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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Apple making it harder for law enforcement to break into iPhones; Storms Hammer Parts of Pennsylvania Causing Extensive Damage; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on a Nuclear Shuttle Diplomacy Mission, Flying From Seoul to Beijing. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 14, 2018 - 05:00   ET

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


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CHRISTINE ROMANS, EARLY START HOST: Bidding war over Fox which was great for it's stock price, Fox shares jump nearly eight percent yesterday to a record high. Apple making it harder for law enforcement to break into iPhones, Apple introduced in a new feature that disables data transfers through the port one hour after the phone was last locked.

This will prevent third party hacking tools, popular with law enforcement from gaining access and likely reignites tension between Apple and the U.S. government. Law enforcement wants tech companies to include back doors on their devices, tech companies object sighting(ph) of course privacy concerns.

DAVE BRIGGS, EARLY START HOST: Got to guess we're still going to have a few confrontations over that down the road.

ROMANS: I think so, that's right.

BRIGGS: Early Start continues right now with the latest on the North Korean nuclear situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO: (Inaudible) is a central to that, complete denuclearization, certainly encompasses that idea.

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ROMANS: You won't the agreement that the secretary of state says, verification is required for North Korea to denuclearize, he said sanctions for lease(ph) depends on it.

BRIGGS: So the Presidents mind now back on the Russia investigation, his lawyer said to sit with the special counsel, the first of talk to President to strategize.

ROMANS: And a possible tornado tears through north east Pennsylvania, buildings torn apart, cars over turned and power is out (inaudible). Good morning everyone and welcome to Early Start, I'm Christine Romans. BRIGGS: And I'm Dave Briggs, it is Thursday June 14, happy 72 birthday to President Trump.

ROMANS: Happy Birthday.

BRIGGS: It is 5 A.M. in the east, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on a nuclear shuttle diplomacy mission, flying from Seoul to Beijing, they'll discuss North Korea with President Xi and other Chinese officials. Over night Pompeo underscored the U.S. view that North Korea must denuclearize before the easing of U.N. sanctions. And Chinese concerns about verification.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POMPEO: Sanctions relief can not take place until such time as we have demonstrated that North Korea has been completely denuclearized. The summit created this enormous historic opportunity for us to move forward together and fundamentally real shape the relationship between the United States and North Korea. A verification is essential to that, complete denuclearization certainly encompasses that idea very clearly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Pompeo rejecting, actually lashing out against criticism that that joint declaration signed by the President and Kim Jong-un, it doesn't have the words verifiable and irreversible. Now Pompeo insists that the world complete, that word, which is in the document complete means verifiable and irreversible in everyone's mind as we said. And he cause questions about the word omission, quote, "insulting and ridiculous and frankly ludicrous." For the very latest we turn to CNN, Matt Rivers live in Beijing, Matt.

MATT RIVERS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey good morning Christine, this is the swing through Asia after that Singapore summit for the Secretary of State really checking in with all the interested parties involved here. Going from Seoul now he just landed here in Beijing. It was in Seoul that President Moon kind of echoed what we heard from President Trump, saying both sides have moved back from what had been a very tense situation, this is a step forward.

But of course questions remain about denuclearization and what exactly that means. The time frame around it, so on and so forth. That's presumably what Secretary of State Pompeo is talking about in the conversations that he had not only in Seoul but here in Beijing. Here in Beijing he's not going to be here very long, he's going to talk to foreign minister Wang Yi, they're going to have a quick press availability later this evening which CNN will attend. And then he meets with President Xi Jinping before going back to D.C.

Stopping in Beijing though, a clear sign from the administration that they understand the influence that China has, not only on North Korea but appearantly over President Trump himself. A source close to the matter telling CNN that is was Xi Jinping in multiple phone calls with Donald Trump pushing these ideas of stopping these military exercises, something that the U.S. could announce as early as today in the United States.

So Xi clearly has some influence over President Trump pushing that line and not surprising there because that's been China's stated view point for a long time now. One thing though that the Chinese and the U.S. might not agree on, sanctions, Secretary of State Pompeo saying they'll be in place until denuclearization happens but we know the Chinese look for any excuse to back off some of those sanctions they only signed on to begrudgingly in the first place, Christine.

ROMANS: Yes, fascinating to see who's really in the drivers seat here on each move from here on out with North Korea. All right Matt Rivers in Beijing, thanks Matt.

BRIGGS: As President Trump flew back home from the historic North Korea summit his attention turned to the Russia investigation. Sources telling us he called his lawyers to talk about a potential show down with Robert Mueller. The President's team is waiting to sit down with Mr. Trump to game out their next moves. Trump's lawyers meet with Mueller's team this week or next.

ROMANS: Meantime the President's personal attorney Michael Cohen is moving to split with his own legal team. Some suggesting Cohen may flip and testify against the President. But another of the Presidents lawyers Rudy Giuliani dismissed that claim last night.

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RUDY GIULIANI, PERSONAL ATTORNEY TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: I checked into this last night, it's not so, he's not cooperating nor do we care. Because the President did nothing wrong, we're very comfortable if he cooperates, there's nothing he can cooperate about.

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ROMANS: More now from chief local correspondent Dana Bash in Washington.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Christine and Dave, Michael Cohen realizes that the legal jeopardy that he is in right now requires a law firm or maybe more than one law firm that has experience with expertise in the southern district of New York where he's being investigated. In fact, to that end I'm told that Cohen spent most of the day on Wednesday meeting with potential lawyers.

At least three law firms that fit the bill. Now the question is, why now? My colleague MJ Lee is told by someone close to Cohen that he's fully cognizant of the real possibility that he could be indicted. So, going to New York and having somebody with expertise there is one thing, the other reason he seems to be intent on switching law firms is money.

He does not want to spend all of his savings on legal fee's, I'm told that he owes a lot to his current lawyer, Stephen Ryan, and his firm they've deployed seven or eight lawyers to spend countless hours going through literally millions of documents for Cohen.

And those legal fees of course have added up, financial pressure may play into concerns that people around Cohen or maybe even more important people around the President are saying that they have, that Cohen could actually flip, that he could cooperate with investigators. So, I am told that they're not there yet, that there hasn't been a specific conversation between prosecutors in New York and Cohen or anybody in his orbit about the potential for a deal, Christina, Dave.

ROMANS: All right Dana Bash, thank you so much. After Tuesday's primary there's no denying the GOP is now the party of Trump. Corey Stewart prime example the projected republican senate nominee in Virginia winning despite refusing the criticize alt right marchers after Charlottesville.

Instead he attacked republicans, weak republicans he said for apologizing to quickly. Last night on Cuomo Prime Time, Stewart was asked about his past support for openly anti semantic commentator Paul Nehlan.

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COREY STEWART, SENATE NOMINEE: You know when your losing the argument you know what you do? You know what the left does? They play the race card, they play the race card, we have a President...

CUOMO: You don't think that card to applies to (inaudible).

STEWART: (Inaudible).

CUOMO: Condemn the extremism on your own side of the aisle.

STEWART: There is none on my side of the aisle.

CUOMO: And I happen to condemn that extremism, is it true...

STEWART: My aisle is the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Senator Corey Gardner heads up the national republican senatorial committee, he tells CNN his committee does not plan to endorse Stewart. Let's bring in CNN political reporter Tal Kopen live in Washington this morning, good morning Tal.

TAL KOPEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

BRIGGS: And an interesting divide this morning in the republican party. Over tariffs and moves that the President has made and whether or not to just silence the entire party over criticizing the President. We've seen those who've spoken out, get voted out like Mark Sanford did the other night in South Carolina. Then comes Bob Corker, who is not running for re-election, and said this about his parties acceptance and refusal to speak out against the President, listen.

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SEN. BOB CORKER: We're in a strange place, I mean it's almost been a - it's becoming a cultish thing isn't it?

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BRIGGS: It's becoming a cultish thing and Ronna McDaniel tweets this, complacency is our enemy, anyone that does not embraces the Trump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake. On one hand Tal you could understand it, this President as I have mentioned before, is at 87 percent with his own party. But have we ever been here before? Where a party out right refuses to say anything about their President when he goes to far and what are the implications of this?

KOPEN: Well I mean to a certain extent the President is always the leader of their party in Washington. You know I was up on Capitol Hill yesterday, I was talking to republicans asking them for their reflections on the loss. Some were sort of very out right critical of Mark Stanford and said he took a tone and aggressiveness towards the President that they thought was not appropriate.

They said they will disagree with the President on policy where appropriate, maybe direct those concerns directly to the White House, keep it out of public view. But they don't feel that you can not criticize policy but it seems to be that some of those folks seems the President himself maybe off limits. But you know I also spoke with Mark Stanford on Capitol Hill last night, yesterday evening as well, and he was saying that he really hopes that his fellow republicans are not deterred.

He said he appreciated Corker's comments and he said he believes decent is foundational to democracy above all else. So you know, sort of an interesting soul searching that we're seeing in the Republican Party and also you know just the political realities of the situation. Law makers are trying to figure out what is that balance, where can you criticize a policy and not a person.

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BERMAN: But to your point yes, the president is always the leader of the party but the president always represents the party's platform. And their ideals.

KOPAN: Right.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Is that the case here because Bob Corker says, about president Trump, it's a cult like situation as it relates to a president that happens to be purportedly of the same party. Are the principals, conservative principal's part of the platform?

KOPAN: Well this has been one of the things since the beginning of the Trump candidacy and his ascendancy within the Republican Party. This has been one of the major questions you know he has transformed the principals of the Republican Party in a lot of ways. You know there are some things he picked up on and carried through but his position on trade is ...

BERMAN: Yes.

KOPAN: ... is completely different from what ...

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

KOPAN: ... we had associated with the Republican Party in the past. So you know there - to an extent there's certainly a transformation of the Republican Party in his image. You know and that to a certain extent is fair. This is who you know the Republican voters elected ...

BOLDUAN: Sure.

KOPAN: ... elected to lead the party. And those were not secrets during the campaign. So you know this is part of the reckoning I speak of you know among Republicans on the hill. They're trying to figure out what their own voters want to a certain extent because some of them were surprised by you know the results of the Republican practice (ph).

BOLDUAN: I think you could argue that he represents more of what Republicans think then the Republican establishment thinks. And he tapped into that. And maybe they're not remaking the party in his image, maybe he knows what the real image is of rank and file Republicans. You look at the 87 percent number of approval among Republicans for him. Voting Republicans not necessarily elected Republicans.

BERMAN: That's right.

BOLDUAN: And you can see them. And I've been calling it a hostel take over of the Republican Party. And it's a ...

BERMAN: A factor to central (ph).

BOLDUAN: ... with - you know with willing participants. Let's talk about immigration here because there's a couple of angles here, there's a couple of house bills that are competing here today. One that fixes DACA permanently, one fixes one temporarily. We'll be seeing those - we'll talk about those for the next couple of days. But these images that Matera (ph) brings from the South West where you've got 62 people in one home and 40 some people in another home. This is -- that is the image illegal immigration. And you know I kind of argue here how - and you cover immigration, I have covered immigration in the past. I think as the economy is so strong right now. This is a real challenge for this administration because that is the number one magnet of illegal immigration, is strong economy and the ability to work. And everything that I see here in Washington in immigration policy is still talking about supply not demand.

KOPAN: Yes you know this is one thing that you know the administration has really done over time is characterize the problem as entirely one of pull of certain laws. And when you talk to experts they say that's really not a multidimensional enough view of migration. And you know economic factors have traditionally been a pull to this country especially when the majority of migration was from Mexico. That's actually changed over the last 10 or so years possibly more recent. Now we really see a lot less migration from Mexico and a lot more from Central America. And those immigrants coming here, they maybe searching for a better life but many of them are fleeing incredibly dangerous situations, intractable gang violence, you know certain poverty. But many of them women, children, families. Their really concerned about their well being and safety and there are trying to claim asylum. And it's partly that this is so difficult for this administration to grapple with is that you have ...

BOLDUAN: Good ...

KOPAN: ... a different kind of immigrant.

BOLDUAN: Right.

KOPAN: And you have a different issue that they're presenting with at the border and it's not as straight forward as the economy. And so when you talk to experts they say it's never going to be enough to try to change a few laws on the U.S. side. You have to take a holistic view of all the push and pull factors that are both sending this people here and drawing these people here.

BERMAN: Well let's talk next half hour about the two paths ...

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: ... forward for Paul Ryan on his way out the door. A tremendous task in bringing his party together on this one issue. Tai we'll see you in a bit.

BOLDUAN: All right 14 minutes past the hour, possible tornado in North East Pennsylvania over night. Up to a mile wide in parts. Collapsed building, flipped cars, several injured.

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BERMAN: Breaking overnight, strong storms hammer parts of northeast Pennsylvania causing extensive damage, several buildings collapsed, cars overturned with some people trapped in and around the Wilkes- Barre area. CNN's told six people were hurt.

The storm left behind shattered store fronts and major damage to businesses. There's an ongoing natural gas leak. The storm's path stretched a from a mile to a mile wide. The area was under a tornado warning at the time.

BOLDUAN: Hawaii governor David Ige is requesting federal aid for people who have lost their homes and property in the Kilauea volcano eruption. An estimated 455 homes have now been destroyed in Hawaii County, 192 are primary residences.

Right now many other homes and farms are isolated by lava flow or uninhabitable because of high levels of ash and sulfur dioxide. The governor is seeking aid to help victims with shelter, employment, trauma issues and legal matters.

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