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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
President Trump Speaks Out On Michael Cohen; New York Times: Feds Probe Trump Inaugural Committee And Super PAC; Guatemalan Girl Dies In U.S. Custody After Crossing The Border; Woman Attacks New York City Subway Rider. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired December 14, 2018 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:31:12] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What he did was all unrelated to me, except for the two campaign finance charges that are not criminal and shouldn't have been on there. They put that on to embarrass me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: First, the sentence, and the silence and now, the sabotage. President Trump pinning all his troubles on his personal attorney -- former -- Michael Cohen.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Prosecutors now investigating the president's inaugural committee and a pro-Trump Super PAC. Record cash was raised, but was it traded for influence?
BRIGGS: A 7-year-old girl dies in U.S. custody. She had just crossed into the United States with her father, illegally. What DHS is saying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo, what are you doing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's too early for this (bleep).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Racist meltdown on a Brooklyn D train. Wait until you hear what one woman said during the morning rush hour in New York City.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Ugly stuff. I'm Dave Briggs -- 5:31 Eastern time.
We are one week from a government shutdown, by the way --
ROMANS: Yes, we are. BRIGGS: -- unless they get it together in Congress.
We start, though, with President Trump breaking his brief silence on the sentencing of his former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen.
TEXT: "I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law. It is called 'advice of counsel' and a lawyer has great liability if a mistake is made. That is why they get paid.
Despite that, many campaign finance lawyers have strongly stated that I did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws, if they even apply, because this was not campaign finance.
Cohen was guilty on many charges unrelated to me but he pled to two campaign charges which were not criminal and of which he probably was not guilty, even on a civil basis. Those charges were just agreed to by him in order to embarrass the president and get a much-reduced prison sentence, which he did, including the fact that his family was temporarily let off the hook.
As a lawyer, Michael has great liability to me!"
BRIGGS: In a series of tweets Thursday, the president said he did not direct Cohen to break the law. But note, he did not dispute directing Cohen to make illegal payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, who both say they had affairs with him.
In an interview with Fox News, the president downplayed Cohen's role, saying he did very low-level work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When did you meet him?
TRUMP: He did more public relations than he did law, but he did -- so you'd see him on television and he was OK on television.
But, years ago -- many years, like 12-13 years ago he did me a favor. He was on a committee and he was so responsive and so good. And I said he's a nice guy.
And he was a lawyer and because of that, I did it. And you know what? In retrospect, I made a mistake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The president's new explanation for the hush payments is just the latest version of an ever-changing story. Remember, he once said he didn't even know about the payment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Mr. President, did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels? TRUMP: No, no.
REPORTER: Then why did Michael -- why did Michael Cohen make this if there was no truth to her allegations?
TRUMP: Well, you'll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael's my -- an attorney, and you'll have to ask Michael Cohen.
REPORTER: Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?
TRUMP: No, I don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: One person unconvinced by Trump's story, prominent D.C. lawyer George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
In his latest Trump troll he tweeted, "Given that Trump has repeatedly lied about the Daniels and McDougal payments, and given that he lies about virtually everything else, why should we take his word over that of federal prosecutors?"
ROMANS: CNN has also learned the president was present at an August 2015 meeting about the hush payments. The president in the room with Cohen and David Pecker, chairman of the "National Enquirer's" parent company which is now cooperating with prosecutors.
Michael Cohen will break his own silence this morning in an interview on "GOOD MORNING AMERICA."
BRIGGS: All right, let's bring in Marshall Cohen for his EARLY START debut on a Friday. Marshall covers the Russia investigation for CNN. Good to see you, sir --
ROMANS: Hi, good morning.
BRIGGS: -- in D.C. for us this morning.
MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Good morning.
BRIGGS: So, man, has it been an interesting evolution on these payments. They first came into the mouth with this utterance that he didn't know about. They were kind of chewed up and digested and then came out the other end yesterday.
Listen to this explanation. Sorry for that grotesque description. That's what it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?
TRUMP: No, no.
RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It's not campaign money -- no campaign finance violation. So they funneled it through a law firm. Funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Did the president approve of the payment that was made in October of 2016 by his longtime lawyer and adviser Michael Cohen?
[05:35:05] SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Look, the president has addressed these directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true.
TRUMP: What he did was all unrelated to me, except for the two campaign finance charges that are not criminal and shouldn't have been on there. They put that on to embarrass me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Put that on him to embarrass him. What do you make of that evolution and what should investigators and prosecutors make of it?
COHEN: Well, it's interesting, right? He just said it's not criminal. But, of course, his own Justice Department disagrees --
BRIGGS: Right.
COHEN: -- and has brought criminal charges against Michael Cohen for this exact scheme.
You mentioned that meeting August 2015 that President Trump -- then- candidate Trump attended with Cohen and the chairman of the "National Enquirer." What's telling is now that two of those three men who were in the room have now come clean essentially, and admitted yes, we did the money; yes, it was about the election; and yes, it was illegal. So, Trump is kind of the last man standing with that narrative.
ROMANS: He's trying to distance himself from Michael Cohen again, saying he was a very low-level guy, he was a P.R. guy.
BRIGGS: P.R. guy, yes.
ROMANS: And if you listen to that original clip when he said well look -- he did it through the CNN -- or that Fox interview where he said you know, he's good on T.V. so I --
COHEN: Yes.
ROMANS: -- hired him, which is sort of revealing.
Is that going to be enough for this president to just distance himself from the people who are going down?
COHEN: I'm not so sure that it's going to be enough, you know, and it's an interesting move, right? Clearly, he thought Cohen was good enough at his job and trusted to stick around the Trump Organization for 10 years. He even met with him as early as this year.
ROMANS: Yes.
COHEN: So it's clear that that's Trump's P.R. position. But again, if that's going to hold up as the investigation --
BRIGGS: Yes.
COHEN: -- intensifies, that's a completely different question.
BRIGGS: Well, in this interview he talks about P.R. That interview with Fox clearly was the president's own P.R. effort. But then later in the day, on Fox News by their own legal analysts, everything he said was kind of blown out of the water -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, LEGAL ANALYST, FOX NEWS: If you engage in sophisticated deceptive subterfuge in order to hide the payments as something that it's not to make it look like it was payments to a vendor rather than payments to somebody who was going to say something negative that might impact the campaign, that turns it into criminal.
There doesn't seem to be any question in the minds of the prosecutors and of the federal judge that these payments were made to help the campaign. They weren't reported. They came from corporations. They were far beyond what an individual contribution could be.
There's at least three crimes there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Wow.
BRIGGS: So there's a Fox segment the president won't dare tweet about, huh Mike -- I mean, Marshall? What's the significance of that?
COHEN: Yes, I don't -- I'm not going to expect to see that on his Twitter feed.
BRIGGS: No.
COHEN: But it's a very good point. We read through all the court filings from the Cohen case and one thing that a lot of people forget is that they didn't just pay this in a lump sum. They actually hid the payments -- the repayments to Michael Cohen through invoices over the span of a year. Sort of hiding it with all of their legal paperwork.
Now, if you're a federal prosecutor, your antenna is going off and saying that is clear proof that they are trying to hide it, which is part of the fact that they know that they were committing, possibly, a crime.
ROMANS: And now we can see sort of all these pieces are coming together, too, because first, "The Wall Street Journal" and "The New York Times" announced -- CNN also reporting -- that there is now a look into the inaugural committee and the potential that there was money given in exchange for access for the -- for the inaugural committee here.
And it looks like these pieces are coming from the raids on Cohen and from Rick Gates.
COHEN: Yes.
ROMANS: These pieces around the president that have started to go down are providing more information for investigators.
COHEN: Yes. Well, it's never a good thing when your campaign, your transition, and your inauguration are under federal investigation. So that's just not a very good start. But these are serious allegations -- you know, essentially buying access, corruption of sorts.
It seems like it's a bit early in the investigation and we'll have to --
BRIGGS: Yes.
COHEN: -- wait and see where it goes.
But don't forget this is kind of the exact same thing that candidate Trump accused Hillary Clinton of doing with the --
BRIGGS: Sure.
COHEN: -- Clinton Foundation.
BRIGGS: Sure, pay for play, yes.
Yes, $107 million, a record, was raised. The question is where was it raised from and what was it spent on?
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: A lot of questions ahead there.
But on the flipside of this whole Michael Flynn investigation, a federal judge, earlier this week, actually asked for the documents related to the FBI's questioning of Flynn.
[05:40:02] Did the FBI do everything by the book here, in your estimation?
COHEN: Well, to be clear, the judge asked for these documents because Flynn's lawyers actually brought them up in one of their recent memos asking for leniency -- no sentence of jail time.
So in my summation, I think if his lawyers actually believed deep down that there was serious misconduct, they would have never let him plead guilty more than a year ago. It seems like this is sort of an end around attempt to get no time in prison, which probably won't be that difficult to achieve considering that Mueller's team actually agrees.
ROMANS: The guy --
BRIGGS: Right, and they already have the information from Flynn and it looks no prison sentence, anyway.
ROMANS: The guy from the -- no prison sentence for the guy who led the "lock her up" chants --
COHEN: Right.
ROMANS: -- at the RNC.
BRIGGS: That's right.
ROMANS: Real quick to have somebody else go to jail.
All right, thanks, Marshall Cohen. Nice to see you.
COHEN: Thanks, guys.
ROMANS: Thanks for coming on. Have a great weekend.
COHEN: You, too.
ROMANS: A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala has died in U.S. custody after crossing the border with her father. The girl died of dehydration and shock after she was taken into custody with her father last week for illegally crossing into the U.S.
She had been in custody for eight hours. She developed a 105-degree fever. Local EMS airlifted her to a hospital but she died there.
BRIGGS: Homeland Security says border patrol agents took every step possible to save the child's life and that it will investigate to ensure policies were followed.
Her death is likely to intensify scrutiny of detention conditions at border patrol stations and facilities. Those shelters across 17 states are at or near capacity.
ROMANS: In a direct rebuke of President Trump, the Senate passed a resolution formally condemning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The president has refused to condemn the Saudis despite evidence of an orchestrated murder plot.
BRIGGS: If the resolution also passes the House, the president will be forced to make a choice -- sign it and side with Congress or veto it and side with the Saudis.
The Senate also approved a resolution requiring the U.S. to end military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The move is largely symbolic. The Republican-led House is not expected to take the measure up.
ROMANS: All right. Bowing to pressure, the Department of Education will wipe away student debt for some 15,000 borrowers. Secretary Betsy DeVos has fought for a year to block an Obama-era rule designed to provide relief to students who were cheated by for-profit colleges.
The announcement cancels about $150 million in student loan debt. It comes two months after a federal judge sided with attorneys general from 18 states and the District of Columbia. So the courts were going against here. They sued DeVos for delaying
the rule while the department worked on rewriting it. And some of the -- some of -- some of the fraud is just so disgusting. Fraud against veterans that is just --
BRIGGS: By the for-profit colleges.
ROMANS: Right, that is just unforgivable and that's -- forgiving the debt of those students is what that whole rule was about.
BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, Starbucks at your doorstep. The coffee giant planning to expand next year with delivery -- maybe not early enough for us, though. "CNN Business" is next.
ROMANS: That's a clever banner though -- "Venti, Pronto."
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[05:47:26] ROMANS: A police officer in Georgia has been killed in the line of duty. DeKalb County officials say a driver ran off during a traffic stop and the officer pursued him. The suspect pulled out a gun and shot the officer. He was taken to the hospital where he died.
Other officers and a canine unit arrived on the scene. They found the suspect hiding behind a building. The suspect shot the police dog -- the police dog in critical condition. Officers fired back, killing the suspect.
The slain police officer -- his name has not been released. But he'd been with the department less than two years.
BRIGGS: Gun deaths in America have reached a record high. Nearly 40,000 people in the U.S. died by guns last year. That is the highest number of firearm deaths in decades.
According to a new analysis from the CDC, the numbers are record high going back to at least 1979 when firearm deaths started to be coded into mortality data. It's an increase of more than 10,000 deaths over 1999.
CNN's analysis shows the majority of those gun deaths were actually suicides. There were nearly 24,000 gun suicides in 2017, the highest number in 18 years.
ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on "CNN Business" this morning.
Global stock markets are lower in Asia. You can see the major averages there all closed down. Look at that -- the Nikkei down about two percent, and then -- that's because China reported industrial output and retail sales growth missed expectations in November.
And then European markets, you can see opened lower in early trading there. They are still open.
On Wall Street, futures following suit. They are down here right now. You know, the Dow closed with 70-point gain but that was giving back
most of an early rally of as much as 214 points. The S&P 500 was flat. The Nasdaq closed down about four-tenths of a percent.
Virgin Galactic's supersonic space plane soared into space Thursday for a milestone test flight. The rocket-powered plane, VSS Unity -- it's flown by two veteran pilots to a maximum altitude of 51.4 miles. That, Dave, surpasses the 50-mile mark the U.S. government recognizes as the edge of space.
The plane's success means Virgin Galactic could be just months away from taking up its first -- a load of tourists, a goal it has worked toward since it was founded in 2004. Virgin Galactic says about 600 people have reserved tickets. Tickets, priced between $200,000 and $250,000 to ride aboard its supersonic plane.
Is Starbucks coming to your doorstep? Starbucks plans to expand coffee delivery across the U.S. with Uber Eats. It's part of a broader strategy to try to reach more customers.
Starbucks began testing delivery in Miami in September. It will expand to nearly a quarter of its more than 8,000 U.S. stores early next year.
Customers will also be able to get their coffee from the tap. Every U.S. Starbucks location will offer nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee by the end of next year.
[05:50:07] The expansion, part of Starbuck's plan to sell more products next year, especially as Frappuccino sales slip.
Nitrogen-infused coffee -- is it good?
BRIGGS: And I think if you're getting delivery it's got to be iced, right? You can't order a latte delivered.
ROMANS: I don't know. I've got a lot of questions. How early will they deliver?
BRIGGS: We need it at 3:00 a.m.
ROMANS: Starbucks, how early will you deliver because we are sitting right here at a quarter to four.
BRIGGS: We are probably out of luck, my friend --
ROMANS: And -- I bet you're right.
BRIGGS: -- but I'll bring some 'night before' coffee.
Ahead, the world's most precious cargo -- a human heart left on an airplane. What the crew did when they found out, next.
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[05:55:08] ROMANS: A Southwest flight from Seattle to Dallas forced to turn around when a donated human heart was discovered left on board. The heart's journey started in Sacramento. It was mistakenly left on the connecting flight to Dallas Sunday night instead of being taken out of the cargo hold in Seattle.
Southwest says the heart was meant for a medical donation. Sierra Donor Services, which organized the donation, says the heart was eventually received unharmed.
BRIGGS: A warning, some of this language might be offensive in this next story. A woman has been charged with two counts of assault after she attacked a female passenger on a New York City subway train.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Quit -- stop kicking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo, what are you doing (bleep)?
ANNA LUSHCHINSKAYA, ATTACKED WOMAN ON NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY: F*** off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's too early for this (bleep).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop, stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lady, obviously, you have a problem. Just relax.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's not even fighting you back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call 911, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop being disgusting. Oh my (bleep).
LUSHCHINSKAYA: F*** off. F****** Chink.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? What? What? What?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: That 40-year-old woman identified as Anna Lushchinskaya. The man filming later performed a citizen's arrest. CNN has not been able to reach Lushchinskaya for comment.
ROMANS: But, again, she has been charged.
All right. CBS reportedly agreed to a confidential $9.5 million settlement with actress Eliza Dushku in 2017. "The New York Times" citing a draft report prepared by lawyers -- lawyers hired by CBS to examine cultural issues at the network.
The report says Dushku was allegedly subjected to uncomfortable sex jokes from co-star Michael Weatherly on the set of "BULL." When she confronted him about his remarks days later, her character was written off the show. BRIGGS: In the statements, CBS says, "While we remain committed to a culture defined by a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace, our work is far from done."
Weatherly maintains he was joking and says he immediately apologized to Dushku. She has declined to comment to the "Times."
ROMANS: All right, it turns out a group from West Virginia rescued after days trapped in an abandoned mine are suspected of trying to steal copper from inside. Three people were freed about 24 hours ago. Now, authorities are investigating why they were there in the first place and they could face charges.
Entering an underground coal mine with intent to commit larceny is a felony in West Virginia.
BRIGGS: Another reason to look up to 7'2" retired NBA great Dikembe Mutombo. He welcomed 8-year-old Matadi to Los Angeles from the Congo. Matadi has a tumor growing on the left side of his face and needs lifesaving surgery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DIKEMBE MUTOMBO, RETIRED NBA STAR: Very difficult as a father to see a child who is 8 years old, who was born like all of us, but they have not gotten opportunities. Hopefully, I change the life of this young man and go back to live a normal life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Mutombo's foundation sponsored his trip. Doctors at L.A.'s Osborne Head and Neck Foundation are performing the surgery for free.
ROMANS: What a wonderful, wonderful generosity.
If you've ever regifted a holiday present you are not alone. Even the president is guilty. His son, Don Jr., who obviously has the same initials as his dad, shared this family story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, JR., SON OF PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: There was one Christmas where he may or may not have given me the gift that I had given him the year before because I monogrammed it. And I was like oh yes, here, like -- I'm like, I know you didn't get this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Whether or not you've done it or even thought about it, Jimmy Fallon had his own spin on it last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY FALLON, HOST, NBC "THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON": Speaking of the holidays, in a new interview, Donald Trump, Jr. says that his dad is a regifter. So when Robert Mueller gives the president a subpoena he's just going to regift it to Don, Jr. So you'll understand when that happens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Oh, always a negative spin on it.
ROMANS: Regifting, yes or no?
BRIGGS: No, not a regifter.
ROMANS: You don't regift?
BRIGGS: No, no -- not a big fan.
ROMANS: I just do little things. Usually, I give it to my sister and I say hey, I'm giving -- I tell her it's regifted.
Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: A Seinfeld label maker.
I'm Dave Briggs. "NEW DAY" is right now. Have a great weekend, everybody.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Friday, December 14th, 6:00 here in New York.
And we do begin with breaking news. This is literally hot off the presses. Michael Cohen has just broken his silence in his first interview since his sentence.
Michael Cohen clearly says that President Trump directed him to make those hush money payments. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: I will not be the villain of his story.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST, ABC "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": He's saying, very clearly, that he never directed you to do anything wrong. Is that true?
M. COHEN: I don't think there's anybody that believes that. First of all, nothing at the Trump Organization was ever done unless it was run through Mr. Trump.
He directed me, as I said in my allocution and I said as well in the plea. He directed me to make the payments, he directed me to become involved in these --
