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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

President Trump's Combative Weekend Suggests A Rocky Road Ahead; Bloomberg Donates Record-breaking $1.8 Billion To Johns Hopkins University; Stories Of Heroism Emerge From Deadly California Wildfires; Possible Peanut Allergy Breakthrough. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired November 19, 2018 - 05:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:30:19] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, ANCHOR, FOX NEWS SUNDAY: If Whitaker decides, in any way, to limit or curtail the Mueller investigation, are you OK with that?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, he -- it's going to be up to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: He's called the investigation fishy and Russian interference false. President Trump says the acting attorney general will decide how to deal with the Mueller probe.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Mike Bloomberg donates $1.8 billion to his alma mater for financial aid. Twenty-twenty hopefuls, no doubt, taking notice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM COOK, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, APPLE, INC.: I'm a big believer in the free market, but we have to admit when the free market is not working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Apple CEO Tim Cook says he expects some regulations for Silicon Valley in the growing skepticism of the tech industry.

BRIGGS: And a possible breakthrough for kids with peanut allergies. The trick, peanuts. It's big news for one in 50 American children.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It's 31 minutes past the hour this Monday morning, a holiday week but a lot to get to already.

President Trump says acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker will make the call whether to restrict the Russia investigation. All eyes on special counsel Robert Mueller, waiting for his next move. Fox News' Chris Wallace asked the president whether he would allow Whitaker to limit the Mueller probe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: If Whitaker decides, in any way, to limit or curtail the Mueller investigation, are you OK with that?

TRUMP: Look, he -- it's going to be up to him. I think he's very well aware, politically. I think he's astute, politically.

He's a very smart person, a very respected person. He's going to do what's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: In the week since the president forced Jeff Sessions to resign as attorney general, Democrats have called for Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the Russia probe given his past public criticism of the investigation.

The president claimed he was unaware of the acting A.G.'s criticism of Mueller, although Mr. Trump said he does agree with it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Well, if he says there's no collusion --

TRUMP: Chris, I'll tell you what, the --

WALLACE: -- and he says -- he says we can -- you can starve the investigation.

TRUMP: Well, I mean, he's right. What do you do when a person's right? There is no collusion. He happened to be right. I mean, he said it.

So if he said there is collusion, I'm supposed to be taking somebody that says there is because then I wouldn't take them for two reasons. But the number one reason is the fact that he would have been wrong.

If he said that there's no collusion, he right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president backing off earlier claims he wants to sit down with Mueller for an in-person interview. Now he says he plans to submit written answers this week.

BRIGGS: President Trump also attacked the retired Navy admiral known as the architect of the bin Laden raid, William McRaven, who has been critical of the president.

Last year, McRaven called the president's attacks on the media the greatest threat to our democracy in his lifetime. He also called Mr. Trump's leadership embarrassing and humiliating after the president revoked former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance this summer.

It does not sound like Trump has forgotten those rebukes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: McRaven -- retired admiral, Navy SEAL, 37 years. Former head of U.S. Special Operations.

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton fan.

WALLACE: Special Operations --

TRUMP: Excuse me, Hillary Clinton fan.

WALLACE: -- who led the operations -- commanded the operations that took down Saddam Hussein and that killed Osama bin Laden says that your sentiment is the greatest threat to democracy in his lifetime.

TRUMP: Look, he's a Hillary Clinton backer and an Obama backer. And, frankly --

WALLACE: He's a Navy SEAL.

TRUMP: -- wouldn't it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: McRaven tells CNN he did not back Hillary Clinton or anyone else in 2016.

He says, quote, "I admire all presidents who uphold the dignity of office." He mentioned President Obama and he mentioned President Bush -- who he worked for both. "When you undermine the people's right to a free press and freedom of speech and expression, then you threaten the Constitution and all for which it stands."

BRIGGS: All right. Let's chat about all of this with Princeton University historian and professor, Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst.

Julian, good morning to you, sir.

ROMANS: Good morning.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, HISTORIAN AND PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, AUTHOR, "THE FIERCE URGENCY OF NOW": Good morning.

BRIGGS: The president gives himself an A+. That's only because there's nothing higher than that, he says.

So, McRaven, 37 years active service in the Navy, including the bronze star among other honors.

How would you grade the president's response there? ZELIZER: It would be hard to give him an A+. We don't see presidents usually going after military officials like this -- not criticizing, really, anything on terms of policy but actually just insulting them.

We saw this with Sen. McCain --

ROMANS: Yes.

ZELIZER: -- back there in the campaign. So it's part of what President Trump is willing to do if he thinks someone is against him.

ROMANS: He can take a stellar reputation and background and turn it around in that very Trumpian --

[05:35:01] ZELIZER: Yes.

ROMANS: -- way.

Interesting, a "FOX NEWS" host and late-night comedian all kind of saw this attack on the media in the same way -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Leaders and authoritarian countries like Russia, China, Venezuela now repress the media using your words.

TRUMP: I can't talk for other people, I can only talk for me. I will tell you --

WALLACE: But you're seen around the world as a beacon for repression.

JOHN OLIVER, HOST, HBO "LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER": The world is dabbling with something very dangerous right now and America needs to be careful.

And look, I know democracy can be often, by design, frustrating. Checks and balances can be irritating and slow and might not deliver the outcome that you wanted. But removing them opens the door to something much worse, and that is true whether you live in Russia, Turkey, Hungary, the Philippines, Brazil or, yes, the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: You know, you've got people -- military members in theater around the world who are putting their lives on the line to defend the very thing that the president is bashing on a daily basis.

ZELIZER: Yes. Well, obviously, this is causing a pretty big political backlash and this comes at a time he has the troops going to the border. And that has also raised the eye of many, many of his critics.

And the president has to understand that there are actually certain lines you shouldn't cross as president. I think this is a part of the story of the Trump presidency where he's willing to break norms, he's willing to break convention, and he thinks there's no cost to doing this. And I think that's what he's hearing in response to going after the admiral.

ROMANS: You mentioned the troops at the border and there's some fascinating CNN reporting this week. A senior administration official telling us that's a paper tiger, a total joke limited operational utility -- a waste of our troops' time. Mattis knows it, Nielsen knows it, Kelly knows it, but the battle was lost for the president. He's hell-bent on troops at the border.

ZELIZER: Yes.

ROMANS: He has such an interesting relationship with the military here.

ZELIZER: Well, and it is. Remember, this was a campaign stunt so to speak. It's pretty clear what the president did. But now, he's almost doubling down and trying to make it a real threat using real resources and incurring real costs for the United States to follow through on what was an October campaign slogan.

ROMANS: Right, right.

ZELIZER: And so a lot of military officials are not going to be happy using them and risking them for something like this.

BRIGGS: A very transactional relationship --

ZELIZER: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- he has with the military.

I want to talk about something else that the president, I thought, revealed in this interview with Chris Wallace, and it's here we are two weeks later after the midterms and we're still learning a lot about it because Democrats have picked up 37 seats in the House -- it could be 40. Republicans strengthened their hand in the Senate, which was rarely three times in the last 100 hundred years.

But how does the president both claim credit and then deflect the blame at the same time? Listen --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I wasn't on the ballot.

WALLACE: Well, wait, you -- wait -- you said -- you kept saying --

TRUMP: No, I said look at me.

WALLACE: You said --

TRUMP: I said look at me.

WALLACE: You said pretend I'm on the ballot.

TRUMP: But I have people and you see the polls, how good they are. I have people that won't vote unless I'm on the ballot, OK, and I wasn't on the ballot. And almost everybody that I won -- I think they said it was 10 out of 11 -- and I went against President Obama, and Oprah Winfrey, and Michelle Obama in a great state called Georgia, for the governor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Now, imagine Tom Brady after a Super Bowl saying hey, I'm taking credit for all the touchdowns but the interceptions, those are -- those are somebody else's fault.

ZELIZER: Right.

BRIGGS: What does that reveal about the leadership style?

ZELIZER: Look, the leadership style is to blame on this for the problems and take credit whenever he can find something to take credit for.

But he was on the ballot. There is no question about that. There's no question that the House totals were a rebuke to the President of the United States.

It's true, he maintained the Senate and that says something about the continued polarization of the country. But he can't say he had nothing to do -- this was a mandate on President Trump. The House went to the Democrats. Many suburban Republican districts didn't go for the Republican Party and that says a lot.

ROMANS: Yes.

ZELIZER: I'd add he could still -- look, Clinton and Obama both came back from terrible midterms and were reelected, so Democrats --

BRIGGS: Not a lot -- 63 --

ZELIZER: Right.

BRIGGS: -- seats in the House.

ZELIZER: Right, but this wasn't --

ROMANS: Well, throw up Orange County. Can you guys throw up the Orange County picture? We just love looking at this picture because it -- what does this say about what kinds of Republicans the Republicans are losing?

ZELIZER: Yes, look, it's the educated suburban Republican who is at least vulnerable. We don't know if they're totally losing them --

ROMANS: Yes.

ZELIZER: -- but this is a big warning sign that they -- the cost of the Trump presidency to the GOP.

ROMANS: That is Reagan country.

BRIGGS: Of course, in those rural states it's all red.

ROMANS: All red.

ZELIZER: It's all red.

ROMANS: Yes, you're right.

BRIGGS: Julian Zelizer, good to see you, my friend.

ROMANS: Nice to see you, Julian.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

ROMANS: Thank you.

All right.

By tomorrow, President Trump expects a full report on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He says the U.S. has a copy of the audio that captured part of "The Washington Post" journalist's brutal killing.

The president won't say -- says he will not be listening to the recording, himself.

[05:40:03] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't want to hear the tape. No reason for me to hear the tape. But I've been fully briefed.

WALLACE: Why don't you want -- why don't you want to hear it, sir?

TRUMP: Because it's a suffering tape. It's a terrible tape. I've been fully briefed on it. There's no reason for me to hear it.

In fact, I said to the people, should I? They said, you really shouldn't. There's no reason.

I know exactly -- I know everything that went on on the tape without having to.

WALLACE: And what happened?

TRUMP: It was very violent, very vicious, and terrible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The president says he does not know if Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was lying when he denied any involvement. That conflicts with the CIA's assessment on Friday that the prince personally ordered the journalist's killing. The conclusion based partially on the audio the president will not listen to.

ROMANS: All right.

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is said to be considering a possible run for president in 2020 -- he's making a $1.8 billion donation to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University. The gift being called the biggest contribution to an academic institution in American history.

It will fund financial aid for qualified low- and middle-income students, allowing Johns Hopkins to admit students on a need-blind basis.

BRIGGS: Bloomberg writing in a "New York Times" op-ed, quote, "American is at its best when we reward people based on the quality of their work, not the size of their pocketbook."

Bloomberg has long focused his philanthropy on improving access to top colleges and universities for students who can't afford it.

ROMANS: All right, imagine driving through this with children on board, trying to get 20 students away from a raging wildfire. We have the latest efforts to contain the Camp Fire. Literally thousands still unaccounted for.

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[05:45:47] BRIGGS: All right, the latest from California now.

Authorities in Butte County say they have found the remains of another victim in the Camp Fire. The death toll in California's deadliest wildfire now at 77. Nearly 1,000 people are still unaccounted for so officials do expect the death toll to climb.

The fire has wiped out nearly 10,000 homes and scorched an area the size of Chicago. The fire now 65 percent contained and fire officials don't think it will be fully contained until November 30th.

ROMANS: President Trump has been criticized for blaming forest management for the fires. He mentioned raking undergrowth as he surveyed the devastation Saturday. Now it appears he made up the story about a world leader backing that claim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I was with the president of Finland and he said we have a much different -- we're a forest nation. He called it a forest nation. And they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don't have any problem. And when it is, it's a very small problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: "Rake America Great Again" was a trending hashtag over the weekend.

One problem there -- Finland's president says he and Trump never spoke about raking even though they did talk about the wildfires and how Finland manages its forests.

As for the fires, incredible stories of heroism are now emerging. Here's CNN's Paul Vercammen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Dave and Christine, so many stories of absolutely stomach-churning despair, but here's one of great heroism.

There was a bus driver just about two or three months into his job. He goes to Ponderosa Elementary School. That's in Paradise.

The flames are burning ever so close to the school. It would eventually be damaged.

But he gets 22 schoolchildren and two teachers on that bus and they begin a harrowing drive to safety.

MARY LUDWIG, TEACHER, PONDEROSA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, PARADISE, CALIFORNIA: My first thought was just getting them on the bus and getting them out of there because the sky was really menacing.

CHARLOTTE MERZ, FOURTH GRADE STUDENT, PONDEROSA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, PARADISE, CALIFORNIA: It was so crazy and there were like fires left and right. Everywhere you looked there was like smoke everywhere.

VERCAMMEN (on camera): So the odyssey through the inferno continued.

Some of the young lungs of these little schoolchildren started filling up with smoke. They were on the brink of passing out. So they made makeshift respirators, dampening pieces of the bus driver's t-shirt and putting it over their mouths.

KEVIN MCKAY, SCHOOL BUS DRIVER, PONDEROSA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, PARADISE, CALIFORNIA: We started getting fire on both sides of the bus. The kids were starting to get pretty antsy. At a couple of points, I think that we had some honest discussions about is this the time to get out of the bus.

VERCAMMEN: Eventually, they made it to safety -- parents just so relieved. And that bus driver, Kevin McKay, made a joke. He said I'm sure glad I paid attention closely in class when I was taking those safety lessons, and pointing out that after all, safety is the first issue for a bus driver.

Dave, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Paul. Thank you for that.

Apple CEO Tim Cook says new regulations are coming for tech companies. Silicon Valley faces anger and skepticism after multiple privacy breaches and manipulation by foreign adversaries.

In an interview with "Axios" on HBO, Cook said regulations are inevitable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL ALLEN, CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, AXIOS: Do you think that's inevitable?

COOK: Generally speaking, I am not a big fan of regulation. I'm a big believer in the free market, but we have to admit when the free market's not working and it hasn't worked here. And I think it's inevitable that there will be some level of regulation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Cook has also pushed for comprehensive privacy legislation. He told CNN last month that privacy is the issue that will define this century and the data industrial complex, as he calls it -- data industrial complex needs government regulation.

Meantime, big backlash against Facebook after "The New York Times" report that a big investigation suggested Facebook spectacularly failed to recognize and stop Russian interference and that Facebook hired a P.R. hit firm to write negative stories about its critics.

Facebook's former chief security officer, Alex Stamos, writes in "The Washington Post" that lawmakers, the intelligence community, and the media were all to blame in 2016, not just Facebook, and called out Congress to update Nixon-era laws.

All right, global markets higher to start the week.

[05:50:01] In Asia, the Nikkei up a little bit. Shanghai, as well. The Hang Seng also higher here.

The DAX -- let's turn to Europe now. You've got German, British, and Paris stocks all higher.

On Wall Street, futures are also up. On Friday, the Dow gained 124 points. The S&P 500 closed up a little bit and the Nasdaq closed down.

Facebook also fell nearly four percent amid backlash from that "New York Times" report that it failed to stop -- recognize and stop Russian interference.

There's also a really good story in "The Wall Street Journal" this morning about this sort of management clash going on inside Facebook.

BRIGGS: And a combative approach.

ROMANS: Yes, that not long ago, Mark Zuckerberg decided that they were at war. That they were going to confront the problems with Facebook criticism, like the company at war, and that's --

BRIGGS: It kind of fits the narrative in this country right now.

ROMANS: Yes, yes.

BRIGGS: Ahead, don't expect to see Condoleezza Rice coaching the NFL's Cleveland Browns, but she is using a surprising ESPN report to push for more women in the coaching ranks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:55:31] ROMANS: A big weather system bringing snow and rain to areas affected by a deadly storm just a couple of days ago.

Here's meteorologist Ivan Cabrera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, guys. Good morning on this Thanksgiving week.

We are looking at a weak frontal boundary moving through and by the time we get into tomorrow, we could be looking at accumulating snowfall, not along the coast but well to the west across the interior. I'll pinpoint that exactly.

But there's the boundary, mostly in the form of rain. And then on the northwestern side of it cold enough air to support some snowfall. This won't be, really, a huge deal until tonight into Tuesday.

Watch the forecast radar here as the disturbance beings to move out of the Great Lakes. There you see the snow beginning to break out. In fact, heavy enough for portions of western Massachusetts -- we're talking Berkshires, Southern Green Mountains into Vermont. Winter weather advisory there for perhaps two to even four inches of accumulation.

But again, east of it we're looking at mainly a rain event so we're not going to be dealing with any snow potential here.

As you can see the temperatures, we're into the 40s in Boston. But look at what happens here. Thankfully, the cold air will arrive by the time we get into Thanksgiving but by the time it does so, the moisture will be out here. So it will be a sunny but cold pattern setting up as we head through the day onto Thursday, like western New York and into D.C. as well -- guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right.

BRIGGS: All right, Ivan, thanks.

Could peanuts be the cure for peanut allergies? An experimental treatment published in the "New England Medical Journal" exposed children to tiny doses of the allergen in the form of peanut powder capsule. The doses would then slowly increase and by the end of the study, two-thirds of patients were able to eat a dose -- the equivalent to two peanuts -- without offering a severe allergic reaction.

The lead author says the treatment is not a cure but could provide a safety net for kids who suffer life-threatening reactions to trace amounts of peanuts. ROMANS: All right.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice knocking down an ESPN report that the Cleveland Browns are considering her to be a head coach.

She did use the report, though, as a chance to encourage the NFL to bring more women on board as coaches, saying quote, "I do hope that the NFL will start to bring women into the coaching profession as position coaches and eventually coordinators and head coaches. One doesn't have to play the game to understand it and motivate players.

By the way, I'm not ready to coach but I would like to call a play or two next season --

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: -- if the Browns need ideas! And at no time will I call for a 'prevent defense.'"

BRIGGS: Yes, no prevent defense. But she could be commissioner of the NFL someday. A lot of people have floated that name. I would not be surprised.

NFL -- I mean, "SNL" meanwhile -- from the NFL-- poking fun at that feud between Amazon's Jeff Bezos and President Trump. Bezos, played by actor Steve Carell, trolling Trump and his dire midterms warning about that invasion of migrants.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE CARELL, ACTOR, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": I am here to announce a brand new delivery option that doesn't involve the post office at all -- "Amazon Caravan." Any package going to any Trump building will get delivered by hundreds of Honduran and Mexican immigrants.

I'll pick up the bill unless you order "The Art of the Deal." That costs more to ship because it's heavier. I guess it's the only book with four chapter elevens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Pause for effect. That was probably the funniest moment --

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- of "SNL" -- all right.

ROMANS: He did a good job. It was funny.

All right, thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. "NEW DAY" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Did you know before you appointed him that he had that record and was so critical of Robert Mueller?

TRUMP: I did not know that.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: He was chosen for the purpose of interfering with the Mueller investigation.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: And it would be a disaster for the Republican Party for the Mueller investigation to be terminated.

TRUMP: We've never seen anything like this here. It's like total devastation.

GOV. JERRY BROWN (D), CALIFORNIA: We need federal help and we need a collaborative and cooperative spirit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are people's loved ones and stuff that we're searching for out here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Monday, November 19th, 6:00 here in New York.

And this morning, the president clearly has a lot of Schiff on his mind. After days of closed-door meetings with his lawyers on the Russia probe, the president said in the clearest terms yet that he will probably not sit down with investigators.

Not only that, he also indicated he's not going to do anything to protect the investigation and that if his handpicked acting attorney general Matt Whitaker wants to limit the probe that is, quote, "going to be up to him."

Moreover, the president also targeted Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff. Take a look.

TEXT: "So funny to see little Adam Schitt (D-CA) talking about the fact that acting attorney general Matt Whitaker was not approved by the Senate, but not mentioning the fact that Bob Mueller (who is highly conflicted) was not approved by the Senate!"

BERMAN: Six graders of the world unite. Read that first line there. This is the same president who, last week, said there must be decorum in the White House -- decorum. This --