Return to Transcripts main page
Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Pres. Trump Signs Border Wall Order; Trump's Pivot on Executive Action; Remembering Mary Tyler Moore. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 26, 2017 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:30:06] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will be in a form reimbursed by Mexico which I --
DAVID MUIR, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: So, they will pay us back?
TRUMP: Yes, absolutely, 100 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump with his first White House interview since sworn in -- immigration, torture, border security, and new misinformation about voter fraud. Hear what he had to say.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The president pivots on executive action. He'll sign new ones today, but not the ones we thought. A day, one day after green-lighting the border wall.
BERMAN: And remembering Mary Tyler Moore. The actress, she has passed away at the age of 80. We're going to look back at her most memorable moments. It's hard because there are so many.
ROMANS: So many, I know.
BERMAN: All right. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Nice to see you all this morning.
Let's start here, though, with politics and the president shuffling the rollout for executive actions, a day after signing an executive order on the border wall. We had expected the president to take further action on immigration and refugees. Instead, he will shift to trade, signing orders laying the ground work for new bilateral deals now that he's withdrawn from the broader Trans Pacific Partnership.
But as we await action on refugees, President Trump has fired his first shot in the immigration battle, signing an executive order aimed at starting construction on the border wall within a matter of months. In his first interview since taking office, he defends the move to ABC News, proclaiming the U.S. will not end up paying for that wall. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We will be in a form reimbursed by Mexico which I --
MUIR: So, they will pay us back?
TRUMP: Yes, absolutely, 100 percent.
MUIR: So, the American taxpayer will pay for the wall at first.
TRUMP: All of this will be reimbursed in a later date from whatever transaction we make from Mexico. I campaigned on the wall and it's very important. But that wall will cost us nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: The president making the first trip outside the capital today. He is going to Philadelphia to meet with Republicans who are meeting there.
CNN's Jim Acosta has the latest on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, President Trump is traveling to Philadelphia later today to attend a GOP retreat. He has plenty to discuss with his fellow Republicans after signing executive orders to build a wall on the border with Mexico and crackdown on illegal immigration. Here's what the president had to say about that.
TRUMP: We are in the middle of the crisis on our southern border. The unprecedented surge of illegal migrants from Central America is harming both Mexico and the United States. And I believe the steps we will take starting right now will improve the safety in both of our countries. It's going to be very good for Mexico. A nation without borders is not a nation.
ACOSTA: President Trump was scheduled to meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto next week. In a video message to Mexicans, Pena Nieto did scrap the trip, but he did emphasize once again that Mexico is not paying for that wall -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Mexico's not paying for that. You know, Mexico's largest source of income is threatened by President Trump. The country's largest source of cash comes from Mexicans living and earning money in the U.S. and sending that money back to Mexico. How much? $24.6 billion over the border from the U.S. to Mexico last year. These are from working people, right? The average remittance is about 300 bucks.
In 2015, remittances surpassed the amount Mexico made from oil exports for the first time ever. Think of that. Its greatest natural resource are the people who leave Mexico to work in the United States. Trump said he was looking to tax those remittances. So, now, they are
a major bargaining chip as he seeks to fulfill that campaign promise of making Mexico pay for the border wall. Experts say even if the administration tries to stop it, workers here could find informal ways to send money home, like traveling relatives or through the mail even.
Mexico's president will meet with Trump next week. He reiterated the country will not pay for that wall. Mexican officials visited the White House yesterday. There is foreign aid too. There's $134 million in foreign aid. You look at the price for the wall in the billions, the president does have as wiggle room on the foreign aid, that has to be paid out or withholding foreign aide for a period of years to make Mexico pay for it.
BERMAN: Jim Acosta mentioned the Mexican president still planning or hasn't cancelled yet his trip to United States to meet with President Trump. But he is facing enormous pressure at home.
ROMANS: You can imagine.
BERMAN: So, it will be interesting to watch how he reacts over the next few days.
As for executive order on refugees, officials say they will not signed today, maybe on Friday. A draft executive order obtained by CNN suggests the president is considering a blanket ban on refugees for up to four months. The plan would also bar for 30 days all travelers from seven countries, including Iraq, Iran and Syria.
ROMANS: The drop also calls for barring admission for all Syrian refugees indefinitely. Essentially ending the Syrian refugee program until the president determines the betting and screening process has been sufficiently overhauled. The president explained the rationale for these tough new restrictions last night to ABC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You're looking at people that come in, in many cases, in some cases, with evil intentions. I don't want that. They're ISIS. They are coming under false pretense.
I don't want that. I'm going to be the president of a safe country. We have enough problems.
We're not letting people in if we think there is a little change chance of some problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Also as early as today, the president could sign an executive ordering the Justice Department to launch an investigation into voter fraud or he could launch a presidential commission to look into. We don't know which way he'll go. The president has repeatedly push the false claim that 3 million to 5 million votes we cast in the election, which is why he says he lost the popular vote. There is simply no evidence of this. His White House counsel in a legal brief said there is no evidence of this.
Nevertheless, facts aside, overnight, the investigation might help prove his claim.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If you look at the voter registration, you look at the dead people that are registered to vote who vote, you look at the people who are registered in two states, you look at all of these different things that are happening with registration, you take a look at those registration -- you're going to find it and we're going to do an investigation on it.
MUIR: But 3 million to 5 million illegal votes?
TRUMP: Well, we're going to find, but it could very well be that much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: If you watched the interview that Donald Trump had with David Muir, the president had with David Muir, every time David asked about the 3 million votes, the president talked about how he could have won the popular vote if he campaigned differently. He seems fixated on that notion.
A senior administration official tells CNN the president wants to discuss this alleged voter fraud issue with Republican lawmakers before launching a probe. The official also says there is some concern within the White House about starting an investigation before the Senate confirms the president's choice for attorney general, Jeff Sessions.
ROMANS: President Trump's focus on voter fraud putting Republicans in an awkward spot. Many are trying to defend the new leader of their party without conceding his obviously baseless claim of election fraud. House Oversight Committee chairman says his panel will not be looking into the issue, while Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger complains the issue is taking the president off message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R-UT), HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I just haven't seen the fraud. If it's out there, the president is convinced it's there, he should investigate it. He's got 100,000 people at the Department of Justice to help him to do that. So, but it's not something the Oversight Committee is going to dive into.
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R), ILLINOIS: I would actually encourage the president to come out with whatever evidence he has that makes him believe there were millions that voted illegally. I think it's dangerous ground because it begins to undermine the base of the Constitution, which is idea of a fair election.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: The president has been pointing to voters registered in more than one state as a possible sign of fraud, even though many people frankly are registered in two places, if they move for example. For example, Mr. Trump's nominee to head the treasury Steve Mnuchin, and his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, they are or were until very recently both registered to vote in two different states. Bannon who is registered in New York was deregistered in Florida just yesterday.
BERMAN: Being registered is not voter fraud. If you vote in two states, that is voter fraud, and that is where there is no evidence. None, zero.
All right. New reaction to the president's comments about torture. The president wants to fight fire with fire to counter terrorism. He said that includes being open to using banned techniques, including waterboarding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUIR: President Obama said the U.S. does not torture. Will you say that?
TRUMP: Well, I have a general whom I have great respect for, General Mattis, who said -- I was a little surprised -- who said he is not a believer in torture. I have spoken to others in intelligence and they are big believers in, as an example, waterboarding because they say it does work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pretty outrage of the notion of breaking back enhanced interrogation techniques, including Senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war who endured years of torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: You name them. Any military leader you respect has said we should not torture people, and I'm very confident that it wouldn't stand a day in court if they tried to restore that.
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: Those issues are set of law. Congress has spoken. With respect to torture, that's banned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Several media outlets have obtained a proposed executive order apparently drafted by the Trump administration and calls for a policy review that could authorize the CIA to reopen black site prisons overseas and restart interrogation programs that were dismantled when President Obama took office.
ROMANS: All right. Protests break out after President Trump signs an executive order cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities. This was the scene Wednesday night in Washington Square Park in New York City. Protesters heard chanting resist. While others carried signs saying "I stand with immigrant New York and here to stay."
[04:40:04] Meantime, mayors in New York and Boston that could be affected by sanctuary funding cuts immediately pushed back against the president's executive order.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: Hundreds of American cities where this executive order could undermine public safety create a rift and a disconnect between police departments and those they serve and take away funding from law enforcement. That's the potential magnitude of what we face here.
MAYOR MARTY WALSH (D), BOSTON: If necessary, we will use city hall itself to shelter and protect anyone who is targeted unjustly. Boston was here for me and my family. And for as long as I am mayor, I will not turn my back on those who are seeking a better life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: According to the most recent numbers in 2015, more than 200 state and local jurisdiction did not honor requests from immigration to detain individuals.
BERMAN: All right. The president says we will learn the nominee to be the next Supreme Court justice in one week. Overnight, he wrote, "I will be making my Supreme Court pick on Thursday of next week. Thank you."
The senior administration official tells CNN the president is done interviewing candidates and the field has narrowed to four finalists. Neil Gorsuch, a federal appeals court judge in Denver, Thomas Hardiman of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, William Pryor Jr., who sits on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Diane Sykes.
ROMANS: Former President George H.W. Bush could be home this week. Doctors say the 41st president is recovering from pneumonia but still has a lingering cough and he needs to build up his strength. If he continues to improve, he would be released in the next couple days.
The 92-year-old Bush has been hospitalized for 12 days and required a surgical procedure to clear airways. We know his wife was also in the hospital with bronchitis, but she has been released and doctors have been saying that they are quite a team, those two.
BERMAN: They are watching his cough. He's got a cough. You know, he is over 90 years old. He had pneumonia. He has a cough. They want to make sure he can go home and take care of them. They've got him on medication. We hope it works out.
All right. We are mourning the loss of a legendary actress, Mary Tyler Moore. We're going to have more on her life and legacy next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was always some deeper meaning to whatever chuckles did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:46:34] ROMANS: A legendary actress, tireless advocate, a role model for a generation of women, the death of Mary Tyler Moore is sending sadness through Hollywood and beyond. Moore died Wednesday at the age of 80.
Friends and co- stars offering tributes to the beloved star, on social media and elsewhere. Her groundbreaking career spanned more than 50 years. Her most memorable role forever change how women are depicted on television.
CNN's Jeanne Moos has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mary Tyler Moore's smile has been turned off at the age of 80, not before she made it.
(MUSIC)
MOOS: Her famous hat throw even immortalized in a statue.
MARY TYLER MOORE, ACTRESS: Here it goes!
MOOS: Her first acting break was as an elf, pushing appliances. But her career really got hot --
ANNOUNCER: "The Dick Van Dyke Show" --
MOOS: In 1961 with her first starring role.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to show you off. How about it, Laurie? Will you give me that pleasure?
MOORE: No.
MOOS: In her own show, she played a single TV woman in a newsroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got spunk.
MOORE: Well --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hate spunk.
MOOS: The show had enough spunk to last seven seasons.
Mary also went after serious roles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you chase these roles or --
MOORE: Yes.
MOOS: She was nominated for an Academy Award for "Ordinary People". In her not so ordinary life, she was married three times, went through diabetes and a benign brain tumor, lost her only son when he accidentally shot himself.
She was a vegetarian and for years an alcoholic.
MOORE: I just made up my mind to stop.
MOOS: And checked into the Betty Ford clinic.
Watch her expression when Larry King described her as --
LARRY KING, FORMER CNN HOST: Television's comedy goddess.
MOOS: She said this quote from Dorothy Parker was her motto.
MOORE: What other people think of me is none of my business.
MOOS: If you now think of her as sadness, recall Mary cracking up at the funeral of chuckles the clown.
Remember how that ended?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead, my dear. Laugh for chuckles.
MOOS: Mary Tyler Moore fans may need some tissues, or at least a group hug.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we all need some Kleenex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's some on Mary's desk.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: I think it was the series finale of Mary Tyler Moore, the Mary Tyler Moore show. She was so talented. You saw "Flirting with Disaster" and she stole the show.
ROMANS: Yes.
BERMAN: And that film, and ordinary people.
ROMANS: All those people so lucky to work together. When you just look at some of those clips, you can't imagine all of the talented people working together, and all making each other better. That is what so many have been saying.
BERMAN: So many spinoffs.
All right. Among the most notable of the tributes, Mary's long time co-star Ed Asner. He wrote, "To Mary Tyler Moore, my heart goes out to you and your family. I know that I love you and believe in your strength."
[04:50:00] He added, "A great lady I love. I will miss her. I will never be able to repay her for the blessings that she gave me."
Dick Van Dyke, who, of course, was her co-star on "The Dick Van Dyke Show", he wrote, "There are no words. She was the best. We always said we would change each other's lives for the better." He shared a video of their performance of "I've Got Your Number".
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
BERMAN: If you ever watch "The Dick Van Dyke Show" now. So chic back then.
ROMANS: Singing, dancing and funny. Very funny.
Fifty minutes past the hour.
The Dow finally hit 20,000, putting an exclamation on the Trump stock market rally. So, what does the president think of 20K? We'll get a check on CNN Money Stream, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:55:00] BERMAN: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says he wants to normalize relations with the United States under President Trump. Of course, efforts with better relations with the Obama administration and Russia, they fell apart over the years after increased aggression, Russian aggression with Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere.
I want to bring in CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance live in Moscow.
Normalize relations. How soon? When? Where? How will this happen, Matthew?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no, we don't know. How many times did we hear in the Trump campaign that it would be great to get along with Russia? The Trump administration and Kremlin want to normalize those relations. I just got off the phone actually, we did here in the bureau here in Moscow with the Kremlin, trying to work out when this phone call was going to happen between Putin and Trump.
Few days ago, they said it was going to be a few days from now. It still hasn't happened yet. It is still being arranged apparently, as is the widely anticipated first meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, holding out hopes on the issues between these two countries, from Syria, to sanctions, to Ukraine, can be settled or at least resolved in some way or moved away from the center of the former Cold War rivals.
But as you say, resets between the United States and Russia have been attempted in the past and they failed. President Obama when he came in tried to reset the relationship. George W. Bush did the same before him did the same. I mean, I think the problem lies in the fact that where Trump wants to make America great again, Vladimir Putin wants to make Russia great again. That's where the friction may emerge in the coming years.
BERMAN: See where that, those interests overlap or not is the big question.
All right. Matthew Chance, thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Money Stream.
The Dow finally did it, above 20,000 right at the opening bell yesterday. It closed 68 points above there. The Dow, the NASDAQ, and the S&P 500 all closing at record highs. Futures are higher again this morning. The stock market, of course, measures corporate profits and the optimism surrounding Trump's policies of less regulation and lower taxes is a bet that the companies will make more money.
When you see Dow 20,000, it means that President Trump is going to be very good for shareholders and companies. That's what the market is telling us.
Stock markets in Europe and Asia are rising as well, the big gains this election day fueled by the financial sector, up 17 percent over the past three months. Materials companies are up double digits, and industrial stocks are also rising, up 9 percent.
So, what does President Trump think about Dow 20,000?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: First time in history. I'm very proud of that. Now we have to go up, up, up. We don't want it to stay there.
MUIR: That's the challenge, Mr. President.
TRUMP: That's going to be the challenge. But it's gone up a lot since I won. Don't forget, when I won, people thought, oh, maybe it will go down.
But the business world doesn't think that. The business world knows me. They don't think that. And it was a steady climb. And now, we just hit a record and a number that's never been hit before. So, I was very honored by that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: It's so rare to hear a president predict where the stock will go and the cheerleader for the stock market. But there was, he was, he's proud of that.
Many analysts predicted a drop, he's right, between 8 percent and 15 percent if Trump won. That did not happen. Instead, the Dow is up nearly 10 percent since Election Day.
Facebook ramping up the fight against fake news. Instead of surfacing information on its trending section based on how many people are talking about a particular article. It will now factor in the breadth of coverage, like how many articles published on the subject and the volume of conversations surrounding them. Facebook users will now see the same topics as everyone else in the country. That's to help prevent fake news angles from making it into the trending section.
BERMAN: A little change the algorithm. In other news, I don't know. I think that's what they are saying.
ROMANS: In other news.
BERMAN: EARLY START continues right now.
(MUSIC)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We will be in a form reimbursed by Mexico which I --
MUIR: So, they will pay us back?
TRUMP: Yes, absolutely, 100 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: President Trump with his first interview since being sworn into office. He talks immigration, the Mexican border wall, and new misinformation on voter fraud.
ROMANS: Executive switcheroo. The president with new executive action coming today, just not the ones we thought. This after a new backlash from Mexico over the action taken on the border wall.
BERMAN: And remembering Mary Tyler Moore. The legendary actress has passed away at the age of 80. We have new tributes and a look back at some of the most iconic moments.
ROMANS: You know, she changed -- really helped changed how women are portrayed on television.
BERMAN: Sure. She was an entertainment business mogul as well on top of everything. So, she lived it and portrayed it all at the same time.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Thursday, January 26, it is 5:00 a.m. in East.
And this morning, President Trump is shuffling the rollout for executive action, a day after signing an executive order on the border wall. We had expected Mr. Trump to take further action on immigration and refugees.
