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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
President Praises Congressman's Attack on Reporters; Close Call for Top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired October 19, 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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[04:00:12] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Any guy that can do a body slam, he's my kind of guy.
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DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The president praises a congressman for assaulting a reporter as the world waits for answers on a journalist presumed murdered by the Saudis.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: John Kelly and John Bolton in a screaming match in the West Wing. The pair squared off over border crossing that had the president threatening to shutdown the border.
BRIGGS: And the Boston Red Sox headed back to the World Series. The Sox's fourth trip to the fall classic since 2004.
ROMANS: Look at the little guy.
BRIGGS: We'll find out tonight who they play, Dodgers or Brewers, when we also find out who could win nearly $1 billion. Happy Megabillions Friday.
Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday, October 19th. Nice to see you this morning. It is Friday -- it bears repeating. It is Friday.
BRIGGS: Yes. We like to breathe that in for a moment.
ROMANS: I know. We really do. All right. It's 4:00 a.m. in the East. Let's begin here.
The body of Jamal Khashoggi allegedly tortured and dismembered has yet to be found. With that story topping headlines around the world the president decided last night to praise Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte for assaulting a reporter from "The Guardian" newspaper in 2017.
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TRUMP: Greg is smart. And by the way, never wrestle him. You understand? Never. (CHEERS)
TRUMP: Any guy that can do a body slam, he's my kind. I had heard that he body-slammed a reporter.
(CHEERS)
TRUMP: And I said, oh, this is terrible. He's going to lose the election. Then I said well, wait a minute. I know Montana pretty well. I think it might help him, and it did.
(CHEERS)
TRUMP: No, he's a great guy. Tough cookie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The editor of "The Guardian" not amused. John Mulholland said, quote, "It runs the risk of inviting other assaults on journalists both here and across the world. Here a reminder of what Gianforte did to "The Guardians'" Ben Jacobs.
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BEN JACOBS, REPORTER, THE GUARDIAN: Yes, but there's not going to be time. I'm just curious that right now.
REP. GREG GIANFORTE (R), MONTANA: OK, speak with Shane, please.
I'm sick and tired of you guys. The last time you came in here, you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here.
JACOBS: Jesus --
GIANFORTE: Get the hell out of here. The last guy did that same thing. Are you with "The Guardian"?
JACOBS: Yes, and you just broke my glasses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: So the president stands by Gianforte for that 2017 assault, capping off a week where he refused to criticize another ally accused of attacking a journalist -- murdering a journalist, the Saudis. In a slight hedge, the president tells the "New York Times" he is confident in the intel report suggesting a Saudi role, but he's waiting for the results of investigations by Saudi Arabia and Turkey following the lead of two key advisers.
BRIGGS: Jared Kushner, who has close ties with the Saudis, urging the president to move slowly. Two sources tell CNN Kushner is warning his father-in-law, the president, against being pressured into a quick decision on Khashoggi.
Another voice in that camp, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He briefed the president on his trip to Ankara and Riyadh and then said this.
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MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so that we, too, have a complete understanding of the facts surrounding that.
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BRIGGS: "The Washington Post" reporting that hardlined Republican lawmakers and commentators are mounting a whispering campaign against Khashoggi aimed at protecting the president from criticism.
The "Post" says conservatives have privately exchanged right-wing articles that highlight decades-old assertions about Khashoggi's connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and raised conspiracy theories about his work as a reporter covering Osama bin Laden.
ROMANS: All right. A former Saudi diplomat is emerging as a key figure in the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi. According to a source who is familiar with the Turkish investigation, Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, now a Saudi intelligence officer, was fully aware of the operation.
Mutreb is described as a kernel in Saudi intelligence with close connections to -- you see it there -- with the Crown Prince bin Salman. CNN has learned Turkish officials suspected Khashoggi had been killed within hours of his disappearance. Turkish intelligence officials even raced to the Istanbul airport where a private Saudi plane was waiting to take off in an attempt to find out whether the journalist had been abducted.
BRIGGS: Overnight, Secretary of State Pompeo denied an ABC News report that Turkish officials played him an audio recording and showed him a transcript of Khashoggi's apparent murder.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will not, meanwhile, participate in a high-profile investor conference in Saudi Arabia amid the growing controversy.
[04:05:08] The chief factor was the withdrawal of several of Mnuchin's European counterparts. FOX Business Network, the lone remaining media partner in the conference, also dropped out on Thursday.
ROMANS: All right. Last night at that Montana rally, the president framed the midterm elections this way. Democrats create mobs. Republicans create jobs. He also took a shot at Senator Elizabeth Warren blasting his potential 2020 rival for the DNA test she recently made public.
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TRUMP: The only good thing she did, I think she's probably disqualified because she made a fool out of herself. But I think the only good thing she did, I can't call her Pocahontas anymore. She has so little Indian but she has none. But I cannot call her Pocahontas anymore. But if you don't mind, I'll continue. Do you mind?
(CHEERS)
TRUMP: Because it will show everybody what a phony she is.
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ROMANS: Senator Warren's DNA test reveals she is between 1/32nd and 1/1000 Native American.
BRIGGS: With just 18 days to go before the midterms, two key Democrats running for Senate are trying to distance themselves from their own parties. Listen to this campaign ad for Indiana incumbent Joe Donnelly. He sounds like he is checking off the Republican Party's talking points.
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SEN. JOE DONNELLY (D), INDIANA: I split with my own party to support funding for Trump's border wall. The liberal left wants to chop Defense spending. No way.
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ROMANS: In Arizona Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema admits she doesn't like to mention her party affiliation in her ads.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you a Democrat?
KRYSTEN SINEMA (D), ARIZONA SENATE CANDIDATE: I am.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A proud Democrat?
SINEMA: Oh, gosh. It's hard to say proud. I don't want that word. I'm not sure that people are even proud of parties anymore because I feel like the parties are -- they're not doing a good job.
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ROMANS: "I'm not sure people are proud of parties anymore."
BRIGGS: Wow.
ROMANS: The latest forecast from CNN's Harry Enten has Donnelly defeating Mike Brown by five points, and Sinema flipping Jeff Flake's beating Martha McSally by one point.
BRIGGS: Surprising stuff there.
Internal watchdog report finds Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his wife Lola violated the department's government travel policy. According to the Interior inspector general, Zinke allowed his wife to travel with him in federal vehicles and tried to side-stepped the rules by making her a volunteer at the agency. Volunteers travel free on the taxpayers' dime. Some Interior employees say they felt pressured to designate Mrs. Zinke as a volunteer and raised concerns. Secretary Zinke denies trying to skirt government regulations, but he has reimbursed the government for his wife's travel.
ROMANS: Internal government e-mails show President Trump was more closely involved than had been known. Scrapping plans to move the FBI out of the decaying Hoover Building to Washington suburbs. The decision may benefit the president financially. His hotel is a block away and could have ended in competition with any hotel built on the old FBI site. Documents released by House Democrats cite e-mails from the General Services Administration.
In one a top GSA official described the headquarters as, quote, "What POTUS," the president, "directed everyone to do." The GSA said in a statement that the e-mails were taken out of context.
BRIGGS: A heated argument in the West Wing between two of the presidents' top aides. Sources telling CNN Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Adviser John Bolton got into a loud shouting match over a recent surge in border crossings. The president irritated by the increase and is threatening to shut down the southern border on Twitter. Bolton favors a more hardlined approach to immigration and has criticized Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who used to serve as Kelly's deputy when he ran the department. We're told the president took Bolton's side in the argument.
ROMANS: All right. Outgoing U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley drawing the biggest laugh of the night at the Annual Alfred E. Smith Dinner in New York. Haley was the featured speaker at the fundraiser for Catholic charities, and she was a hit.
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NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Two years ago, President Trump was here and he made some waves with his remarks. Apparently no one here could have predicted that. So last year --
(LAUGHTER)
HALEY: Last year you went with Paul Ryan, who's a Boy Scout, and that's fine, but a little boring.
(LAUGHTER)
HALEY: So this year you wanted to spice things up again, right? I get it. You wanted an Indian women. But Elizabeth Warren failed her DNA test.
(LAUGHTER)
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ROMANS: Haley ended her remarks on a more serious note.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HALEY: In our toxic political environment, I've heard some people in both parties describe their opponents as enemies or evil. In America, our political opponents are not evil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Remember the president called Democrats evil during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation.
BRIGGS: The Boston Red Sox headed back to the World Series.
[04:10:01] A big three-run homerun in the sixth inning by Rafael Devers and six stellar shocking scoreless innings from starter David Price's first ever post-season win, drifting the Red Sox to a 4-1 victory over the defending Houston Astros in Game 5 of the ALCS. Again, Price's first post-season win in 12 opportunities. Boston now 5-0 on the road in October.
Game one of the World Series Tuesday night at Fenway. The Sox will face either the Dodgers or Brewers who square off tonight in Game 6 of the NLCS. L.A. leads three games to 2.
And that young man is very, very happy this morning.
ROMANS: Yes. I love that little guy.
All right. Very close call in America's longest war. A top U.S. commander in Afghanistan escapes injury in an insider attack that killed a powerful police chief. More from Pentagon next.
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[04:15:03] ROMANS: The volatility is back on Wall Street. Concerns about Saudi Arabia and global growth dragging down stocks around the world.
You know, this has been a rough October for the stock market. The Dow lost another 300 points yesterday. So now damage report you've got the Dow down about 4 percent this month. The Nasdaq fell another 2 percent bringing its October losses to 7 percent. High-value tech stocks like Netflix, Facebook and Amazon, they've been pretty hit hard here. Selling yesterday accelerated after the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin backed out of that conference in Saudi Arabia and no other U.S. officials will attend.
But global investors have a long list of worries. They've got rising interest rates. That hurts corporate profit but also raises mortgage rates, home-building stocks took a dive yesterday and of course there's that U.S.-China trade war. In fact China's economy is growing at the slowest pace since of the financial crisis. 6.5 percent growth in the third quarter.
China's economy faces loads of debt and pressure from U.S. tariffs. So far the U.S. has targeted $250 billion in Chinese goods, but threatens all Chinese exports. That's worth more than $500 billion. Right now at this hour global stocks are mostly higher. So we'll see if there's a bounce back on a Friday.
BRIGGS: OK. A stunning breach of security in Afghanistan. The top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan narrowly escapes injury on an insider attack on local police. A powerful Afghan police chief was killed in the attack.
CNN's Ryan Browne has the latest from the Pentagon.
RYAN BROWNE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Dave.
A senior Afghan police chief and critical U.S. ally was killed in an insider attack in a government compound in Kandahar yesterday. Now this attack took place while just after the senior Afghan official was meeting with the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller, who was not injured in the attack but two Americans were wounded. A U.S. service member and a U.S. civilian government employee. A coalition contractor was also wounded in the attack.
Now U.S. troops were able to kill the assailant but the Taliban claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt. And the assassination of a key U.S. ally as Afghanistan readies for elections this month raises questions about the country's ability to ensure security and stability as the U.S. seeks to transfer full security responsibility to the Afghanistan government.
Back to you, guys.
ROMANS: All right. Ryan, thank you so much for that.
All right. Who has it tougher? A congressman or a prison inmate? One congressman's remarks might surprise you.
BRIGGS: And LeBron James makes his Lakers debut, but did the Lakers get a win? We'll find out next.
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[04:22:10] BRIGGS: A curious comment from Republican Congressman Dave Brat who stopped by a Virginia jail Wednesday to speak with inmates about addiction. In an audio obtained by the "Washington Post" Brat took parallels between the campaign attack ads against him and the challenges inmates face. Listen.
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REP. DAVE BRAT (R), VIRGINIA: You think you're having a hard time. I got $5 million worth of negative ads going at me. How do you think I'm feeling? Nothing's easy. For anybody. You think I'm a congressman, oh, life's easy. This guy's off having steaks. Baloney, I got a daughter. She's got to deal with that crap on TV every day. All right? So it's tough.
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BRIGGS: Moments later, he told the inmates he is not dismissing the fact that they do have it tougher. His Democratic opponent Abigail Spanberger called Brat's comments, quote, "disturbing and damaging."
ROMANS: The Justice Department issuing subpoenas to at least seven of the eight Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania. Part of an ongoing investigation into priest sex abuse. Advocates for survivors say this is the first federal probe of this size and scope into sex abuse by the American Catholic clergy. A Pennsylvania grand jury reports on credible evidence that 301 predator priests abused more than 1,000 children in six dioceses since 1947.
The Justice Department also subpoenaed the Buffalo diocese seeking information about pornography, taking victims across state lines and inappropriate use of cell phones and social media.
BRIGGS: The former president of USA Gymnastics discussed a possible job offer with the FBI agent investigating sexual abuse allegations against Larry Nassar. The "New York Times" reports Steve Penny talked with Agent Jay Abbott about a top security job at the U.S. Olympic Committee. Penny's lawyers tell the "Times" his client thought Abbott was not on the case -- the Nassar case and denies any conflict of interest. The "Times" also reports Penny e-mailed FBI employees to get their take on how to word public statements about the investigation. Penny was arrested Wednesday for alleged evidence tampering in the Nassar probe.
ROMANS: A new study out this morning finds car crashes up as much as 6 percent in some of the first states to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Highway Loss Data Institute reveals accidents are up in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington compared to neighboring states that have not legalized recreational pot. The findings come as campaigns to decriminalize marijuana gained traction in the U.S.
Weed was legalized nationwide in Canada on Wednesday. It took just one hour for Winnipeg police to issue a ticket for driving and toking.
BRIGGS: Forecasters say a mild winter could be in store for much of the U.S. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says states from the Pacific Northwest through the northern plains and into the northeast likely to see above-average temperatures. No parts of the country expected to see a colder than normal winter.
[04:25:06] The winter forecast is largely on the 75 percent chance the El Nino event warms the eastern Pacific Ocean and lasts through the season.
ROMANS: Throw some more money in that office pool. Megamillions Jackpot is up to $970 million. Cash option $549 million. That's the largest Megamillions pot ever. The jackpot has been building since July 24th. The drawing is at 11:00 p.m. Eastern tonight.
BRIGGS: Amen.
The LeBron James era for the Lakers begins with the bit of a thud. The former Cavalier did put on a show, though, 26 points and 12 rebounds in his first game with L.A. but the Portland Trailblazers prevailed 128-119. Damien Millard got 28 points as Portland won its 18th straight home opener, extending an NBA record and as you might expect, Paul Allen honored throughout the arena.
ROMANS: Oh that's right.
BRIGGS: And on the jerseys of the Blazers as they will be throughout this year.
ROMANS: Right.
All right. Now the world waits for some answers on a journalist presumed murdered by the Saudis. The president of the United States praises a congressman for his assault of a reporter.
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