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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Mueller Documents Show An Effort To Contact WikiLeaks; Democrats Warn President Trump Against Paul Manafort Pardon; Democrats Tilt Balance Of Power; Shelter Housing Migrants Is Three Times Above Capacity; Gender Reveal Party Ignited 47,000-Acre Wildfire. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired November 28, 2018 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: A Republican win in last night's Senate runoff, but the balance of power in the House continues to turn blue.

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

ROMANS: A deeper shade of blue by the day.

I'm Christine Romans. It is 30 minutes past the hour.

But let's begin with this. We have a much clearer idea, this morning, what special counsel Robert Mueller may know about the Trump confidant, Roger Stone's effort to get documents from WikiLeaks.

CNN has obtained draft court documents apparently written by Mueller's office. They cite e-mails between Stone and his associate, the 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 in the works that will damage Hillary Clinton.

Political correspondent Sara Murray has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

Jerome Corsi's legal troubles could be giving us a glimpse into special counsel Robert Mueller's potential collusion case. Corsi was an associate of Roger Stone's and 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 include a 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 Stone told him to go to WikiLeaks and try to get the goods. He claims he spoke to Stone on October seventh 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 ACTIVIST: We get to October seven which was a very, very busy day from here in New York. And, Roger calls me three times -- we had -- three times we have a discussion.

Now, my recollection is that Roger is saying, you know, this Billy (Bush) is going to be dropped and Assange getter get going. You know, why don't you get to your buddy Assange and tell him to start.

Well, I didn't have any contact with Assange, you know, 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 man 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, Sara. Thank you so much for that.

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. She was asked whether a pardon for Manafort is on the table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN KARL, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, ABC NEWS: 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 were prosecuted -- have been prosecuted?

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm not aware of any conversations for anyone's pardon involving this process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: 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."

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 Senate runoff election.

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 VIDEO CLIP)

HYDE-SMITH: You can get brutalized, you can get beat up. That's kind of part of this business.

We're putting it behind us. 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 6-year Senate term.

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's second congressional district. That makes a net gain, so far, of 39 seats for the Democrats.

BRIGGS: Can they reach 40? Just one House race left to call -- that's California's 21st congressional district. Democrat T.J. Cox has pulled ahead of Republican Congressman David Valadao by just over 400 votes in the latest tally.

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

[05:35:08] ROMANS: All right, let's bring in "CNN POLITICS" digital director Zach Wolf, live in Washington. Good morning, Zach.

And let's talk about that blue wave which is now sort of a blue tidal wave over the past few weeks.

Interesting -- Harry Enten ran the numbers for us after we were talking about this late yesterday. Before the election, 58 percent of the population had a GOP governor. After the election, it was 47 percent. So it's not just these House numbers, right? It's not just all of the

state legislatures, which is true -- the governorships. You know, you look at that and that shows you just how blue that blue wave is.

ZACHARY WOLF, DIGITAL DIRECTOR, CNN POLITICS: Yes, it really changed, I think, the makeup of the -- of the country's political infrastructure. The thing that we always talk about is that Democrats now control the House.

Something just sort of nine million more people voted for a Democrat in this most-recent midterm than for a Republican. That's a huge margin, bigger than it was for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the popular vote in the -- in the -- in the 2016 election. So you can sort of see this huge shift here.

Now the question is going to be is this something that lasts?

ROMANS: Right.

WOLF: Does it go through until 2020, and that's kind of the next question.

BRIGGS: Yes, that 8.9 million vote margin larger than Watergate, which is the largest ever for the House Democrats.

But, Barack Obama lost 63 seats in 2010 and get reelected. So what does it tell us for 2020 beyond the Senate is turning redder and the House is turning bluer?

WOLF: I think you have to go back to Herbert Hoover to find a president who lost the majority and then went on to lose reelection. It doesn't happen very often. People -- they have a way of rebounding.

And, you know, Harry Truman went out after losing the majority and was able to villainize the Republicans, and you can bet that Donald Trump is going to do exactly the same thing here.

Now, Donald Trump, however, is vastly different as a politician than any president before him --

ROMANS: Yes.

WOLF: -- and he's so much more polarizing, I think, that it's going to be a lot different with him.

BRIGGS: Yes, a lot of those presidents then turn to the center --

ROMANS: Right.

BRIGGS: -- or triangulate, as Clinton did. We don't see that happening --

ROMANS: Right.

BRIGGS: -- by any means here. ROMANS: One of the reasons why citizen Donald Trump is President Donald Trump is because of places like Trumbull County, Ohio where there's this Lordstown Chevy Cruze -- where they make Chevrolet Cruze. A plant where the flip in that county -- I mean, 29 points -- rarely votes for a Democrat and flipped by 29 points to Trump for a Republican. He won there solidly.

Macomb, Michigan where there's the Warren -- the Warren, Michigan plant. Same sort of story. Huge flip from the Democrats to President Trump.

And they're losing their jobs. Those people there are losing their jobs after the president said you vote for me, I promise you, not going to happen.

Are his empty promises going to hurt him here or he is going to find a way to cast the blame on GM or on the Fed chief or find a boogeyman for this?

WOLF: Well, you did see Democrats in the midterms sort of rebuild a little bit of the Rust Belt with wins in governor's races in Michigan and in some other places, so that's really important, I think, for them. Can they -- can they get back Pennsylvania and Michigan -- these places that were so disaffected with Democrats -- part of the -- formerly part of the blue wall that essentially handed Trump the presidency?

And if there are a lot more plant closures I think that will be something that really worries President Trump. And I think that's probably also why he has gone so, so hard against GM for cutting those plants.

ROMANS: He said he was going to fix NAFTA. He fixed NAFTA, took the credit -- the victory lap for fixing NAFTA -- and you're still having five plants shut down in North America.

BRIGGS: Zach, I want to circle back to the top story. A lot of developments in the Russia investigation, including "New York Times" reporting that Paul Manafort's lawyers have been briefing the Trump team. Now we know that plea deal is off the table.

Trump on, and on, and on, tweeting about this yesterday. But, in part, he said, "Heroes will come of this and it won't be Mueller and his terrible gang of angry Democrats."

Does this appear to you like a pardon is coming to Paul Manafort?

WOLF: Well, you know, for Paul Manafort to sort of get messed up with the plea deal doesn't make it seem like he's really working with Mueller.

So the other interesting thing is there's some reporting in "The New York Times" and also to CNN a little bit that it's possible that Mueller has actually been back-channeling, essentially, with the president's team. If they're in cahoots that would certainly seem to suggest that there could be a pardon coming down the pike. And in that clip you ran of Sarah Sanders, she certainly didn't rule it out. And I think that's kind of what everybody expects at this point, is a Mueller pardon.

BRIGGS: And if that happens, real quickly, do you think Senate Republicans would be on board with that?

[05:40:03] WOLF: Well, there's nothing they could do about it and I don't think there's -- they're sort of in bed with Trump at this point.

ROMANS: Right.

WOLF: There might a hue and cry but they're probably not going to do anything against him unless the public sentiment was so overwhelming that they had absolutely no other choice.

ROMANS: And, Trump famously has said he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and it wouldn't matter. That --

BRIGGS: So far, that has proven true.

ROMANS: So far, that has proven true.

BRIGGS: Zach Wolf, thank you.

WOLF: Thank you.

BRIGGS: All right.

President Trump explaining why he's so skeptical of his own administration's report on climate change.

He tells "The Washington Post," "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 Environmental Performance Index ranks the U.S. 83rd in the world in air pollution, 29th in water and sanitation.

Sarah Sanders, by the way, insists the federal government's climate change study produced more than -- by more than 300 scientists and experts is not case 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 on making sure we have the safest, cleanest air and water, and the president's going to do exactly that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: When asked about the deadly wildfires in California, the president, once again, claimed the problem could be solved by continuing to rake the forests.

ROMANS: All right. The president blaming recent drops in the stock market and those plant closures at General Motors on the Federal Reserve. The president says he's not even a little bit happy with his pick for Fed chairman, Jerome Powell.

He tells "The Washington Post" -- "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."

You know, the Fed is still is being -- is accommodating.

BRIGGS: (INAUDIBLE).

ROMANS: That's why they're raising interest rates because --

BRIGGS: That's a gem.

ROMANS: -- it's so accommodative that the -- yes.

BRIGGS: Enough.

ROMANS: I have no more. I have no more.

BRIGGS: Ahead, just hours from now, a Senate briefing on the murder of a "Washington Post" U.S. resident, Jamal Khashoggi. The Secretary of State and his Defense secretary will be there, but it's who will not be there that is certainly raising some eyebrows. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:46:38] BRIGGS: Senate aides telling CNN the White House does not want CIA director Gina Haspel to testify at today's classified briefing for the entire Senate on the murder of "Washington Post" journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Sec. James Mattis will be at the closed-door briefing.

ROMANS: Senate aides say Haspel may be able to shed some light on the contents of an audio recording of Khashoggi's killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. But, aides say the West Wing is keeping Haspel under wraps for fear she might share details that don't match up with the White House response to Khashoggi's murder.

The White House denies claims it is preventing her from testifying.

Ahead of today's hearing, "The Wall Street Journal" published a remarkable op-ed by the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He says degrading ties between a Kingdom and the U.S. would harm national security and do nothing to push Riyadh in a better direction at home.

BRIGGS: All right, to the latest on the southern border. We're learning the main shelter housing Central American migrants in Tijuana is now 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 are 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 as well as state officials but also for the migrants themselves.

They tell me that food has become an issue. 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 also 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, and 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 port-o-johns themselves.

And 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, and 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 but U.S. officials are now saying it could be at least six weeks before they can even begin to process the asylum claims of the caravan -- Dave, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[05:50:01] ROMANS: Leyla Santiago.

All right, let's get a check on "CNN Business" this morning.

Global markets higher as investors look ahead to that G20 summit.

In Asia, the Nikkei and the Shanghai indexes both up one percent. The Hang Seng also up.

European markets opened mixed here. The DAX, in Germany, a little bit higher. The FTSE, in London, down. And, the Paris up just a tiny bit.

On Wall Street, futures adding 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 president bashing him, blaming him for plant closures from GM and a lot of other things.

The Dow closed 109 points higher on Tuesday. The S&P up just a little bit. The Nasdaq basically flat here. I'm calling that nothing.

General Motors closed down 2.6 percent after the president threatened to cut electric vehicle subsidies.

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

Papa John's stock closed down 10 percent Tuesday.

The pizza chain has been working hard to distance itself from its controversial founder, John Schnatter. He resigned as chairman in July after news broke he had used the n-word on a conference call -- about sensitivity, of all things.

Earlier this month, Papa John's said same-store sales in North America fell by about 10 percent in the most recent quarter.

All right, is Microsoft the new tech heavyweight? Maybe.

Microsoft briefly overtook Apple to become the world's most valuable company on Tuesday. Microsoft closed up 107 points, Apple closed down 174 points, and that put Microsoft on top.

The rise is fueled by its ability to avoid all these disappointing earnings results and increased regulatory scrutiny that have plagued many of the big tech rivals recently, Dave.

BRIGGS: All right.

An Arizona man wanted his party to be a real blast. He got that and much more.

ROMANS: It's a boy and an $8 million fine.

BRIGGS: Congratulations. The stunt that ignited a disaster is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:56:22] BRIGGS: All right. A gender reveal party went horribly wrong, sparking a huge wildfire in southern Arizona. In this video from last April, a target containing explosive tannerite meant to explode and blue powder to reveal Dennis Hickey and his wife were having a son.

It also ignited a fire that grew to some 47,000 acres causing $8 million worth of damage.

Dickey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge. He'll be paying restitution for the next 20 years.

ROMANS: Yes, so much for the college fund. It's paying to clean up the wildfire.

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: It's a boy. No, it's a wildfire.

The creator of the mega-hit Nickelodeon cartoon series "SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS" has died.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

"SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS" clip.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Steven Hillenburg was 57. He suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease.

He combined his love of drawing and marine biology to create that Emmy-winning series. Hillenburg also wrote, directed, and produced two animated features. More recently, "SPONGEBOB" became a Broadway musical.

BRIGGS: All right, think table tennis isn't exciting, think again. Check out 50-year-old Norwegian player Christopher Chen. He fell to the ground trying to return a drop down by the seat of his pants, literally. Blindly, he stuck his paddle in the air and pulled off what some are calling the block of the decade.

Chen actually lost the point though when his opponent returned a miracle shot. The youngster, though, still the talk of the Internet.

ROMANS: All right. The freshman class has arrived in Washington and like all newbies, they're getting made fun of, including by the late- night shows.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, NBC "THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON": Down in Washington, the new members of Congress have started meeting their fellow lawmakers. Of course, it can be hard to meet new people, which is why a lot of them come prepared with their own statements to break the ice. Here's North Carolina Congressman David Price. His icebreaker is -- "I have 60,000 unread e-mails because I do not know how to use the e- mail."

Next here, South Dakota Congressman Dusty Johnson. His icebreaker is -- "I only got elected with the name Dusty Johnson because my opponent's name was Harry Dangler."

Here's New York Congressman Eliot Engel. His icebreaker is -- "If you like my giant mustache, then it did its job of distracting you from my tiny eyebrows."

Next up us Utah Congressman John Curtis. His icebreaker is -- "Nice to meet you, my precious."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right.

BRIGGS: That's not nice.

ROMANS: Welcome to Washington, everyone, and welcome to late-night comedy.

BRIGGS: A little hazy.

ROMANS: Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Investigators are looking at these two men and saying are these guys the key to a collusion question?

CORSI: And, Roger was saying I want you to help me figure out a way to make it sound like I didn't know that these were Podesta's e-mails that Assange had.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have never heard of somebody cooperating against everybody the government asks and then sharing information with other people who are under investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All bets are off when it comes to leniency. The only thing he can be hoping for is a pardon.

REP. JERRY NADLER (D), NEW YORK: Even dangling a pardon in front of a witness like Manafort is dangerously close to obstruction of justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, November 28th, 6:00 here in New York. We have major developments overnight in the Mueller investigation. This morning, we have the clearest window yet into just what investigators are after and maybe the closest connection yet between people close to the Trump campaign and those Democratic e-mails stolen by the Russians.

We also now know --