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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Headache Headlines; Contraceptive Coverage; Passenger Flies With Gun On The Plane; White House Sought Plan To Strike Iran; White House Preparing For Long Shutdown; Prime Minister Theresa May Under Pressure, Expected To Lose Tomorrow's Vote. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired January 14, 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)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: A weekend full of stunning headlines, plus the President acting against American interests? Did he destroy notes from talks with Vladimir Putin? And how the President responded?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSET, CHAIR, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: They have the vacation, but they don't have to use their vacation days. In some sense, they are better off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: What? No paycheck, no problem, says the Economic Adviser for the president, but the pain is growing for people coping with his government shutdown.

ROMANS: Women in more than a dozen states will not see cuts to birth control coverage, thanks from a ruling from a federal judge.

BRIGGS: And serious security concerns after a passenger with a gun is allowed to fly. Welcome back to "Early Start" everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. We got the grey moment today.

BRIGGS: Yeah. Grey Monday.

ROMANS: It's a grey Monday. It is 32 minutes past the hour this morning. A trio of big stories about President Trump breaking over the weekend, two of them, new revelations connected to the Russia investigation.

Now, the "Washington Post" is reporting that the President went to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now, among the unusual steps this President took, confiscating his own interpreter's notes after a 2017 meeting with Putin in Germany.

That report following another Russia-related shocker in the "New York Times" that law enforcement officials were so concerned by the firing of then FBI Director James Comey, they began investigating whether the President was working on behalf of Russia. Trump was asked about that report on Fox News. This is how he replied.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you now or have you ever worked for Russia, Mr. President?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it is the most insulting thing I've ever been asked. I think it is the most insulting article I've ever had written. And if you read the article, you'd see that they found absolutely nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The word no was missing there. Also, this weekend, the "Wall Street Journal" reporting that President Trump's National Security Council asked the Pentagon for military options to strike Iran. The request came last year after militants aligned with Tehran fired three mortars into Baghdad's diplomatic quarter that's home to the U.S. Embassy.

And last night, the President tweeting sharp words for Turkey, threatening to devastate its economy if it attacks Kurds in Syria. But the president also seemed to give some cover to Turkey if it does attack the Kurds, allies of the U.S.

A lot to get to, a Senior International Correspondent, Fred Pleitgen live in Moscow. Fred, good morning.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave. Certainly, those two bombshell articles that came out over the weekend in the "New York Times" and the "Washington Post" very much a topic here in Moscow as well. I can tell you, I've been monitoring Russian news agencies, Russian radio and Russian T.V. over the entire weekend.

[04:35:05] An absolute feast for them taking swipes at the United States and obviously also some of the things that the President has said in rebuttal of those bombshell articles.

Now, the one entity that we haven't heard from here in Moscow yet is the Kremlin. We do expect that there might be some sort of a statement or conference call coming from the Kremlin possibly in the next couple of hours. So obviously, we're going to keep you updated on all of that.

But as far as those notes and those meetings are concerned, certainly there is a lot of concern in the U.S. because we are talking about the data of meetings between Vladimir Putin and President Trump in five different locations. And former officials say, it's absolutely not common practice, for instance, for notes to be destroyed or for things not to be available to people inside the administration.

There are some now who specifically want to try to subpoena the notes from that Helsinki meeting that happened last summer. Of course, that was the one -- one-on-one meeting between President Trump and President Putin where after that meeting President Trump came out and essentially sided against his own intelligence services saying he did not know why President Putin would have wanted to meddle in the U.S. Elections.

Now, of course, we know that the Russian after that meeting felt that President Putin had obviously dominated President Trump. So, certainly a lot of people would like to see those notes, guys.

ROMANS: Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Now, Fred, on this Iran reporting, it isn't clear if Mr. Trump knew of the requests for proposals to strike Iran or whether serious plan came together if this was just a request.

PLEITGEN: Yes.

ROMANS: You have reported from Tehran many times. Why would the NSC make this request?

PLEITGEN: Yes. Well, first of all, the relations between Iran and the U.S. are hitting one low point to the next. If you look at the National Security Council, obviously, they are tasked with providing the President with coordinating policy and then also, of course, providing him options if in fact there is a conflict with Iran.

Now there have been certain things that have happened between the U.S. and Iran. I think, you guys mentioned one of it earlier with mortars being shot into the Diplomatic Quarter in Baghdad by what the U.S. believes is pro-Iranian militias.

There were also apparently some rockets that were fired in the vicinity of the U.S. Consulate in Basra. However, none of that seems serious enough to warrant something like plans being made for possible military action in Iran.

We do have to say that since President Trump has taken office he has taken a very hard line toward the Iranians, obviously, tightened sanctions to a huge degree. And of course, John Bolton himself also someone who has been very, very tough on Iran in the past has issued some pretty staunch threats against the Iranians as well, guys.

BRIGGS: OK. Lastly, on Turkey, Fred. The President warns them not to go after the Kurds, an ally of the U.S., will leave behind as it leaves Syria.

PLEITGEN: Yeah.

BRIGGS: But then he says the Kurds can't provoke Turkey. All right. Just give us some context to all this. How did we get here?

PLEITGEN: Yes. It's a big, big issue. The way that we got here essentially is that in 2014, 2015, the U.S. needed ground forces to fight against ISIS and the Kurds up there in Northern Syria were by far the best option and continue to be the best option for the United States. The problem is that Turkey doesn't like them and the problem is that they also have a beef with the Assad government as well, which of course is back by Russia. Now, the U.S. wants to leave which essentially would leave the Kurds unprotected.

Hence, the President saying in his tweet, look, we don't want the Turks to attack the Kurds when we leave that area, a lot of beef between the Turks and the Kurds. So he issued that threat saying that Turkey would be devastated economically, but then seemingly left that back door for the Erdogan government if in fact the Turks provoke the Turks.

So, certainly, that's an interesting one to see what happens there. But the big country that stands to benefit the most of the U.S. leaves is Russia. They are already in negotiations with the Kurds to try to move into that territory when the U.S. leaves, guys.

ROMANS: Yes. And as you reported, the Russian media having a feast over all these headlines over the weekend, just makes America look chaotic and that of course plays right into the Putin playbook. All right. Thank you so much for that. Fred Pleitgen in Moscow with all of that.

We are here in unchartered territory, day 24 of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, 800,000 federal workers no closer to receiving their paychecks. The White House Office of Management and Budget preparing for the possibility this could last through February. President Trump holding off on declaring a National Emergency for now. His Senate ally, Lindsey Graham floating this idea to temporarily, ease the pain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I would urge him to open up the government for a short period of time, like three weeks before he pulls the plug. See if we can get a deal. If we can't at the end of three weeks, all bets are off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Not all the Republicans are on board with Graham's proposal. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson opposes a declaration of a National Emergency. He says it won't get the President what he wants.

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[04:40:00] SEN RON JOHNSON (R) WISCONSIN: I would hate to see it. Using that act, it would be -- this instance would be a far larger act than has ever occurred in the past. So I prefer not, primarily, because if we do that and it going to go to court and the wall won't get built.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: So who's being held responsible for the shutdown? Well, the President said he would own it. And according to a new CNN poll, he does. Fifty five percent of Americans blame Mr. Trump, 32 percent point the finger at Democrats. Asked about the president's border wall, 56 percent opposed it, 39 percent favor it.

ROMANS: Real harm being done by this shutdown. A TSA checkpoint forced to close at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston due to staffing issues. All flights to schedule to depart from Terminal B are now operating out of different terminals.

At Miami International Airport, Concourse G will return to normal operations this morning. A TSA staffing problem shut that Concourse down on Sunday.

Canadian Air Traffic Controllers ordered hundreds of pizzas for their American counterparts working without pay. Since Thursday, more than 350 pizzas have been sent to 49 FAA units.

BRIGGS: But for 800,000 unpaid federal workers, the pain is building. Government employees have been set up more than 1,000 online fundraising pages, some furloughed workers even applying for unemployment. Money they will have to repay assuming they get back pay after the federal workers who decided to retire could wait a long time for that to be processed, because people who handle retirements are furloughed. That is making comments like this one from White House Economic Adviser, Kevin Hasset, hard to swallow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASSET: A huge share of government workers were going to take vacation days, let's say, between Christmas and New Year. And then we have a shutdown. And so they can't go to work, and so then, they have the vacation, but they don't have to use their vacation days. And then they come back and they get their back pay and in some sense, they are better off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Yes, a chuckle there. Better off, because they didn't have to use vacation days.

ROMANS: All right. Top House Republicans vowing to take action against Iowa Congressman Steve King after his recent comment about white supremacy.

King has been under fire since telling the "New York Times" he believed it was wrong to consider white nationalism and white supremacy offensive. Just think about that for a minute. Why is that so offensive? White supremacy and white nationalism? All right. Now, he is being condemned by the leaders of his own party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: That language has no place in America. That is not the America I know and it's most definitely not the party of Lincoln.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Should he be punish for it? MCCARTHY: I have a scheduled meeting with him on Monday. And I will

tell you this. I've watched on the other side that they do not take action when their members say something like this. Action will be taken.

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R), LOUISIANA, HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP: There is no place for hate, for bigotry or anybody who supports that ideology. It is evil ideology. We all ought to stand up against it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: King later claimed, he is quote, "simply a nationalist," and he went on to condemn anyone that supports the evil and bigoted ideology of white nationalism and white supremacy.

BRIGGS: A federal judge in California has brought the Trump administration effort to weaken Obamacare's requirement that insurance plans cover birth control. The judge ordered protecting these so- called contraceptive -- mandate coming just one day before the new regulations were supposed to take effect.

The injunction only applies to Washington, D.C. and the 13 Democratic States that joined forces to bring a lawsuit. The judge ruling that those states could face potentially dire public health and fiscal consequences 37.

ROMANS: Right now, a court in Pennsylvania is considering a similar request for an injunction and could issue a broader national order on the contraception mandate. Under the administration's proposed guidelines, nonprofits and for-profit employers could receive exemptions based on religious beliefs.

BRIGGS: Ahead facing another big vote, British Prime Minister Theresa May taking her Brexit message to the masses, including in Parliament. We're live at 10 Downing Street ahead.

[04:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIGGS: A pivotal week for Brexit. For the second time in as many months, British Prime Minister, Theresa May, is under pressure to get her Brexit deal passed through Parliament. A vote scheduled for tomorrow, May making last-ditch appeals for support including in Parliament.

CNN's Hadas Gold live outside London's 10 Downing Street. Good morning to you. We are 74 days away from Brexit with no deal.

HADAS GOLD, CNN POLITICS, MEDIA AND BUSINESS REPORTER: Good morning.

BRIGGS: Is that a possibility?

GOLD: It is definitely a possibility, Dave. Today Theresa May is going to stoke on Trent. This is a pro-Brexit area in the United Kingdom. And although she'll be addressing factory workers, she's really addressing members of Parliament back here in London. And what she is going to be telling them is if they don't vote for her deal, then they risk Brexit not happening at all, not just a no deal Brexit, but no Brexit. And that she says will cause British people to lose faith in the process of democracy, because they voted in 2016 for Brexit.

She is also expected to come back to London later this afternoon, speak to the House of Commons, and try to come to them with what she says might be some assurances from the European Union on issues that lot of members of Parliament have with the Brexit deal, but the numbers don't seem to be in her favor. There are some reports that she may lose the vote 100 to 200 votes.

Now, the question seems to be not if she lose the vote, but by how much and what that means in the future. Likely, that will mean a no confidence vote from the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn who is their leader. That could lead to a General Election.

Those situations would likely mean that Brexit might have to be delayed because you can't get all of that done in the 74 days or so we have until that March 29th deadline. But whatever the situation, we are clearly in unchartered territory as we move forward. The question though is then what happens next and what happens to Theresa May and her prime ministership (ph), Dave.

[04:50:06] BRIGGS: Much like our government shutdown, no off-ramp appears there either. Hadas Gold, live for us at 10 Downing, thanks.

ROMANS: All right, 10 minutes to the top of the hour. Cadillac wants to sell an all-electric SUV cheaper than Tesla's Model X. Bloomberg reports G.M. will start building this vehicle by 2021. The price, on par with similar gasoline powered models, usually start around 50 grand. It get more expensive with add-ons.

Tesla's Model X often sells for more than $100,000. And this surprise announcement this weekend, Tesla will stop taking new orders for the cheapest Model S and Model X. CEO, Elon Musk, tweeted, Tesla would no longer take orders for the 75 D versions of the two cars starting Monday at noon Pacific Time.

Now, Musk gave no reason. A Tesla spokesperson would not comment. Cadillac's President says that G.M. is using Tesla's vehicles as a benchmark while the Detroit based automaker develops its own electric versions.

BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, do you have too much stuff?

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: Yes. Have you tried the Kamari method? Netflix's new series tidying up with Marie Kondo is taking home by storm. But is it helping thrift stores? CNN business is next.

[04:55:00](COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Jake Patterson, the man accused of kidnapping Jayme Closs and killing her parents in October is scheduled to appear in court today. The sheriff of Barron County, Wisconsin telling CNN, he believes Closs' abduction was a random act. Investigators are now trying to piece together how Closs' escape as well as Patterson movements over the past three months.

Patterson said to be cooperating with investigators. Jayme's family says there were a lot of big smiles from Closs this weekend. Sheriff Fitzgerald says investigators do not plan to take her back to the scene of the house where she was held captive. They won't, during their investigation, take her back there.

BRIGGS: The University of Michigan has fired a former USA gymnastics executive amid backlash over her connection to the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal. Rhonda Faehn was believed to be the first USA gymnastics official to learn of Nassar's sexual abuse.

Last June, she testified at a U.S. Senate hearing, she reported the complaints to the head of the organization but never reported it to law enforcement. Faehn was never formally implicated, but she was ousted as the head of the USA gymnastics program in May. Several schools officials said she should be fired. Faehn lasted less than a week at the University of Michigan.

The TSA says a traveler carrying a firearm was allowed to board a Delta Flight from Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport to Tokyo on January 3rd. The agency says standard procedures were not followed and that it will hold those responsible appropriately accountable.

The security breach came two weeks into the government shutdown, but the TSA says any suggest in the shutdown contributed to the security lapse is false. It says a normal number of staffers were working that day.

ROMANS: All right. Let's go check on CNN Business. This Monday morning, Global stock markets are lower right now as investors reacts to China's trade data. You can see Tokyo up but Shanghai and Hong Kong down, and London open slightly lower here.

Get this. China's trade surplus hit a record high last year because people rushed to buy goods before tariffs in this trade war took hold. According to trade data released Monday, China recorded -- wow -- a $323 billion surplus with the U.S. last year. That's up 17 percent from last year. That money, right there and where the President of United States looks at that, that's America lost $323 billion. That is where he used trade deficits.

BRIGGS: Right.

ROMANS: Now that surge though has faded. It could -- it could have erode further with new tariffs on hold, we will wait and see.

On Wall Street, futures are lower right. You see a 200-point decline or so from the DOW, Jones industrial average when the opening bell rings in a few hours. The DOW barely moved Friday, but rose nearly 2 percent for the week last week. The S&P 500 closed up 2.5. percent that week. NASDAQ surged 3.4 percent. A strong week for tech. All three snapped a five-day winning streak though on Friday with that, you know, kind of lousy performance. General Motors led the way higher on the S&P 500, it was up 7 percent after upgrading its profit outlook.

All right. Bud Light wants to win over calorie conscious beer drinkers. Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser, Michelob, Stellar Artois, another beers, said it would add nutritional information to Bud Light packages. Bud Light will be the first U.S. beer to display ingredients and nutritional facts on its carton.

The move could help Bud Light win back customers who have been losing interest in beer. Right now information about ingredients, calories, carbs, fat and protein, they appear on Bud Light cans and bottles but not on, you know, like, you know the box, the cartons. The new packaging, which hits stores next month adds an additional breakdowns of fats and sugars.

All right. Do you have you too much stuff? Have tried the Kamari method? Do you know what I'm talking about? On New Year's Day, Netflix released the series "Tidying up with Marie Kondo." It's a minimalist home life improvement show based on the popular book starring the Japanese organization expert, Marie Kondo. This actually -- it has inspired people to tidy up and donate. I mean, everyone is talking about this, right? She is purging these houses.

Hard to say. We asked goodwill's public relations, the multimedia manager, about activity. It is often strong in January because people have these New Year's resolutions to get organized. Netflix is not sharing viewing data, so it's hard to tell how many people have watched this series, but the streaming service pointed CNN to this stat. On December 31, Kondo had 710 followers on Instagram. Today she has 1.3 million followers. And do you what this is -- so you're supposed --

BRIGGS: I have no idea what this is.

ROMANS: -- to take your stuff, right?