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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
White House Narrows Kavanaugh Probe; Canada Joins Revamped NAFTA; 84 Killed In Earthquake And Tsunami; Remembering Las Vegas Victims, One Year Later; In Love With A Dictator. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired October 01, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[04:00:00] KELLYANNE CONWAY, WHITE HOUSE COUNSELOR: Not meant to be a fishing expedition.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, EARLY START SHOW CO-HOST: The White House narrowing the focus of the FBI investigation in to Brett Kavanaugh was in, was out. And is this just a means to an end?
DAVE BRIGGS, EARLY START SHOW CO-HOST: And breaking Canada agrees to join a trade deal with United States and Mexico. Big symbolic win for the President. What it means for milk drinkers and car buyers in North America.
ROMANS: And the death toll arising sharply after an earthquake and tsunami devastates an Indonesian Island.
BRIGGS: And one year later, Las Vegas remembering victims of the worst mass shooting in modern American history. A moment of silence at 10:00 Pacific Time this morning. Good morning and welcome to "Early Start." I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: Nice to see you this Monday morning.
BRIGGS: Good to see you my friend.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans, it is Monday, October 1st. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. FBI agents working this morning to get to the bottom of what really happened in December of 1982. If the White House will let them. Sources telling CNN the FBI investigation and it allegations of sexual wrongdoing by Supreme Court Nominee, Brett Kavanaugh is narrowly focused. Sources briefed on the matter say the White House is controlling the scope of the probe which they say will be limited to questions asked by the senate. Here is Kellyanne Conway on State of the Union.
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CONWAY: It will be limited in scope. It's meant to last one week. I believe beginning last Friday. And it will not meant to be a fishing expedition.
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BRIGGS: A source Kavanaugh's drinking history is not part of the probe and that agents will interview just a handful of people. One person already interviewed yesterday is Deborah Ramirez. She came forward last week with the accusations that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party while they were at Yale. A claim Kavanaugh quickly denied.
ROMANS: President Trump says the FBI has free reign tweeting yesterday. Democrats who are only thinking of obstruct and delay are starting to put out the word at the time and scope of FBI looking of Judge Kavanaugh and witnesses is not enough. For them it will never been enough. Now the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee wants the White House to explain exactly what marching orders it gave to the FBI. CNN's Boris Sanchez has the latest from the White House.
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN NEWSROOM HOST: Christine and Dave, the ranking Democrat of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein putting out a statement Sunday afternoon demanding that the White House counsel and FBI Director Christopher Wray give Republicans and Democrats on the committee the exact directive that the White House is handing to the FBI. The exact parameters of these FBI probe into Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the accusations that he acted inappropriately during a party back in the summer of 1982.
Feinstein saying that the stakes are simply too high. She is essentially responding to a reporting by CNN and other outlets that the sources have indicated that the White House is guiding the parameters of this investigation very tightly narrowing its scope. Democrats were not happy about that news. Including Senator Amy Klobuchar who grilled Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday. She spoke with Jake Tapper on State of the Union, Sunday morning.
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SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, (D), MINNESOTA, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: The White House decides who to nominate and then that person is submitted to a background check. I never heard that the White House either under this President or other Presidents saying you cannot interview this person or you can't look at this time period. You can only look at these people from this side of the street from when they are growing up.
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SANCHEZ: The Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was also on the Sunday morning talk shows. She says that the White House does not want to micro manage the FBI. Although she admitted that she did not know whether White House Counsel, Don McGahn, had told the FBI specifically who they could or could not interview or which questions could or could not be asked. Dave and Christine.
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BRIGGS: All right. Boris, thank you. A Yale classmate claims Brett Kavanaugh is not telling the truth about his drinking habits in college. Chad Ludington says the judge was a frequent and heavy drinker and that he mischaracterizes his conduct at Yale in the Senate testimony. Ludington admits he often drank with Kavanaugh. FEC, Ludington made small political contributions to Democratic candidates.
ROMANS: Well, the drinking accusations could be a critical point for Jeff Flake. The Arizona Senator telling "60 minutes," Kavanaugh's nomination is done if he lied to the Judiciary Committee. Flake backed Kavanaugh in the committee vote, but said he would not vote for him on the Senate floor without an FBI investigation.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you doing, sir?
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ROMANS: The decision to bring the process to a halt followed by an emotional confrontation with the two women in the Capitol Hill elevator. The Senator admitting a decision not to run for re-election allowed him to act here.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could you have done this if you were running for re-election?
SEN JEFF FLAKE, (R) ARIZONA: No. Not a chance.
[04:05:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a chance.
FLAKE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because politics has become too sharp?
FLAKE: There's no value to reaching to reaching across the aisle. There's no currency for that anymore. There is no incentive.
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BRIGGS: That we can all agree on. Rachel Mitchell, the sex crimes prosecutor hired by Republicans to question Christine Blasey Ford written a memo saying a reasonable prosecutor would not bring a case against Kavanaugh. She claimed the activities of Congressional Democrats and Dr. Ford's attorneys likely affected Dr. Ford's testimony. She does point out a Senate confirmation hearing is not a trial and especially not a prosecution.
ROMANS: Former FBI Director James Comey calls the one week deadline for the FBI Kavanaugh investigation quote, idiotic. In New York Times op-ed Comey writes he is confident in the bureau's ability to conduct a solemn investigation, but he does not like the idea of putting a shot clock on the FBI. He said, FBI agents know time has very little to do with memory. They know every (inaudible) to remember since the weather on their wedding day, no matter how long ago. Significance drives memory. They also know that little lies point to bigger lies. They know that obvious lies by the nominee about the meaning of words in a year book are a flashing signal to dig deeper.
BRIGGS: With the Kavanaugh nomination in limbo in just 36 days until the midterms, Democrats are using the issue as part of their pitch to voters. Former Vice President Joe Biden rallied the party faithful in providence, Rhode Island last night.
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JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just last week, we witnessed from the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee a degree of invective blind rage and brut partisanship that threatens not only the senate, and the Supreme Court, it threatens the basic faith the American people have on our institutions.
WILLIE NELSON, SINGER: Vote them out when we're done we'll sing and dance and shout
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ROMANS: Vote them out. Country music legend, Willie Nelson debuting a new election theme for rally in Texas, for Senate candidate, Beto O'Rourke, Saturday night. Get this, 55,000 people in attendance, supporting O'Rourke in his race against Senator Ted Cruz. 55,000 in Austin.
BRIGGS: Willie's still got it.
In Florida, Michelle Obama joining in the midterm battle at the voter registration rally on Friday night.
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MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE U.S.: I'm tired of the daily chaos and the pettiness and meanness that too often dominates the political discourse. We are all are. It is exhausting and honestly it is depressing.
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BRIGGS: Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren also said Saturday she will quote, take a hard look at the 2020 run after the midterm elections.
ROMANS: All right. Big win for the President. U.S. and Canada reaching a last-minute deal to revive NAFTA. Keeping the 24-year-old trade pact a three-country deal. The agreement came just hours before the midnight deadline. Canada will join a U.S.-Mexico deal made in August. It is called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement. I guess, goodbye now. It was looking unlikely last week. The top U.S. trade official warn Canada, the U.S. is ready to move along with just Mexico, the negotiators worked all weekend to strike a deal. This is a milestone for President Trump, who vowed to renegotiate NAFTA blaming it for killing American jobs. The U.S. says this new deal will create good well-paying jobs for all North Americans. It is also NAFTA no more. It is now the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement.
BRIGGS: that really rolls up the tongue.
ROMANS: Not the Marine Corps. The U.S. (inaudible).
BRIGGS: Back to 2.0.
ROMANS: And it updates the original 1994 trade pact introducing rules for digital businesses, the merge since, remember, it was a whole industry that did not exist really when this was written. It promises higher wages and labor standards for auto workers and gives U.S. farmers more access to Canada's dairy market. That was a huge taking pint during talks. In return the U.S. will keep a mechanism for resolving disputes that Canada wanted. The deal now faces Congress, unless approve it. Many lawmakers said they would not support a NAFTA without Canada. U.S. businesses rely on duty free trade with America's second largest trading partner.
BRIGGS: All right. Unimaginable devastation this morning in Sulawesi. The death toll on the Indonesia Island climbing to more than 840, two days after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami triggered ferocious 10-foot high waves. One government official warn the final body count could be in the thousands. Rescuers now combing through chunks of concrete and splintered wood hoping to find survivors. CNN's Alexandra Field live in Hong Kong with the latest. Alex, good morning.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dave, this images show near total destruction on parts of this large Indonesian island. The death count now at 844.
[04:10:00] Officials as you point out, certainly expecting that number will rise. Tens of thousands of people are out of their homes. And rescue workers are struggling to reach the people who need help the most. That is because problems of infrastructure and roads that are blocked by landslides and downed bridges and the airport that were shut down over the weekend, because of damages.
They are working to try and bring in more heavy equipment, more fuel that is desperately needed in the search efforts that is going on day and night. They are trying to find people who could still be trapped by debris. Survivors forced to sleep outside. They are afraid of the possibility of aftershocks. Many have lost their homes. So there is a need for mobile kitchens, blankets, tents, food, medicine, all kinds of supplies to keep these people safe.
And the grim reality is that mass graves are already being dug, enough for up to a thousand bodies. Officials again, preparing the death toll to climb. Help very much needed in Indonesia. The government there saying that they will accept international aid offers. There is also coming in now from a number of countries. Certainly a very long road ahead on this island.
BRIGGS: Just stunning pictures. 4:11 p.m. there in Hong Kong. Alexandra Field live for us. Thank you.
ROMANS: The President has growing affection for Kim Jong-un.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And then we fell in love. OK? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters.
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ROMANS: How far is too far with normalizing a dictator? We're live in Seoul.
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ROMANS: All right. President Trump appears to have a crush on Kim Jong-un. And he insist the North Korean leader feels the same way about him.
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TRUMP: I was really being tough and so was he. We are back and forth and then we fell in love. OK? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters. They're great letters. We fell in love.
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ROMANS: Mr. Trump grumbled about being cast un-presidential for describing Kim Jong-un in such glowing terms which begs the question, the President of United States is being played here. Paula Hancocks reporting live from Seoul this morning. Paula, you know, last week remember from the president in a different venue that he said that he had a letter from Kim Jong-un that was a magnificent piece of art which really raise a lot of question about is the president normalizing a brutal dictator, you know, who (inaudible) and concentration camps and keeps its own people down.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Christine. Someone who purges his own elite, who orders the death of his own uncle. So certainly this raised some eyebrows from many North Korean watchers over here. The fact that the U.S. President would speak about him in such terms. The fact is Mr. Trump all the way through the process has been talking about the personal relationship between him and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Focusing less on the exact denuclearization details and exactly what North Korea was willing to giving up.
But we heard just over the weekend, Ri Yong-ho from the North Korea foreign minister speaking at the United Nations general assembly saying that they would not give up their nuclear weapons completely if they did not have trust in the United States. Saying that the U.S. is not giving them the corresponding measures that they are looking for in return for what they say is the early disarmament move.
This has raised questions. We know the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is supposed to be going to Pyongyang at some point this month. Although we don't have exact details on that at this point. But when it comes to North and South Korea, we are seeing some progress there. Some land mines have started to be removed from today. Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Paula, thank you so much for that. You know, it wasn't long ago, Dave, when the Senator named Barack Obama during a campaign talking about meeting with strong men without pre- conditioned. And contributors where just, you know --
BRIGGS: Irate.
ROMANS: Irate, now the is --
BRIGGS: Imagine had Obama said we fell in love with Kim Jong-un.
ROMANS: Yes, oh my gosh.
BRIGGS: Ahead, the Justice Department suing the state of California this hours after the State pass the nation's toughest net neutrality law.
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ROMANS: All right. Breaking overnight. California has just passed the nation's strictest net neutrality law. Internet service provider in the state will be barred from blocking or slowing specific types of contents and apps. And will not be allowed to charge companies for high speed access customers. Just hours after Governor Jerry Brown signed that bill into law, the Justice Department said it is filing suit to block it. It says the state is attempting to subvert the federal government efforts to deregulate the internet. The administration is already battling California in court over emission standards immigration and other issues.
BRIGGS: Las Vegas marking one year since one of the darkest days in American history. It was last October 1st when a gunman opened fire at the concert attending the route 91 harvest music festival on the Las Vegas strip. 58 people were killed, more than 500 others injured. Remember this is our plan throughout the day today and including 58 seconds of silence in the sunrise ceremony. The strip will go dark at 10:05 tonight. The moment the attack unfolded. There is also a reading of the names ceremony to Las Vegas healing garden, authorities have yet to uncover the gunman's motive for the shooting.
ROMANS: A Las Vegas woman is publicly accusing soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo of rape. Kathryn Mayorga, claimed the attack took place in a Las Vegas hotel in 2009. In her lawsuit, Mayorga alleges Ronaldo apologized afterwards. Mayorga accuses the Ronaldo and his team of forcing her to sign a settlement and a nondisclosure agreement to claim that she received $375,000 in exchange for her silence. The lawsuit keeps to voids the settlement and agreement. In an Instagram post, Ronaldo called the allegation, fake news.
BRIGGS: After 162 regular season games, not one, but two difficult divisions, the national league are still up for grabs in major league baseball. So, two tie breakers games will be played today, the Chicago Cubs will host the Milwaukee Brewers to decide the N.L. Central champion in the Colorado Rockies will travel to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers with the west title on the line. The two losing teams will face each other in a wild card game tomorrow night. Milwaukee or Chicago. The two winners this afternoon advance directly to the N.L. division series.
[04:25:02] ROMANS: All right. "Saturday night live" back for season number 44. It is Kanye West performance dressed as a Perrier bottle. He's rant at the end of the show raise the bar wearing a MAGA hat. West defended his support for President Trump. The comments were not heard on air, but they were captured by comedian Chris Rock who posted the video to Instagram.
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KANYE WEST, HIP-HOP STAR: Plan to take them out and promote guns. So many times I talked to a white person about this and how did you like Trump? He is racist. And if I'm going to talk about racism, I would have moved there a long time ago.
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ROMANS: We will put words up on the screen the next time we show you. He is basically supporting Trump and ranting about racism and saying that is right. The Democratic power structure has caused racism.
BRIGGS: I frankly could not hear much.
ROMANS: The stage greeted with the mix of boos and cheers. And on Sunday the President fired off on tweet, West said in part, African- American unemployment is now the lowest number in history. Democrats have done nothing for African-Americans, but talk.
BRIGGS: A lot of headlines went to Matt Damon for the Judge Kavanaugh impersonation. We will show you that. I thought it was hysterical if they would have cut it off. It just went on too long.
ROMANS: We will show you that, it is coming up too.
BRIGGS: It is going to be another long week of waiting for that man. Brett Kavanaugh. The White House now looking to limit the scope of the FBI's new investigation. So will the new probe prove to be a sham?
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