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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Dines with Schumer and Pelosi; Eight Death at Florida Nursing Home; Growing Frustration in the Caribbean; Aired 05:30-6a ET

Aired September 14, 2017 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:31:32] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump and the Democrats giving new hope to Dreamers looking to avoid deportation. The president already taking heat from his own party for this latest deal.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The power outages in the Florida Keys take a deadly turn. Eight nursing home residents die after their air conditioner was knocked out. A criminal investigation now under way there in Florida.

Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. They're calling them the new Dream team. Chuck, Nancy, the POTUS in the blue room, chocolate pie and Chinese food. That's how you hash out deals.

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: All right. We begin with another deal between President Trump with the Democrats, sending shockwaves through the Republican Party, giving new hope to the hundreds of thousands of nation's Dreamers.

Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi dining last night with the president in a blue room over that Chinese food and chocolate pie.

Here's a statement from Pelosi and Schumer. "We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly and to work out a package of border security excluding the wall that's acceptable to both sides."

DACA of course the program that protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation.

ROMANS: Republican leaders who were absent to last night's dinner, It is not clear how they will react to the tentative agreement or the fact that the president appears to be cozying up to the opposition for the second time in two weeks.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders quickly shooting down the notion that the president is bailing on his promise to build a wall along the Mexican border.

BRIGGS: A spokesman for Senator Schumer firing back with this. "The president made clear he would continue pushing the wall, just not as a part of this agreement." The president now facing heavy fire from the right. Iowa Congressman

Steve King tweeting, "Unbelievable. Amnesty is a pardon for immigration law breakers, coupled with the reward of the objective of their crime."

ROMANS: Even Breitbart with former White House strategist Steve Bannon at the helm, even Breitbart is taking shots at the president. This headline. "Amnesty Don." It was posted earlier Wednesday after Trump met with moderate members of the House from both parties talking about topics including the border.

Listen to President Trump on the topic of cooperating with Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If it we can do things in a bipartisan manner, that will be great. Now it might not work out, in which case we'll try and do it without.

If you look at some of the greatest legislation ever passed, it was done on a bipartisan manner. And so that's what we're going to give a shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The Trump administration announced last week it would give Congress six months to pass legislation preserving the key provisions of the DACA program before it was terminated.

ROMANS: All right. Let's go live to Washington and bring in CNN Politics reporter Tal Kopan who's been spending an awful lot of time covering immigration lately.

So it's a really wonderful day to have you here on the program as it always is.

BRIGGS: It is indeed.

ROMANS: Look, the president seemed to -- well, if you're a conservative, you say he caved on DACA. But what did he get in return?

TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: That is the big question, Christine. And certainly, you know, the term border security, which is what we're talking about, means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

Now it is clear that Trump has been telling Democrats and some Republicans all day yesterday, that the wall may not be part of this particular issue. You know, he said it to Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. But earlier in the day, when he was meeting with the bipartisan group, some of the problem solvers' caucus as they're called on the Hill, those members also told us that he told them he would be willing to pursue the wall separately. So you've taken that piece out of the equation, it seems, at this point. [05:35:03] But that doesn't mean it's not to be worked out in the

details for the rest of the way. I mean, border security can mean a lot of things. It can mean technology, it can also mean personnel. And that can get into controversial territory with the Democrats who say that could ramp up, you know, enforcement against people who aren't DACA recipients, which is a trade they don't want to make. So there are a lot of details here on both sides that could be potential pitfalls going forward.

BRIGGS: So we found it troubling that Chinese food was paired with chocolate pie. But --

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

KOPAN: Maybe not at the same time, though.

ROMANS: That sounds delicious.

BRIGGS: But the base is furious, though, that DACA is paired with nothing for the wall. We talked about Breitbart, the headline "Amnesty Don." Steve King really represent his immigration base tweeting, "If the AP is correct, Trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, disillusioned beyond repair. No promise is credible."

Anne Coulter, Laura Ingraham, I could go on and on. Even TV BFF Sean Hannity tweeted this, "If it's true, it's political suicide."

Where does this leave the president with the base that he spent, six, nine months catering exclusively, too?

KOPAN: This is going to be a very interesting moment in that regard, Dave. There are some who think that, you know, Trump himself is sort of the whisperer to his base, and even though there are folks who are upset, that if Trump were to speak directly to his base and say, you know what, I made this deal, I'm happy with what I got in return, don't worry, I'm still fighting for all the things you want, that they may give him a pass and they do like the fact that he's a deal maker and takes these opportunities where he sees them.

But, you know, it's going to be the first time he has to deal with the uncomfortable position of taking flack from the people who brought him to the dance, so to speak. And, you know, getting support from the folks on the other side of the aisle.

It's going to be really interesting to see how he handles this. You know, we've talked about Trump pivots for I think over two years now. And they've never necessarily stopped. But if in fact we see him tack towards the middle really become, you know, pleased with the way deals work out in these bipartisan solutions, we may see a difference.

It's a very interesting moment because immigration is such an important issue to his base, that we're going have to keep watching.

ROMANS: Yes. Immigration reform like tax reform is so hard and, you know, you say border security means a very different thing to different people. I think it will be interesting. It's 5:37 a.m. in the East. The president is probably getting up. We know he gets up and he starts looking at headlines and watching television.

I think it will be interesting to see if he starts tweeting later this morning when he starts to hear people talking about him, you know, the art of the steal, as Laura Ingraham called it. He did tweet last night, though, I think at 9:47 p.m. but he talks about Hillary Clinton which is something that does go right to his base.

He said, "Crooked Hillary Clinton blames everybody and everything but herself for her election loss. She lost the debate and lost her direction." That's the only thing that he's sort of been talking about is Hillary Clinton. And Hillary Clinton is on this book circuit talking about James Comey more than anything else. Right?

KOPAN: That's right. You know, certainly, every time she speaks she says she accepts some blame, but then she goes into this list of other things that she blames. And, you know, she's coming out and saying that she thinks maybe we should do away with the electoral college, that she's not going away, that she's going to keep being a voice in politics. And it may be that the Republican Party is OK with that.

You know, as we can see from Trump's tweets she seems to remain their favorite foils so to speak, their favorite opponent. And so, you know, it's amazing to me that we're still talking about the 2016 election. As we come up on almost a year later but that's where we are, both sides seem to want to continue to re-litigate what happened and fire up their base in doing so.

BRIGGS: Hillary Clinton, though, talked about doing away with the electoral college. Really what stood out from that interview with Anderson Cooper last night.

ROMANS: Yes. She basically said it was -- it was archaic, it was meant for another time, she said.

BRIGGS: Yes. Interesting stuff.

Tal Kopan, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

ROMANS: All right. And President Trump is blocking the takeover of an American company by a Chinese backed firm, making good on his tough talks on China.

The U.S. is blocking China-backed Canyon Bridge's plan to buy Lattice Semiconductors. The concern, national security, including sharing intellectual property and the Chinese -- quote, "the Chinese government's role in supporting the deal."

This move puts the White House in a middle of a very controversy. The Chinese investment in U.S. Total investment hit $46 billion last year. This Chinese company is buying up companies, buying properties, buying up -- you know, making inroads in lots of different industries. And it raises concerns over China's influence in sensitive U.S. industries like tech. In fact, the administration is already investigating whether China is unfairly getting a hold of American technology.

[05:40:02] Candidate Trump was tough on China, focusing on jobs. President Trump accuses them of failing to restrain North Korea. And Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told FOX News he would stop trading with China over the issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: We can stop trade with any country that does business with North Korea. We're going to be careful in using these tools, but the president is committed. We will use economic sanctions to bring North Korea to the table.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS: You're saying stopping trade with China?

MNUCHIN: Stopping trade with anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Meanwhile, the Chinese government says it is concerned that the U.S. blocked this deal. It's rare for the U.S. officials to reviews these deals and block for national -- I mean, they happen from time to time but it is rare. The position of the United States government has been very pro-business. It's been, look, if there's money, if there are investments happening we let it go.

BRIGGS: But the consequences of shutting down trade with China on our economy?

ROMANS: Yes. That was --

BRIGGS: Global economy.

ROMANS: And on their economy. With Chinese economy. I mean, imagine when you look at the huge imbalance of trade --

BRIGGS: Massive.

ROMANS: I mean, the Chinese economy is basically run on American dollars.

BRIGGS: Tough one to bluff on, though.

All right. Families of eight Florida nursing home residents left devastated after a broken air conditioner cost loved ones their lives. We have reports from Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands on the Irma aftermath next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:45:48] ROMANS: A criminal investigation now under way in Florida after the deaths of eight elderly residents at a Florida nursing home. It is being blamed on an air-conditioning system blown out by Hurricane Irma.

BRIGGS: The victims ranging in age from 71 to 99 years old. Succumbing to the extreme heat and humidity. The rehabilitation center at Hollywood Hills shut down now.

Miguel Marquez begins our coverage from Hollywood, Florida.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Dave, in addition to the eight dead here, another 12 are in critical condition. So that death toll could rise. In total, 158 patients have been moved out of the facility and right now the state has shut it down.

The latest information coming out of officials is -- reads like a horror story. There was a call at 3:00 a.m. where one person went into cardiac arrest. Then at 4:00 a.m., there was a second call with somebody having respiratory failure. Shortly after that a third call.

Then the fire department here in Hollywood started to look into the facility and realized that it was too hot and that several others were having issues as well. One of the doctors who was a first responder from Memorial Hospital next door describes what he saw when he walked in that facility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. RANDY KATZ, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, EMERGENCY SERVICES, MEMORIAL REGIONAL HOSPITAL: The scene was chaotic when I arrived. We had 115 -- at least 115 patients that we were trying to evacuate and bring them to safety. I've definitely seen mass casualties and things to this extent, but this is something unique.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Memorial Hospital makes very clear that it has no connection to the facilities that are in question here but stepped in, treating it like a mass casualty situation where they brought dozens of their staffers in to the rehabilitation center to get those elderly patients out.

The police department here in Hollywood, Florida, says it is talking to all the staff members and deeply investigating this facility -- Dave, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. The rehabilitation center at Hollywood Hills says staff members set up mobile cooling units and fans. They continually checked on the residents.

The nursing home releasing this statement. "While our center did not lose power during the storm, it did lose one transformer that powers the air-conditioning unit. The center immediately contacted Florida Power and Light. It continued to follow up with them for status updates on when repairs could be made. The center did have a generator on standby in the event it would be needed to power light safety systems."

BRIGGS: It's not clear if the generator broke or why the air conditioners wouldn't be on that power supply. The nursing home has had safety violations and citations in the past, though, including two for not following generator regulations in 2014 and 2016. In both instances, the nursing home corrected those problems. ROMANS: President Trump and the first lady in just a couple of hours

will head to Florida. They'll be making stops in Ft. Myers and in Naples. About 3 million Florida customers remain without power.

BRIGGS: The relative speed of the relief effort, though, being questioned on the hurricane ravaged Caribbean island. Thousands of residents are in dire need of essentials like food, water, electricity more than a week after Irma barreled through as a category 5 hurricane.

CNN's Cyril Vanier is live in St. Maarten with that part of the story.

Good morning to you.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes. Good morning. And there are a couple of things I want your viewers to remember. You've been doing a fantastic job and I want to thank you for keeping this story on the air.

My family being from this part of the world, from these islands in the Caribbean. I can't tell you how important it is to those people that that message got out. So a couple of things for our viewers to remember. What's happening here today. First of all, the priorities, water and food. People at this stage don't know where their next bottle of clean drinking water is going to come from. We're six days into the storm. That may sound surprising but that is the situation.

Food, same thing, there are still for many people living off these supplies that they had stocked up on before the storm. Seven days ago. They're eating crackers, whatever they've got left. And I keep asking the same question. What do you do when you're out of food and water? People don't have a plan B. So they're hoping that in the next 48 hours to three days that time period is critical, they're hoping that they're going to start seeing that relief really come in.

[05:50:07] Number two, we need to understand why this is all trickling in instead of gushing in. The main answer is we're on an island so it is hard to get supplies and people on to the island. Everything has to come through planes or boats, and that's just difficult. It made things so much slow than it would have been, say, in mainland Florida where you can open a highway, send the trucks in and make sure people get what they need on time.

The third thing, and I will just leave you with this is the long term impact. Tourism is down here because the hotels are destroyed. That means the economy is down. People depend on these jobs. It's pay day today. People we met at a hotel they worked for that's been destroyed tell me they don't know where that paycheck is going to come from now.

BRIGGS: All right. Cyril Vanier with some much needed attention. Hopefully the aid and the relief follows. Thanks for that live report.

ROMANS: You make such a good point. You know, you'd love to send your friends or relatives or send a business owner there. You know, something, any kind of help. BRIGGS: Supplies, money, yes.

ROMANS: The post office, the police departments are destroyed. You know, it's just really terrible.

All right. Another record day for Wall Street. Helping little market hit a new milestone. I'll tell you what that milestone is on CNN Money Stream next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:55:49] BRIGGS: A CNN exclusive now. Former national security adviser Susan Rice privately telling House investigators why she unmasked the identities of senior Trump officials. She says she did it to understand why the crowned prince of the United Arab Emirates was in New York late last year.

ROMANS: The crowned prince's meeting with top transition officials preceded a separate effort by the UAE to set up backchannel communications, backchannel talks between Russia and the incoming Trump White House. Two sources insist Russia was not a topic of discussion.

The revelation of Susan Rice's request had the president accusing her of committing a crime but so-called unmasking, requesting names of Americans in classified reports, it's a practice officials in both parties say is common.

BRIGGS: Pharma bro Martin Shkreli heading to jail. A judge revoking his bail over a Facebook post about Hillary Clinton. The former pharmaceutical executive offered $5,000 to anyone who could grab a strand of the former first lady's hair. Now the judge said the post posed a, quote, "real danger," and for his part Shkreli said it was all satire. Shkreli is best known for buying a company that owns an AIDS drug and then jacking up the prices up 5,000 percent. After his conviction on unrelated charges, Shkreli slated to be sentenced January 16th.

ROMANS: Yes. He was never convicted of jacking up prices. I mean, that was not -- that as the problem for him.

BRIGGS: This got him.

ROMANS: He has other problems, yes. And then this weird --

BRIGGS: Not a sympathetic figure.

ROMANS: This weird Hillary Clinton thing.

BRIGGS: All right. Cleveland Indians continuing their historic run, winning their 21st consecutive game wins. Their 5-3 win over the Tigers, that's the longest winning streak in American League history. The last team to win 21 straight, the 1935 Chicago Cubs. The Indians go for 22 in a row tonight when they host the Kansas Royals.

Go, Tripe. What a great story it has been. What a roll for Terry Francona.

ROMANS: Gosh. Good for them.

All right. Let's get a check on CNN Money Stream this morning. Global stocks right now are lower on some Chinese data but who cares about right now? Wow. What a record run for stocks. The Dow and the S&P 500 both hitting record highs, energy stocks, the big driver Wednesday.

The trend here is so impressive. It is one for the record books. This bull market is now the second strongest ever. The S&P 500 have soared 269 percent since bottoming out during the Great Recession.

If you own stocks, that is just about the most beautiful chart you will ever see. Now that just beats the 1949 bull market, not even close to the 1987 bull market. At eight years old, this bull is also the second longest effort. So big debate about whether it could challenge the record, the big record in the record books. It would have to rally a lot more and a lot longer from here to do that, to match it.

Interested in electric truck, get ready to meet Tesla's beast of a semi-truck. CEO Elon Musk announced plans to unveil an electric semi next month. A bit later than promised. You know, he originally said a battery-powered truck would come out in September.

Of course Tesla is known for missing self-imposed deadlines. But there you go. A beast of a truck.

Facebook says it's making it harder to cash in on fake news and on violence. Facebook will ban ads from appearing on graphic contents including nudity, strong language or violence. Users who post fake stories will no longer be allowed to make money off those fake stories.

Facebook has been criticized for being the outlet for fake news during the 2016 election. It allowed huge amounts of misleading information and made-up stories on the site. A lot of criticism there. You can see tweaks Facebook is starting to make, some say too late.

All right. Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. "NEW DAY" is next. New hope for Dreamers thanks to a surprise move between President Trump and top Democrats. Marco Rubio joins "NEW DAY" straight ahead.

ROMANS: Florida, the Caribbean, trying to rebuild amid growing frustration, food and water shortages.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This nursing home where authorities are investigating the deaths of at least eight elderly residents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're all dumbfounded as to how this could happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What has happened here is inexcusable. REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: DACA is a symptom of a bigger

problem. We do not have control of our borders.

BRIGGS: Democratic leaders and President Trump potentially reaching a deal to fix DACA.