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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

President Trump T.V. Speech On Immigration Tonight; China Hosts Surprise Visit By Kim Jong Un Amid U.S. Tensions; Kevin Spacey Pleads Not Guilty In Sexual Assault Case; Clemson Routs Alabama 44-16 To Win National Championship. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 08, 2019 - 05:30   ET

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


[05:30:15] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump takes his case to the American people, scheduling an Oval Office address tonight on immigration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: We want the symbol of America to stay as the Statue of Liberty, not a big concrete wall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Democrats stand united against the wall. How they plan to respond to the president's address.

ROMANS: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un arriving in China overnight as we learn new details about a possible second summit between Kim and President Trump.

BRIGGS: And while you were sleeping, Clemson rolled the Tide for the national title. We have all the highlights. Clemson just getting started at 15-0, folks.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is about 31 minutes past the hour this Tuesday morning.

And let's begin here with the president launching an all-out P.R. blitz to make the case for his border wall. Tonight he'll give a 9:00 p.m. televised address on what the White House is calling the humanitarian and national security crisis on the border with Mexico. That address will be carried on all of the networks, including right here on CNN.

The White House also announcing the president will visit the border on Thursday. Now, the location officially undisclosed but "The Washington Post" reports the FAA is restricting airspace over McAllen, Texas due to what it's calling VIP movement.

BRIGGS: Two sources tell us the president decided to make his prime time speech after allies told him his arguments simply aren't resonating. Some aides say his 'build the wall' slogan is getting worn out from overuse. Vice President Pence and Homeland Security Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen laying the groundwork for the president to possibly declare a national emergency to get the wall built using military funds. At a press briefing, they used the word "crisis" 37 times.

ROMANS: Democrats are demanding a chance to respond to the president's immigration speech tonight.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer releasing a joint statement that says, "Now that the television networks have decided to air the president's address -- which if his past statements are any indication will be full of malice and misinformation -- Democrats must immediately be given equal air time."

BRIGGS: CNN plans to carry the Democratic response live. Details about who will speak and for how long, though, have not been finalized.

Some Democrats already dismissing the president's pitch even before it's made.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), MEMBER, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I expect the president to lie to the American people. Why do I expect this? Because he has been lying to the American people and his spokespeople continuing lying to the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: For context, the networks denied President Obama back in 2014, fearing the speech would be too political. It was also about immigration.

Democrats will attempt to block a serious sanctions bill when it comes up for a vote in the Senate later this morning in order to keep the focus on the government shutdown. And according to a senior Democratic aide, party leaders are discussing the idea of broadening the strategy to all legislation.

The two Democratic senators from Maryland, Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, first raised the idea of blocking bills on the floor to put pressure on President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Cardin and Van Hollen represent thousands of furloughed government workers.

McConnell refusing to put any government funding bills on the floor unless the president supports them.

ROMANS: All right. Joining us live from Washington this morning for the very first time, Lauren Dezenski of "CNN POLITICS." Good morning, it's so nice to see you.

LAUREN DEZENSKI, REPORTER, CNN POLITICS, CO-WRITER, THE POINT NEWSLETTER: Good morning. Thank you for having me.

BRIGGS: Good morning.

ROMANS: So the president, tonight, is going to make this case of a national emergency -- a humanitarian crisis --

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: -- one presumes, at the border at the very same time that border patrol agents are not being paid, TSA agents are not being paid, air traffic controllers are not being paid and trained. And all of this has sort of stopped because of the government shutdown. That's a really interesting contradiction that he's going to have to try to sell.

DEZENSKI: Yes. You know, this is really kind of a shutdown that kind of has no end in sight. We see both sides absolutely dug in.

The president has made clear both in this meeting yesterday with Vice President Mike Pence and this use of the word crisis 37 times, as well as his address tonight and this impending border visit, that clearly, he's going to make this a major, major issue. And, Democrats, it's obvious, will not let up anytime soon.

BRIGGS: Yes. You know, we talked about the reporting that this message just isn't resonating. It's the boy who cried wall, right? I mean, he's just beat it over and over again and the daily dose of dishonesty, I think, will make him selling this very difficult.

But on the flip side, there are Democrats who can't come out and be all about politics here. They have to suggest they support border security.

What is their message and have they unified around anything yet?

DEZENSKI: Yes. It's interesting because the Democrats are essentially newly-invigorated by the fact that they now hold the House --

[05:35:06] BRIGGS: Yes.

DEZENSKI: -- and so this is really the first battle that's been set up and Democrats who are excited, enthusiastic off of the wave of victories in the midterms clearly don't want to give up the fight. This is the first one. They essentially don't want to give up the ship in the first go-around.

ROMANS: Yes.

DEZENSKI: And so, if they can really dig in their heels there's so much political capital for Democratic leaders to stick to their guns that, really, I don't see a lot of obvious opportunity for compromise, at least not yet.

ROMANS: You know, it's so fascinating that as the president is asking for the airtime from the major networks to give this televised prime time address at 9:00 p.m. Just hours before announcing this he was slamming the media. He tweeted this. "The fake news media in our country is the real

opposition party. It is truly the enemy of the people. We must bring honesty back to journalism and reporting."

It is the same old -- I don't know. I mean, it's the same old flame- throwing there from a president who's trying to cast this other emergency at the border.

DEZENSKI: Yes. You know, it's frustrating, I think, for the Fourth Estate, which journalism and reporters are traditionally referred to, that while the president criticizes the news media in one breath and the next breath requests airtime for this national speech that he asked to give.

So clearly, this is something, again, where there needs to be a little bit of compromise, where there needs to be a little bit of cooperation. But where and how that occurs, I think we all are curious to see how that does happen.

BRIGGS: And no matter what happens here with the border wall it will all have an impact on 2020 --

ROMANS: Oh, yes.

BRIGGS: -- and in terms of the politics ahead.

And let's start on the left where Elizabeth Warren was in Iowa, Beto O'Rourke is planning a road trip outside of Texas. Julian Castro -- it sounds like he'll get in.

Where is the energy on the left, and how is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and "impeach the M.F." -- how is that forcing some of these possible candidates in the left -- forcing them even further than they'd like to go?

DEZENSKI: Yes, that's a great question.

I think Democratic operatives and really, Democratic voters as a whole -- from what it seems like we've seen out of Iowa from Elizabeth Warren's visit and kind of this broad expanse of Democrats who are looking at running president, it's clear that the lean is really wide for the type of Democrat that potential voters would be open to.

It seems like at this point the big question is who can win against Donald Trump and who can take on Donald Trump.

And really, from what we've seen so far with Elizabeth Warren announcing on New Year's Eve that she was looking at running for president, and Julian Castro essentially on the verge of announcing that he's going to run for president, Kamala Harris doing a book tour and she's going to be asked about 2020 -- everyone is kind of setting themselves up to begin to talk about 2020 and to begin to officially run, which is convenient because the election is essentially two years away.

So there's so much time for these Democrats to talk about the issues in a way that I think activists and really, general voters are excited about. This is -- this is --

BRIGGS: Yes.

DEZENSKI: -- very different from 2016.

ROMAN: Yes, it really is.

BRIGGS: The issues that they're talking about and not the --

ROMANS: Yes, the policies, not just --

BRIGGS: -- Native American DNA test or the nonsense.

ROMANS: Yes, not just -- not just personalities but real policies here.

Lauren, so nice to meet you. Thank you for coming on. We'll talk to you again very, very soon. Have a great day.

DEZENSKI: Thanks for having me -- yes.

BRIGGS: OK. Three of the four living ex-presidents deny telling President Trump they wish they had built a wall on the southern border. Here's what Mr. Trump is claiming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me and they all know it. Some of them have told me that we should have done it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: We checked.

Jimmy Carter says it wasn't him. The nation's oldest living former president tweeting, "I have not discussed the border wall with President Trump and do not support him on the issue."

Was it George W. Bush? His spokesman says, quote, "They haven't discussed this."

Bill Clinton? Nope, his spokesman says he never said that.

And as Mr. Clinton hasn't spoken to President Trump since the inauguration, that leaves Barack Obama, who hasn't responded directly to President Trump's claim but has publicly denounced the notion of a border wall.

ROMANS: All right.

Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords will return to Capitol Hill today. She will help introduce a bill requiring background checks on private gun sale transactions. House Democrats plan to unveil the bill on the eighth anniversary of the shooting in Tucson that nearly killed Giffords and left six other people dead. Despite some bipartisan support for gun legislation, the Democrats' background check proposal appears unlikely to advance in the Republican-controlled Senate.

BRIGGS: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg missing the first day of oral arguments in the new year as she recuperates from cancer surgery. Ginsburg had not missed a day of arguments since she was confirmed to the court in 1993.

[05:40:06] The 85-year-old jurist had surgery last month to remove two cancerous growths from her left lung. She has been recovering at home. Ginsburg has had two other bouts with cancer in 1999 and 2009.

A Supreme Court spokesman says she will still be able to vote on the cases by reviewing transcripts of the oral arguments.

ROMANS: All right.

California utility PG&E stock tumbled Monday after a report it may go bankrupt. PG&E could be responsible for tens of billions of dollars for its potential role in California's devastating Camp Fire last year, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state's history.

Now, PG&E has indicated it doesn't have the cash or the assets to pay anywhere close to that amount. Reuters reports the utility which provides electricity to about 16 million Californians is contemplating filing for bankruptcy protection.

The stock closed down 22 percent.

According to state fire officials, the cause of the Camp Fire still under investigation, but PG&E has suggested it may be responsible. In a report last month, it outlined how employees discovered damaged power towers minutes before the Camp Fire broke out.

A class-action lawsuit filed last month accuses the utility of negligence and poor maintenance of its electrical infrastructure. According to court documents filed by California's attorney general, the utility could face murder or manslaughter charges if found responsible for causing those deadly wildfires.

PG&E did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

BRIGGS: Wow, OK.

Ahead, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un arriving in China for three days of rather mysterious meetings with President Xi Jinping. What are they up to? We'll go live to Beijing, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:45:57] BRIGGS: Five forty-five eastern time.

And, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arriving in China for three days of meetings. He came in an armored train and here's his motorcade parading down Beijing's most famous boulevard. According to North Korea state-run media, he was invited by President Xi Jinping.

Their meeting comes as U.S. negotiators wrap up trade talks with Chinese officials.

Matt Rivers tracking the latest live from Beijing. Matt, what are they up to here?

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's always a bit of a mystery when Kim Jong Un shows up here in China.

This time, he came on a train all the way from Pyongyang. It was late last night that he crossed over the Chinese-North Korean border. And we weren't sure who was on the train but we knew it could be Kim Jong Un. And it was early this morning that Chinese state media actually was the first to confirm that he's here.

And then the big question becomes well, why is he here? Why now? And I think the answer to that question is going to be this looming summit -- summit number two between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

We know both sides are planning for that and it makes a lot of sense that Kim Jong Un would want to come here to Beijing to get on the same page as his ally, China. Meet with Xi Jinping, understand what the strategic goals of the Chinese would be going into that kind of summit because it would be North Korea representing Chinese interests at that summit.

We also saw Kim Jong Un do something similar in 2018, visiting China twice before the first summit with Donald Trump.

In terms of where that summit is going to be, CNN is reporting that the U.S. side has sent scout teams to look at a couple of different locations, including Vietnam, Thailand, and even Hawaii. So clearly, it seems that both sides are building towards a summit, though we don't know when as of yet.

And if all of that isn't enough for you here in Beijing, we also had a U.S. trade delegation that spent the last two days meeting with a Chinese -- their Chinese counterparts. No word on their progress yet. We might get a status report from the U.S. side anytime now though it might be not until they get back to Washington, D.C.

BRIGGS: Reuters reporting a minor win for the U.S. as related to agriculture, but we'll wait on CNN reporting for that.

Matt Rivers live for us from Beijing -- thanks.

ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on "CNN Business" this morning.

Global stocks mostly higher as those trade talks continue in Beijing. In Asia, you've got Tokyo up, the Hong Kong closed higher, and Shanghai down a little bit. European shares all opened higher.

On Wall Street, futures are higher this morning. You know, stocks beginning to recover from their worst December since the Great Depression. The Dow closed another 98 points higher on Monday. That builds on Friday's mega-rally -- 747-point rally on Friday.

But when you look at yesterday's action the market kind of faded throughout the day. The Dow had been up 255 points at one point. The S&P 500 closed up just about one percent. The Nasdaq closed up 1.3 percent.

You know, the market's been rebounding lately, up eight percent since Christmas Eve, but that's not the case for everyone. Apple fell slightly yesterday. Apple's stock has fallen 36 percent since October third. That's really an epic move.

Apple has now fallen behind Amazon, Microsoft, and Google in market value, losing $500 billion in value over the past three months. Concerns about iPhone sales growth.

All right, time is running out for Sears. The bankrupt retailer could be forced to start shutting down today if it doesn't accept the only bid to save it.

Sears holding filed for bankruptcy in October, as you know. It had a deadline of this past Friday to accept a $4.4 billion bid from the hedge fund run by the former CEO of Sears, Eddie Lampert. Now, that bid called for keeping 425 stores open, offering jobs to about 50,000 of Sears' remaining employees.

But the deadline passed without any word from Sears on the status of the bid. Lampert's hedge fund also declining to comment.

If Sears does not accept Lampert's bid it likely will have to ask the court for permission to liquidate. A hearing is scheduled for today in bankruptcy court.

OK, this is Dave Briggs' favorite story of the day. What goes better with pizza than a cold beer? Pizza Hut announced it's expanding its beer delivery to 300 locations by mid-January, just in time for this little thing I've never heard of called the Super Bowl.

BRIGGS: Yes, February third.

[05:50:01] ROMANS: Customers in Pizza Hut locations across Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, California, and Arizona -- you can have beer brought to your door. Pizza Hut is the only national pizza chain that delivers beer.

To make sure it's not serving underage customers, Pizza Hut employees will check I.D. when the order is delivered. Customers also have to fill out a form for Pizza Hut's records.

BRIGGS: I do love the story but I'm more of a Coke guy with a pizza, to be quite honest.

ROMANS: Yes. Are you really?

BRIGGS: I like beer and pizza separately. ROMANS: All right.

BRIGGS: Who knew it?

Ahead, Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey pleading not guilty to charges he groped an 18-year-old busboy in Nantucket. Why defense attorneys asked the court to preserve text messages from the alleged victim.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:55:07] BRIGGS: Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey pleading not guilty in a sexual assault case. Spacey appearing in court in Nantucket Monday for his arraignment on a charge of indecent assault and battery. Prosecutors say he groped an 18-year-old busboy at a bar on the island back in 2016.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE THOMAS BARRETT, DISTRICT COURT, NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS: You are required to stay away and have no contact, direct or indirect, with the alleged victim.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: According to the criminal complaint, the accuser filmed a short part of the incident on Snapchat and sent it to his girlfriend. Defense attorneys asked the court to preserve cell phone data and other text messages from the victim for six months after the date of the incident.

If convicted on the felony charge, Spacey faces up to five years in prison.

ROMANS: All right, adorable and alarming an equal measure in this next story. Two women in Australia rushed to save a puppy attacked by a snake.

Take a look. A 12-week-old Jack Russell terrier oblivious to a 4-foot carpet snake lying just feet away. Alfie runs over and the snake attacks.

But help is on the way. The dog's owner's mom -- the dog owner's mom grabs the snake, fleeing it aside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLYN KONG, RESCUED PUPPY FROM SNAKE: In the heat of the moment, you just have to act and do what you've got to do. So, you know, he's a sweet little thing and he's part of our family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: I love the accent.

BRIGGS: Well --

ROMANS: Alfie is OK, but experts warn wrestling with snakes is very dangerous.

BRIGGS: You love the accent. I love that an Aussie --

ROMANS: I know.

BRIGGS: -- is so badass she just takes the snake and tosses it. What would you do?

ROMANS: I hate snakes.

BRIGGS: Would you sacrifice the dog?

ROMANS: Our producer said this is a story about a cute puppy and a scary snake. I'm like, scary snake is like redundant, you know?

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: A snake is scary.

BRIGGS: All snakes are scary.

OK, the Clemson Tigers are also pretty scary -- just ask Alabama. They rolled the Tide 44-16 to win the College Football National Championship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER, COLLEGE FOOTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: And off to the races goes Justyn Ross down the far numbers, and he is going to score.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: After trailing 16-14 in the second quarter, Clemson reeled off 30 straight points to turn the title game into a rout.

Freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw for 347 yards and three touchdowns. He's your MVP.

It's the second national title in three years for Clemson and coach Dabo Swinney. The Tigers finish a perfect 15-0, the first team to do that since the 1800s and the first undefeated team in this playoff era.

ROMANS: All right.

It was all about the government shutdown on the late-night shows. Here's a -- here's a sampling of what the comedians had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, NBC "THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON": President Trump is refusing to end the shutdown until he gets $5 billion for a border wall.

The Democrats have a plan. They're going to make Trump wear one of those blindfolds from "Bird Box" and just tell him there's a wall.

Don't take it off! Don't take it off! Say what?

JAMES CORDEN, CBS HOST, "THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN": The president was asked about all the unpaid federal workers who are struggling to pay their bills. And, Trump responded saying that he, quote, "can relate."

That makes sense. I mean, no one's more relatable than Donald Trump, right? He's just a regular working-class family man.

STEPHEN COLBERT, CBS HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": So many programs affected by the shutdown. It turns out the government does a lot of things -- who knew -- including food stamps, subsidized school lunches, the EPA, the USDA, and the Smithsonian and National Zoo. And you can tell they're upset about it if you look at the National Zoo's panda cam.

SETH MEYERS, NBC HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted today that President Trump will travel to the southern border on Thursday. And what do you know? Mexico finally started building that wall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: And then there's Jimmy Kimmel vowing to put a government employee to work on his show every night until the shutdown ends. Last night, John Kostelnik, a state prison guard, joined Kimmel's band, playing the tambourine.

Jimmy Kimmel really has been involved in just about every major political issue in the Trump era.

ROMANS: I know, but this deadline tonight -- midnight tonight. If they don't resolve this, the Friday paycheck for government workers will not go out. So, border patrol, TSA, everyone.

BRIGGS: Unfortunate.

ROMANS: All right, thanks for joining us, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Here's "NEW DAY." We'll see you tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This president is reeling. He's not winning the narrative here. He's trying to create a crisis.

SCHUMER: People's lives are being hurt. That's real human collateral damage to President Trump's temper tantrum.

CHRIS RUDDY, CEO, NEWSMAX MEDIA: Donald Trump's a guy that likes compromise. It's Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats that won't budge one inch. SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: I'm confident he could declare a national emergency but injecting a new element into this just makes it more complicated.

FRAN ORELLANA, FAMILY IMPACTED BY GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: Knowing you are being used as a negotiation piece is devastating.

ANNOUNCER, COLLEGE FOOTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: It's intercepted.

BRIGGS: The Clemson Tigers rolled over Alabama. They win the College Football National Championship.