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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
White House Limits Scope of Kavanaugh Probe; Feinstein Demands White House Reveal Parameters Given to FBI; Kavanaugh's Yale Classmate Says He did not Tell the Truth About His Drinking Habits; Former FBI Director Confident the Bureau is Up to the Task of Investigating Kavanaugh and Ford; Democrats Raise Kavanaugh as Midterm Issue; U.S. and Canada Reach Last-Minute NAFTA Deal; Eight Hundred and Forty Four Dead as Earthquake and Tsunami Leave Island of Sulawesi in Indonesia Devastated; Trump Says He and Kim Jong-un "Fell in Love" After Sending Each Other "Beautiful Letters"; Iran Fires Missiles into Syria; California Passes Strict Net Neutrality Law; Las Vegas Marks One Year Since Shooting Massacre; A Las Vegas Woman Files Lawsuit Against Soccer Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo; Trubisky Throws Six Touchdowns as Bears Crush Bucs; Seahawks Safety Earl Thomas Breaks His Leg; LeBron James Makes Lakers Debut; MLB Cubs, Brewers, Dodgers and Rockies All Win, Force Games 163. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 01, 2018 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00] DAVE BRIGGS, CO-HOST, EARLY START: The scope of the probe which -- based in the FBI investigation into allegations of sexual wrongdoing by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is narrowly focused. Sources briefed on the matter said 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".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO DONALD TRUMP: But it will be limited in scope, it's meant to last one week, I believe beginning last Friday. And it was not meant to be a fishing expedition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, EARLY START: A source says Kavanaugh's drinking history is not a 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 an accusation Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party while they were at Yale, a claim Kavanaugh quickly denied.
BRIGGS: President Trump for his part says the FBI has free reign, tweeting yesterday. "Democrats who are only thinking of obstruct and delay are starting to put out the word that the time and scope of FBI looking into Judge Kavanaugh and witnesses is not enough.
Hello, for them it will never been enough." Now the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee wants the White House to explain exactly what marching orders it gave to the FBI. Cnn's Boris Sanchez with the latest from the White House.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, the ranking Democrat on 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 this FBI probe into Judge Brett Kavanaugh in accusations that he acted inappropriately during a party back in the Summer of 1982.
Feinstein saying, well, the stakes are simply too high. She is essentially responding to a reporting by Cnn and other outlets, sources that 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.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D), MINNESOTA: And while the White House decides who to nominate and then that person is submitted to a background check, I've never heard that the White House either under this president or other presidents is saying, well, you can't interview this person, you can't look at this time period. You can only look at these people from one side of the street from when they were growing up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: 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, though, 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 and what questions could or could not be asked. Dave and Christine.
BRIGGS: Boris Sanchez at the White House. 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 his Senate testimony.
Ludington admits he often drank with Kavanaugh. FEC filings show Ludington made small contributions to Democratic candidates.
ROMANS: 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.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you doing, sir? (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Flake's decision to bring the decision to a halt followed this emotional confrontation with two women survivors in a Capitol Hill elevator.
BRIGGS: Former FBI Director James Comey calls the one week deadline for the FBI's Kavanaugh investigation, quote, "idiotic". In a "New York Times" op-ed, Comey writes he is confident in the bureau's ability to conduct a solid investigation, but he does not like the idea of putting a shot clock on the FBI.
He says "FBI agents know time has very little to do with memory. They know every married person remembers 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 the words in a year book are a flashing signal to dig deeper."
ROMANS: With the Kavanaugh nomination in limbo in just 36 days until the mid-terms, Democrats are using the issue as part of their pitch to voters. Former Vice President Joe Biden rallied the party faithful in Providence last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF JOE BIDEN: Just last week, we witnessed from the Republicans on the 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.
(SINGING)
WILLIE NELSON, MUSICIAN: If you don't like who's in there, vote them out, vote them out, vote them out, and when we're done we'll sing and dance and shout.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:05:00] BRIGGS: Vote them out, country music legend Willie Nelson debuting a new election themed "Number" in a rally in Texas for a Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke Saturday night, 55,000 people in attendance supporting O'Rourke in his race against Senator Ted Cruz.
In Florida, Michelle Obama joining in Democrats mid-term battle at a voter registration rally Friday night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: I am tired of the daily chaos, the pettiness, the meanness that too often dominates the political discourse. We all are. It is exhausting and honestly it is depressing.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: And this from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: And on November 6th, I will take a hard look at running for president.
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Warren said it's time for women to go Washington and fix our broken government.
ROMANS: All right, a big win for President Trump's trade agenda. The U.S. and Canada reaching a last-minute deal to revive NAFTA, keeping the 24-year-old trade pact a three-country deal. This came just hours before a midnight deadline. Canada will join the U.S.-Mexico deal made in August.
It was looking unlikely last week. The top U.S. trade official warned Canada, the U.S. was ready to move ahead with just Mexico. But 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.
U.S. says this new deal will create good, well-paying jobs for all North Americans. It's also NAFTA no more, it's now the United States, Mexico, Canada agreement, and updates the original 1994 trade pact that introduces new rules for digital businesses, and businesses that didn't exist when NAFTA was forged.
It promises higher wages and labor standards for auto workers and gives U.S. farmers more access to Canada's dairy markets, that was a huge sticking point during talks. In return, the U.S. will keep a mechanism for resolving trade disputes, that was really something that Canada really wanted.
The deal now faces Congress who must 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: Unimaginable devastation in Sulawesi, Indonesia. The death toll on the Indonesian island climbing to more 840, that's two days after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami triggered ferocious ten- foot high waves. One government official warning 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 in Hong Kong with the latest. Alex, good morning.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dave, those images simply devastating. We're talking about 2.4 million people affected. Entire communities flattened and while the current death toll does stand at 844, officials certainly expect that number to climb. And that's because they're still having difficulty reaching some of the hardest hit areas.
They have dug mass graves for as many as a thousand bodies right now. They are working desperately day and night to find people who may be trapped under debris, who may still be alive following that earthquake and the tsunami that it triggered. But this is difficult work.
The locations are hard to reach, that's because roads are blocked by landslides, an airport was shut down over the weekend, bridges are down, it's been tough to be able to bring in the heavy equipment that's needed to sift through the debris here.
There's also a need for fuel. We know that nearly 50,000 people are displaced from their homes. Those who haven't lost their homes are sleeping outside because they are worried about the after-shocks. Officials say that there is urgent and desperate need for not just fuel, but also food, medicine and supplies like tents and blankets for all the people who are now living outside.
They are waiting for more help to arrive, international offers are pouring in. Indonesia's government says it will be accepting help. And certainly, they need help right now. So many people affected, circumstances looking so very dire now, Dave.
BRIGGS: Just devastating images. Alex, thank you.
ROMANS: All right, the president of the United States has some growing affection for Kim Jong-un.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And then we fell in love, OK? No, really, he wrote me beautiful letters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: How far is too far with normalizing a dictator? We're live in Seoul.
[05:10:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right, President Trump appears to have a crush on Kim Jong-un, and he insists the North Korean leader feels the same way about him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I was really being tough and so was he. And we'll go back and forth, and then we fell in love, OK?
(LAUGHTER)
No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters and they're great letters. We fell in love.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Mr. Trump then grumbled about being a cast an unpresidential
for describing Kim in such glowing terms, which begs the question, is the president of the United States being played? Paula Hancocks reporting live from Seoul this morning.
It is not just a one-off where you got, you know, excited at the rally and went on this tangent of being in love with Kim Jong-un. He said last week in a press conference, he said that Kim Jong-un has been writing him -- sent him a letter that was a magnificent piece of art. What's the view from the Korean Peninsula?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, there are certainly some raised eyebrows here from that speech at the campaign rally. Not least because Kim Jong-un is a dictator, he has a very bad human rights record.
He has purged a number of the elite within Pyongyang, in fact, including ordering the execution of his own uncle. So certainly, when you hear a U.S. president speaking in these terms of the North Korean leader, it is going to raise eyebrows.
[05:15:00] We have heard though, Mr. Trump using the personal relationship between him and the North Korean leader far more than necessarily, focusing on the exact step-by-step denuclearization process. So certainly some North Korean experts here are questioning whether or not the North Korean leader is playing the U.S. president by writing these letters.
Does he know exactly what he is doing and knows exactly how to gain what he wants? We have heard though over the weekend from Ri-Yong-ho; the North Korean Foreign Minister speaking at the U.N. General Assembly, saying that North Koreans still want those corresponding measures from the U.S. and they won't give up the nuclear weapons unless they trust them. Christine?
ROMANS: It's just all so fascinating, I mean, it wasn't long ago that President elected of the United States Barack Obama was talking about meeting without pre-conditions with some of the world's biggest dictators he was called naive and Un-American.
Now, we have President of the United States in love with Kim Jong-un. Paula, thank you so much.
BRIGGS: Breaking overnight. Iran said to have launched six ballistic missiles into eastern Syria, targeting militants allegedly involved in last month's attack on a military parade in Ahvaz. Our Barbara Starr reportedly last week, "U.S. intelligence was concerned about this kind of strike and the threat of Iran hitting U.S. forces in Syria.
The missiles had death to America, death to Israel and death to Saudi Arabia written on them. Iran blamed the U.S. regional allies for the parade attack. Though an anti-government group and ISIS claimed responsibility.
Coming up, the Seattle Seahawks lost a game, lost their all-pro safety and lost their winning chemistry. He saluted the Seahawks in an interesting way. Andy Scholes tells us about that in the "BLEACHER REPORT" next.
[05:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Breaking overnight, California has just passed the nation's strictest net neutrality law. Internet service providers in the state will be barred from blocking or slowing specific types of content and apps, will not be allowed to charge companies for high speed access to customers.
Just hours after Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law, the Justice Department said it is filing suit to block it. DOJ says the state is attempting to subvert the federal government's 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 October 1st last year when a gunman opened fire at a concert, the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on the Vegas Strip. Fifty eight people were killed, more than 500 others injured.
Remembrances are planned throughout the day today, including 58 seconds of silence in a sunrise ceremony. Marquees will go dark along the strip at 10:05 tonight, the moment the attack unfolded. Authorities have yet to uncover the gunman's motive for that shooting.
ROMANS: A Las Vegas woman is publicly accusing soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo of rape. Kathryn Mayorga claims the attack took place in a Las Vegas hotel in 2009. In her lawsuit, Mayorga alleges Ronaldo apologized afterwards. Mayorga accuses Ronaldo and his team of coercing her into signing a settlement and non-disclosure agreement.
She claims she received $375,000 in exchange for her silence. Her lawsuit seeks to void the settlement and agreement. In an Instagram post, Ronaldo called the allegation "fake news".
BRIGGS: Well, the first quarter of the NFL season is in the books, and the Chicago Bears look like they might just be a contender. Andy Scholes has more in the "BLEACHER REPORT". Scholes, looking like the '85 Bears yesterday.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: They certainly looked pretty good, Dave. You know, they were hosting the Boston -- I mean, this was an old fashion beat-down. Now, for the first time in five years, Chicago is off to a 3-1 start to the season.
Their quarterback Mitch Trubisky, well, he couldn't do wrong yesterday, he threw for five touchdowns in the first half alone. He finished with six in the game, the Bears just absolutely rolling the Bucs 48-10. And afterwards, Tampa Bay's head coach Dirk Koetter, well, he didn't make any excuses.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DIRK KOETTER, COACH, TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS: Based on that game today, we couldn't make enough changes. We should fire every person that was on that field today, starting with me, that was horrific.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: All right, the Seahawks beat the Cardinals yesterday, but in the process, they lost all pro safety Earl Thomas to a broken leg. Now, Thomas had held out all off season for a new contract or a trade. He was even skipping practices to try to make sure he stayed healthy to get a new deal next season.
Well, he was clearly upset at getting injured. As he was getting carted off the field yesterday after his injury, Thomas giving the Seahawks bench the middle finger. Thomas did not speak with the media after the game.
All right, LeBron making his Lakers debut last night, in the first quarter, looks like he already had some chemistry with his new teammates, nice, no-look bounce pass to Brandon Ingram for the slam. LeBron, he had 9 points in just 15 minutes of action. He's going to make his Lakers home debut tonight or tomorrow night, that is, that game can be seen on our sister network "Tnt".
All right, 162 games was not enough for the Cubs-Brewers, Dodgers and Rockies. They'll be squaring off in game 163 today. The Cubs and Brewers are going to take the field at 1:00 Eastern with the NL Central title on the line. The Dodgers and Rockies are going to follow that game as they play for the NL West.
The losers from these two games will then play Tuesday in the National League Wild Card game. And Dave, I know, you're a big Rockies fan.
[05:25:00] BRIGGS: Perfect --
SCHOLES: You don't want to lose today and then have to play in the Wild Card game just to get into the division series. Because that seems like that will be quite taxing on your --
BRIGGS: Yes --
SCHOLES: Pitching staff.
BRIGGS: You got that right, it is devastating for the two teams that lose today. A really tough road ahead. Andy Scholes, it should be a fun and historic day though in baseball, thank you my friend.
SCHOLES: All right --
BRIGGS: Romans, over to you.
ROMANS: Sorry, I missed that Bears game, I go bed too soon. I knew --
(CROSSTALK)
Monday morning --
BRIGGS: Yes, you missed a good one -- ROMANS: I never know what's going on, all right, thanks. Sarah
Sanders says the White House is not micro-managing the FBI's investigation of Brett Kavanaugh. But Cnn learned the White House is looking to narrow the focus. Can both be true?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONWAY: Though, it is not meant to be a fishing expedition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The White House narrowing --
END
