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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Mueller Docs Show Effort to Contact WikiLeaks; Trump Spilling His Guts; Hyde-Smith Wins Senate Runoff in Mississippi; Stunt Gone Wrong; Ukraine Declares Martial Law Along Russia Border; Shelter Housing Migrants is 3 Times Above Capacity; New Clues Into Cause of Lion Air Disaster. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 28, 2018 - 04:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:39] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: What does Robert Mueller know about Trump associate Roger Stone? New draft court documents just obtained by CNN.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump spilling his guts to "The Washington Post", claiming his gut instincts are better than anyone else's brain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's not data- driven. We would like to see something more data driven.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The Trump administration's climate change report is dead wrong, says the Trump administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CINDY HYDE-SMITH (R), MISSSISSIPPI: We can go forward, and we're not looking back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A Republican win in last night's Senate runoff with the balance of the power in the House turning bluer.

Welcome back to EARLY START this morning. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. The midterms are still ongoing this hour, 4:31 Eastern Time.

Big developments in the Russia investigation. We have now a much clearer idea this morning what special counsel Robert Mueller may know about Trump confident Roger Stone's effort to get documents from WikiLeaks.

CNN has obtained draft court documents apparently written by Mueller's office. They cite emails between Stone and his associate, right-wing author Jerome Corsi, during the 2016 campaign. In them, Stone pushes Corsi to get in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and Corsi reports back Assange has document dumps that will damage Hillary Clinton in the works.

Sara Murray has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christina and Dave.

Jerome Corsi's legal troubles could be giving us a glimpse into special counsel Robert Mueller's potential collusion case. Corsi, who's an associate of Roger Stone, shared a pile of draft documents with CNN that allegedly show Stone pushing Corsi to try to obtain documents from WikiLeaks that could be helpful to the Trump campaign. This was in the summer of 2016.

Now, the documents included draft court filing that provides insight into what Mueller may know about Stone's efforts to obtain information from WikiLeaks in 2016. Now, Corsi says that summer wasn't the only time that Stone told him to go to WikiLeaks and try to get the goods. He claims he spoke to Stone on October 7th, in the hours before the now-infamous "Access Hollywood" tape became public.

Stone wanted him to try to mitigate the fallout with some help from WikiLeaks.

JEROME CORSI, CONSERVATIVE AUTHOR: We get to October 7, which was a very, very busy day from here in New York. And Roger calls me three times. We had three -- three times we have a discussion.

Now, my recollection is that Roger is saying, you know, Billy Budd is going to be dropped and Assange better get going. Why don't you get to your buddy Assange and tell him to start? Well, I didn't have any contact with Assange. But Roger going back to July and August may have, you know, may have led him on.

MURRAY: Stone denies Corsi's version of events, telling CNN, it is pure, unadulterated B.S.

Now, Corsi still insists he never had any contact with Assange, and Stone still says he never had any advanced knowledge of WikiLeaks document dumps.

So, far neither men is facing charges. Corsi says he won't sign on to a plea agreement the special counsel has offered him. They want him to plead guilty to perjury but he says he never knowingly lied to investigators.

As for what's next, Corsi says he doesn't know, but he knows the special counsel's office is none too happy that he's gone on this publicity tour.

Back to you, guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Thanks, Sara.

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort denies ever meeting WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, contrary to a report in "The Guardian" that says the two men met several times in secret inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. One of the alleged meetings took place in 2016 around the time Manafort took the helm of the Trump campaign.

Manafort denying strongly the report this story is totally false, he writes, and deliberately libelous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him. I have never been contacted by anyone connected to WikiLeaks either directly or indirectly. I have never reached out to Assange or WikiLeaks on any matter. We are considering all legal options against "The Guardian" who proceeded with the story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false.

BRIGGS: Democrats are warning President Trump that even dangling a pardon for Paul Manafort could lead to a charge of obstruction of justice. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders says she's confident the president was involved in no wrongdoing and was not part of any campaign collusion.

[04:35:04] She was asked whether a pardon for Manafort is on the table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Given that the president said this morning that Robert Mueller is ruining people's lives, is he considering a pardon for Paul Manafort or for others who are prosecuted and have been prosecuted?

SANDERS: I'm not aware of any conversations for anyone's pardon involving this process at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: But Rudy Giuliani is not ruling anything out. He tells CNN the president has been upset for weeks about what he considers the un- American, horrible treatment of Manafort.

ROMANS: President Trump explaining why he is so skeptical of his own administration's report on the dire consequences of climate change. He tells the "Washington Post", quote, one of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence, but we're not necessarily such believers. You look at our air and our water, and it's right now at a record clean.

For the record, the Yale environmental performance index ranks the U.S. 83rd in the world in air pollution, and 29th in water and sanitation.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders insists the federal government's climate change study produced by more than 300 scientists and experts is not based in fact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: It's not data driven. We'd like to see something that is more data driven, that's based on modeling which is extremely hard to do when you're talking about the climate. Again, our focus is making sure we have the safest, cleanest air and water. The president's going to do exactly that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: When asked about the wildfires in California, the president once again claimed the problems could be solved by raking the California forest.

BRIGGS: The president blaming recent drops in the stock market and plant closings at General Motors on the Federal Reserve. Mr. Trump says he is not even a little bit happy with his pick for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, telling "The Washington Post," quote: So I'm doing deals and I'm not being accommodated by the Fed. I'm not happy with the Fed. They're making a mistake because I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else's brain can ever tell me.

ROMANS: Jerome Powell will speak today at the New York Economic Club. So, we'll see if he avoids any politics here. It is an independent agency -- I should point out that the president criticized Janet Yellen when she was the Fed chief. He said that she was given a gift to Obama and being politically too helpful to Obama in keeping interest rates low. Now that he's president, he'd like the same thing, too.

BRIGGS: Need a boogieman. He found them in Jerome Powell.

ROMANS: All right. At least one high profile Trump critic is not impressed with the president's gut.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What he said today that his gut and his opinion is a lot smarter than most people's brains.

(LAUGHTER)

I mean, literally you can't make this stuff up. I mean, it's -- you know, a dozen times a day, your head is spinning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Hillary Clinton in Toronto with former President Clinton kicking off a paid month-long speaking tour on Tuesday. They plan to hit 13 cities. When Secretary Clinton was asked if she will run for president in 2020, she joked that she was thinking about standing for parliament in Canada. Got a big laugh for that.

BRIGGS: Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith will keep her Senate seat holding off a Democratic challenge in Mississippi. CNN projects Hyde-Smith will defeat Democrat mike espy in the runoff elections. The race drew national attention centered largely on Hyde-Smith's comments evoking the state's dark history of racism and slavery. She acknowledged it was a difficult campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOI CLIP)

HYDE-SMITH: You can get brutalized, beat up. That's kind of part of this business. We're putting it behind. We can go forward, and we're not looking back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Hyde-Smith will now finish out the final two years of Thad Cochran's term. He retired from the Senate earlier this year. She'll have to run again in 2020 for a full six-year Senate term.

The Mississippi race is the last Senate contest to be decided in the 2018 midterm. So, come January, the Senate balance of power will look like this -- 53 Republicans, 47 Democrats, giving the GOP a net gain of two seats in the Senate.

ROMANS: Meantime, the Democratic majority in the next House keeps growing. The party picked up another seat with Xochitl Torres Small beating Republican Yvette Herrell in New Mexico second congressional district. That makes a net gain so far of 35 seats for the Democrats.

And can they reach 40? Just one House race left to call in California's 21st district. Democrat T.J. Cox has pulled ahead of Republican Congressman David Valadao by just over 400 votes in the latest tally. Gosh, every vote counts, folks. We see how slim some of these margins are.

CNN and other news organizations called the race for Valadao on election night. CNN withdrew the projection as the count tightened.

All right. So, at the moment, the balance of power in the House looks like this. Democrats 234, 200 seats, one undecided. And about that blue wave, maybe blue tidal wave, Democrats made big gains in the 2018 midterms, picking up 39 seats.

[04:40:02] In governors' races, Democrats had a net gain of seven, while Republicans lost six. And in the state legislatures, Democrats gained at least 332 seats.

For perspective from our own pollster Harry Enten, he tells us before the election 58 percent of the American population had a GOP governor. After the election, it is down to 47 percent, less than half.

BRIGGS: Later today, Democrats will be behind closed doors to decide whether Nancy Pelosi will be the next House speaker. There is tension and opposition within the Democratic caucus, but the minority leader is widely expected to win the vote. A public vote on the House floor on January 3rd remains filled with uncertainty and intrigue.

Pelosi penning a letter to fellow Democrats asking for their support. She writes, quote, history is in a hurry, and we need accelerate the pace of change in Congress. The public has entrusted us to save our democracy.

ROMANS: All right. Is a breakthrough near on the trade war with China? Economic adviser Larry Kudlow floated the idea at the White House yesterday. President Trump and his Chinese counterpart will meet at the G20 in Argentina later this week. And Kudlow says China has to make the first move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER: In his view, there's a good possibility that a deal can be made and that he is open to that. He is open to that. Having said that, some caveats as always. Certain conditions have to be met with respect to fairness and reciprocity as we said many times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president and Chinese President Xi Jinping will dine together Saturday evening. Formal dinner on the sidelines of that G20 Summit. This will be their only scheduled meeting before January 1. That, Dave, is when tariffs imposed by Trump on more than $200 billion of Chinese imports jump to 25 percent. Right now, they're 10 percent.

Now, the president actually escalated tensions and "The Wall Street Journal" to be published Monday, he told the paper he will consider new tariffs on iPhones and laptops if a deal can't be reached with Xi. That planned dinner between the presidents is the only formally scheduled meeting at the G20.

Kudlow says additional meetings could be added, but nothing has been planned so far.

BRIGGS: Reasonable expectations. Can a deal be done on the sidelines of the G20?

ROMANS: There's a lot of confusion --

BRIGGS: Massive complexities to this deal.

ROMANS: Who's negotiating it? In the end, the Chinese feel the president is the decider, right? So any kind of pre-work they have done on setting up parameters and deals, it's president in the -- president in the end who will decide.

BRIGGS: At best, a deal to hold off on tariffs, perhaps.

ROMANS: All right.

BRIGGS: Russia and Ukraine on the brink of war this morning as martial law kicks in. We're live in Kiev, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. With Russia and Ukraine inching closer to all-out war, President Trump tells the "Washington Post" he may skip his scheduled meeting with President Vladimir Putin at that G20 summit this week depending on what U.S. intelligence tells him about the situation.

Just a few hours ago, martial law went into effect in 10 Ukrainian border provinces. This after Russia seized three Ukraine navy ships in the Kerch Strait on Sunday.

Senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joins us now live from Ukraine. He's been monitoring this.

And, Nick, I think it bears repeating, this is -- this is the most overt, open conflict we've seen between the Russians and the Ukrainians, military-to-military conflict. It's dangerous.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, absolutely. Bear in mind, this is not a war that suddenly stopped in the last four years. It's been going on at a much lower level, people dying, though on, a weekly basis.

It's that flare-up in the Kerch Strait, which you say, which is the Russian military not disguising itself or using proxy separatists, but going for the Ukrainian military directly that's obviously brought this war back into the global spotlight. But the latest we're hearing is despite Donald Trump's muted, sometimes qualified criticism of Russian aggression, he still has not decided to cancel the meeting with Vladimir Putin which had been unthinkable, frankly, for his predecessor to have done after the invasion of Crimea in 2014. It's still potentially on.

And the Kremlin, in fact, says they are still preparing for it, as well. So, full speed ahead on that potentially too chummy meeting in Argentina. And here, Ukrainian martial law is in effect. It's three hours old in 10 regions near Russia and near Russia separatist regions.

But I have to tell you, there are few visible signs. We know on paper that it's supposed to increase defenses in the air, cyber, and military, as well. And possibly according to the president make it harder for Russian citizens to enter Ukraine.

Palpably, it's tricky to see what's happening here. And despite calls for de-escalation, the rhetoric continues to rise, and Moscow's probably getting signals from the White House that maybe it can get away with more -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Nick Paton Walsh for us in Kiev, thank you.

BRIGGS: All right. To the latest on our southern border, we're learning the main shelter housing Central American migrants in Tijuana is at least three times above capacity, housing almost 6,000 people.

CNN crews visiting the makeshift shelter finding squalid conditions.

CNN's Leyla Santiago in Tijuana with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, this makeshift shelter, these tents, state officials here say already three times, at least three times over capacity. More than 5,000 Central American migrants are now calling this the home of the caravan.

And resources are now becoming a concern. Not only for the mayor of Tijuana and state officials but also for the migrants themselves. They tell me that food has become an issue.

[04:50:03] Many are saying that there is not enough of it, and the food that is available will take hours and hours in line to get. And then let me walk you through here.

This is -- these are the bathrooms. I want to point out what you may be able to hear, which is a helicopter flying over. That is sort of one of the things they see a lot of here. This has become part of the environment here, constantly hearing the helicopters that are flying over.

These are U.S. helicopters. Let me get back to what I was showing you earlier. This is a problem, the cleanliness. These are the bathrooms they have, and you can see water spilling out from the showers that are available, as well as the portajohns themselves.

So, not only is cleanliness and food an issue, many of these migrants are sick because of the journey. Many have blistered feet, as well as cold symptoms. Their bodies are just sort of aching as they wait here to be able to seek asylum in the United States despite what happened over the weekend with a clash with U.S. officials on the other side of the border.

Again, let me make this clear -- that right there, what you see just past that fence, is the United States of America. That is where these migrants want to go. U.S. officials are now saying it could be at least six weeks before they even begin to process the asylum claims of the caravan -- Dave, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Leyla. Really --

BRIGGS: What a mess.

ROMANS: That's revealing. Thank you for that.

Papa John's stock tanked Tuesday after the "Wall Street Journal" reports a potential buyer backed out. We'll get a check on CNN Business, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:56:32] BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, investigators looking into last month's Lion Air disaster now say the pilot fought the plane's automatic safety system over and over again before plunging into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people on board.

Ivan Watson live for us with the latest from Hong Kong.

Ivan, good morning.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave.

It's been a month since the crash killed 189 passengers and crew. And this preliminary report coming from Indonesian authorities reveals a lot about the final terrifying moments aboard that plane. Basically, the same aircraft had a recurring problem with some of its sensors that were supposed to measure altitude and speed leading some aviation experts to see this plane should have been grounded before the final deadly flight.

When the flight actually happened, it flew for a total of 11 minutes, and just 90 seconds in, the co-pilot radioed air traffic control talking about flight control problems and asking the radio controllers, the traffic controllers, to give them the altitude of their own plane. And that shortly afterwards is when a feature kicked in that is called a runway stabilizer. It's an oxymoron. Basically the autopilot thinks the plane is going into a stall, and it immediately sends the plane into a dive.

According to the data from the flight data recorder, the pilot was manually fighting that dive. So, they went back and forth more than 30 times. Autopilot diving the plane, the pilot manually pulling back on the controls, more than 30 times in 11 minutes.

The pilot's last words were five thou to radio traffic control. And that was about 30 seconds, 20 seconds before the plane crashed into the Java Sea. So it sounds like a total battle between human pilots and the autopilot during what was probably a terrifying flight for pilots and passengers -- Dave.

BRIGGS: Just a terrifying ordeal. Ivan Watson live in Hong Kong for us. Thanks.

ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning.

Global stock markets higher as investors looking ahead to the G20 summit. In Asia, the Nikkei and Shanghai both up 1 percent. The Hang Seng also higher.

The European markets open after those Asian markets closed. And the DAX in Germany is a little bit higher although otherwise mixed when you look at London and Paris. Look, you've got futures on Wall Street right now up just a little bit here, adding to the small gains from Tuesday. But the main event today is the Fed Chief Jerome Powell's speech, at the economic club of New York.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 109 points high on Tuesday. The S&P up, as well. The Nasdaq finished, oh my gosh, basically where it started. General Motors' shares, if you've been watching this drama, they closed down about 3 percent after the president threatened to cut all of its electric vehicle subsidies.

A buyer backs out, and Papa John's stock tanks. "The Wall Street Journal" reported asset manager Trian Management Funds is no longer interested in bidding for Papa John's. According to "The Journal", others are still considering taking a stake in the company, but not a total purchase. Papa John's shares closed down 10 percent Tuesday.

The pizza chain has been working hard to distance itself from its controversial founder, John Schnatter. Remember, he resigned as chairman in July after news he had used the "N" word on a conference call.

Earlier this month, Papa John's said same-store sales in North America fell by almost 10 percent during the most recent quarter. So, sales are down, a management upheaval and a buyer apparently backs out.