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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Said to be in Terrible Mood for G20; Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty to Lying to Congress; Trump Cancels G20 Meeting with Vladimir Putin Over Ukraine. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired November 30, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:10] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump at the G20 in Argentina right now after pulling the plug on his meeting there with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Cohen will continue to cooperate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Trump's former personal lawyer pleading guilty telling Robert Mueller he lied to protect the president.
ROMANS: Breaking overnight, a U.S. deputy marshal shot and killed in the line of duty in Arizona.
BRIGGS: And dramatic new body cam video of a sheriff's deputy narrowly escaping the deadly California wildfire.
Good morning, everyone. Happy Friday. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: It is Friday. But it is a very busy news day.
BRIGGS: Indeed.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. November 30th, 4:00 a.m. in the East. 6:00 a.m. right now in Buenos Aires, where we begin.
The president this morning in Argentina for the G20 summit. His first meeting with Argentine President Mauricio Macri in just about an hour but a source tells us the president is in a, quote, "terrible mood, spooked and completely distracted."
Yesterday, of course, his former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Russia. And the president canceled a sit-down with Vladimir Putin following Russia's seizure of Ukrainian navy ships and sailors on Sunday.
White House correspondent Abby Phillip is traveling with the president. She joins us live. She is 5,200 miles away from her normal post in Washington, D.C. and that means a four-second delay on the satellite.
So, Abby, take it away.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Well, President Trump arrived here last night under the cover of darkness last night. But also with a lot of storm cloud of controversy from politics back home really overshadowing this very consequential visit to the G20 here in Argentina.
Now President Trump left the White House talking to reporters about the guilty plea that his former attorney Michael Cohen announced yesterday. And the president seemed visibly agitated by that news. But our sources are telling us he is coming into G20 in a terrible mood, distracted by these controversies back home, and already cancelling some of his meetings on his agenda. The most important of which would have been that meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin scheduled for Saturday morning.
That meeting was supposed to be about two hours long. And now it has been scrapped. Now that could be because of this controversy in Ukraine as the president said, but it also could be an effort by President Trump to change the subject from the controversy back home that has really been already threatened to overshadow this visit.
The president and the White House also announcing that he has made some of his meetings with foreign leaders pull-asides rather than these former sit-downs. But he also does have some really important things still on the agenda. With China, he has major meetings on trade scheduled. Dinner and a bilateral meeting hopefully in an effort to settle this brewing trade dispute with China.
But the president over this weekend has already truncated this visit to South America. We know from his aides that he is not looking forward to this visit with the G20. There are tensions not only with leaders like Russian president Vladimir Putin but also with European allies who he has plans to meet with here on the ground.
Always these G20 meetings with President Trump can be problematic, they can be moments where these tensions are laid bare for the world to see.
And I think, Christine, over the next couple of days, we'll be seeing exactly how President Trump carries himself with all these controversies clearly distracting him on the world front --
ROMANS: Sure.
PHILLIP: The world stage as he is here down in Argentina.
ROMANS: Yes. All right. Just getting under way. Abby Phillip, for us in Buenos Aires. Thank you, Abby.
BRIGGS: Fascinating couple of days ahead.
More details now about President Trump's former lawyer and fixer turning on him once again. Michael Cohen pleading guilty to lying to Congress. Cohen admitting he misled lawmakers about the Trump Tower Moscow project during the 2016 campaign in order to protect Mr. Trump. More now from CNN's Evan Perez.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, the president's former fixer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about how much the president knew about the deal that was dubbed "Moscow Project" and about when it was terminated, telling the court that he lied out of loyalty to the president.
Now the plea agreement says that the man who once said that he'd take a bullet for the president gave information to Special Counsel Robert Mueller during more than 70 hours of questioning between August and November.
Now the deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow was just one of the many topics that was discussed, according to a source. The court documents reveal that, quote, "Cohen discussed the status and progress of the Moscow project with Trump," referred to as Individual 1, "on more than three occasions." And while Cohen told Congress last fall that the Moscow project ended in January of 2016, he now admits that the discussions about the project lasted as late as approximately June of 2016.
[04:05:06] Cohen now admits that he made the false statements to protect Donald Trump and give the false impression that the Moscow Project ended before the Iowa caucus and the very first primary in the hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations. Cohen also described plans to travel to Moscow to discuss the deal ahead of the 2016 Republican Convention in Cleveland.
The court papers say that Cohen's work isn't don't yet. His attorneys telling reporters that Cohen will continue to cooperate with prosecutors -- Dave, Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Thank you for that, Evan.
One idea for the Trump Tower Moscow Project was to give a $50 million penthouse unit to Vladimir Putin as a gift. A former Trump associate who worked on the deal with Michael Cohen says the plan was to place the Russian president in the building to enhance its value and prestige to would-be buyers.
According to a report by "BuzzFeed," Cohen discussed the idea with one of Putin's representatives. It is not clear whether then-candidate Trump was informed of that Putin penthouse plan.
BRIGGS: Special counsel Robert Mueller looking into the role of the president's children in the Trump Tower Moscow project. According to Yahoo News, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. worked independently from Cohen on the project but were aware of his efforts. Yahoo says it reached out to Don Jr. for comment and has not received a response. An attorney for Ivanka Trump refused to speak on the record.
ROMANS: President Trump immediately on offense reacting to news of Cohen's plea. His go-to attack that his former trusted attorney is weak and a liar trying to save his own skin.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's a weak person and by being weak, unlike other people that you watch, he is a weak person and what he's trying to do is get a reduced sentence. So he is lying about a project that everybody knew about it. I mean, we were very open with it. He's a weak person and not a very smart person.
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BRIGGS: That's tight. I like it.
ROMANS: Quick fact check here. Everybody did not know about the Trump Tower Moscow project. The proposal only came to light long after it was canceled and after President Trump took office.
Leaving the White House for Argentina yesterday, the president expanded on his view of Cohen's motives and he made the remarkable claim he could do anything he wanted before taking office.
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TRUMP: It's very simple. He's got himself a big prison sense and he's trying to get a much lesser prison sentence by making up a story. Now here's the thing. Even if he was right, it doesn't matter because I was allowed to do whatever I wanted during the campaign.
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BRIGGS: The ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees which Cohen admits he lied to wanted to bring the fixer back only this time for what they hope are truthful answers.
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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), RANKING MEMBER, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: It means that when the president was representing, during the campaign, that he had no business interests in Russia, that that wasn't true.
SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA), RANKING MEMBER, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: If anything the president has said is true that there's no "there" there, why are all his closest associates being found guilty of lying about their ties to Russia?
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BRIGGS: It remains to be seen if they'll ever get a chance. Cohen is scheduled to be sentenced on December 12th.
ROMANS: Former FBI director James Comey is asking a federal court to quash a congressional subpoena that seeks his closed-door testimony on Monday. Republicans on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee want to grill Comey about the FBI conduct leading up to the 2016 election. Comey has previously said he's willing to testify in public not privately.
His lawyers argue Republicans on the committee have established a practice of selectively leaking witness testimonies to support a false political narrative.
BRIGGS: Former Trump White House lawyer Makan Delrahim has emerged as a contender for attorney general. Multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN he is one of several people under consideration for the job. Delrahim was the Justice Department's top anti-trust cop and led the government's suit to block AT&T's takeover of Time Warner which owns CNN.
ROMANS: All right. A replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement is expected to be signed by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, this morning at the G20 summit. President Trump announced the trilateral deal known as the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement, USMCA.
I'd like to stay at the USMCA. There's a bit of joke in there. At the end of September, you will recall. After it's signed, the deal needs to be approved by lawmakers in all three countries. It is unlikely the agreement will come to a vote in Congress before the end of the year while Republicans still have control of the House.
The new trade agreement differs from the 1993 NAFTA in a few ways and includes a brand new chapter on digital trade. The most notable change? The way cars and trucks are manufactured. For a vehicle to be free from tariffs more of its parts will have to be made in North America and by workers earning at least $16 an hour.
There's no deadline for ratification. Congress will mostly likely wait to vote until the International Trade Commission releases a report on the impact of the deal. The economic impact of the deal. The commission has until mid-March to deliver that report to Congress. USMCA.
[04:10:11] BRIGGS: All right. Some breaking news. A U.S. deputy marshal was shot and killed in the line of duty overnight. Police say it happened in Tucson, while the marshal and a team of officers were delivering a felony warrant to a suspect who had allegedly been stalking a law enforcement officer. Police surrounded the home until the suspect Ryan Schlesinger surrendered to police. The marshal's name has not been released. Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus called it a tragic night for law enforcement.
ROMANS: Certainly.
All right. Life or death drama caught on a sheriff deputy's body camera. His escape through wildfire flames, next.
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[04:15:00] BRIGGS: President Trump says he canceled his G20 meeting with Vladimir Putin over the escalating tensions in Ukraine. Tweeting this morning, "Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel the meeting with Putin."
Ukraine's president praising the move as the act of a great leader and urging NATO to send more ships to the region to counter Russian aggression.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live in Ukraine at the Port of Mariupol this morning.
Nick, good morning. Where are we headed here?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we just heard from the Ukrainian government. They intend to band access to Ukraine for Russian citizens aged between 16 and 60, citing I think it's fair to say what happened in 2014 and 2015 the fact that Russian citizens came in and kind of acted like private army so to speak, fomenting unrest in those two areas Crimea, now being part of Russia illegally, the rest of the world says, and annexed. Now a separatist enclave.
But here in the poor city of Mariupol, the tension is extraordinarily high. Oddly, though, the Ukraine Navy, rather than going out and patrolling the seas, have taken to port in the heightened state of readiness they say because essentially they don't want to provoke any further clashes with the Russians.
Now they believe in fact the goal of the Russian Navy and that clash back in the Kerch Strait on Sunday was in fact to gain control over the whole sea and they complain about ships, having their access delayed and blocked. People can't guarantee coming in and out and that's affecting trade.
This town already, frankly, economically crippled by the length of the war here. It's a thriving industrial town normally, but now a bit of a ghost city to some degree. But people looking to see what the Kremlin's end game really is. (INAUDIBLE) even contemplating meeting in the first place when Barack Obama, for instance, in 2014 led the world in sanctions against Russia. The concern being that perhaps Russia is looking to gain control over the sea (INAUDIBLE) coast, and maybe link up Russia's mainland to the Crimean Peninsula they annexed in 2014 -- Dave.
BRIGGS: Nick Paton Walsh, reporting live for us there this morning. Thank you.
ROMANS: All right. A dramatic chopper rescue in a rain swollen Los Angeles river caught on camera. Take a look at the rescuer struggling to stop spinning as he's lowered into surging water. He finally locates the victim, a 50-year-old man who police suspect is homeless, clinging desperately to a tree. And they got him just in time because he was suffering from hypothermia. He is in fair condition, we're told this morning, at a local hospital. Heavy downpours in L.A. on Thursday trapped people in their homes and vehicles and forced evacuations.
BRIGGS: Elsewhere in California, flash flooding roaring through creeks and canyons downstream from wildfire burned areas. This is in Trabuco Creek in Orange County which was charred by the Holy Fire in August. And this is Riverside County where some neighborhoods affected by the Holy Fire were evacuated Wednesday ahead of the storm. In northern California, heavy downpours caused flash flooding in and
around the Camp Fire burned area. So far no reports of serious injuries or widespread property damage.
ROMANS: Just released body cam video of a deputy's narrow escape from California's deadly Camp Fire. Listen for a moment here. Deputy Aaron Parmley drove into the fire earlier this month to find and evacuate four nurses from the Feather River Hospital in Paradise. He had to walk through the flames when his car became disabled. That's when he activated his body camera to capture what he believed were the final moments of his life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, guys.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are they coming for us?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Watch out. Watch out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can we get in?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The bulldozer took Deputy Parmley and the nurses to safety. The death toll from the Camp Fire currently stands at 88. Wow.
BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, basketball star Steph Curry just made a fan for life. More on the heartwarming way he helped a 9-year-old girl. Next.
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[04:24:04] BRIGGS: The Dallas Cowboys cooling off the sizzling New Orleans Saints last night. A surprisingly low-scoring affair. 13-10. Quarterback Dak Prescott, 24 of 28 passing including this touchdown to Ezekiel Elliott. The Saints had a chance in the final minutes, but Drew Brees picked off by Jordan Lewis and the Cowboys would ran out the clock. Four straight wins for Dallas. New Orleans had its 10- game winning streak snapped.
ROMANS: All right. Steph Curry says he's making things right after a young fan asked why his Under Armour shoes aren't made in girls' sizes. That is really a good question. A 9- year-old girl named Riley, who has the same name as one of Curry's daughter, wrote him a letter. She wrote how disappointed she was to see no Curry 5's for sale under the girls' section on the Web site.
Curry wrote back, assuring Riley he and Under Armour are working to fix the issue. Young Riley admits she did not see that coming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RILEY MORRISON, 9-YEAR-OLD WHO WROTE TO STEPH CURRY ABOUT HIS SHOE LINE: So surprised because he's such a busy person.
[04:25:03] I was not expecting anything like that. I was just expecting Under Armour to see it, not say anything and fix it. So -- and then, I wasn't expecting him to say he'd give me the Curry 5's and then the Curry 6.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Whoa. Look at that smile.
BRIGGS: Dealmaker.
ROMANS: Curry is stopping at adding to his shoe line. He also invited Riley to join him on March 8th as the Golden State Warriors celebrate International Women's Day.
Look, it's the right thing to do.
BRIGGS: She did well on this occasion.
ROMANS: But, come on. I mean, what a market. Right? Sell more shoes.
BRIGGS: It seems odd. Was it just an oversight technically speaking?
ROMANS: I don't know.
BRIGGS: For marketing?
ROMANS: I don't know.
BRIGGS: Yes. Glad they fixed it.
All right, ahead, we expect to hear from President Trump in Buenos Aires this morning as the dark cloud of the Russia investigation grows here at home. The latest live from Argentina ahead.
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