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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Michael Flynn To Be Sentenced Today; Shutdown Countdown: T- Minus Four Days; Brexit Vote Date Set; Ex-CBS Chief Leslie Moonves Loses $120 Million Severance. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired December 18, 2018 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:37] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL FLYNN, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Lock her up, that's right. Yes, that's right -- lock her up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Lock him up. Michael Flynn will be sentenced today for lying to the FBI. First, though, the special counsel releasing Flynn's interview with the Bureau.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Deal or no deal? No one knows. Even Republicans in the dark about what the president will accept, four days to a shutdown.
ROMANS: Stocks at their lowest level in more than a year. What these numbers signal for the economy in the year ahead.
BRIGGS: And a mighty message for the #MeToo era. Former CBS chief Les Moonves won't see a dollar of his $120 million severance.
Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: Good morning, everyone. I'm Christine Romans -- 31 minutes past the hour.
Apparently, people who get up at 4:00 a.m. are the most efficient and effective people.
BRIGGS: Most successful people in the world.
ROMANS: In the world -- all right.
BRIGGS: You can't argue with science.
ROMANS: We've been winning for an hour and a half, so welcome to the program.
We could find out today what compelled Michael Flynn to lie to the FBI. The former national security adviser set to be sentenced this morning for lying about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the transition. And following a judge's order at the Eleventh Hour, special counsel Robert Mueller has released a memo giving details of the FBI interview where Flynn lied.
BRIGGS: Flynn allies, including the president, have latched onto the fact Flynn was interviewed by FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was later fired over anti-Trump texts. Flynn allies also suggest he was tricked into lying, in part because he did not have a lawyer present. But the memo containing FBI agent's questions and Flynn's answers debunks that claim.
White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLIN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dave and Christine, Mike Flynn is set to be sentenced in a D.C. federal court today and we know that the special counsel Robert Mueller has recommended little to no jail time for Mike Flynn.
But where this gets interesting is the day before this sentencing, the special counsel released a memo detailing the notes that the FBI agents took after they interviewed Mike Flynn at the White House when he was still the National Security adviser -- in his office -- when he lied to them about his interactions with the Russian ambassador during the transition period.
They not only asked him about these conversations with Sergey Kislyak about an upcoming U.N. vote on an Israeli settlement but also if he had discussed the expulsion of those Russian intelligence officers in response to Russian interference in the election by the Obama administration, and if he had asked Russians to mute their reaction to that because the Trump administration would be coming into office in a matter of days.
Now, what we are seeing from this memo released by the special counsel really goes to show the level of detail in these questions that were largely yes or no questions that Mike Flynn said no to when, in fact, he had discussed these things with the Russian ambassador.
It just adds to the level of drama the day that Mike Flynn is going to be sentenced, as well as two of his associates being indicted the day before for their work in Turkey lobbying, as well. And so, there is a lot of drama surrounding this sentence as people await to see what it is he's going to be sentenced to, Dave and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRIGGS: OK, Kaitlin Collins. Thank you.
Lawmakers in D.C. very much in the dark about any plan to avoid a government shutdown.
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SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R), LOUISIANA: If the White House has a plan, they're keeping it to themselves.
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BRIGGS: That's Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana.
As we're now less than four days from a partial shutdown, it seems nobody on Capitol Hill knows what Mr. Trump is thinking. The president dug himself quite a hole when he said he'd proudly own a shutdown over funding for his border wall. Now, some Republicans are trying to help dig him out.
ROMANS: And the Democrats are trying to already call it the Trump shutdown, the Trump shutdown, the Trump shutdown. They brand it that way.
BRIGGS: They baited him and he took the bait.
Joining us this morning for her maiden voyage on this EARLY START cruise, CNN White House reporter Maegan Vazquez. Good to see you and thanks for being here bright and early.
MAEGAN VAZQUEZ, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, CNN POLITICS: Good to see you two.
BRIGGS: OK, so John Kennedy is usually very colorful and just very matter of fact there. Is there any plan from the White House -- any leadership on how to avoid a government shutdown?
VAZQUEZ: Yes, so it's unclear exactly what the White House plan is right now. We are t-minus four days out until a potential partial government shutdown and that could affect agencies as far as DHS, obviously, and DOJ and several others, and the next seven different appropriations bills that haven't been passed yet.
[05:35:10] It's unclear exactly what the plan is, in particular. Senate Republicans, as you had noted earlier, don't seem to have an idea of what the White House is going to telegraph, if anything at all. And it seems like Senate leadership is also in the dark.
ROMANS: I wonder if there is a plan or if the president wants to go all the way down to the wire and he thinks politically, a shutdown is good for him.
I'll be honest -- when you talk to Trump supporters in the Midwest, for example, they're saying -- they say fine, shut the government down.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: And you say well, what about all these hundreds of thousands of government workers who wouldn't be paid? They say we have too many government workers. We don't need -- why do we need Washington?
VAZQUEZ: Yes. So I think it would be worth noting that not too long ago in front of -- in front of cameras, broadcast to America with Democratic leaders, the president said that he would own a shutdown over border security. It's unclear exactly if that's going to happen again.
ROMANS: Yes.
If anything, it seems like Senate Republicans are not going to know until the last minute.
But I would also note that Stephen Miller, one of the president's most avid supporters on immigration -- obviously, a White House adviser, was sent to "FACE THE NATION" on CBS this --
ROMANS: Right.
VAZQUEZ: -- this past weekend to send a message, essentially, about what the president's plan is -- or rather, what the president wants.
ROMANS: Hardcore immigration restrictions --
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: -- but one wonders if the Republican Party wants the same thing.
BRIGGS: Well, it could make for a really ugly visual if the president's down there playing golf for 16 days while government employees aren't getting paychecks at Christmas. But we'll see if there's any politics in the White House.
Let's talk about Michael Flynn today -- the sentencing and the memo we got last night -- once again, highly redacted -- so we didn't learn a whole lot from this memo.
What do we expect to learn today and how do you expect the White House is preparing for all of this?
VAZQUEZ: Right. So, quite frankly, I'm waiting for the sun to rise a little bit to see if there are going to be any tweets. But, you know, so far, it seems that there hasn't been a -- at least an outward reaction from the White House to this recent memo.
But it does indicate some of -- it sort of gives a little bit of pushback, if you will, to what the president and Republicans have asserted about the FBI determining directly after Mike Flynn's interview with FBI agents that he did not lie.
ROMANS: Sure.
VAZQUEZ: This memo, which was provided shortly or was published -- or I should say it was written shortly after the first interaction and first interviews with Mike Flynn. It essentially lays thing out straight. It's a here is what --
ROMANS: Right.
VAZQUEZ: -- he said sort of deal. It's not a --
BRIGGS: Yes. VAZQUEZ: -- we determined that he lied sort of pronouncement.
ROMANS: Well --
VAZQUEZ: Yes?
ROMANS: Well, let me -- let me jump in there because what is the overarching thing here for the White House is basically that you've got the guy who came to the public attention as the man who stood up there at the convention and said "lock her up" is the man we're going to find out today whether he will be locked up.
VAZQUEZ: Yes.
ROMANS: You know, we were told that if you elected Hillary --
BRIGGS: But probably not.
ROMANS: If you -- no, no, he probably -- I don't think they're recommending for him to be locked up.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: And just that irony of that -- of that position. We were told if you elected Hillary Clinton you were going to have years of investigations and she'd be in jail.
BRIGGS: We've just come full circle, yes.
ROMANS: And here we are with years of investigations and actually people close to the administration going to jail.
Let's talk about James Comey, the former FBI director, because he had this remarkable slam not against the president, not against his former colleagues at the FBI, not against the process, but at the Republican Party -- listen.
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JAMES COMEY, FORMER DIRECTOR, FBI: The President of the United States is lying about the FBI, attacking the FBI, and attacking the rule of law in this country.
Republicans used to understand that the actions of a president matter, the words of a president matter, the rule of law matters, and the truth matters. Where are those Republicans today?
At some point, someone has to stand up and in the face of fear of Fox News, fear of their base, fear of mean tweets -- stand up for the values of this country and not slink away into retirement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Now, to Comey's credit, he wanted an open hearing in front of the House -- didn't get it, so felt he had to say those things in front of the cameras there. But when asked if he should have any blame for the damage done to the
reputation of the FBI, he said no -- not me, at all.
Is that fair, and how do you expect the White House to react to that this morning?
VAZQUEZ: Right. So, I find Jim Comey's pivot in recent -- in recent months pretty remarkable. I mean, this coming from a former --
BRIGGS: Yes.
VAZQUEZ: -- or a registered Republican -- for a longtime Republican to somebody who is openly not only telling his Twitter followers to vote for Democrats in the midterms election but now criticizing them heavily when he's asked questions in a closed-door interview.
[05:40:16] I have to tell you, there's still a lot more to be seen. We haven't been able to take a look at the transcript of this second half of Congress' interview with him, but what we do know is that among other things, he says he discussed what he called nothing new. It was the Steele dossier and Hillary Clinton's e-mails.
And aside from that, we do -- we do know from a source familiar that told CNN that he pushed back on the -- on the -- when he pushed back on the president over whether the FBI should disclose that the president wasn't under investigation by the FBI --
ROMANS: Yes.
VAZQUEZ: -- he defended it.
So he seems pretty headstrong in the fact that he wants to defend the FBI to the end --
ROMANS: Right.
VAZQUEZ: -- essentially, despite the fact that he's no longer with the Bureau.
ROMANS: Maegan Vazquez, really nice to see you. We called it your maiden voyage. Does that make you Captain Stubing when it -- when you are for all of our --
VAZQUEZ: I hope I'm not Gilligan.
BRIGGS: That's good -- that's good, Maegan -- so Gilligan.
ROMANS: A different maiden voyage -- a 3-hour tour that did not turn out well.
All right, nice to see you, Maegan. Come back again soon.
VAZQUEZ: Great.
ROMANS: Thank you.
VAZQUEZ: Thank you.
BRIGGS: OK.
A new report prepared for the Senate shows Russian operatives aggressively targeted special counsel Robert Mueller. They did it by setting up fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other sites. And they used irrision and disparagement to create the narrative that the Russia probe was nonsense and that Mueller and former FBI director James Comey were corrupt.
ROMANS: The Russian influence campaign also targeted African- Americans as part of a broader effort to suppress voter turnout among Democrats. The report says other distinct ethnic and religious groups were targeted to a degree, but it was the black community that was targeted extensively to try to suppress their vote.
Another ugly day for stock market investors, folks. All the major averages are lower for the year now and facing their worst year in a decade. The damage report -- the Dow fell 508 points, the S&P 500 lost 2.1 percent, the Nasdaq fell 2.3 percent.
This is the worst quarter for stocks since 2008 and shaping up to be the only negative year in the past decade. It's a shock for stock market investors who are used to winning.
The S&P 500 has boasted double-digit returns seven of the past nine years.
The key now, the Federal Reserve, tomorrow. The central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates. What will Fed chief Jerome Powell say about the economy, about inflation, and about whether it might cause or slow down its rate increasing strategy?
As the stock market was tumbling, President Trump said he would release a second round of payments to farmers hurt by tariffs, even after China resumed buying U.S. soybeans last week. Soybean growers have been hit especially hard by the president's trade war.
China stopped buying U.S. soybeans in July in retaliation for new American tariffs on its products. The new order from China will not make up for the business soybean farmers lost this year. The Farm Bureau has estimated exports to China are down 97 percent.
A lot of farmers are, of course, in Iowa. Just yesterday morning, a new CNN-Des Moines Register poll shows Iowa Republicans still support this president. Two-thirds said they would definitely vote to reelect Mr. Trump if the election were held today.
And when I talk to some of these growers and farmers back in my home state --
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: -- they say just -- they say that the Russia investigation is a lot of white noise and just give him time. That we need to reset the trade balance agenda in America and that they trust him. A lot of them say they trust him.
BRIGGS: Yes, 81 percent with Republicans in Iowa there, so --
ROMANS: Even as farm values decline.
BRIGGS: Right.
Ahead, every parent's worst nightmare. A child runs into a road after a ball. He was saved, but not by his parent. We'll tell you who saved him, ahead.
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[05:48:13] BRIGGS: The vote on Brexit is now set. British Prime Minister Theresa May announcing the vote will now happen the week of January 14th, less than 80 days before the U.K. is due to leave the European Union at the end of March.
Samuel Burke live for us in London. Sammy, good morning to you. Great to have you.
Is the very real possibility of the U.K. leaving the E.U. with no deal now a possibility?
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Dave, it is a real possibility.
Imagine if New York had voted to secede from the United States and after two years post that vote, all these discussions were still going on, and they're just 100 days from leaving the U.S. and they still didn't know exactly what was going to happen. Well, that's exactly the situation we find ourselves here in the U.K.
Let me just put up on the screen the three real scenarios that could play out here. These are really the only possibilities left.
Number one, the prime minister's plan. That's the deal that Theresa May has with the European Union. No more immigrants coming from the mainland -- from the continental European countries to the U.K. without a visa.
Or you could have an exit from the E.U. with no deal whatsoever. Now, economists warn that this could be very harsh on the U.K. economy. So many businesses have done business with the European Union for decades now so everything could change for them overnight.
Or, a second referendum, even though in the past 24 hours, the prime minister has said that's not very democratic. The majority of U.K. voters did, in fact, vote in favor of Brexit, so to switch all of the sudden would be fair.
Though, she could just have a referendum whether it's either my deal -- Theresa May's deal -- or we Brexit with no deal, so that's another option.
A lot of businesses telling me it's looking very difficult for them to have this type of situation where there could be no deal, Dave.
BRIGGS: Wow, just disastrous implications.
[05:50:00] Samuel Burke live for us in London -- great stuff. Thank you.
ROMANS: All right.
Corporate America's first full year under lower tax rates and how'd they celebrate? A record-setting $1 trillion in stock buybacks -- that's right. That exceeds the prior record of $781 billion set in 2015. The buyback boom has been fueled by strong economic growth.
However, since the president signed the tax cut bill a year ago, stocks are actually lower right now. The Dow was down 4.8 percent, the S&P 500 down more than five percent, the Nasdaq down about four percent.
Opponents of buybacks say look, companies would serve the economy better by sharing more profits with employees, by expanding in factories and facilities, by investing in R&D in the future, not necessarily buying back their stock. That just helps the investor class.
Channing Dungey, the woman who led ABC Entertainment for three years, has landed at Netflix. Dungey stepped down last money as president of ABC Entertainment. She's going to join Netflix now as vice president of original content.
Netflix preparing to compete with Disney's streaming service that launches next year.
Dungey will work on setting strategic direction for original content. She will also work with Higher Ground Productions. That's the production company of the former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.
Netflix said it will spend as much $8 billion on shows and movies in 2018.
BRIGGS: But there's no substitute for live, early-morning network news --
ROMANS: Yes, news, four to six a.m. Eastern time.
BRIGGS: -- delivered by your favorite early-morning personalities.
ROMANS: Yes, but you can also --
BRIGGS: No substitute.
ROMANS: You can also tape us and watch us later.
BRIGGS: That, too.
All right, who doesn't get nostalgic for this fresh dance? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALFONSO RIBEIRO, ACTOR, "THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR": Dancing the Carlton to "It's Not Unusual."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The Carlton, from "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air." But now, the actor is suing makers of a popular game. We'll show you why.
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[05:56:12] BRIGGS: Accusations of sexual harassment and assault costing former CBS chairman Les Moonves $120 million. The CBS board of directors says Moonves will not receive any severance pay.
The board concluding it had ample reason to fire Moonves in September based on new findings from two law firms hired to investigate the allegations.
An attorney for Moonves, once one of the most powerful men in entertainment, says Moonves denies any non-consensual sex. Notably, though, the lawyer did not signal Moonves would take legal action to fight for the money.
ROMANS: Two Chicago police officers struck and killed a train last night. Thirty-seven-year-old Eduardo Marmolejo and 31-year-old Conrad Gray were responding to call of shots fired. As they were searching the area, both were hit by a passing train.
Marmolejo had served on the force for 2 1/2 years; Gray for 18 months. Both were fathers to young families.
The suspect in the shooting they were investigating has been arrested.
BRIGGS: An extremely close call caught on video where a retired police officer swoops in and rescues a toddler wandering in the middle of a Southern California street. Former officer Darryl Pang spotted the unsupervised child. He made a quick U-turn and as Pang inched closer the boy bounced his ball into traffic and chased after it.
Pang jumps out of his car, motioned others to stop, and picks the boy up from the middle of the street. It wasn't until the boy was safe in Pang's arms that someone finally showed up to retrieve the child.
ROMANS: Terrifying.
All right, it turns out it was legendary "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" producer Lorne Michaels who kept Pete Davidson on the sidelines for most of this weekend's show following that Instagram post where Davidson appeared suicidal.
The "New York Post" says his sketches were dropped early in the evening Saturday to give Davidson a break. Michaels has pledged to do all he can, including sending Davidson to get help. The comic has been open about his struggle with borderline personality
disorder. The hope is he will be back on the show when it returns in January.
BRIGGS: Who could forget this fresh dance from the 1990s?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RIBEIRO: Dancing the Carlton to "It's Not Unusual."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: It's a classic.
Actor Alfonso Ribeiro, probably best known as Carlton from "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," is suing the creators of the game Fortnite for featuring his signature Carlton dance without his permission. You be the judge. Pretty obvious, huh?
The lawsuit claims Epic Games has unfairly profited by selling the dance as an in-game purchase under the name Fresh.
Ribeiro also suing the makers of NBA 2K for similar reasons.
No comment yet from Epic Games.
ROMANS: Yes, it really brings you back, doesn't it?
Bah humbug -- the UPS store admitting to Christmas spirit fail with a tweet that earned widespread backlash. The shipping franchise tweeted Sunday, "If your child addresses a letter to the North Pole, you can leave it with us. We do shredding."
UPS says the intention was to have some fun but it was taken in a negative way. Well, of course, it was taken in a negative way -- it's a negative tweet. The tweet was gone by Monday.
A number of Twitter users compared the UPS Store to Scrooge and the Grinch.
BRIGGS: I didn't get it. I mean, those letters have to get to Santa. I don't get the joke.
ROMANS: Yes, you are running out of time. You are running out of time. Can you send Santa an e-mail?
BRIGGS: I think -- I think you -- yes.
ROMANS: Bad news for UPS.
Thanks for joining us.
BRIGGS: Yes, that's the way to go.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Here's "NEW DAY." See you tomorrow.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They took a general that they said didn't lie and they convinced him he did lie, and he made some kind of a deal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bottom line is clear. He pled guilty to lying to the FBI, period.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would be surprised if he got any jail time at all.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: The Russian disinformation campaign is continuing to echo the Trump White House in its attack on Mueller.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're never going to have the democratic free and open process if we don't stop this now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, December 18th, 6:00 here in New York.
