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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
44 Killed in California; "Ramp Down the Rhetoric"; WashPost: Trump to Remove Nielsen; Dow Drops 602 Points. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired November 13, 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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[04:00:13] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's our house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that yours?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's mine. That's ours. Gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gone?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Wildfires in California now claiming 44 lives, the deadliest and most destructive in state's history.
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GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: He's just a pure sore loser trying to steal election.
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DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Recount in Florida getting nasty as the judge calls on both sides to ramp down the rhetoric.
ROMANS: "The Washington Post" reporting that Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen could be fired as soon as this week. Why President Trump apparently wants her out.
BRIGGS: And the Dow dropping more than 600 on points on Monday. President Trump blaming Democrats for the drop. We'll breakdown what's really behind it.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Tuesday, November 13th. Good morning, everyone. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.
We begin in California where the death toll continues to rise. Forty- four people now killed in wildfires statewide. In northern California, 42 people have died in the Camp Fire, making it the deadliest wildfire in state history. More than 7,000 buildings destroyed. Fire officials say the Camp Fire has burned 117,000 acres. They it is 30 percent contained.
BRIGGS: In southern California, 57,000 structures threatened by the Woolsey Fire, which has grown to more than 93,000 acres, also 30 percent contained and has killed two people.
CNN's Nick Watt has more from Malibu which has been devastated by the Woolsey Fire.
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NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, the death toll at the Camp Fire in northern California has risen to 42. Thirteen more bodies were found on Monday. Now, ten of the bodies that were found on Monday were found in the little town of Paradise, once home to 26,000 people, almost completely blown, burned off the map by that fire.
And sadly, the death toll up there could rise even further. The sheriff has called for more search and rescue teams to come in Tuesday, along with cadaver dogs to try to find more of the missing.
The last we heard, there are 100 people are still missing. But that doesn't mean they're all dead. A lot of people go missing because of cell service drops. So, we are waiting, hoping that figure doesn't rise, but fearing the worst. Now, the winds up there in northern California have died down a little bit, down where we are in Malibu in southern California, the so-called Woolsey Fire, the winds here are still whipping and they will continue those Santa Ana winds through Tuesday and Wednesday into places, but on Friday, they're going to change direction and bring some much needed humidity in from the ocean.
Dave and Christine, back to you.
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BRIGGS: All right. Nick Watt, thank you.
For more on what is done to control the fires burning in Southern California, we're joined on the phone by L.A. County Fire Captain Tony Imbrenda. He's a department spokesman.
Thanks for joining us Tony.
Our heart goes out to you and the community. We know this is a difficult ordeal. If you could update us on the containment on the efforts to find those still missing.
CAPT. TONY IMBRENDA, LA. COUNTY FIRE DEPT (via telephone): Well, we are on the Woolsey Fire here. Sir, so we are not in a situation where people are missing. All people have been accounted for with our fire. We are at an excess of 93,000 acres, 30 percent containment and approximately 435 structures destroyed. That number is skill climbing.
We have damage assessment teams working into the area. But we have a lot of issues with pass ability of roads because of power lines are down and debris in the roadways of falling rocks and whatnot.
ROMANS: This is a Santa Ana-wind driven event, right? You've got these winds just whipping this through and it's moving pretty quickly.
IMBRENDA: Yes. That's the case. This fire is being driven by wind. That's the primary driver. Fires -- wildfires are driven by either fuel, topography, or wind. And wind is definitely the one that's giving us the issues here. It has been sustained Santa Ana condition for a number of days and it causes a lot of issues because we have ember casts ahead of the fire in addition to spotting which causes unpredictability of where the fires are going to start and when it does start, we have extremely rapid rates of spread and aggressive fire behavior.
BRIGGS: The images we are seeing are just devastating. A lot of people that don't leave in California here on the coast wonder what is happening to the people who have been killed by these fires.
[04:05:03] What types of warnings and how far ahead of time are people warned and are they heeding these warnings to evacuate?
IMBRENDA: Well, I can't speak to the high number of fatalities in the northern California fire. We have not had that down here in the Woolsey Fire.
We are very aggressive in our evacuation orders. We are blessed here in southern California and throughout the state of California actually. We have fire command that is very, very experienced. We have many wildfires that occur in this area throughout the year and throughout history. And we have pretty good ability to predict wind events, and we pre-positioned resources and strike teams in areas to interface to be able to put a lot of resources on a fire when we he fire weather, because we understand if there is an ignition, we have rapid rate of spread and fires can get very large in a very short period of time.
ROMANS: Captain Tony Imbrenda, L.A. County Department, thank you so much, sir. And best of luck as you battle the Woolsey blaze -- thank you.
BRIGGS: Yes, they're high wind warning today. OK. The lawsuits are mounting and accusations are flying in Florida's chaotic election recount. Officials are now scrambling to get every vote counted by Thursday's deadline as the race for Senate gets even uglier by the hour.
Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Bill Nelson blasting one another.
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SCOTT: What Bill Nelson needs to do now is what he is asking me to do if I have lost an election is, look, you know, the election happened. Let's go forward. But he is not. He is a pure sore loser trying to steal an election.
SEN. BILL NELSON (D), FLORIDA: Rick Scott isn't interested in making sure every lawful vote is counted. And the second is he is using his power as governor to try to undermine the voting process.
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BRIGGS: Now, a Florida judge is warning both sides to ramp down the rhetoric. Republicans, including Scott and President Trump, still alleging fraud in the election process without offering any evidence and despite repeated denials from the Department of State in Florida and law enforcement community there.
The president actually suggesting in a tweet an honest vote is no longer possible. Ballots massively infected. Must go with election night.
ROMANS: In the Florida governor's race, Democrat Andrew Gillum continues to call for every vote to be counted. His rival, Republican Ron DeSantis, is staying under the radar.
Ryan Nobles has more from Tallahassee.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, here in Leon County, which is where Tallahassee, the state capital resides, they expect to have the counting wrapped up on Tuesday. Now, each one of Florida's 75 counties operates just a little bit different. But most counties are confident they will have all 8.5 million ballots recounted at least in that U.S. Senate race.
And that U.S. Senate race is the one getting the most attention. That's because the margin between Rick Scott and Bill Nelson is tight, 12,500 votes separate the two. And that's why there are so many people focused on it. Democrats believe they have the chance to flip the race from one hand to another.
Now, while there is a lot of focus on the vote counting, there is another battle playing out in the courtroom. Lawsuits filed by both sides in the past couple days, including the lawsuit filed on Monday by the League of Women Voters. It's a lawsuit that's going to attempt to compel Rick Scott and his capacity as governor to step away from the recount process, recuse himself.
And Scott has been very aggressive on that front. He has actually instructed the Attorney General Pam Bondi to get involved. He's also asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate any potential claims of fraud or criminal activity of which the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has said they have not found any as of yet.
The next big thing we're waiting for, though, is Wednesday. That's when a significant court hearing takes place. The Democrat Bill Nelson filing a lawsuit to get clarification on how to handle the adjudication of some provisional and mail-in ballots. That has the potential to impact as many s 20,000 votes. So, that will be an important court hearing that will be waiting for on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the vote continues as we wait to figure out who the next U.S. senator and governor is from Florida -- Dave and Christine.
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BRIGGS: Yes, we do. Ryan, thanks.
Six days after the midterm election, a big win for Democrats. Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema defeating Martha McSally in the Arizona Senate race. Sinema, the first female senator from Arizona, flipping a seat that had been in GOP hands for more than two decades. She also becomes the first openly bisexual member of the U.S. Senate, period.
McSally conceded the race Monday night, congratulating Sinema in a video message on Twitter, not claiming fraud. The victory means among the races settled, the Senate will have 51 Republicans and 47 Democrats in the new Congress.
[04:10:05] ROMANS: All right. Monday saw a sharp decline on Wall Street. President Trump blaming Democrats and their impending control of the House. The Dow fell 2.3 percent on Monday. That's more than 600 points. S&P climbed 2 percent and the tech heavy Nasdaq lost almost 3 percent. So, why are stocks falling again?
The president blaming Democrats, tweeting Monday morning: The prospect of presidential harassment by the Dems is causing the market big headaches. But with stocks, there are usually multiple reasons for any big movement. Apple led the tech selloff, down a whopping 5 percent. One of Apple's suppliers cut its earnings and sales forecast because of weak demand. Amazon fell nearly 4 1/2 percent. Tesla fell more than 5 percent.
The strong dollar also weighed on stocks prospects with another rate hike from the Fed next month that helped lift the dollar. The rising dollar, a signal of a strong economy, but it hurts sales and profits for American companies that do business overseas. Though Trump blamed Democrats for the drop. The Dow has bounced back since the midterms rising last week at its best showing since March.
BRIGGS: One would assume the president knows it is not Democrats driving the Dow down. He just knows --
ROMANS: You know, he puts so much --
BRIGGS: -- a third of the country believe it?
ROMANS: He puts so much of his self in the Dow going up than when it goes down --
BRIGGS: Got to have another reason.
ROMANS: -- you start to see he deflects, right.
BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, special counsel Robert Mueller inching closer to the Trump adviser Roger Stone.
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JEROME CORSI, ROGER STONE ASSOCIATE: I fully anticipate the next few days I will be indicted.
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BRIGGS: Why one of Stone's associates says he's in real trouble.
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[04:15:43] BRIGGS: President Trump has reportedly ready to fire Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. "The Washington Post" quoting current and former White House officials says her departure is expected in the coming weeks, perhaps as soon as this week.
The president canceled a planned trip with Nielsen this week to visit troops at the border in Texas and has said to have told White House aides over the weekend that he wants her out as soon as possible. "The Post" reporting that the president has grumbled for months about what he views as Nielsen's lackluster performance on immigration enforcement.
ROMANS: New indications that Robert Mueller's Russia investigation is gathering momentum. At least eight of the special counsel's attorneys were spotted working yesterday on Veterans Day, a federal holiday. And President Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was spotted with his attorney, his lawyer in Washington. They would not comment on what they were doing.
And Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi said on Monday he expects him to be indicted by Mueller for giving false information to the special counsel or a grand jury.
We get more from CNN's Jessica Schneider.
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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, could the special counsel be inching closer to former Trump associate Roger Stone? Well, it seems so given the statement from Stone's former associate Jerome Corsi.
Corsi is expecting to be indicted. He made that statement on his YouTube streaming show, saying that he fully anticipates to be charged in the next few days for giving false information to Robert Mueller's team or to the grand jury. Now, Corsi gave no indication about what he might have said that was false.
But Corsi has spoken extensively to the special counsel in the last few months and he's likely been telling the team about his relationship with WikiLeaks and Roger Stone. As you'll remember, it was back during the 2016 campaign when Roger Stone bragged about having those back channel communications with WikiLeaks Julian Assange. And Stone during the campaign even seemed to predict when WikiLeaks might release damaging e-mails to Hillary Clinton.
And, of course, if stone had a connection to WikiLeaks and then gave that information at the Trump campaign, that could be the link to back up those claims of collusion with the Russians since the Russian government is said to be behind the hack of those e-mails. Now, Roger Stone meanwhile issued a lengthy statement once again denying that he knew about the theft of email or had any connection to WikiLeaks, but the plot may taken if there is any sort of indictment to these associates of Roger Stone -- Christine and Dave.
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ROMANS: All right. Jessica, thank you so much for that this morning.
A security guard shot and killed by a police officer while he was trying to arrest a gunman.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did you kill him? It don't make sense.
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ROMANS: What witnesses say led up to that shooting.
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[04:22:54] ROMANS: This morning, police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are searching for a gunman suspected of shooting three people inside a warehouse. Officers responded to the scene Monday night after calls were reporting an active shooter. They found three people with gunshot wounds, they were taken to the University of New Mexico hospital. The hospital says all three in critical condition.
BRIGGS: The family of the Chicago security guard killed by police as he tried to detain a gunman has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the officer who shot him and his department. Court documents say 26- year-old Jemel Roberson was working security at a bar and had detained a shooting suspect.
Witnesses say people in the crowd yelled to arriving police that Roberson was a guard. Still one responding officer shot him who later died at the hospital. Friends and family says Roberson was studying to become a police officer himself.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's got his life took by people who he looked up to, who he wanted to become.
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BRIGGS: The Midlothian Police Department says the unnamed officer who shot Roberson has been placed on administrative leave.
ROMANS: What a strategy.
All right. A report in "The Wall Street Journal" says an investigation has found that Boeing withheld crucial safety information on its new 737 model plans. It concerns potential hazards with an automated flight control that feature that officials suspect played a part in that fatal crash of a Lion Air jet in Indonesia last month. Safety experts involved in the investigation say both airline managers and pilots at U.S. carriers were not told the system had been added to the new 737s and so were not prepared to deal with potential risks.
BRIGGS: Yikes. Stan Lee, the man who revolutionized comic books and film has died. The legendary, writer, editor and publisher of Marvel Comics brought superheroes like Spiderman, X-Men and the Avengers to life in comics, movies and on TV. Lee helped catapult Marvel from a tiny venture in the 1960s into the world's top comic book publisher and later a multimedia giant.
[04:25:00] Stan Lee died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 95. He will be missed.
The death toll rising in the California wildfires to 44 people. Firefighters working nonstop against dangerous and windy conditions. A report from Los Angeles, next.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's our house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that yours?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's mine. That's ours. Gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gone?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Wildfires in California now claiming 44 lives, the deadliest and most destructive in the state's history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: He's just a pure sore loser trying to steal election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The recount in Florida becomes heated as the judge calls on both sides to ramp down the rhetoric.
