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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

California Wildfires Death Toll Rising; Melania's Call; White House Shake-Up; Fatal Air Force Jet Crash; Ceasefire Halts Gaza Violence. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 14, 2018 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:10] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A brand-new wildfire sparking in southern California overnight, and it's spreading quickly, folks. The death toll now rising to 50 people statewide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY: I give him my honest advice and honest opinions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: A top national security official preparing to be fired after the first lady makes an unprecedented statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Everybody wants to work in this White House. We are a hot country. This is a hot White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: President Trump looking to replace at least two other top officials. Who else is on the chopping block?

BRIGGS: An Air Force jet crashes in Texas overnight killing one pilot, sending another to the hospital. The latest on the investigation there.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody, on hump day. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour.

We begin in California, folks, where there is breaking news. Fifty lives already lost to California wildfires, and the threat widening at this hour. Forty-eight of those fatalities have occurred in northern California where six more victims of the Camp Fire were found on Tuesday. Officials are now compiling a list of the missing. They are reluctant to estimate how many people that might be.

And a new wildfire is burning east of Los Angeles County in San Bernardino county. It is being called the Sierra Fire. Right now, it's approximately 20 acres in size now with high winds, high dry winds are fanning the flames. No evacuations ordered at this time.

In southern California, the death toll from the Woolsey Fire stands at two, with over 400 structures destroyed, another 57,000 structures considered to be in danger. The Department of Health and Human Services declaring a public health emergency in the state.

CNN's Scott McLean has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, there are thousands of firefighters on the front lines trying to stop this fire from spreading. But for many people here in Malibu, it really doesn't get much worse. Case in point, we're standing on what once was the family home of Thomas Hirsch. He grew up here, his family lived here.

And when we think of Malibu, we often think of the rich and famous. That is not the case for this family. His parents bought the house in 1965 for just $39,000. And they're 94 and 97 years old. And so, they've accumulated a lifetime worth of things.

So, today, Thomas was trying to find anything of value that he could salvage. And he managed to find a sterling silverware set that had been melted into a blob. He actually just found it right over here.

Now, despite the destruction and despite his parents' age, he says that they want to rebuild.

THOMAS HIRSCH, PARENTS HOUSE BURNED IN WOOLSEY FIRE: We're survivors. What we build will come back, and take whatever insurance money they had and clean it up and rebuild it and make it nicer than it was before. I told my dad this, and he says, Tom, you can't make it nicer than it was.

MCLEAN: The big concern is with the wind. Red flag conditions had been extended now until Wednesday evening. That means the conditions are prime for flames to spread quickly or fires to start. As for any rain in the forecast, well, that might be in two weeks maybe. So, whenever firefighters are able to finally stamp out this fire, it will be with no help from Mother Nature -- Dave, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIGGS: Scott, thanks.

More than 13 million people in California are now under red flag warnings. Let's get the latest from meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Dave and Christine.

Yet another day where we're watching very carefully when it comes to how things will play out. Once again, critical concern and extreme concern for fire weather behavior includes Los Angeles County down towards San Diego County where humidities will struggle to get above 5 percent. We know the winds will be gusty at times, but quite a little bit weaker than yesterday at least.

But take a look at this, containment to the north for the Camp Fire up to 35 percent. Officials now saying November 30th, that's the target date for containment, and fully containment across that region. To the south, we're up to 40 percent containment. But uncertain as far as when conditions will be good enough to put the fire out in its entirety, at least contain it in its entirety.

And the forecast for this afternoon yet again, 35 to 50 miles per hour. Tell you what, that is plenty strong here to cause the fires to continue spreading into new areas. And, unfortunately, that's going to be the case at least through today.

But by tomorrow afternoon into, say, Friday, we begin to see winds die down, becoming breezy which is pretty seasonal for this time of year. But again, expecting some numbers to improve there as we go in towards Friday and Saturday -- guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Pedram, thank you so much for that.

An imminent shakeup at the White House and a stunning, unprecedented move by first lady Melania Trump. Melania calling for the removal of deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel, and CNN has learned President Trump has told people he's prepared to fire her.

[04:35:00] Ricardel clashed with the East Wing staff during Mrs. Trump's recent trip to Africa, we are told.

Remember that trip? Listen to what she told ABC News during that trip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INTERVIEWER: Has he had people that you didn't trust working for him?

MELANIA TRUMP: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: Did you let him know?

MELANIA TRUMP: I let him know.

INTERVIEWER: And what did he do?

MELANIA TRUMP: With some people, they don't work there anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: And sources tell us, the senior adviser has also butted heads with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and chief of staff John Kelly in recent weeks. So far, no official word from the White House on Ricardel status. More now from senior White House correspondent Pamela Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: A stunning string of events here at the White House surrounding deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel. Earlier today, Melania Trump, the first lady, issued a statement. And here's what the statement said: It is the position of the office of the first lady that Ricardel no longer deserves the honor of serving in the White House.

The statement came out around the same time that Ricardel was at the White House attending a ceremony with President Trump. So, immediately, White House officials began scrambling in the West Wing. They were caught off-guard, according to sources, that the statement was even going to be released.

Now, there had been an ongoing feud behind the scenes between staffers for the first lady and Mira Ricardel surrounding a trip to Africa. There was a dispute over a plane seat and other issues. But the fact that this has spilled into public view is extraordinary.

Now, in terms of her future, that's unclear. A source telling my colleague, Jeff Zeleny, that the president has made the decision to fire her. Yet, throughout the day, she was still in her office, according to White House officials who couldn't give a clear answer on what her future holds.

Now, we have reached out to Ricardel, and she has not responded for comment. All of this raises the question of what will be next for John Bolton, the national security adviser, who brought Ricardel on board to the NSC.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Pamela at the White House, thank you.

Several other senior White House members could be unemployed in the next few hours or days. Sources tell CNN virtually no one feels completely secure with the exception of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. The president is expected to ask for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen soon.

BRIGGS: And CNN learning he also discussing potential replacements for Chief of Staff John Kelly despite announcing Kelly would remain on the job until 2020. In fact, the vice president's chief of staff, Nick Ayers, has told two friends he is in the running for Kelly's position. Ayers has grown close to the president and key members of the administration including the president's daughter and son-in-law.

ROMANS: All right. CNN has learned President Trump's legal team could submit answers to questions posed by special counsel Robert Mueller any day now. A source says the president met again with his lawyers Monday, and they're nearing completion of written answers to Mueller's questions. Those questions said to focus on Russia collusion and not obstruction of justice.

Still unresolved is the question of whether Mr. Trump will sit down for an interview with the special counsel. CNN has reported Mueller's team has begun writing its final report.

BRIGGS: Later this morning, Matthew Whitaker will speak publicly for the first time since President Trump appointed him acting attorney general. He'll be appearing at a justice department summit in his home state of Iowa at the same time the state of Maryland is arguing in court that the president bypassed the Constitution and illegally appointed Whitaker.

The state is asking a federal judge to replace him with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley downplaying concerns raised by Democrats that Whitaker might interfere in the special counsel's investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA), CHAIRMAN, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: The president said that he wasn't going to do that. So doesn't matter what Whitaker thinks. The president said it isn't going to be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Senior administration officials tell CNN the president is in no rush to nominate a permanent replacement for his ousted attorney general, Jeff Sessions. And Whitaker appears poised to remain in the position for weeks if not months.

ROMANS: At a White House event today, President Trump is expected to announce his support for new criminal justice reform legislation. The bill is backed by his son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner, along with a bipartisan of group senators. Proponents made several changes to the bill to gain support of law enforcement groups.

They include stiffer sentencing guidelines for fentanyl-related crimes and expanding the definition of serious violent crime. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pledged to bring the bill to the floor if he has the 60 votes needed. The question is whether Democrats will support the compromise or hold out for more ambitious overhaul.

BRIGGS: This is the final full day for Florida election officials to recount all the votes from three undecided statewide races. the deadline to finish the job Thursday afternoon.

[04:40:02] And that's not sitting well with Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. His campaign filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that the deadlines are arbitrary and impose a severe burden on the right to vote.

ROMANS: They'll need a lot more time to get the recount done in Palm Beach County. Voting machines there are overheating and malfunctioning. That means officials will have to start over with the recount of nearly 200,000 early ballots. In Broward County, embattled election supervisor Brenda Snipes suggesting she may step down after all the controversy and criticism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRENDA SNIPES, BROWARD COUNTY SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS: I've not made any decisions. Whatever I do I will contemplate it carefully and make what I think is the correct decision for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Miami-Dade and Broward County insist they will meet tomorrow's recount deadline.

All right. A cold case cracked in Ohio -- you won't believe this -- who police arrested in the killing of eight family members.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:07] BRIGGS: Breaking news: A military training plane crashing in Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas. According to officials there, one pilot was killed, another has been transported to a local hospital. The Air Force T-38 Talon went down at the base at 7:40 p.m. last night. We are monitoring that situation. We'll bring you updates throughout the morning.

ROMANS: A husband and wife and their two adult sons charged with murdering a family of eight in Ohio in 2016. The eight victims ranging in age from16 to 44. They were shot to death at four crime scenes in the small town of Piketon. At one scene, police found a 4- day-old baby lying next to his murdered mother.

That child and two others survived the killings. Police say four members of the Wagner family carefully studied the habit and routines of their victims for months before committing this massacre. The motive appears to involve custody of a child.

BRIGGS: More than 200 cases of the polio-like illness AFM are currently under investigation by the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC says there are 90 confirmed cases in 27 states, 162 other cases are being investigated.

Health officials have not identified the states with confirmed illnesses or those reporting cases under investigation. AFM or acute flaccid myelitis is a rare illness that affects the nervous system and can cause muscle weakness and sudden paralysis. The CDC has said 90 percent of the patients have been children under 4, but adults can also develop AFM.

ROMANS: Monica Lewinsky is speaking publicly about her relationship with then-President Bill Clinton in a new A&E docu-series "The Clinton Affair." Lewinsky reveals the emotional trauma of having to wear a wire during the Whitewater investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONICA LEWINSKY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN: I felt terrible. I was scared, and I just -- I was mortified. And afraid of what this was going to do to my family and, you know, I still was in love with Bill at the time. So I felt really responsible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: About the Clinton docu-series, Lewinsky writes in a "Vanity Fair" piece, quote, I hope that by participating I can help ensure that what happened to me never happens to another young person in our country again. She also says if she were to see Hillary Clinton today, she would summon up whatever force she needed to apologize again.

BRIGGS: The Los Angeles Rams offering thousands of free tickets to first responders and wildfire victims for what might be the most anticipated game of the near, Monday night's contest against the Chiefs. The game was originally scheduled to be played in Mexico City but had to be moved to the L.A. Memorial Coliseum because the field Estadio Azteca did not meet NFL standards.

ROMANS: Eye-popping deficit numbers from the Treasury Department, the U.S. government is spending so much more than it takes in, the budget deficit topped $100 billion last month. Look at the numbers for yourself. The deficit up 60 percent from the same month last year. Government spending growing twice as fast as revenue.

More spending on Medicare, defense, and interest payments, at the same time those big corporate tax cuts mean less money is coming in. Adding to the pile of debt, the Trump administration inherited it from the Obama years, the national debt tops $21 trillion. The party of fiscal discipline.

BRIGGS: There's always a tweet for that with this president. But in this case, there are 31 tweets about the president criticizing Obama deficits from 2011 to 2016.

ROMANS: And the real worry for progressives is that when you are running up the budget deficit like this and adding to the debt so quickly, at some point, you have to cut spending. That spending is entitlements. And they're worried about that.

BRIGGS: You wonder if gone from the party's platform are deficit concerns.

Ahead, a cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants bringing an end to the most intense round of fighting between the sides in four years. We go live to Israel next.

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[04:54:07] ROMANS: Silence overnight in the skies over Gaza. A cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants bringing an end to the most intense round of fighting between the sides since the 2014 war. Militants fired 400 rockets into Israel between Monday and Tuesday. With Israeli air strikes hitting over 100 targets in Gaza.

Let's go live this morning to Ashkelon, Israel, and bring in Oren Liebermann.

Quite in the sky, Oren.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It very much is, Christine. Standing here in Ashkelon, just a few miles away from the Gaza-Israel border, the sounds you will hear now are those of construction, cars on the road, people on the streets. And very similar in Gaza where our CNN team there have said there was a collective sigh of relief and people returning back to normal life.

That is a far cry from the 24 hour period from Monday night until Tuesday night when there were frequent sound of red alerts, of rocket and mortar sirens sounding across Israel. The sound and we saw Iron Dome, Israel's aerial defense system intercepting rockets as well as seeing air strikes in Gaza.

[04:55:09] It was Tuesday night, right around 6:00 that Palestinian militant factions in Gaza announced a cease-fire brokered by Egypt to end the 24 most volatile, most violent hours we've seen between Israel and Gaza since the end of the 2014 war. The skies were once again quiet.

Israel has not commented or confirmed the cease-fire or acknowledged that there was any agreement. That's not uncommon. Israel hasn't acknowledged any of the cease-fires over the past couple of months. Instead staying simply quiet will be met with quiet.

But since that cease-fire was announced, the skies above Israel and Gaza have been quiet as people returned to their normal lives. That brings to an end more than 460 rocket strikes from Gaza. More than a hundred air strikes in Gaza, seven killed in Gaza. One killed here in Israel.

Christine, again, the skies are quiet here for now.

ROMANS: All right. Oren, thank you so much for that.

Let's get a check on CNN business this Wednesday morning.

Global markets are lower as oil prices fall. In Asia, the Nikki is up a little bit. But you can see the Shanghai and the Hang Seng are down slightly here. European markets are also lower. The DAX and FTSE shy of 1 percent lower, the CAC in Paris down 1 percent.

Wall Street futures are down following Tuesday's close. The Dow closed down 101 points after another turbulent day. The S&P 500 dipped a bit. The Nasdaq virtually unchanged.

Apple lost another 1 percent on iPhone demand concerns. And U.S. oil prices fell 7 percent to the lowest price in a year of $55.69 a barrel. Crude's worst day since September, 2015.

All right. Citi is making room for an Amazon takeover of its iconic building in Long Island City. Citi said Tuesday it will move about 1,000 employees out of its space outside Manhattan in the first half of the year. It employs roughly 3,000 employees working in that building which overlooks the East River and has long carried Citi's logo. Amazon announced Tuesday its second headquarters will be split between

Long Island City and northern Virginia. The company intends to invest $2.5 million in both locations which will have more than 25,000 workers each. "The New York Post" reports the city lease at one court square runs out in 2020. A lot of soul-searching about just how much in tax incentives Virginia and New York and New York City gave to Amazon. By some estimates, there are more incentives for the company than it will actually invest in either location.

All right. The CEO of e-cigarette maker Juul has announced plans to eliminate some social media accounts and halt most retail sales of flavor products. This is part of a plan to restrict access to minors. This is a very big deal. In a statement, Juul's CEO said, quote, our intent was never to have a youth use Juul.

Oh, but they do. Ask any teacher, ask any parent, ask any guidance counselor. This is a major problem for children as young as 10 and 11-years-old.

The plan came in response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's September announcements that would investigate major e-cigarette makers and review their sales and marketing. Additionally, Juul announced it would stop selling most flavored Juul pods to 90,000-plus retail stores while restricting flavor sales to adults 21 and older on its website.

BRIGGS: This is a huge deal. If you don't know it, this is what your teenagers are doing, and you wouldn't know it. They do know how to hide it very well.

ROMANS: This is what middle schools are having parent conferences and meetings after, you know, in the evening with parents after work to try to --

BRIGGS: Closing restrooms at schools.

ROMANS: Absolutely. There was a renovation of a middle school in my town. And they were shocked because as they removed panels from the wall, there were used Juul pods, hundreds and hundreds of them. So, you got middle school kids who are using the products in the school bathroom.

BRIGGS: Big deal, folks. Good move by Juul.

EARLY START continues right now.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY: I give him my honest advice and honest opinions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A top national security official preparing to be fired after the first lady makes an unprecedented statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Everybody wants to work in this White House. We are a hot country. This is a hot White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Hot, but President Trump looking to replace at least two other top officials. Who else could be on the chopping block?

ROMANS: A new wildfire sparking in southern California overnight, spreading quickly. The death toll rising to 50 people statewide.

BRIGGS: And an Air Force jet crashes in Texas overnight killing one, sending another to the hospital. The latest on the investigation.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: It's Wednesday, I'm Christine Romans. November 14th, 5:00 a.m. in the east.

Let's begin with the White House, imminent shakeup there, and a stunning, unprecedented move by Melania Trump. The first lady calling for the removal of deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel.