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QUEST MEANS BUSINESS

Kraft Heinz Eyes Fresh New Takeover Targets; Eurogroup Pushes to Avert Grexit; Trump Names New National Security Adviser; UK Parliament Debates Brexit Bill, Trump Visit; CPAC Drops Milo Yiannopoulos After Controversial Videos; Uber Former Employee Claims She Was a Victim of Repeated Sexual Harassment;

Aired February 20, 2017 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00] RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: No trading on Wall Street, the United States is celebrating the President's Day holiday. So, Europe was

open, I'll have the numbers for you in a moment, but today it is still, it is Monday, it's the 20th of February.

Tonight, Donald Trump revamps his national security team and demands that Europe pays more for its own defense.

Clean up in aisle three, Kraft Heinz is shopping elsewhere after it folded a deal for Unilever.

And while the laws debate Brexit, Europe tries to dodge Grexit. I will be speaking live to Yanis Varoufakis the former finance minister of Greece.

I'm Richard Quest, live in New York. We start a new week together and I mean business.

Good evening, in the last hour or so, president Trump has named a new national security team a week after firing General Michael Flynn. Now, the

new national security adviser is General H.R. McMaster, seen on the left of the screen here. In the living room at Mar-a-Lago. He served in the

Gulf War and campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. He will now serve as the President's National Security Adviser. General Keith Kellogg, the acting

NSA, the chap that was on the right, he will return to his role as the chief of staff of the National Security Council.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I watched and read a lot over the last two days. He is highly respected by everybody in the military and we're very

honored to have him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: We'll talk about this. CNN's Michelle Kosinski is at the state department, and Mark Hertling served as commanding general of U.S. army

Europe and knows him well. Now he's now CNN military analyst. We'll be with you in just a moment, Mark.

First of all, to Michelle Kosinski at the State Department. The timing of this announcement, how urgent was it having lost Flynn and having had

everybody wanting to know who knew what when, why and having yet another candidate reject or say that he don't want the job, that he got this done

now?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you summed it up right there. President Trump is not even in Washington right now he's

at Mar-a-Lago. I mean, essentially his vacation home. But he's getting this done today. I think clearly the White House wants to convey that word

you used, that keyword, urgency here, and he also had the uncertainty of not having a permanent national security adviser in place. He had the

embarrassment on top of that of a former admiral turning down the position and friends of his saying that he was worried about chaos in the White

House. President Trump clearly wanted to make this position, show that he's working even on a holiday and putting these two-respected former

military people in place, Richard.

QUEST: Stay with me, Michelle. To you, OK, you've met the man, haven't you?

LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING, FORMER COMMANDING GENERAL, U.S. ARMY EUROPE: We have, Richard. We've served together quite a few times even as far away

when he was a cadet at West Point I was one of his captain instructors. So, yes, McMaster is a brilliant intellect, he's a great soldier. He's

very charismatic. He has seen everything in combat that you can expect to see. He is passionate and energetic. And so, he is a very good pick.

He's a quick study.

What he does not know is the inner agency. He has never worked in the NSC before. I don't believe he's worked in the Pentagon. So, it will be a

little bit tougher for him to figure that piece out and to figure out Congress. But as I said he is he a quick study so he will be able to do

the kinds of things you need from a strategy and policy perspective.

One other thing I'll point out, Richard, H.R. wrote a book before he went back to West Point or as part of his PhD thesis as he became a history

instructor at West Point, called "Dereliction of Duty". It was a book about the McNamara Johnson relationship during the Vietnam War and speaking

truth to power. So, he will test out his doctoral thesis in a book that was a bestseller on the history realm.

QUEST: Michelle, that will be fascinating because reading between the lines, all other nominees or potential nominees over the weekend I was

reading in the "New York Times", you'll have seen the article as well, those who in some sense challenged Donald Trump or don't necessarily go

full all the way. It sounds like in choosing this chap the president will have chosen somebody who will not be afraid to say in private, you're

wrong.

[16:05:00] KOSINSKI: Yes, I think that's the hopeful view that people on both sides of the aisle are taking with this choice. Just the fact that he

is -- McMaster is so well respected, as is Kellogg. But for McMaster to be National Security Adviser, one of the things that he's known for is being a

straight shooter, speaking his mind, even speaking against policy, you know, possibly at the detriment of his own career. He's willing to do

that. So, looking from the outside in, you know, people on both sides, whatever you're thinking about Donald Trump's latest choices can say, OK,

well that's a positive sign.

And I think the question is within this White House structure and who's calling the shots on some of these things, how much freedom will these two

new gentlemen have to express those opinions and have those be listened to and possibly acted upon.

QUEST: Michelle Kosinski, we thank you at the State Department. General Hertling do not go anywhere your duties have not yet finished with us this

evening. You have more to talk about. Thank you both though. We'll be with you in just a second, General.

Now I just brief on another matter. In Brussels, the U.S. Vice President marked presence today by jolting Europe into action on defense spending.

Vice President, Mike Pence, brought a message from the U.S. President. He said the U.S. is fully committed, his words, to NATO, and he warned

America's patience towards countries that do not pay their fair share will not last forever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The President of the United States and the American people expect our allies to keep their word and to do more in

our common defense. And the President expects real progress by the end of 2017. If you have a plan to get there, as he said, our alliance needs to

you accelerate it. And if you don't let yet have a plan, these are my words, not his, get one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now, NATO's Secretary General says increasing spending is his top priority. So, let's just have a look and see exactly just five out of

NATO's 28, member states put in the guideline of 2 percent or more on economic output, of GDP. There were just five and there they are.

Interestingly, Estonia, up in the Baltics. You've got Greece down here as well, the United Kingdom, the United States, and you have Poland. Now, if

you look at -- so those are the countries that spend.

Now let's look at the next -- at those countries -- let's take that one out, look at 1 percent to 2 percent, that's 1 percent to 2 percent of GDP.

So now we've got over to the far north large parts, France, Spain -- not Spain, France, you've got Germany, but then look -- by the way in this

group you got Poland and Estonia, the U.S. the UK all spending more. And then finally here, take that one out, and these are the countries that

spend less than 1 percent of GDP. Interestingly you've got Canada in the north, you've got Spain over in Europe, and they're spending less than 1

percent of their GDP when the NATO guideline says you should spend 2 percent. That's the way the map looks overall. Jens Stoltenberg wants all

members to hit the target within a decade and he's warning Europe cannot depend on the U.S. if they don't meet their own targets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: I'm not saying that everything is OK, we have still I very long way to do but we have turned a corner and

started to move in the right direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now, joining me now is Mark Hertling, he was with us a moment ago, served as the commanding general that was with us a moment ago, served as

the commanding general of the U.S. Army. OK, explain to me, explain, Mark, I need -- I don't really understand. How do these countries justify not

spending the money, 2 percent, when the rules are quite clear it says 2 percent, the guidelines? It's like me turning around to Con Ed and saying,

well you want me to pay this on the electricity bill, I'm not going to pay it.

HERTLING: It is difficult to justify, Richard, and this has been something that has been occurring since the wall came down in the early 1990s. And

as NATO has expanded from the original 16 members to now 28 and it may continue to expand beyond that. It is not a rule, per se, it is an

objective. So, if you're a member of NATO, the objective is you spend 2 percent of your defense money spending -- or 2 percent of your GDP on

defense spending.

Now, what has happened over the years as NATO forces have contributed to various activities both in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Rwanda and in other

places where NATO has deployed on a theatre.

[16:10:00] They have said, yeah, many countries have said, we're a small country. We're just getting our economy up. Many of us are former Eastern

European countries. So, we'll get there but they haven't.

QUEST: You can't really say the same about Germany or, indeed, Italy or indeed France. And Spain is under 1 percent even allowing for their

economic problems. What rational justification can Angela Merkel turn around and say, actually, we're not going to spend what we said we would

spend.

HERTLING: There is no rational justification and defense secretaries and presidents over the last 15 to 20 years have been snapping the whip on many

of the NATO members saying you've got to live up to this. This is the objective. If you want to be part of the alliance, we can't continue to

contribute. I was there one time when Secretary Rumsfeld said it, I was a Munich Security Conference once when Secretary Gates had the same message

that Vice President Pence and the Secretary of Defense Mattis had at this Munich Security Conference. So, this is ongoing. And I think it takes an

extreme threat and it more than just contributing forces, there has to be other ways where member nations say we have to look at our GDP and

contribute to acquisitions, equipment --

QUEST: All right.

HERTLING: -- training and personnel.

QUEST: But, if, I mean, it's carrots and stick and there doesn't seem to be any carrot because the carrot hasn't worked in the past so you're

talking about the stick. And the moment the president says well, actually, if you don't pay we will reduce our commitment to you, everybody goes up in

a fire storm. But really that is the only power that President Trump has, which is to say, if you don't pay we will not protect.

HERTLING: I think there may be other techniques of influence. I think many of them NATO nations right now are just reeling about this because in

the multiple threats have that in many ways has snuck up on them. The Russian expansion has been dramatic. The intelligence processing has been

unbelievably tough, the surge of refugees into the countries and the requirements for intelligence in tracking those refugees, which many of the

NATO organizations contribute to, has all occurred within the last two years. There have been many NATO out of theater operations which have been

expensive. So, all of these things contribute to this coming to an unbelievably tough head.

QUEST: Good to see you, sir. Thank you for putting it in business terms, which are what we do on this program. Thank you very much indeed.

HERTLING: Richard, it's a pleasure to be here with you.

QUEST: Thank you.

Now, let's get back to our hard business agenda with a mixed day for stocks in Europe. Remember, no trading in the U.S. so there was not a lot of

direction and as a result look at that it's not very often FTSE absolutely unchanged on the day. Xetra Dax just up you can see the numbers for

yourself. You don't need me to go through it.

The French presidential election is tightening up and I think that's having an influence. Because Marine Le Pen is now looking certain -- well, not

certain, but is the front runner to win the first round, whatever happens in the second round.

Athens was up one percent over progress in the Greek talks. You'll hear from the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, in just a moment

or three.

Now, you'll be forgiven if you had a whiplash. Kraft Heinz called off its bid for Unilever one business day after the unsolicited offer went public.

The change of heart not surprisingly caused Unilever's shares to fall nearly 8 percent in London. Remember, the offer was at $50 a share.

Unilever rejected it. It was worth 143 billion in total. And the Unilever price only got to about 47 or 48. So it never even met the offer price.

Kraft Heinz says it may not be finished shopping yet, which begs the question, Paul La Monica, if Kraft Heinz does not get Unilever, which is

looks like it's not going to, what does it go for instead?

PAUL R. LA MONICA, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: There are several possibilities, Richard. They could go the food route. You have some

people wondering if Mondelez, which is to be a part of Kraft. That's the company that owns Cadbury and Oreo. Could they be brought back into the

fold, so to speak. Kellogg is a company that's been mentioned as a takeover target in the past. There were some rumors about Coke, as well as

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, a couple of months ago. But I think some people are wondering maybe they go the personal care products route as

well. And that's why companies like Clorox and Colgate-Palmolive and Kimberly-Clark all rallied on Friday.

QUEST: Why do they have to do a deal at all?

LA MONICA: They don't have to necessarily have to do a deal. Clearly this a monumental company already in the business of food and it's the product

of its own mega merger when Kraft and Heinz merged.

[16:15:00] I think right now when you look at what's been happening with food deflation, a lot of commodity prices coming down, putting pressure on

profits and Kraft Heinz is in a position of strength having that backing of Warren Buffett, maybe they are sensing some opportunities with a lot of

their competitors having some weak results lately.

QUEST: Why do you think they walked away so quickly? I mean, they didn't even give it a second shot at the price.

LA MONICA: Yes, I think that Buffett in particular, since he is the largest shareholder of Kraft Heinz, I don't think he wanted to be in a

position at all where he would have to negotiate now in public with Unilever about the price. This is not a guy who usually does hostile

deals, they were typically very friendly and I think that they had probably preferred that this was kept under wraps until a deal was ready to be

announced. Now that they knew what the price was going to be Unilever balking at it and it becoming public I don't think Kraft Heinz wanted to

drag this on any further.

QUEST: Paul, good to see you, sir.

LA MONICA: Thank you.

QUEST: Good to see you working on President's Day.

LA MONICA: Yes, indeed.

QUEST: One step in and one step out of Europe. Lawmakers in the U.K. are pushing Britain closer to the EU exit. And Greece is finding a small patch

of common ground with Eurozone creditors. Brexit that will and a Grexit that may. We'll talk about both.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: It's a grand sight I deed, the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey just behind. Lawmakers in Parliament are assessing Britain's

relationships with its closest allies in the House of Lords they are debating the U.K. government's bill on triggering Article 50, the latest

stepping stones towards actually beginning the process. The Brexit debate is taking place today in the Lords. At the opposite end of the corridor in

Westminster Hall just over here, a fiery debate on whether president Trump's state visit to the U.K. should be downgraded. Nobody's saying the

president shouldn't go to the U.K. but it's a question of whether it should be a full throttle state visit. Carriages up the mall, banquets and

queens, staying at Buckingham palace. Earlier at the House of Lords debate of the U.K. Brexit bill in this part.

I spoke to the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont, who joined me. Norman Lamont, Lord Lamont, as he is, is a very strong

Brexiteer. And I asked him if he thought it would be right for the House of Lords to intervene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NORMAN LAMONT, FORMER UK CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: The Lords is not normally able to overrule the House of Commons, and it normally has to take

into account whether a particular measure has been voted on in a general election. If will is something that is specifically been voted on, has the

electorate have given a mandate for, normally the Lords doesn't over rule the Commons.

[16:20:00] Secondly, if it's passed by an enormous majority, normally the Lords doesn't over rule the Commons. You know, the powers of the Lords

have governed partly by convention and they are quite limited and the Lords is really only able to ask the Commons to think again. But on a matter of

this kind, whether it was a huge majority in the Commons, I think it would be very unwise. We have, after all, had the referendum, an enormous number

of people voted for Brexit. It was clearly carried and the public were told that the decision was theirs. It would not be altered by parliament.

They were told that specifically. And what some people in the House of Lords appear to be trying to so actually get a second referendum.

QUEST: On that question, Tony Blair, you saw what he said the weekend, you saw his comments. Do you not think there's any harm in once the final

Brexit deal is agreed and everybody knows what it looks like going back to the British people and saying, all right, you did vote for Brexit, now this

is the deal that you voted for? Do you still want it?

LAMONT: Yes, but the government have said that the final deal will be put to Parliament. What these people are saying, the people who are trying to

seek the amendments, is that if parliament rejects the deal, we would then remain in the EU. Now that would just give the EU incentives, as night

follows day, to put the worst possible deal on the table because then you would be rejected by Parliament and we would remain in and we would not be

following the instructions of the voter.

QUEST: But on this question of the British people's ability or right to change their mind in a vote once the final deal is known. I mean, what is

so wrong on an issue of this gravity in saying, yes, there will be a second referendum once we know what the final deal looks like?

LAMONT: Well, I think before you have a second referendum, you ought to implement your promise to carry out the first referendum. We ought to come

out of the EU, it is what the referendum was about. We're trying to get a good deal. That deal would then be put to Parliament. But Britain has got

to come out of the referendum, that's what we said we would do. It would be open to a future government if it wanted to reapply, rejoin the EU, that

would be open to the government. But the final deal will be put to Parliament, the government had made that clear.

QUEST: What I'm trying to understand is why are people like yourself so implacably opposed to a second referendum once the final deal is known,

other than the fact that you might lose it?

LAMONT: No, I think if you say to the Europeans that Parliament has got the right to reject this and we will still remain in the EU, as I said, it

gives an absolute carte blanche to the EU to put the worst possible deal on the table and then it would be rejected by Parliament. But, look, I don't

think you can just go around having one referendum and then another referendum until you get the right result. This is one of the reasons

people have got extremely disillusioned with the EU.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Now, from Brexit let's go to Grexit. Europe's leaders have made a small breakthrough towards averting the next, or the latest Greek debt

crises. After months of deadlocks, negotiations now set to resume. Athens has managed to find common ground with its European creditors. Eurogroup

president, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said leaders will reconsider imposing austerity measures on Greece. The negotiations are to unlock the next

phase of the Greek bail-out funds and that will restart and those talks could take months. Jeroen Dijsselbloem says the focus is now shifting

towards economic reforms for Greece.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROEN DIJSSELBLOEM, PRESIDENT EUROGROUP: There will be a change in the policy mix, if you will, moving perhaps away from austerity and putting

more emphasis on debrief forms, which has also been a key element for the IMF. So, that is I think a good step.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: I'm joined by the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, who joins me now live from Athens and it's very good to see you, sir. It's

been a while since we had a chance to talk over these issues.

[16:25:00] Are you -- knowing the position and knowing the place from where you come, are you encouraged that the IMF and the Eurogroup appear to be

finding some common ground with Greece?

YANIS VAROUFAKIS, FORMER GREEK FINANCE MINISTER: Oh, Richard, you of all people asking me this. You have been covering this crisis, this saga now

for what -- six years? It's the same old same old yet again. The creditors, in today's Eurogroup, managed, succeed in imposing upon Athens

to accept insincerely impossible targets, targets that the IMF is the first one to proclaim impossible. We are just kicking the can down the road or

as I prefer to say, we're kicking the snowball up the hill until it comes back again much more menacing.

QUEST: Right.

VAROUFAKIS: There are no reforms. I heard what Mr. Dijsselbloem said, there are more pension cuts. There are more tax rises. This is not --

this is another package of austerity. The nation economy will shrink and debt will rise.

QUEST: But if that's the case, and what -- what is the next move in this? I mean, obviously, we've now got a Brexit situation. The last thing that

your European partners want is sort of implosion in Greece, or another major Greek crisis. Externally, I understand, sir, and I'm not minimizing

the crisis within the country itself. But what for you is the next stage?

VAROUFAKIS: Well, isn't this yet another piece of evidence that the European Union is particularly good at doing a terrible job at handling

what should be a very manageable crisis. Look, everybody is effectively fibbing, Richard. The IMF has at least the good people who are staffing

the analytical department in Washington, D.C. have told us that the Greek debt is unsustainable and that anything like the austerity, which is being

demanded on the Greek government now. It's catastrophic for the program itself.

So, there is turmoil within the IMF. Mr. Schauble, the veritable German finance minister, is absolutely determined he wants Greece out of the euro.

And he knows that this program was designed to fail, to fail. And I know this, Richard, because he has told me so more than once. On the other

hand, Mrs. Merkel simply wants to extend and pretend until the German election is out of the way. The Greek government is pretending that it is

going to fulfill these targets when it knows it won't do it.

QUEST: Right, but that --

VAROUFAKIS: So, it's Europe yet again.

QUEST: To jump in -- but then in that case, if that scenario is as you sketch out, then the next elections in Greece as the government falls and

separates out, when will this current government in Athens either make progress or leave?

VAROUFAKIS: Oh, the answer is very simple. It depends on the agreement between Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Schauble. Mr. Schauble want Grexit. Mrs.

Merkel does not want Grexit. This has been happening now for a while. They have not worked it out whether they want Grexit or not before the

German election -- after the German election -- until they make their minds up government is going to stay in power.

Remember, Richard, Greece went bankrupt in 2010 and ever since it has been taking out a new credit card to pay back the old credit card and every new

credit card, every new bailout required a new Prime Minister. The first one was purchased or taken out by Papandreou. He was a spend force after

that. He was replaced by Mr. Samaras. There was a second credit card. Then it was Mr. Tsipras. We were elected together not take on the third

credit card. He took it on and the answer to your question is, he's going to parish when the powers that be, the creators decide that they need a

fourth credit card and therefore a new Prime Minister.

QUEST: Do you see any optimism, any room for hope, any reason -- I mean, you're obviously very pessimistic about if you like, the machinations and

minutia of a negotiation, but do you see any hope?

VAROUFAKIS: The crisis itself is will only hope we have because, you know, at some point you cannot defeat the gravitational pull of economic forces.

The Greek that is unsustainable and unsustainable debt gets restructured one way or the other. So, the crisis itself is going to bring about

resolution.

My great concern, Richard, is that while we're extending and pretending and delaying the natural resolution, real people are suffering really.

QUEST: Sir, it's good to have you on the program let's make a date to have you on more often to talk more about this and to help us understand the

position from which you come. Obviously in this case. Good to see you, Yanis. Thank you.

As we continue tonight, President Trump scheduled to speak at CPAC the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. He will no longer be

joined by one of the most controversial figures add Breitbart news. We'll discuss that after the break.

[16:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: I'm Richard Quest there's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment. When a British journalist gets disinvited from a conservative

conference after some extremely controversial comments.

And the chief executive of Norwegian, the airline tells me the $100 trans- Atlantic is no longer a pipe dream. Actually, we talk about $99. Those of us who are old enough to remember the days of that sort of price on a

ticket. Before that, this is CNN and here, this is where the news comes first.

In the last couple of hours, President Trump has named a new national security adviser. He is Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster who will

replace Michael Flynn who stepped down amid controversy over his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States. President

Trump also announced General Keith Kellogg will be the national security council chief of staff. Mike Pence, U.S. Vice President is pushing Europe

to spend more on NATO. He met with the secretary general of NATO in Brussels yesterday and both gentlemen agreed to agree on spending targets.

They tried to convey Washington's commitment to NATO.

[16:35:00] Condolences are being received after the sudden death of Russian's long-time ambassador to the United Nations. Vitaly Churkin died

in New York reportedly from a heart attack just a day away from his 65th birthday. He represented Russia on the security council during a time of

great tensions between Moscow and the West. President Trump is doubling down now blaming the media for a comment he made about Sweden suggesting

there was a terror incident on Monday he tweeted, "Give the public a break. The fake news media is trying to say that large-scale immigration in Sweden

is working out just beautifully. Not."

They responded saying they're working to send out an accurate, fair image of the country. Footage from Japan's Fuji TV seems to show the moment

before Kim Jong Un's half-brother died. Now you can see a woman approaching Kim Jung Nam at the airport apparently reaching over his head,

then walking away. Another video shows Kim asking for help, het died on the way to the hospital.

The alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos is no longer welcome, one of America's biggest conservative conferences. CPAC rescinded the invitation

after video clips emerged appearing to show him making sympathetic comments about pedophilia. Suzanne Malveaux is in Washington. Please, Ms.

Malveaux, dissect this one for me.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Richard. Well you know the Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC they proclaim

this gathering was going to be revolution. Well, the first revolt has come from the conservatives as well as Democrats alike over that controversial

proposed speaker you were talking about known as Milo, he is the professional provocateur and also

the senior editor for Breitbart. This is the important part. This is the ultra-right website that traffics in nationalists and sometimes white

supremacist ideology. So, Milos belief is that he should be able to say anything in the name of free speech and what he said was revealed after

this conservative website, The Reagan Battalion published two videos this week.

One from a podcast clip that highlighted a discussion about what he had sex with minors in which he said quote here, "in the homosexual world

particularly some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming of age relationships and when those older men have

helped those young boys to discover who they are. And then he went on to thank the priest who molested him as a teen saying he would never be as

good as a certain sex act without this priest."

So, there are many prominent conservative pundits who really were the loudest opposition voices. Bill Crystal at the editor at large of the

Weekly Standard he said this invitation was despicable. You had Ned Ryan, he's a board member for ACU, also objecting to this decision saying on

Monday morning that members of the board they're not even consulted on this decision, tweeting while I'm all for free speech there's such a thing as

vile, hateful speech what that does not deserve a platform.

So, later Milo took Facebook clarifying his comments. Posting in part here, "a note for idiots, I do not support pedophilia period. I'm

completely disgusted by the abuse of children." He said he was guilty of imprecise language, gallows humor. Well, CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp, he

posted this statement to Twitter calling the Facebook apology insufficient writing there is no disagreement among our attendees on the evils of sexual

abuse of children. This is not the first time that he has gotten the hook, so to speak. He was thrown off of Twitter for attacks on an African-

American comedian Leslie Jones likening her to an ape. Calling feminism, a cancer and targeting Muslims, all of this in his routines. There were

protests as well that erupted during his campus tour forcing some cancellations and also, we heard from Jonah Goldberg he's the senior at the

conservative National Review, he lamented here saying apparently, the racism and anti-Semitism wasn't a deal breaker, Richard.

QUEST: Suzanne, very well. I ask you to dissect this and you thankfully did for us and gracefully with distasteful issues to deal it. Thank you

very much indeed.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Richard.

QUEST: I'm not sure where one goes after that. Uber maybe, is in the spotlight after a former employee claims she was a victim of repeated

sexual harassment. We'll have that for you after the break.

[16:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Uber says it's launching an urgent investigation after a former engineer accused the company of repeated sexism and insane organizational

chaos. Suzanne Fowler says I'm quoting what she said, "I feel out of sadness but I can't help but laugh at how ridiculous everything was. Such

a strange experience, such a strange year."

Uber's chief executive Travis Kalanick responded on Twitter saying that what Fowler describes is abhorrent and anyone who behaves or thinks this is

OK will be fired. Samuel Burke is in Miami for us tonight. Samuel, we'll go to why you're in Miami in a moment, but there are two things here. The

first is the allegations of sexual harassment, the other is organizational dysfunction and chaos. Let's deal with the first. What was the allegation

here?

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: The allegation is simply as this woman puts it and she does it very unemotionally and a lot of women in

Silicon Valley that I've been talking to today are applauding that that she had a problem with a superior who messaged here. And I think what's key

here is she says she took a screenshot of it. And what I've been hearing from people today is they say this screenshot much like Gretchen Carlson

alleged the head of Fox News sexually harassed her and she said she recorded conversations of that she said she took those screen shots and

went to HR but then found similar problems in the sense that they don't anything about it. But a lot of people believe that the fact that you have

so much technology, an iPhone regarding Roger Ailes allegedly or screenshots is what would change all of this in Silicon Valley.

QUEST: Now there are full marks and applause all around for the wait chief executive has hand the this, which seems to be notably different if we

believe everything we read over the way News Corp and Fox handled the allegations in that case.

BURKE: Although there's one difference here, which a female executive in Silicon Valley pointed out to me today, Ariana Huffington is a board member

of Uber and she tweeted she will be participating in the, quote, independent investigation of these allegations and this woman in Silicon

Valley told me that Uber needs to do what Fox News did in the sense that they hired independent counsel, truly people outside of the building

instead of using people inside the building. It was an outside law firm in the case of Fox, and she believes that's why eventually Roger Ailes was

ousted and Gretchen Carlson ended up with a large settlement and an apology from Fox News. She said for Uber the bigger problem won't be the specific

allegations but if they're not able to handle this in a truly independent way she thinks there's no way an organization can do that by using an

inside investigator, it has to come from the outside.

[16:45:00] QUEST: Except to give Ariana, it's in public domain now, so it's not as if it can be whitewashed away or forgotten about. People like

you quite properly in the course of your duties will be harrowing and harassing asking what is this investigation, what did you find, what have

you done, why aren't giving us the report and all those sort of things.

BURKE: That's true, in that sense it's different. But what we hear from women time and time again, I just want to read you one number that I always

come back to when we're talking about sexism in Silicon Valley, not just sexual harassment but sexism. Three in five women say they have

experienced sexual advances and two thirds of those sexual advances have come from superiors. So, what I'm hearing from so many people is they feel

because there are so many men in Silicon Valley especially in those big positions that they want this to come from outside investigators.

QUEST: Why are you in Miami?

BURKE: We are working on CNN Money and CNN Tech on a transgender documentary about how tech, social media and medical advances play such a

big role. I've actually been here seeing a transgender man get his beard, chest hair implants and you're going to be seeing that in the next few

months on CNN Money and CNN Tech.

QUEST: Thank you for that.

BURKE: Didn't see that one coming.

QUEST: No. Well, the weather looks nice in Miami, doesn't it? The chief executive of Norwegian Bjorn Kjos says the airlines looking to expand its

U.S. operations. Miami is one of the places they are going to. The airlines come under fire from American pilots over its plans to launch

transatlantic flights costing less than $100. The issue made it to the White House when airline executives met President Trump. Now of course, as

Norwegian reminded the President, they have bought more than a 100 Boeing 737 planes and 787 dream liners. So, I asked, Bjorn Kjos if being a large

customer of Boeing is smoothing the way? (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BJORN KJOS, CEO, NORWEGIAN AIRLINES: Obviously, that helps, it helps to be a big customer of Boeing. I mean, President Trump wants to create jobs in

U.S. and we're helping him by buying Boeing aircraft and we also setting up bases in the U.S. so most of our long-haul operation is going out of the

U.S.

QUEST: Is it your intention to expand that U.S. operation further and also to increase the number of bases that you'll be operating out of?

KJOS: That's for sure. You would see this week that we are coming out -- with some very interesting departures and we will -- we will set up routes

into the smaller cities north of New York and south of Boston areas that's not covered today and we will fly on the extremely low fares across the

Atlantic.

QUEST: How low can fares go?

KJOS: Well, you can guess what this is much lower than $100.

QUEST: You're seriously saying we could be back to the old days of $99 each way?

KJOS: That's right. That's quite right.

QUEST: What about this idea that you have of some form of tie-up between - - with yourselves and Ryan Air and Easy Jet to respond your -- I mean, they would obviously be giving you feed from routes that you don't serve for

your long-haul operations, but you're also in competition with them on many routes.

KJOS: That's right, we are in competition with them on part of our network. But the main thing is what's best for the consumer, best for the

consumer is to be able to fly not only from New York and London but also from New York to London and go on if we don't fly it let somebody else on

low fare flying it so they get -- they don't only have the ability to fly on the higher legacy carriers and the alliances but also fly where it -- on

very low fares all the way through to their destinations.

[16:50:00] QUEST: What is your Brexit strategy? On the one hand, you've obviously, you've got the Irish subsidiary for the U.S. and you've got

third and fourth freedom rights in its own right from the Norwegian. But in terms of your U.K.-U.S. rights, you could be in a bit of trouble here

post-Brexit.

KJOS: Well, I -- I really hope that we will have also the DOT approval for our British operation and likewise our British operation our goal is to fly

people on low fares and obviously, the same goes for the British operation. They would also have a lot of U.S. bases and we fly U.S. made airplanes.

So why shouldn't we get it?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Bjorn Kjos of Norwegian, an airline is doing extraordinary things and perhaps probably the airline that is developing most in the market for

the medium to long-haul low-cost flight. The actor Dev Patel says there's a theme that runs through all of his characters, they're underdogs as he

hopes for his first academy award this weekend. He may just defy the odds once again. He will tell us about his journey to stardom next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: The biggest stars trip the light fantastic up the red carpet at Sunday

night's Oscars. We are bringing you a special series of our own called The Creators. Five inspirational story tellers all of them nominated this

weekend will reveal the art behind their filmmaking and the secrets behind what drove them to success.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: "Lion" is the story of a man's journey to find his family after getting lost in an Indian train station as a boy. It's been nominated for

six academy awards. Now, if the Oscar goes to Patel, he'll be the first actor of Indian descent to win in 35 years Patel told us about the created

vision behind his movie making.

DEV PATEL, OSCAR NOMINATED ACTOR: What do you like about acting? Between action and cut there's no voices, you're just coasting in a different space

and it feels very sacred and it's a beautiful feeling. You know, there's no noise or anything, it's just I don't know how to explain it. It is like

riffing.

I was very hyperactive in school. My mother could never see me sitting at a desk or trying to concentrate doing algebra or whatever, so it was acting

and sports that was how I could really express myself.

[16:55:00] Every character if you look at a lot of my work there's a generic theme which is a sort of underdog from "Slum Dog" to "Marigold" to

even "Chappy". It is someone who has to rise through adversity to achieve something that others deem impossible, and I like that theme a lot.

There's such a collaborative art form, so you wanted to be able to meet the DOP after the experience and be like, god, you captured the landscape in us

so beautifully, I didn't realize what you were seeing or the music, the score, it's, you know, so many people, you know, come together to make a

minute of cinema.

It's nice to be able to be tested. I hope that there's going to be more material out there so that I can stretch myself and spread my wings

further. You know, once you've had a journey you want to be able to step on to another one that's equally so.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST" Splendid. We'll have more of this series on the program as the week moves on. And in other episodes we'll bring you the creator of Hamilton.

You can join us of course for the debate any time at Richard Quest -- and I tell you that I follow closely so @Richard Quest we'll have a debate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Tonight's Probable Moment, the interesting debate taking place within NATO at the moment over the number of countries that meet the 2

percent of GDP expenditure on defense. Now it's only a guideline but as you heard Mike Pence say and Donald Trump has said many times, it's time

for European countries to pay their fair share. When you look at the numbers, it's really quite startling that there are only five of the more

than 26 countries in NATO that actually do pay the 2 percent.

[17:00:00] And those that don't include countries, large countries like Germany, which is 1. something percent, France, and Spain which is under 1

percent. We were talking on this program about what justification, if the rules say you pay 2 percent, how do you justify not paying 2 percent, while

some countries say they're in transition, others are recovering from recessions and from depressions. But even so, there are too many countries

in NATO that seem to have an excuse for not following the rules, which makes it a little bit understandable why the U.S. at over 3 percent is

turning around and saying, it's time to pay up. That's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in New York. Whatever you're up

to I hope it's profitable. We will do it again tomorrow.

END