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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Mueller Court Filings May Reveal Probe Details; Another County Under Scrutiny in North Carolina House Race; U.S.-China Trade Turmoil Expands; Derrick Henry Ties NFL Record with 99-Yard to Run. Aired 5- 5:30a ET

Aired December 07, 2018 - 05:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: New revelations expected today in the Mueller investigation. What else does the special counsel know about the Trump campaign and Russia?

[05:00:01] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: And President Trump about to name a new U.N. ambassador. Questions surround the choice of a former cable news host.

ROMANS: Breaking overnight, two former Major League Baseball players killed in a car accident.

BRIGGS: And a stunning announcement out of Hollywood. Kevin Hart says he's stepping down as host of the Oscars. As that search begins anew, the rumor was nobody wanted to host these Oscars, February 24th.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday, December 7th. It is 5:00 a.m. exactly in the East.

And it is a very busy day ahead for developments in the special counsel's Russia investigation. Closed door testimony from former FBI Director James Comey, just the opening act. We're also expecting two major court filings by Robert Mueller's team, involving former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen.

The filings may reveal new details about Mueller's probe of possible Russian collusion.

Our Sara Murray has more from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

It's already been a wild week in the Russia investigation, and that frenzied pace continues today. To start this morning, we are going to see former FBI Director James Comey up on Capitol Hill. He'll be providing testimony, but he'll be doing it behind closed doors for House Republicans. He and the committee struck a deal that he'd provide this testimony as long as they released the transcript soon after he does this deposition.

Now, that's just part one of the news. We're also expecting to get from Mueller's team a filing to explain what exactly happened with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Remember, the government dropped a bombshell. They said initially that Paul Manafort was agreeing to cooperate, then they alleged he lied when he was supposed to be Cooperating.

This filing should give up some more details about what went wrong. But we'll wait to see how much is revealed and how much remains redacted. The other big filing we're going to be waiting on today is what is going on with Michael Cohen's sentencing. This is a filing that's going to be coming from special counsel Robert Mueller's team, but also from the Southern District of New York. They're working together on this.

Now, Michael Cohen has asked for no prison time. So, this is an opportunity for the government to respond to that request, to say whether they think he should serve time in prison, and also potentially to lay out the extent of Michael Cohen's cooperation. So, plenty, plenty brewing on this Friday.

Back to you, guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIGGS: Thank you, Sarah.

Sometime today, President Trump expected to name State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert as his new U.N. ambassador to the United Nations. The former Fox News host relatively inexperienced at international diplomacy, sitting the stage for a potentially tough Senate confirmation hearing.

She would replace the outspoken, current ambassador, Nikki Haley, reportedly sparring with other top officials, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser, John Bolton, currently pushing to downgrade U.N. ambassador jobs so that it's no longer a cabinet level position.

ROMANS: A CNN review of absentee ballot envelopes has revealed irregularities with witness signatures in a second county in North Carolina. This comes as Democrat Dan McCready withdraws in a congressional race where investigators were already probing election fraud in another county.

CNN's Drew Griffin has the latest from Raleigh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, major developments again in the validity of the election in the congressional district 9 here in North Carolina.

The loser in this race, the Democrat, Dave McCready, has now rescinded his concession. He no longer thinks he lost. He did lose by 905 votes. He's wondering if those 905 votes are now valid because of all the vote fraud allegations.

And the other big development is our own review, CNN's review, which has expanded now, the alleged vote fraud, into two counties. The review of absentee mail-in signatures in Robison County, neighboring Bladen County, shows dozens of these absentee ballots were witnessed by just four people. All four people associated with the same ring that's involved in now a criminal investigation in Bladen County.

The state of North Carolina, the board of elections here investigating whether or not hundreds of absentee ballots were illegally stuffed in favor of the Republican candidate and, potentially, more than 1,000 absentee ballots in favor of the Democrat were thrown out, so suppress the vote of the Democrats.

All of this throwing the validity of the election in doubt. It looks more and more like this is heading toward a re-election -- Christine, Dave.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Drew. Thanks for staying on it for us.

Make it a plus 40 for House Democrats in the midterm elections. On Thursday, Republican Representative David Valadao officially conceded to Democratic challenger T.J. Cox in California's 21st congressional district.

CNN and other news outlets had initially called the race for the incumbents. So, right now, the balance of power in the House looks like this, 235 for Democrats and 199 for the Republicans.

[05:05:00] And, of course, that North Carolina race remains to be called.

BRIGGS: A new consensus candidate to replace Jeff Sessions as attorney general is emerging this morning. Sixty-eight-year-old Bill Barr was attorney general once before in the early '90s during the H.W. Bush administration. Lawmakers from both parties speak highly of Barr. They said he'd be easier to confirm in this highly polarized political environment.

Barr would be Robert Mueller's boss, of course. He's got on record expressing confidence in the special counsel, who worked under him during Barr's earlier stint as A.G. Barr said Mueller's investigation would not devolve into a witch hunt, though he also expressed disappointment that some members of Mueller's team had donated to Democratic candidates.

ROMANS: All right. This is what a trade war looks like at the stock market, another wild day on Wall Street. News of the arrest of Huawei CFO, Meng Wanzhou, in Canada sent the Dow down 785 points before a dramatic comeback. The Dow closed the day down just 79 points. The Nasdaq actually ended the day higher. The S&P 500 bounced back to close down just a fraction.

The morning selling frenzy even though Beijing confirmed President Xi Jinping intends to move ahead with trade talks with the U.S. as planned. But the market turned around when the "Wall Street Journal" reported the Federal Reserve is considering slowing down the pace of rate hikes next year. "Thee officials deciding whether to have a wait and see approach after a rate hike at the fed's next meeting which is just this month. President Trump has repeatedly criticized the Fed and Fed Chair Jerome Powell for raising rates this year.

BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, two former major league baseball players killed in a car crash in Venezuela. Authorities say Luis Valbuena Jose Castillo died in a car accident after a game Thursday in the Venezuelan professional league. A third vehicle survived the crash. Valbuena played 11 seasons in the majors with five teams, including the last two with the Angels who released him in August. Castillo played from 2004 to 2008, the majority of the time with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

ROMANS: All right. Stunning news from Hollywood. Comedian Kevin Hart stepping down as host of the 2019 Oscars, just two days after the academy he was their choice. At issue are past, angry anti-gay and homophobic comments made by Hart. He says the academy gave him an ultimatum, demanding he apologize, and he passed.

Hart later posted this statement on Twitter saying, quote, I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year's Oscars because -- this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing, talented artists. I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past. I'm sorry that I hurt people. I'm evolving and want to continue to do so.

My goal is to bring people together, not tear us apart. Much love and appreciation to the academy. I hope we can meet again.

I mean, in particular, there's something to this. He said a lot of different things, but there's something he said two years ago --

BRIGGS: He said a lot last night.

ROMANS: But earlier, some of the things that really concerned people in the LGBTQ community, you know, about his son, if his son were gay, what he would do and how he would react and how he would violently react?

BRIGGS: Sure.

ROMANS: That was something that really cut to the core for some people who --

BRIGGS: Shouldn't the academy have known about these comments and addressed that before selecting him? This is on them. Not on --

ROMANS: That's a good point.

BRIGGS: Look, do your homework.

All right. Things are back to normal after overnight drama here at CNN in New York. A bomb threat forced the evacuation of our building for about 90 minutes. A law enforcement source says the caller who phoned in the threat claimed there were five devices in our building on Columbus Circle. Employees evacuated. NYPD swept the building. The declare the all clear around midnight, but a stressful night here at CNN.

ROMANS: And thanks to all the people you don't see right now who worked all night, some in the cold when they were out on the evacuation.

BRIGGS: Kudos.

ROMANS: All right. A Chinese tech executive's arrest opens a new front in President Trump's trade war. We're live in Beijing next.

BRIGGS: And roads turned to rivers. More on the storms that swamped parts of California.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:20] BRIGGS: A conflict between the United States and China over technology is expanding. Beijing angered by the arrest of a top executive at Chinese tech giant Huawei at the request of the U.S. government. That has investors worldwide rattled.

Matt Rivers live for us in Beijing with the latest.

Hi there, Matt.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Dave. Yes, I mean, this is something we're going to have to watch closely over the next couple days, including a couple hours from now, when at 1:00 p.m. East Coast Time, Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei who was arrested in Canada gets a bail hearing in Canada. That's where we may get more information on the now unspecified charges that the U.S. wants to extradite her for.

But, you know, we can't overstate how big a deal this is in terms of an escalation. This would be like trying -- China trying to arrest a senior level Apple executive and bring him or her to China to face criminal charges. That's what the U.S. wants to do. They want Meng Wanzhou to go to the eastern district of New York and face criminal charges. That's something China isn't happy about.

And it's not happening in a bubble. This is trade war, you'll remember, going on between the United States and China. There's negotiations that were agreed just a couple of days ago between President Xi and President Trump, when they sat down for dinner in Buenos Aires during the G-20 in Argentina, they agreed to spend the next three months or so trying to negotiate over a series of issues to come up with some sort of trade deal.

Those negotiations were going to be difficult enough. And now, when you throw in the arrest of an incredibly high profile businesswoman here from China, they're not going to get any easier. The big question, did President Trump know about this arrest before he sat down with President Xi? His advisers are saying, no, he didn't. [05:15:01] But that's the question that Beijing is going to try and

figure out. Is this merely a case of the judicial system following its independent course in the United States, or is this politically motivated? That's what Beijing is trying to figure out and that's what's going to be crucial moving forward when we're looking at the tone of the negotiations over this trade war.

BRIGGS: Yes. And hopefully, we learn more about those charges, as well.

Matt Rivers live for us in Beijing -- thank you.

ROMANS: All right. Record-breaking rain drenching southern California, snarling traffic and spurring evacuations in an area already hit hard by wildfires. Check out this dramatic scene in Burbank. This sloping road turned into a raging mud river. Mudslides hitting some areas, one forcing the closure of the Pacific Coast Highway and surrounding roads in and around Malibu.

BRIGGS: "The New York Times" reports President Trump was employing undocumented immigrants at his New Jersey golf club at the same time he was vilifying undocumented immigrants and pushing hard line immigration policies. Two women speaking on the record told "The Times" they entered the U.S. illegally and secured work at Trump National Golf Club using phony papers. The women say managers at the club knew they were working illegally and helped them avoid detection.

A Trump Organization spokeswoman says the company has tens of thousands of employees and strict hiring practices. "The Times" notes there is no evidence the president or Trump Organization executives knew about the women's immigration status.

ROMANS: Former President George H.W. Bush now in his final resting place at his presidential library at Texas A&M University.

"Hail to the Chief" played as America's 41st president was carried off his funeral train in College Station. You see the Bush family looking on with hands over their hearts. The Navy performed the largest ever, 21 aircraft missing man formation flyover.

During the funeral services, a powerful tribute delivered by James Baker, President Bush's secretary of state, his chief of staff, his best friend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES BAKER, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE TO PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH: I've always been proud that George Bush used to describe our relationship as one of big brother and little brother. He used to say that one of the things he liked best about me was that I would always tell him what I thought, even when I knew he didn't want to hear it. Then we would have a spirited discussion about that issue.

But he had a very effective way of letting me know when the discussion was over. He would look at me and he'd say, Baker, if you're so smart, why am I president and you're not? He was a leader, and he knew it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: I just loved that.

BRIGGS: Yes, you can't help but love that man. His tennis partner for so many years, how they really got first involved. What a great friend he was.

Ahead, it is something we haven't seen in the NFL since the early 1980s. Andy Scholes has this epic run from Thursday night football in the bleacher report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:33] BRIGGS: Tony Dorsett is no longer the only player with a 99-yard touchdown run. Derrick Henry of the Titans matching that record on Thursday night football, right through and right over the Jags.

Good morning, Andy. This was devastating.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Dave. That Dorsett run on Monday night football in 1983, it's always been legendary because it is a record that can't be broken. But the Titans' Derrick Henry matched it last night.

And his run was way more impressive. Tennessee had just stopped Jacksonville on fourth and goal from the 1. Very next play, Henry busted outside, and the 6'3", 250 pound running back was using his power to toss Jacksonville defenders away. Four stiff arms later, Henry, the 99 yard touchdown run, matching Dorsett's record.

The former Heisman Trophy winner, he had himself a night, 238 yards rushing, four touchdowns. Titans win big over Jacksonville, 30-9, the final there.

All right. This year's Heisman Trophy will be announced tomorrow night in New York. The front runners are Oklahoma's Kyler Murray and Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa. Last night, the college football award show the two splitting the big time awards, Tua bringing home the Maxwell and Walter Camp Award which go to the player of the year in college football. The past four Maxwell winners and past five Walter Camp winners have gone on to win the Heisman Trophy.

But Murray won the O'Brien award, that goes to the best quarterback in college football, and was also named the AP player of the year. Murray is trying to bring home back to back Heisman trophies to Oklahoma. Maker Mayfield winning the award last year and Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley says winning the award two years in a row, that would be special.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINCOLN RILEY, OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH: It's such a unique moment, you know, when your guy has a chance to win that. It's been a great thing for our school. We've been fortunate. We've had six. To have a chance to have the seventh would be, you know, really something special. You have to have a chance to have the guys back to back, it's -- you really never dream it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. Finally, this is just incredible. A year after suffering a severe spinal injury playing for the Steelers, look at Ryan Shazier, doing dead lifts with good weight on that bar. After the injury, Shazier had to learn to walk again.

[05:25:02] And, you know, Dave, he has said his goal is to one day play again in the NFL. And with the progress he's made in just a little over a year, I mean, you don't doubt he's going to reach the goal.

BRIGGS: Two 45-pound plates on each side, what an inspiration that man is. I Can't wait to see him get back on the field. We all hope he does, indeed.

Thank you, Mr. Scholes.

SCHOLES: Have a good one.

BRIGGS: Over to you, my friend.

ROMANS: That is inspiring.

BRIGGS: It is.

ROMANS: Best of luck to him.

Twenty-five minutes past the hour, we expect major developments on three fronts in the Mueller investigation today. More on Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and James Comey, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIGGS: New revelations expected today in the Mueller investigation. What else does the special counsel know about the Trump campaign and Russia?

ROMANS: President Trump about to name a new U.N. ambassador. Questions surround the choice of former cable TV host, Heather Nauert.

BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, two former Major League Baseball killed in a car accident.