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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Mueller: Manafort "Breached" His Plea Deal; Trump Dismisses Climate Report; Major Cuts at GM; FBI Overhauls Tip-Line After Deadly Oversight; World Condemns Russian Aggression, But Not Trump; NASA's "Insight" Spacecraft Lands on Mars. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 27, 2018 - 04:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:14] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The deal is off. Prosecutors say Paul Manafort lied to Robert Mueller.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't believe it. No, no. I don't believe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The president outright dismissive of scientists who say climate change is a crisis.

ROMANS: The president lashes out at gm. The automaker shuttering five North American plants, slashing its workforce by some 15 percent.

BRIGGS: The missed lead tips about this man, the Parkland School shooter, now forcing the FBI to overhaul its public tip line.

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

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 30 minutes past the hour. Nice to have you back in the chair.

The big cliffhanger in Washington this morning. Did Paul Manafort lie to Robert Mueller? If he did, why?

Prosecutors say the former Trump campaign chairman has breached his plea agreement with the Justice Department. For more than a year, the biggest open questions about the Russia investigation have swirled around Manafort.

BRIGGS: For example, what's the full story on the Trump Tower meeting he attended with Russians who claimed to have incriminating information about Hillary Clinton? Well, we may never her Manafort testify about any of it.

Jessica Schneider has more from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, the lingering question after this filing, what did Paul Manafort lie about? The special counsel saying he lied on a variety of subject matters, but they won't disclose exactly what they were until they file a sentencing submission with the court a little bit later.

But remember, Paul Manafort, he's been working with Mueller's attorney since he pleaded guilty to two charges he faced in Washington, D.C. That guilty plea was back in September.

And, of course, on top of that guilty plea, we know that Paul Manafort, he was found guilty by a Virginia jury on eight counts back in August. But now, the special counsel is calling off the cooperation, no more talks, no more opportunity to cooperate. And they are ready for a federal judge to sentence Manafort.

Now, Paul Manafort's attorneys, they responded to this filing, and they said that Paul Manafort believes he was truthful and he does not agree that he breached any agreement. So, we'll have to see what the judge says in this case. But, for now, the special prosecutor's team saying to the judge, let's go ahead with the sentencing of Paul Manafort -- Christine and Dave.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Jessica, thank you for that.

President Trump dismissing a new study about the dire consequences of climate change. Findings contained ominous warnings about global health, and they conclude the U.S. economy could lose hundreds of billions of dollars every year with the extreme heat in the southwest, major declines in corn and dairy production.

So, what does President Trump think about his own government scientists' assessment?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Have you read the climate report yet?

TRUMP: I have seen it. I've read some of it. And it's fine.

REPORTER: They say the economic impact will be devastating.

TRUMP: Yes, I don't believe it.

REPORTER: You don't believe it?

TRUMP: No, no. I don't believe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The study was supposed to come out in December, but released by the administration on Black Friday when few Americans were paying attention. It was conducted by 13 federal agencies and departments with over 300 prominent climate scientists. One of them Katharine Hayhoe tweeted this on Friday: I wrote the

climate scenarios chapter myself. What the White House says is demonstrably false.

Katharine Hayhoe will be on "NEW DAY" later this morning.

ROMANS: All right. General Motors will cut production at five facilities in North America. GM will also reduce its salaried workforce by 15 percent, cutting a quarter of the company's executives.

In a statement Monday, CEO Mary Barra said this: The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future.

GM says it will end operations at plants in Detroit, in Ontario, in Warren, Ohio, White Marsh, Maryland, and Warren, Michigan. The plants made sedans that have waned in popularity, including the Chevrolet Volt, the Impala, the Cruze, the Buick Lacrosse, the Cadillac CT6 and STX. GM will no longer make those cars.

The production shutdown of these facilities will come at the expense of about 8,000 salaried workers, 6,000 hourly workers will either lose their jobs outright or be reassigned to other plants.

The president said he raised concerns with Barra after the announcements and said he is not happy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I was very tough. I spoke with her when I heard they were closing. I said, you know, this country has done a lot for General Motors. You better get back in there soon. That's Ohio. And you better back in there soon. So, we have a lot of pressure on them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Despite all of this, at the rally in Mississippi Monday night, the president said his administration has found the magic wand for manufacturing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The previous administration, they said manufacturing is never coming back. It's gone. You need a magic wand.

Well, we found the magic wand.

[04:35:00] And that's actually -- that's actually going to be increasing by a lot in the next short while because we have a lot of companies moving in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: It turns out the innovation and the rush to innovate is bigger and more powerful than the boasts of the president frankly. GM said it will close three plants outside North America as well by the end of year. One of those closures in South Korea had been previously announced.

BRIGGS: Voters in Mississippi head to the polls today in the final Senate race of 2018. Democrat Mike Espy in a runoff against Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith. It's Mississippi, so she is heavily favored despite a number of controversies. Among them, the video of her saying she'd be in the front row for a public hanging.

President Trump headlined two rallies for Hyde-Smith yesterday. Meanwhile, two nooses were found at the state capital the day ahead of the emotionally charged vote. Along with the nooses, signs like this read: We are hanging nooses to remind people that times haven't changed.

ROMANS: Democrats still making gains in the House this morning, that's right, three weeks after the midterms, a flip in California's 21st congressional district. The latest vote shows that the Democrat T.J. Cox ahead of Republican David Valadao.

One other race is uncalled by CNN, and that is in New Mexico. A Democrat is ahead there as well.

So far, Democrats have picked up a net gain of 38 seats in races called by CNN. One of those in Utah where Republican Mia Love conceded against Ben McAdams. She responded to the president, President Trump, who attacked her the day after the election before the race was even called.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Mia Love gave me no love and she lost. Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia.

REP. MIA LOVE (R), UTAH: What did he have to gain by saying such a thing? This gave me a clear vision of his world as it is. No real relationships. Just convenient transactions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Now, the president's own approval rating taking a hit in the wake of the midterms. Six in ten Americans now disapprove of the job he is doing, 38 percent approve. That's down five points since last week's Gallup poll.

ROMANS: All right. Texas Democratic Congressman Beto O'Rourke is no longer ruling out a run for the presidency. Before narrowly losing the midterm Senate race to Ted Cruz, O'Rourke repeatedly insisted he would not run. At a town hall Monday, he said he plans to finish his term in the House and then who knows.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BETO O'ROURKE (D), TEXAS: Making sure I deliver everything that I can to the people I represent until the 3rd of January. And then Amy and I will think about what we can do next to contribute to the best of our ability to this community. And so, that's what we're focused on. Thanks for the question.

Amy, how was that? Is that good?

(END IVDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That was his wife he is talking to. He's asking if the answer was OK, Amy, when asked by reporters if it's fair to describe his answer as a shift, O'Rourke said, yes, it is.

BRIGGS: All right. A federal judge dismissing one of several lawsuits claiming the president benefits illegally from his Washington hotel. The suit filed by Cork Wine Bar claims it lost business because politically oriented customers picked the Trump International Hotel instead of Cork for their events.

But the judge said Cork cannot claim a competitive advantage because Trump is famous. He said, by that logic, he has to rule against pop singers and celebrity chefs who own restaurants. The Trump International Hotel is run by a trust controlled by the president's family.

ROMANS: All right. Even visual proof of a Russian ship ramming a Ukraine tugboat, a direct confrontation there between two militaries, it's not enough for the president to condemn Moscow. We go live to Ukraine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:42:54] BRIGGS: President Trump offering a muted response to the escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Russia seized three Ukrainian navy ships in a key waterway. Other world leaders condemning the move swiftly as an affront to the sovereignty of Ukraine, so did the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

This was the president's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm not happy about it at all. Not at all. We let our position be known.

We do not like what's happening. Either way, we don't like what's happening. And hopefully, it will get straightened out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: CNN's Nick Paton Walsh live for us in Ukraine.

Nick, good morning.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dave, we are hours away from Ukrainian response to the crisis which introduces martial law in ten regions of the country for about 30 days. That will kick in at 9:00 local time tomorrow.

And, really, I think this is a country working out exactly what Russian intentions are. It's obvious Moscow is trying to work out exactly what it can get away with, with this clash in the Kerch Strait which involved in the fact as the Azov Sea being closed off which is shared by both Ukraine and Russia for access. Bear in mind, too, Dave, that we have seen Russia's proxies here, the separatists in the east of the country continuing over the past years a war with Ukrainian forces where people die on a regular basis.

What is troubling on what happened recently at Kerch Strait, near the peninsula of Crimea, is this was directly Russian military forces, not using proxies, but taking on or imposing their will upon the Ukrainian navy, taking 24 Ukrainian soldiers hostage. Most of the world, like we saw in the invasion of Crimea and the invasion of the east has condemned Russia's action. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, calling this aggressive and Angela Merkel of Germany calling for de- escalation and (INAUDIBLE) analyst to work out exactly what happened there.

But the difference here is President Trump. Is he willing to take the comparatively hard line that Barack Obama took with sanctions, trying to keep Russia certainly in check here or has the global calculus changed, emboldening Vladimir Putin and are we going to see more news potentially in the weeks ahead?

[04:45:04] Dave?

BRIGGS: All right. The president will have lunch today with the secretary of defense and secretary of state. So, likely an update.

Nick Paton Walsh, thank you.

ROMANS: All right. President Trump is shutting the door on the temporary deal in the ongoing trade war with China. This is just days ahead of the upcoming G20 summit in Argentina. The president told "The Wall Street Journal" in an interview published Monday that it was, quote, highly unlikely he would accept a deal with Xi Jinping aimed at averting a plan to raise tariffs on more than $200 million of Chinese goods to 25 percent in January. Right now, those tariffs are 10 percent, they are set to increase to 25 percent in January.

President Trump said, quote: If we don't make a deal, then I'm gong to put the $267 billion additional on.

That means even going further and adding even more tariffs. Adding that tariff level could be 10 percent or 25 percent. Trump said in an interview that could include tariffs on Apple products imported from China, including iPhones and laptops.

Earlier this month, Vice President Mike Pence says the president wasn't in any rush to end the trade war, and he was willing to more than double the tariffs it has already placed on Chinese goods. What is unclear to me is if this is a negotiating tactic by "The Art of the Deal" president, just days before he meets with the Chinese president, to show that it looks like the Americans have a lot of leverage here. They really do.

Another point I make is the president keeps talking about these tariffs that the Chinese government paying billions into U.S. coffers.

BRIGGS: It is money going into the treasury.

ROMANS: The money is going into the treasury, but it's from the American companies who import the products. So, there's a difference there.

BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, Taco Bell has moved back into the London market after two decades. So is beer the trick to booming business? CNN business is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:51:33] ROMANS: The FBI announcing an overhaul to its public tip line system. The bureau was criticized after the February massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. It received tips about the alleged gunman Nikolas Cruz, tips well before the shooting.

In a letter to the Stoneman Douglas high school public safety commission, the FBI says it is adding 12 special agent positions and 50 professional staff positions. It is also adding training on issues like identifying pre-attack mental health indications.

BRIGGS: Conservationists say California's sea lions are washing up dead in Puget Sound near Seattle killed by people. Since September, six sea lions have been found shot to death, the rest died from other wounds. Sea lions are sometimes shot by fishermen who think they cut into the population. But conservation groups say this is unusually a large number for this time of year. Under the marine mammal protection act, harming a sea lion can lead to a fine of more than $2,800 and a year in prison. But officials say catching offenders is difficult.

ROMANS: Wisconsin's school district has decided not to punish a group of mostly white students who posed for a photograph last spring, giving the Nazi salute. The photograph has since been taken down. The Baraboo school district investigated the incident. Administrator Lori Mueller (ph) says after the ten-day review, they cannot know the intentions in the hearts of the students in the photo and determined their actions are protected by the First Amendment.

BRIGGS: The Centers for Disease Control now say there are 116 confirmed cases of polio-like illness AFM. That's ten more cases than a week ago. Health officials say an additional 170 possible cases are under investigation. The disease can lead to a sudden onset of paralysis.

There are confirmed cases of AFM in 31 states, 15 are in Colorado, 14 in Texas. It is not clear whether there is a greater risk in those states or if they are better at identifying and reporting cases.

ROMANS: Eighty-eight now dead, hundreds still missing in the aftermath of the Camp Fire in California. Now, the Bay Area attorney has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against PG&E in behalf of two sisters who died in a fire. It alleges the utility failed to maintain infrastructure. Worth noting, as PG&E does, no official cause has actually been determined.

BRIGGS: Flight schedules are slowly returning to normal after a holiday blizzard caused travel chaos. At least 1,700 flights had to be canceled Monday in and out of the U.S. Bulldozers caught into action there in Chicago's O'Hare international where 1,300 flights were canceled. At the peak of the storm, more than 220,000 customers were without power in the Midwest, most in the Chicago area.

ROMANS: You see the thunder snow in Chicago? That was wild and cool.

All right. The snow is ending in parts of the Midwest, but it's now picking up in New England. Some areas could see more than a foot.

Let's bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning to you both, Dave and Christine.

Yes, the story here around the Northeast is the heavy snowfall still in the forecast through at least mid to late this morning. About 5 million people under the winter weather advisories and storm warnings that are in place. The system skirts out of here and the major metro cities are left with just blustery weather over the next couple of hours and eventually into the morning hours of Wednesday as well.

But pretty decent snow showers accumulation across the areas across the Eastern Great Lakes.

[04:55:02] As much as a foot is possible into the Adirondacks, the Catskills, through their way into the green white mountains. Also looking at about a foot of snowfall in the highest areas.

But the blustery weather into this afternoon, 15, 25 miles per hour guts. They could see some minor disruptions associated with this, but it will feel very, very chilly the next couple of hours before the warm air quickly builds back in here, going in from Thursday into Friday.

Highs, though, today only at 24, Chicago at 30, St. Louis in the lower 40s, down in Atlanta. These temperatures across portions of the southern U.S., for their coldest time of the year, which is mid January. They are still running about ten degrees colder than that period which are typically into the 50s in the Deep South -- guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIGGS: OK, Pedram. Thanks.

Dictionary.com revealing its word of the year and it's a sign of the times. The word: misinformation. It made a huge comeback in 2018 with an explosion of false information on the Internet. Dictionary.com says it's choosing the word as a call to action. Its

editors also highlighting the difference between misinformation and disinformation, noting the two are not interchangeable. Disinformation refers to deliberately misleading or biased information. Misinformation is wrong, but does not require intent.

ROMANS: Oxford Dictionary is using toxic as its word of the year to sum up the political mood --

BRIGGS: Both are signs of the times.

ROMANS: All right. There were cheers and tears of joy at NASA when the Insight spacecraft safely reached its destination: Mars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Touchdown confirmed!

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: It was the culmination of Insight's seven-month, 300-mile journey through space. The Mars lander will spend the next two years studying the interior of the Red Planet.

It wasted no time. I mean, it got right to work, beaming back the first picture from the Mars surface. The image includes the dust cover on the lens which will be removed this week.

BRIGGS: Very cool.

A Florida man deciding to try hang -gliding on vacation in Switzerland and wound up hanging on for dear life. Check this out. His pilot forgot to connect his harness to the glider. He says he thought he was go to die throughout the 2-minute and 14 second ordeal. He managed to hang on long enough to fall into an open field. He suffered a fractured wrist and torn tendon. He is not mad at the instructor and grateful for the skilled landing.

Get this, he will try hang gliding again.

Will you, though?

ROMANS: Wow.

BRIGGS: No.

ROMANS: That is something. Little bit like investing these days. Up or down?

All right. Speaking of, let's get a check of CNN Business.

A global market is mixed after Wall Street rebounded Monday. Let's take a look at Asia. The Nikkei rose just over a half a percent. But Shanghai and Hang Seng were both closing down a bit. European markets were mixed. German market up a bit, but again,

barely any moves there from the other major averages. What's happening in the future? That's the big question here.

Wall Street futures are mostly lower after a pretty good day on Wall Street. The Dow jumped 350 points. That's one and a half percent. The S&P 500 also closed higher. The Nasdaq surged more than 2 percent.

Amazon and Twitter climbed more than 5 percent a piece. Those are big moves for one day. And General Motors, that announcement that it is restructuring, reimagining itself in the self-driving era and will cut 15 percent of its salaried workforce to invest in the future, investors liked it. Stock closed up 5 percent.

Farm bankruptcies are on the rise in Minnesota and across the Upper Midwest. According to "The Star Tribune" in Minneapolis, 84 farms filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana in the 12 months that ended in June. That is according to new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. That's more than double the number of the same period in 2013 and 2014.

Now, the increase in chapter 12 filings reflects low prices for corn, soybeans and milk and beef. The situation for most farmers worsen since June under retaliatory tariffs that have closed the Chinese market for soybeans and damaged exports of milk and especially pork.

All right. Taco Bell has moved back into London market after about two decades, opening four new locations as part of a broader European expansion and is hoping to gain customers in the new locations with beer. The first thing you will notice at the New London location is the beer dispenser at the counter. The food tastes the same as the United States, lucky you, but there are some design differences, including an open kitchen layout, trendy wall paper with murals and long tables with bar stools to eat in big groups.

There are 7,000 Taco Bells worldwide. The company aiming to have 9,000 by 2022.

BRIGGS: I thought it was the beer that made you go to Taco Bell. It was Taco Bell after the beer. Not before the beer. Back in my younger days.

ROMANS: That is very true, Dave.

BRIGGS: EARLY START continues right now.