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Brexit Talks in Brussels; 2020 Power Rankings for Democrats; First Lady Opens Up; Heavy Rain Increases Flood Threat. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired December 13, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Legal and political reassurances on the biggest hurdle for her in the Brexit deal. That's the backstop agreement over the border between the Republic of Ireland and northern Ireland. The European Union's new land border with Britain, that's the biggest political challenge for her. And, unfortunately for her, leaders in the European Union, leaders of countries in Europe at the moment say they see Theresa May is in a difficult, political position. They're willing to work with her a little bit on language, but absolutely not -- not at all opening up that big Brexit deal that's taken two years to get to this point of agreement. That is not enough for her to bring back to parliament here to pass a vote here. Will the vote be next week? Will it be early next year? That's not clear.

So the biggest challenge for her is now knowing that she doesn't have the support of one-third of her party. She doesn't have support of the opposition in parliament here. She can't pass the Brexit deal as it is, or with these minor amendments she might get now. So the reality is, Britain is one step closer, a big step closer to the possibility of leaving the EU without a deal, with a big economic impact on Britain, the big economic impact on the European Union and with business partners around the world.

Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Nic, appreciate it. Nic with the latest for us there.

Two Canadians are being detained in China in potential retaliation for the arrest of a Chinese tech executive in Canada. The Chinese foreign ministry accusing the two Canadian businessmen, without proof, of endangering China's national security. Michael Spavor is the founder of a cultural exchange company that facilitates trips to North Korea, and former Diplomat Michael Kovrig now works for a think tank. The action threatens to escalate the diplomatic dispute between Canada, the U.S. and China.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have breaking news here in New York City. At least six firefighters and five others have been hurt. You can see this huge fire tearing through several businesses in Queens. Officials say the flames broke out inside one store and quickly grew. It eventually spread to five stores, one even partially collapsed. The cause of the fire is now under investigation. HILL: Dramatic video captures Texas police officers catching a 10-

year-old boy who was forced to jump from a window. A window in his burning home. Balch Springs Police got to the scene where they found a mother and son trapped. So in this body camera video you see one of the officers throw his baton to break the window and then urge the boy to jump from the second story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. Break out the glass and let's go! We got you, buddy. We got you. We got you, buddy. It's OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. Come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know, it's OK, buddy. It's OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Oh, my goodness, can you imagine what's going -- that poor kid, his heart racing. Three officers caught the boy in their arms. Moments later, firefighters arrived. They were able to bring his mother to safety. No injuries were reported.

BERMAN: You know, you hear there the urgency in their voices, but also the concern.

HILL: Yes.

BERMAN: I mean I love the way that they convinced, you know, that young man to jump out of the window there. Wow. Excellent work.

So, the Iowa Caucus is practically around the corner.

HILL: I'm counting down.

BERMAN: Yes, 59 weeks away, the Iowa Caucuses.

HILL: Yes.

BERMAN: But -- but that is not stopping us from looking at the top Democrats already showing signs of starting a run for president. Harry Enten joins us with his power rankings, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:37:17] BERMAN: It is almost certain that Democrats will field the largest list of presidential contenders that Democrats ever have. And that's all going to begin now. 2020 is now. So who is best position to challenge President Trump. CNN's Chris Cillizza and Harry Enten, they have their new 2020 power rankings. They've gone through and they've ranked them. We couldn't book Cillizza, but we do have Harry Enten.

HARRY ENTEN, POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: Chris couldn't get up this early. BERMAN: We do have Harry here.

So, Harry, let's get "The Forecast" here. Give us your top ten list. This is based on polling and money and also reporting, political activity behind the scenes.

ENTEN: Sure. Right. We're still a very long ways away from the Iowa Caucus. Well, not that long away. So we're not that statistically inclined yet. But there's a secret sauce that we're using, maybe put on some (INAUDIBLE) marinara sauce. And our secret sauce suggests that we're going to count it down like Casey Kasem used to do in the good olden days.

Now, at number 10, Kirsten Gillibrand. She's obviously the junior senator from the state of New York. She has a number of things going for her. She has the large New York media market. She has the most anti-Trump record of any United States senator. She's a woman. And, keep in mind that women won in record numbers in 2018 Democratic primaries. That being said, she has a number of flaws. For instance, she came out first against Al Franken, which a lot of progressives hold against her.

Keep on moving. We'll talk about a man who's in the race, Julian Castro, who comes in at number nine. Look, he's the first in, so we know he's running, so that is a reason to have him on the list if nothing else.

BERMAN: Exploratory committee.

ENTEN: He has an exploratory committee, sure. And I'm exploring going to get lunch later today. I'm definitely eating lunch. What I'm eating, I don't know. But, yes, he's definitely jumping in. Look, he's a Latino. He was in the Obama administration. He ran HUD. He's an interesting character but, you know, I think in the year of the woman I'm a little suspect of having too many men in the upper tier. And, more than that, who is he? I think a lot of people might get him confused with his brother, Joaquin. And if you watched his introductory video, I think it left a little to be desired.

HILL: Also interesting that he dipped here, you know, even after we get that news, but he's actually dipped in your rankings.

ENTEN: He -- he actually has dipped in our rankings. And part of that we'll get to a little bit later on. But it might be a fellow Texan, which is part of this.

HILL: Ah-hah.

ENTEN: Sherrod Brown, who's the senior senator from the state of Ohio. Look, if you want to win in the Midwest, there may not be a better man than this guy. When all the Democrats were losing statewide this year in Ohio, he won by 7 percentage points. This is a state Donald Trump ran away with in 2016. So if Democrats want to play, this is an interesting state for -- an interesting guy for them. I will point out, though, another white male. I'm very suspect of that this year going into a Democratic primary with women doing well and the African- American base of the Democratic Party. I'm not sure it's the time to nominate a white man.

Amy Klobuchar, number seven. She's dipped a little bit. Again, we'll get into a little bit why other people have risen recently. But another Midwestern senator. She won by 24 percentage points in 2018. She wins easily in the Midwest. And more than that, she's right next door to Iowa. But that said, a little bit boring perhaps. And, more than that, she doesn't have that progressive of a record.

[06:40:17] Number six, Bernie Sanders. Same ranking as we had. Look, he'd gotten over 40 percent of the Democratic primary vote in 2016. He has a base within the party. He has the infrastructure in place. That being said, a very old guy. And if you look at -- we spoke about it I think it was last week among Iowa Democratic chairmen, they're a little suspect of nominating an older gentleman.

BERMAN: And maybe not so much the outsider anymore, which gets us to our top five right now, which is really interesting.

ENTEN: Our top five. Right.

Number five, Elizabeth Warren, who has dipped in our rankings, but is still in the top five. Look, I think she's had a rough few months here with the DNA test that didn't exactly go the way I think she thought it would. She was going up against Donald Trump and it seemed like she lost that battle. More than that, she didn't have too favorable polling numbers in her home state. Yes, she won by a wide margin in her re-election, but she came in under Hillary Clinton's margin. I think that's trouble going ahead.

Number four, Cory Booker. Cory Booker, I mean, if you've been following politics for a while, right, Cory Booker is someone -- a name that you've known, the former mayor of Newark. His detractors perhaps would call him a dreaded neo-liberal. That's a word, you know, and they put in quotes and it's big and scary. But he's actually had a pretty anti-Trump record. He gets his name out in the press pretty well. He's very personable. More than that, in the state of New Hampshire, Ray Buckley, whose the chairman up there, said, hey, there's no one who did more for our party in this midterm election than Cory Booker did. And New Hampshire is, of course, a very important state.

Joe Biden, number three. Look, he's led in all of these polls. He's led in all of them. But, again -- and he's also the vice -- former vice president to the most popular politician in the Democratic Party, but another old white man, so we're a little bit --

BERMAN: And leading in the polls has a lot to do with name recognition. Which brings us -- don't give it away yet -- the top two. And this is where it gets really interesting.

ENTEN: This is where it gets really interesting. Beto O'Rourke, who was at number 10, has come all the way up to number two. I think he's the biggest name, the biggest jump on our list. What's going on with Beto O'Rourke? Look, they had a moveon.org poll, straw poll, that said, you know, progressives, people throughout this country, he came in at number one. He actually beat Bernie Sanders, who got, I believe, 78 percent of the vote last time around in that moveon.org poll when they endorsed him. More than that, he's shown an ability to raise money. Nearly $80 million in his Texas Senate race. He has shown an ability to get young people very, very excited about politics.

And you were mentioning to me off air, I think that's part of the reason why Julian Castro got in the race so early is because he is making people move, move, move.

BERMAN: I think it's the main reason. I think Beto is driving the race. I think he's the one who forced Castro to jump in. I think he's the one who has the Bernie people most nervous saying things now about Beto O'Rourke. He may be driving the narrative.

ENTEN: Exactly. He is driving the narrative in the early going. It's still early and that's part of the reason why he's not actually number one.

Kamala Harris remains our number one. Look, she's in California. She has the big media market. She had -- she could appeal to African- American voters. She has a very progressive record. And she sort of checks off two boxes, African-Americans and women who were nominated in record numbers in 2020.

But, of course, with such a large field, I would still bet on her not being the nominee. But if there's one person I was forced to choose, it would be her.

HILL: All right. How about that?

BERMAN: How about that, Harry?

ENTEN: I used every bit of the five and a half minutes you given to me.

BERMAN: You certainly did, using the top ten --

HILL: You really did. You still don't know what you're having for lunch, though. That will be later.

ENTEN: Maybe John and I can have lunch together. Erica, you can come too.

BERMAN: I'm (INAUDIBLE).

HILL: Thank you for the invitation.

BERMAN: I'm booked for the next year, to be clear.

Harry, thank you very much.

HILL: First Lady Melania Trump taking on her critics, opening up about what the hardest part is about her job. And her answer just may surprise you. We have that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:47:48] HILL: In a new interview, First Lady Melania Trump is opening up about her critics and what she says is the hardest part of being in the spotlight. CNN's Kate Bennett is live in Washington with more.

Of course it's also impossible to ignore the timing of this interview last night, Kate, of course in the day of so much other news.

KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It's true. And this is a first lady who, again, does not do a lot in the way of interviews. So it was interesting to hear from her. And her answer to that question was interesting as well. It felt very much again like this private first lady is feeling as though she needs to protect herself and, as she says, her family name. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: What's been the hardest thing that you have to deal with?

MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY: I would say the opportunists who are using my name or my family name to advance themselves. They like to focus on the gossip. And I would like to that they focus on the substance and what we do, not just about nonsense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENNETT: So clearly she's got the other -- I think she's basically referring to people who write books like Ivana Trump, if we remember she wrote that book. She's referring to all the salaciousness surrounding headlines with her husband. Clearly this is a first lady who has been successful, unlike her husband at times in the past, suing. We have to remember, she did sue a tabloid about a story that she said was false and she won that suit. They settled out of court.

So certainly she's very protective. She's very private. But listening to her say that she doesn't like the opportunists felt very interesting in a way because there are so many other things swirling around her husband and his administration and it was interesting to me to hear this thought that she's got her eye on those who are trying to take advantage of her and the Trump name, which, of course, is the basis of the Trump brand. So there's a lot of irony here in that answer, in my opinion.

HILL: Yes. No shortage there. Kate, good to see you. Thank you.

John.

BERMAN: All right, I think you're right, I think the timing may be the most interesting thing there with the Cohen plea and everything else yesterday, the Cohen sentencing, to see Melania Trump on Fox. No coincidence, I would submit.

HILL: No.

BERMAN: Melting snow and heavy rain increasing the threat of flooding in parts of the southern United States.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers with the forecast.

Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John, the good news with this storm coming up, it is a rain maker. You'll need wipers, not snow shovels.

[06:50:04] There it is. It's in Texas already. There could be some strong weather today, but really this is not the biggest system we will see all summer and winter long today.

This weather's brought to you by Jared, dare to be devoted.

So it's warmer this time, by about five degrees, not a lot, but enough to not make snow in the Carolinas, but enough to melt the snow that's already there. We move you ahead to tomorrow morning. We will still see the rainfall into Georgia. If you're flying in tomorrow morning, Atlanta may be very slow. By Saturday the rain will moves into New York City, but it will move out by I would say midday. So a good shopping weather there. Good shopping in D.C. as well for your Saturday. And then the storm completely exited the East Coast without making any significant snow, but making enough rain to possibly make some flooding. That was the big story all week long.

There is the severe weather for today in yellow. There's the severe weather for tomorrow in orange. Parts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. But temperatures about where we should be. How about this for Saturday? 49, New York City. In the 50s for D.C. And in the 50s for Atlanta as well.

Erica.

HILL: All right, we'll take it. Chad, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

HILL: President Trump is facing his greatest legal threat yet. Why a surprise immunity deal with the publisher of "The National Enquirer" matters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:55:48] BERMAN: The Michael Cohen sentencing, the subject of your late night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON": If you're watching from home, you're in for a great show. If you're watching from jail, then you probably worked for the president.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Now, a little tip for Mr. Cohen. The first day in prison, you walk right up to the biggest guy in the yard, you pay him $130,000, OK. Boom! Boom! JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Cohen, when he was still onboard with Trump, wrote, Hillary Clinton, when you go to prison for defrauding America and perjury, your room and board will be free. Yes. And I'll be there working in the cafeteria providing you with that board. What a time to be alive, huh?

JAMES CORDEN, HOST, "THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN": Now at least Cohen will have plenty of friends there. He'll be in the prison's newly dedicated Trump administration wing. It will be him, Paul Manafort, about 20 other guys to be named later. They're going to have a blast. They really are.

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": Forget running for re-election. In two years, Trump might be running from the feds. The FBI is going to bust into a cabin in Montana and find Trump with a Unabomber beard surrounded by Burger King wrappers.

Wait, wait, how, how did you find me?

You put your name on the cabin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I don't think it was Burger King that he liked, to be fair. I don't want to fact check Seth Meyers here, but it was Kentucky Fried Chicken mostly, right? And I think some McDonalds.

HILL: I was going to say, I thought there was some McDonalds in there, yes, but I don't think it was Burger King, you're right.

BERMAN: No, product placement there. Clearly Seth trying to get some sponsorship there --

HILL: Perhaps.

BERMAN: For his late night segment.

So, thank you to our international viewers for watching. For you, CNN "TALK" is next.

For our U.S. viewers, "The National Enquirer" has basically flipped on the president and this could be a major development putting him in serious legal jeopardy. NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The walls are closing in. This is the beginning of the end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reality is, he's going to prison for tax evasion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Southern District is saying, these felonies were ordered by Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a feeling that perhaps he could get his sentence reduced if he cooperates before he's supposed to go to jail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are already in touch with his counsel. He is more than willing to share what he knows.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't seen evidence to accept Cohen's testimony. His credibility is suspect at best.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David Pecker had given the Trump Organization free reign to cover up any unflattering stories.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Trump Organization is directly involved and implicated now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

BERMAN: God morning and welcome to your NEW DAY. Alisyn is off. Erica Hill joins me.

Nice to have you here.

HILL: Good to be here, as always.

BERMAN: I know you love "The Enquirer," just like I do.

HILL: I do.

BERMAN: Never miss a chance in the super market aisle.

HILL: I don't. And sometimes I pick up an extra copy just for you.

BERMAN: Yes, well, the president, he may be skipping "The Enquirer" next time he goes to the supermarket because this morning it is clear the president is in legal jeopardy, considerably more legal jeopardy than he was just 24 hours ago. And it's all thanks to his friends, or perhaps now his former friends at "The National Enquirer."

For the first time, federal prosecutors are telling us that AMI, the publisher of "The Enquirer," has joined the ranks of several other Trump allies by effectively flipping on the president. In a deal with federal prosecutors, the tabloid admitted to making a $150,000 payment to silence a Playboy playmate's claim of an affair with Donald Trump. In the legal documents here made the whole thing crystal clear. This is what the prosecutors say, that AMI, in cooperation, consolation and concert with, and at the request and suggestion of one or more members or agents of a candidate's 2016 presidential campaign, to ensure that a woman did not publicize damaging allegations about that candidate before the 2016 presidential election and thereby influenced the election. That's why they paid her $150,000. Who knows what else the company has already or will soon tell prosecutors.

This all comes as the president's former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, now a convicted felon, he was sentenced to three years in prison for campaign finance crimes and other felonies. Cohen told the court he felt it was his duty to cover up what he calls the president's, quote, dirty deeds.

[07:00:04] HILL: CNN, meantime, has learned both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are looking to talk with Cohen again and