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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Donald Trump to Hold News Conference This Week; Confirmation Hearings and the Intelligence Report about Russian Hacking; High Drama at the Golden Globes; President Obama to Deliver Farewell Address on Tuesday; Friday's Deadly Airport Shooting at Fort Lauderdale Caught on Video; Fiat Chrysler Invests Big in Two U.S. factories. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 09, 2017 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A huge week for the country in transition. An actual news conference from Donald Trump. We are promised one. Plus, confirmation hearings and fallout from the intelligence report about Russian hacking.
And then moments of high drama at the Golden Globes. Not about the movies, but about Hollywood's leading actress and her sharp words for the president-elect.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm John Berman. Thirty minutes after the hour. Christine Romans is off this morning.
This is morning, it is doubtful that Meryl Streep will be singing, acting or doing much of anything at the inauguration. Also, dress shops in Washington the president-elect tells us you can't get a dress if you want one. What has that have to do with anything? We'll explain in a moment. It has to do with the overnight face-off between Hollywood royalty and Donald Trump.
But first, something we have not seen in six months. For the first time since July, Donald Trump is promising to hold an actual news conference this week. Now, we did have one scheduled for December to discuss how he would disentangle his business from his presidency, but he canceled that. We will see if we get the explanation on that this week.
We also have hearings for the president-elect's cabinet nominees and we have new questions about what a President Trump will do or not do about the intelligence report linking Russia to election year hacking. He did get the briefing. He now acknowledges there was hacking by Russia, but not just Russia and he continues to blame the Democrats for even being hacked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLYANNE CONWAY, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE COUNSELER: -- statement followed the briefing on Friday. He makes very clear that Russia, China and others have attempted to attack different government institutions and businesses and individuals and organizations over a series of time.
He specifically mentions the Democratic National Committee. If you read the full report, and it's very clear. Mr. Clapper and his testimony made very clear on Thursday under oath, that any attempt, any aspiration to influence our elections failed. They were not successful in doing that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right, let's get the latest on the transition from CNN's Ryan Nobles.
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This will be a week filled with important people related to the Donald Trump transition answering some tough questions, including the president-elect himself. Donald Trump will hold first official press conference since winning the election on Wednesday.
He is expected to outline how he will remove himself from his global business empire and any potential related conflicts of interest. Also facing the heat, Trump's cabinet nominees. Starting Tuesday, a group of his most prominent picks will appear before Senate committees for public hearing, but some of them have not filed the necessary paper work with the independent office of Government Ethics. That has Democrats concerned, but Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell argue that it's all just part of the process.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: All of these little procedural complaints are related to the frustration at having not only lost the White House, but having lost the Senate. I understand that but we need to sort of grow up here and get past that.
We need to have the president's national security team in place on day one and papers are still coming in and so I'm optimistic that we will be able to get up to seven nominees on day one just like we did eight years ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: The first two hearings take place on Tuesday. Trump's pick for Attorney General, Jeff Sessions and his pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, General John Kelly. Trump's big press conference takes place Wednesday in New York City.
BERMAN: All right Ryan. Lots of hearings this week for cabinet nominees. Jeff sessions and John Kelly, that will happen on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Rex Tillerson, he is up for Secretary Of State. Elaine Chao is up for transportation secretary. Mike Pompeo, CIA director. Betsy Devos for Secretary of Education. On Thursday, General James Mattis will be in the Armed Services Committee. He of course is been tapped to lead up the Pentagon.
As for paper work questions, the head of the Office of Government Ethics has written to Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer warning that his staff is under undue pressure to rush through the nominee vetting process. The Trump team has pushed back in a statement saying the transition is running smoothly and lamenting that "some have chosen to politicize the process."
Some Republican lawmakers are offering assurances that Donald Trump will not be overly friendly to Russia. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told CBS that proof of that is in Trump's slate of national security nominees and also recent history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCONNELL: I don't think it is all that unusual for a new president to want to get along with the Russians. I remember George W. Bush having the same hope. My suspicion is his hopes will be dashed pretty quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:35:00] BERMAN: Russian lawmakers and commentators greeted the intelligence report on election hacking with open scorn. Their tweets focused mainly on the fact that the unclassified version of the report offered assurances and confidence, but no hard evidence.
Let's get much more on the Russian view of this. I want to bring in Jill Dougherty, a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and CNN's former Moscow bureau chief. Jill, you know, it has been striking the mocking tone from Russian officials over this intelligence report.
JILL DOUGHERTY, FORMER CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, in fact there was one tweet that we were looking at by Alexey Pushkov who is a member of the parliament. And he said, "The mountain gave birth to a mouse." And that's about kind of the reaction at least on social media that you're getting, which is saying there's really no proof. It's a very thin report. What information in there is in there is old and basically let's just forget about it.
And from President Putin, nothing so far. It was a very big holiday here. Russian Orthodox Christmas so we didn't hear anything and we're still waiting to see whether his spokesperson will say anything today. But I think, you know, you'd have to say, John, that it's really not in their interest at this point to say a lot because what they want to do is set the grounds for the next president and basically say all the bad stuff happened under the existing president, President Obama.
Now, the Russians obviously want to have a good relationship as President Trump, incoming, wants too. But nobody is quite here in Moscow what concretely will happen. So I think they're kind of hedging their bets hoping that Donald Trump will give what he said he would give during that election campaign.
BERMAN: Yes. Donald Trump over the weekend, you know, issuing great praise once again for Russia saying he wants to have a strong relationship with Russia after January 20th. So both sides seem to want a much more friendly situation. Jill Dougherty for us. Thanks so much Jill. The incoming Trump administration is refusing to commit to timeline for replacing Obamacare. The president-elect made the issue as (INAUDIBLE) theme of his campaign. This is what Kellyanne Conway told Jake Tapper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONWAY: He is committed to replacing Obamacare with something that actually is affordable and accessible and allows you to buy health insurance over state lines --
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Yes, but the same day or in three years?
CONWAY: -- well, it really depends what the piece of legislation is. What does it look like?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Kentucky Senator Rand Paul claims he and the president-elect see eye to eye on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. Senator Paul tweeted, "I just spoke to Donald Trump and he fully supports my plan to replace Obamacare the same day we repeal it. The time to act is now.
A CNN investigation has found strong evidence that a top Trump appointee plagiarized a large section of her 2012 book. Syndicated radio host and columnist Monica Crowley is the president-elect pick to head communications at the National Security Council.
The (INAUDIBLE) file review if Crowley's book "What The (Bleep) Just Happened" finds more than 50 examples of copying from news articles, other columnist, think tanks, even Wikipedia. She has not returned our request for comment. A spokesperson for Harper Collins offered no comment but said the publisher is looking into the matter. It should be noted that her appointment, you know, is for a White House that requires no confirmation.
Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner reportedly assured acquaintances that the president-elect did not really believe some of his own more outrageous claims including the birther conspiracy which really sort of launched Donald Trump's political career. This has new concerns of being raised about Kushner's not yet revealed role in the White House.
The "New York Times" reporting that Kushner had a meeting with a prominent Chinese businessman after the election to close an important investment in Kushner's real estate company. Kushner's lawyer says that like his father-in-law, he too will begin to divest fro his business interests. Of course we say that, we do not know at this point whether or not Donald Trump is divesting from his business interests.
President-elect Trump is abruptly ending a 60 year tradition at the inaugural parade. He is removing long time announcer Charles Brotman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHARLES BROTMAN, PUBLIC ADDRESS ANOUNCER: President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: The 89-year-old Brotman has been the voice of the inaugural parade for 11 presidents dating back to Dwight Eisenhower. He says he was heartbroken and destroyed when he got the word he was being replaced but he is taking the high road.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOTMAN: I want him to do good as opposed to (INAUDIBLE), I hope he fouls up so they said we want Charlie back. No. I don't want that at all. I'm thinking you know what, Charlie Brotman? You are one lucky son of a gun.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: A spokesman for the Trump transition team says Brotman will be honored at this year's inaugural parade as announcer chairman emeritus.
President Obama delivers his farewell address. He does that Tuesday night. He is expected to make a final pitch to save the Affordable Care Act and also make the case that his administration put the economy back on track after the financial crisis in 2008.
[04:35:06] We are also told that the outgoing president intends to offer a series of what we are told are admonishments, sort of warnings that are indirectly but pretty clearly aimed at president-elect Donald Trump.
One political programming note, tonight, a CNN town hall event. Vermont Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders takes questions from a live studio audience about the incoming administration, about the future of the Democratic Party. Chris Cuomo will moderate at George Washington University. This is tonight at 9:00 eastern, only on CNN.
All right. This is what everyone is talking about this morning. The Golden Globes. Yes, they're talking about the movies, but what's getting all the buzz, Meryl Streep. The speech she gave when she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. She took pretty direct aim at president-elect Trump even though she did not mention his name.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERYL STREEP, ACTRESS: There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart not because it was good. It was -- there was nothing good about it, but it was effective and it did its job.
It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back.
It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. I still can't get it out of my head because it wasn't in a movie. It was real life, and this instinct to humiliate when it's modeled by someone in the public platform as someone powerful.
It filters down into everyone's life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their positions to bully others, we all lose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Now, in case you're wondering, this is the moment that Meryl Streep was talking about right there. Donald Trump here talking about a "New York Times" reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has some disabilities. Now Donald Trump overnight after Meryl Streep said what she said, he said I was not mocking anyone.
He said he was calling into question a reporter who got nervous because he changed his story. He said, "People keep saying I intended to mock their opponents disability as if Meryl Streep and others could read my mind. I did no such thing."
There's the other words up on the screen there, and Donald Trump also noted that Meryl Streep was a big supporter of Hillary Clinton. So, there is that feud going on anew this morning. As for the actual awards, it was a big night for "La La Land."
The acclaimed musical won a record seven Golden Globes including Best Comedy or Musical Film. The stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, they got Best Actress and Actor. "Moonlight" was named the best dramatic film. Casey Affleck won Best Actor in a drama for his role in the comedy "Manchester by the Sea." It's a joke. It's a dreary movie.
Isabelle Huppert won Best Dramatic actress from the French film "Elle." As for television, "The People Versus O.J. Simpson," yay, Jeffrey Toobin (ph). That won big "The Crown." Also picked up two Golden Globes. Jimmy Fallon had to endure life without a teleprompter at the beginning. It went out during his monologue. He did still manage to take some shots at the president-elect. He opened with this line, "This is the Golden Globes. One of the few places left where America still honors the popular vote."
Friday's deadly airport shooting at Fort Lauderdale caught on video. The frightening moments, people go running for cover. That's next.
[04:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: The gunman who opened fire at the Fort Lauderdale airport killing five people and wounding six others makes his first court appearance today. New surveillance video released by TMZ shows the terrifying moment at the baggage claim on Friday. You can see the gunman in blue there walking casually. He pulled out the pistol and then the shooting begins. The killer told investigators he loaded the gun in a bathroom stall
and shot the first people he saw aiming at their heads. One mother who survived the attack recounted the ordeal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNIKA DEAN, ATTACK SURVIVOR: I looked for a place to hide. Unfortunately, there really wasn't a place. I saw a smart cart and I went on the other side of that and just laid down. A man basically climbed on top of me and told me I will protect you and it just brought me comfort during, you know, the most terrifying experience of my life. I wasn't sure if I was going to live or die.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: We got new information this morning about the shooter. The 26- year-old was a security guard in Alaska. He served nine years in the National Guard including one tour in Iraq. His aunt told CNN he returned from Iraq a changed man. In November, he told FBI officials his mind was controlled by the CIA.
Authorities took away his gun. They ordered a mental health evaluation. About a month later, he did get the gun back and used the same gun to carry out the shooting. The shooter confessed to planning the attack, but it's still not clear why he targeted the Fort Lauderdale airport. He faces three federal charges carrying the possibility of the death penalty.
Fiat Chrysler is making a big investment in two U.S. factories amid pressure on the industry from president-elect Donald Trump. Fiat Chrysler will pour about $1 billion into two plants. One in Michigan and one in Ohio.
The company says this will create 2,000 jobs by 2020. The factories will produce SUV's and pickup trucks. One of them will be the all new Jeep Wagoneer. A model Chrysler stopped producing in 1991. My father drove one of those very briefly. Got about minus 10 miles per gallon of gas right there.
It was a very fun, big car. A favorite among Jeep fans especially if you love wood paneling, and who doesn't love wood paneling. SUV sales have soared over the past two years thanks in part to cheap gas prices. The president-elect has not directly targeted Fiat Chrysler in his recent crusade against auto makers. So this announcement could be proactive to try to show the company's commitment to U.S. workers.
[04:45:00] Extreme weather hit both coasts this weekend. It turned deadl, at least four people died in California as a series of storms pounded that state. Northern and central parts of California are dealing with intense flooding, mudslides, rock slides as well as downed trees and power lines.
Mud slides closed Interstate 80 in both directions over the Sierra Nevada Mountains but Highway 50 has reopened. The flood closed Yosemite Valley, did a spur (ph) evacuations. No word yet on when the roads will reopen there. Look at that waterfall. For more on this and the cold snap here in the east, let's get to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri. Pedram.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John. The atmosphere is rich with moisture this morning coming in out of the Hawaiian Islands. Classic pineapple express setup here translating to a lot of snowfall across the higher elevations. A lot of rainfall around the coastal communities as well over the next 24 to 48 hours and look at this, the wintry weather o course initiated around parts of the southeast. Some snow showers still.
Some snow accumulations left in place around northern Georgia on into the Carolinas and it's still plenty cold to support more snow showers across the Green Bay this morning. Eventually working its way out towards Detroit later in the morning hours. While it works its way out towards the Carolinas, parts of North Carolina still underneath a winter weather watch here in place with the hazardous travel conditions and down towards northern Florida.
How about the upper 20's and the teens even into central Florida through wind chills so it shows you how far south the cold air has penetrated. Fort Myers feels like 38 this morning. In Miami, (INAUDIBLE) down into the lower 50s what it feels like outside, but quick top trend here that will moderate back out towards the next couple of days where looking at places like Atlanta warm up into the 70s. Washington into the mid-60's and St. Louis, not too bad by mid week, probably about 62 degrees. John.
BERMAN: All right, Pedram, thanks so much. Wild card weekend in the NFL. Four games. None of them really even close. Aaron Rdgers led the Green Bay Packers to a 38-30 win. Watch this. This is the end of the first half. Aaron Rodgers doing what he does really best. A Hail Mary to end the first half. That's ridiculous. That's just ridiculous.
So the packers beat the Giants. They play the Cowboys next weekend. The other game, Sunday, another blowout but the Steelers crushed the Dolphins, 30-12. The Miami Dolphins, the favorite of a certain CNN executive. Pittsburgh goes on to fly Kansas City next week.
As for the other games on Saturdaty, The Seahawks beat the Lions. They play the Falcons next. Texans defeated the Raiders. Houston goes to New England to play the New England Patriots and Tom Brady.
We're going to check on CNN Money Stream next.
[04:55:06] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: This morning, the Israel government is considering new extreme tactics to fight terrorism just one day after a man in a truck plowed into a group of soldiers in Jerusalem killing four and wounding at least 10 others. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters the attacker may have been an ISIS sympathizer. I want to go live to Jerusalem and bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann. Oren, this has become, you know, a moment of tragedy but also a political flashpoint.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very much so. First, it has become a day of mourning across Israel. A day of sadness as four young soldiers, all in their 20's, three women and one man, are laid to rest not only in Jerusalem but also across Israel.
As for the investigation, the attacker, 28-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem was shot and killed in the attack. But shortly after is when the investigation began. Police have still blocked off the neighborhood very close to where this happened -- the neighborhood where the attacker was from to try to prevent any sort of copy cat attacks as police and security forces remain on high alert across Jerusalem.
Police have arrested nine suspects, five of whom are family members of the attacker in this case. We understand from the family that includes the attacker's father, brother and sister. Police are trying to figure out was this attacker -- was this truck driver acting on his own or was this a bigger web? Was this planned on advanced? That will be the focus of the investigation moving forward.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in visiting the scene of the attack just a few hours after it happened yesterday, he said from the Israeli government's understanding, the attacker, the truck driver here was an ISIS sympathizer or an ISIS supporter. Now, we've spoken with police, this isn't a phenomenon of some new ISIS cell.
Police say there are no ISIS cells in Israel or in Jerusalem. But the focus here is now on I'm making sure the popularity of ISIS doesn't spread. Israelis officials have said that has become a phenomenon they've seen among Palestinians.
And the Israelis are doing two measures. One that they've been doing over the last few months, which is trying to crack down on social media incitement (ph) and the propagation of social media inspiration of hate messages. That has been one effort, and now Israeli officials announcing they'll consider using administrative detention, were to hold ISIS supporters or ISIS sympathizers without charge or trial for renewable six-month periods. That in an attempt to stop the spread of the popularity of ISIS, John,
BERMAN: All right, Oren Liebermann for us in Jerusalem this morning. Thank you so much, Oren.
A new provocation from North Korea declaring it could launch an intercontinental ballistic missile at anytime and from any location determine by leader Kim Jong Un. The state media reports Sunday blamed the hostile U.S. policy for his nuclear arms development. Pyongyang says it has responded to "growing vicious threats of nuclear war by the united states."
Queen Elizabeth out in public for the first time in a long time. She was spotted attending church along with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. She got sick about a month ago and really went underground. She had not been seen in public since December 9th. She was reportedly suffering from a cold. It caused her to miss her annual Christmas day and New Year's church service.
All right, time now for EARLY START in your money stream. Well, with stock markets trading mix this morning, Dow Futures taking slightly higher Global stocks are trading mixed. Dow futures taking slightly higher than average, came oh so very close to 20,000 mark on Friday. Just a-third of a point away, but it couldn't get there.. The Dow will need 37 points to cross that milestone today.
The big question on Wall Street this week, will we see a positive Trump effect on corporate earnings? Analysts expected profits to rise more than 3 percent overall for the fourth quarter. Some big banks will kick things off this week including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. All of those stocks have soared since Donald Trump won the election. Investors like his pro go strategy especially his plans for lower taxes and less regulation.
McDonald's is selling off most of the business in China in a deal worth $2.1 billion. A huge Chinese financial company called Citic is taking the majority stake. It will also run operations in mainland China and Hongkong.
U.S. private equity fund Carlyle group is also buying in, taking a 28 percent stake McDonald's will hold the remaining 20 percent. McDonald's CEO says the new partners will bring a better understanding in the Chinese market. McDonalds is ending its ownership but the restaurant I believe still stay in place, just new franchise owners.
[05:00:00] EARLY START continues right now.
A week of epic proportions in this transition. An actual news conference comes down on Trump we are promised.
