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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

President Trump Visits Troops in Iraq; Trump Defends Decision to Pull Out of Syria; Thousands Evacuating Over Fears of More Tsunamis in Indonesia; Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired December 27, 2018 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:43] JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: The president makes his first trip to a war zone. He said Iraq could be used as a base to attack Syria after the U.S. pulls out.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Wall Street with a record rebound. The Dow stops its slide with the biggest point gain ever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Whatever it takes. I mean, we're going to have a wall. We're going to have safety. We need safety for our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: President Trump also vowing to stay the course. No wall, no deal to fund the government.

ROMANS: And a New Jersey school district standing up for a varsity wrestler who had to cut his dreadlocks. No teams will compete if the referee who ordered that haircut is officiating.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

JOHNS: And I'm Joe Johns.

ROMANS: Nice to see you.

JOHNS: Right now it's about 31 past minutes past the hour. Good to see you.

ROMANS: Holiday week. Joe's in the seat having fun.

JOHNS: Absolutely. It's fun.

President Trump is on his way back to Washington after he and the first lady quietly slipped into Iraq, paying a holiday visit to U.S. service members.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We came to Al Asad to share our eternal gratitude for everything you do to keep America safe, strong and free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president making good on the promise to visit troops fighting one of the wars he has scorned as a costly mistake. The secret overnight flight from Washington to Al Asad Air Base even Mr. Trump admits caused some anxiety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I had concerns for the institution of the presidency, not for myself, personally. I have concerns for the first lady, I will tell you. But if you would have seen what we had to go through with the darkened plane with all windows closed, with no lights on whatsoever, anywhere. Pitch black. I have never seen it. I have been in many airplanes. All types and shapes and sizes. I've never seen anything like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: First time he's ever taken that trip. The president remained on the ground for about three hours and just a week after Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned over the president's decision to pull troops out of Syria, Mr. Trump said Iraq could be used as a base to take further action in Syria.

CNN's Barbara Starr has made that trip to Iraq many times. She has more from the Pentagon.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Joe, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump made the secret unannounced trip into Iraq. It had been expected at some point he might visit the war zone but nobody knew that it would happen when it did.

The Secret Service and the U.S. military working together for weeks to, of course, ensure the security of the president, the first lady and the entire traveling party. They spent about three hours on the ground. The president talking to the troops for about 20 minutes, visiting with them, talking about football, talking about how things were going for them, getting the briefing from commanders.

But the president also very much taking the opportunity to defend his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from next-door Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They said, sir, could we have six more months? I said yes, you got six more months. And then they said again recently could we have more time. I said nope, you can't have any more time. You've got enough time. We've knocked them out. We've knocked them silly. I think that a lot of people are going to come around to my way of thinking. It's not fair when we burden the -- when the burden is all on us.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you have any plans to pull forces out of Iraq as well?

TRUMP: No plans at all. No. In fact we can use this as a base if we wanted to do something in Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: That may prove to be very difficult because if you want to do air strikes, if you want to do ground operations, you have to have intelligence from the ground inside Syria. It may be now much more difficult to collect that intelligence.

But the troops giving the president a very respectful, a very optimistic, a very enthusiastic reaction as you would expect U.S. military troops to do for any president of the United States -- Christine, Joe.

ROMANS: All right. Barbara, thank you for that.

President Trump also delivering a blunt "America First" message to the rest of the Middle East.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are in their region. They should be really sharing the burden of cost and they're not. And now they're going to be doing it. And if they don't, they're going to go in and they'll go into places like Turkey and Russia and Iran, and Iraq and lots of other places.

[04:35:10] So these people are going to have to start doing a lot of their own work and they're going to have to start paying for it. Because the United States cannot continue to be the policemen of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president mentioning Turkey, Russia, Iran, places our Fred Pleitgen has been and reported from. He is live for us this morning from Moscow.

Fred, what's likely to happen if the U.S. leaves it to other countries to shape events in the Middle East?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the thing that's going to happen, Christine, is they're obviously going to shape them in the way that they see fit. And that's something that's already going on. You know, one of the interesting things that we heard when President Trump first announced that the U.S. was going to pull out of Syria, the Russians were saying they think that that is a great idea. It's something that they've been calling for for a very long time.

But one of the things that Vladimir Putin recently said is he said we're not really sure that it's actually going to happen. He said look, the Americans have been talking for years about leaving Afghanistan, but they never did it. And now President Trump essentially did it that he kept accusing the Obama administration of which is telegraphing U.S.'s intentions to some of its adversaries. Of course two of them being Russia and Iran as well. So those countries now will be very reassured that the U.S. is indeed

are leaving. And one of the things that we're seeing there on the ground in Syria, is that especially Turkey and Russia are already moving in to try and fill that void that would be left when U.S. forces leave the country. There's going to be a meeting very soon that the Russians and the Turks have announced on the future of Syria and how those two nations are going to shape that future.

And of course, the troops that used to be America's allies on the ground they've got a pretty big decision to make. They can either stand and try to fight against the Turks if they try to move in or they can try to make a deal with the Russians and move back to the Syrian government -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Fred Pleitgen for us in Moscow. Thanks, Fred.

JOHNS: Now a meeting discussed between President Trump and the Iraqi prime minister was cancelled. As for why that really depends on who you asked. A statement from the Iraqi prime minister's media office says there was supposed to be a former reception and meeting, but it calls it a variation of views on how to organize a meeting led to it being replaced by a phone conversation.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders pushing back saying security restrictions meant White House officials were only able to invite the prime minister two hours before the appointed time. Sanders said the prime minister was unable to attend because he was in a different part of Iraq.

ROMANS: One notable glitch during the trip, the president and the White House communications team revealed a U.S. Navy SEAL team is deployed to Iraq. Of course the commander in chief can declassify information at will, but normally the location of a special ops unit would not be publicly revealed especially while the unit is still deployed.

JOHNS: It started when the president took a selfie with a Navy lieutenant commander who said he was the chaplain for the SEAL Team Five. After the president left Iraqi air space, he tweeted a video that appeared to include members of the SEAL team. We're not showing it for obvious reasons. Current and former Pentagon officials tell "Newsweek" such special ops information is almost always classified. Revealing it violates operational security.

ROMANS: And we're now entering day six of a partial government shutdown with no apparent end in sight. Speaking to reporters and to U.S. troops, the president digging in vowing to continue the shutdown until he gets funding for his border wall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Because I don't know if you folks are aware of what's happening. We want to have strong borders in the United States. The Democrats don't want to let us have strong borders. Only for one reason, you know why? Because I want it. Whatever it takes. I mean, we're going to have a wall. We're going to have safety. We need safety for our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president has been demanding $5 billion for the border wall. When asked repeatedly if he would be willing to accept $2 billion, the president dodged the direct question three times.

JOHNS: Both chambers of Congress are expected to gavel in today. No votes are scheduled. President Trump who, don't forget, said he would be proud to own the shutdown punting the blame now. He's pointing the finger at Democratic leader and soon to be speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have a problem with the Democrats because Nancy Pelosi is calling the shots, not Chuck. And Chuck wants to have this done. I really believe that. He wants to have this done. But she is calling the shots and she's calling them because she wants the votes. And probably if they do something, she's not going to get the votes and she's not going to be speaker of the House. And that would be not so good for her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Got to footnote that, just a reminder, Pelosi already has enough votes committed to reclaim the speaker's gavel.

The longer the government shutdown drags on the sooner 800,000 unpaid or furloughed federal workers will feel the pinch. With the new year right around the corner landlords, utilities will start asking for payment.

ROMANS: The shutdown now also affecting the nation's court system. The Justice Department has asked the federal judge to temporarily pause certain cases until furloughed lawyers are back on the job.

[04:40:08] The government shutdown also threatens access to key economic data. In the middle of a volatile period on Wall Street, federal reports on the economy, investments and trade will slow to a trickle.

All right. A Santa Claus rally came a day late to Wall Street. Stock markets staged a miraculous comeback Wednesday from their worst ever Christmas Eve. The Dow soared more than a thousand points, the most points in one day ever. That's a 5 percent rally. The S&P 500 also rose 5 percent. The Nasdaq jumped 5.8 percent pulling out of bear market territory.

It was the biggest percentage gain for all three averages since March 2009. Wednesday a respite from a terrible month for investors. Even after the rally the S&P remains close to entering a bear market which would end the longest bull market in history. And this month is still on pace for the worst December since 1931.

Now the White House tried a new approach to reassure investors about the U.S. economy sending chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Kevin Hassett, to speak with reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The president made it very clear that Secretary Mnuchin's job is safe. Is the Fed chairman's job safe?

KEVIN HASSETT, CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISORS: Yes, of course, 100 percent. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: One hundred percent. The Fed chairman's job is not in jeopardy by this president?

HASSETT: Absolutely. That's correct. All the anecdotal information we're getting is that the fundamentals remain extremely sound. The Christmas sales were through the roof. GDP in the fourth quarter is looking like it's going to be very close to if not above 3 percent again. And so I think that the momentum that we saw this year is carried forward to next year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president has bashed the Fed chief on many occasions so that 100 percent safe line was really important here. The president said the Fed is raising interest rates too fast. Hassett instead blamed market volatility on fundamentals noting growth in Europe has slowed, growth in Asia has slowed, but he said the U.S. economy continues to be strong.

JOHNS: Frustrated border officials speaking up after the second death this month of a migrant child in U.S. custody. One Customs and Border Protect agent tells CNN, "We're not designed to hold all these people. A complete overhaul needs to happen. We're overcrowded, understaffed. We don't have the manpower to deal with this crisis. No one ever thinks you'll lose a life. You give them food and water. If they complain, you flag it. It's sad. It's heartbreaking. That hits home."

ROMANS: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announcing changes. She says all children in CBP custody have now received what she called a thorough medical screening and she says going forward all children CBP takes into custody will receive a medical assessment whether or not the adult they are with asks for one.

Nielsen says nearly 1500 officers and agents along the border are medically trained and DHS has asked the military to provide medical help.

JOHNS: Now local groups in El Paso are adjusting to the faster pace that ICE is releasing migrants into the city. 522 were set to be dropped off last night. The head of Annunciation House says the migrants are being released through a network of hospitality sites. Most of them church connected. That's far more humane than earlier this week when hundreds of migrants were left in the cold at a bus station parking lot.

ROMANS: The Trump administration is appealing a judge's order blocking asylum restrictions on the southern border. The president signed a rule last month barring migrants who crossed illegally from seeking asylum outside official ports of entry. But about a week ago a district judge extended the initial decision to block the new rule. The judge said the asylum restriction conflicts with immigration law and asylum seekers would be at increased risk of violence if the rule goes into effect.

JOHNS: So this winter storm has been moving its way across the country. Now intensifying as it moves east. Tornadoes, flash floods, blizzard conditions all possible of course during one of the busiest travel times of the year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:47:21] ROMANS: A winter storm intensifying as it moves east. This is Santa Fe, New Mexico. Are you kidding? Snow and ice have caused road conditions to deteriorate. Multiple wrecks on I-25. Thunderstorms and heavy lightning causing cancellation of the First Responder Bowl in Dallas. The game between Boise State and Boston College called off after just 10 minutes of play.

More than 65,000 are without power in Texas. Expect more of the same as this storm moves east today. Blizzard conditions, flash flood watches, even isolated tornadoes in parts of the south.

The latest now from meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Joe and Christine, good morning, guys.

Yes, we're watching the severe weather across portions of the Gulf Coast and back toward northern and central Texas in the past few hours. At least one report of a tornado. The active weather here going to shift all the way toward the east city where the concern does have a risk for hail, damaging winds. Those were the primary threats and isolated shots of tornadoes potentially embedded in here.

New Orleans, around Lake Charles back towards Mobile. Some of the areas of concern here when it comes to the active storms into later this afternoon. Notice very slow progression going from Thursday into Friday when it comes to the wet weather. That's the concern here with the rainfall that's in store and impacting potentially at least 24 million people here where we do have the flood watches in place.

So expecting widespread coverage here of two to three inches. Some areas as much as four to five inches of rainfall down toward the south. And to the north, it's all about the wintry weather. In fact, blizzard conditions in parts of the Dakotas, includes Aberdeen, towards portions of South Dakota as well. Some of these areas could see as much as a foot and a half to two feet of snow in the next couple days.

But again, the big story for the East Coast becomes all rain and all severe storms mainly along the Gulf Coast states -- guys.

JOHNS: Got to keep an eye on that. Thanks, Pedram. A school district in New Jersey holding an emergency meeting after a

referee forced a varsity wrestler to cut his dreadlocks. Andrew Johnson told the referee identified as Alan Maloney that he could push his hair back. That is allowed, something Johnson has done in the past. But Maloney refused because the teen's hair wasn't in its natural state, whatever that means. It seems like dread is natural as it gets.

ROMANS: Yes, I would say so.

JOHNS: The Buena Regional District has now decided it will not send its sports team to any events where Maloney is officiating.

ROMANS: The state's athletic association is now investigating. The Civil Rights Division of the New Jersey attorney general's office already announced a probe as well. Andrew Johnson's ordeal angering many people across the state. Governor Phil Murphy tweeting, "No student should have to needlessly choose between his or her identity and playing sports." Despite the disruption, Johnson did win his match in overtime. Good for him.

[04:50:02] Alan Maloney, the referee, has yet to respond to CNN's request for comment.

JOHNS: The Trump administration facing the first legal challenge to its ban on bump stocks. These are devices that make semiautomatic rifles fire more like automatic weapons. A gun man used them to kill 58 people at a concert in Las Vegas just last year. The Gun Owners of America Group says it filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms over the ban which it calls illegal and unconstitutional. A court challenge had been expected since the administration formally banned the devices last week.

ROMANS: A manhunt intensifying in California for a suspect police say gunned down an officer during a traffic stop. Officer Ronil Singh pulled the suspect over just before 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday in Newman, that's about 70 miles east of San Jose. He later called out "shots fired" over the radio and was found at the scene with gunshot wounds. The 33-year-old officer pronounced dead at the hospital. He had been with the Newman Police Department for seven years.

The suspect spotted on surveillance video appears to be a heavy set man with dark closely clapped hair. He took off in a silver or gray extended-cab Dodge Ram 1500 pickup. The truck has a paper license plate that says "AR Auto." Police warn he is armed and dangerous.

At St. Quentin Prison in California authorities are hunting for an inmate who walked off the grounds. Officials say Shalom Mendoza was last seen around 9:35 p.m. last night. The prison has activated its emergency operations system which it used to track down an escapee. Mendoza serving a five-year sentence for use of a deadly weapon during an attempted carjacking.

JOHNS: One city in Massachusetts is taking a new approach to curb the rising rates of teen vaping. Somerville, located right outside Boston, is restricting e-cigarette sales to adult only stores. The city's mayor says the products are shamelessly marketed to teens who do not fully understand the health risks.

E-cigarette use among teenagers skyrocketed between 2017 and 2018. The number of high school students vaping jumped by 78 percent, while use by middle schoolers rose by 48 percent.

ROMANS: But Iowa business owner Rodney Sebastian had no idea of the treasures he'd find when he bought an old building in downtown Davenport. That's where I'm from, by the way. As he was clearing out the basement, organizing and tossing away trash, Sebastian stumbled across more than two dozen motion picture reels dating back to the 1930s. It turns out the 35-millimeter reels contained footage of news events from around the Midwest, including film shot in 1933 and '34 of the Chicago World's Fair.

And get this, one label marked "Lincoln Tomb" is footage taken in June 1931 on the day President Lincoln's tomb was dedicated in Springfield, Illinois.

Isn't that cool?

JOHNS: That is very cool.

ROMANS: It's like news from the archives.

JOHNS: Yes. I got to get some of that archive video right here on CNN.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNS: Now to an amazing holiday story. An Arizona man fulfilled an 8-year-old girl's Christmas wishes sent by balloon from Mexico. This is incredible. Randy Heiss was hiking with his dog earlier this month near Patagonia, Arizona, when he spotted the remnants of that red balloon with a note written in Spanish tied to it. In the note, the girl named Dayami asked for toys, clothes, magic markers and a coloring book.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDY HEISS, FOUND CHRISTMAS LIST: It was a kid's Christmas wish. I mean, you don't -- you can't turn away from that. Some little kid put that list out there in good faith hoping something would happen with it. And so I just knew that moment that I had to do everything I could to fulfill that list.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: And that he did. Last week, Heiss sent a message to a radio host in Nogales and essentially fulfilled that Christmas wish, if you will.

ROMANS: That's amazing.

JOHNS: That's pretty incredible.

ROMANS: Tracking her down using social media. They found her father and then a day later they gave her those gifts. Amazing. I love Good Samaritans.

JOHNS: Great story.

ROMANS: All right. Retailers in the U.S. had their best holiday shopping season in six years. The reason? More money in consumers' pockets. CNN Business is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:57:27] JOHNS: In Indonesia, warnings are now elevated as volcanic eruptions continue days after the volcano caused a tsunami that left hundreds dead. The government evacuating thousands from islands in the Sunda Strait as fears rise of another tsunami.

CNN's Alexandra Field has the latest live from Hong Kong.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe, an absolutely devastating year for Indonesia. It's been just two months since these tsunami killed 2,000 people, now hundreds more killed in another tsunami on Saturday and fears mounting about the possibility of more tsunamis to come. That's because experts are seeing increased volcanic activity at the volcano that triggered the last tsunami.

There was a landslide followed by a volcanic eruption and then that 10-foot high wave that moved through the Sundra Strait. As they see more volcanic activity they fear this could happen again and that's why they're taking the precautionary step of moving thousands of people off of two islands within the Sundra Strait. They're taking them by vote farther inland to protect them if that wave surge does in fact come again.

Ash is still spewing from this volcano. Enough that airplanes have been forced to route around that ash. And back on land, people are being asked to wear masks and goggles because of the heavy ash in the air. All of it a grim reminder of the dangers posed by this volcano. At the same time rescue work continues. The death toll now standing at 430 in the aftermath of Saturday's disaster -- Joe.

JOHNS: Thanks for that, Alexandra Field, in Hong Kong.

ROMANS: All right. On Wall Street, did you miss this, folks? A stunning rally? The Dow soars 1,000 points. That's almost 5 percent. Here is how the rest of the world is responding right now. You can see Tokyo with its own sizeable rally. The Shanghai in Hong Kong lower. And watching European shares. A kind of a tepid response to that big rally on Wall Street. Futures, U.S. futures right now are a little bit lower.

The Dow posted its biggest daily point gain ever. The S&P 500 also rose 5 percent Wednesday. The Nasdaq rallied 5.8 percent pulling out of the bear market. This was the biggest percentage gain for all three averages since March 2009.

Now even after Wednesday's rally, the month is still on pace for the worst December since 1931. Investors are on pace for their worst stock market returns in a decade. But at least yesterday investors said hey, wait, we're priced in a recession. No one sees a recession in the months ahead. The near-term months ahead. So maybe things were overdone.

Iconic retailer Penney's earned its nickname yesterday. JCPenney shares fell below $1 for the first time since it started trading in 1929. The 110-year-old department store has not been profitable since 2010. It has $4 billion in debt.