Return to Transcripts main page
Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
White House Mulls Using Disaster Funds for Wall; No Payday; Michael Cohen to Testify Publicly Before Congress; Teen Found Alive; Andy Murray Announces Plans to Retire Soon. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired January 11, 2019 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[05:00:06] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have the absolute right to declare a national emergency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The White House considering taking money for disaster relief in Puerto Rico, Texas, California and Florida to build his border wall.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Eight hundred thousand federal workers will not get a paycheck today. The drastic steps some are taking to get through the shutdown.
ROMANS: Mark your calendars. Michael Cohen set to testify publicly before the house next month. What we could learn from that testimony.
BRIGGS: And breaking overnight in Wisconsin, a teenage girl missing nearly three months after her both parents were murdered has been found alive.
ROMANS: Goodness.
BRIGGS: Dramatic story ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And good morning, everyone. I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday.
BRIGGS: Mommy shark.
ROMANS: I'm mommy shark.
It is January 11, 5:00 a.m. in the east.
That's on my head all day. So, let's talk about the shutdown, shall we? The administration now actively looking for funds to use for building a border barrier if and when President Trump declares a national emergency. One prime source under consideration, billions in unspent Defense Department disaster recovery money meant to help victims in Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida, California. That's right, taking that money, using it for the wall. The president now warning that he will declare a national emergency if
talks with Democrats to end the government shutdown stay at standstill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If this doesn't work out, probably I will do it. I would almost say definitely. This is a national emergency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Precise language.
Such a declaration would be subject to immediate court challenge and even Trump's advisers have told him it probably wouldn't work legally, but there are not many other paths out of a shutdown that at midnight becomes the longest in modern American history.
Jim Acosta traveled with the president to the border and filed this report for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, President Trump came to the border here in McAllen, Texas, to get a sense of the situation down here. I've talked with law enforcement officials and other Border Patrol agents. At one point during the day the president described the situation down here as being under attack. He said the nation is under attack down here on the border.
It was an odd case to make because he was sitting in one of the safest communities in the country. McAllen, Texas, has consistently ranked one of the most secure communities in the United States. But yet the president tried to make the case that this community and other communities along the border are under attack trying to bolster his case potentially to declare a national emergency so he can secure funding for his wall. Here's more of what he had to say.
TRUMP: We're certainly under attack by criminal gangs, by criminals themselves, by the human traffickers and by drugs of all kinds. Much of it comes through the southern border.
ACOSTA: Throughout the day the president made several misleading statements about his case for a wall on the border with Mexico. At one point he told reporters that he never said during the campaign that Mexico was going to hand over a big check to pay for the wall. Of course during the campaign the president repeatedly said that Mexico would pay for a wall and at various points he said yes, Mexico would actually deliver a payment to the American people to fund that wall.
As a matter of fact his campaign put out a document saying that Mexico could end this once and for all and hand over to the United States a payment, a one-time payment they put it, of $5 billion to $10 billion -- Christine and Dave.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Republicans in the Senate ditching an 11th hour plan to find a compromise on immigration after president rejected it. The measure spearheaded by Senator Lindsey Graham included border wall funding and temporary protections for Dreamers. House Democrats forging ahead, passing two spending bills, 12 Republicans joining them to pass the first measure, which would reopen the Transportation Department and HUD.
But as Phil Mattingly reports, it may be all for nothing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, for a brief moment, there was hope. Not hope that there is going to be a solution to the government shutdown but a hope because at least people were talking. To be specific a group of Republican senators, senators who had expressed some frustration with the president's strategy, senators who had said they didn't want to shut down at all, that they wanted to find a way out.
Now they have been working since Wednesday night on a proposal that would essentially trade DACA protections on a temporary basis for the money that President Trump asked for for the wall. That deal fell completely apart. Why? Because President Trump rejected it.
How did the top senator who was working on this deal feel? Well, take a listen to Lindsey Graham.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I have never been more depressed about moving forward right now. I just don't a pathway forward. Somebody has got to, like, get some energy to fix this.
MATTINGLY: And Graham in that statement is really kind of talking for all 535 members of Congress, at least those that I've spoken with over the last couple of days. There's a recognition right now that there is a no clear pathway out. Both parties are very entrenched that their positions are not moving and at the near-term there is no legislative solution at the moment for a fix, for a way out of the government shutdown.
There's a real question right now whether or not this is not going to go days, or whether this is actually going to end up going weeks.
[05:05:03] And is it going to be sold any time soon? Well, talks aren't continuing, meetings aren't scheduled. The Senate is out of sessions and won't be back until next week. And House Democrats are still passing individual funding bills that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has made clear he won't on take up.
So where does that leave things? Well, a lot of Republican aides are looking toward the president to take some executive action, declare a national emergency, that might be the next path. Lindsey Graham is straight-up advocating for that, saying that's really the only path left. That is something Democrats have made clear they will quickly try and take to court, see if they can block it in some ways. So a fight is going to continue. When it's over is still an open question. What's not an open question is that the government is going to remain shut down and likely for a while -- guys.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRIGGS: All right. Phil Mattingly, thank you.
Federal workers staging protests across the country as they prepare to go without their first full paychecks since the government shutdown started.
In Washington, the president of the AFL-CIO was joined by members of Congress and hundreds of federal workers demanding an end to the shutdown.
In Utah, listen to this protester. With no paycheck in sight, she is resorting to desperate measures.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYNN STRATTON, FURLOUGHED FEDERAL WORKER: I have enough for one more mortgage payment then I've got to go to CarMax tomorrow and sell my car.
REPORTER: You're going to sell your car?
STRATTON: I have to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: That's devastating.
In Atlanta, TSA workers led a protest against the government shutdown right outside the busy North Terminal at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.
ROMANS: All right. Michael Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer and fixer, will testify publicly before the House Oversight Committee on February 7th. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison on multiple charges that included campaign finance crimes and lying to Congress. He implicated the president in a scheme to pay hush money to two women claiming they had affairs with then Citizen Trump.
Here is what Cohen told ABC after his sentencing in December.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP LAWYER: I am done with the lying. I am done being loyal to President Trump. I followed a bad path and hence how we started this conversation. I have my freedom and I will not be the villain -- as I told you once before -- I will not be the villain of his story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The House Intelligence Committee also wants Cohen to testify about the Russia investigation. That would have to happen behind closed doors.
BRIGGS: New developments in the Russia investigation. This morning, it turns out special counsel Robert Mueller interviewed Donald Trump's top campaign pollster in February of last year. A man named Tony Fabrizio. Fabrizio also happens to be an ex-business associate of former Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. That could be significant. We know Mueller is investigating why Manafort shared internal polling data with the Russian military intelligence operative while he was running the Trump campaign.
ROMANS: All right. Let's bring in Michael Moore. He is former U.S. attorney for the middle district of Georgia. He joins us live from CNN Center in Atlanta.
BRIGGS: Good to see you, sir.
ROMANS: Glad to have your expertise this morning.
All right. You just heard that story about Tony Fabrizio, the pollster. We know that Robert Mueller has spoken to him. That's our latest reporting. We had details this week about Paul Manafort sharing polling data with someone tied closely to Russian intelligence.
Tell -- wrap that all together for us and tell us what this signals to you about the Russia investigation.
MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY, MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA: You know, it was a significant story because it is really the first time that we're hearing some directive from the campaign being shared back and forth with people linked to possible Russian intelligence activities. And so, now, we're finding out that Mueller talked to the pollster months and months ago. So he's had this information. And we wouldn't though about the whole story if not for unfortunate sources trying to redact information from the Manafort team.
But we're starting to now see the connection. Remember, I've said for a long tie, this is going to be a case about follow the money, and that's really where we are. Mueller has put this on a path we're now seeing that there was money owed to Manafort, there is information passing back and forth. Nobody believes that Manafort just drops out of the sky and decides that he is going to be Donald Trump's campaign chair at the time, or nor does anybody believe I think that Trump just picks him for particular reason without something else there.
So, it is significant. I think that it is starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together. What will be important for Mueller to look at and I think what we'll see is in fact what is the timing here. What happened when the information was shared? Was it about the same time that we saw Russian troll activity, was it a time that we saw an uptick in the Facebook posts and other things that were fake news and stories of the campaign and apparently the Russian group may have been putting on out. It will be about the timing, it will be about tracking this money.
BRIGGS: So we learned a lot yesterday. We will learn more on February 7th, that's when Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney of the president, will testify in a public session before the House. He will also have what we believe is a closed door session probably about the Russia investigation with Adam Schiff and company.
But what might America learn when Michael Cohen testifies before the public and the cameras?
[05:00:05] MOORE: Well, they have tried to attack Cohen for a long time now saying that he is not credible and that he is a confessed liar basically.
I think from the public side, we're going to have a chance to eyeball him, see what he has to say, to hear what his version of events are, and really sort of judge his credibility. That is why you want a live witness, you want to look him in the face. And so we'll get that for the first time and not have to read what he had to say off of court documents or snippets from a particular interview somewhere.
I think it's going to be significant to hear about the transfer of the money. Remember the president denied that on Air Force One to the press. He said he didn't know anything about it.
Clearly, we now know Cohen has implicated him in some federal election crimes. And that is a big deal. If you really just kind of -- we've had so much craziness out there going around and sort of circling this White House that we maybe are not as impressed by some of the stories and the facts that are there. But it is a big deal when the president of the United States is implicated in the federal crime.
ROMANS: Yes. We've got a pretty thick skin these days. That is something important to remember.
Let's listen to the president talking about whether he would declare a national emergency at the border about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I have the absolute right do a national emergency if I want.
REPORTER: What is your threshold --
TRUMP: My threshold is if I can't make a deal with people that are unreasonable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So the legal standing on whether he can declare a national emergency, does it hold up?
MOORE: I don't think that the lawmakers and our Founding Fathers intended for the president just to be able to drag us into a national emergency just because they can't get their way. And that's where we're at.
There is a basis for a disagreement. They have that. Democrats don't want to fund the wall. Trump has been campaigning on the wall from the very beginning.
My question is ultimately and I think that we'll see this as we go forward, his position is so transparent because he is just moving forward now that he can't get a deal and get the money he wants, as he's headed to the reelection cycle. The question will be, was there not an emergency last year, was there not one the year before, why didn't you call us into a national emergency -- why doing it only now that you can't get your way on this budget deal?
But those things are going to be pretty clear. And also, I do want to say, I think that it can weaken the powers of the presidency to have this kind of nonsense thrown out. Let's talk about future presidents and what it means to declare a national emergency. You don't, of course, having to come in already having made this interpretation.
This is meant for true emergencies, what I call true crises and not fabricated things and not just because you can't get a deal cut. So you will see legal challenges, you will see the court probably step in and pick a decision. There will be a question about who has standing. Does the Congress have standing or will another group come in and do that?
BRIGGS: We'll talk more in about a half an hour.
Mike Pence in 2014 when Obama went around Congress called it a profound mistake. Lindsey Graham says it is wrong and irresponsible. So we'll discuss are more about that.
ROMANS: He said that in 2014 when it was Obama.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: All right. Michael Moore, come back in a few minutes and we'll talk more about this.
MOORE: Will do it. Thank you.
ROMANS: After nearly three months of searching, a Wisconsin teen has been found alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's OK. I just cannot believe this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: What we know so far about her rescue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:17:25] ROMANS: All right. New details out overnight about the rescue of 13-year-old Jayme Closs from her captor in Northwest Wisconsin, three months after she vanished. "The Minneapolis Star Tribune" reporting the malnourished, bedraggled girl walked up to a woman near the town of Gordon, Wisconsin, and said she needed help. The girl was skinny with matted hair and shoes too big for her feet. The woman realized immediately that it was Jayme. She banged on a
neighbor's door yelling this is Jayme Closs, call 911. "The Star Tribune" reports that Jayme was taken to the hospital for examination and a 21-year-old suspect was almost immediately arrested.
BRIGGS: Jayme vanished on October 15, 66 miles to the south near the town of Barron after emergency dispatchers received a mysterious 911 call with yelling in the background. Police arrived at the home to find Jayme gone and her parents, James and Denise, shot to death.
Investigators think Jayme was home during the shooting. Authorities say they will offer more information at a news conference later this morning. Stay with CNN for that.
ROMANS: A manhunt is under way right now in California after a police officer was shot and killed. Authorities say 22-year-old Natalie Corona was gunned done while responding to a traffic accident in Davis, just west of Sacramento. Authorities urge people to shelter in place. The UC Davis campus also placed on lockdown. Corona had only been with the Davis Police Department for a few weeks.
BRIGGS: A Milwaukee bus driver is being honored for rescuing a barefoot baby girl from the freezing cold. Irena Ivic was on her regular route on December 22 when she looked across the freeway and saw a 1-year-old child in a diaper running toward an intersection. She stopped, rushed to the little girl, scooped her up, brought her back to the bus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IRENA IVIC, BUS DRIVER: Oh, my God, oh, my God. I'm shaking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Officials believe that the baby went missing after her mother experienced a mental health crisis. She was eventually reunited with her very relieved father.
ROMANS: It is everyday heroes like Irena Ivic. Thank you, a mother herself, who just --
BRIGGS: Incredible story.
ROMANS: That story ended well. So glad.
BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, three time grand slam champion Andy Murray revealed Monday's Australian open may be his last.
Lindsay Czarniak here in studio with us, so colorful, with "The Bleacher Report".
LINDSAY CZARNIAK, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: So tough for him.
Colorful. You like it? ROMANS: We like it.
BRIGGS: I love it. We love it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:24:15] BRIGGS: An emotional Andy Murray reveals his pain is unbearable. He is ready to step away from tennis before the start of this year's first major, the Australian Open.
ROMANS: Lindsay Czarniak has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report".
Hi, Lindsay.
CZARNIAK: Hi, guys.
It was hard to watch him because you could tell how upset he was. Three-time grand slam champion Andy Murray revealing that he has been in almost unbearable pain for roughly the past 20 months. And because of that, he expects Monday's Australian Open may be his last.
Murray broke down in tears as he shared the news that his hip injury would force him to retire after the Australian Open. Murray saying he initially hoped that he could retire after the Wimbledon, but now feels the pain is just too much to continue to play through.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY MURRAY, 2-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: That is where I would like to stop, stop playing. But I'm also not certain I'm able to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CZARNIAK: So difficult to watch.
So from looming retirement to what Chiefs fans hope is just the beginning, Kansas City looking to keep the playoff run going and banking on their star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He is only on the second player in NFL history to throw 50 touchdown passes and for more than 5,000 yard.
But the Chiefs haven't won a home playoff game in 25 years, guys. They have lost six straight at Arrowhead. They will host the white hot Colts tomorrow.
And Mahomes, he is so excited to make that playoff debut.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: For me, it is my first playoff game. I'm excited just to be here and then at the same time, get the opportunity to go out there and win games like this. I mean when you grow up, you want to play games like this. When you get older, you want to be a professional athlete, you want to win on the biggest stage. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CZARNIAK: And this guy has fans all around the country, many by the way calling the Thunder-Spurs double overtime thriller from last night, the NBA game of the season. It combined 301 points, the most since 2006. LaMarcus Aldridge scored career-high 56 in the Spurs 154- 147 win. Unbelievable.
Aldridge saying it was just one of those nights. And he did make sure to collect that basketball after the game.
BRIGGS: A legend one night but then gone the next.
CZARNIAK: But you have a night like that, it's like come on.
Your son has a Mahomes jersey.
BRIGGS: He loves Patrick Mahomes. The kids worship Patrick Mahomes.
The way the public adores Tim Tebow. And by the way, Tim Tebow, congratulations, he is engaged to a former Miss Universe.
CZARNIAK: Former Miss Universe. They are both very beautiful people.
BRIGGS: Lindsay, thank you.
ROMANS: Thanks, Lindsay.
Government shutdown now tied to the longest in U.S. history, and President Trump how he wants to fund the border wall without the help of Congress.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
