Return to Transcripts main page
Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
White House and Democrats in Standoff Over Border Wall Funding; Silicon Valley May have Done Bare Minimum to Help Senate Intel Committee Probe of Russian Election Interference; Giuliani Reveals Trump May have Participated in Discussions into November 2016; Giuliani Tries to Discredit Claim Hush Payments were Campaign Contributions; Incoming House Oversight Chair Says He'd Like to See Cohen in January; A New Cnn Poll Shows 67 Percent of Iowa Republicans would Vote for Trump in General Election; Trump Hails Texas Judge's Decision on Obamacare as "Great Ruling"; Trump Taps Budget Director as New Acting Chief of Staff; Trump to Announce Zinke's Replacement This Week; Trump to Review Case of Soldier Charged with Murder; Markets Fall on Global Growth Fears; PM May to Warn Against Second Brexit Vote; COP24 Climate Talks Barely Reach an Agreement; Vaping Among America's Teens Keeps Climbing; Eagles Upset Rams to Keep Playoff Hopes Alive; Steelers Beat Patriots to Snap 3-Game Skid; Colts Shut Out Cowboys 23-0; Bears Clinch Division with Win Over Packers. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired December 17, 2018 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00] DAVE BRIGGS, CO-HOST, EARLY START: Some 20 million Americans, a Texas judge scraps the entire law -- will the ruling stand on appeal?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, EARLY START: And a big spike in a number of teens vaping nationwide, even as alcohol and other drug use decline for seniors in high school. Safe to say that the spike is like the biggest on record for any --
BRIGGS: The largest in the 43-year history of the survey in terms of the last 30 days. Now, there's some good news in that survey, the drinking is down, use of opioids is down.
ROMANS: All right, good morning, welcome to EARLY START, I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs, it is Monday, December 17th, 5:00 a.m. in the East. It is less than five days until a partial government shutdown unless President Trump and Congress can reach a deal on funding for that border wall. The White House is demanding $5 billion for the wall, which of course the president has said Mexico is going to pay for.
Congressional Democrats rejecting that request, White House senior advisors Stephen Miller taking a hard line on "Face the Nation", echoing the president's demand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER FOR POLICY: We're going to
do whatever is necessary to build the border wall, to stop this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that means --
MILLER: This is a -- this is a very -- if it comes to it, absolutely. This is a very fundamental issue. At stake is the question of whether or not the United States remains a sovereign country, whether or not we can establish and enforce rules for entrance into our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: But the "New York Times" reports has Republicans leaders have a more immediate problem. Members who are retiring or were defeated in November, they just don't want to show up to vote any more. Many have been skipping votes since the midterms and GOP leaders are unsure if they will ever return.
Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer says the president just does not have enough support to get billions for his wall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: President Trump should understand, there are not the votes for the wall. In the House or the Senate, he is not going to get the wall in any form.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: If a partial shutdown happens at the end of the week, the consequences could ripple across the U.S. economy. There are of course, nothing concentrates minds in Washington like a holiday. The president scheduled to leave this week for a 16-day vacation in Florida.
ROMANS: A damning new report due this week, claiming Silicon Valley may have done the bare minimum to help the Senate's Russia investigation. The Intelligence Committee commissioned their report from an online Intel firm. The report claims social media companies could have done a better job providing data about Russian accounts that posed as Americans.
And the "Washington Post" has obtained a separate report prepared for the Intel Committee, that report finds Russians used every major social media platform to influence voters to elect President Trump, and this worked even harder to support him once he was in office.
BRIGGS: Meantime, President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani says his client may have been involved in conversations about Trump Tower, Moscow, significantly later than previously known. The president's former personal attorney Michael Cohen first claimed those talks ended before the primaries.
Then when Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, he said the talks went as late as June. Well, now Giuliani says that the talks could have gone on through the entire campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, TELEVISION JOURNALIST: Did Donald Trump know that Michael Cohen was pursuing the Trump Tower in Moscow into the Summer of 2016?
RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY TO DONALD TRUMP: According to the answer that he gave, it would have covered all the way up to November of -- covered all of November 2016. Said he had conversations with him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Cnn reported last week that special counsel Robert Mueller is still interested in interviewing the president in person, but Giuliani isn't having it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: They have good luck. Good luck after what they did to Flynn, the way they trapped him into perjury and no sentence for him? Fourteen days for Papadopoulos. I did better on traffic violations than they did with Papadopoulos.
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS: So when you say, good luck, they're saying a joke --
GIULIANI: They are a joke!
WALLACE: No way, no interview --
GIULIANI: They're a joke over my dead body, but you know, I could be dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: For more, Cnn's Boris Sanchez is at the White House.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, Rudy Giuliani in clean-up mode this weekend after Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and made some negative comments about the president in public.
Giuliani effectively trying to discredit Michael Cohen and puts some distance between the president's former fixer and the White House. Giuliani insisting that the payments that were made to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal were not campaign contributions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: It's not a crime. It's not a crime, George. Paying $130,000 to Stormy whatever, and paying $100,000 to the other one is not a crime. If there's another purpose, it's no longer a campaign contribution. If there's a personal purpose, now think about this.
Suppose he tried to use his campaign funds to pay off Stormy Daniels, it would be totally illegal. If it's not a campaign expense, it can't be a campaign contribution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Though in the Southern District of New York, Michael Cohen pled guilty to campaign finance violations for those specific payments. And there's what Rudy Giuliani is saying and there's what's actually happening in court.
[05:05:00] We should point out, we may not have heard the last of Michael Cohen. Representative Elijah Cummings; the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee has said that he would like to invite Michael Cohen back to Capitol Hill to testify once more. Dave and Christine?
BRIGGS: All right, Boris Sanchez there. A new poll finds most Americans believe President Trump is lying about the Russia investigation. In the "Nbc"-"Wall Street" journal poll, 62 percent now think the president is not being honest about Russia, up 6 points from just August.
And a new Cnn Des Moines Register poll has mixed news for the president from the first in the nation caucus state, two-thirds of Iowa Republican voters say they would definitely vote to reelect Mr. Trump if the general election were held today.
But in the caucus is to pick the 2020 general election candidate, nearly two-thirds of Republicans said the state would welcome challengers to the president.
ROMANS: All right, the future of Obamacare once again up in the air. A federal judge in Texas striking down the entire Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional. You may remember back in 2012, the Supreme Court did uphold the law, declaring the individual mandate at its core was a legal tax.
The last year, Congress reduced that tax to zero and the judge has now decided zero tax means zero individual mandate. And he argues without it, the whole law false.
BRIGGS: Remember, the Affordable Care Act provides coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. Let's state it expands Medicaid for low income adults and allows young people to stay on their parent's policies until age 26. President Trump declared the decision a great ruling for our country.
But even some Republicans are not sold. Maine Senator Susan Collins believes the ruling will be overturned on appeal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: There's no reason why the individual mandate provision can't be struck down and keep all of the good provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: A group of states led by California is vowing to appeal the
decision, and another judge is considering a case brought by Maryland defending Obamacare. So we may get dueling rulings here. The Texas judge's decision does not immediately affect coverage -- by the way, enrollment for 2019 ended Saturday.
BRIGGS: President Trump's incoming acting Chief of Staff has not always had kind words for his boss. Listen to what Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said about Mr. Trump during a campaign debate way back in 2016?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICK MULVANEY, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT & BUDGET: Yes, I've supported Donald Trump. I'm doing so as enthusiastically as I can, given the fact that I think he's a terrible human being, but the choice on the other side is just as bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: On Friday, President Trump tapped Mulvaney to replace John Kelly on an acting basis at the end of the year. Spokeswoman at the Budget Office calls Mulvaney's criticism of Mr. Trump a 2016 old news, and claims he likes and respects the president now.
The "Herald" newspaper in South Carolina did report Mulvaney's debate remarks at the time, they remain.
ROMANS: President Trump is expected to name a new Interior Secretary this week after announcing Ryan Zinke is out at the end of the month. Zinke faces multiple ethics investigations including allegations that he used his office for personal gains.
He calls those claims false. The "Washington Post" reports the White House had been pushing Zinke to resign for weeks and that he was told he had until the end of the year to leave or he would be fired. Possible contenders to replace him include deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Nevada's Republican Senator David Heller who lost his reelection bid.
The president says he is reviewing the case of Army Major Matt Golsteyn. He is a green beret charged in the 2010 killing of a suspected bomb maker in Afghanistan. The incident came up during a polygraph test for 2011 CIA job interview.
According to the "Washington Post", Golsteyn admitted killing the bomb maker. His lawyer says he did it during a mission ordered by his superiors. The president's tweet could certainly complicate, even derail this military prosecution. Commanders-in-chief rarely weigh in on active cases to avoid undue influence.
ROMANS: All right, terrible few weeks to discuss market investors, the trade war, a fight over government spending, Brexit chaos, fight of the Dow dropped 497 points or 2 percent, the S&P 500 fell to the lowest levels since early April, the Nasdaq shed 2.3 percent. It's shaping up to be the second worst year in a decade. In fact, a
year ago this week, the president signed this, his legislative top achievement, right? Tax cuts for business. Since then, the Dow is down almost 3 percent. Three problems, picking economic growth in the U.S., the bite from an ongoing U.S.-China trade war.
Concerns about rising interest rates. And Wall Street tuned out the president's latest trade boast. The president tweeted that a big and very comprehensive deal with China could happen rather soon is what Wall Street said. This week, focus shifts to the Federal Reserve, the Central Bank is widely expected to raise interest rates again on Wednesday.
You know, usually at the end of the year, investors look forward to something called the Santa Claus rally, it doesn't look like that's going to happen this year with only a handful of trading days left in the year.
[05:10:00] BRIGGS: So that was a heh or a meh?
ROMANS: I'm thinking yes --
BRIGGS: Collectively by yes.
ROMANS: You know, I'm -- there's just so much going on. And you know, look, there's been a lot of stock buyback, there's been dividends --
BRIGGS: Sure --
ROMANS: Shareholders have really benefitted this year because of those tax cuts. But overall, markets are looking into next year and they're concerned.
BRIGGS: All right, ahead, Theresa May not too happy with one of her predecessors, Tony Blair join the cause for a second Brexit vote. We're live in London with the latest.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: When Theresa May stands before the House of Common this afternoon, she is expected to speak out against the possibility of a second Brexit referendum. The Prime -- the British Prime Minister arguing it would irreparably harm the integrity of the U.K. political system.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair not buying it. He's backing a second Brexit vote, and publicly calling on May to do the same. Erin McLaughlin is live in London.
I've heard economists, high profile economists -- we've got fire alarm or something there in the studio, I've heard a lot of high profile economists clamp with the same things, saying that the possible real world impact of this messy divorce is just too damaging to the British economy and the British people. [05:15:00] ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes,
that's right, Christine. Last week was especially punishing, a bruising week for British Prime Minister Theresa May. She is expected to come out today before the House of Commons, swinging, hitting back at growing calls for a second Brexit referendum.
She is expected to call it divisive and undemocratic. This is despite media reports that members of her own cabinet including her Chief of Staff are preparing for that eventuality. Reports that they at this point denied. Theresa May, nevertheless, has hope that she will be able to get this deal through, that she will be able to extract further concessions from the European Union for a meaningful vote to happen in January.
But the fact of the matter is the math inside Westminster just is not adding up in her favor. And if she fails to achieve that, there are very limited options remaining including the dreaded no deal which has seem to be catastrophic for both sides of the channel, both the EU and the U.K.
In fact, some projections say that a no deal could result in a 7 percent hit to the GDP of the U.K. So that's seen as really unpalatable at this point and that is why we're seeing these growing calls for another referendum to take Brexit, put it back to the British people and have them decide.
ROMANS: And a 7 percent hit to the GDP of the U.K., that is millions of people out of work, that is businesses closed, that is -- that's not something that can be palatable here, they've got to figure this out. Erin McLaughlin, thank you so much.
BRIGGS: OK, after two weeks of tense climate talks, nearly 200 nations, not including the U.S. agreeing at a set of rules to help curb global warming. But scientists and even negotiators know the new rules alone will not be enough to stop carbon pollution from reaching critical levels.
Melissa Bell live for us in Paris with the latest. Melissa, good morning.
MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: God morning, Dave. This two-week negotiation, a day late in the end in delivering what was this rule book for putting in place those ambitious -- what were considered ambitious targets back in 2015, the end of 2015 here in Paris, you'll remember, Dave, that the Paris Climate Accord was signed by all those countries.
This was about the rule book that would ensure its implementation by 2020. But remember that those ambitious targets or ambitious as they were seemed then aimed to keep global warming under 2 degrees higher than what it was at pre-industrial levels.
And already, those are looking not ambitious enough. So yes, two weeks of wrangling, an extra day of negotiation allowed that rule book to be signed. A common rule book for everyone, but it is already considered too little, too late. And as proof of that, one of the major sticking points which seems extraordinary when you think about it was whether or not to welcome a UN report -- recent UN report that suggested that in fact the world was heading for 3 degrees this century.
A catastrophic new set of findings by the U.N., should the conference welcome that report, while even on that they weren't able to agree with the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia blocking the welcoming of that UN report. Instead, its completion was welcome.
A reminder perhaps, Dave, if one was needed, that even as the world seeks to come to these hard one agreements and find these sorts of compromises, it is all looking like it is far too little and far too late.
BRIGGS: It does, indeed unfortunately. Melissa Bell live for us this morning in Paris. Thank you. Ahead, we'll talk a little sports, the Philadelphia Eagles finally look like the defending champs as they try and sneak into the playoffs. Andy Scholes has the BLEACHER REPORT next.
[05:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: A new report shows vaping among America's teens climbing rapidly this year, up 50 percent in the last 30 days alone. The University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research found vaping was the second most common substance in 2018, those numbers up sharply from last year.
Officials say vigilance is needed because vaping could lead teens to other drugs, use of other substances though like alcohol and opioids, thankfully has declined in recent years, Dave.
BRIGGS: OK, let's talk a little sports, can the Eagles back-up quarterback do it again? Nick Foles leading through with a big upset over the Rams. Andy Scholes here with the BLEACHER REPORT this morning, what a shocker this one was.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: Yes, it certainly was, Dave, I mean, with Carson Wentz out with a fractured vertebrae, Nick Foles once again leading the Eagles and can he find that same magic he did last year when he led Philadelphia to their first Super Bowl? Well, so far, so good. The Eagles were nearly two-touchdown underdogs in L.A. last night.
But Foles leading the offense up and down the field. And it was a rough night for the Rams' Jared Goff, I want you to watch it here on this next play. He trips, and instead of just going down with the ball, he picks it back up and he just gives it to the Eagles defense. Philly wins this game 30-23 to keep their playoff hopes alive.
All right, the Steelers were looking to beat the Patriots yesterday for the first time in seven years. Check out this video, and maybe the best pylon video of all time. Two Patriots are going to leap into the end zone, look at this and keep the ball out to down it at the 1 yard line. Just incredible. [05:25:00] Fourth quarter, Patriots down by four, Tom Brady throwing a very uncharacteristic interception right there. His first red zone interception in two years. Patriots dropping down to the three seed in the AFC with the 17-10 loss. New England has never reached the Super Bowl without a bye under Bill Belichick.
All right, for the first time in 15 years, the Dallas Cowboys failed to score a point in a game. The Colts defense stifling Dallas all afternoon. The Cowboys, they had their chances, but just couldn't punch it in. Ezekiel Elliott certainly frustrated in this one. Colts would win 23-0, Indy, now on seven out of eight.
And finally, Khalil Mack has been fabulous for the Bears as they had filed(ph) in, turned the Raiders -- check them out on this play, second Aaron Rodgers with his bat, never got him, wrapped him up or anything, Just incredible. The Bears would beat the Packers 24-17 to win their first division since 2010.
And now you can see in the locker room there, they're partying like it was 1985 after the game. What's another way to celebrate clinching a playoff spot? Well, liming Charles Leno Jr. decided to surprise his girlfriend Jennifer and proposed to her at midfield after the game.
Now, they even put it up on the big screen so all the fans could watch it go down. And of course, Dave, she did say yes. And interestingly, Leno said he was going to do it whether they won or lost the game, good for him that they won the game and it was a nice celebration.
BRIGGS: You can't do that after a loss. That would have been a buzz kill of a moment --
SCHOLES: But he said he was going to --
BRIGGS: All right, I think he was just over confident, knew they were going to win.
SCHOLES: Yes --
BRIGGS: The Romans family also celebrating --
ROMANS: Yes --
BRIGGS: That Bears --
ROMANS: Yes ---
BRIGGS: Championship --
ROMANS: At the top --
BRIGGS: There as well --
ROMANS: There are three dear Santa letters in my house. The number one item on each of them is a Khalil Mack jersey.
BRIGGS: OK -- ROMANS: For all three boys --
BRIGGS: And a Super Bowl title perhaps.
ROMANS: Yes, there's like that too. All right, thanks guys. Will the government shut down over Christmas? Two sides, no closer to a border wall deal just days with the deadline. And Obamacare remains in place for now, but could a judge's ruling force millions to change plans in coming years?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
