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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; U.S. negotiating for location for second summit with North Korea; Stock Rise after Strong Jobs Report; IRS Hit by Government Shutdown; Susan Zirinsky Named President of CBS News. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 07, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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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.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: President Trump weighing whether he use emergency powers to fund his border wall, the shutdown entering a third week with talks making no head way.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: National Security Adviser, John Bolton, rolling back the President's decision to rapidly withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. The new conditions his laying out.
ROMANS: After a week long search that gripped the nation, two men now in custody connected to the murder of 7-year-old, Jazmine Barnes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICOLE KIDMAN, ACTRESS: Bohemian Rhapsody.
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BRIGGS: A night of major upsets at the Golden Globes. We have all the highlights, the hosts, Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh, playing nice. There wasn't in any political theme, not any jabs that people are seeing to like. Welcome back to "Early Start." I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour this Monday morning. Let's begin with the federal shutdown entering its third week. No major progress after three straight days of meetings over the weekend. The President's border wall still the barrier to the deal.
On Sunday the White House laid out budget requests including $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.
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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)
BRIGGS: The President now weighing whether to declare a National Emergency at the border to fulfill his signature 2016 campaign pledge, that idea facing swift pushback from Democrats.
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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)
BRIGGS: 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 IRS so Americans can get their tax refunds on time, but there is no sign the Senate will take up those measures or the White House would support them.
White House Correspondent, Boris Sanchez, with 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.
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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 criminals and gang members coming through. It is national security. It is a national emergency.
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[04:35:13] 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.
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?
ROMANS: OK. Noted. Thank you, Boris Sanchez.
The real world consequences of the shutdown starting to show folks, the National Park service forced to take the extraordinary step of using Reserved 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, that's nation's food stamp program, they could be cut off. Congress has appropriated $3 billion in emergency funds for SNAP distribution, but that won't cover all of February's obligations.
BRIGGS: And even more immediate dangerous, a nutritional program for Women, Infants and Children or WIC, who are not receiving Federal Funds at all during the shutdown. WIC helps around 7 million pregnant women and mothers with young children, who fall within the 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 Airport.
ROMANS: Federal workers are facing some tough choices now as the shutdown stretches into the 17th day. Bills are beginning to pile up with no pay check to pay them.
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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.
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ROMANS: Now, that's 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.
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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.
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ROMANS: He has previously said those people are Democrats, he is also previously wanted to call them strikers not furloughed workers.
BRIGGS: Right.
ROMANS: According to acting White House Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, if no agreement is reached to end the shut down by midnight Tuesday, the federal payroll run for Friday night will not go out as planned.
BRIGGS: 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 was shot down by host, Chris Wallace.
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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 or 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)
BRIGGS: Airports, where the TSA is going unemployed for checking. Sanders also told Wallace, President Trump quote, "means what he says when he suggests that the shutdown could last for months or even years."
ROMANS: All right. 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. And Bolton expressed concern about the welfare of the U.S. backed Kurds and directly contradicted the President.
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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.
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ROMANS: 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 has changed his tune and said Sunday the U.S., quote, "won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone."
[04:40:15] Earlier Bolton told reporters United States will pull out of Syria only with assurances that Turkey will not attack America's Kurdish allies there.
BRIGGS: 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 his family over the holidays. So far, no word, but the ally says, Biden believes he could beat Trump in the General Election.
Some Biden allies worry his uncertainty about running may be a sign that the 76-year-old doesn't have the passion to mount another campaign. Biden says, even if he decides in January, he would wait till later to announce.
ROMANS: 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.
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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)
ROMANS: Warren campaigned in five cities and four counties over the past three days and she lost her voice by the end of the visit. Welcome to 2020 in 2019, folks.
BRIGGS: Indeed. OK. While we were sleeping, Bohemian Rhapsody, the surprise champion, upsetting A Star Is Born for best drama at the Golden Globe. And actor, Rami Malek, scored best actor honors for his portrayal of Queen's front man.
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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: 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.
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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: She used her mom as a great example. Best supporting actress went to 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. By the way, he credited Satan as his inspiration for his inspiration.
BRIGGS: The Church of Satan tweeted that.
ROMANS: Oh my -- Olivia Colman, best performance by an actress in the motion picture musical or comedy for The Favorite. And The Americans picked up best TV drama honors for its final season. The Kaminski Method took home the best TV series musical or comedy prize.
BRIGGS: Coming up, 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.
[04:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRIGGS: 4:47 Eastern Time. And two suspects in the murder of 7-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 Black 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.
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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 Black 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 30s or 40s that the investigators were looking for, for the past week, compare that to Black 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. He is not a person of interest. They believe he is a witness and they do hope that he comes forward to discuss what he may have seen last Sunday morning. Dave, Christine?
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ROMANS: All right. Kaylee, so glad you're there following that for us. Kaylee Hartung in Houston.
Kevin Spacey is expected to plead not guilty in his arraignment in a Nantucket Massachusetts Court this morning. Spacey is charged with indecent assault and battery charges stemming from an incident at a restaurant involving an 18-year-old bus boy.
Spacey's lawyers sought permission for him to skip the hearing, but the judge ordered the 59 year-old actor to appear in person. The accuser and his mother have said, they do not plan to be there.
The NFL wild card weekend in the books and it was good to be the road team Sunday. A wild finish in Chicago, the Eagles taking 16-15 lead over the Bears on a two-yard pass from Nick Foles to Golden Tate, 56 seconds left. Chicago moves all the way down filling a chance to win it here. Cody Parkey kicks the up-right and the crossbar, he had nailed it, but the opposing coach got the timeout. Eagles advanced to play the Saints in in New Orleans on Sunday. The legend of Nick Foles continues.
[04:50:00] Ouch for the Romans family and all of Chicago. In the early game Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens fumbled three times in their first eight offensive plays and the L.A. defense smothered rookie quarterback, Lamar Jackson, to lead the Chargers to a 23-17 victory. So, L.A. advances to play the Patriots in New England next week. All about the field goals, 10 of them made on Sunday.
ROMANS: 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 what? The fourth straight season in a third time with the national title on the line. Wow. Bears came real heartbreaker, I'm so sorry for Los Angeles (ph). Sorry.
BRIGGS: Sorry for Chicago. That was a tough one. I know your kids took it tough.
ROMANS: I know. Jake Tapper, Eagles, I was ready to give Jake --
BRIGGS: They had their fun. Ahead, U.S. negotiators are in China for two days of talks with Chinese officials aimed at easing trade tensions. We go live to Beijing next.
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BRIGGS: U.S. negotiators are in China today for trade talk. This will be the first face to face discussions between the U.S. and China since Presidents 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. That's the date President Trump has threatened to impose another round of stiff tariffs.
CNN's Matt Rivers, live for us in Beijing with the latest. Matt?
[04:55:06] MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave, stop me if you've heard this one before. China and the United States are negotiating over trade.
BRIGGS: Yes.
RIVERS: Something we've talked about for a long time. It's continuing. And yet there still haven't been any real results. So, there might be little -- if you listen to the President a little bit more chance or a little bit more incentive for the Chinese to make a deal.
But here's what's going on in Beijing. Day one of two days' worth of negotiations at the deputy level between both sides, and really the goal of this is going to be to laid the groundwork for future negotiations with more senior level people.
But when it comes to the possibility of a deal before March 1st, President Trump thinks the United States has leveraged because China's economy is beginning to show signs of really slowing down. Here's what the President said over the weekend.
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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 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: And look, I mean, on the U.S. side, there has been a lot of pessimism in the economy recently. You have stock markets showing a lot of volatility. So maybe the U.S. wants a deal as well. But even if both sides have that incentive, they are a long way away from a trade deal. There's a lot of things that need to be worked out, but March 1st is that looming deadline. Dave?
BRIGGS: Yes. You have to think Apple and what Tim Cook said last week will weigh in here. Matt Rivers live for us just before 6:00 p.m. there in Beijing. Thanks.
President Trump says his administration negotiating a location for a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
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TRUMP: North Korea, we're doing very well. And again, no rockets. There are no rockets. There is no anything. We're doing very well. I've indirectly spoken to Chairman Kim. And when I came here, this country was headed to war with North Korea. And now, we have a very good dialogue going.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Those lovely letters. In his new year's address, Kim Jong-un warned the Trump administration against continuing sanctions saying North Korea will have no choice but to find a new way to achieve peace on the peninsula if the U.S., quote, "misinterprets its patience."
ROMANS: All right. Just about the top of the hour this Monday morning. Let's get a check on CNN Business. Markets around the world are mixed ahead of this new round of trade talks between the U.S. and China that Matt is telling about.
In Asia, you can see higher markets. A lot higher in Tokyo, but London markets have opened lower. And on Wall Street, it looks like the future is here this morning because this would be really critical to watch, slightly lower. I would call this barely changed in terms of futures.
OK, the DOW closed up 747 points. That is 3.3 percent Friday, the fourth biggest point increase of all-time. The S&P 500 rose 3 percent. The NASDAQ was up 4 percent. Why? Well, the U.S. economy added a much better than expected 312,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate, it ticked up to 3.9 percent, but that is for a good reason.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: That is because more than 400,000 people came off the sidelines into the labor force looking for work. This week, investors may get more clues on the Fed's thinking. On Wednesday, the Central Bank releases minutes from last month's meeting.
Americans may find themselves missing an agency they usually love to hate if the government shutdown persists, yes, the IRS. The Internal Revenue Service, the country's tax collector is among the federal agencies affected by the government shutdown now entering its third week.
During the shutdown, the IRS typically does not perform audits, does not pay refunds, does not offer assistance to taxpayers if they have questions especially outside of the filing season. The agency is currently operating with only 12.5 percent of its workforce, fewer than 10,000 federal employees.
For now, individuals who call the IRS with questions are greeted with an automated message, welcome to IRS, live telephone assistance is not available at this time. Normal operations will resume as soon as possible.
Susan Zirinsky, the top producer of 48 Hours, will be the first woman to run the CBS News Division. Zirinsky will succeed CBS News President, David Rhodes, who is stepping down in March. Rhodes' contract was set to expire in February, as CBS is cleaning house after the scandals that plagued the news division, the network and its parent company, frankly, recently.
In a statement, Zirinsky said quote, "this maybe a new role, but the mission is the same, deliver quality, in-depth journalism and engage in storytelling." CBS News has an incredible legacy to build on. Zirinsky will also have the title of Senior Executive Producer, a sign that she will still be closely involved in show production. CBS did not immediately name a replacement for her at 48 Hours.
BRIGGS: That is a lot of females getting promoted there at CBS, three now on CBS this morning.
ROMANS: Yes. That's a real, you know, that's a ceiling shattering moment there blasting each other.
BRIGGS: It is indeed. Congratulations.
