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Macron And Le Pen Move To May 7 Run-Off; North Korea Threatens To Sink U.S. Aircraft Carrier; North Korea Detains American Professor; Government Shutdown Looms Over Trump Milestone; World Reacts To Earth Day Science Rallies; Macron, le Pen Move to May 7 French Election Runoff; Impact of Trump's Executive Actions; CNN's Camerota: Ailes Sexually Harassed Me; Global Marches for Science on Earth Day. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired April 24, 2017 - 01:00   ET

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


[01:00:00] CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: A historic moment for France, as voters reject establishment parties and send two outsiders to a runoff.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, U.S. President Trump calls the Chinese leader and Japan's leader as North Korea threaten to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier.

VANIER: And as he approaches 100 days in office, we look at how effective President Trump's executive orders truly are.

ALLEN: It's all ahead here. Thank you for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.

VANIER: And I'm Cyril Vanier. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

ALLEN: We begin in France. French voters have turned their backs on establishment politicians. The first round of the Presidential election on Sunday narrowed down the field to Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen: a relative political newcomer and a far-right populist. It is a stunning victory for Macron, an independent who has never held elected office. Just 39 years old, he supports globalization, the Euro, and the European Union.

VANIER: He's the complete opposite of his challenger, Marine Le Pen. The far-right leader promises to cut immigration and hold a referendum on leaving the E.U. if she is elected. Also, worth noting, Le Pen's second-place finish suggests that the populist trend that brought shock results in Britain and in the U.S., may not be sweeping over France.

ALLEN: Here's a look at the results so far with 97 percent of the vote counted. One French journalist called the rejection of the mainstream parties "a political earthquake." Macron echoed that assessment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, FORMER FRENCH MINISTER OF THE ECONOMY, FINANCE, AND INDUSTRY (through translator): In one year, we have changed the face of French politics. The love of country and drive for the greater good beyond what divides as one tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Protesters unhappy with both Macron and Le Pen clashed with police in Paris. Police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators. Now, Paris correspondent, Melissa Bell, is with us. Melissa, I'd like you to listen to this short excerpt from Mr. Macron's speech on Sunday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACRON: The challenge now, is to put a total end to this system which has failed to solve our problems for more than 30 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: So, Mr. Macron says he wants a complete break from the way politics have been done in the past in France. But this is my question. He was a minister, not that long ago, in this deeply unpopular government under Francois Hollande. So, what really are his outsider credentials?

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, apart from what he is - and you're right, he was a minister for two years. But still, he has achieved what many have regarded as impossible by reaching the second round of France's Presidential election with no established party behind him and never having been elected to anything. His time as economy minister was the result of an appointment for just over two years by Francois Hollande. But beyond that, there is what he is suggesting. And you have to understand that we're looking at this wave, this sweeping wave of a thirst for change. But every time you have to look at the politics of a country, the particular context of a country, to understand how that desire for change might express itself.

Here in France, you have a very particular political structure with political elites that all come out of the same school essentially, that tend to spend not years but decades in power. You need only look at the primary race on the right, on the republican right. The people who are standing, were all former presidents, former prime ministers, and one of them had been prime minister for nearly 1990's. These are people who are professional politicians. They come to power. They stay in power, and they reinforce one another's power once they arrive there.

This is what Emmanuel Macron has said he wants to reject. And of course, the narrative that has helped him throughout this political campaign has been the inquiry that has dogged Francois Fillon, sort of a reminder of the fact that political elites can get themselves into trouble. They can dip their hands into the pot, and they can find themselves facing unseemly inquiries that have to do with the fact that they've simply been in power for too long, Cyril.

VANIER: So, Mr. Macron doesn't have a big apparatus around him. It's all about him - about the man, Emmanuel Macron. But in the next two weeks, isn't he going to have to be more specific about who he might govern with? And if so, is that something that could hurt him?

BELL: That is the big question. First of all, there's going to be the question of whom he's going to appoint to his government. Now, he's been very careful so far. Every time he had an endorsement, for instance, from the Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls. He said that's great. That's one more vote, but he will not get a place in my government. He's going to have to stick to that line to convince people that they are not voting for the second sort of Francois Hollande government, for another socialist government. He's going to have to resist the temptation, precisely, to put those political elites back into power in his government and stick to what he's promised, which is a renewal of the French political system.

He wants people who've never been in politics before. He wants to put in the ministries and he only wants about 15 minutes. And he only wants a fairly restrained government, fairly small government by French standards, and he wants people drawn from civil society who've had other kinds of jobs. Then for the parliamentary election, his plan is to get a parliamentary majority when he has zero seats for the time being. So, his movement will have people standing in all 570 constituencies. He believes that he can get half of those seats, Cyril.

[01:05:42] VANIER: Well, fascinating time in French politics. It's going to be an interesting two weeks. You'll be there to walk us through it. Thank you very much, Melissa Bell, in Paris.

ALLEN: And we'll see Cyril over there as well soon reporting. We'll look forward to that. Well, though Le Pen came in second in the field of 11 candidates, her supporters are not discouraged.

VANIER: Our Jim Bittermann is at Le Pen headquarters with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: While Marine Le Pen may have come in second, but here at her campaign headquarters up in the northeast of France, people are not taking it as a second-ranked victory at all. In fact, they're celebrating it as a total victory. There were some expectations, especially at the end of a campaign that perhaps her support was weakening. But it's obviously not the case, and they are now going to be into the second round of the election, which is all that's important for these people who are singing and dancing into the wee hours of the night up here.

But Marine Le Pen has really got her work cut out for her in the next few weeks. She's got exactly two weeks in which to convince enough French voters to bring her over the 50 percent mark that she's got the right plan to lead the country. And frankly, right at the moment, given the spate of play of the political parties, she's got a long, uphill battle. So, we'll see if she can pull it off. We talked to her foreign policy adviser tonight. He said the issues as far as he was concerned are going to revolve around Europe, and globalization, immigration, and unemployment.

MARINE LE PEN, NATIONAL FRONT PRESIDENT (through translator): The French people must seize this opportunity because the enormous challenge of this election is the wild globalization which puts our civilization at risk. Either we continue to disintegrate without any borders, without any controls, delocalization, unfair international competition, mass immigration, and the free circulation of terrorists, or you choose France, with borders which are protected, industries, our people, and international security.

BITTERMANN: And those are, certainly, issues which appeal to the people up here in this part of France. Jim Bittermann, CNN, Henin- Beaumont, France.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Let's try and find out how this might shake out with Dominic Thomas. He's the Chair of the Department of French and Francophone Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He's been following this with us, really, for the past few days. He joins us from Paris. Dominic, good to have you back. Let's start looking at the French equivalent of the electoral math here because the majority of voters in this first round actually didn't vote for either Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen. They voted for one of the nine other candidates. That means, more than 50 percent of the vote is going to have to switch between the first and the second round to either Mr. Macron or Ms. Le Pen. How do you think the electoral math might work out?

DOMINIC THOMAS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE STUDIES CHAIRMAN: Right. Well, the other interesting aspect is also, that about 23 percent didn't vote or destroyed their ballot. So, you have a fairly large, you know, constituency that's about the equivalent of one of the first two parties that didn't even bother going to the ballots. What was so extraordinary is that as the results came in last night, was the speed with which other candidates immediately endorsed Emmanuel Macron.

Francois Fillon, the leader of La Republican; Benoit Hamon, the socialist, and a whole range of leaders from both sides of the political spectrum. From Alain Juppe, spoke out; (INAUDIBLE), and on the right as well. Ad so, a lot of those endorsements sort of pointed really to the ways in which the map is going to work its way over the next couple of weeks. I think there's little doubt that Emmanuel Macron will win in two weeks' time. The big questions, though, are going to come down to issues of, you know, what kind of France is he representing, what are their thoughts of agendas? What happens to those people?

VANIER: Dominic, before we get to that though, before we get to that, the endorsements. Do you think it's really automatic that if Francois Fillon calls the vote for Emmanuel Macron as he did, then his 20 percent automatically go to Emmanuel Macron? Does it really work that way? If so, is it the kiss of death from an establishment politician given this anti-establishment atmosphere?

THOMAS: There is an anti-establishment atmosphere, but we're dealing with a four national here. This is a long old story from the four national, he's always been talking about It's always been talking about amalgamations between parties. It's, of course, the main argument that she has, there's this elite that keeps staying in power. It just changes. In this particular case, there are no mainstream parties in the second round.

But what she will say it's essentially the same people. They're just calling themselves by different names. But absolutely as it goes along, no, of course not all these people will show up, and not all these people will vote for him. But it gives you a pretty solid indication as to the sort of ways in which people are going to respond to this, of not tolerating someone like Marine Le Pen.

I think they do realize that votes count and have consequences, and a Marine Le Pen presidency would not be a good thing for France. That also means thunder showers. Here's a significant portion of the population that is disillusioned. And the responsibility of the new leadership is not to marginalize those people but to try and understand a little better what it is that is accounting for this rise of populist movement around Europe. Let's not forget that Jean-Luc Melenchon's party is very close to the Podemos, Spain's populist left- wing party, and then he did very well in this election.

He in fact, completely decimated, the socialist party and is now really the only left standing leader in this country. So, I think that has toe looked at very carefully as well. The sorts of people that he appeals to. He doesn't have the seen xenophobic agenda, and the nationalist protects Marine Le Pen, but he also represents a lot of people that are not pro-Europe and certainly a close disparity measures. And those kinds of things that are the fault lines upon which the populist right has built its constituency in Europe.

[01:11:37] VANIER: Tell me a little bit more about, as far as you're concerned, the strength or the weakness of the far-right party right now the Front National, because they came in a close second to Emmanuel Macron. By all accounts, that is a strong showing, especially if you compare it to previous French Presidential elections. But on the other hand, if you look at the French political context, it was extremely favorable to Marine Le Pen. There's defiance towards the E.U., there was uncontrolled immigration not long before the Presidential election. There's a string of terror attacks, and yet she doesn't come in first. She doesn't get more votes than about 20 percent that she got. Do you think the glass is half full or half empty for the National Front right now?

THOMAS: Well, they're doing better. Let's not forget about it that even if the Dutch elections, you know, Wilders, of course, did not get a substantial amount of votes to really, really make it sort of impossible for him to not be involved in the coalition discussions. He was pushed aside. Marine Le Pen scored over 7 million votes. This is the best that she has performed. Let's not forget that 15 years ago, her father made it through. So, the right is a - the far right is a permanent feature in French politics. But she has improved her constituency and the kinds of issues that she has been focusing on, particularly since during this campaign she tried to modernize the party, to move it away from some of the real extremist rhetoric of her father. She's struggled with that. There's still legacies of this sort of

anti-Semitic, racist elements in the political party, that the issues she's addressing about globalization, border control, and the confusion over the discussion with migration, with the question of Islam in France and so on, mean that these questions are not about to go away. And Marine Le Pen did not do as well as she thought she would do. But she is still a figure on the French political landscape that people cannot ignore.

VANIER: Dominic Thomas, thank you very much. Live from Paris. Thanks.

ALLEN: Beautiful morning there in Paris. Well, reaction to the French results was mixed in Asian markets. Let's look at the numbers for you. The Nikkei is up 1.38. Hang Seng down 0.08 percent. The Shanghai composite is down 1.56. And the Australia S&P ASX 200 is up 0.19 percent.

VANIER: But there was investor relief elsewhere. The euro jumped against the dollar reaching its highest level since November, and futures markets also indicated gains of more than 0.5 percent on the Dow Jones and S&P Indices. Let's move on to another subject now, tensions with North Korea are rising again. U.S. President Donald Trump had separate phone conversations with the Japanese Prime Minister and the Chinese President.

ALLEN: And Pyongyang is, meantime, threatening to take out this, right here. The U.S. aircraft carrier making its way to the Korean Peninsula right now. CNN is following this story from across the region, our Paula Hancocks is in Seoul, South Korea, for us. But let's start with David McKenzie, he's following this in Beijing. What do we know about these conversations that these leaders have had about this very, very tense situation, David?

[01:14:50] DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. It is a tense situation, Natalie. And these are very critical phone calls from the U.S. President Trump to his counterparts in Japan and China. Let's start with the Chinese version of that call. Now, it's worth reminding our viewers that these are just official versions of these phone calls. We don't get a transcript, of course, of these conversations. But you can glean something out of what Chinese state media said about that phone call with Xi Jinping. President Trump has had repeated conversations with Xi Jinping on the issue of North Korea and the danger that, that continued rhetoric from North Korea and frankly the U.S. is having in this region.

Now, what you get from that phone call from state media here in China is that a real sense that China has tried to ease the tensions, saying that they shouldn't take a provocative actions, not specifying who, but that include both the U.S. and North Korea, calling on the sides to exercise restraint. And in recent days, you've yet again had China calling for talks to resume to try and diffuse the situation. China is trying to really calm tensions. At the same time, President Trump has said in recent days that certainly China, in his mind, holds the key to this problem because of the economic pressure that it bears on North Korea. No mention of that yet about this phone call. Now, there's a sharp contrast, of course, with the conversation with Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister of Japan. He said that Shinzo Abe said that he sees this as not just an international threat but specifically a dangerous threat to Japan. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[01:16:40] SHINZO ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I told President Trump that I appreciated his stance, showing with his words and actions that all options are on the table. We agreed to keep calling strongly on North Korea to refrain from provocative moves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: And in its allegiance with the U.S., Japan has also sent two destroyers to join the carrier strike group from the U.S., which is now heading towards the region. Natalie.

ALLEN: One follow-up to you, David. What about China's? Any indications they are putting a choke hold as far as giving fuel to North Korea to help keep their military machine going?

MCKENZIE: Well, what you have seen in recent days is the Chinese state media not always the most official state media, but you do get a sense of what the feeling in China is, that all options economically in terms of trade could be on the table, certainly not a military option. But there is some talk in the state media here, some chatter about possibly moving on to some kind of fuel embargo if North Korea were to do that sixth nuclear test. We're not at that point yet, but certainly, China holds the key to the economic flow in and out of North Korea. Natalie.

ALLEN: All right, David, thank you. Stand by we'll touch base with Paula Hancocks there in Seoul, always covering that angle for us. Paula, what's the latest there? The feeling that these harsh words from North Korea about striking a U.S. aircraft carrier.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Natalie, this is rhetoric that we have heard before from North Korea. The latest, of course, being that threat that they would try and take out the USS Carl Vinson in one strike using all their military force. This was an article that was written in a North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun. It is the sort of rhetoric we have heard consistently from North Korea, but we have noticed in recent weeks that there has been an awful lot of articles and statements against the USS Carl Vinson.

The fact that that the President Trump said it would be coming back to the region, to this area off the Korean peninsula, and then, of course, the confusion as to when exactly it would be coming back. Officials now say that they believe it will be by the end of the month. We also know that South Korean officials, according to the Defense Ministry, say that they're hoping to have some kind of military drills. They say they're having ongoing talks at this point to have some kind of military drills with the USS Carl Vinson. So certainly those in the region, Japan, South Korea making the most of the fact that there is extra U.S. military hardware if not in the region, on its way back to this area. Natalie.

ALLEN: And yes and another facet of this story is that North Korea has detained yet again another Westerner, a professor from the United States. What do we know about that?

HANCOCKS: That's right. This is a man called Tony Kim, and we understand that he used to teach at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. We have a statement from PUST, and they have said that they believe he was detained at Pyongyang airport, saying that they understand the investigations into him are nothing to do with his teaching at PUST but did not give any indication as to why he may have been picked up by authorities. And we also heard from the Swedish Embassy, of course, Sweden acts on behalf of the United States in North Korea as the United States has no diplomatic ties with North Korea. And an Embassy official said that he had been trying to get onto a plane to leave Pyongyang, and then he was taken. No official word from North Korea at this point, though. Natalie.

[01:20:25] ALLEN: All right. We thank you, Paula Hancocks there in Seoul, David McKenzie in Beijing for us. Thank you.

VANIER: And still ahead on the show, a government shutdown hangs over a major milestone for the U.S. President. Can Congress come up with a spending bill that both parties will approve?

ALLEN: Plus, science demonstrations took place in cities around the world Saturday. We'll hear from a conservation international official on what more needs to be done, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: We look at U.S. politics now. Donald Trump coming up on 100 days as U.S. President, but there is a cloud hanging over that milestone, a possible government shutdown.

VANIER: A Congress has until midnight Friday to pass a spending bill to continue funding the government. But Republicans and Democrats can't agree on what should be included in that bill. White House Correspondent, Athena Jones reports.

ATHENA JONES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: A big week ahead here in Washington. A lot on the agenda, and a big deadline looming on Friday. That, of course, is the deadline for Congress to pass a must- pass spending bill in order to avert a government shutdown. Now, the White House -- folks here insist that they're not going to allow the government to shut down, but they also point out that they've made their priorities very clear to the folks on Capitol Hill. They've told them what they want to see included in this spending bill. Among those priorities, more money to hire immigration agents, also, money for the border wall.

Now, Democrats have already said it that is a non-starter. They do not want to see money for a border wall included in this spending bill. They also don't want to see money for additional immigration agents included in this bill. So the big question is will the President insist on border wall funding and will he sign a bill that doesn't include it? Several administration officials spoke about the importance of border security and this border wall in recent interviews. Take a look at what Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Budget Director -

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Will the President go to the -- and insist on funding his border as part of the stopgap government funding measure?

JOHN KELLY, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Well Dana, I think it goes without saying that the President has been pretty straightforward about his desire and the need for a border wall. So I would suspect he'll do the right thing for sure, but I will suspect he will be insistent on the funding.

MICK MULVANEY, WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR: We want our priorities funded, and one of the biggest priorities during the campaign was border security. Keeping Americans safe and part of that was a border wall.

[01:25:23] REINCE PRIEBUS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We expect a massive increase in military spending. We expect money for border security in this bill. And it ought to be because the President won overwhelmingly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And so there you heard a lot of talk about the importance of border security. But what's interesting here is that we're getting a little bit of mix of a mixed message depending on which administration official is doing the talking. You heard Secretary Kelly say that he believes the President will insist on that border wall funding. But in their interviews, Mick Mulvaney of the -- from the Budget Office and the Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said -- did not say the President would refuse to sign a bill that doesn't include border wall funding. And the President himself, in an interview recently with the Associated Press was asked if he would sign a bill without that funding and simply said, I don't know. So that is a big question mark that's going to be hovering over all of this week.

ALLEN: Athena Jones for us. Mr. Trump is approaching that 100-day mark with the lowest level of support of any modern U.S. President. Let's look at the polls in our new ABC-Washington post poll, 53 percent of Americans say they disapprove of his performance. 42 percent say they approve. And a poll from NBC and the Wall Street Journal pretty similar, 54 percent disapproval there.

VANIER: Not surprisingly, perhaps, Mr. Trump is dismissing those polls on Twitter. This is what he wrote. "New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is fake and almost always negative, would still beat Hillary in popular vote. ABC News Washington post poll, wrong big on election, said almost all stand by their vote on me and 53 percent said strong leader."

ALLEN: Mr. Trump has signed dozens of Executive Actions in his first 100 days in office, but few of them really have any teeth. What these actions have accomplished if anything. We'll look into that coming up here. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:42] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Cyril Vanier.

Let's take a look at the headlines this hour.

(HEADLINES)

ALLEN: Now on the blow France has delivered to its political establishment in the first round of the country's presidential election.

VANIER: Early results show centrist Emmanuel Macron leading far-right leader, Marine le Pen, as they move on to the runoff vote on May 7. It's a stunning victory for Macron, an Independent who has never held elected office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, INDEPENDENT FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (through translation): We did it. Dear Compatriots, today, Sunday, the 23 April, the French people have expressed themselves.

(CHEERING)

MACRON: As the history of our country is passing through a terrible stage, terrorism, social suffering, ecological consequences, and it has replied in the best possible way by voting en mass. It has decided -- it is decided to put me through to the second round of this vote.

(CHEERING)

MACRON: In one year, we have changed the face of French politics.

(CHEERING)

MACRON: The love of country and drive for the greater good beyond what divides us has won tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Interesting that a newcomer took the lead in the first round. This is also a victory for le Pen who is pitching herself to voters as a defender of French rights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARINE LE PEN, NATIONAL FRONT FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (through translation): The French people must seize this opportunity because the enormous challenge of this election is the wild globalization which puts civilization at risk. Either we continue to disintegrate without any borders, without any controls, delocalization, unfair international competition, mass immigration and the free circulation of terrorists, or you choose France with borders which protect our industries, our people and international security.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Le Pen's supporters are rallying to you heard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Since January, we haven't stopped, posters, leafleting, posting things. We have not stopped. So this victory is a victory for all campaigners and we will continue our advance into the second round and we'll get there. Frankly, it's a relief.

UNIDENTIFID MALE (through translation): She won't be blocked. It's the French people who will decide, who will come together, because we have several ideas to give people their voice back again to make France great again and to make it stronger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Many people are drawing parallels between Macron and American presidential candidates like JFK or Barack Obama.

ALLEN: Earlier, a French author and commentator, Bernard-Henri Levy, explained why to CNN's Hala Gorani.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNARD-HENRI LEVY, AUTHOR & COMMENTATOR: He has the youth. He has the (INAUDIBLE). He has the will to say there are no longer blue states and the right state, but a united state of France.

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPODNENT: Yeah.

LEVY: I was for him for all these reasons. Tonight, more than ever, because he is the one who is in the position of beating, once and for ever, Ms. le Pen.

[01:35:15] GORANI: Why once and forever though?

(CROSSTALK)

GORANI: I mean, she's not that old. She still has a lot of supporters.

LEVY: No. But a few weeks ago, all the polls, and they were right at this time, gave her a much higher score than that. Herself and the media thought she would make (INAUDIBLE). Tonight, she is at 21, 22. There is a surprise tonight. It is not a victory. And my belief -- I know little of politics in this country -- if she loses the election in two weeks, it might be the end of an age or the National Front.

GORANI: Talk to us about what this says about France and the French people. What are the French people telling the world tonight, do you think?

LEVY: The French people tonight tells the world that the way of populism is not the way. The wave of populism tonight in Paris has been broken, because we had two populist candidates, Mr. Melenchon, who is a left-wing populist, and Marine le Pen, a right-wing populist. Mr. Melenchon is out of the game, which is good news. And Marine le Pen is much lower than expected, which is good news.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: That's from the round of French politics.

Let's look at the other story we're following. The U.S. president has a flurry of executive orders in the works this week ahead of his 100th day in office.

ALLEN: Donald Trump has signed dozens of executive actions during his time already in the White House. What have they actually accomplished?

Randi Kaye takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Should I sign it?

(CROSSTALK)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I'm going to sign. And this is a very important signing.

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHIEF OF STAFF: Next is an executive order minimizing the economic burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, pending repeal.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On day one, President Donald Trump got down to business, signing an executive order to ease the burden of Obamacare. Viewers got the message that Donald Trump was a man of action, but was it and the other executive actions just a photo op.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump just assumed, like as a business leader, he would say, do this, and it gets done. But in the government, a president does not have that power.

KAYE: In fact, of the more Than 70 executive actions. President Trump has signed since taking office January 20, a CNN investigation shows only a handful of them really have any teeth.

Take the Affordable Care Act, the President's executive order back in January was aimed at the individual mandate, which requires Americans to have insurance, but for this year, contracts were already signed with insurance companies. While it looks good on paper, the executive order had little impact on the law itself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was done sloppily and it was done as a result that an executive action that looked meaningful but connected well with President Trump's base, but ultimately fell flat.

KAYE: What about the President's travel ban for which he issued two executive orders?

TRUMP: The danger is clear. The law is clear. The need for my executive order is clear.

(CHEERING)

KAYE: Both travel bans were blocked by federal judges so, in the end, neither executive order accomplished anything.

(on camera): Also tied up in court the president's executive action stripping federal funding from sanctuary cities for refusing to turn over undocumented immigrants. Various cities have filed lawsuits.

(voice-over): Another executive action that went nowhere, the presidential memorandum Trump signed to freeze the hiring of federal workers. Sure, that sounded good, but the action was nullified after being blamed for worsening backlogs at veterans' hospitals and Social Security offices.

Still, optics matter.

UNIDENTIIFED MALE: The presidential show and tell in the Oval Office where he signs his name almost hyperbolically and then shows it off to the class. And that is Donald Trump, the entertainer, doing what is very important for a president to do, and that's communicate and entertain.

KAYE: Some of those executive actions that do have teeth? Trump's presidential memorandum to withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade pact.

TRUMP: We're ready.

KAYE: Also his executive order promoting energy independence, which curbs carbon dioxide emissions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump, through that executive action, is seriously challenging the Obama administration legacy on the environment.

TRUMP: With today's executive action, I am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on American energy.

KAYE: Still, it's unlikely to restore the coal industry and more likely to be caught up in court for years.

(CHEERING) KAYE: And remember this?

TRUMP: It's going to be a big, beautiful wall.

[01:40:09] KAYE: Once in office, President Trump issued an executive order instructing his Department of Homeland Security to immediately begin construction of the wall along the southern border with Mexico. While preliminary planning has begun, there has been no wall construction of any kind.

(on camera): Nor has there been any change to regulations on Wall Street. President Trump's executive order regarding that simply directs the Treasury secretary to review existing regulations on the financial system and report back to the president in about four months.

(voice-over): Same goes for the order to shake up the executive branch. That, too, will undergo a 180-day review. Then a plan will be proposed to eliminate redundant federal agencies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we have seen so far with many of his executive actions is not really shock-and-awe policymaking but slow, bureaucratic policymaking.

KAYE: In a move to capitalize on his executive actions to continue building the Keystone and Dakota Pipelines and another action to buy American, Trump recently announced this.

TRUMP: I've also directed that new pipelines must be constructed with American steel.

(CHEERING)

KAYE: That may not be so easy. In fact, the Trump administration had already given Keystone XL a pass on buying American steel since the developer, TransCanada, has already bought much of its pipe from Canada.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If there is not enough steel being made into pipe, then contractors can ask for waivers to buy foreign steel. I think if the details of that get out, it could be something that is politically devastating to the president.

KAYE: That could mean not a single U.S. pipeline ends up being built with U.S. steel. The Commerce Department has been given six months to come up with, yes, another plan to put the Buy-American requirement into effect.

Seems that no matter how many executive actions the president signs, much to his chagrin, it often takes a lot more to get things done.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: We'll see what he gets this week as well with that budget talks coming up on Capitol Hill.

Coming up here, another allegation of sexual harassment against Roger Ailes. This time, from a CNN anchor. We'll heard about her experience working at FOX for Mr. Ailes, next.

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[01:45:51] VANIER: The departure of program host, Bill O'Reilly. is revealing some of the work culture at Fox News. O'Reilly left the network after multiple allegations of sexual harassment, just like his former boss, Roger Ailes.

ALLEN: Our Alisyn Camerota used to work at Fox before moving to CNN and says Ailes sexually harassed her.

She discussed what happened with "Reliable Sources host here at CNN, Brian Stelter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: Did Roger Ailes sexually harass you?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN CORRSPONDENT: Yes. Roger Ailes did sexually harass me.

Let me clear, Roger Ailes could be charming. He could be quite charismatic. He could be uproariously funny. He could be a bit of a bully and mean. He also was often grossly inappropriate with things that he would say. I think that many of us experienced that. He would talk about body parts. He would say, give me spin. He would want to be greeted with a hug.

But the time I remember most was when I was first starting out at FOX and I was single, and I remember Roger -- being in Roger's office and I was saying that wanted more opportunity, and he said, well, I would have to work with you.

STELTER: Work with you?

CAMEROTA: I would have to work with you on that case. I would have to work with you really closely. And it may require us to get to know each other better and that might have to happen away from here and it might have to have to happen at a hotel. Do you know what I'm saying? And I said, yeah, I think I do know what you're saying.

And I just want to say that I knew, in my head, at that moment, I'm never going to that hotel under any circumstances. But I didn't know what that meant for me and for my career. I remember vividly that I had sort of an out-of-body experience, hovering over us in the office, and thinking, is this it? Is this the end of my time here? Will I be fired if I do not do this? And I just want everybody to understand that when it happens, there is a visceral reaction that you have where you recognize, my career and everything I have worked for is under threat, and I do not know what's going to happen next.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Roger Ailes has denied accusations against him, and his attorney issued a statement saying, "These are unsubstantiated and false allegations. Mr. Ailes never engaged in the inappropriate conversations she now claims occurred. And he vigorously denied this fictional account of her interactions with him and the Fox News editorial policy."

Coming up here, the weekend's marches for science aren't over. The message demonstrators are sending to Washington this week, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

[01:50:] VANIER: Scientists and their supports came together around the world over the weekend and demonstrations timed to coincide with Earth Day. This was the scene in Washington at the main march for science.

ALLEN: Many turned out to oppose U.S. president Donald Trump and his threat to slash budgets for agencies funding science research. They also slammed policymakers who they said were ignoring facts about climate change. The demonstrators are not done yet. Another march is planned for this Saturday, billed as the People's Climate Movement in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Shyla Raghav is the climate lead for Conservation International, and she joins us to talk about what we saw on the streets this weekend.

Thanks so much for joining us, Shyla.

SHYLA RAGHAV, DIRECTOR OF CLIMATE POLICY, CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL: Thank you, Natalie.

ALLEN: First of all, the climate debate, the fact it is still a debate, why does it come to this, that scientists felt they had to take to the streets to convince the world their work is real?

RAGHAV: Natalie, I've been working on climate change for more than a decade and I think we've seen really a clear shift in focus, where, in the past, we've been talking about climate change as an issue that is environmental, and issue for the environmental movement. But what we've realized and what we've seen increasingly over the last few years is that climate change has really shifted, and understood as an issue that is fundamental to our economic national security. So I think there's been increasing mobilization across society to really highlight the fundamental importance on acting on climate and to recognize the fact that we're really not debate whether or not it's happening anymore, but rather what many would like to focus on finding solutions and coming together and collaborating on implementing those solutions. ALLEN: Right, and that sounds wonderful, but there are still leaders here in the United States, even our new president, that say, not so fast, we're not sure about this.

(CROSSTALK)

ALLEN: What's driving that? What's driving that? Is it big oil? What is it?

[01:54:34] RAGHAV: I think there's a lot of reasons why there might be some inertia or an inability to act on the fundamental fact and truth that climate change is happening. But I think the global trend has shown that the economy is moving towards decarbonization. I think, in some case, it's going to require some short-term costs to reap a long-term benefit or gain. I think it's expecting that short- term transition or transformation in our society that is unpalatable and it's difficult to really confront the enormity of what we are expecting to see due to change.

But I think what we've also seen is that climate change is more than an issue just for governments. It is fundamental for communities and business leaders and religious groups to all come together and work on. So it's more than something that governments have a responsibility to confront and address.

ALLEN: Do you think that seeing scientists out on the streets like this in places all around the world will have an impact on this administration, which is rolling back some environmental initiatives?

RAGHAV: I think so. And what we saw was, in Washington, D.C., alone, 40,000 people came in support for science. There were about 600 other demonstration in other parts all around the world. So I think there will be -- the voice will be heard, the voice of science. And also, to mobilize a broader group of people to recognize the importance of science, not only for the development of new technologies, but to empower and enable us to confront the global challenges that we are facing, whether it's mass extinction or feeding a growing population or climate change.

ALLEN: We appreciate you joining us. Thank you, Shyla Raghav at Conservation International. Thank you, and good luck.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: So a climate march next weekend.

That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

VANIER: Thanks for watching. I'm Cyril Vanier.

The news continues in just a moment with Rosemary Church and George Howell. We leave you in good hands. Stay with us.

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[02:00:09] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And then there were two. (HEADLINES)