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Trump in Terrible Mood for G20 Summit Meetings; Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty to Lying to Congress; Kremlin Responds to U.S.-Russia Headlines; Trump Cancels G20 Meeting with Vladimir Putin Over Ukraine. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired November 30, 2018 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[04:30:18] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump at the G20 in Argentina right now after pulling the plug on his meeting there with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Cohen will continue to cooperate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Trump's former personal lawyer pleads guilty telling Robert Mueller he lied to protect the president.
BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, a U.S. deputy marshal shot and killed in the line of duty in Arizona.
ROMANS: Dramatic new body cam video of a sheriff's deputy's narrow escape from a deadly California wildfire.
Just harrowing. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Good morning. Good morning, everybody. 4:30 Eastern Time, 6:30 in Buenos Aires where the G20 and where the president is this morning for that big G20 Summit.
His first meeting with Argentine President Mauricio Macri in just about half an hour but headlines, though, back home threatening to overshadow his visit. Yesterday his former lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Russia. And he canceled a sit-down with Vladimir Putin following Russia's seizure of Ukrainian navy ships and sailors on Sunday.
White House correspondent Abby Phillip traveling with the president, joining us live this morning.
Abby, good morning.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. There is so much on the agenda here for President Trump. And he arrived late last night not only to a full agenda at the G20, but also to a lot of controversy back home. This case involving Michael Cohen according to our sources has put the
president in a really terrible mood. He is distracted from all of the issues on the agenda, ranging from trade to tensions with Russia over the Ukraine.
Now President Trump is coming into these meetings as he often is not always looking forward to these sit-downs with world leaders. This is often a setting where he is at odds with many of the people who ought to be his allies, Europe and Canada and others. And the president has some high stakes meetings scheduled with China as well on trade.
But already we're seeing that some of these meetings are being truncated or canceled all together. The first of which being that meeting with Vladimir Putin that was scheduled for Saturday morning.
Now President Trump had been scheduled to be in a room with Vladimir Putin for about two hours. That meeting was scrapped, the president said, because of the situation with Ukraine. But it also could be an effort to change the subject away from this Michael Cohen news that broke just hours after that announcement.
President Trump really didn't have much condemnation for Russia, but he did say he looked forward to meeting with Putin in the future. And it remains to be seen whether we will get any more from him in terms of whether the United States expects to do anything to pressure Russia into cooperating with the rest of the world who is urging them to return those sailors that they seized over in Ukraine.
So President Trump coming into these meetings trying to change the subject from what's going on back home. He also made some of his meetings with South Korea, with Turkey, pull-asides. He has, though, this sit-down with China which is consequential on the issue with trade followed by a dinner. And then he is jetting out of here leaving the G20 after cancelling a planned trip to Colombia.
So this is a president really trying to get this G20 over with. And we will see him interacting with these world leaders, many of whom he's been criticizing pretty publicly on Twitter and elsewhere over the last several months -- Christine and Dave.
BRIGGS: All right. Abby Phillip for us this morning live in Buenos Aires. Thank you.
ROMANS: All right. 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.
We get more 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.
[04:35:06] 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.
BRIGGS: All right. Evan Perez, thanks.
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. Not clear whether then-candidate Trump was informed of that Putin plan.
ROMANS: Special Counsel Robert Mueller is 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 a comment and has not received a response. An attorney for Ivanka Trump refused to speak on the record.
BRIGGS: 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. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Quick fact check here Everybody did not know about the Trump Tower Moscow project. The proposal only came to light after it was canceled and after President Trump took office.
Leaving the White House for Argentina yesterday, the president expanding 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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ROMANS: The ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees which Cohen admits he lied to want to bring the president's longtime fixer back only this time for 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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ROMANS: It remains to be seen if they will ever get a chance. Cohen is scheduled to be sentenced on December 12th.
BRIGGS: Joining us now live from Taman, Russia, CNN's Fred Pleitgen with the Kremlin response to both of these big Russia developments, Michael Cohen and that cancelled meeting with Putin.
Fred, good morning. What's the latest?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Dave, well, there is actually a lot of response coming out of the Kremlin even overnight as the Russians were traveling there to Buenos Aires. It's interesting because earlier today the Kremlin issued a statement saying that the Russians regret the fact that President Trump canceled the meeting. And they say that they are still to open to any sort of contact between Vladimir Putin and President Trump maybe sometime on the sidelines of the meeting, maybe at some other point so certainly the Russians still looking to do that.
It was interesting because I actually managed to get in touch with the spokesman for Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, as he was on the plane flying to Buenos Aires. And at that point, he told us that he had read President Trump's tweet about the cancellation. He said he hadn't heard anything official yet. And he said if that was the case, then the Russians would have several more hours for other important meetings.
So sort of nonchalantly trying to put it off but clearly the Russians not happy with that situation. It was interesting because during that same communication as Peskov was on the plane, he also confirmed to me that yes, Cohen, Michael Cohen had gotten in touch with him in 2016. And yes, that his office had actually also gotten in touch back with Michael Cohen to tell them that the Russians could not help them to get permissions to build that Trump Tower in Moscow.
So there was a lot of information coming out of the Kremlin on these issues last night. And again the Russians not very happy about the cancellation. Meanwhile, the situation near where I am obviously with that standoff going on between the Ukrainians and the Russians shows no sign of deescalating -- Dave.
BRIGGS: A lot happening there. Fred Pleitgen, live for us this morning. Thank you.
ROMANS: All right. The president's favorite Central Bank has paved the way for a fourth rate hike next month. The Fed sent a clear signal, though, that it would be flexible on plans to raise rates next year.
[04:40:06] We're talking about minutes from the Fed's November meeting and it showed almost all participants agreed another rate hike would likely be necessary fairly soon. Officials also raised, though, the possibility they could slow plans to raise rates next year and they discussed how to signal investors they would stay flexible in responding to economic -- changing economic circumstances.
The Fed chief Jerome Powell speech of course to the Economic Club of New York, remember, sent stock markets soaring more than 400 points on Wednesday. Powell said rates are, quote, "just below the so-called neutral range." That's a level Central Bankers believe will neither accelerate not slow economic growth. It was a subtle two-word shift from comments he made in October suggesting interest rates are still a long way from neutral.
President Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell over rate increases calling him a threat, crazy, loco. However, the continued strength of the U.S. economy has made it likely the Fed will stick to its plans to raise rates in December.
BRIGGS: Breaking overnight. A U.S. deputy marshal was shot killed in the line of duty overnight. Police say it happened in Tucson, Arizona. While the marshal and a team of officers were delivering a felony warrant to a suspect who had allegedly been stalking a law enforcement Police surrounded the home until the suspect surrendered to police. The marshal's name has not been released. Tucson's police chief called it a tragic night for law enforcement.
ROMANS: All right. Life or death drama caught on a sheriff deputy's body camera. His escape through wildfire flames, next.
BRIGGS: And help from above for a man desperately trying to survive in a rain-swollen river.
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[04:45:49] ROMANS: 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 Sea of Azov to counter Russian aggression.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live at the Ukrainian port of Mariupol. And the initial response from the White House was deemed weak in some corners, you know, giving Vladimir Putin space to operate in the Crimean Peninsula as he sees fit and now the president of the United States cancelling that meeting. What's the response?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, really Ukraine to some degree is on its own in spite from the rhetoric and condemnation of Russia so far. We've seen no palpable measures in terms of sanctions for the quite brazen move they seemed to put in on Sunday but also over the last few months in the Azov Sea behind me.
It seems now, according to the Ukrainian Navy, restricting to some degree passage through the Kerch Strait. That's certainly the Ukrainian take upon it and that is what Petro Poroshenko after praising Donald Trump perhaps say it's sort of strange given how Barack Obama led the world in sanctions against Russia in 2014 after they invaded Crimea.
To see Donald Trump even contemplating a meeting with Vladimir Putin still at that late stage but Petro Poroshenko today, the Ukrainian president, banning all Russian residents between the age of 16 and 60 from entering Ukrainian territory. Him citing with some degree, I think, of historical precedent here that he doesn't want to let the Russians in to create, quote, "their sort of private armies" that were behind the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of set enclave creations in the east of the country, but also behind me, I think a sense of concern about where this leads next.
Ukraine has not got the international support it received after the annexation of Crimea. It's its concern that maybe Russia is now trying to impose its military control on the whole of the Azov Sea and Ukraine's navy is staying in port, in the port behind me, to try and not provoke any further instance with the Russians.
And the concern maybe being that Moscow has its eye on controlling the coastline because that runs all the way down between Russia main and the Crimean peninsula which they annexed in 2014. And they can only reach now using a very expensive and quite precarious bridge. Does Moscow want a bridge between Russia and Crimea? We'll wait and
see in the weeks and months ahead but many are wondering what is the long-term strategic game here that had Moscow risked potential international condemnation again by this instance in the Kerch Strait.
Back to you.
ROMANS: You know, Nick, it's interesting from our perspective. You know, the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, squarely blamed Obama, President Obama for, you know, weakness of leadership when the Russians seized Crimea. You don't get the sense from the United States, at least I don't think, Nick, that this president is taking responsibility for what's happening there now.
WALSH: Well, certainly. I mean, look, this has been going on for four years. And you can argue much as you like was it too much American pressure on Moscow when Putin took a backseat and let Medvedev be president? That riled Kremlin and made them feel they had to be more aggressive. They see Obama not enforces red line in Syria when they used chemical weapons by the Assad regime and therefore Moscow think that potentially America was tired of military interventionism and could be pushed and did that encourage them to get involved in Crimea or the Donbas in 2014, or was it really the fact that they saw potentially Ukraine, the near abroad, Moscow lurched towards the NATO and the EU, and they wanted to stop and weaken it.
ROMANS: Right.
WALSH: Probably the latter and it's still playing out now -- Christine.
ROMANS: Absolutely. All right, Nick Paton Walsh, for us in Mariupol, Ukraine. Thank you, Nick.
All right. Back here 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.
[04:50:03] BRIGGS: Just released new body cam video of a deputy's narrow escape from California's deadly Camp Fire. 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.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, guys.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are they coming for us?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch out. Watch out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can we get in?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, come on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Wow. That bulldozer took Deputy Parmley and the nurses to safety. The death toll from the Camp Fire currently stands at 88.
ROMANS: Yes, it's harrowing.
All right. Would you be willing to pay upwards of $500 for Payless Shoes? $500 for Payless Shows.
BRIGGS: No. No, I would not.
ROMANS: Some social media influencers in Los Angeles did. We're going to get a check on CNN Business next.
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[04:56:23] BRIGGS: Fans of the Hugh Jackman film "The Greatest Showman," myself much included, are getting (INAUDIBLE) sequel. The musical (INAUDIBLE) and whose soundtrack continues to top the charts is going on tour. The Tony Award-winning actor announcing Thursday he'll be singing tunes from the film, also "Les Miserables" and other Broadway favorites accompanied by a live orchestra.
The traveling production is making 12 stops in Europe next spring. Other two dozen performances planned in North America in the summer. New York City, June 28th and 29th. I will be there.
ROMANS: He is terrific live.
BRIGGS: Yes. Sign me up for that.
ROMANS: I mean, he is terrific live.
BRIGGS: But you need a few screenings of "The Greatest Showman." One of the greatest --
ROMANS: I know.
BRIGGS: -- movies in recent years.
ROMANS: I have not seen movie yet.
BRIGGS: Love it.
ROMANS: But it's on my list.
BRIGGS: Love it.
ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. The global stock markets are mixed. All eyes here on the G20 Summit. Those are where the headlines that are going to come here.
In Asia, stocks are higher as investors wait on that crucial meeting between the presidents, President Trump and President Xi Jinping. You can see the Nikkei, Shanghai and Hang Seng all up a little bit. In European markets, European markets, this is their Friday for European markets. You can show me that screen. The DAX and FTSE both down. The CAC quarante also a tiny bit lower.
All right. On Wall Street, futures are down here. Stocks closed slightly lower on Thursday snapping a three-day winning streak. The Dow closed down 28 points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also down a little bit here.
Abercrombie & Fitch soared 21 percent. Wow. On a big earnings week so Abercrombie & Fitch up big time.
U.S. crude oil briefly fell below 50 bucks a barrel for the first time in more than a year. It rebounded to close about $51 Thursday on a report that Russia might be willing to cut its output. Crude fell more than 1 percent to as low as $49.41 a barrel. The last time oil closed below 50 bucks was October 2017. U.S. gas prices have also started to decline. According to AAA, a gallon of gas dropped 30 cents on average over the past month.
All right. Would you be willing to pay upward of $500 for pair of Payless shoes? Tricked social media influencers, that's who. Payless known for budget friendly styles opened a fake pop-up store called Palessi in an L.A. mall. They invited key influencers to the grand opening. The store was stocked with Payless shoes in disguise.
According to Payless About 80 influencers shelled out a total of $3,000 over two nights. Payless has been struggling against online competitors such as Amazon owned Zappos filing for bankruptcy last year. It reemerged four months later after shutting nearly 700 stores. Payless said the social experiments was meant to remind shoppers that its shoes are fashionable, too.
BRIGGS: Experiment?
ROMANS: And it was a smart social media move.
BRIGGS: They (INAUDIBLE) them.
ROMANS: And smart social media move. That --
BRIGGS: How are you feeling if you were one of the people who paid $500 for Payless shoes?
ROMANS: I don't know. I love them.
BRIGGS: You paid a lot more. You're not happy this morning.
EARLY START continues right now with the latest from the G20.
President Trump at the G20 in Argentina right now where we expect to hear from him any minute now.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Cohen will continue to cooperate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Trump's former personal lawyer pleads guilty telling Robert Mueller he lied to protect the president.
BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, a U.S. marshal shot and killed in the line of duty in Arizona.
ROMANS: Dramatic new body cam video of a sheriff's deputy's narrow escape from a deadly California wildfire.
Good morning, everyone. And welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It's Friday.
BRIGGS: We made it. I'm Dave Briggs. November 30th. 5:00 a.m. in the East. It is 7:00 a.m. in Buenos Aires. And that's where we start this morning.
