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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Kavanaugh Nomination In Jeopardy; Record Flooding In The Carolinas; NFL Player Quits At Halftime; Chinese Movie Star Vanishes. Aired 04-04:30a ET
Aired September 17, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, EARLY START SHOW CO-HOST: I feared he may inadvertently kill me. The words of woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct decades ago. Now even some Republicans want this week's committee votes delayed.
DAVE BRIGGS, EARLY START SHOW CO-HOST: The record flooding in the Carolinas in the wake of Florence. The death toll is climbing with rising waters. It keeps the threat alive well into the week. We are live this morning in North Carolina.
ROMANS: And would you quit your job halfway through the workday? Why one NFL player says he ditched football for good at halftime on Sunday.
Good morning. Welcome to "Early Start." It is Monday morning, I'm Christine Romans. Good to have you back.
BRIGGS: Good to be back my friend. It has been a rough start for the Bills, more on that in a moment. I'm Dave Briggs. Monday, September 17th. We do start with the Supreme Court latest. Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court faces serious new concerns this morning.
The woman accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, coming forward and adding explosive new details to her claims in an interview with the Washington Post. Her name is Christine Lacey Ford. Now that her identity is known and with the clock ticking toward the Senate confirmation vote, the Judiciary Committee is trying to arrange staff phone calls with her and with Kavanaugh.
ROMANS: But already some Republican showing signs of concern here. Here is Senator Lisa Murkowski.
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SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI, (R), ALASKA: There are more questions that need to be asked than answered. I think it would be appropriate to allow for that time.
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ROMANS: Bob Corker and Jeff Flake believe the committee should hear Ford out in person before voting. Republicans can only afford to lose just one vote.
BRIGGS: Several top Democrats already calling for delay. Including senators Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein. She is the Senator who Ford first reached out to with her allegation. But the Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley calls the timing of the revelations quote disturbing. And the Republican source tells CNN, the committee's vote on Kavanaugh is still scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Supreme Court reporter, Ariane de Vogue has more on the allegations.
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ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN REPORTER, SUPREME COURT: Christine and Dave, Christine Lacey Ford has publicly come forward in the Washington Post and alleged that Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her at a Party more than 30 years ago when they were both in high school. Kavanaugh categorically denies her allegations. She said she attended a party in a suburban Maryland home in 1982. Kavanaugh and a friend were drunk. She was allegedly corralled into a bedroom. At one point she said he tried to take off her clothes and he put his hand over her mouth. I thought he might inadvertently kill me, she told "The Post." She only shared the details years later in 2012 with a therapist and her husband.
According to the article, the husband recalls the wife using Kavanaugh's name. But the therapist notes reviewed by "The Washington Post" do not mention him. The other man who she alleged was in the room back then, told the Weekly Standard, last week that he never saw Kavanaugh act that way. Christine and Dave.
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ROMANS: Thank you for that Arianne de Vogue. Christine Ford struggled for months with her decision to come forward according to a source familiar with the story. We are told in late August, she made up her mind not to go public fearing it would end her life and would not affect Kavanaugh's confirmation. Ford tells "The Washington Post" she reconsidered, because people were repeating a lot of inaccuracies about her and her privacy had already been compromised.
BRIGGS: The White House is standing by its nominee, a spokesperson says Judge Kavanaugh categorically and equivocally denies these allegations and that has not change. And no tweets from the President as CNN has reported people close to Mr. Trump have been accused of inappropriate sexual conduct and force to weigh the accusations against before commenting publicly.
ROMANS: All right. Devastation in the Carolinas this morning in the aftermath of hurricane Florence. And authorities say, the worst of the catastrophic flooding is yet to come. Hundreds of people remain trapped. 18 storm related deaths now confirmed. The latest fatality, a 3 month old baby killed by a tree that fell on its family mobile home.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were doing CPR for the last 30 minutes. They just want permission to stop. I said no at first. After another 30 minutes, he wasn't coming back.
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BRIGGS: Overnight, new mandatory evacuation orders for Hope County, North Carolina, where there is a concern of a possible dam breach in Lumberton, North Carolina.
Residence are bracing for disaster as the Lumber River sips through a patch up gap in the levee system. The river is now close at 25 feet and arising if it gets to 26 feet, it could overtop the permanent levee. If that happens, an official says, all bets are off.
[04:05:05] ROMANS: Over 532,000 customers are without power in North Carolina. The State's Attorney General Office has received more than 500 complaints of price gouging for hotels rooms, gas and water and more than 15,000 people are in shelters statewide.
Transportation officials are telling people not to travel anywhere in North Carolina. Flooding has already cut off the coastal city of Wilmington from the rest of the state. And that is where we find CNN meteorologist, Derek Van Dam. We are still in an early innings of this catastrophe Derek.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning Christine, what I saw was a city's infrastructure on a verge of collapse, there were literally 30-foot wide sinkholes that formed on the major thoroughfare, an artery that connects the city northward out of Wilmington. There is also what would normally be a very busy I-40 with residents and tourists enjoying a long weekend at the beach and coming home. That was completely deserted. And it turned into a rushing river of water. Unbelievable.
You imagine how difficult this means for authorities to get in critical supplies and fuel and gas to the region to help out with the rescue efforts. In fact speaking of rescues, there have been over 1,000 high water rescues in North Carolina alone since the flooding began. And what I saw on people's faces was complete desperation. A lot of scared individuals out there.
We actually went to one of the evacuation centers in Burdock Creek, just a little north of here in Pender County. Now they have bunkered down for the brunt of hurricane Florence when it came to originally and now they have to move to another evacuation center, because the original one was being threatened by high water as well.
Even people moving their animals away from the flood waters that continue to rise. We know a lot of rivers around here are not going to crest until later this week on Tuesday as the protected river crest for some of these major rivers that will certainly inundate the region. It has been a difficult five days and it continues to be a difficult situation here in Wilmington. But we are monitoring it very closely. We will go out once again today. Dave and Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Derek, thank you so much for that. Stay safe. Try to stay dry. We'll talk to you soon. BRIGGS: Florence with more rain on parts of North Carolina in the
next few days and river levels will continue to rise for most of the week. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri standing by live in the Weather Center for us. Pedram, sound like it is going to be a lot worse before it gets better?
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, unfortunately that is the case, Dave. You know, when it comes to landfall tropical system, especially with mountain nearby, you often see this play out with water eventually wanting to come right back down and flooding the communities all over again. We will touch on that shortly. But the system itself sitting somewhere around Eastern portions of Tennessee right now, but notice the moisture still (inaudible).
Tropical moisture is really streaming right along into portions of North Carolina. And that is where the heaviest rainfall still following at this hour. But the concern is really once the rain ends, doesn't mean the flooding will ends, because of course, it has been raining upstream as well, the Appalachian Mountains eastern preferably the mountains especially I always use the analogy of take a sponge, put water in it, put up against the wall and press it and you have water coming down on the other side of the wall. Precisely what is happening with the clouds that are trying to push up over the Appalachians?
All that water wants to come right back down into the Atlantic. Of course, there is hundreds of rivers, streams and tributaries all of these will draw the water right back down where the heaviest rain fell just three days ago. So, we will see more flooding take place as a result of this.
So, essentially like a slow motion disaster when I try to explain to people with flooding and the sun comes back and a couple of days later of flooding still continues across the region. Look at the gauges. Over 36 gauges now reporting moderate to major flood stage.
Some of these gauges are actually now not reporting, because of the tremendous volume of water that has caused damage to the instrument and take a look, the gauges is still expected to rise in a lot of the regions up to about Tuesday even Wednesday before they crest at record values and then finally going into early -- this upcoming weekend. We will see conditions wants to improve just a little bit.
So, this is going to be a long drawn out event even after the rains stop today, which we think they will later on this afternoon and tonight. The water will continue to rush down towards these region from the higher elevations back to the west. Dave.
BRIGGS: All right. Pedram, thank you so much. We will check back in the next half hour.
ROMANS: All right. In Southeast Asia, at least 54 people are dead as the world strongest storm this year, typhoon Mangkhut lashes the Philippines. Government officials say, many of the deaths were caused by landslides with dozens more people still believed to be buried under the mud. In Hong Kong, utter devastation and fierce winds ripped homes to
shreds and uprooted the trees. The storm blame for four deaths in China. Nearly 2.5 million people have been evacuated in China's Guangdong province. And more than 18,000 emergency shelters have been evacuated.
[04:10:02] BRIGGS: All right coming up on the program. The U.S. Border patrol agent described as a serial killer. Arrested in the deaths of four people. His capture made possible by a woman's daring escape.
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BRIGGS: FEMA administrator Brock Long questioning studies that show far more people died from hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico than the initial death tolls. As you might remember, the President tweeted several times over last week casting doubt on the study showing thousands died. Not just dozens. And blaming Democrats for inflating the numbers to make him look bad. In the series of Sunday's shows, appearance, Long did not necessarily dispute the President.
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BROCK LONG, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: There's a lot of issues with numbers being all over the place. It is hard to tell what is accurate and what's not. You may see more deaths indirectly occur as time goes on because people have heart attacks due to stress. They fall off their house trying to fix their roof. They die in car crashes where, because they went through the intersection where the stop light is not working.
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[04:15:03] BRIGGS: Long also says Sunday that he has no plans to resign at the Homeland Security Probe into personal travel using government resources. The Wall Street Journal reports the White House was considering replacing Long, before hurricane Florence hit.
ROMANS: All right. It is Monday morning, time for an Early Start on your money this morning. A new reports says, President is planning on hitting China with a new set of tariffs. The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, Mr. Trump will likely impose tariffs 10 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. This is expected to happen before plan trade talks at the end of this month.
The new tariffs sort of applied to more than 1,000 products including refrigerators, air conditioners, furniture's, television and toys. These are things that American consumers would feel the impacts of the tariffs to be felt by millions of America consumers just as the holiday season approaches. The announcement about the new tariffs could come as early as today. This move could put the proposed trade talks later this month in jeopardy. China has vowed to respond to increased tariffs with retaliatory measures.
BRIGGS: Joe Biden says he is sorry he gave President Trump the benefit of the doubt in the early days of his administration. The former Vice President appeared Saturday night at a dinner hosted by human rights campaign LGBTQ advocacy group. Says, he and President Obama agreed to hold their tongues during the early months of the Trump presidency which he now says he regrets.
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JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Barack and I agreed to remain silent for a while to give the administration a chance to get up and running the first year. God, forgive me.
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BRIGGS: Biden told the audience he could no longer remain quiet once President Trump said there are fine people on both sides after that deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville last year.
ROMANS: Surprising research questions the belief that a regular dose of aspirin will prevents heart attacks and strokes. New data suggests it could even
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ROMANS: Welcome back to "Early Start." One of China's most famous actresses has vanished without a trace. It made an uproar over tax evasion by wealthy celebrities. Fan Bingbing is one of China's highest paid and most bankable stars. She has appeared both in Chinese and western films. Including the "X men" franchise. But the film stars has not been seen in public since early June. Let's go live to Beijing and bring in CNN's Matt Rivers. Quite a mystery here.
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, this is very strange. It is hard to overstate how famous Fan Bingbing is in China. This would be like an "a plus" list celebrity. The equivalent of Meryl Streep just up and disappearing and no one having any idea where she is. This all goes back in May where she was publicly accused on social media of taking part of this kind of tax avoidance scheme signing fake contracts in order to avoid paying taxes on her sizable income.
She categorically denied it. The Chinese government launched a broader investigation into the industry as a whole. But Fan Bingbing, other than posting one time on social media in June, has not been seen or heard from since. So we tried to reach her unsuccessfully. We reached out to the tax authorities, the media regulators, the ministry foreign affairs and even here in China and no one is commenting on the story. The only clue that we have to her whereabouts is an article which was posted on Chinese state media website on September 6th.
In that article, they wrote that Fan Bingbing has been brought under control and it is about to received legal judgment. But that article was swiftly deleted. It is no longer on the internet and if you try to write about Fan Bingbing on Chinese social media, right now, you will be probably going to get centered by government officials. So basically the mystery continues. We have no idea where the highest paid actress is in China and it is a massive talker here. Her fans are concerned but no answer at least so far. Christine? ROMANS: Yes, it is a massive talker unless are you on social media,
you get censored for talking about it. All right. Continue to follow that for us. Thank you so much, Matt Rivers.
BRIGGS: Even more bizarre, authorities in Texas describing a supervisor for U.S. Border patrol agent in their custody as a serial killer. Charging documents say, Juan David Ortiz, who is also a Navy veteran, has confessed to killing four people, whose bodies were discovered over the past two weeks. Authorities say all of the victims worked as prostitutes. Officials say the case broke on Friday after a woman escaped Ortiz and ran to a nearby gas station where she found a state trooper. A customs and border patrol spokesperson says the agency is fully cooperating with state investigators. It is not immediately known whether Ortiz has a lawyer.
ROMANS: The death of a swimmer at the Cape Cod beach this weekend believe to be the first fatal shark attack in Massachusetts and more than 80 years. Witnesses try to carry 26-year-old Arthur Medici to get medical help, you can see them their working together. He and another man were boogie boarding some 30 yards off the beach in Wellfleet when the shark attacked.
Medici was given first aid, including CPR at the scene, but later died at the hospital. The statement from the Bunker Hill Community College says Medici, an engineering major was enrolled as a part-time student in the spring.
A major study finds risks outweigh the benefits of the daily regimen of low dose aspirin. Millions of healthy people takes small doses of aspirin regularly told they will prevent heart attacks and strokes, but researches from the University of Melbourne say the regimen has no real benefit for healthy older adults and may pose significant health risks. It actually increases the risk of internal bleeding. The researchers do not say whether healthy older people who had been taking aspirin should stop.
[04:25:03] BRIGGS: And it is not the way Vontae Davis drew it up. Buffalo Bills quarterback retired at halftime. On Sunday's game against the L.A. Chargers and Buffalo and left the stadium. The 10 year NFL veteran, two time pro baller released a statement saying he meant no disrespect to his coaches and teammates. Davis said after multiple surgeries and playing through injuries, quote, today on the field that really hit me fast and hard. I should not be out there anymore. Davis played for the Dolphins and Colts before signing a one year deal with the Bills in February. Look at the violent and exhausted game and when you are done, you're done. Although disrespect to the teammate. You like to see he finished up that game, but it is a difficult game.
All right. Serious trouble facing the President's Supreme Court nominee. He said the Republicans now say a vote on the nomination should not wait after a woman publicly accuses Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct decades ago.
ROMANS: Thousands of people rescued in the aftermath of hurricane Florence, hundreds more are waiting for help as river levels are rising here, posing a new threat to the Carolinas.
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