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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
North and South Korea Strike a Deal; Trump Tours Florence Devastated Carolinas; Time Running Out for Brexit Talks; Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired September 20, 2018 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:30:20] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Senators set a deadline for Christine Blasey Ford to decide if she'll testify about Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Very hard for me to imagine that anything happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump continues to stand behind his Supreme Court nominee.
BRIGGS: And the president promising help for the Carolinas where the worst flooding could still be yet to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAUREN HAYDEN, WENT ON DATE WITH GRANT ROBICHEAUX: I saw that news article, I started balling, and I just felt like what an idiot. Like how could I fall for that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: More women come forward with their stories about a reality TV doctor accused of disturbing sex crimes.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Good morning. I'm Dave Briggs. 4:30 Eastern Time.
The president will be in Vegas tonight. Will he talk about his Supreme Court nominee and his accuser? We'll find out tonight at 10:00 Pacific Time.
A showdown, though, under way this morning between Senate Republicans and Christine Blasey Ford. That is the woman who says Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teens. Senate Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley setting a deadline 10:00 a.m. Friday for a decision from Ford on whether she will testify to the committee next Monday. Ford's lawyer, Lisa Banks, says in a statement to CNN Grassley's rush
to a hearing is unnecessary and contrary to the committee discovering the truth. Banks says her client continues to believe that a full nonpartisan investigation of this matter is needed.
ROMANS: But Grassley is resisting calls from Ford for an FBI probe. He says he's focused on encouraging her to come and testify.
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SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Doing everything that we can to make Dr. Ford comfortable with coming before committee either in an open session or closed session or a public or a private interview. That is four ways she can choose to come.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Grassley followed up with a letter to Ford explaining why the Senate, not the FBI, is the right body to investigate her allegations. He writes this, "The FBI does not make a credibility assessment of any information it receives with respect to a nominee. The Constitution assigned the Senate and only the Senate with the task of advising and consenting for the nomination if the circumstances merit."
Now sources tell CNN if Ford chooses not to speak to the committee, the Monday hearing would likely be canceled and then the panel could move to vote on the Kavanaugh nomination by midweek.
BRIGGS: President Trump says he really wants to hear Christine Blasey Ford testify about her claim his nominee for the Supreme Court sexually assaulted her. On his way to see hurricane devastation in the Carolinas the president telling reporters the Senate should give Ford all the time she needs to tell her story and he opened the doors to the possibility he could change his mind about Brett Kavanaugh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'd really want to see her. I really would want to see what she has to say. If she shows up, that would be wonderful. If she doesn't show up, that would be unfortunate. If she shows up and makes a credible showing, that'll be very interesting. We'll have to make a decision but I can only this, he is such an outstanding man. Very hard for me to imagine that anything happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The president emphasized Kavanaugh has already been repeatedly investigated by the FBI for previous jobs and downplayed the prospect of an additional probe.
ROMANS: Attorney General Jeff Sessions tightening his control of immigration courts with two quiet moves this week. In one decision, Sessions made it harder for immigration judges to show leniency toward undocumented immigrants. In another, he signaled he may decide to keep asylum seekers in detention while they await their hearings. Sessions' move came as the president is saying repeatedly that he is
not happy with Sessions for his lack of action on immigration among other things.
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TRUMP: I'm disappointed in the attorney general for numerous reasons. But we have an attorney general. I'm disappointed in the attorney general for many reasons. And you understand that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Trump also attacked Sessions in an interview with the "Hill TV" saying, "I don't have an attorney general. I'm not happy at the border. I'm not happy with numerous things."
BRIGGS: The Trump administration has a second effort to locate immigrant children released from custody again found that nearly 1500 children could not be located. A similar effort late last year came up with an almost identical number. Officials say the children are not necessarily lost. It may be as simple as no one picking up the phone when Health and Human Services calls.
[04:35:02] And the figures were released by a bipartisan group of senators working on a bill that would make the government responsible for children even after they are released.
ROMANS: President Trump optimistic about a possible solution to the North Korean nuclear threat Wednesday.
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TRUMP: We're making tremendous progress with respect to North Korea. Prior to becoming president, it looked like we were going to war with North Korea, and now we have a lot of progress. In the meantime, we're talking. It's very calm. He's calm. I'm calm. So we'll see what happens.
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ROMANS: The president spoke just hours after the North and South hammered out a deal announcing Pyongyang would close a key missile test facility and potentially destroy a key nuclear complex if the U.S. agrees to corresponding measures.
CNN's Paula Hancocks live in Seoul with the very latest.
And so what does that mean exactly?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the key question, Christine. No one knows exactly what those corresponding measures are. Now clearly we know that North Korea would like a declaration to the end of the Korean War. They would like a peace treaty. They would like sanctions against them to be eased.
But we don't know exactly what they are hoping the U.S. to do at this point. Now in the past, we have heard from Washington that they want complete denuclearization first and then they will consider concessions.
But we did see, as you say it, a positive response from the White House. We also heard from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying that he has and will invite his counterpart from North Korea, Ri Yong- ho, to meet in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly coming up next week.
So the negotiations, the talks have started once again. They have been stalled for some time. And it's certainly significant when you see the progress that North and South Korea have made together. Certainly when they sign that military pact trying to make sure that they couldn't be any missed miscalculation or any military tensions sparked.
And also on Wednesday night, we saw the South Korean president speak to 150,000 North Koreans at a massive stadium sitting next to Kim Jong-un. And he talks about denuclearization. The North Koreans cheered that speech. Now that is something that you just couldn't imagine having happen a few months ago.
ROMANS: All right. Paula, thank you so much for that, for us this morning from Seoul.
BRIGGS: President Trump's attorney claims NBC edited Lester Holt's interview with Mr. Trump last year where Mr. Trump said he was thinking of the Russia investigation when he fired James Comey as FBI director. Here's the president telling that to Lester Holt in May of 2017.
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TRUMP: I was going to fire Comey knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Special Counsel Bob Mueller's team has been looking into whether Trump's move against Comey amounted to obstruction in the Russia investigation. But last night, Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow argued that the network improperly edited the interview. He said there was a longer version where the president said he realized that firing Comey might not shorten the probe.
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JAY SEKULOW, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: We think the entire transcript without question supports that the president realized it when he fired James Comey it might actually extend this investigation. And he said that on the tape.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Sekulow did not offer any proof that NBC edited the interview. CNN has reached out to the network for comment.
ROMANS: Former national security adviser Michael Flynn set to be sentenced on December 18th. Flynn pleaded guilty last December to one charge of lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. The retired lieutenant general agreed to cooperate with Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The setting of a date for sentencing suggests the special counsel's need for Flynn's cooperation is coming to an end.
New York Congressman Chris Collins has returned actively campaigning for re-election this morning while under indictment on federal insider trading charges. The Buffalo Area Republican tweeting Wednesday that the stakes are too high to allow the radical left to take control of the seat in Congress.
Last month, Collins suspended his campaign while the GOP looked for a way to replace him as a candidate. In the end Collins' lawyer concluded there was no clear path to putting a substitute on the ballot. Collins was one of President Trump's earliest supporters in the 2016 campaign. He's called the securities and wire fraud charges against him, quote, "meritless."
ROMANS: All right. The U.S. is embroiled in a trade war with China yet Wall Street is closing in on record highs. Global stocks rallied for the second day in a row. The Dow and the S&P 500 now both less 1 percent from record highs. Won't take much to get there.
Fears of a trade war have shaken stocks for months. Yet even with a volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China, stock markets now are rising again. Why? Legendary money manager Mohamed El-Erian tells CNN investors expect a compromise.
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MOHAMED EL-ERIAN, CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISOR, ALLIANZ: The market is playing it out the right way with which is thinking that the trade tensions, the tit-for-tat on tariffs, is part of the journey.
[04:40:06] But it's not part of the destination. And that is why the market is more comfortable going higher in the face of the latest round. And I think that's right. Ultimately this will be resolved in a way that still leaves a free, but fairer trade system. But the journey there is going to be incredibly noisy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Noisy. He also says it may be a year we're are talking about here, not many years that some have said this could take. Today should be another update. Right now global stocks and U.S. futures are mostly higher.
It's been so fascinating to watch investors say how worried they are about the president's moves on tariffs.
BRIGGS: Yes. ROMANS: But what really today, the bottom line, tax cuts for
companies have enriched these companies. And shareholders respond to how companies are doing. Right?
BRIGGS: Right.
ROMANS: And so today, companies are doing very, very well. So that's why the stock market is higher.
BRIGGS: And China's economy slowly pulling back.
ROMANS: Yes. There's this feeling that China has more to lose.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: And that eventually will have to blink.
BRIGGS: We'll see. All right. Ahead, prosecutors say he was like a Wolf in sheep's clothing.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, a wolf can wear scrubs or doctors' clothing.
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BRIGGS: More on the reality TV doctor who may have preyed upon women all over the country.
ROMANS: And Mark Cuban gets emotional over the conduct that occurred on his watch for the Dallas Maverick.
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[04:45:37] ROMANS: President Trump got a firsthand look at the devastation and flooding from Florence Wednesday. His six-hour visit came with the death toll from the hurricane turned tropical depression now at least 36. Rivers are still rising, some of them swollen and expected to crest as early as today creating a new round of flooding.
Touring the region, president Trump met with first responders and evacuated residents, assuring them America stands ready to help.
CNN's Nick Watt has more from one of the hardest hit areas from Wilmington, North Carolina.
NICK WATT, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, well the sun has been shining here in Wilmington, North Carolina. But the outlook is still pretty bleak. Now the governor here said that we are a state that is hurting.
The state is going to hurt for quite some time and here is why. I mean, they still have thousands of people in shelters. Hundreds of roads closed. And the long-term impact is also just beginning to be calculated. The Carolinas rely heavily on tourism and agriculture. Fields have been inundated. And also three million chickens killed, 5,000 hogs dead. And as the president said today, you know, the people of South Carolina, for them, the worst may still be to come.
One of the last trips, spots on his trip here Wednesday was Conway in South Carolina where officials say that they don't think the river is going to peak and really cause some damage until Friday. Other rivers may not peak until next week. And one of the officials down there in North Myrtle Beach texted me and said, you know, we are slowly becoming an island. Now the president's message on his trip.
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TRUMP: Washington is with you. Trump is with you. We are all with you 100 percent. And we'll get through it.
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WATT: So that was the message from the president's trip. There were two messages really. One is for South Carolina, the worst could still be to come. The second was whatever happens, the federal government will do whatever it can to help you -- Christine and Dave.
ROMANS: A lot of people there yesterday wanted to be on camera with the president, wanted to thank him publicly.
Officials in California say six new people have been identified who may have been drugged and raped by California surgeon Grant Robicheaux and his girlfriend Cherissa Riley. The Orange County D.A.'s office says two of these cases appeared to have occurred outside the state. One of the victims may now live outside the U.S. One woman who went on a Tinder date with Robicheaux who appeared -- Robicheaux who appeared on one episode of a Bravo reality show says while she wasn't drugged or raped, the suspect did make some unwanted sexual advances toward her.
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HAYDEN: He took me to his Jacuzzi where he kept trying to rip off my top and I kept trying to just put it back on. I kept trying to, like, escape and he kept, like, pulling out my clothing.
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ROMANS: She says she did not report that incident to police. Meantime, the DA's office said it has received more than 30 calls with more coming in. Robicheaux and Riley are set to be arraigned October 25th.
BRIGGS: The owner of the company that makes 3-D printed guns has been charged with sexual assault on a child. Boston Police say Cody Wilson had sex with a 16-year-old girl he met on an adult dating site. They say the 30-year-old paid $500 to have sex with the girl last August. Officials say his last known location was in Taiwan and his return flight date has passed. CNN has reached out to Wilson for comment but he has not responded. Wilson currently embroiled in a legal battle with the government over making instructions for 3-D guns accessible online. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban donating $10 million to women's
advocacy groups after an independent probe found numerous instances of sexual harassment and other workplace misconduct among team employees over more than 20 years. That included forcible touching and kissing of women employees by a former team president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK CUBAN, DALLAS MAVERICKS OWNER: First, just an apology to the women involved. This is not something that just is an incident and then it's over. It stays with people. It stays with families. And I'm just sorry I didn't see it. I'm just sorry I didn't recognize it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The NBA said the investigation found no evidence Cuban was aware of the former team president's misconduct. The probe launched following a "Sports Illustrated" article in February.
ROMANS: A whole lot to do not a lot of time and very high stakes. A top European Union official warning that there is still a long way to go on Britain's exit from the European Union with the deadline from Brexit now just six months away.
[04:50:04] CNN's Hadas Gold is live for us in Saltsburg, Austria where EU leaders are holding a summit.
And I got to tell you, Hadas, it feels almost like Groundhog Day every single day on the Brexit front.
HADAS GOLD, CNN MONEY, POLITICS, MEDIA AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
ROMANS: We get closer and closer.
GOLD: It does.
ROMANS: And the same sticking points remain.
GOLD: Yes. Exactly. I mean, we are in this beautiful city here in Salzburg which brought us Mozart and the "Sound of Music." But it's very clear that the U.K. and the European Union are not singing the same tune yet when it comes to Brexit. The sticking points that we have seen definitely in the last 24 hours and has been a sticking point for a long time is what to do with the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and Theresa May, the prime minister of the U.K., warned at a nice dinner last night with all of the European leaders that any deal with Brexit that somehow treats Northern Ireland differently than the rest of the United Kingdom would just not fly.
But on the EU side, they are saying, the European Council president Donald Tusk warned yesterday that the U.K. needs to rework its position on the Irish border. So it's clear we are still quite a bit apart. Now today, the European leaders except for Theresa May will get together and talk about Brexit and see where they stand and what they can do going forward.
But this is an informal summit. There have been no official declaration coming of this. We won't see anything official really until October when there is finally a formal summit. And yesterday Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, announced that there will be a special Brexit summit in November when they hopefully will finally, finally have some sort of Brexit deal.
But it's not clear what that will look like yet. The two sides, as I said, are still quite far apart. And it seems as though the U.K. may be heading still towards a no deal Brexit.
ROMANS: A no deal Brexit. All right. Hadas Gold, in beautiful Saltsburg, Austria this morning, thank you so much for that.
Fifty-one minutes past the hour. Planning to catch a Delta flight? You will now pay more to check your bags. Delta is hiking fees. We'll tell you why on CNN Money next.
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[04:56:40] BRIGGS: Maroon 5 is gearing up to headline next year's Super Bowl halftime show. At least that's what two sources tell the "New York Times." In a statement, the NFL says it is continuing to work out plans and does not have announcements to make just yet. If true the band's front man Adam Levine following the steps of other chart-topping artists including Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, and Bruno Mars. Super Bowl LIII takes place February 3rd in Atlanta.
ROMANS: All right. This 12-foot gator had nothing on this great granny mayor from Texas. Turns out Judy Cochran had been hunting this 580-pound monster for three years and managed to kill it with a single shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDY COCHRAN, KILLED 12-FOOT GATOR: One shot in the head and he just went under. Typically they'll do what they call a death roll and just roll over and over and over. Well, this one didn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: She says she is not bragging about the harvest. She said she went after this gator after she believes it ate one of her miniature horses.
BRIGGS: Don't mess with the mayor.
All right. Here's a big time reminder that spelling counts. Take a look. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific painted its name as "Cathay Paciic" on the side of the jet. Eagle-Eye Travelers spotted the missing F and immediately contacted the airline. Cathay Pacific said it was a genuine yet costly mistake. And even joked about it on Twitter to their credit, saying, "Oops, this special livery won't last long. She is going back to the shop."
ROMANS: Everybody needs a good copy editor. No question.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: And I think it was the "Daily News" said something -- had some great headline to be effective. They don't give a flying F.
BRIGGS: F. Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
BRIGGS: That's good.
ROMANS: Let's get a check of CNN Money this morning, folks. The U.S. is embroiled in a trade war with China, yet Wall Street is closing in on record highs. The Dow and the S&P 500 both less than 1 percent from records. Bank shares were the big winners yesterday. They jumped nearly 2 percent as the 10-year Treasury yield hit the highest level since May. The trade war between the U.S. and China has shaken stocks for months. Yet even with this volley of tariffs markets are on the rise. Why? Well, experts say investors still expect a compromise. Today should be another update. Right now global stocks and U.S. futures are mostly higher.
Amazon may shake up retail once again. Bloomberg reports Amazon plans to open up a 3,000 cashier free stores by 2021. Amazon currently has three so-called Amazon Go stores there in Seattle. It plans to expand. The store has no cashiers. Instead shoppers buy things using an app, scanning it to enter the store. Then cameras and sensors track what customers pick up. This move will give Amazon an even bigger foothold in the $750 billion grocery market. It bought of course Whole Foods last year.
All right. Planning to catch a Delta flight, you will now pay more to check your bags. Yesterday Delta quietly hiked fees for checked bags by five bucks. For domestic flight travelers now $30 for the first bag, $40 for the second. Delta told CNN it routinely makes fee adjustment. It's also the third major U.S. airline to do so. United and JetBlue made the same price hike last month. Airlines say this will help offset higher costs brought on by rising fuel prices and employee salaries.
This is not one but two. United changing its boarding strategy this week.
BRIGGS: Oh yes.
ROMANS: So no more of the --
BRIGGS: No more --
ROMANS: -- five groups.
BRIGGS: Chaos.
ROMANS: So we'll see how that works out.
BRIGGS: But you know that Delta change means more with the giant carry-ons ramming them into a space that's far too small for that carry-on.
ROMANS: I know. I know.
BRIGGS: Goody.
All right. EARLY START continues right now.
ROMANS: Senators set a deadline --
