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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Four People To Back Up Christine Blasey Ford's Claim; World Leaders Laugh At President Trump; Iran President Rouhani: U.S. Displaying "Nazi Disposition"; Bill Cosby Sentenced To Three To 10 Years In Prison. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired September 26, 2018 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I didn't expect that reaction but that's OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The world literally laughs as President Trump claims extraordinary progress at the United Nations and chairs a Security Council meeting today with Iran the major focus.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: America's dad waking up behind bars. Bill Cosby gets three to 10 years for sex assault.
BRIGGS: And how did you celebrate your 50th birthday? Will Smith decided to face his fear with a bungee jump over the Grand Canyon. That, friends, is big Willy style.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is 30 minutes past the hour.
Breaking overnight, "USA Today" reports attorneys for Christine Blasey Ford have provided the Senate with signed declarations from four people who say she told them in recent years about Brett Kavanaugh's alleged sexual assault from decades ago.
One of those declarations is from her husband whose knowledge was already reported. But three new people coming forward with information saying that Ford told them about the alleged incident between 2013 and 2017. Now, these aren't eyewitness accounts but they do speak to knowledge of the incident before she made those accusations public.
BRIGGS: One of them says Ford was especially angry at the light sentence for Brock Turner. Now, he's the Stanford swimmer who got a 6-month term for sexual assault on an unconscious 22-year-old.
Ford is said to have told her friends she was bothered because she was assaulted years earlier by someone who is now a federal judge in D.C., later naming Kavanaugh in an e-mail sent after Anthony Kennedy retired.
ROMANS: Now just over 24 hours to the Senate hearing that could seal Kavanaugh's fate.
The vote on his nomination has already been set before Ford has even been heard. The Judiciary Committee scheduling its vote for Friday morning at 9:30 a.m. eastern.
BRIGGS: Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley leaving open the possibility the vote could be further delayed, but the committee's ranking Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, slammed the speedy vote.
Quote, "First, Republicans demanded Dr. Blasey Ford testify immediately. Now, Republicans don't even need to hear here before they move ahead with a vote."
ROMANS: Committee Republicans announcing that an Arizona sex crimes prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, will be on hand to ask quote "at least some questions" for their side.
At least one critical GOP vote appears to be wavering. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski telling "The New York Times" -- "It's not about whether or not Judge Kavanaugh is qualified. It is about whether or not a woman who has been a victim at some point in her life is to be believed."
And Murkowski later added this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Should there be a full FBI investigation into these allegations from Kavanaugh's past?
SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R), ALASKA: Well, it would sure -- it would sure clear up all the questions, wouldn't it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: And the stage ended it there.
Murkowski also wants the Judiciary Committee to hear from a second Kavanaugh accuser -- that's Debbie Ramirez.
Around the time Murkowski said that on Tuesday, the president forcefully rejected Ramirez's allegation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Now a new charge comes up and she said well, it may not be him, and there were gaps. And she said was totally inebriated and she was all messed up. And she doesn't know if it was him but it might have been him.
Oh, gee, let's not make him a Supreme Court judge because of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: One senior Republican Senate aide says those comments were not helpful. The source says Republicans have tried -- treaded incredibly lightly to keep moderate GOP senators on board.
The president was not exactly playing along later when he said this on Twitter. "The Democrats are playing a high-level con game. Pray for Brett Kavanaugh and his family."
ROMANS: All right.
President Trump returns to the U.N. today for a series of meetings with world leaders -- Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Shinzo Abe of Japan, and Britain's Theresa May. The president will also chair a Security Council meeting focused on Iran.
On Tuesday, he addressed the U.N. for the second time as president. You know, the president has repeatedly claimed that under previous administrations the world laughed at the U.S. Yesterday, it literally happened under him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country. America's -- so true.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: I didn't expect that reaction, but that's OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Mr. Trump went on to push his "America First" agenda, stressing U.S. sovereignty and insisting the global migration crisis could be solved by making all countries quote "great again."
But the president's main focus was on Iran, accusing the regime of sowing chaos, death, and destruction.
Afterward, National Security Adviser John Bolton said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BOLTON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The murderous regime and its supporters will face significant consequences if they do not change their behavior.
[05:35:03] Let my message today be very clear. We are watching and we will come after you. If you harm our citizens, if you continue to lie, cheat, and deceive -- yes, there will, indeed, be hell to pay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Iran immediately lashed back at the U.S. Here's what President Hassan Rouhani told the U.N.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HASSAN ROUHANI, PRESIDENT OF IRAN (through translator): It is unfortunate that we are witnessing rulers in the world who think they can secure their interests better -- or at least, in the short-term, ride public sentiments and gain popular support through the fomenting of extremists, nationalism, and racism, and through xenophobic tendencies resembling a Nazi disposition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: All right, let's talk about this with two distinguished guests in studio with us. Josh Rogin for "The Washington Post" and Nic Robertson, both in studio. Nic, the international diplomatic editor --
ROMANS: Nice to see you, guys.
BRIGGS: -- for us here at CNN.
ROMANS: Welcome.
BRIGGS: Good to see you guys here in studio.
JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Good morning.
BRIGGS: Let's start with the laughter moment, of course, because as Christine mentioned, there's a lot of context here for Mr. Trump talking about the world laughing at the United States -- Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The world is laughing at us, folks.
They're laughing at us -- at our stupidity.
They laugh at us.
They're laughing at us. It's just crazy what's going on.
Everybody's laughing at us.
They're laughing at us. We don't know what we're doing.
They're laughing at us because they think we're stupid.
The whole world is laughing at us. They're laughing at this -- at what's going on in our country.
The world laughs at us, folks. The world laughs at us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: That's 20 seconds. It could go on.
BRIGGS: Wow -- then it just happened directly to his face. He later said that was meant to get some laughter, Nic. He said it was great.
How significant was that moment? NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, number one, it didn't seem in the moment that he was expecting that. That was his clear reaction.
It is significant. Look, last year the world was sort of suspending its disbelief or its belief in the way President Trump was going to be. This year they knew.
And when he started down that track -- it was almost the same way he started down it in his speech last year -- he became, in their eyes, a caricature of himself. That this is what they were expecting. They were expecting him to get up there and big up himself first.
When you have billions of people on the planet to talk about, he gets up there and talks about himself. So I think that was the root of the laughter.
And this is a shame for the United States and this is a difficulty for him. He wants and he set out in that speech to -- we're talking about Iran -- to isolate Iran. How does that happen when you're being laughed at?
ROMANS: We know, Josh, it's so interesting because when he goes to rallies around the country he reads literally from a piece of paper of all the things that he thinks he has done right --
ROGIN: Yes.
ROMANS: -- and all the great accomplishments of his administration.
He does that at the U.N. and it is not a --
ROGIN: Right.
ROMANS: It is not an Ohio crowd.
ROGIN: Right. You kind of get --
ROMANS: It's a really different crowd.
ROGIN: You get the sense that President Trump is not used to a critical audience and when he heard that laughter he was kind of actually genuinely surprised that his laughable claims actually elicited laughter. But maybe that's good. Maybe the president should, once a year, hear from an audience that doesn't automatically tell him exactly what he wants to hear.
But that laughter dissipated pretty quick as he went into his speech which was an anti-globalization --
ROMANS: Right.
ROGIN: -- anti-immigration, anti-migration speech criticizing the very world organizations that he's -- that were all here in New York to celebrate.
ROMANS: Criticizing foreign aid, criticizing --
ROGIN: Criticizing foreign aid. And then, saber-rattling and blustering and threatening.
And there's no laughter about that. Those are serious issues. Those are issues where the United States has now put itself on the opposite side of most of its friends and allies.
And what is the difference between last year? Last year, we added an Iranian nuclear deal that we were a part of with our European allies and Russia and China.
This year, the European allies, on the first day of the week, announced that they're going to work with Iran to subvert American policy, all right?
That's not funny, OK. That's not a joke, OK. That's us losing all of our allies to our main enemy.
Now, we have to see whether or not this new push on Iran is going to work. We're going to ramp up the pressure. We're going to be very tough. We're going to say lots of tough things.
And maybe the Iranians are going to fold and do everything that we say or maybe all our European partners are going to fold and do everything we say. But if not, there are huge consequences to that.
So I think that it's kind of a light moment. We can -- we can say oh, isn't that funny that everyone thinks that our president is a joke, but underneath that are some very serious, very dangerous issues that he's dealing with.
BRIGGS: And Nic, when they weren't laughing they may have been Googling things like global governance and a doctrine of patriotism.
You say there were echoes from the 1930s. Why, and how significant is that?
ROBERTSON: I wasn't the only one to get that takeaway. And it's ironic that you have echoes of the 1930s because the U.N. grew out of the chaos that --
ROMANS: Right.
ROBERTSON: -- came as a product of that nationalism that was abundant in the 1930s.
You know, if you listen to the speech of Rouhani, he talked about some leaders using xenophobia that tends towards Nazism.
[05:40:02] If you listen to the passionate speech of Emmanuel Macron, the French president who took the podium later in the day, he was thumping the lectern and even apologized for that -- for that later in a press conference. Thumping it with passion. But he was also sort of raising people's attention to that we've heard this before.
ROMANS: Right.
ROBERTSON: That we've heard this type of speech before. It's dark, it doesn't portend anything good.
And if you listen at the beginning of the day to what the U.N. Secretary Gen. Antonio Guterres said, he talked about this fear of how the isolation and fear between nations -- and this is happening between China and the United States, and other countries as well.
The fear he talked about in Greece thousands of years ago. The Athenians went to war with the Spartans because the Spartans were afraid of how well their nearby city-state was doing.
The U.N. Secretary-General is putting it on the map where this type of language needs.
So this reference to the 1930s -- this harking back to an era that we've seen before that leads to chaos and possible war, it's very real. And that's why the mood, I think, towards the end was so somber and dark.
ROGIN: Sure. I actually think it's important to point out the lesson from the 1930s. We were the good guys. We saved the world from fascism and totalitarianism.
The Iranian regime are the Holocaust deniers. When they're throwing around Nazi rhetoric that's disingenuous. We have to remember who is on what side here of history and the liberal world order that the United States built and help led -- lead over the last 80 years -- provided peace, and prosperity, and civility for the entire world.
Now, it's a shame that the President of the United States doesn't appreciate that, that he doesn't see any value in that. That he doesn't realize the United States' strength is based on our alliances and these very organizations that he disparages.
But at the end of the day, he does have some points. The Iranian regime is malicious, they are bad, they are destabilizing. They are aggressive, and militant, and belligerent, and that's a problem.
The question, I think, for America is do we solve that problem by ourselves or do we solve that problem with all of these organizations and allies that we've spent all this time --
ROMANS: We're talking so much about the mood -- how somber it got by the end of the day -- but I think it's important -- let's listen to what the president said that rejection of globalism. I think it's important to listen in the president's own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.
I honor the right of every nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs, and traditions. The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship. We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Wow. I mean, that is a rejection, really, of 70 years of American foreign policy.
ROBERTSON: And coming out of the Second World War -- everything that the United States built, the economic order to protect us from the -- from that type of catastrophe again. This president is actively undermining it and his audience there, in many cases -- and his audience there knows it.
He picked out again -- beat up on Germany, the largest -- the largest economic powerhouse in Europe. He picked on them again and he did that at NATO a few months ago.
You know, why -- I mean, we understand why he's doing it but the question -- and this is to Josh's point here -- is, is that productive to get done what the United States wants to get done? And the answer in that laughter today had to be gee, maybe not. There's a better way to do this.
ROGIN: Yes, I think it's worth explaining why he's doing it, and the reason is is because that speech is not pointed at U.N. diplomats, it's not pointed at journalists. It's pointed at his base.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: Domestic --
ROMANS: Yes.
ROGIN: Right. He's heading into a midterm.
ROMANS: Yes.
ROGIN: These are the foreign policy notes that ring true with his voters -- with the people who put him into office. They have this well-sewn fear of international institutions where they call globalization. And globalization is just -- it's just -- it's inevitable. Globalization is just what's going on.
But they demonize this idea in such a comprehensive way that the president -- when the president gets in front of these crowds he makes these broad claims that somehow we can go back to a time when America could act alone, and without partners, and without allies, and outside of the international norms and organizations that exist.
I don't think it's going to work. I don't think he's actually going to do most of that.
But it's important when you're listening to him to understand he's not talking to the diplomats. He's talking to the people --
ROMANS: Sure.
ROGIN: -- who are going to vote in November.
ROBERTSON: But whatever he says behind closed doors for the diplomats, he undermines that message and it just reinforces that impression that President Trump -- the impression that many people around the world have that President Trump flip-flops and is inconsistent.
That is what -- that's what President Rouhani told Christiane Amanpour --
ROMANS: Right.
ROBERTSON: -- in their interview.
ROMANS: Right.
ROBERTSON: The United States is inconsistent and that resonates around the world. So one message on the platform that's really to the base but is going to the diplomats. So what do you say to them when you get in a room and how do you convince them this the real you?
[05:45:03] BRIGGS: Well, he'll get a chance to reframe at 5:00 eastern time.
That's a North Korea-United States friendship pin that Josh Rogin --
ROGIN: I bought it at the State Department.
BRIGGS: -- is sporting this morning.
Josh Rogin --
ROGIN: And, China.
BRIGGS: -- Nic Robertson, great to have you both.
ROMANS: Thanks, guys.
BRIGGS: Quite the pin.
ROMANS: Nice to see you. A big week this week.
All right, a good business story here.
Nike's summer sales were strong. A hot streak that actually predates Colin Kaepernick, but they're really bullish about Kaepernick and sales.
Why on "CNN Money," next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Bill Cosby, America's dad, sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home 14 years ago. The disgraced comedian and actor escorted from the courthouse in handcuffs with a chain around his waist -- his bail revoked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN STEELE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: He used his acting skills and an endearing T.V. personality to win over his victims and then keep them silent about what he did to them. So now, finally, Bill Cosby has been unmasked and we have seen the real man as he is headed off to prison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:50:14] BRIGGS: Cosby also ordered to pay a $25,000 fine, plus the prosecution's expenses as part of his sentence.
His lawyers have filed an appeal.
Cosby's wife, Camille, was not in the courtroom on Tuesday.
Her husband's spokesman calling the trial the most racist and sexist in the history of the United States.
ROMANS: Now, let's get a check on "CNN Money" this morning.
Global stocks mixed today as investors wait on another rate hike from the Federal Reserve. Fed Chief Jerome Powell speaks today at 2:00 p.m. eastern. The Central Bank is expected to raise interest rates for the third time this year.
On Wall Street, the Dow and the S&P 500 closed down.
The Trump administration, once again, talking real tough on trade here. The top U.S. trade official warning Canada it has until this weekend for NAFTA renegotiations and it is running out of time. If Ottawa does not agree, the U.S. plans to move forward with or without Canada.
Imagine a North American trade pact without Canada.
Nike's summer sales were strong. It's a hot streak that predates Colin Kaepernick in that ad campaign.
Last quarter, Nike sales grew by double-digits. Profit also up strongly. But investors seem to want more. Nike shares fell four percent overnight.
They could see a bigger boost in sales this quarter. These results that just posted were before Nike made that Colin Kaepernick ad campaign -- the face of its "Just Do It."
The former 49ers quarterback sparked a firestorm when he kneeled, remember, during the National Anthem to protest police brutality and inequality in America. He has not played in the NFL since 2016.
And, Nike says Kaepernick is a big win with younger customers. Nike executives claim the campaign prompted record engagement. America runs on Dunkin, but not the donuts. Dunkin' Donuts officially dropping donuts from its name, removing it all from all ads, packages, signs, social media next year. Dunkin relabeling itself as a beverage-led company mainly focusing on coffee -- and that makes sense because coffee makes up 60 percent of Dunkin sales.
Dunkin isn't the only company rebranding itself with a name change, by the way. Weight Watchers will now be WW, focusing on wellness instead of weight loss.
BRIGGS: Also not focused on donuts.
ROMANS: No donuts there, either.
BRIGGS: OK. Ahead, two women making history behind the mic for "THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL." The history, ahead on EARLY START.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:56:53] ROMANS: Operations back to normal at Delta. The airline was forced to issue a ground stop on all flights for at least an hour last night. Delta blaming a technology issue. Flights already in the air weren't disrupted.
BRIGGS: The mother of a missing North Carolina boy with autism tearfully pleading for anyone to step forward with information to help in the search. Six-year-old Maddox Scott Ritch was last seen Saturday at Rankin Lake Park in Gastonia, North Carolina. His parents told police Maddox ran off and they lost sight of him during the chase.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARRIE RITCH, MOTHER OF MISSING BOY MADDOX SCOTT RITCH: I just want my baby home, please -- whatever you can do. Maddox is my whole world and my reason for living. I want my baby back in my arms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Hundreds of investigators, analysts, and others have joined in the search. There's a $10,000 reward for information.
NFL history about to be made in the broadcast booth. Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer will be the first all-female NFL broadcast team when they call Thursday night's match-up between the Minnesota Vikings and the L.A. Rams.
The veteran sports broadcasters and journalists will be behind the mic for 11 Thursday night games this season. They'll stream as part of the Amazon Prime Video NFL package.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four, three, two, one.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: That is actor Will Smith bungee jumping out of a helicopter and into the Grand Canyon to celebrate his 50th birthday. The jump was livestreamed on Smith's YouTube channel. He described the experience as going from absolute terror to pure bliss.
Smith says he made the 1,000-foot leap as a way to overcome a long- held fear. Also, though, to help raise awareness and donations for education campaigns by the Global Citizens group.
ROMANS: A long-held fear of jumping out of a helicopter into the Grand Canyon and bouncing back.
BRIGGS: Raising the bar for celebrations.
ROMANS: Awesome -- very cool.
All right, thanks --
BRIGGS: Well done, Will.
ROMANS: Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: And I'm Dave Briggs. "NEW DAY" starts right now. They have Brett Kavanaugh's attorney.
We'll see you tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The second accuser has nothing but she admits that she was drunk.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: These disrespectful comments are an insult to the entire survivor community.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: They knew about this since July the 30th. For them to complain about the process is like an arsonist complaining about a fire.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was no place that he likes to be as much of a disruptor.
TRUMP: It's so true. I didn't expect that reaction but that's OK.
RALPH PETERS, U.S. ARMY LIUETNANT COLONEL (RET.): It's pretty grim when the world is, indeed, laughing at a U.S. president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, September 26th, 6:00 here in New York.
Alisyn is off. Erica Hill with me again this morning. Deep breath. ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
BERMAN: All right.
HILL: Six a.m. -- here we go.
BERMAN: Dramatic developments overnight that could affect the possible confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. "USA Today" reports that four people have come forward with sworn statements that Christine Blasey Ford told them of her alleged sexual assault 36 years ago. Ford says Brett Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her, and tried to remove her clothes.
In these sworn statements just revealed overnight, four --
