Us. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im natalie allen. This is cnn newsroom. Thank you for joining us. Donald trump is escaping the impeachment frenzy in florida with a twoweek trip to florida. The president , his wife and their son arrive in florida on friday. Along the way, mr. Trump signed a bill creating the Newest Branch of the military, the u. S. Space force. Not everyone is happy about the president s vacation, meantime. White house aids are saying near concerned he might have too much unstructured time susceptible to influence from outside and tv news coverage. Staff for the key house committees are expected to work over the holiday recess, consulting with democratic leadership and prepping for a trial as early as the week of january 6th. But that depends on House Speaker nancy pelosi who says she wont send the articles of impeachment until the parameters of the trial are set. When they wrote the constitution, they suspected there would be a rogue president. I dont think they suspected we could have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the senate at the same time. In the senate, Mitch Mcconnell arrange for white house staff to get a lay of the land in the chamber after failing to get a deal on thursday on the rules for a trial. We remain at an impasse. Mcconnell argued rules from previous impeachments should reign. The rules that were good enough for president clinton ought to be good enough for President Trump. Fair is fair. Former National Security adviser john bolton and acting chief of staff mick mulvaney. The standoff means lawmakers are leaving washington with the status of an impeachment trial in limbo until the new year. But if pelosis power play was meant to throw him off balance, he insists its not happening. Sara murray, cnn, washington. President trump is firing back at christianity today which is calling for his removal from office. On twitter, the president blasted the publication as a far left magazine which has been doing very poorly and hasnt been involved with the billy graham family for many years. Whether he should be removed from the office by senate or by popular vote next election, that is a matter of prodigial judgment. He spoke on friday with cnns john berman. Here it is. Were pretty centrist. We rarely comment on xlits unless we feel it rises to the level of some National Concern or that is really important. This will be the case. We wrote editorials about clinton during his impeachment process. We wrote editorials will dixon during his. This struck me as rising to that level and it needed commented. As a christian, i like to think of myself as a person who has given my ultimate loyalty to jesus christ and the gospel hes called us to proclaim. So when christians of any stripe support a cause that strikes me as manifestly immoral, it does damage to the cause that ive given my life to. So i think thats one part of the equation that all christians, especially my brothers and sisters in the evangelical world, need to think about more seriously and more deeply. A fox news poll from earlier this month shows 67 of white evangelical christians approve of the president. 32 disapprove. Not long ago, the Republican Party in america was a reliably vocal critic in russia. But that has been muted under President Trump who is now getting support from moscow after his impeachment. Here the president retweeted a headlines from the Associated Press in which the russian leader called impeachment farfetched and predicted the United States senate would reject it. Frederick pleitgen has more from moscow. Article 1 is adopted. After his impeachment by the house, President Trump lashing out. Well, i dont feel like im being impeached. Its a hoax. Its a setup. Vladimir putin seems to feel the same way. Speaking at his marathon press conference often praising their leader while asking questions, putin blasted impeachment claiming democrats made it all up. It still has to go through the senate. Its unlikely they will want to remove the representative of their party for some made up reasons. And those arent the only talking points he was parroting. When the russian collusion didnt work, democrats sought a new path forward to impeach President Trump. One party that lost the elections, the democratic party, is now trying to improve his goals with new ways. But it turned out there was no collusion and it cant be the basis for the impeachment. So now they came up with some pressure on ukraine. While democrats and even some republicans were shocked when giuliani recently went on a Factfinding Mission to ukraine, afterwards appearing on the right wing Trump Network oan, on tv in russia, a very different tone. The hosts and analysts often praising giuliani and praising him on. I think giulianis trip is going to be a success. Trumps electoral ratings grow little by little, which is weird. We can conclude the goal has been achieved. While ukraine grappled with moscows pressure, unsure of the trump administrations support, washington is divided over impeachment, putin is sitting back and watching it all play out so far in his favor. Cnn, moscow. Joining me now from london to talk about these developments is leslie benjamury. Good morning to you. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Lets begin with russia. Probably Vladimir Putins response, really, no surprise. And then we have the comparisons to certain circles in washington to russia. Lets get your thoughts on it. You know, this is a very tricky one because some of the backlash that the president is aspiring by critiquing and challenging impeachment, i think, does play well certainly with his base and with the Republican Party and possibility with some independents. Im more skeptical of that. But i think the affinity to putin, trying to get russia behind them, im not persuaded that this has the same effect. Weve watched this throughout Donald Trumps presidency at various points. The American Public doesnt tend to follow the support that the president is getting from putin. All right. Lets move on to the impeachment itself. What of the impeachment trial impasse. Nancy pelosi says she will not send impeachment articles until the senate agree to the rules. Nancy pelosi is a very shrewd leader. But this is a very it comes off i think of these statements that senator Lindsey Graham made at the doha forum not just a week ago, indicating that they dont see themselves as impartial, that theyre seeking to move very quickly. There is a question about whether witnesses will be called. In a recent poll, 6 4 of republicans said they would like to see witnesses called. Those who surround donald trump such as john bolton are people even the republicans would like to see. So theres support for a process that actually brings leverages. But, of course, it hangs over the president s head and i think it does make for potentially a very toxic january and in the christmas weeks. Americans and people around the world are looking to focus on christmas. Hopeful le they can, for sure. Mitch mcconnell, hes controlling the senate. And when you put Mitch Mcconnell versus nancy pelosi, what will happen . Americans are very divided on this. I think one of the interesting questions is less what happens, although that clearly is highly consequential. At the moment, americans remain deeply divided over impeachment. A lot of americans are watching it at the same time that theyre tuning it out. But this deep contentiousness between the two leaders is going to carry on. One of the moves might be that maybe nancy pelosi decides dont send the articles to the senate because leave this as a president who has been impeached by the house and dont allow the senate to deny them the opportunity to have a president who has been acquitted. That is also one potential tool in the thats one possibility. That sounds like something that can be in play, certainly. Meantime, you know, mr. Trump is furious. Hes been lashing out on twitter. Now we have christian magazine saying that you should be put out of office for his im morality. Could this give others pause . Well, i do think this is very interesting. The evangelical base has been important to donald trump and its been strongly united behind him at least in terms of the polling that weve seen in terms of public statements. Theres a little bit of a split or some noise after trump made the decision to put americas troops out of syria after that phone call with erdogan. So this is a second much stronger statement that weve seen indicating that despite the polling, there might be a different message coming out of the evangelical community. Subsequent to that piece, weve seen the evangelical community publicly unite behind the president , it still creates a moment, it indicates in a very public way, that there is the opportunity to push back. And i think, you know, when you see a Statement Like that made, and then the response being unity, it still means that they were at the beginning potentially of some people having the opportunity to peel away their support from the president if they think his conduct is not appropriate. Weve got christmas and new years. Hopefully we wont bug you again, leslie, but we just might. Thank you so much for your insights. Thank you. North korea has a new warning for the United States. It is demanding washington mind its own business when it comes to human rights. The Foreign Ministry accuses a u. S. Diplomate of making reckless remarks in a voice of America Interview this week saying its like pouring oil over burning fire. The statement goes on to say if the u. S. Dares to impair our system by taking issue over the human rights issue, it will be made to pay dearly for such an act. Just ahead here, the message just sail back home, that is the message from carnival after two of its passenger ships collide. More about it, plus a whistleblower is sounding the alarm. Hear why they say it is becoming less safe to fly. Zombie tomor. Wrong. New mucinex nightshift fights my cold symptoms so i can sleep great and wake up human. Dont eat me i taste terrible. Fight your worst symptoms so you can sleep great and wake up human. New mucinex nightshift cold and flu. If youre like us, you have a box of old video tapes, film reels, and photos, just degrading away in your closet. [nick] legacybox saves these memories by professionally digitizing them on dvd, thumb drive, or the cloud. [adam] its easy. Load legacybox with your media, and you get back your originals and new digitized copies. [nick] legacybox is simple and safe with over a half a million satisfied customers. Preserve your memories today. Visit legacybox. Com and get 40 off. [nick] thats legacybox. Com. Wean air force veteran made of doing whats right,. Not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. Because doing right by our members, thats whats right. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa youve got the video . Yep. Hes going to hit us next. Yes, right there, you see it. Those are two Carnival Cruise ships colliding in cozumel mexico, friday. One was docked and the other hit it while trying to maneuver into court. Six people had minor injuries. So fortunately that that wasnt worse. The cruise line believes the collision was caused by spontaneous wind gusts. The passengers were provided for a 100 per room on board credit. The damagedship is heading back to its home port in morals. A whistleblowerer is raising concerns about the safety of air travel. Were not talking about cruise ships right now. A high ranking official with the u. S. Transportation Security Administration warms that changes to the screening process are putting people at risk. This tsa whistleblowerer is coming forward because he says the concerns he has raised over the last couple of years have not been addressed. He says the tsa officers on the front line are not to blame. These screening changes, he says, have come from tsa leadership. What theyre doing is injecting danger into the system. Jay brainard is the top tsa official in his state and has been with the agency for 17 years. He says tsa is cutting corners on the screening process to shorten wait times. Tsa reduced the sensitivity on all walk through metal detectors across america. They are reducing the concentration of metal that it would take to set off that alarm so you can speed up lines. How do you know thats why they did it. Because theres a memo out that supports it. Brainard says the practice continues today and he worries bomb making ingredients could go undetected. It is an unhealthy obsession, placing time over safety. This internal memo states as of last month, those xray machines should be enabled. That box is no longer on the screen. Tsa will be saying this is precheck. You do not have an entire population in precheck that are vetted. Cnn put this to the tsa administrator. He says the agency is not prioritizing wait times over security. I wont discuss any of our particular security procedures because thats not appropriate for me to do, but he rest assured, we provide the level of security we think is appropriate based on the travel levels of the passenger. Another audit two years later found there were still vulnerabilities. When i sit back and you watch these things happen, it is the most frustrating thing you can imagine. Going public is his last resort. He sent complaints and sent letters to congress. Not just about the metal detectors, but also about the xray machines, a policy change allowing some passengers with medical devices to do a selfpat down and a new policy called blended lanes, something that could confuse screeners. They now have to mentally switch themselves on and off about what is permitted, what is not permitted with every other passenger. Last year, the special counsel ordered the complaints to be investigated. My biggest fear is having something happen that costs american lives and i didnt step up and put a stop to it or at least try. Because its going happen. Its not a question of if. Its a question of when. We are long overdow for another attack. Tsa did take action of one of brainards complaints. He says they continued to use an ineffective test to determine if new hires were colorblind, a disqualifying condition. If you had something in a bag and if something were colorblind, they wouldnt see the bomb if it were the only thing in the bag. Tsa is now using a new test for new hires. But according to this memo, the agency will not continue resefting the existing workforce until the end of next year. Despite whistleblowerer protections and consistent top ratings on his performance evaluations, speaking out could cost him his job. I fully suspect the first discussion theyre going to have is how they can fire me. But he believes these issues are too urgent to keep quiet. No changes have been made to the body scanners that travelers go to law. Cnn reached out and got no comment regarding these complaints. Brainard has object stained a whistleblowerer attorney. The tsa toll me whistleblowerers, and im quoting, provide a valuable service and its our responsibility to fully investigate those concerns to see if they represent a valid Security Risk or not, but the tsa says they have not completed its assessment. Boris johnson gets his wish. Next year and the uk gets its eu divorce bill. We look at the next step on the road to brexit. Also, members of Congress Fire off an angry letter to the white house, saying adviser Steven Millers leaked emails show he is unfit for government service. Here, it all starts with a simple. Hello hi how can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone wifi up there . Uhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your local xfinity store today. Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. Youre watching cnn newsroom. We appreciate it. Here are our top stories. Donald trump is leaving impeachment behind for a twoweek holiday vacation in florida. But back in washington, the white house and Top Democrats are preparing for the next step. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is withholding the articles of impeachment until the house lays out their tirial plans. The president said he would never again sign a sweeping Government Spending bill. Emergency warnings are in place in several parts of australia as bush fires continue to rage. Fire officials are telling some people to take shelters as fires approach their community. High temperatures and strong winds are creating catastrophic conditions. We will are have more about it this half hour. Now we turn to the United Kingdom. Mow the real work begins for british Prime MinisterBoris Johnson. Lawmakers in london approved his brexit deal thanks to mr. Johnsons new conservative majority in parliament. Nic robertson looks at what comes next. There you have it, a majority of 124. This is precisely what the Prime MinisterBoris Johnson was looking for, the expectation he would have a very Strong Majority for the withdraw agreement bill. What happens next . Parliament on reset for the next couple of weeks. After that, second week of january, three days set aside for further discussions about the withdraw agreement bill. Every expectation now that britain will leave the