but considered by experts to be ethical, and it is the trump administration to change the rules so that the confidential
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rules can be used against the patients in court? >> yes, the children have been required to see the therapists at least once a week for their own good, because they are coming up with severe trauma. what has changed under the trump administration is that now whenever a kid talks about gang involvement or drugs or gang dealings that are confidential, the therapist has to report it within four hours. >> any kind of gang activity. >> yes, without exception. >> and talk about kevin and what he told about the therapist and what the report said in court. he told the therapist about being abandoned by his parents and raised by his alcoholic mother, and then after the grandmother died the ms-17 took over the shack, and they put him to work selling drugs, and then the report used in immigration court says that youth reports
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violence, and the child self-disclosed selling drugs and reports to being part of witnessing, and torturing and including the dismembering of body parts, and so they are taking his trauma and using it against him. >> they are taking the things that he told a therapist in confidence after she said it is confidential and using it in open court. one thing that is important to note is that thousands of kids are forcibly recruited into gangs in central america, and that is a major reason that they come up to ask for asylum, and in kevin's case, one part of the federal government has certified him as a victim of severe human trafficking, and so he is a victim of trafficking -- >> which part of the government says that? >> the department of health and human services. >> so the hhs says he is a victim of human trafficking. >> and i.c.e. says it does not matter, because he sold drugs for this gang and he is dangerous. >> and he sold drugs in honduras, and they only know that because he told the
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therapist. >> that is right. and i.c.e. knew that he had sold drugs in honduras because they showed up and filed the notes that the therapist had written with the judge. >> and that is the prime evidence against him? >> yes, the prime evidence against him. >> and i.c.e. must understand that a lot of the kids coming here are forced to do these things that the criminal activity they are part of, they were forced to do or they would be killed. >> well, i.c.e. says if the shelters where the migrant children are held, they are handing over the notes, they have to be used in court, and if the kid is selling drugs or forced to sell drugs from the i.c.e.'s perspective, if they have the notes, they have to use them. >> but i.c.e. is demanding the notes? >> well, it is the shelters, the office of refugee resettlement who has agreed to start sharing the notes with i.c.e. so it used to be that a kid would say something in therapy
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that might be shared within the child welfare agency that oversees the shelters, but now if a kid says something in therapy, it is passed over the i.c.e. >> and now, some are keeping two sets of clinical notes or leaving it out, and what happens with the therapist that kevin spoke with? >> the therapist that kevin spoke with said that she had no idea that her report would be passed to i.c.e. and used in court, and she resigned after the story. >> and she quit. it is a horrible story, and thank you very much, and it is a well written story, but it is heartbreaking that this is happening. thank you, hannah dreier. tonight, we will be talking to the democratic candidates at their town halls. bernie sanders, pete buttigieg and amy klobuchar, and then tomorrow night, joe biden and elizabeth warren. you can follow me on cnn
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or @jaketapper, and cnn continues. we will see you tomorrow. happening now, a pardon, and president trump commutes the sentence of former illinois governor and "celebrity apprentice" contestant rod blagojevich, and former nyc police chief bernie keric. and now, the president says that he is backing attorney general barr, and he says that he is allowed to get into the stone case, but he has chosen not to. and now, bernie sanders is leading by double digits in a brand-new poll a couple of days before the nevada caucus. and now, michael bloomberg ces