our coverage starts right now. ♪ >> good morning. welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. we are live from the marketsite in time square i'm becky quick along with andrew and joe iran strikes back in retaliation to the united states launching missiles at two u.s. bases in iraq where u.s. troops are stations the attack occurred at 5:30 p.m. yesterday. one of the attacks at the al-assad air base. iran claiming responsibility for the attack tweeting that iran,

quote, took proportion gnat measures in self-defense under article 51 of the un charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack. president trump tweeted, all is well, missiles launches from two military bases a sassessment of casualties and damages taking place now. so far, all is well. i will be making a statement tomorrow morning, meaning this morning. we are awaiting word when to expect that statement from the president. stock futures initially sank with the dow pointing to more than 400-point loss today. futures have paired those losses now dow futures down a few points even with those declines,

the dow only down by six points. >> along with the nasdaq and s&p. >> s&p was down over 50 points overnight. right now, you are looking at positive territory for both of those. whip saw action in crude oil oil for wti up to 63.02. gold prices briefly touched $1,600 overnight you are going to see $1,582.5. the boeing 737-800, not a max, crashed in iran yesterday the jet went down moments after take offjust outside tehran hours after iran had launched those missile attacks, which is just so odd but apparently both

iranian and ukrainian officials say at this point, they suspect the crash was caused by mechanical issues. >> it is still early >> still early >> they said it looked like this was technical issues but this is not an official statement. what we do believe is that all 176 people including the crew were lost. the president said he's instructing the prosecutor general to open criminal proceedings over the crash boeing is opening its own criminal investigation boeing has paired its losses with six points there. covered the entire loss we are seeing now in the dow. >> have you seen this report that iran said it won't give the black box over there is news coming out literally as we speak. cnbc reporters have full

coverage of both of these stories. phil lebeau is in chicago and we'll go to washington for the u.s. response to the missile strike but we'll start with matt bradley in tel aviv. >> reporter: hearing from the prime minister of israel who said if israel is attacked, they will retaliate that's not all that much of a change it is always on a heightened state of alert but right now is a very dangerous moment. it looks as though this attack has been expected for so long has actually gone through and remarkably, it shows initial report shows no casualties among iraqis and americans going back to tell them there were americans that were dead initial reports show there were

none calling this operation a success. president trump has tweeted all is well. president trump will probably give more context into his thinking it looks like all of this could be over. it could have gone out with a whim per as opposed to a bank. that would be extraordinary. if it's true that tho one was killed the retaliation was made, this business is done it looks as though some measure of instability could return to the region that would be a great thing for the people here and for markets. >> so instability will return to the region and that is a good thing because you are not talking about chaos. >> the kind of instability that they had before, rather than world war iii, which is preferable >> if you look at the statement

from iran last night trying to deescalate this suggesting if there is no retaliation by the united states, having said that, they effectively said if there was any retaliation, they would, as you know, go after israel they talk specific issicly about dubai. on the ground and in israel, what were people saying that about? >> all of that information is shakily sourced. that is not clear whether they would go after hifa which is within range of hezbollah weapons. that makes it an attractive target it has a lot of military bases and industry it is entirely unclear whether it would come to that. if it is over, if this is the

entire extent of the reprizal attacks from iran, then israel might be escaping any reprizal we were hearing from other israeli officials that they have nothing to do with this. even if they consider israel to be a direct extension of the united states on the ground here in the middle east most people in the security establishment here in the jewish state don't believe israel is involved they seem to think they'll get out of this scott free, guys >> thank you we want to get the u.s. response we'll go over to washington. >> reporter: take a very close look at the messaging. still no word when we'll hear from the president of the united states today we expect the white house will give us that information when everybody gets to the office this morning we take a look at the iranian

state tv showing the missiles allegedly being launched remember that countries release military video when they want the world to see the images. this is what they wanted the world to see is iranian missiles being fired, striking back, slapping the united states that's the messaging from the iranian side very public here. the message from the president last night was one of calm here is the fwetweet from the president in the 9:00 p.m. hour. all is well, missiles launched from iran at two military bases. assessment taking place now. so far, so good. we have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world by far. i will be making a statement tomorrow morning pair that all is well messaging with the iranian side suggesting

that the iranians took and concluded a proportionate response and paint a picture of two sides looking to create an impression that this is for now over with. they get at least what they may have wanted with the release of that video and the impression that they did strike back and the american president saying all is well. we'll wait for new information this morning from the white house and the pentagon >> we have no idea whether we are talking to iran through a third party? do we? >> we don't. we don't that has been a delicate issue in the past. there have been morerecent communications but we don't know what the back channels are at this point and what the intelligence might be >> who was the third party

who could be involved? >> you can do that in switzerland and united nation partners no conversation now that any conversation has been taking place? >> everything i say, i don't want to give the impression that this was not a co-mention rat retaliation. you are going to hear that iran shouldn't be satisfied with this >> there is also the long view this is the immediate view >> right what i was getting to, over the years, a lotte of the language from iran is very belacos and over the top and death to america. we hear all of that and a lot of

times we don't take it seriously. they had an opportunity this time to act on some of that fiery rhetoric if this is really it >> some of the rhetoric from the supreme leader overnight was not nearly as belacose as we've heard in the mouth they did call this a slap in the face or punch in the mouth but i didn't hear the death to america you typically hear >> and coming way down from washington the president was issuing warnings, talk bg hitting 52 different sites, different cultural sites after the attack, the president tweeting all is well, looks good so far much more calm tone from the president after this as i say, the important thing is the messaging both sides are

sending to each other. all of this is sending signals we are left shifting through all of that trying to figure out where we are going next. i agree, it seems to be coming way down >> if there is not a third party acting as a back channel, then the tweets are the only way they are communicating. >> the question is, do they understand each other. both sides have a lot of rhetoric can they see through that and really understand the tensions >> it is particularly confusing here >> thank you i'm sure we'll talk with you more later for reaction to heightened tensions, let's welcome d.j. peterson

he advises corporations on global risks for market reaction to this, jim, also a cnbc contributor jim, let's start with the market's reaction. are you surprised to see the s&p and nasdaq are indicated higher and the dow has come back? >> i've spent the last 12 hours being surprised. we talk about strange news night and then we have last night. the 60-point bounce is an aggressive rejection that is a pretty strong signal the fundamental story itself, we have to remember that donald trump expects to thread a needle today. the market is absolutely interpreting this as, iran doesn't want to escalate they did it and now hopefully

all is well. that tweet last night could be taken as all is well at our bases or in the situation. i personally think, it probably will be put aside now. the market makes me think it will take back yesterday's highs and will do okay >> things could change very quickly. if it looked like things were escalating again, what looks like it would happen with the stocks >> giving the situation today, i think the markets could suffer too. not because i think war is necessarily terrible for the markets. we've had a 30% rally. there are people assessing risk. first trading day of the year. if he starts to speak that way, market koz suffer. he has a perfect out we slap them, they slap up

everybody gets to save face. >> you spend your career advising people. you've been busy lately? >> it is quite a day to start the year >> one is the near term and then the longer term. the near term question is retaliation. the longer term is escalation. what we are seeing right now at least in the last day is that if you think about the retaliation, iranians said they started with the attack on the first base they concluded it with the attack on the second base. that is it the next question is, is there escalation that has the longer term play. >> escalation between the two players or some of the proxy >> that's a great question that's exactly it. escalation between the two players. a u.s. counter attack on iranian

assets in iran involving third parties might be an attack on israel taking a move against iran or attack against oil fields again in saudi arabia or the uae. escalating or expanding the field. >> what do you tell companies that have business in the middle east at this point >> do you tell them to bring employees back >> not at this point it is very clear iran wants american interests out of iran so that is the first out of iraq >> i think they've said the entire region.

>> fw it is looking the individual facilities and trying to guess which are at risk and which are larger risk. clearly, it's specific lick. the risk to companies are specific to the operations >> are you a believer to the conventional wisdom that this whole situation has deescalated and iran will end what they are doing? >> i don't think it will end what we are doing. it's very clear the longer term play that iran wants >> it looks like continued skirmishes in the region and the terrorist type of attack

that is going to continue. cyber will continue. the very important issue to watch for is the destablization of iraq. do you think we'll have to leave iraq >> obviously some interests. there is many parties the iranian interests want them out. the sunnis and the kurds don't for the u.s. to pull out now would be seen globally as a pulling out in response to the retaliation. i think the u.s. would want to show it is staying there in force in the midterm we have an adp report out. will the market focus on this now?

>> the market doesn't want to believe that things are boiling over and the fed has to tighten in response to that. things like this that happen in china there is this weird, good part for the fed they can look at the number and say, there are too many unknowns out there it doesn't operate because of the cloud of the other stories. >> when we return, the crash of the ukrainian boeing 737-800 in iran looking at shares of boeing down 2.1% with a decline of over $7 this morning, carlos ghosn speaking publicly for the first time since his arrest in november 2018. we'll bring you full coverage of the media enevt taking place there at 8:00 a.m. eastern time.

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simple. easy. awesome. call, click or visit a store today. as tensions are rising in the middle east. the next chapter in the carlos ghosn saga is unfolding today in lebanon. he jumped bail in japan and fled to beirut.

he'll speak out for the first time since november 2018 his media event is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. eastern time ahead of the conference, his defense team lashed out at nissan said the company's investigation into him was a gross perversion of the truth. you are on record stating that mr. ghosn was treated unfairly in japan what do you think we'll hear from mr. ghosn >> i first believe mr. ghosn has a lot to say now is the time to talk.

it needs to be heard and listen to him for the past 22 years, he has a lot of clarity i believe he'll be targeting those accusations against him. knowing him and knowing his character. you would vouch for his character in his business dealings and you would have to look at nissan as perhaps the place that didn't give him a fair shake you are saying they would have enacted in these activities. do i have that correct >> in the case of mr. ghosn, any

humanbeing is entitled to have the way mr. ghosn has been tweeted for the past 18 months, i repeat is something nobody can accept or tolerate guilty or not, we are all entitled to give our own version. we'll be all ears to listen to him. he'll be the only one who can replooi to the situation this saga will be all following it every day, there will be a new episode. this gentleman hasn't spoken this conference was forbidden at the end. until then is a total blackout >> i believe what happened

yesterday with a warrant against his wife is something that shows many people want him to be silenced why is the big question. >> do you believe there is a way, maybe through the media and the efforts he's going to undertake today and over the next several months. that he's going to be able to change public opinion so much so that the japanese will change their ultimate approach to him it seems like he'll be stuck in leb brown or france or a handful of places where there is no extradition. this is as much about a pub hick heari public hearing than anything else and the only way for that

is to dissuade japan to drop the charges. >> i think mr. ghosn is not only going to defend himself but i believe will attack. this is important. according to public opinion, it is divided you have many people supportive of him a certain fraction of people against him. i have met a lot of japanese journalists. i have spoken to them. they came me even in japan, the public opinion is divided this is why between attacking and reporting to the whole world that those allegations are false he would be capable again of a

certain lost public opinion. he would be able to clarify or to fix the image following him and saying there was an embezzle money of money he is the only one who can answer and clarify that. >> thank you for being with us we'll be watching. i can't believe. we will be watching with interest we need to multitask we are watching a lot today. that will be an interesting press conference, i would say. >> breaking news overnight, a ukraine boeing 737-800 crashed in iran. we have the details next later, our team coverage we'll get team coverage and talk to brian sullivan on crude as

well stay tuned here on "squawk box." flur hey, saved you a seat.

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let's get to our other breaking story the boeing 737-800 crashing in iran yesterday passenger jet went down moments after takeoff outside tehran killing all 176 people on board. they suspect the crash was caused by mechanical issues. phil lebeau joins us with more >> more questions than answers early on what we do know is that this was a young plane. the 737-800 built in 2016.

it crashed shortly after takeoff. there are reports it appears there was a mechanical failure be honest, almost every crash, initial reports rarely tell us what was the cause of the accident there are reports there may have been some type of engine failure or issue the engines here were built by cfm that is a joint venture of ge and sa sfrffro it was a cfm 56-7 b engine. we have reached out to general electric still more questions than answers. there are reports coming out that iran is not going to turnover the black box to boeing or american investigators. that doesn't mean that they

can't ultimately figure out what is in the black box. that's part of the political tensions that will be making the investigation into this crash much more complex than it already is >> phil, i know at the moment we are talking strictly about the mechanical failure do we know about the timing of the crash and not in terms of how many minutes it took off in that relation. in relation to the rockets going off? >> within a couple of hours. my understanding maybe two to three hours it was shortly after the time when the reports of the rockets be e being fired on the u.s. air base you are looking at a two to three-hour window there. >> is the faa issuing an advisory last night around aviation in this area. that clearly would not apply

outside of u.s. aviation, correct? was a similar warning issued in the area or by european carriers >> to my knowledge, there was not an issue in that area. in the past, we've seen this type of warning issued they will typically honor what the faa says you'll see other carriers say, look, it is not a good idea. you'll still see planes take off and land within iran they will continue they have in the past. we've seen their domestic flights as well as international flights to and from iran continue even when we've seen these restrictions or warnings about staying out of the airspace >> phil, thank you for helping us through this.

we'll get to the u.s. research founding partner and analyst your take on this situation. it just feels like bad news for boeing >> you are right i think there will be the knee jerk reaction in an attempt to connect this accident to the ongoing max saga but these are two very different things. i think the circumstances that surround the particular crash overnight are some what fishy. there is going to be a lot of questions around the time line, when exactly did this happen that is some what suspect that the ukrainian airlines has suspended all flights into and out of tehran. there are plmore questions than answers. i doubt the black box data will get shared in a way that is

expeditious. >> carter is saying things that were -- immediately reporting to ukraine suspending, no more flights to tehran. it has nothing to do with boeing we don't have great sources on the black box yet, do we carter, you are assuming it is not going to release because -- >> the report saying they wouldn't release it to the americans. >> do you know anything jond that i don't think anybody knows anything at this point initial reports. it is tough to reach that conclusion quickly even in those reports, you have to discount. >> they seem to have walked back from that. it was an engine failure to say, look, it was too early to do

that even confirming there were no survivors. then the question comes, what caused the fame your >> iran would be unbelievably embarrassing if something happened over there where they shot down a jet. and boeing is so defensive now about their jets they are going to push back on any quick -- to summarize immediately that it is mechanical boeing is not going to go for that both sides will be entrenched in what they are pushing, i would think? >> at the end of the day, the data is what matters if that data doesn't come out, this isn't something that gets resolved if you look at the publicly available flight data, this aircraft was having no trouble

in its climb it had a sudden sustain take and seemed suspect to me, frankly. >> with twitter. with flight patterns and mechanical failures that never happened this way. who knows. carter might know. have you seen some of this stuff out, carter? >> of course there is a lot of speculation. that's always the case with these accidents. >> that's all that it is >> that's all that it is >> okay. 176 lives lost carter, thank you as we try to sort through all of it >> coming up, cnbc team coverage of the iran missile strike continues. we'll get a live report from beirut next. ian sullivan joins us to talk about oil. we'll be right back.

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good morning we are live from the marketsite in times square. u.s. equity futures are indicated higher the dow is indicated down some what surprising given that overnight, the futures had been indicated down more than 400 points on concerns about what would happen next between iran and the united states. at this point it looks like both sides seem to be indicating that they are not looking to escalate we are awaiting to hear more from the white house we are expecting something later this morning the latest on the situation in the middle east late last night. iran launched more than a dozen missiles on two bases in iraq. president trump tweeted that he would make a statement this morning. we are waiting for that.

going live to the region with chris. what can you tell us >> reporter: good morning, there are several ways of looking at this there was an attack. that is never a good thing it was on two air bases as you mentioned. on the plus side, it was a conventional attack. we have confirmation there was advanced warning iraqi minister saying iran telephoned to say this attack was on its way something the united states failed to do when it launched its attack that killed soleimani. this is not the proxy warfare you might expect from iran remember, iran announced how it was intended to respond to the targeted killing of soleimani. it seems to be maintaining the pr high ground announcing what it is intended to do and following through on it. that is still because of the

proxies. proxies like hezbollah and other smaller proxies. one issued a statement today in iraq backed by iran saying, fine, iran has gotten its revenge but we still need to get ours it is too soon to tell if this conflict is coming to an end if you talk to regular people on the ground here, nobody really wants to go to war especially in a place like lebanon where i am where it is still going through severe economic crisis. it's about $80 billion in debt in recent days, there have been runs on the banks because people don't have confidence in their savings. there has been an increase reportedly in burglaries because of the desperation you feel. when you talk to people, no one wants to go to war do they feel like it is

inevitable a lot of people still do >> did you make some type of equivalency between united states not telling iran they were going to strike one of their main generals? do you think that would have been possible in any way to make that equivalent to them saying that they are giving us some warning about striking our bases. i don't understand you are making that equivalency. >> the fact was that iraq was very upset that the united states didn't notify that it was making this air strike that has made things very difficult. >> on its ground >> exactly on its territory >> obviously, then it wouldn't have happened, probably, right >> that's certainly not for me to decide. >> you are right

okay >> iran and its defense did reach out to iraq and let it know, which shows you the kind of influence and relationship that is hot and cold and sometimes friendly one more sign of them exerting their influence >> going to founding partner and cnbc contributor what are you hearing >> we are hearing that the market is still oversupplied i guess you could read that as good news which is why oil spiked last night. the reality is there is still a lot of oil out there many have considered it measured things to watch is, number one,

what will be the american response if any oil targets targeted it. this was not that. number two, will there be any close your of the straight of hormuz 20% of oil and 25% of natural gas goes through there the other thing people are talking about is the domestic response in iraq this is already a country politically fractured. an oil facility was shut down last week because of protests outside. iraq is at 4.6 million barrels a day. they want to get to 6 million barrels a day. if they can't get their politics in order, it will be difficult to do that watch for any domestic disturbance outside of iraq. if you get that out of iraq, then you will see oil prices

spike higher >> i want you to comment on the idea and the larger question on the stability longer term and if the u.s. gets pushed out of iraq or the mightise countries >> we are hearing that they are pulling out of kuwait. there is certainly a lot of worry as brian noted about transiting through the straight of hormuz. how realistic is the attack there? i think it is a low probability but it is scarey enough that some of the big tanker companies have said they are going to avoid going through the straight that is enough to curtail some supplies particularly in iraq where the

bulk of the 4.6 million barrels flows from their southern port facility again, we are hearing about potential hacks of the kuwait news agency, likely by iran. this i the oil continues to flow so therefore as long as the oil continues to flow the security risk premium and prices is going to remain tempered. >> john i hate to ask you about prices when we're talking about lives but when you look at wti right now gaming out what may or may not happen, it's where in a month from now

>> the chart is suggesting that it will go lower we spike to new highs on the current move and have fallen back if we get a negative day today the prices end up going actually negative then that will invite technical saili technical selling in a big way but the overhang and the demand period it's downward pressure short of oil facilities getting hit. >> quick final word to brian >> you have the u.s. which is 12.8 million barrels we might see production rise in the united states. that's what we talked about yesterday. brazil, they're increasing their production and norway, they have a new field in the north sea already produced 350,000 barrels a day. that's expected to go up the point is this, the risk free oil in the world seems to be growing while the risk on oil in the world is under threat but unless global demand goes up

you'll see more oil out there. >> joining us to talk about the big move and then the move back is ed campbell he's senior portfolio manager. also the chief equity and derivatives strategist at btig what do you think? >> we're all taking a see of relief this morning compared to the initial news last night. this does look like a deescalation they have caused markets and recessions in the past so the markets will be focused on that

and our case here is that we're able to find an off ramp and things are not going to escalate to the point of a conflict. >> one of the things that i have heard speculated about is the idea that this proves that there was so much money waiting on the sidelines because anybody looking for any pull back, it's not going to be as dire as some of the early predictions there's people willing to flood right back in. >> there's definitely that and we have been talking about how the hedging shows a view about the outcome which tells you that people are still holding back. look at money market balances and there is room to own equities that having been said, the

market volatility of the last several weeks has been probably a bit too low. clearly what -- >> because >> because there's lots of risk out there. whether it's what we're facing over the last 12 hours or the on going politics in washington or the fact that we -- there's questions around earnings. but for us, the question comes down to is there likely to be escalation the president's run on this idea that he doesn't want endless wars and when you think about it, coming into an election year this whole idea of keeping consumer confidence high which spurs growth is central to getting reelected and this is something that could be a threat to consumer confidence which is why we think it will get walked back. >> some of the market notes had analysts saying they were concerned about whether the two sides would be rational actors

even though neither one of them wants to get into a prolonged or more severe sort of conflict maybe the market was putting too much faith in that do you think that's yes or no? there are situations where leaders miscalculate and things could spin out of control. we're still overweight risky assets here. we don't plan to change that stocks in eneral you want to boost your exposure to safe haven assets here as a hedge. so gold has just broken out of,

you know, moved above it's high and we have more upside there so gold and treasuries. so maybe you have some exposure to safe havens in the event that things do go sour but our view is that we're likely to have another goodyear in global equities. >> i want to thank you both for being here today when we return, carlos ghosn speaking out in an hour's time we'll see if he provides answers about the many questions swirling about his escape from japan to lebanon first we have you fully covered on the crash of the boeing plane in iran. here's the reaction of boeing shares right now, down by 1.7% we'll have more on this story cken squawk box cos gh merit merit ba ♪ ♪ i've been a caregiver for 20 years. no two patients are the same. predicting the next step for them can be challenging.

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the stock down again. >> carlos ghosn is ready to speak. his first public statement after his wild escape from japan we'll carry it live when it happens. the second hour of squawk box begins right now. good morning, welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. take a look at u.s. equity futures at this hour as we try to assess what's taking place overnight in iran and in iraq and also this boeing plane that's gone down the dow looking like it would open off only 29 points. about 30 points right now. nasdaq looking to open up six points higher. s&p 500 would open up 4 points higher and we have breaking

news. >> we do we have you covered with breaking news with full market reaction to the stories that will impact your investments eamon is here with the response. the passenger jet went down moments after take off just outside of at the hahn killing all 176 people on board. what can you tell us this morning? >> this ukrainian airlines flight was off the ground less than two minutes when it went down that's a really unusual circumstance that's going to get a lot of attention and whether or not we get answers from the black box, well it may take time there's reports that iran that has discovered or found the black box at the crash scene will not be turning it over to boeing or american investigators. that doesn't mean we won't learn the contents of the black box.

there's other facilities around the world where the box could be sent where they could analyze the data to see if there was a mechanical issue did something unusual happen on the flight that's the kind of information that you would get from the box as well as the cockpit voice data recorder. that will determine how quickly we get answers about what happened with this flight. 176 people on board. 167 of them passengers nine crew members. this plane was delivered from boeing it's a 737 800 it was delivered from boeing to ukrainian international airlines in 2016. so this is a young aircraft. the engines on board were built by the ge saffron joint venture cfm. these are cfm 56-7-b engines there's been reports that there appeared to be engine problems or mechanical failures but those

early reports after an airplane crash are often wrong and there's no indication at this point that this was due to mechanical failure at this point and suspicious circumstances and the fact that we may not get some answers from iran, all of this adds to this level of suspicion about what exactly happened with this flight and why it went down. >> phil, thank you very much let's get to washington and that iranian missile attack iran striking back at the united states for the killing of its top general. according to the pentagon the attack occurred around 5:30 p.m. eastern time yesterday with iran launching more than a dozen ballistic missiles their target two coalition air bases in iraq where u.s. troops are stationed. one the al assad air base. one of the largest in the world.

the other in northern iraq less than 100 miles from the border iran almost immediately claiming responsibility for the attack. the country's foreign minister tweeting iran took measures in self-defense under article 51 of u.n.'s charter and they do not seek escalation or war but will defend itself against any aggression no word from the white house about what time we can expect to see the statement about what happened in iraq and iran last night. we'll bring that to you as soon as we have it. as serious of a matter as this is, launched from iran, as you see this video from last night what struck me is we talked about a last hour how much of this is also a messaging battle. this video released by iranian statetelevision. these are the images iranians want the world to see about what

they did last night. take a look at the tweet that went out shortly after this attack he's a national security counsel secretary. he tweeted an image of the iranian flag last night in response to this and that of course mirrors the president's own tweet of app american flag with no commentary after the u.s. strike on soleimani, the iranian general in baghdad last week what you see here is a war of messaging and imagery as much as a war or ballistic missiles going back and forth each side trying to play to an international and domestic political audience making the case that it's doing the right thing. now we'll watch to see what the president has to say later on today. if there is the case that there were no causalities here we don't know that for certain yet. if that is the case the president's tone here will help set the stage for the next round of this, whatever that may be. so far, no american military

response to the events last night, we'll see what the rhetorical response is later on today, guys. >> thank you i don't think we have talked to anyone yet in the government so we're pleased to have congressman doug collins join us now. also judiciary committee ranking member congressman thanks for joining us. >> good morning. >> you get filled in on things that we may not know anything about. can you add anything to the events of the last 24 hours? >> we expected a response. that's not anything that anybody would not have expected. they sent missiles over into certain areas in which in some ways it seems like they actually telegraphed what they wanted to do but it's important here to notice that iran wanting to appear as an equal to the united states on the international stage. well, there's a problem here iran is not the problem to the

united states on the international stage. they're a terrorist state that does terrorist activities. to quote the un charter as the reason they responded was sort of a joke in considering how they respond in the middle east and especially their reaction to israel and other partners in that area. this is a situation where the state has isolated itself to the world. the response was very proportional and very muted. he had been very patient over the last year with iran. and i think that we're just seeing that come to a head right now. the president has acted in a very patient mediated way. >> when the president says all is well, what does he mean by that all is well on the bases or all is well in keeping this conflict where it is right now and neither side could be expected to, you know, accelerate from here >> i think the answer could be yes to both. it's not all is well our troops having served in iraq in 2008, this is a very unstable

region in which there is a lot of activities and hostilities that go on during this time. all is well. our bases are secure our folks were on heightened alert and took precautions they needed to and the fact that we'll continue to stand firm in our resolve and what we're doing and it says to iran that you're not going to intimidate us we're not a country that you're going to push around we're going to stand firm and this president made it clear that he will be patient up to a point but he will act. he doesn't draw red lines that he has no intention of keeping but he also doesn't telegraph them either and that's what makes this administration a little different. >> there's a lot of people on the left and maybe even some in your party that at least are presenting a narrative that we didn't need to get here. that yeah, he was a bad guy. everybody agreed with that the obama administration designated him as a terrorist but they had opportunities to do this and decided that the

unforseen consequences, the loss of life on both sides wouldn't be worth doing it. do you think that something in recent weeks pushed that up to where it made sense to do this even though there could be this kind of outcome now. >> it's amazing to me my friends on the left upset about this and talking about the possible consequences it's amazing how the whole country came together when bin laden was killed both came together to think the taking out of a terrorist something that you did that was appropriate. the interesting part here is it is not just something that came out of the blue. it was an escalating event from iran over the past year and the terrorists activities that they're supporting in syria and other places, but remember here, it is amazing for those on the left to criticize this i would ask them what would they say to the gold star families here in the united states that lost family members because of what soleimani that had been doing over the years

what would they say to veterans that lost limbs and arms because of what he did providing the ieds in iraq and how he went about that terrorist campaign. at this point in time he was a kill he was a terrorist he was killed and approximate ut in the history books and time to move on. if iran wants to take part in the world stage as a true world participant they have to release their terroristic activities and quit being a nation that's backward looking and start looking forward and be apart of the world stage. >> we'll return to this, but you were front and center during the impeachment hearings as a ranking member on the judiciary committee. what can you tell us about what senator mcconnell has started? is it possible to start a trial without the articles being delivered? >> i don't think it's going to be start of a trial without articles being delivered why is nancy pelosi being allowed to get away with this statement. i'm not going to send the articles over until i know what to do so i'll know who to pick

as my folks that i need to pick to be the prosecutors from the house as far as her team to go over and execute the trial they made their case they had their hearings. we believe them to be a sham they are now, i believe, ashamed of what they did over here and to say she doesn't know who to put on the team to go over as managers from the house is ridiculous you have a body of work. you made your case you have sent the articles over. you did it before the house. to tell us she is trying to figure out who to send over is a joke and a sham and she should be ashamed of herself and the press ought to be holding her accountable for this this is not have a new trial no, you made your case, now go defend it. if you don't defend it then you have told the american people this is nothing but a political stunt to get at this president. >> have you seen any cracks developing i've heard about susan collins and john bolton is ready to

testify. but i watch the predicted -- the futures and nothing is moving on the possibility of a conviction in the senate. when this is going to be over? can it be evergreen for the democrats right up to november >> they want it to be because they have nobody to run against president trump in november. it's up to nancy pelosi. it's time to start asking nancy pelosi you have no excuse send them over you already made your case send it to the senate but it's interesting that all of these names keep getting brought up in the media. they came out and said they support the view that we should take the clinton impeachment rules and begin this trial there's no cracks developing we all know how this is going to end. let's get it done and let the president make his case and let the democrat managers make their case and settle it and be done with it and move on with what the american people care about and that's more themselves and

not us >> congressman, i was actually going to pivot back to the middle east and try to get your sense of where you think -- sort of the larger implications in iraq and afghanistan and some of what are considered proxy countries or allies whether you think we're going to stay there, whether we'll get forced out how this is going to change the dynamic or not >> i think the balance that the president tried to strike with small forces able to do with things we need to do in the region and prepare for what is a supportive role has been a good thing and we'll continue to see that pulled back and also strategic in what we do. our military is the best in the world. we don't need a lot of people to carry out what we can do with very few people. that's our role is being that stabilizer because after this week we have now reasserted the fact that you're not going to be able to just do whatever you want you're not going to have your lead terrorist go over and stir

up stuff in syria and iraq remember last week before he was killed they attacked foreign american soil. this is something we have to be aware of you don't get to attack embassies the way they did and with soleimani being in the background of that and not pay a price for it america is now looked upon again as a player but not where we are sending massive troops our role there now is providing the stability for the region that needs to be there. >> congressman, you don't see tensions escalating from here it sounds like then >> at this point, we'll see. this is in iran's hands. they have been pushing this for years. this is a story not told a lot if you look over the past year, whether the terrorist activities in syria and really the taking over of influence in iraq with their government, you start looking at this, this was something that the president actually showed great restraint on so i think what we're seeing here is now when he made his statement and said we're going to do this they attacked with their missiles and then took out

soleimani, the escalation is now where iran has to take stock and say what do we want to do here and that's where we're at. this is going to be a calming period and maybe we can move on from there maybe iran realizes they may have to change their ways as well. >> congressman collins, thanks we appreciate you being on today. >> good to be with you take care. >> okay. bye. >> coming up, we are now just less than an hour away from carlos ghosn's first major public appearance since escaping from japan these are live pictures outside of the building in beirut where he will be answering questions from the media we'll bring you his comments and full reaction when squawk box returns right after this ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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we are less than an hour away from hearing from carlos ghosn. the man that went from being one of the best well-known business men to an international fugitive the event is expected to begin around 8:00 a.m. eastern time. it's the first time we have been hearing from him publicly. and his subsequent escape to beirut where he is now phil joins us on more of what to expect and what is at stake for the former auto titan. lots of questions will be asked. what do you expect to hear

>> vintage carlos ghosn, very fiery and impassioned saying i was held without any chance of talking publicly, without a chance to defend myself. my only option was to escape japan to come here and now i'm going to clear my name first of all, he is going to be proclaiming his innocence. he could be in japan and held without any chance of talking publicly so that they could essentially do a coup on his leadership he is going to avoid escape details. you're not going to hear him talk in detail about i went from this place to this place to this place. we already know many details from our investigation as well as other reporters around the world and just to recap, remember he was being held under house arrest in tokyo. he gets on a bullet train and

goes 30 miles to osaka and stays in a hotel or waits in a hotel where he is ushered to an executive airport in osaka and then takes a flight to turkey and then he's shifted to another business jet there is this footage and i want to show this footage overnight security camera footage. it's not real good but do you see the two figures moving there? one of them is believed to be carlos ghosn walked from one business jet over to another business jet do we know for sure that it's him? no, but this was obtained by reuters and released overnight also overnight this footage out of tokyo of police in japan raiding the office of carlos ghosn's attorney this is the office where he

would be visiting on a fairly regular basis. the question for the investigators is, carlos ghosn says he arranged this all himself. well, if that's the case, where did he do it at the lawyer's office did the lawyer have any indication at all? that is his attorney right there and finally there's a statement from nissan. it is not going to wait and listen to carlos ghosn blast the company and claim there was a coup nissan putting out a statement saying the internal investigation found incontrovertible evidence of various acts of misconduct by ghosn including misstatement of his compensation and misappropriation of the company assets for his personal benefit. this is the beginning of carlos ghosn versus nissan and the japanese government and he is going to blast them and they're going to fire back this is the beginning of what we'll see not only today but weeks and months to come. >> stay where you are. i want you to be part of this conversation but for more on

what's at stake, i want to welcome attorney ted simon to the conversation given that this is now in the court of public opinion if nothing else, what does a win look like? well, i think it's going to start or he's going to start today. he chose to go to lebanon and it appears that he chose quite correctly for a number of reasons. one, there is no extradition treaty between those two countries and because of that gives a degree of safety but lebanon also protects it's own nationals from extradition so he has significant safety to remain in lebanon. i would add curiously, i'm sure japan is going to do everything they can to try to get him back but japan's own internal laws protect their nationals from

being extradited but if the shoe is on the other foot, japan would not give up it's national. so he has chosen quite correctly. no lawyer would be part of any escape plan and i'm concerned about the search of his attorneys new offices which you just reported. >> how would you -- if you don't believe any lawyers were involved in this whatsoever, how could something like this have happened >> well, he clearly had assistance i doubt he would be able to manage all of this on his own. >> there were reports that there were 20 individuals involved and they were traveling in and out of japan in this oceans 11 style planning for six months or something of that sort >> i think the more curious things that are going to happen is he is going to be speaking within an hour and i can expect

that you're going to see a full tour deforce offense by him. an explanation of a parade of horribles that ranges from wrongly charged, unfairly accused, unfairly prosecuted, wrongly prosecuted and a compilation of what will claim to be a violation of his human rights individual rights, substantive rights, there was a treatment between them i think you're going to be strong and find statements of what he was unfairly treated and probably details. >> what do you think the long-term strategy is in terms of what carlos ghosn and the family would think would be a win? >> they would love to salvage his reputation but the question becomes in what capacity because after this press conference today, andrew and we'll hear the

japanese government fire back. no they'll say he's still charged. he's still a fugitive. then the question becomes if you're carlos ghosn after this press conference and he'll do one-on-one interviews there may be an indepth long form interview that he does with a 60 minutes style program. after that, then what? it gets to your point, what's the win here for him will he be able to salvage that reputation i don't know attend of the day most people will think the great escape. >> we talked about certain different countries. france, there's no extradition.

>> he can. his wife can't. >> there is an extradition treaty with the united states. >> so how limited -- is his new prison beirut or lebanon >> well, clearly his safest place is to remain in lebanon not only because there's no extradition treaty but because they protect their own nationals. don't forget france is also investigating himself for other allegations so therefore it wouldn't be wise for him to go to france either it wouldn't be a question of being extradited to france in lebanon, they have a provision that if they don't extradite. and invoke this possibility. try me in lebanon and if he's

successful there you travelled through the world. >> doesn't japan have to agree to cooperate in that trial >> no, no, no. you don't get to call the shots. >> well, the point is that he's not doing a publicity campaign and it's going to be remain to be seen how that tug of war plays out and whether or not he invokes my feeling that has not been fully vetted and i think he largely will provide statements that he was wrongly prosecuted and unfairly treated. greg kelly that's the colleague still in japan, what kind of jeopardy has he put him in >> well, it's pretty clear the

stakes have gone up. one they brought charges against his wife which are very suspect based on the timing alone. they serged the lawyers office so i expect that they'll take out additional retribution if you want to call it that or at least become more aggressive against him. that's the sad part. hopefully he will receive fair treatment. >> we appreciate your perspective this morning we'll be talking to you all morning. so thank you >> the factors at play and what global investors need to know. squawk box will be right back.

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welcome back to squawk box this morning we have some breaking news right now. iran retaliating against the u.s. forces in iraq. here's what we know. the missile attack occurred around 5:30 p.m. eastern time yesterday with iran launching more than a dozen ballistic missiles their target two coalition air bases in iraq. u.s. troops are stationed. one the air base one of the largest in the world less than 200 miles from iraq. almost immediately claiming responsibility for the attack. the country's foreign minister tweeting that iran took proporti proporti proportionate measure and iran does not seek escalation or war

and will defend himself against any aggression a lot more on this developing story in a few minutes the other big story and 737 crashed moments after take off just hours after the iran launched it's missile attack 176 people are on board. he has instructed the prosecutor general to open criminal proceedings over the crash boeing also conducted his own investigation. >> boeing just can't get out of the line of -- more on the market impact joined by mike santoli. chief investment officer cnbc contributor

aerospace and defense analyst at jeffreys and covers boeing so many times. and time to start buying is that ever going to come what happened in the past 24 hours. how does that impact your investment decision. it's a 737 so it's not related to the max at all there's 6,500 737s out there a quarter of the world's fleet there's been ten accidents since the aircraft entered service in 1997 and 8 of which have been fatal and none of which are engine failures. it's a little bit too early to tell how this accident is related to iran but clearly the 737 has a very good track record >> sometimes i wish we could just say everything. that it's irresponsible that there's so many things swirling

around even they're not entirely reputable about what's happening here i'm hearing number one there's been some technical issues with some of the engines in the past that have been identified and it's not totally out of the realm of possibility it's very rare with two minutes and the flight patterns for this to have been a technical malfunction. there's conjecture in a shooting war or where you might be expecting something coming there could be aircraft mistakes or a lot of drones in the area either iranian drones or u.s. drones there's all kinds of conjecture swirling around. we don't know anything >> 8 to 10 fatal accidents that have happened with the 737 none of them have been engine failure. so it has a fairly good track

record it flies 25% of the global fleet. it's very different than the max. it's a slightly different aircraft so it's hard to blame this on the 737. >> the crashes that you're referring to is there indication that it's all pilot error? >> there's a list of reasons why the aircraft crashed but none of them as we looked up this morning were engine failure. >> or related to that? >> in your 30 years doing this, or whatever it's been. we always talk, we never know and speculation never works out. but we can't help ourselves sometimes. i think the market is saying this does not seem like from what we know now it impacts the come back timetable. >> even though the stock is down. >> i just feel like that's the

only way that i can infer from the modest decline in boeing after all it's gone through this year that that is the conclusion and of course you have what happened. >> and not the max. >> if there's a reason to think there's a problem with these engines that would be a problem. >> how many are in service for a very long time and it doesn't seem as if it's necessary. the market cares about the forward order book much more. >> you are a great conspiracy theorists. just fall out of the sky two minutes after taking off >> it's a little suspicious. i'm no expert when it comes to boeing what's the earnings power of this business. it's really difficult to pinpoint the next couple of years. >> i think what's important --

>> really? >> the ng carries 25% of the global fleet you ground the ng and then all of a sudden you have air traffic slowing and it becomes a big economic impact globally so i think you want to be cautious given the aircraft's track record over the last 23 years has been very solid so don't jump to any conclusions. >> so the other news this week free cash flow is going to be negative at boeing any of that weigh in to your 275 worst case scenario? >> i think the credit rating is still solid. boeing likes to keep about 10 billion in cash on the balance sheet so it's no surprise given where they are with their liquidity issue. this story was a little bit elevated beyond what it should have been. they're obviously going to pad

the cash balance they have 20 million in debt outstanding. >> but the same day that the buffet rumor hit and they want to raise money i'm wondering whether there's a financing potential there. >> there's a rumor. >> yeah. yeah exactly. >> a lot more coming up this morning, we have continuing coverage from market moving news that's where carlos ghosn is getting ready to make his first public appearance since sneaking out of japan fleai fleeing after his arrest these are live pictures inside of the room. we'll bring you those comments right after this i'm embarrassed to even say i felt like i was going to spend my whole adult life paying this off thanks to sofi, i can see the light at the end of the tunnel as of 12pm today, i am debt free ♪ we have no debt,

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and iran's retaliation what do you think this will mean for the economy for consumer spending and for potential implications for your business >> what happened in syria and the challenges related to immigration has been a real challenge for all of europe. and you're dealing with a across europe gdp growth and on top of the immigration issue and it's created challenges we have been able to grow our international business despite that but it's created challenges and also had a real impacten politics as you look across europe it's created a lot of dissension and you see a lot of the government going to a hard right or socialist and so it's not my area but it's certainly to the extent that there's real

conflict it creates real challenges for what we're looking for which is people that have more time to enjoy content for the economy to grow we're seeing a great economy here in the u.s. seeing great sales market here in the u.s but, you know, despite that, we have seen -- we had our best year ever last year. when we did the deal 18 months ago we were generating about 2.1 billion in free cash flow between the two of us and we said that our goal was over a couple of years to generate 3 billion in free cash flow. 18 months later, i'm happy to announce that we generated in 2019, over 3 billion in free cash flow and we brought back about $650 million worth of stock and paid back debt

really diversified around the world. it was a homerun and the fact that we own our content in every language around the world has paid dividends for us. >> now since we last did an interview in october, disney plus launched, apple tv plus launched and we have more details on hbo max and now nbc universal is ready to launch peacock. how do you see all of these players impacting your direct to consumer businesses and providing more competition. >> sure, we have been for the last four to five years all across europe. we have a sports player like espn plus. and we have factual across there. >> breaking news very quickly. let's take a look at this. these are live shots that we're watching right now as carlos ghosn is walking into the area where he will be holding the press conference in about ten minutes time you can see him over the cameras

that are being held up to go through but this again is him arriving in beirut and lebanon the first time he will be speaking since he was arrested in japan in the fall of 2018 we expect to hear more from him very soon. >> this is turning into a bit of a -- this i mean -- my understanding is there's 30 journalists, maybe more. we'll get a shot at them there. >> michelle is in the room she is there monitoring all of this and joins us on the phone michelle. >> hey, there, becky, yeah >> it's 122 outlets requested to be here and it is a crush of people they're allowing them at the beginning as you walked into the room and then we're told that everybody is going to have to leave. you can imagine that because the story spans 3 different ones,

and very various languages and they want all the reporters to sit down so they can get some video. i believe i saw his wife just sit down in the front i'm not entirely sure but i believe she is there too >> issuing statements.

>> the japanese legal system and also the investigations and nissan into what they are doing finding his income and perhaps the mixing and the mingling of those personal finances and finance with the company those are their allegations. there he is. i can see im it's about how he escaped tokyo and was able to arrive in lebanon. >> he won't. if he does, i will be shocked. i will be 100% shocked i know that's what everybody wants to know but that's unlikely what he is going to say and you guys, by the way, if at some point he starts to talk or we're told that he is about to

talk here. i will be curious as michelle is in the room there how many questions he takes from journalists and how pointed the questions will be. this has been a very controlled event by the ghosn family as well as their representatives. their crisis management team so the questions i will be curious from the journalists who are there how pointed will they get? how much will they push him or will this be a case where he can rift if he gets really fired up, you can see him go. >> there's over 120 journalists in the room it's multienglish news conference. i hope that it's mostly english because we don't have live

translation if it's in another language but i hope that will be the case. >> some journalists get to ask questions. probably not all 120 plus journalists will be able to ask questions. >> there's more journalists than they anticipated and therefore the form has changed since the original planning occurred but yes, i assume it >> you know, phil, one of the things that we talked about is if there is not a trial to be held in japan, would there be a trial held in lebanon? would people look at that as a fair and balanced court or would there be questions about that.

>> i think people will view it as a fair trial only to the extent that japan prosecutors participate. >> there's a good chancethat they say no, these are violations that happened in japan. at least some of them happened in japan that answers your questions. it depends on whether or not japan would play along and i think there's a big question about whether they would do that. >> michelle? >> i would be shocked if he faces trial at this point. >> it's been incredibly interesting. i spoke with u.s. civil attorneys yesterday that said that if they had clients like carlos ghosn they would have

done the same thing and get out of japan because the process in japan is very different than what it is in the united states in terms of discovery, in terms of being able to question your accusers there's no such thing as miranda rights in parts of the world the right to remain silent is very american and completely different way to look at prosecution to americans

it would look like you are presumed guilty in advance. what about his business partner that is still there? and still in japan i'll ask you first >> he would feel like he was hung out to dry and who knows what happened between the two individuals that were both accused and imprisoned but it's really -- it's very, very different outcome for those two gentlemen. >> i was just going to ask one other question which is, i imagine and i don't know if -- and i know phil doesn't think he's going to speak to the issue of the escape and fleeing of

japan but to the extent that he touches on it his wife had nothing to do with it. is it plausible? is it credible how would that happen given the -- as we called it the oceans 11 style efforts that seem to have gone on to get him out of the country. >> right i think that's a very good question so on the one hand, if you're him, maybe you want to give all of those people plausible deniability. that way your lawyers can't tell you not to do it and they indicated he wasn't to speak on the phone as long as it was a smartphone and so it's possible that he could have

communication. it looks like they're getting started here guys. i'm being asked to sh. i'll let you go. >> we're still awaiting carlos ghosn. they have introductions ahead of time. >> i wanted to point out, you see what looks like that there and overhead projector but it looks like they're going to show some documents this will be interesting. this could be the beginning of carlos ghosn saying they said x, y, and z and this is what i have to show that what they claim is bs and whether or not those are convincing arguments this looks like this is carlos saying all right at a minimum i have one chance to speak and i'm going to start stlthrowing out

evidence to show that i was wrongly accused. >> is there a japanese press in the room >> oh, yes we'll wait and see that's a very good observation we're going to watch it all unfold the question is are they going to ask it in english or japanese. >> we're watching the introductions ahead of this speaking engagement. this press conference being hosted by carlos ghosn the first time that he is going to be speaking since he was first taken into custody in japan in the fall of 2018. just last week escaping tokyo, leaving and taking off for lebanon which is where he is

now. >> he is stepping up to the podium now let's listen in to carlos ghosn. >> i want to thank you for taking the time to be here with many of you traveling great distances to join me [ speaking foreign language ]

[ applause ] [ speaking foreign language >> as you can imagine today is a very important day for me. one that i have looked forward to every single day for more than 400 days since i was brutally taken from my world as i knew it. from my friends and my communities and nissan and mi mitsubishi and the 450,000 women and men that comprise those companies. i have not experienced a moment of freedom since november 19th, 2018 it is impossible, it is impossible to express the depth

of the deprivation and my profound appreciation to once again be able to be reunited and today is also a reminder of the day precisely one year ago and bound by the leash around my waist which was used to walk me into the courtroom i was in the midst of being held indefinitely in solitary confinement after several failed attempts at bail i had just spent the christmas and new year holiday alone and in confinement

and i hadn't spoken to or seen my family for six weeks. my only contact with them were letters shown to me by lawyers and i had been interrogated. and without an understanding of what exactly i was being accused of without access to the evidence that justified this travesty against my human rights it will get worst for you if you don't confess, the prosecutor told me. this has been taped. you can look at the tapes because the tapes are being held you can see how many times they came up about, you know, if you just confess and this will be over and if you don't confess, not only are we going to go after you, we're going to go

after your family and you're going to suffer many things. every day i woke up on nights that i was able to sleep and make a decision. do i fight for my innocence and i do what i say. and those conditions remained and day after day week after week, month after month. the feeling of hopelessness was profound. and saw the opportunity to share with you all that i intend to share today. i was thrown back into so dality confinement in 24 hours. in the face of global and united nations standards of justice

this is why today is such an important occasion for me. hoo for the first time since this nightmare began, i can defend myself speak freely and answer your questions. it was very easy to beat on me while i was in prison. it was very easy to describe me the way i was described. unfortunately not only in japan. but now, i'm going to be able to speak with facts and datas and evidence and hopefully you will discover the truth not as it has been travestied by the people that are accusing me or the people that join this accusation or the accomplices in japan but the reality is very different

and hopefully today you're going to discover it with e. these allegations are untrue and should have never been alleged in the first place first i would like to begin by expressing my profound gratitude to those that supported me during this unspeakable ordeal in the face of a systematic campaign by a hand full of actors to destroy my reputation and impugn my character. i am grateful beyond words for the steadfast love and support of my family, my wife carol, my

four children, my three sisters, my mother, rose, and carol's children and family. they all endured unimaginable pain they learned of my arrest and solitary confinement from the media. they were barred from seeing me or speaking to me for months they were targeted by relentless, shameless, baseless media attacks orchestrated by japanese persecutors, nissan executives and unfortunately many accomplices i think of my supportive friends as well as the numerous anonymous individuals who sent me letters of support while i was in the detention center. i think of the lebanese authorities and citizens who never lost their faith in me they showed the world that for a small country, lebanese people have a big soul. they have a big heart.

and the true sense i think of my lawyers around the globe that wage a valiant battl putting their career on the line and devoting their energy against a corrupt and hostile system against day one and was designed to break my spirit and of course my confession. i also want to thank the human rights and criminal justice advocates and particularly in japan who have fought tirelessly against odds to improve japans inhumane system of justice and accepted norms of justice. i also want to take a moment to

mention an honorable man, husband and father who was brutally torn from his world and his family on that november day summoned to tokyo under false pretenses when he needed to stay home greg remains a victim of the japanese hostage system with no trial date inside 14 months after his arrest while mine has captured the headlines we and you cannot forget his ordeal and the pain he and his family indured each day in the japanese system he's being punished because he's honorable and refused to participate in a suspicious prebargaining agreement along side many. >> thanks to the systematic

leaking and information and information by the prosecutor and by nissan i was presumed guilty before the eyes of the world and my unimaginable ordeal over the past 14 months is the result of the hand full of vindictive individuals at nissan, at the law firm with the support of the tokyo prosecutor office i welcome the opportunity and i did not escape justice and justice and execution and

having more than 400 days of inhumane treatment in an system to break me. and it was a difficult decision one only takes and to re-sign to the impossibility of a fair trial. with the strings being pulled by those dead set on securing a conviction and whose only goal is that. in fact, in truth, this was the most difficult decision of my life but let us not forget i was facing a system where the conviction rate is 99.4% and i'll bet you that this number is much higher for the

foreigners the legitimacy of a system should not rest on its conviction rate but instead on the confidence that it searches for and honors truth and dispenses fair and just outcomes it is the prosecutors aided and abetted by vindictive and lawless individuals. in government at nissan and at the law firm that have destroyed and are destroying japan on a global stage, it is them with a side to an otherwise modern country. it is them who should be held accountable. the charges geagainst me are baseless why do you think the prosecutors have leaked false information to the press against japanese law

still undetermined and the investigation time line. why have they rearrested me and saved all of my legal defense documents? why were they so intent on preventing me from talking and holding a press conference when i would set forth the facts and my side of the story why have they spent 14 months trying to break my spirit banning me from all contact with my wife and surveying my every move let me try to give you some answers. i'll follow five topics. the first topic is why all of this happened. at the beginning why all of this

happened the second is how did it happen? i'm going to tell you a little bit of what i have been through for 14 months. third is, we're going to come back to the 4 charges that the prosecutor had put on me and i'm going to explain to you the charges. we're going to also talk about the charges that have been at the base of what i called the smear campaign that the prosecutor even put them in the accusati accusation where are they today one year later what is the situation of the three entities one year later? and then i will let you answer all of your questions. so let me start with the first item which is why.

well, we have two reasons that probably many but i'm going to give you the main one. the two main reasons for this to happen, the first one was the fact that nissan performance unfortunately started to decline. i had decided to remove myself from the operation of nissan because i signed a deal with mitsubishi and they needed help. so i moved as future chairman of the board to support him into reviving his company and i said okay, we're going to propose you as co-ceo. this is also something we should say.

ceos are not named by their predecessor. they're named by the board they are proposed by the predecessor but it's a board decision so when people say, oh he was named by mr. ghosn wrong. he was named by the board. he was proposed by carlos ghosn but named by the board when they say he was named by mr. ghosn it's not factual the members of the board voted unanimously to nominate him as ceo and nine months later they unanimously voted him down that's the reality so let's come back to our story. nominated in october 2016, ceo of the company, i moved to mitsubishi i'll return after having been ceo for 17 years after having been ceo for 17

years in 1999. i left with him $20 billion in cash a company which was profitable, which was growing, which was respected. a brand which was nowhere in 1999 which became one of the top 60 brands in the world that's what i left with him and then you take care of it, now it's your turn let me have mitsubishi and let me take care of renault. unfortunately a ceo is here as long as he performs. i haven't stayed 17 years head of nissan because i was carlos ghosn. i was performing i was delivering growth. i was delivering profit and cash flow and dividends that's our reason to be. unfortunately we started to see a decline in the performance of the company. obviously many tough discussions. in 2018 another decline. many tough discussions but at the same time he was the ceo and responsible for it so he had to

find the solution with his own team so there was some nervousness in the ranks of the top management and at a certain point in time patience would run out and change would come. that's number one. number two, well, we have to come back to the history you know there was a famous one in france that has been given double voting rights for the shareholders who have more than two years. we as the board of renault oppose this rule and we have the right because the law allowed us if there is more than 2-thirds of the shareholders voting to pass over this rule. as you know, the french increase stake into the company and blocked the majority most of the shareholders with us but we were not able to reach the 2-thirds of the shares

this left a big bitterness with our friends in japan not only with the management of nissan but also with the government of japan. and this left because somehow they considered that it is unfair that nissan that owns 15% of shares in renault has zero voting right and the french state has double voting rights we tried to explain it we were not successful unfortunately. and this is where the problem started. because there started to be some kind from our japanese colleagues not only about the alliance but about me particularly when i was asked before renewing my mandate, which by the way, i didn't ask for. i was ready to retire before june 2018, i was asked that i was probably the best person to continue for the next step of

the alliance and unfortunately i accepted this offer and probably one of the reasons for which i am in this situation today is because i accepted this offer to continue to integrate the two company, converge the two companies. always respecting the autonomy of the two companies because this is a management belief that you're not going to make a strong company with people that are thinking they are second rate citizens in and big organization i want the japanese to be proud of the alliance unfortunately there was no trust and some thought the only way to get rid of the influence of renault on nissan is to get rid of me which unfortunately they

were right because when you see exactly what's happening today where renault has influence on what's going on in nissan even though they could deny what's taking place, you know exactly that the japanese had it right by saying we get rid of him we'll get much more autonomy for nissan unfortunately as you know we'll talk about the results the results they expected are not the ones that everybody was hoping for so who are the people? i am going to give you names who was part of the plot obviously he is. but there's many other people. member of the board was the link between the board of nissan, nissan and the authorities now i can talk about what happens in the government of japan. i can give you names i know them.

but i am in lebanon. i respect lebanon. and i respect the hospitality that has been extended to me by the authorities in lebanon and in no way am i going to do anything or say anything that would make their task more difficult. so i am imposing on myself silence on this part of the presentation because in no way do i want to show anything or say anything that would hurt the interest of the lebanese people or the lebanese government so i will stop there for the government chief officer. toyota these are the main people. obviously there's many other people participating through it but i have all the names i'm limiting to the main people who are involved the prosecutor i will mention some of the names and we were

losing in the past and continue to nissan even nothough attackig devices they had given us when we were in charge and now we're supporting the new team. so the story is very long but how the decline of the performance of nissan and the alliance this is the reason for how this has happened i was arrested on november 19th, 2018 i didn't suspect anything. and i didn't suspect anything because i was chairman and i dedicate some people ask me oh my god, you didn't look at this. you didn't mention this. you didn't suspect this.

and it happened that it was one of your colleague from the us. and i say, you know, what happened in pearl harbor did you see pearl harbor happen? did you see pearl harbor did you notice what happened in pearl harbor so you're telling me, you're asking me how i didn't notice and i was not even in my country that something like this was being cooked against me and you're telling me i didn't notice it. i didn't notice it and i didn't notice it because it is true that when it's planned and confidential it happens and you'll be surprised. i'll be surprised. and i didn't know that the world was lead to know that that was the recipe for the airplane. i was arrested in the airport. i arrived and they told me that there was a problem and they took me in the small room and this is where i found safety

prosecutor telling me i'm the prosecutor and i need to talk to you. and it took five hours between my arrest and me finding myself in a tiny cell the collusion between nissan and the prosecutor is everywhere the only people that don't see it is the people in japan. how can it be legal? and at the same time we have so many traces.

so many hands on the wall and nobody is talking about them all of the preparation and all the visits and a lot of the meeting that took place between the prosecutors and nissan at least without officials. i'm not going to talk about the officials. so i was sent to the prison and the prosecutor told me we're going to arrest you for tunder reporting your compensation. i was shocked. i couldn't understand it what compensation? they say we are arresting you for underreporting a compensation that was not paid to you okay and then something which didn't

go to the board, which we had not decided, so i was arrested for a compensation that was not fixed, that was not decided, and that was not paid. this is the reason of my arrest. this is the reason of my arrest. what i can tell you is that in many countries there's no reason to arrest, it's certainly not a criminal case. it's certainly not even an offense. give you a name you know very well professor of corporate lawkon su -- law consulted by any lawyer. 13 months after the arrest, we show them everything tell us, he said, i'm quoting him, it is a shame that japan arrested mr. ghosn for this. so we ask him to write and he's

going to write obviously i don't know if he's going to continue to write but he said it's a shame, the university of tokyo, it's a shame that mr. ghosn was arrested for this. let me continue. so let me talk to you a little bit -- i'm not going to talk too much about it. 130 days in prison solitary confinement day and night. 30 minutes per day excluding weekend because obviously that's not enough in the weekend and can go for 30 minutes outside. when there is a holiday, there is nobody. so you stay in your cell and you just get your food for example, six day without any human contact during the new year break shower twice a week. i asked to have more they said

no interrogated day and night it can happen in the morning in the afternoon at night up to 8 hours obviously without the presence of a lawyer all of this is taped impossible to talk to anyone, no one speak english or french or anything when we need something important we have to ring somebody and this guy is available once a week presumption of guilt prevailed prosecutor from the beginning, you know, i don't need to know you're guilty. and everything they were asking me is not to try to discover the truth but it's to try to find reason to make sure that their accusation would be stoppithere. i felt there was no interest in finding the truth. there was interest in trying to win the strong case against me which is interesting

a new prosecutor in japan was interviewed by the japanese media. but it was a very simple message. okay yes, sure, but we can bring new charges. and they're very good at bringing charges because as you know, yesterday, what a consequence. yesterday, obviously they can't put me back in prison but they ask, they put a warrant arrest for my wife. on what? on declaration she made nine months ago in front of a judge and the prosecutor and what is the reason they said oh, we suspect she said something which was wrong nine months later you discover this nine months later, one day before this press conference

what a consequence what a consequence this is exactly the way it works. you talk, you go back. nine months separated from my wife without any motive. carol has a lot of courage after i had been arrested she left the country, prosecutor asked her why are you leaving the country? obviously they took her passport they were very threatening they left her without telephone. they got her computer. she was left alone in tokyo without anything she left because she was afraid. but then when they start to say oh she has something to hide, she came back, four days later she flew back. they interrogated her in front of the court with a judge and prosecutor and then she left and now they're issuing the warrant for false testimony nine months later. let me give you another example. the judge in charge, we asked

him seven times to remove it over a period of nine months seven times. and every time he took the time to think, nothing changed. and then he came back by saying no and why no? because tampering of evidence. tampering of evidence. but i was able to receive my sisters. i was able to receive my kids. and by not allowing me to have a normal life they were breaking me what is interesting is, you know, maybe they can meet from time to time under your control.

how about that it was talked about. i said like i was not a human anymore. i was something between a human and animal or object and i have to explain why. didn't care. the answer as you know was no. and i had the right for two hours in nine months with a lawyer present in the room and he was embarrassed he just tells me please excuse me i have to be here and i have to report about what are you saying to your wife you have the prosecutor and defense and the judge.

i was naive. i thought the judge was the boss i was wrong. the boss was the prosecutor. they ask why don't you bring this document? i'm going to think about it. then the day comes they say we're late we're not giving it and why all of this try as much as possible to delay the trial and when i left japan i still did not have a date for the first charge didn't have a date for the first charge then they came with the idea about saying oh, we cannot put all the trials charge at the sa. you have to finish the first charge before we start the second one so when i asked my lawyers about how much time this is going to take, they said we're afraid you're going to be five years in japan before i get a judgment. five years in japan.

this is i understand that we have it here discussion is a human right. speedy trial is one of the basic and most fundamental rights of any human being, part of the treaty of human rights well, i was far from a speedy trial. on the contrary i had the impression that they can take as much time as possible. and, you know, with the judge being a kind of nice organizer of the whole thing, the prosecutor according to it 99.4% conviction rate. no sign that i will have a normal life over the next four or five years so i can tell you that it's not very difficult to come to the conclusion you're going to die in japan or you're going to have to get out this was not about justice this was i felt i was a hostage

of a country that i served for 17 years i revived the company that nobody else before me was able to do for ten years. they were in the dirt. i wrote them for 17 years i was considered as a role model in japan. more than 20 books of management were written about me and in a minute, all of a sudden, a prosecutor and a bunch of executives at nissan said, you know what, this guy is a gocold cold, greedy dictator is what they said. cold, greedy, dictator we filed motion to dismiss because of the -- all of the elements that the prosecutor had. obviously this motion was still being analyzed and then there is an endless search for new

charges by the prosecutor so in a certain way, i think we have the list and has been presented with evidence and is facts and data and name and testimony represented to the court just to ask for the case to be dismissed but my lawyers in japan told me don't think that it will be dismissed. there is zero case in japan where whatever is the reason of dismissal is dismissed let me go now to the accusation. the first accusation is the

underreporting this is the main accusation for which i was reported again the amount of money not physical examinati fixed, not decided, not paid also i'm going to give you some interesting facts is that nissan pleaded guilty in japan by saying oh, we're sorry we're going to provision 9 million yen. they took the opposite position. the lawyers said well, we're not guilty there is no reason there is no reason this document is available for you. in japan we're guilty. they said we're not guilty so this document is available. the key sentence is saying that i just wanted to mention this to

you and come back and there's a question and answer. and again, there is no democratic country i know where you go for jail for this kind of accusation there is a resolution from the board. this is a board resolution interesting. everybody voted unanimously for a resolution saying if a foreign director or a foreign, foreign officer, foreign officer want to have a contract of exchange rate to cover his income he can do it and not just for the company who was present. member of the board. they all signed on this. very good. no cost for the company. no loss for the company.

again where's the problem? where is the problem we continue, this is another one. where they say mr. ghosn did you receive $14.7 million from nissan on four years but didn't do nothing this is accusation well, we have the contract we found finally, we have the contract the document signed between many executives inside nissan but particularly i want to point your attention to the fact that there have been a lot of articles saying, you know, ceo reserve, oh my god, this is a kind of secret money that carlos ghosn opened the safe has a lot of cash, he can do whatever he wants, ceo reserve is a line in the budget that's what it is. you can access ceo reserve but this is a line in the budget there's no payment there's no cash. there's nothing at all

this is one indication of the ceo reserve. how does it go you have the vice president asking for the money he was the head. then he has to explain why he wants the money and what is the contract and then you have many people reviewing it and agreeing on it or not well, obviously you have legal then you have the comptroller and then you have the boss of this guy who is usually the head of the operation and then there's me why because it's called ceo reserve. i have to accept that. every single payment from ceo reserve follow the same procedure. there is not one dollar paid from ceo reserve you have all of these people signing off and after you agree on the budget line then it has to go for the payment and when you go for the payment you have many other people having to sign local comptroller, local vice president, obviously the people receiving the money, et cetera,

et cetera. so all of this farce talking about ceo reserve as kind of being special things where carlos ghosn was taking money and giving it to his friend. i have all the evidence showing that we have all the documents fortunately now because you know when i was arrested they took everything from me no computer, no file, nothing. everything was taken so i have to reconstitute everything, everything to defend myself and obviously i am using here some of the documents that the prosecutor at the end delivered to us in order to allow us to defend ourself i would like to show you, can we move to a declaration? yeah prosecutors in japan have many people making statements we never heard about them. we heard about them because they were obliged to give it to them.

he was the vice president in char charge of them for nissan. another one, had he was the chief financial officer of nissan another one is also another chief financial officer. they covered all of this area. and when we look at what they are saying, and these documents are available. and we make them available for those that want to look at them. so when we are looking at them they say it was important because toyota is not one of the main profit sectors for nissan and you know it's practically an asian country. the cars selling are japanese cars and korean cars and then obviously you have mercedes and bmw but they have practically no position in the middle east or very weak position i want to push the people to say let's go on the offensive. we have opportunity not only in

volume but also in profit and we need to change the way we do business we need to innovate in the way we do business pushing people to partner with the local dealer that's what toyota does. they don't have their own bureaucrats going into the region they say we have a good dealer let's work with him and give him support. let's give him incentive and let him do the job for us and frankly it delivered for us because every time we did this we had higher sales and higher profits. all of this is argumented and the presentation made by the prosecutor is oh, mr. ghosn has special ties with a guy and a every time we did it they are just focussing on oh, these incentives are very big and what's interesting is when you compare it to these people it's

totally normal and even below the level of incentive that competitors are saying this is something that you never heard about. potential of the middle east is very important and that's what we are going after and never heard about it it was reviewed by the prosecutor in japan. he was interrogated for one day. never heard about it why because obviously he didn't say what they are expecting him to say. he denied all the accusation knowing that no one is going to believe him. well, if you're my accomplice you might say something different than the truth but you need to know that all the bank acounts. my bank accounts, japan bank accounts have all been swept all of them. so if there was any payment which was suspicious, i can tell you, it would be front page of

the nikkei before it would come directly by the prosecutor so then the people say okay, so what is this story well, money coming from nissan and ended up with you but there's no money from nissan the money at nissan stops at it period and i don't have nothing to do with it. we have all the evidence of it that there was absolutely no transfer i didn't think there was any money from nissan benefitting them so end of the rope there is money of the company which is benefitting the executive of the company i'm sure that we'll come back on

this how much money is that $14.7 million that was paid and $5 million so how is you guys say you're going to spend $200 million. you're going to destroy your company. you're going to destroy your brand. your going to destroy your image. you're going to divert the attention of all of your top management taking big risk with alliance and by the way, the market cap decrease of nissan since my arrest is more than $10 billion. they lost more than $40 million a day during all of this period. by the way, renault is not better because the market cap of renault went down since my arrest by more than 5 billion

euro which meant 20 million euro a day. 20 million euro a day. so when i hear a same made by a french official saying we need to concentrate on the 11 million euro of undefined expenses, i say yes, sure, why don't you come to me nobody came to me. you make an argument but the first-person that should be, you should come to the main person and ask him the question if you're not convinced by the question then it's fine but don't even come to me to tell me about the help to universities, the help to school you don't come to me and you just say unexplained expenses. i don't worry about this 11 million euros because i have an explanation. i worry as a shareholder of renault about the fact that i lost 35% of value and i still don't understand why i worry when renault goes down

by all of this amount, the automotive industry is up 12%. so the only companies which went down in market cap for this period of time are, what a consequence, renault, nissan, n mitsubishi everything else on average went up 12% why is a company made? it's about, it's mainly about creational value, if i remember. the ceo is here for creational value. the board is here to protect shareholders why are we here? i'm a little bit lost as a shareholder, who is protecting me as a shareholder? who is caring about me what is the name of the brand? what is the future of the brand? let's go to character assassination. the big story, some people think i'm in prison, it's true, people

say okay mr. ghosn, you make 15 years anniversary of the allianz in versaill versailles, yes, sure. why versailles versailles is the most visited site in france it's a symbol of the genius that france has it is a symbol of the opening to the world. if the symbol of the globalization of france, you talk about versailles, any foreigner will come to versailles they're amazed by the beauty, by the attraction, by the gardens that's why we saw versailles it's not because you want to mimic louis xiv or marie antoinette, it's ridiculous. we say hey, i made a speech. where is the speech? speech sup here. all of a sudden i can't get the speech i made, which was a corporate speech where i thank all the people for the support they give to reliance.

where y the executives were not here it was not for the executives. we had the celebration with the executives which was different this was for the partners and foreign partners if you invite somebody in france to go to versailles who count' care you invite an american, chinese, japanese to goer have vie, they all run. that's the reason of versailles, but the suspicion is, hmm, this was adversity. okay character assassination. second one you have the unfortunate reservation of a room in versailles, yes. this is a bill who took care -- let me tell you how it happened. we were big sponsors of versailles why? ghosn doesn't have enough money to maintain the building so they go to a large corporation. they said mr. ghosn can you help us, i said fine. the image of versailles sits with the image of renault. let's do it.

we supported many things in versailles we supported recently the fact we have done, it was in a situation which was frankly horrible we paid more than 1 million euro hopefully it didn't come as a breach of trust that i'm using the money of the company for something in which renault may not be interested. it didn't come 1 million euro for it. so the image of versailles is this one so -- >> we've been listening to carlos ghosn breaking his silence, and that is no exaggeration joining us right now reaction to what he's been saying for the last 53 minutes and counting is rick santoisn' mike santoli and joined by a cnbc contributor, joshua creitel, with extradition experience and phil lebeau in chicago. jeff, i'll start with you. did he improve his case by what he said today? >> clearly he could have used time with public relations training he's clearing his gut, trying to

in a cathartic way get revenge out there, which is understandable and made the point he's never received the money and there could have been board clearance on this. but going on at this length, and not giving the media a chance to address it, it feels a little more like a filibuster than he would want, as we're not getting to the escape path, which is what the media wants to talk about and he doesn't want to talk about, but it's understandable emotionally, just not as effective >> in terms of what happens next, josh, as somebody who knows ex-from tradition policy, he looks like he's safe where he is in lebanon. what happens outside of lebanon's borders? >> it's risky for him, particularly after today, in the sense that there's no contrition about his departure, even though he's making a case for it being injustice, other countries don't necessarily want that to be the standard for criminal defendants to make decisions in that

regard, and i understand that france, i've read that france has an investigation going as well, though he's a citizen of france so for him to cross any border at this point would be very risky for him and it's kind of a scorched earth presentation today in that it doesn't necessarily set the table for a resolution of the charges in japan, which he would have great leverage now not being in the jurisdiction, he'd have significant negotiating power to reach a resolution but that doesn't seem to be on his mind and puts the japanese in a difficult decision to capitulate him after today. >> to not respond and continue to pursue this case. phil, he named names of individuals at nissan and in some cases the prosecutors in other places where he says these are the people who have wronged me, not to mention the media smear he's been talking about

for some time, too i don't know what are the instances we still haven't gotten all of his thoughts on where nissan, renault and mitsubishi stand today. he made the point those stocks have gone down 35% since his incarceration. >> if you look at shares of nissan, you can see it it's a clear decline and let's be honest. that relationship between nissan, renault and mitsubishi, it is fragile at best. it may fall apart. i think if the japanese prosecutors do not engage, then this becomes one of those situations where carlos ghosn can say look, i have x, y and z in terms of documents, in terms of this is what was done, that was incorrect, or was misinterpreted, but if japan doesn't engage, it's sort of a one-sided fight, and i'm not sure, becky, how effective that will be towards the end goal, which is rehabilitating his image, and jeff also makes the point off the top. most of the media who are there, they're there, even though they

agreed, this is not open-ended, not everybody under the moon could come into this press conference, they're not hearing what they want to hear, which is how did you get out of this country and how could you have orchestrated this on your own? and he's made it clear, he is not going to go into the details of that. >> mike, it's bruising he did take on a lot of the injustices that he felt like he dealt with under the japanese justice system >> sure. >> when you're talking about 99.4% of people actually being found guilty at the end, that does raise questions that was probably what was most empathetic about what happened from the very start. >> it's unclear whether he will have the standing and the sway to create some kind of international scrutiny of the japanese criminal justice system what is the play here except to i guess in a public relations way get some endorsement, although i do think that in the time since his arrest, his premise is, i was the savior of nissan i was the only person who could hold this kind of tenuous

alliance, maybe that was true for a while but i think there's been a reevaluation of his management style and in fact of his strategy at nissan, which is going for volume over everything else so i'm not sure that he's won that premise, which is that he was the only guy who could have done this. >> josh he did mention greg kelly his colleague still in prison inpan he's being punished because he's honorable and refused to go along with the sham plea bargain, carlos ghosn called it. what is his fate at this point >> he's still subject to the prosecution, although it may make it easier for him to negotiate a resolution that would be more favorable to him, given that ghosn is no longer available, but also, it could, i don't know whether he feels betrayed or whether or not now he's in a position to assist the prosecution with respect to ghosn and could make a different kind of deal >> on that, we have of course legitimate medical considerations that released him from prison and his condition

hasn't gotten better and he was arrested and some would say abducted when he already was on the edge of surgery, so they could come out with some, you know, escape that way, some release that way, and similarly, his wife as a cache of emails that are quite exonerating, at least the way they're reported, that show that the board knew a lot more and that he never, carlos ghosn never received this money. >> jeff, he is still speaking. what does he need to do in the rest of the time where he's talking to the media at this point? what would you like to hear, assuming we're not going to hear anything about the escape? >> he's got to explain these charges. he's danced around them. there's a home in lebanon, there's a home in beirut, a home in brazil, and things like that. we need to understand what was the proper use of shareholder resources and he has an explanation the bonuses he never received >> we've been watching the markets through all of this. the dow futures right now down by about 47 points, this comes

after a huge amount of news overnight, with the bombing by iran into the iraqi bases, where there are u.s. personnel housed. you're looking at s&p futures though up and the nasdaq up as well by about 4 points s&p futures up by just over 2 points this does it for "squawk box." we go back to carlos ghosn we continue to listen to his live news conference in beirut >> i can tell you, consensus doesn't work it doesn't work. you have to make sure that you force people to go for synergies. you make sure they get to the synergies, you spend time to explain why synergies are important. if you say it's consensual, nothing happens and we saw it in the results of the companies so three companies, allianz disappeared, and three companies growth disappeared, profits are down i'm finding a hard time to see any strategic direction, no more technology innovation coming and on