Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Considers Declaring National Emergency; New Conditions On Syria Withdrawal; Case Of Mistaken Identity; Golden Globes Warp-up; Shutdown Showdown; Road Teams Rule On Wild Card Sunday; U.S. And Chinese Officials Restart Trade Talks. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 07, 2019 - 04:00   ET

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


[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I may declare a national emergency dependent on what is going to happen over the next few days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: President Trump weighing emergency powers to fund his border wall, the shutdown entering a third week with talks making no head way.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: National Security Adviser, John Bolton, rolling back the President's decision rapidly withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. The new conditions, he is now laying out.

BRIGGS: After a week long search that gripped the nation, two men are in custody connected to the murder of 7 year-old, Jazmine Barnes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLE KIDMAN, ACTRESS: Bohemian Rhapsody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A night of major upsets at the Golden Globes. We have all the highlights and the surprises for you.

BRIGGS: That was the big surprise of the night. Have you seen it?

ROMANS: I have not seen it.

BRIGGS: Neither have I. We need to get to the theater today --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Everyone behind us -- everyone here has seen it, but we have not.

BRIGGS: All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Early Start. I'm Dave Briggs. ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, January 7th, a new week in the new year for you folks. It's 4:00 a.m. in the East and we begin with the old story of last week.

BRIGGS: Yes. Same old shutdown. The Federal Government shutdown entering its third week with no major progress after three straight days of meetings over the weekend, the president's border wall is still the barrier to a deal. On Sunday, the White House laid down budget requests which include $5.7 billion for what they are now calling a steel barrier.

And $800 million to address urgent humanitarian needs. Acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, admitting President Trump took his concrete wall off the table during talks with Democratic leaders on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Call it a wall, call it a fence, the President actually said he didn't care what you call it. He even offered to let the Democrats help him design something. He says, as long as it is effective, he doesn't care what you call it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The President now weighing whether to declare National Emergency at the border to fulfill his signature 2016 campaign pledge, that idea facing swift pushback from Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF, (D), CALIFORNIA, INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN: Look, if Harry Truman couldn't nationalize the steel industry during the war time, this President doesn't have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion-dollar wall on the border. So that is a nonstarter.

REP. ADAM SMITH (D), CHAIR, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Unfortunately, the short answer is, yes, there is a provision in law that says that the President can declare an emergency. And in this case I think that the President would be wide open to a court challenge saying, where's the emergency?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that the House will begin passing spending bills this week to reopen parts of the government. The first measure, funding the Treasury Department and the IRS. That is so Americans can get their tax refunds on time. But there is no sign that the Senate will take up those measures or the White House would support them either.

White House Correspondent, Boris Sanchez, has more.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, as we have seen during other meetings between top administration officials and lawmakers, we're hearing two different sides as to what happened during these negotiations to reopen the Federal Government and potentially fund some sort of barrier between the United States and Mexico.

President Trump, on one hand, tweeting out that this was a productive meeting on Sunday afternoon. People inside the room though are giving different accounts.

According to sources this meeting was not very productive, one Democratic source explaining that Republicans presented to Democrats a specific outline, an official justification for spending $5.7 billion on the President's long promised border wall, that Democratic source feeling that the Republican presentation was incomplete, in their words.

On the other hand, Democrats have continued to maintain that they believe that the Federal Government should first be reopened before any talks about funding any sort of barrier could take place.

In the meantime, President Trump has continued referencing this potential drastic option of declaring a National Emergency to secure funding for his border wall. The President talked about it on Sunday when he returned from a retreat at Camp David. I asked him what his thoughts on that were. Here's his justification.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're looking at a National Emergency, because we have a national emergency. Just read the papers. We have a crisis at the border of drugs, of human beings being trafficked all over the world. They are coming through. And we have an absolute crisis and of and criminals and gang members coming through. It is national security. It is a national emergency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The President didn't really answer when asked if he had a specific deadline or something that he specifically had to see during these talks and then trigger that drastic option, ultimately saying that we'd have to wait and see, that they will get back to us soon.

[04:04:55] The President also making waves with a bit of news about the actual material that the barrier is going to be made out of, the President moving from the concrete wall that he demanded just a few days ago on Twitter, now saying that he believes the barrier should be made out of steel because it would boost American business, not cause any obstructions and potentially be stronger than the concrete barrier. The President also saying that it's partly because the Democrats don't like concrete. Dave and Christine?

BRIGGS: That is a new one. Boris, thanks. The real world consequences of the shutdown are starting to show. The National Park service forced to take extraordinary step of using Reserve Funds from visitor fees to cart away all the trash that has piled up and to keep the park safe. In the two plus weeks since the shutdown began, at least three visitors to National Parks have been killed in unrelated accidents. And if the shutdown stretches into February, millions of Americans who rely on SNAP, the nation's food stamp program, could be cut off. Congress has appropriated $3 billion in emergency funds for SNAP distribution, but that would not cover all of February's obligations.

ROMANS: And even more immediate dangerous than national program for Women Infant and Children, or WIC, who are not receiving Federal Funds at all during the shutdown. WIC helps around 7 million pregnant women and new mothers who fall into poverty index.

And growing security concerns after hundreds of TSA officers called out sick last week from at least four major airports. The National TSA Employees Union tells CNN as many as 170 staff members called out each day last week at New York's JFK airport and sick calls have increased as much as 300 percent at Dallas-Fort Worth International.

BRIGGS: Federal workers are facing tough choices as the shutdown stretches on, the bills beginning to pile up with no pay check in sight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORIE MCCANN, FURLOUGHED FEDERAL WORKER: If it goes on much longer, then I am going to have to figure out what I'm going to do to sustain my lifestyle, and just to be able to eat, honestly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: That is furloughed IRS worker Lorie McCann. President Trump says he feels her pain and the pain of 800,000 other federal workers insisting they're all behind him despite their hardships.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I can relate and I'm sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustments. They always do. And they will make adjustments. People understand exactly what is going on, but many of those people that won't be receiving a paycheck, many of those people agree 100 percent with what I'm doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Now the President previously said they're are mostly Democrats who were facing the shutdown. According to White House acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, if no agreement is reached to end the shutdown by midnight Tuesday, the federal payroll run for Friday night will not go out as planned.

ROMANS: All right. White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, falsely suggesting terrorists are pouring across the Southern Border into the United States by the thousands. That's what she implied Sunday on Fox News where she -- well, she was shot down by host, Chris Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We know that roughly nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally and we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is at our Southern Border.

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST: Wait, wait, wait. I know that statistic and I didn't know if you're going to used it, but I studied up on this. Do you know where those 4,000 people come -- where they're captured? Airports.

HUCKABEE SANDERS: Not always.

WALLACE: Airports.

HUCKABEE SANDERS: Certainly a large number.

WALLACE: The State Department says there hasn't been any terrorist that they found coming across the Southern Border.

HUCKABEE SANDERS: It is by air, by land, and it's by sea, it's all of the above.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Sanders also told Wallace, President Trump quote, "means what he says when he suggests the shutdown could last for months or years."

BRIGGS: National Security Adviser, John Bolton, signaling a pause in plans for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria. During a news conference in Jerusalem, Bolton insisted U.S. troops will not pull out until ISIS is destroyed. Bolton also expressed concern about the welfare of the U.S. backed Kurds and directly contradicted the President.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMB. JOHN BOLTON, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: We are going to be discussing the President's decision to withdraw, but to do so from Northeast Syria in a way that makes sure that ISIS is defeated and is not able to revive itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: A reminder, President Trump announced on December 19th that the U.S. would depart within 30 days. At the time, the President declared ISIS had been defeated in Syria. Since then, he is changed his tune and said Sunday the U.S., quote, "won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone."

Earlier, Bolton told reporters United States will pull out of Syria only with assurances that Turkey will not attack America's Kurdish allies there.

ROMANS: All right. Joe Biden is expected to decide whether he will jump into the 2020 race within a month. A close Biden ally tells CNN that the former V.P. indicated that he is leaning toward a run and hoped to reach a decision with family over the holidays. So far no word, but the ally says Biden believes he could beat Trump in the General Election.

[04:10:05] Some Biden allies worry his uncertainty about running may be a sign that the 76-year-old doesn't have passion to mount another campaign. Biden has said even if he decides in January he would wait to announce it.

BRIGGS: Elizabeth Warren looking to gain some early momentum for a possible White House run in 2020. The Massachusetts Senator canvassing the State of Iowa over the weekend. And she was confronted by a voter in Sioux City who criticized her decision to take a DNA test to prove her claims of Native American ancestry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I am not a person of color. I am not a citizen of a tribe. When I first ran for public office, the first time was in 2012 and the Republicans honed in on this part of my history and thought that they could make a lot of hay out of it, a lot of racial slurs and a lot of ugly stuff that went on. And so my decision was I'm just going to put it all out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Warren campaigned in five cities and four counties over the past three days and it took a toll, the Senator losing her voice by the end of her visit.

ROMANS: Yes, welcome to the race for 2020 when voices --

BRINKLEY: Begin to fade.

ROMANS: -- and patience both fade.

All right. In an interview with 60 Minutes, newly elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed taxing the wealthy as much as 70 percent to fund a climate change plan she has called -- she is pushing that is called Green New Deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONG. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D), NEW YORK: Once you get to like the tippy tops, on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent. That doesn't mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate, but it means that as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The Green New Deal calls for reducing carbon emissions to zero and moving the U.S. off of fossil fuels in 10 years. The freshmen progressive acknowledged that her goal is ambitious.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OCASIO-CORTEZ: It is going to require a lot of rapid change that we don't even conceive as possible right now. What is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman elected to Congress, a Democratic Socialist. She has also push Medicare for all, tuition free, public college, canceling all student loan debt and housing as a federal right.

BRIGGS: All right. Late last night, Bohemian Rhapsody, the surprise champion, upsetting A star Is Born, for best drama at the Golden Globe last night. Actor Rami Malek scored best actor honors for his portrayal of Queen's front man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAMI MALEK, QUEEN'S FRONT MAN, BOHEMIAN'S RHAPSODY: Thank you to Freddie Mercury for giving me the joy of a lifetime. I love you and you're a beautiful man. This is for and because of you, gorgeous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: And Green Book won three Globes, the most of any movie, best musical or comedy among the trophies for road trip movie about the unlikely friendship between African-American pianists, Dr. Don Shirley and his Italian American driver. Best actress in the drama, Glenn Close earned a standing ovation for her tearful speech urging women to follow their dreams.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN CLOSE, BEST ACTRESS IN THE DRAMA, GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS: We have to say I can do that. And I should be allowed to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Spoke about her mom in that dramatic speech. Best supporting actress winner Regina King vowing that her upcoming projects will be 50 percent female and she challenged others to follow her lead. A Star is Born took home one Globe, Lady Gaga winning for the best original song, Shallows.

ROMANS: And other big winners included Best Director Alfonso Cuaron and best foreign language film for his latest project Roma. Christian Bale best performance by an actor in a motion picture comedy or musical for playing Dick Cheney in Vice, he credited Satan as his inspiration for his inspiration.

Olivia Colman won best performance by an actress in the motion picture musical comedy for The Favorite. The Americans picked up best TV drama honors for its final season and the Kaminski Method took home the best TV series musical or comedy, top prize. There are a lot of surprises, I felt like last night, did you? BRIGGS: Yes, really I think Bohemian rhapsody was the shocker.

ROMANS: Yes, and I didn't -- I did not hear much about Glenn Close winning and --

BRIGGS: Everyone thought Lady Gaga would take home that award.

ROMANS: Right.

BRIGGS: All right ahead, one of the men suspected in the shooting death of seven year old, Jazmine Barnes is set to be charged with capital murder this morning. How police tracked him down after a week long search.

[04:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Two suspects in the murder of seven year old Jazmine Barnes now under arrest. The Houston Chronicle reports, Larry Woodruff is being held on drug possession charges, but has not been held in Jazmine's death. The other, Eric Blatt Jr., is set to be formally charged today with capital murder. Meantime, services for Jazmine are scheduled for tomorrow.

CNN's Kaylee Hartung has the extraordinary details of how police tracked down that second suspect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave, Christine, authorities say Jazmine Barnes death is very likely a case of mistaken identity, that when a gun man opened fire on the car she was in, he believed somebody else to be inside.

We're told this investigation unraveled very quickly on Friday, authorities had received a tip by way of activist Shawn King. They then pulled Eric Blatt Jr. over on a traffic stop, brought him in on a possession of marijuana charge. And once he started talking, he eventually confessed to being the driver of the car in which another man sat in the passenger's seat and pulled the trigger on the gun that shot and killed Jazmine Barnes.

When it comes to the discrepancy between that composite sketch of a white man in his 30's or 40's that the investigators were looking for for the past week, compare that to Blatt being a black 20-year-old man, well, authorities say there is nothing nefarious about the description they believe Jazmine Barnes family gave, but that when they were caught up in the chaos of the moment, the white man in that red pickup truck is very likely the last thing they saw.

[04:20:05] He is not a person of interest. They believe that he is a witness and they do hope that he comes forward to discuss what he may have seen last Sunday morning. Dave, Christine?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Kaylee Hartung in Houston, thanks. The NFL wild card weekend now in the books. It was good to be the road team Sunday. A wild finish in Chicago and a heart breaker in the Roman's family. Philadelphia Eagles taking the 16-15 lead over the Bears on two yard scoring pass and pulls to golden T (ph), 56 seconds left, here it is. Cody Parkey off the up-right and the crossbar with the chance to win that game. The Eagles advance to play the Saints in New Orleans on Sunday, an absolute heartbreaker there.

In the early game Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens fumbled three times in their first eight offensive plays and the Los Angeles defense smothered rookie quarterback, Lamar Jackson, to lead the Chargers to a 23-17 victory. L.A. advances to play the Patriots next week in New England.

ROMANS: Bears fans are going to have a hard day today and productivity (ph) --

BRIGGS: Tough loss in Chicago. They deserved to win.

ROMANS: I just -- my kids were so upset.

BRIGGS: Yes. Bears nation really had that win. It was tough to see that it end that way.

ROMANS: All right. Sorry, everybody.

All right. College Football crowns the champion tonight, number one Alabama taking on number two Clemson in Santa Clara, California. The Crimson Tide and the Tigers clashing head to head for the fourth straight season and the third time with the national title on the line. And two southeast schools all the way out there in California. I mean --

BRIGGS: Its hurting ticket prices to say the least. $170 is the get- in price, which is extraordinarily cheap. We have not seen anything like it. If you want to go, plenty of tickets.

U.S. negotiators in China for two days of talks with Chinese officials aimed at easing trade tensions. We go live to Beijing next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:25:01] BRIGGS: U.S. negotiators in China today for trade talk, this is the first face to face discussions between the U.S. and China since President Trump and Xi Jinping met in Argentina at the start of December and agreed to a 90-day trade truce.

The Deputy Level Negotiators trying to figure out whether a deal can actually be struck before March 1st because that is the date President Trump threatened to impose another round of stiff tariffs.

CNN's Matt Rivers, live for us in Beijing with the latest on this. Matt, given the complexities of this deal, is there any optimism of getting something done in that short of time?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is. I think if you look at both sides, because of some incentive frankly on both China and U.S., both sides to maybe potentially get a deal done, at least more optimism than there was six months ago.

You've got this latest round of negotiations on Monday and Tuesday here in Beijing at the Deputy Level, really trying to lay the ground work for talks that could come later this month or even next month between more senior level negotiators. But this is kind of putting in the groundwork before those talks begin.

But really it's all about will -- can something get done before March 1st? What are the incentives both sides maybe have to get a deal done? And if you listen to President Trump, it is all about China's slowing economy. Let's hear what he had to say over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The China talks are going very well. I spoke to President Xi recently. I really believe that they want to make a deal, the tariffs have absolutely hurt China very badly, but our country (ph) is -- they're giving a lot of money through tariffs, a lot of money. Lot of tariffs. Steel dumping tariffs and others, but I think China wants to get it resolved. Their economy is not doing well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: Now, we should say that the United States is not taking in a lot of money from tariffs at the moment. But that point aside, we should say that China's economy is slowing down at the moment and on the U.S. side, things have not been great in the stock market recently, some economic pessimism there.

And so if you are looking for some hope, well, maybe it is because things are going great in both places that both sides would want to make a deal and get out of this trade war. But that said, there is still a lot of work to go before any deal is finalized. Dave?

BRIGGS: Yes, those tariffs generally passed on to the U.S. Consumer. Matt Rivers, live for us in Beijing. Thank you, my friend.

This is interesting as we move forward. Tim Cook's thoughts, how much do they weigh in on the back drop to all of this. Because he made it clear it is hurting us too, not just China.

ROMANS: It is, but who has the upper hand here, that is the question because the United States economy, is -- you know, stock market at least is telling us it is concerned about it, but China is suffering more than the U.S. So maybe the U.S. has a little bit --

BRIGGS: A little bit of leverage?

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: All right.

ROMANS: Government shutdown entering -- what now, its third week. What is this? Day 17? No end in sight. How it is already hurting programs across the U.S.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)