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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Haley: Kim Jong Un "Begging For War"; Decision On DACA Appears To Shift Congress. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired September 05, 2017 - 05:30   ET

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


[05:30:00] COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: -- return to a sense of normalcy is what their coach and the team --

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

WIRE: -- is hoping they can give their fans.

And also, Texans superstar J.J. Watt, he started out wanting to raise $200,000.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Amazing.

WIRE: He has now raised more than $19.6 million to help the people of Houston. It's incredible to see how that team is rallying to help provide some support for the people there in Houston.

BRIGGS: Yes, think about it.

KOSIK: Yes.

BRIGGS: A goal of $200,000 and now, on the Website, I'm seeing the goal --

KOSIK: He kept raising -- he kept raising it.

BRIGGS: -- is $20 million.

KOSIK: Yes.

BRIGGS: They might hit it by the time we are off the air.

Coy Wire, it's extraordinary.

WIRE: It is.

BRIGGS: Thanks so much.

WIRE: You're welcome.

BRIGGS: All right. South Korea showing military force after North Korea's nuclear test, as Ambassador Nikki Haley tells the U.N. that Pyongyang is quote "begging for war." The latest on the nuclear standoff, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:35:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: We have kicked the can down the road long enough. There is no more road left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Ambassador Nikki Haley telling the United Nations that North Korea must face strong sanctions as South Korea suggests Pyongyang may test another weapon.

BRIGGS: The Trump administration expected to end the immigration program that protects young, undocumented immigrants. Can Congress fix the program that shields Dreamers?

KOSIK: And, Hurricane Irma strengthens to category four. Florida and Puerto Rico bracing for impact.

BRIGGS: Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. Five thirty-five Eastern Time, 6:35 p.m. in Seoul, South Korea. We'll be live there in a moment.

KOSIK: And good morning, I'm Alison Kosik. It's 30 (sic) minutes past the hour here and we begin with North Korea defying international condemnation over its latest, largest nuclear test with signs of more tests to come.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley arguing at an emergency Security Council meeting that the international community must exhaust every last bit of leverage over Pyongyang to avoid a nuclear war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY: The time has come to exhaust all of our diplomatic means before it's too late. We must now adopt the strongest possible measures.

Kim Jong Un's action cannot be seen as defensive. His abusive use of missiles and his nuclear threats show that he is begging for war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Among North Korea's few remaining pressure points that could be targeted with sanctions, oil imports, textile exports, and the regime's other sources of foreign currency.

Pyongyang slamming the U.S. via state media, bragging it will use its quote "nuclear strategic weapons to eradicate the land of the U.S. with no trace left on earth."

KOSIK: All of this as South Korea says it has spotted continuous signs the North is preparing another ICBM test.

CNN's Ian Lee joins us live from South Korea where that country has been conducting exercises off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.

Good morning to you, Ian. Do you see any reaction from the North about these exercises from the South?

IAN LEE, CNN REPORTER: Well, North Korea has come out time after time again with these threats against the United States and against South Korea when these live-fire exercises take place. This latest one, the South Korean Navy having a live-fire exercise off the country's east coast.

We've also seen the Army, the Air Force -- really, the whole -- the whole breadth of the South Korean military showing that they're ready in the event of a war.

And this is also coming as we're tracking developments in North Korea. South Korea's National Intelligence Service saying that they're tracking a projectile they believe could be an intercontinental ballistic missile on the move, and this is significant after Sunday's developments with North Korea saying that they can put a nuclear weapon on top of an ICBM. They also had that nuclear test, that hydrogen bomb, which they said could go on top of an ICBM.

Also, President Moon had a conversation with President Trump last night. In it, they discussed continuing the military cooperation between the two countries.

President Moon also brought up South Korea's own ballistic missile program, talking about how they want to lift the limit of the payload that their missiles can carry. Also, they talked about purchasing billions of dollars' worth of U.S. weapons and equipment -- Alison.

KOSIK: And this coming with the backdrop of very strong words from North Korean state media saying that North Korea will blow up the U.S. mainland and annihilate Americans. Very disturbing.

CNN's Ian Lee, thanks very much.

BRIGGS: More, North Korea has evolved from a regional menace to a global threat. Some strong words from Yukiya Amano. He's the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency. He called Sunday's test of what Pyongyang claims was a hydrogen bomb a new dimension of threat.

For more on the diplomatic efforts to cool tensions on the Peninsula let's bring in CNN's Nic Robertson live from the IAEA in Vienna, Austria. Nic, tell us what the head of IAEA agency told you.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Dave, what I really wanted to understand from him -- from his perspective, his expertise -- everything that he knows is, effectively, North Korea in a position now of having a nuclear weapon system that can threaten the world, as they say they can.

His view on this was we can't say that for sure. But what he said we do know is that when North Korea says it's going to do something it generally follows through.

And his assessment of this massive test of the weekend -- of the tests -- of the nuclear tests in recent years shows that North Korea is making rapid progress -- those were his words -- rapid progress towards this goal and, therefore, they've shifted from that regional to a global threat.

[05:40:08] This is how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YUKIYA AMANO, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: I think North Korea -- a North Korean threat is a global one now. In the past, we believed that is a regional issue. It is no longer the case. Everyone is aware that this is a global threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So, the IAEA's hands are really tied until there is some kind of international diplomatic agreement and Amano says he's trying to get inspectors ready to go if that happens.

But where do we stand for diplomatic agreement? Well, the United States could not be further apart from China and Russia at the moment.

The principal players are going to be required to get a U.N. Security Council resolution to stick because it's going to be China who is going to be the principal player that would have to enforce an oil ban, for example -- oil being exported into North Korea and textiles being exported back from North Korea out to the rest of world, principally through China. So having China onboard is key.

And right now, China and Russia are saying there should be a freeze- freeze scenario which is an anathema to the United States and much of the rest of the world. This is not a situation of equals here -- of reciprocity between --

BRIGGS: Right.

ROBERTSON: -- North Korea's nuclear weapons systems and what South Korea and the United States is doing in response to that. So, diplomatically, a long way to go.

BRIGGS: Vladimir Putin adding that he thinks further sanctions are useless and ineffective.

Nic Robertson live for us in Vienna. Thank you.

Later today, the Trump administration expected to announce a program protecting young, undocumented immigrants will end. They will offer Congress a short window to come up with a fix here.

Can they possibly pull it off? We'll ask Chris Deaton of the "Weekly Standard," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:46:12] BRIGGS: Later today, President Trump expected to announce his decision to end DACA. That is the Obama-era program that protects so-called Dreamers -- young, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Some say some 800,000 here in this country.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, he will hold a briefing at the Justice Department to discuss the president's plan. Sources tell CNN the president wants to delay the dismantling of DACA so lawmakers could fix it.

Sara Murray has more from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave and Alison.

Sources tell CNN even though the president is expected to end the program, he's going to do it with a six-month delay, a window that allows for Congress to come up with a legislative fix to this issue.

That news was welcomed by some Republicans who say Congress is the one who should be mending this issue. They shouldn't be legislating from the White House.

But others, include the head of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Democrats, panned President Trump's expected announcement, calling it heartless and saying it defies what he said on the campaign trail.

As a candidate, Trump took pretty much every side of this issue. He promised to end DACA as soon as possible when he came to the White House, but he also said that he would treat the Dreamers with heart and be sure to protect them.

Now, sources caution that until the president actually makes the announcement things could always change, so we await the word from President Trump's mouth.

Back to you guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: OK, Sara Murray. Thanks very much.

BRIGGS: All right. So what's the future for these 800,000 Dreamers brought to this country by their undocumented parents? That's one question on the long list of agenda items facing Congress as lawmakers return to work today.

Joining us now to discuss, from "The Weekly Standard," their deputy online editor Chris Deaton. Good morning to you, sir.

KOSIK: Good morning, again.

CHRIS DEATON, DEPUTY ONLINE EDITOR, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Good morning.

BRIGGS: Even though the president may have been boxed in on this issue by states attorneys general, he's managed to pull of the possible and that is anger the far-left who are branding him a dream crusher.

He's angered the far-right, like Ann Coulter, immigration issue voter. She wasn't happy with this.

Hardliner Steve King from Iowa -- he said this is Republican suicide by delaying it so Republican leadership can push amnesty.

So my question to you is who loves this decision? Who's hailing it?

DEATON: That's a terrific question. It is a situation of darned if you do/don't, do the other thing, or do that other thing. I mean, it just doesn't really matter what it is. It's a really difficult situation, politically, for the president right now.

I mean, look, his hand has been forced to a certain extent by several state attorneys general who threatened to tack on this DACA issue to an existing lawsuit right now by September fifth, thus giving the president some impetus to act on this in some fashion today.

The entire design of trying to punt the football forward, so to speak, for the next six months is to give the legislature some type of chance to remedy this with a fix that Republicans think that from a constitutional standpoint should be done in the Congress, to begin with.

Whether they're able to do that, a lot of politics to be sorted out on that and that's going to determine whether or not in the rear-view this decision ended up being a decent bid for a lot of people on both sides of the aisle.

KOSIK: And the president also upsetting business, the one thing that he is known for. You know, some of the biggest names in business from AT&T, to Apple, to Best Buy. They're urging the president to let DACA continue.

And then you've got the evidence of what could happen if DACA doesn't continue because although he's going to punt it to Congress we don't know what's going to really wind up happening if anything happens at all.

Tens of thousands of these DACA recipients could lose their jobs. This could have a big impact on the economy. Is the president thinking about that?

DEATON: I think the president's head probably is more along the lines right now of the legal aspect of this. You don't really hear a whole lot of economic talk coming out of the White House on this. A lot of it is about the rule of law, it is about national sovereignty.

[05:50:10] It is about the integrity of borders and the integrity of immigration law, to begin with, in trying to rectify that. So it's very much a legalistic argument that the administration seems to be focused on.

There are certain people on the right who might be a little more sympathetic to a libertarian economic argument that look, this labor ultimately is good for the United States. We're simply giving the opportunity for these types of dreamers to come out of the woodwork, actually get legalized work passes. Work for something above the minimum wage and it ends up being good for the economy.

But that -- I think that's an argument that's more confined to certain policy circles and academic circles than it is the White House.

BRIGGS: Yes. By rolling out Jeff Sessions at 11:00 Eastern you do expect that it's the rule of law argument.

DEATON: Right.

BRIGGS: The overreach by President Obama. That certainly appears to be the way they will phrase it.

But Congress back in session today as well. What do you think they take up first and can they push through Harvey relief and the debt ceiling being raised in time for the deadline -- end of the month?

DEATON: Dave, if you gave me a top hat upside down with about 18 different pieces of paper, something scribbled on each, I think I might just grab that and read it off to you and see if we can riff about it for 60 seconds.

In lieu of that, I think we're going to go ahead and go with Harvey funding just because it's the most pressing issue right now given national need.

Given the fact also that if you listen to the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin his argument is essentially look, we thought the debt ceiling -- this deadline that we were going to run up against is later in the month of September.

That might be a little more fluid now because there's not potentially going to be the money there for some massive Harvey package if we're talking in the range of $7 billion, $8 billion on top of what I've heard estimated was $150 billion at the very least, I believe, from the Texas governor.

That's going to be a high priority -- number one here.

KOSIK: All right.

BRIGGS: It would be an understatement but big week coming up seems to fit the description of what the president has to handle.

Chris Deaton --

KOSIK: Chris Deaton, thanks so much.

BRIGGS: Thank you, man.

DEATON: All right. Thanks, guys.

KOSIK: All right. Time for a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY." Alisyn Camerota joins us right now. Good morning, Alisyn. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, guys. Great to see both of you.

So today on the program, we're going to have two of these so-called Dreamers as we await the decision on whatever's going to happen with all of these folks -- the DACA decision, as it's called. And they're going to be on to tell us just how their lives could change overnight.

We're also going to have lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to say what they plan to do about these 800,000 young people who are in limbo.

And, of course, we're going to be giving you all of the latest on North Korea. The threats continue out of Pyongyang. So we'll have all of our experts on that.

And I'll be joined by John Berman who is busy at work.

KOSIK: Oh.

CAMEROTA: Don't say anything -- not until -- he doesn't talk until the top of the hour.

BRIGGS: Just pretend to work, John. Always hard at work writing, the Berman.

CAMEROTA: Exactly.

BRIGGS: All right. We'll see you in a bit. Thank you.

KOSIK: See you soon.

Gas prices still rising more than a week after Harvey knocked the Gulf Coast oil refining industry offline. Is some relief in sight? We're going to get a check on "CNN Money Stream," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:57:30] KOSIK: Welcome back. Let's get a check on "CNN Money Stream."

Markets around the world cautious after North Korea's biggest-ever nuclear test. Japanese and South Korean stocks ending the day lower. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula remaining in focus after those reports that North Korea is transporting what could be an intercontinental ballistic missile.

European stocks are barely moving though, and U.S. markets are pointing to a slightly lower open today after being closed yesterday for Labor Day. But we will see that first reaction to what's going on in North Korea.

Gas prices still rising more than a week after Hurricane Harvey knocked the Gulf Coast oil refining industry offline, but the increase has begun to slow -- that's the good news.

The national average price for a gallon of regular sitting at 27 cents -- it's actually up 27 cents in the last week. In Texas, the average price of 34 cents higher since last week.

The spike in gas prices has been expected though because at one point almost 30 percent of the nation's refining capacity along the Gulf Coast was cut back because of floodwaters. Some refineries are beginning to come back online but this going to take some time before all of the infrastructure is fully up and running again.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Alison Kosik.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs.

"NEW DAY" starts right now. A big week coming up. We'll see you tomorrow.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, September fifth, 6:00 here in New York.

Chris is off today. John Berman joins me. We have a big show.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We sure do. All right, thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, we have breaking news.

North Korea may be moving an intercontinental ballistic missile in preparation for another launch. This, according to a South Korean lawmaker briefed by their intelligence service.

A new warning from North Korea. State media there says they're threatening to blow up the U.S. mainland and quote "annihilate Americans."

President Trump and South Korea's president speaking for the first time since North Korea's nuclear test over the weekend but White House sources say relations remain strained.

BERMAN: Meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin is warning that the military escalation could cause a global catastrophe and he calls new sanctions on North Korea useless.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley insists that Kim Jong Un is begging for war.

All this, as the Trump administration is set to announce the end of protections for Dreamers, and Congress returns to a long to-do list and very tight deadlines.

We have it all covered for you with the global resources of CNN.

We want to begin with Will Ripley live in Tokyo. Will, you've just completed your 14th trip North Korea and over the last few hours there have been a flurry of developments.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of fast-moving developments here and things are not --