Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Federal Workers will Remain Unpaid Through The New Year; When Will U.S. Troops Be Pulled Out of Syria; Democrats Take Control of The House This Week And There's No Sign That They're Willing To Budge On The Wall and Funding; President Trump Has Issued An Executive Order That Freezes Federal Worker's Pay In 2019. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired December 31, 2018 - 04:00   ET

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


[04:00:00]

CNN EARLY - 12310400

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: We're reevaluating what's the best way to achieve the president's objective.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN HOST: Will President Trump slow the withdrawal the of U.S. troops from Syria? He promised a rapid pull-out, but a leading Republican senator says, the plan may change.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: And it's about to get rough for 800,000 federal workers. They'll remain unpaid through the New Year, as both sides refuse to budge on border security.

KOSIK: And we are ringing in 2019 today. Expect big security of you're heading out and will the weather cooperate? Details ahead.

Good morning and welcome to Early Start. I'm Alison Kosik sitting in for Christine Romans. It's interesting; I was alluding to the fact, whether the weather will cooperate here in New York. It is going to pour on Times Square.

MARQUARDT: All night as the clock strikes 12. I'm Alex Marquardt in for Dave Briggs. It is Monday, December 31, 4:00 am here on the East Coast, happy New Year's Eve. Great to close out the 2018 with you.

KOSIK: I agree. This is great.

MARQUARDT: Good to see you. All right, well we are going to start with President Trump, who may be hedging on his timeline to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria after meeting with the president on Sunday.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is suggesting that Mr. Trump has a better understanding of the stakes in Syria and that he has agreed to reevaluate. Graham originally characterized the president's pull-out as an Obama like mistake.

KOSIK: Two thousand American troops are supposed to leave Syria in the coming weeks and months. Senator Graham says, Mr. Trump is not pausing the withdrawal completely, but he is committed to a fresh assessment to see what happens on the ground in Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM: I think we're in a pause situation. We're reevaluating what's the best way to achieve the president's objective of having people pay more and do more. After the discussions with the president and General Dunford, I've never felt better about where we're headed. I think we're slowing things down in a smart way, but the goal has always been the same, to be able to leave Syria, make sure ISIS never comes back, our partners are taken care of and Iran is contained and I think that's possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Now, those partners that Graham is referring to there are the Kurds in Northern Syria and there is concern that they could be attacked by neighboring Turkey if the U.S. troops do leave. Now, on Friday, the Kurds invited Syria's Assad regime to take back some of the territory that they held, with the hope of avoiding a slaughter at the hands of the Turks.

KOSIK: Tonight, outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis will make a phone call to his replacement, Patrick Shanahan, marking the end of his tenure as the Head of the Pentagon. Mattis was supposed to leave at the end of February, but President Trump moved up his departure date by two months.

MARQUARDT: Now the partial government shutdown, we are at day 10 and counting and you should expect to be counting for some time yet to come. Now, according to sources, President Trump is privately telling lawmakers that he will not agree to a deal if it only allocates $1.3 billion for border security.

Now remember, Democrats take control of the House this week and there's no sign that they're willing to budge either. It's 800,000 federal workers and their families who are feeling the pain while lawmakers themselves play politics and continue to collect their paychecks.

KOSIK: Tony Reardon appeared on CNN this weekend. The head of National Treasury Employees Union says his members, they're anxious and angry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY REARDON, HEAD OF NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION: They have been kind of cast in the middle of a fight, not of their creation, and that they do not have the power to resolve. They're -- they are fearful of not being able to pay their mortgage, to pay their rent, to pay the college tuition bill for their children and they want Congress to do their job, Congress and the Administration to do their job.

We had an individual let us know that recently his wife died. He is unable at this time, because of this shutdown, to pay for her headstone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Some banks like Chase and Wells Fargo say, they're willing to work with federal employees who's accounts are in good standing. And as questions linger about how far President Trump may be willing to bend on border security, his outgoing Chief of Staff is publically clarifying one critical point. More now from Sarah Westwood at the White House.

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Alison and Alex, President Trump is holding out for funding for his promised border wall as the partial government shutdown drags into it's second week. Now, the president's allies have tried to muddy the waters about how much funding the president wants for a wall versus border security. It's also not clear at this point what the president considers an actual wall.

Outgoing White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said that this administration actually abandoned the idea of a concrete wall along the southern border early in Trump's presidency. He told the "Los Angeles Times," to be honest, it's not a wall.

[04:05:00]

WESTWOOD: The president still says wall, often times, frankly, he'll say barrier or fencing, now he's tended towards steel slats, but we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration.

Senator Lindsey Graham came to the White House on Sunday for a two hour lunch and said he pitched the president on what he described as a potential breakthrough, should it gain traction, and that's a deal that would trade $5 billion in wall funding for temporary protections for the so-called Dreamers, the young undocumented immigrants protected by DACA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM: The president didn't commit, but I think he's very open minded. I know there's some Democrats out there who would be willing to provide money for wall border security if we could deal with the DACA population and TPS people and hopefully we can get some serious discussions started, maybe as soon as next week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: But keep in mind that Mick Mulvaney, the incoming acting Chief of Staff/Budget Director has already signaled that the president is willing to back down off that $5 billion number. In fact, Vice President Mike Pence, last week, offered something in the neighborhood of $2.5 billion, half of that, and Democrats rejected it.

Now keep in mind, that Democratic Congressional leaders haven't been invited back to the White House for further negotiations, so talks do still appear to be at a stand still. Alison and Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right, thanks to Sarah Westwood at the White House. Now, adding insult to injury, President Trump has issued an executive order that freezes federal worker's pay in 2019.

This move follows through on a proposal that he announced earlier this year. It nixes a 2.1 percent across the board pay raise that was set to take affect in January. It also cancels a yearly adjustment of federal employees pay based on their region. Now, the president said back in August, that the federal budget could not support that pay increase.

KOSIK: President Trump is blaming Democrats for the deaths of two migrant children at the Mexico border and he's facing intense criticism for it. The president claims Democrats and their, quote, "pathetic immigration policies allowed people to think they could enter the U.S. illegally." He insists, they wouldn't even try if -- they wouldn't even try to come if there was a wall.

I want you to listen to Kellyanne Conway here, making that case on CNN's "State of the Union" over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: I don't like -- I don't like some of the Democrats using these deaths as political pawns ...

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: But isn't that exactly what the president just did?

CONWAY: No, the president is not doing that. The president does not want these children to come on the perilous to begin with. They are paying now, some of them are paying the ultimate price, but many of them -- all of them are paying these coyotes who don't give a wit about human life. We ...

BASH: But this is not a new policy.

CONWAY: ... and the Congress has failed to close loopholes that make people believe they should come here as a family unit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: All of this political posturing is doing nothing to solve what is a really heartbreaking crisis at the border. And we have new video of shelter staff members pushing and shoving migrant children. Now, it's under review for possible criminal charges. Two employees have been fired, with others disciplined. Our Nick Valencia has more.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alison and Alex, this is a story that was first reported by the Arizona Republic. The obtained this surveillance video by filing an open records request with the Arizona Department of Health Services and before you see it, we want to warn some of our viewers may find this video disturbing.

What it shows are three incidents involving staffers at the Hacienda Del Sol shelter in Youngtown, Arizona. It's a facility that was run by Southwest Key. This is an incident that happened -- or incidents that happened in mid-September and they were reported by Southwest Key to local law enforcement as well as federal officials. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office did investigate and at the time

decided to not bring criminal charges, but that has changed. Here's a statement that we got over the weekend, which says, quote, "Based upon the evidence gathered during this thorough investigation, MCSO Executive Command has made the decision to submit the case to the Maricopa County Attorney's office for it's review and determination of criminal charges.

The case will be submitted on Monday and further questions about this matter should be directed to the county attorney. We should mention that the Hacienda Del Sol shelter closed in October.

Southwest Key spokesman released a statement back then saying, he welcomed the decision by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, but they did not go into the details. And after seeing this video, we could perhaps tell why. We should

mention that this is another dark stain and an ugly thread in what is already a very sad story involving migrants in America.

Alex, Alison.

MARQUARDT: All right, thanks to Nick Valencia there. Switching gears, the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare will remain in affect while a ruling that found it unconstitutional is being appealed.

It was Texas Federal District Judge, Reed O'Connor, who ruled that Obamacare is unconstitutional because Congress eliminated the individual mandate penalty. Since the individual mandate was upheld as a tax the judge essentially ruled, no tax, no law. The decision has jeopardized health coverage for millions of Americans on the Obamacare exchanges and Medicaid Expansion.

[04:10:00]

MARQUARDT: It also threatens to eliminate popular protections like guaranteed coverage for those with preexisting conditions.

KOSIK: Okay, we've got a full day of trading ahead on Wall Street. The view among investors, 2018 was the year of peak earnings and growth and 2019, it's going to be more tempered, get ready.

In seven of the past nine years, the S&P 500 has boasted double-digit returns. Last year the S&P 500 returned 22 percent, while now investors are facing their worst stock market returns in a decade.

The stock market is what's called a leading indicator, even though the economy today is strong, banks are healthy, job growth is good, the market is reflecting what is expected for next year and the stock market is telling us, next year it will be very good, but it's not going to be great.

Okay, so let's talk about the New Year for a second. Some resolutions, we often talk about pledging to do, we want to eat healthier, we want to exercise more, yes, those are our New Year's resolutions that we don't always keep, but what about our financial health? According to Fidelity Investments, for the 10th year in a row, topping the list of three most popular financial resolutions for 2019 is, saving more money, immediate of $200 per month, followed by paying down debt and spending less money.

Other resolutions from Charles Schwab include, creating a budget, managing your debt, optimizing your portfolio, preparing for the unexpected and protecting your estate. And also, if you're in this for the long haul, I would say sit this out for a little while, the volatility is only expected to continue. The Nasdaq, the S&P 500, the Dow, all in the negative for the year. So, they've all reversed all those gains.

MARQUARDT: And all over the place the last few weeks.

KOSIK: They have been.

MARQUARDT: ... all over. Incredible. All right, well coming up next, an intern was mauled by a lion at a North Carolina zoo. How that happened and what the victim's family is now saying.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:00]

MARQUARDT: We will be ringing in 2019 in just under 20 hours here on the East coast and as always it will be a huge celebration here in New York on Times Square. For those expected millions of people who will be there to see the big ball drop in person, security will be extremely tight. So, for more on that we go to CNN's Miguel Marquez.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alison, Alex, it is a party for two million people and safety is a number priority for the NYPD. The entire area around Times Square will be blocked off. There will be entrances for the public to get in. There will be magnetometers at all of those entrances.

No alcohol will be allowed, no backpacks, coolers, large packages, lawn chairs or umbrellas, doesn't sound like much of a party does it? The pens that they public in will start opening up at 11:00 am.

It's a little like Hotel California, you can check in any time you want, but if you leave you can't check back in because you have to go back through the line again basically, so you're going to have to have your restroom strategy worked out if you actually go.

As for NYPD's part, there's going to be hundreds of officers and agents from over 50 agencies, local, state and federal, 1,200 plus cameras, officers embedded in hotels around the area, bomb squad will be on hand, bomb sniffing dogs, hundreds of vehicle blockers to block off the entire area and one new thing this year, drones.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MILLER, NYPD DEPUTY COMMISSIONER: We'll be deploying NYPD drones for over watch. We haven't done that before, but that's going to give us a visual aid and a flexibility of being able to move a camera to a certain spot with great rapidity through a tremendous crowd.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: They'll even have counter drone technology out there, so if you want to bring your drone to Times Square, you might be into trouble, because they'll probably be able to take it down somehow, although they're being very, very tight lipped on the details there. Alex, Alison.

KOSIK: Okay, Miguel, looks like a lot of fun, not. I'm joking. I'm going to be out there working. Okay, so for those of you who are heading to Times Square, like me, I will be working, and elsewhere, to welcome in 2019, everybody wants to know how is the weather going to be. Let's get to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri with the New Year's forecast.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOLOGIST: Alison and Alex, good morning to you both. Happy New Year's as well.

(WEATHER)

MARQUARDT: All right, thanks to Pedram there.

All right, well a new year also means new laws on the books all across the country, and here are some of the highlights. At least 19 states will increase their minimum wages on or around New Year's Day, according to the National Employment Law Project. The federal minimum wage has been stuck at around $7.25 since 2009.

Now, more working women in California are also getting a seat at the table in 2019. Publically held corporations now must have at least one woman on the board of directors by the end of the year.

KOSIK: In Illinois new moms will be excused from jury service if they're nursing their babies. You're going to have to be older to smoke cigarettes legally in Massachusetts. The age to buy is being raised to 21.

And the state of New York announced the Drug Take Back Act to combat the opioid epidemic, it makes drug makers responsible for the costs of leftover drug collection, transportation and destruction.

[04:20:00]

KOSIK: The program is aimed at preventing drugs from ending up in the wrong hands. It's also meant to prevent patients from flushing leftover drugs down the toilet, which can harm the water supply and marine life.

MARQUARDT: It would take a lot of drugs to harm the water supply, obviously.

KOSIK: Yes.

MARQUARDT: All right, well coming up next, could California's biggest utility company face murder charges in the camp fire that killed almost 90 people?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: A tragedy at a North Carolina zoo on Sunday, a lion killed an intern at the Conservators Center in Burlington, North Carolina, and zoo officials say it happened during a routine cleaning of an animal enclosure. They say one of the lions somehow escaped a locked space and entered the public park area. Authorities identified the victim as 22-year-old Alexandra Black. She had interned at the zoo for about two weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MINDY STINNER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CONSERVATORS CENTER: This person's passion was the zoological industry. This was not this person's first internship and this person wanted to spend a lifetime around these animals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Oh, it's just so sad. The male lion was euthanized. It's not clear how he escaped. Officials say the Conservators Center will be closed until further notice. In a statement overnight, Alexandra Black's family says in part, quote, "she was a beautiful young woman who had just started her career. There was a terrible accident and we are mourning, but she died following her passion."

MARQUARDT: Horrible story. Well, California's largest utility company could face murder or manslaughter charges if it's found to be responsible for the state's recent string of deadly wildfires.

Court documents say that Pacific Gas and Electric or PG&E could face a range of criminal offenses if any of the wildfires broke out as a result of the utility failing to properly operate and maintain power lines.

The Attorney General's office has not come to a conclusion about PG&E's responsibility for the recent fires. There is still no official cause of the deadly camp fire, which killed at least 85 people.

[04:25:00]

MARQUARDT: PG&E says it is determined to do everything it can to reduce wildfire risks. Utilities equipments was found to have caused 17 fires last year in 2017.

KOSIK: Flu cases are on the rise in the U.S. The latest numbers from the Center's for Disease Control and Prevention showed nine states experiencing high flu activity as well as New York City. That's actually an increase from the previous week, when only two states, Colorado and Georgia, experienced high flu activity. There were four flu related pediatric deaths reported to the CDC in the week ending December 22. There have been a total of 11 flu related deaths among children so far in the 2018-2019 season. MARQUARDT: Two employees who asked a black guest to leave a hotel in Oregon after he stopped to take a phone call in the lobby have been fired. The incident took place on December 22, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Portland.

Jermaine Massey was in the lobby when a security guard informed him, police were on their way to escort off the property. Massey accused the guard of harassing him. His attorney says his client is guilty of, quote, "calling his mother while black."

The hotel has released a statement on Twitter saying, that the actions of their employees were, quote, "Inconsistent with our standards and values. We reiterate our sincere apology for what Mr. Massey endured."

KOSIK: Okay, they say everything is bigger in Texas, right? Well, check him out, baby Ali weighing in at 14 pounds 13 ounces earlier this month, whoa, breaking a weight record for newborns at Arlington Memorial Hospital.

His parents, Jennifer and Eric Medlock telling CNN affiliate, KTVT, they were expecting a big baby since their firstborn daughter Annabelle was more than nine pounds at birth. Not sure if they expected him to be this big.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER MEDLOCK, MOTHER OF 15 POUND NEWBORN: We heard a, oh my, behind the curtain and I was like, oh my, what? It doesn't matter how big he is, I am so blessed to have him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: So, just how big is baby Ali? Well, he is nearly twice the weight of an average newborn and at two weeks old he's already wearing clothes for three to six months old. They're going to be buying clothes like every couple weeks.

MARQUARDT: Unbelievable.

KOSIK: Football player perhaps?

MARQUARDT: That birth must have been quite an experience.

(LAUGHTER)

All right, well the president has promised a rapid withdrawal from Syria, but now a key Republican ally says the president could slow down that timeline.

KOSIK: And 800,000 unpaid federal employees left to answer for the government's failure to address border security, the shutdown now into day 10.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:00]