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Votes in New Hampshire; Interview with Donald Trump; Former Drug CEO
Pleads the Fifth; China Cracks Down on Critics Beyond Mainland; New
No-Nude "Playboy" Hits Stands. Aired 1-2a ET - Part 2>
And Hillary, the same day they said Donald Trump's tone, my tone is tough. And I said, you know, they are chopping off heads of Christians in the Middle East, all over the Middle East, ISIS. They are doing all sorts of things that haven't happened, it doesn't seem to me like since Medieval times. When you know, I used to read Medieval times they chopped off heads. I haven't seen that.
And then, you know, you look at what's happening in this world, how mean, how vicious it's become. And I have these people saying, well, Donald Trump's tone is tough. And the problem we have is everybody is so politically correct that our country is going to hell. So we're going to turn it around and hopefully we're going to do a great job. And -- by the way, I know we're going to do a great job. It's so easy. We're going to have the greatest business people.
Carl Icahn endorsed me the other day, all of the great business leaders. We're going to lose a lot of companies. You know, Pfizer is leaving and others are leaving that corporate inversions. They can't get their money back into the country because of stupidity. Everybody agrees they should get it back. Democrats and Republicans. They can't take it back. They are leaving the country. We're losing some of our greatest companies. They're leaving.
You know, Pfizer is going to Ireland. But they're going to Europe. They're going to Asia. I will stop that in two seconds.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Donald Trump there speaking with Anderson Cooper.
Coming up here next on CNN NEWSROOM, the former U.S. pharmaceutical executive who famously raised the price of a life-saving drug refuses to talk about it at a congressional hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: Do you think you've done anything wrong?
MARTIN SHKRELI, FORMER PHARMACEUTICAL EXECUTIVE: On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege against self- incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your questions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:30:38] VAUSE: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause, with the headlines this hour.
(HEADLINES)
VAUSE: A former drug CEO, who once defended his decision to hike the price of a life-saving medicine by 5,000 percent, is now keeping quiet. On Thursday, Martin Shkreli refused to answer questions about his business during a U.S. congressional hearing.
CNN's Claire Sebastian has more on what was a day of smirks on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SHKRELI, FORMER DRUG CEO: On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question.
CLAIRE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For a man whose outspoken nature earned him the nickname Pharma Bro, this was an usual display of restraint. During an increasingly tense exchange on Capitol Hill, members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform tried to provoke Shkreli.
REP. TRY GOWDY, (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Is it pronounced Shkreli?
SHKRELI: Yes, sir.
GOWDY: See there, you can answer some questions. That one didn't incriminate you.
SEBASTIAN: They tried to distract him.
GOWDY: We can even talk about the purchase of -- is it Lutanclan (ph)?
SEBASTIAN: They even tried to appeal to his better nature.
REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS, (D), MARYLAND: You can go down in history as the poster boy for greedy drug company executives, or you can change the system.
SEBASTIAN: Martin Shkreli earned that poster boy notoriety as a CEO at Turing when he raised the price of Daraprim, a drug used to treat AIDS patients by 5,000 percent.
In an e-mail obtained by Congress it's clear Shkreli immediately saw the profit potential in acquiring the drug, writing to the chairman, "Nice work as usual. $1 billion, here we come."
BENJAMIN BRAFMAN, LAWYER FOR MARTIN SHKRELI: I think it's extraordinarily unfair that Turing has been singled out for the unfair publicity they've received. And when all of the facts about Daraprim and Turing are ultimately disclosed, everyone will recognize that Mr. Shkreli is not a villain. He's not the bad boy. At the end of this story, he's a hero.
Excuse me.
SEBASTIAN: The reason behind his Fifth Amendment plea, he's currently on bail on securities fraud charges, facing a possible 20-year prison sentence.
And while he has spent much of his time cultivating support on Twitter, live streaming on YouTube and giving interviews, his new legal team has other ideas.
BRAFMAN: One of the conditions of my engagement was that from, hence forward, he does not speak to any member of the press at all until the criminal charges are resolved. We want to try this case in the courtroom and not in the media.
SEBASTIAN: Still, having exercised his Fifth Amendment rights Thursday, Martin Shkreli then employed the First. "He tweeted hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government."
Claire Sebastian, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Let's bring in a criminal defense attorney, Darren Kavinoky, for more.
(LAUGHTER)
DARREN KAVINOKY, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It's not like he has hoards of fans.
(LAUGHTER)
VAUSE: There's no hate mail coming your way.
KAVINOKY: Yes. VAUSE: He's not plenty going his way.
VAUSE: Let's start with taking the Fifth. There are two legal issues here. Congress subpoenaed Shkreli for price gouging for drugs. That's different from the other. The committee tried to make the case the two aren't related, therefore, he could actually testify.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Does that carry any weight?
KAVINOKY: No, not really. Ultimately, their pleas were great in terms of trying to invite him to talk because that's what they wanted. And that's what makes them look good.
In terms of legally what was in his best interest was to keep his mouths shut and, sadly, it seems like he has his moments where he fails there. And I really feel for Mr. Brafman, who is an excellent lawyer, but there's nothing more frustrating for a lawyer than when your client undoes all of your good work by failing to zip it.
[01:35:18] VAUSE: He kept his mouth closed but HE smirked and made ridiculous faces all throughout and looked like a -- you know. So --
(CROSSTALK)
KAVINOKY: There was -- it was inappropriate, yes. There were definitely some socially inappropriate reactions.
And what's really problematic for him ultimately is that he is facing these criminal charges. And the jurors that come to hear those criminal charges in a court of law are drawn from the court of public opinion where he is definitely a person on the most hated list.
(CROSSTALK)
KAVINOKY: Yes.
VAUSE: One of the members of the committee brought that up. He said, your clients should not behave this way because he could be facing a jury trial here.
KAVINOKY: Right. The way that it's going certainly he's under indictment now. So that's heading his way. That's heading his way. But in the meantime, this is very troubling for him and he's not making any friends.
VAUSE: He's the current poster boy for corporate greed.
(LAUGHTER)
KAVINOKY: Yes.
VAUSE: He didn't say a lot. But a day earlier, he was on the radio. This is something no defense lawyer likes to hear about. He told this radio show he could have been prosecuted for not maximizing the profits of his company.
(CROSSTALK)
KAVINOKY: For not maximizing the profits.
VAUSE: Yes. Where is that coming from?
KAVINOKY: It's almost like urban myth that executives say my obligations tor the shareholders and I owe them a fiduciary duty to maximize profits. That's a kernel of truth and then goes way afoul of what really -- there's no law that says you have to wring every penny out of potential profits. As a matter of fact, many corporations believe in doing corporate good. There's been a shift in the marketplace that recognizes that. So the notion that an executive would be somehow legally obligated to pursue every potential profit, it's really just misguided.
VAUSE: If he is sort of depending on this as a defense in any way --
(CROSSTALK)
KAVINOKY: He won't find any authority to back him up and he'll instead find smart, prudent business people have done the opposite where there's more prized about the authenticity. And look at what happens, for example, with the major pharmaceutical companies that say, hey, no more cigarettes. We're not going to sell cigarettes. Obviously, that cost them a lot of money but it creates more good will.
VAUSE: On the other side of the coin, hiking the price 5,000 percent, that's not illegal either.
KAVINOKY: No, no, it's not illegal to raise prices. Maybe in poor taste and --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Totally immoral.
KAVINOKY: And we can argue about the morality of it. But when we're talking about the legality, that's a very different conversation. That's why we saw Ben Brafman saying we're going to try this in a court of law, not the court of public opinion, because he loses mightily there.
VAUSE: If someone called him a dirtbag, could that person be sued for defamation?
KAVINOKY: I don't think so.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: You'll defend me?
KAVINOKY: A nice round figure for the fees, of course.
VAUSE: Appreciate it. Thank you.
KAVINOKY: You bet.
VAUSE: A short break here. There are growing concerns that officials on China's mainland of cracking down on critics well beyond their borders. Coming up, we'll hear from dissidents in foreign countries who say they no longer feel safe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(HEADLINES)
[01:43:33] VAUSE: The days of China's critics feeling safe in foreign lands may be coming to an end. A disturbing number of arrests, extraditions and mysterious disappearance of Chinese dissidents have recently taken place outside the country's border.
Let's get more from CNN senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson, live in Hong Kong.
Ivan, it seems China is showing that its reach stretches way beyond the mainland.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. And a mystery has been solved overnight, John. The Hong Kong police got a letter from the police in the Chinese city of Guangdong accounting for the disappearance of three Hong Kong booksellers who went missing nearly four months ago. The police in Guangdong saying that these three men are under investigation right now for, quote, "illegal activities on the mainland."
And they are just part of a much broader trend of critics of the Chinese government who just keep disappearing in neighboring countries and in cities like Hong Kong only to resurface months later in the hands of Chinese authorities.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WATSON (voice-over): A desperate appeal from a wife to her husband imprisoned halfway around the world.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): I want to tell my husband I hope we will see each other soon. I hope our family will reunite soon.
WATSON: Her husband is a former police officer in China who became a pro-democracy activist. Authorities threw him in prison several times for participating in protests. Last year, he fled with his wife and child to Thailand where they thought they'd be safe. He was suddenly arrested last October and, weeks later, despite objections from the United Nations, he and another Chinese exiles were extradited back to China where they appeared in this confession broadcast on Chinese state tv.
Gushuwah (ph) was left in shock.
[01:45:32] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): The Chinese government pressured him for so long that he ran away. Why did they still need to chase us?
WATSON (on camera): For decades, critics of the ruling Communist party ran across the border seeking refuge in Thailand. But now Chinese dissidents in Bangkok tell me they live in constant fear of being snatched and dragged back home by Chinese security services.
(voice-over): This is another Chinese activist who ran away to Thailand. She hasn't been back to her Bangkok apartment in days. Too frightened, she says, after at least four Chinese dissidents day peered from Thailand in less than four months.
(on camera): These are your UNHCR documents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
WATSON (voice-over): She and a fellow Chinese dissident have applied for asylum as political refugees with the U.N. in an effort to escape the long arm of the Chinese law.
(on camera): The decision to run away from your country, that's a very difficult and very big decision to make.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): I thought I would get protection in Bangkok and wouldn't have to live in fear of arrest all the time.
WATSON (voice-over): Most frightening for Chinese exiles, the case of this man. A well-known Swedish publisher of books critical of the leadership. He mysteriously disappeared from his condominium in October and was next shown on state TV in China in January in police custody. Police in Thailand say they have no record that he ever officially left the country. And they are investigating his possible kidnapping.
MIKE CHINOY, SENIOR FELLOW, U.S./CHINA INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: The Chinese government is trying to extend its reach to intimidate and silence critics outside of China.
WATSON: China expert Mike Chinoy argues the cross-border crackdown is part of a broader campaign by Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, to remove any threat to the Chinese Communist Party.
(SHOUTING)
CHINOY: The message is, if you cross us, our reach is so great that we'll get you wherever and it has, therefore, a deterrent on people who might think of doing the same thing.
WATSON: The Chinese government insists it's simply upholding the rule of law, adding that anyone who breaks the law will be punished.
A punishment she says her husband does not deserve. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (through translation): My husband told me he needs to see democracy in China. He will fight until the end.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATSON: Now, John, there's another disturbing trend we've seen in some of these cases that gives you a sense of the immense pressure the families feel. In several of the mysterious disappearances, after someone goes missing for weeks, then suddenly, let's say, a wife will get either text messages or written messages or a phone call from their missing loved one who will be rather cryptic. Say they are in China and say, I'm OK, please stop looking for me. Stop telling other people that I'm missing and I'll be in touch. And we can presume that that missing person is in the custody of the Chinese government, which is not always being very transparent about the treatment or whereabouts of these missing dissidents -- John?
VAUSE: Ivan, thank you. Ivan Watson with that lengthy report, but we appreciate it. Thank you. Ivan Watson live in Hong Kong.
Next here on CNN NEWSROOM, it's not your father's "Playboy." The men's magazine and the very big cover-up. We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:53:15] MATT LEBLANC, ACTOR: So, how you doing?
(LAUGHTER)
Hey. How you doing?
(LAUGHTER)
How you doing?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Joey is doing pretty good. The American actor and star of "Friends" has a new gig. The BBC announced Matt LeBlanc will join the show "Top Gear." The BBC did not renew the contract of the previous host, Jeremy Clarkson, after he allegedly hit a producer. Leblanc appeared twice on the show and holds the record for the fastest celebrity lap. He's the first non-British host in "Top Gear's" 39- year history. "Top Gear" is slated to return in May.
It's been a running joke since Hugh Hefner started "Playboy" in 1953, "We're just reading it for the articles."
But now, as Alison Kosik tells us, it's no longer a joke. "Playboy" has gone nude-free. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to add more mystery to the pages of "Playboy."
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Playboy's" radical reinvention is on newsstands now. What's changed? The models are keeping their clothes on.
Getting the first-ever non-nude issue of "Playboy" ready for primetime hasn't been easy.
(on camera): You've had to re-conceptualize a whole new "Playboy."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's true. We've been putting out four or five months of issues while also really tearing the magazine down to its core DNA.
KOSIK: Gone from the magazine, the tagline entertainment for men along with the stodgy jokes page. The magazine even feels different. It's bigger with thicker paper. And the photography leaves a little more to the imagination.
Like other magazines, "Playboy" is struggling. Internet porn has sapped "Playboy's" circulation, but no nudity opens the door to new advertisers like Dodge.
But "Playboy's" critics say the strategy is a mistake.
[01:55:12] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know Hefner is getting old because he's 90. Id didn't know he had lost his mind.
I thought "Playboy" felt they had to go in another direction. The problem is there is not another direction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hef has not lost his mind. Hef is leading the creative repositioning of "Playboy" to make it as relevant for today. We think we've transcended beyond the need for nudity.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And Alison Kosik with that report.
You have been watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause. Stay with us.
The news continues with Natalie Allen and George Howell at the CNN Center right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(Byline: John Vause, Sara Murray, Anderson Cooper, Claire Sebastian, Ivan Watson, Alison Kosik, Natalie Allen)
(Guest: Matthew Littman, Seema Mehta, Darren Kavinoky)
(High: Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders pointed out their differences in New Hampshire debate. Donald Trump focusing on New Hampshire amidst sharpening attacks from Ted Cruz. Donald Trump on increased events in New Hampshire, the results of Iowa caucuses, and trade economic issues. A former drug CEO, who once defended his decision to hike the price of a life-saving medicine by 5,000 percent, is now keeping quiet, and Martin Shkreli refused to answer questions, pleading the Fifth Amendment during an exchange on Capitol Hill with members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The days of China's critics feeling safe in foreign lands may be coming to an end, and a disturbing number of arrests, extraditions and mysterious disappearance of Chinese dissidents have recently taken place outside the country's border, and it seems China is showing that its reach stretches way beyond the mainland. "Playboy's" radical reinvention is on newsstands now, and the change is the models are keeping their clothes on, but getting the first-ever non-nude issue of "Playboy" ready for primetime hasn't been easy.)
(Spec: Barack Obama; Hillary Clinton; Bernie Sanders; Donald Trump; Ted Cruz; Marco Rubio; Government; Congress; Health and Medicine; Legislation; Polls; Politics; Policies; Cities; Immigration; Economy; Banking; Business; Trade; Middle East; Asia, Europe; Terrorism; Martin Shkreli; Turing Pharmaceuticals; Pharmaceuticals; House Committee on Oversight and Reform; Congress; Fifth Amendment; China; Hong Kong; Bangkok; Missing Persons; Arrests; "Playboy"; Women; Businesses; Asia; World Affairs)