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Florida Senate Race Moves to Hand Recount; North Korea Deports Detained U.S. Citizen; U.S. Sanctions 17 Saudis in Jamal Khashoggi's Death; Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired November 16, 2018 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:48] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Are charges on the way for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and could they upend the Russia probe?
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: A hand recount starts this morning in Florida's razor-thin Senate race but Democrats looking for gains, they're left with little reason for hope.
ROMANS: An astonishing 631 people are unaccounted for in the deadly Camp Fire in California.
BRIGGS: And parts of the northeast crippled by the first major snow this season. Expect a messy Friday morning commute.
Fortunately for us it comes at 2:00 a.m. so we don't deal with such messy commutes.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: It was really terrible. I mean, you couldn't get into the port authority of New York. This is the biggest commuter hub on the East Coast, in the northeast. Three and a half hour, four-hour delays to get home. And it's --
BRIGGS: This was not a surprise. The storm, yes.
ROMANS: In the snow storm that was not a surprise. There'll be some reckoning I think today for that.
BRIGGS: Mr. Mayor.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. 31 minutes past the hour. Let's begin here with this bombshell.
References to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in an unsealed court filing suggests he might be criminally charged. The developments could have significant implications for the Mueller investigation. Assange has made a name for himself leaking government secrets, including on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Federal prosecutors in Virginia included references to him apparently by accident in a filing unsealed last week.
While arguing to keep a seemingly unrelated case sealed they wrote, "No other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged."
BRIGGS: A spokesman for the Eastern District of Virginia says, quote, "The court filing was made in error." He declined to comment on whether there are in fact existing charges against Assange. The "Wall Street Journal" reports the Justice Department is preparing to prosecute Assange who has been living of course in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, hiding from rape charges in Sweden and other legal woes.
An indictment by the special counsel has painted WikiLeaks as a tool of Russian intelligence for releasing thousands of hacked Democratic e-mails during the 2016 campaign. Mueller has been exploring communications between WikiLeaks and associates of President Trump, including political operative Roger Stone.
ROMANS: The Russia investigation weighing heavily on the president the last few days. He met with his lawyers three times this week to discuss written responses to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Trump legal team wary of Mueller's questions. Rudy Giuliani, one of the president's attorneys, describing some of them as, quote, "possible traps."
The pathway narrowing for Democrats to win critical recounts in Florida. A hand recount has been ordered in the Senate race between Republican Governor Rick Scott and Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. But in the race Republican Ron DeSantis has declared victory after a machine recount did not help the Democrat Andrew Gillum narrow that race. The race effectively over which leaves Democrats hoping for a miracle in the Senate race where Governor Scott leads by less than 13,000 votes out of 8.2 million cast.
BRIGGS: Senator Nelson dealt another blow by a late-night court ruling in Scott's favor. A federal judge ruling guidelines for evaluating voter intent during a manual recount constitutional. Most Florida counties did file their recounts on time. A few did not, though, including one heavily Democratic county that finished counting but missed the submission deadline by mere moments. The deadline for the hand recount that is getting underway today is now Sunday.
Jessica Dean has more from Florida.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave and Christine, from Palm Beach where they are hoping to get started on the hand recount today. Let's zoom out and give you the big picture.
All across Florida they are going to go through a hand recount for this incredibly close .15 percent Senate race that was triggered yesterday. Here in Palm Beach County, well, they didn't get their recount results in. They were one of three counties here in Florida that didn't get those second recount numbers in.
Here in Palm Beach, they blamed it on the machines. They said that they were old, they were breaking down, they were overheating. They simply weren't able to get it in on time. In Hillsborough County, they suffered a couple of power outages. And so they simply weren't confident enough in their numbers to submit the new numbers. They went with the old numbers as well.
[04:35:08] And then you had Broward County who missed the deadline by two minutes. They say that that was all due to familiarity with the Web site. Someone not really understanding how to upload that information. So all three of those counties by law went with the first unofficial set of results.
Back here in Palm Beach County, they're going to try to now separate the under votes and the over votes. That's what they're going to be looking at in a hand recount and then from there, they are hoping to get started with that by 11:00 a.m.
Back to you.
ROMANS: All right. Thank you for that.
Democrats this morning celebrating another House seat they have picked up in Maine's 2nd District. Jared Golden defeating incumbent Republican Bruce Poliquin. That makes Democrats' net gain in the House now 33 seats. It's been a creeping blue wave now for 10 days.
BRIGGS: Yes. Yes.
ROMANS: There are still seven races yet to be called by CNN. Democrats lead in six of those seven seats. All of those seats are Republican-held districts.
BRIGGS: Meantime, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi feeling confident she will be elected speaker. However, one critic, Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton, suggesting Pelosi is overconfident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. SETH MOULTON (D), MASSACHUSETTS: She's wrong. We have the votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Straight and to the point. Democrats to select their nominee in a November 28th vote. Right now Pelosi the only first who is officially running.
To California and some alarming news there. 631 people now unaccounted for in the Camp Fire in the Sierra Foothills as people continue calling in to report missing persons. Authorities are also going back through 911 call and incident reports trying to determine where missing people might be. So far at least 63 people are known to have died in the Camp Fire alone.
ROMANS: Officials say the fire has burned more than 140,000 acres and is 40 percent contained. Evacuation orders and warnings are being reduced or lifted in some areas affected by the Camp Fire.
Our Scott McLean visited a Walmart parking lot in Chico, California. That parking lot serving as a makeshift camp for 20,000 displaced people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What do you miss most?
ELI KINGERI, CAMP FIRE VICTIM: Just being in a bed.
MCLEAN: You just miss your bed? The warmth?
KINGERI: Being under a ceiling and actually having a real bathroom.
MCLEAN: Yes, that's nice, isn't it? You seem like you're being pretty strong, though.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You OK?
KINGERI: Just hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: That's some perspective for you. Meanwhile, heavy smoke has been drifting into the Bay Area. The air quality in San Francisco yesterday was as bad as in Chico which is just 30 minutes from Paradise. It was by far the worst air quality the Bay Area has seen since the fires broke out, forcing several school districts to close today. The total death toll in the California wildfires now stands at 66, including a new death from the Woolsey Fire in Southern California. President Trump is scheduled to travel to California tomorrow to meet people affected by the wildfires.
And one silver lining overnight. Nick Maze (PH) thought the fires cost him an engagement ring he'd planned to give his girlfriend but he broke open a safe that contained the mangled ring amid the debris. Maze planned on popping the question in the next few weeks.
ROMANS: Whoa.
BRIGGS: Good find.
ROMANS: All right. Shares in California utility PG&E plunged to a 15-year low. The feat, potential liability in the massive Camp Fire. PG&E closed down 30 percent Thursday. This is a crash for these shares. The stock down more than 60 percent since the wildfires began. PG&E disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday it experienced an outage on a transmission line in Butte County just 15 minutes before the Camp Fire broke out. The causes of the fire has not yet been determined but that timing certainly interesting. The death toll has risen to 63 people, more than 8500 homes destroyed. The fire still rages. The California Public Utilities commission will investigate PG&E, opening a new investigation.
BRIGGS: All right. Back out east. Six inches of snow brought New York City and surrounding areas to a standstill. This is what you were staring at for hours on the George Washington Bridge. Commutes extended by several hours. This morning many schools in New Jersey have delayed openings. New York mayor -- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio promising to clear the streets for the morning commute.
More of the same as you head south. This is Union County, Pennsylvania. Lines of traffic for miles and miles.
ROMANS: The death toll from the snowstorm now stands at eight. One person killed in Maryland, Ohio and Indiana on slick roads. Five other deaths reported in Mississippi and Alabama. Thousands of flights delayed and canceled.
[04:40:03] A majority of those delays in New York. More also reported in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston and Chicago. About 3,000 to 15,000 customers are without power mostly in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
And the commute, I mean, it has got to be better this morning. Yesterday's commute was just horrific. You had an hour long line to get into the port authority which is a transit hub. You had so many people in there, you couldn't get to bus gates and the like. Trains were slow. Buses were full. Three and a half, four-hour delays to go 15 miles. It was just ridiculous.
BRIGGS: Sounds like Mayor de Blasio has some explaining to do.
ROMANS: Yes. A storm that was expected and forecast.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: Just weeks after the Pittsburgh massacre, another scare for the Jewish community. What one man did at the performance of "Fiddler on the Roof." That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRIGGS: V.A. officials admit thousands of student veterans are not getting their monthly housing and education payments from the U.S. government on time.
[04:45:07] Top brass at the department blame the delays which date back to April on the V.A.'s antiquated information and technology system. The payments are part of the Forever G.I. Bill that President Trump signed into law last year to expand education benefits for veterans. During a White House event Thursday afternoon Trump cited the expansion of the G.I. bill as a point of success in his administration's efforts to modernize the V.A.
ROMANS: Seven women have filed a federal lawsuit claiming three former Dartmouth professors plied female students with alcohol and then raped them. The suit alleges tenured psychology professors Todd Heatherton, William Kelley and Paul Whalen treated women as sex objects. The women say they were made to feel as if their success depended on their willingness to go along with the alcohol saturated culture that the professors created. The women are suing Dartmouth's trustees for $70 million in damages. Kelley and Whalen did not respond to CNN's request for comment but Heatherton categorically denies the allegations. In a statement, the school says sexual misconduct and harassment have no place at Dartmouth. BRIGGS: The Food and Drug Administration enacting new measures
against flavored nicotine products. There's been a major spike in vaping, almost 80 percent among high school students since last year. Currently one in five high school students according to the stats is vaping today. The FDA said to impose sale restrictions on flavored e- cigarettes except for mint and menthol flavors. The plan would also limit sales to brick-and-mortar outlets that keep people under 18 away from vaping products. The FDA also seeking a ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars in order to combat smoking among young people.
ROMANS: Federal prosecutors say the man who shot and killed two people at a Kroger grocery store in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, has been charged in a six-count indictment. The charges against Gregory Bush include two counts of shooting and killing victims based on race. The three federal hate crimes and gun charges carry life in prison penalties with a possible death sentence.
Bush is charged with killing Maurice Stallard and Vickie Jones when he opened fire at the supermarket last month. Minutes before the ambush, he was apparently captured on video surveillance trying to enter a black church.
BRIGGS: Shock and fear in a Baltimore theater as a man yells "Heil Hitler" during a performance of "Fiddler on the Roof." It happened Wednesday night during the classic Jewish themed musical's intermission. The man began shouting the Nazi salute from the upper balcony. An audience member tells CNN several people ran toward the exits and others were visibly shaken until the man was finally hustled out by security.
The outburst comes during a dramatic spike in anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. including that horrific Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that killed 11 worshippers.
ROMANS: A painting by British artist David Hockney sold for a whopping $90.3 million at Christie's Thursday. The price easily breaks the record for a work by a living artist sold at auction. The piece called "Portrait of an Artist" is considered one of the 81-year- old Hockney's premier works. A 1972 painting has been long held by a private collector. The new buyer not immediately revealed.
Was it you, Dave Briggs?
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: The previous record by a living artist was set by Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog," also I can't afford that one, in 2013. $50.4 million.
It just shows you the funny money at work out there in the world, right? You know? Like, if you've got that money to spend that kind of money on a painting, that's impressive.
BRIGGS: Don't get me wrong it's nice but I don't get it. But good for somebody.
ROMANS: I love it but I don't have $90 million.
BRIGGS: It's lovely. Yes. Ahead --
ROMANS: Walmart getting a sales boost heading into the holiday season. Sales are doing so well Bernie Sanders says it should pay its employees even more.
We'll get a check of CNN Business next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:53:37] ROMANS: Breaking overnight. North Korea deporting a U.S. citizen who was detained last month after illegally entering the country. That's according to the nation's state-run media. The expulsion just hours after the news agency's report that Kim Jong-un just supervised the test of a newly developed ultra-modern tactical military weapon.
CNN's Alexandra Field live in Hong Kong with more. What's going on?
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Christine, look, word on both of these fronts came from state news in North Korea. Just a couple of hours ago they announced they had released a U.S. citizen who had been detained since October 16th. North Korean state news says that this is a citizen who illegally crossed from China into North Korea. Admitted to his offense and has now been deported outside of North Korea over a border but did not specify which border.
We're still waiting for a confirmation from U.S. officials about the conditions of that detainment and how this release came about but it was announced by North Korea at the same time they announced that they had conducted a weapons test. They didn't specify when that test was conducted but this is the first time that state news has announced that Kim Jong-un supervised a weapons test himself for about a year now.
The last time was when he was on the ground supervising the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. A move that clearly ratcheted up tensions in a profound way on the peninsula. This a very different kind of test. They called it a tactical weapons test. A source tells CNN that the South Korean government believes that it was a long-range artillery test, perhaps a multiple rocket launcher but because it's a tactical system, the South Korean government does not perceive this as military provocation.
[04:55:12] However, Christine, this is a test that happened with some pomp and circumstance considering the fact that Kim Jong-un was there, considering the fact that this was reported by state news. It certainly does appear to be a bit of posturing from North Korea which has recently raised its rhetoric against the United States saying they want an end to sanctions against them, they want an easing of sanctions against them, even cancelling a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. All of it creating a bit of an impasse when it comes to these talks about denuclearization between North Korea and the United States. What could break the impasse? A second summit. Certainly that is something that the administration is working for. ROMANS: Absolutely. All right, Alex, thank you so much for that for
us this morning in Hong Kong.
BRIGGS: The Trump administration imposing sanctions on 17 Saudi officials over their roles in the killing of "Washington Post" journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The U.S. Treasury announced the penalties just hours after Saudi prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty for five people charged in a Virginia resident's death.
For the latest let's go live to CNN's Jomana Karadsheh live in Istanbul this morning.
Good morning, Jomana. Clearly U.S. officials and Saudi officials want some resolution here. Will we get it?
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is the big question, Dave, as you mentioned, there in the United States announcing these sanctions targeting 17 Saudi individuals under the Magnisky Act that they say those individuals were involved in the killings of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Now this coming after the statement from Saudi prosecutors with the latest on their investigation where they say they have charged 11 individuals and they are seeking the death penalty for five. They say that the result of the investigation so far was that those individuals were carrying out an operation where -- to capture Jamal Khashoggi initially to convince him to go back to Saudi Arabia. That failed.
They say that there was an argument that ensued. There was a fight. And they tried to take him back by force. But instead they ended up with them injecting him and then overdosing him with sedative and that killed him. And then they said his body was dismembered. They deny that the crown prince has any knowledge of this operation and say it was ordered by the deputy head of the intelligence services in Saudi Arabia.
I have to say, Dave, the response here in Turkey, they have been quite skeptical about this. They say they're not getting any satisfactory answers and they're worried about a cover-up that's taking place in Saudi Arabia and they want to know where is the body of Jamal Khashoggi.
Today here in Istanbul, absentee funeral prayers will be taken place for Jamal Khashoggi because his friends, his family, people have lost hope that his body will ever be found and that he will ever get a proper burial -- Dave.
BRIGGS: All right. Jomana Karadsheh live as prayers are under way there in Istanbul. Thanks.
ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Markets around the world mostly higher. The Nikkei down a little bit here but Shanghai and Hang Seng both up. European markets also opening positive. The DAX, the FTSE and the CAC (INAUDIBLE) Paris all higher. On Wall Street, look at the futures this morning. They're down a
little bit after the Dow jumped yesterday of 209 points. That snapped a four-day losing streak. We'll see if the mood can even possibly hold here into the morning.
And the S&P 500 gained 1 percent breaking a five-day streak. The Nasdaq closed up almost 2 percent. Apple finished today up 2.5 percent after Morgan Stanley said the recent selloff was due to supplier concerns and was simply overdone. So a bounce back in Apple shares for you Apple investors there.
More people are visiting Walmart for toys and groceries boosting its sales heading into the holiday shopping season. Walmart reported a 3.4 percent increase in sales in the U.S. Online sales jumped, get this, 43 percent. That is a big number there. It's a big focus for Walmart and its digital strategy. Walmart has also picked up customers in the wake of the Toys 'R' Us closing. The retailer's toy offering has grown 30 percent in stores and 40 percent online.
But Senator Bernie Sanders is shining a different light on Walmart. He's calling for a minimum wage increase for all employees to $15 an hour. He introduced the Stop Walmart Act Thursday. Tweeted this, "Middle class taxpayers should not have to subsidize Walmart. Horrendously low wages to the tune of at least $6.2 billion a year."
He's talking about all kinds of government supports including food stamps for low wage workers in America. Sanders has also called out other profitable companies, including American Airlines and McDonald's for paying low pages. The legislation stands a better chance in the newly Democratic-controlled House than in the Senate.
But Walmart has been raising its wages in part that many -- that has won some of the criticisms about its very low wages. It has been raising wages and investing in its work force. But Bernie Sanders still says he knows that there are retail workers in America who --
BRIGGS: Yes. Sure.
ROMANS: The government subsidizes them and this is a big growing part of the economy.
BRIGGS: And that Walmart v. Amazon is going to be an interesting story in the years ahead.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: All right. EARLY START continues right now.
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