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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Kept Translator's Notes from Putin Meeting; Attorney General Nominee Barr Goes Before Senate; Uncertainty for Unpaid Federal Workers; No Committees for Steve King; Storms Batter Already Devastated South California; Brexit Decision Day; Sleep Study Warning. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired January 15, 2019 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:31:12] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I never worked for Russia. And you know that answer better than anybody. I never worked for Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The president had his say. Today, the nominee for attorney general gets his turn. William Barr faces Congress after it was revealed he shared criticism of the Mueller probe with the president's lawyers.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: We'll work for food. Unpaid federal workers little recourse as the government shutdown enters day 25.

BRIGGS: No committee assignments for Steve King in the new Congress, after remarks condoning racism have some prominent Republicans suggesting he'd leave entirely.

ROMANS: And overnight, rains in California forcing evacuations and leaving a dangerous mess, mudflows and rain devastated by recent wildfires.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs, 4:31 Eastern Time. Day 25 of this government shutdown.

Now, it is on record, the president of the United States says that he is not a Russian agent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I never worked for Russia. And you know that answer better than anybody. I never worked for Russia. Not only did I never work for Russia, I think it is a disgrace that you even ask that question because it is a whole big fat hoax. It is just a hoax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Now, that that's settled, much scrutiny of the president just keeps intensifying. CNN has now confirmed "Washington Post" reporting after a 2017 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Germany, Mr. Trump confiscated his interpreter's notes and told him not to share anything with anybody.

Senior White House and State Department officials asked for the notes and were denied.

ROMANS: This all happened the same day the "New York Times" called the White House to ask about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russians. The next day, the president dictated a misleading at the same time on the Trump Tower meeting, saying it was about adoption. Coincidently, the same way he describe bed his earlier meeting with Putin. So, now, Democrats are considering issuing subpoenas to obtain the translator's notes or compel him to testify what was said in Mr. Trump's meetings with Putin.

BRIGGS: Meantime, the president's legal team have rejected requests from special counsel Robert Mueller for an in-person interview with the president. In November, the team provided written answers to a limited number of Mueller's questions focused only on the period before Mr. Trump took office. One source now tells us Mueller is not satisfied.

ROMANS: All right. Russia expected to be a hot topic when president Trump's pick for attorney general appears before the Senate today. William Barr will be fielding questions from members of the Judiciary Committee. On the Democratic side, there will be three likely contenders for the White House in 2020, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, California's Kamala Harris and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

BRIGGS: And some new faces on the Republican side, Lindsey Graham becomes chairman, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Joni Ernst of Iowa become the first Republican women to serve on the committee. Barr has already provided a review of his testimony, addressing concerns he may interfere with the Mueller investigation.

Here is CNN's Jessica Schneider.

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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESOPNDENT: Christine and Dave, a big day on Capitol Hill that will likely be quite contentious as the president's pick for attorney general faces the Senate Judiciary Committee. Now, we've already gotten a sneak preview of what William Barr will promise, that he will promise two major things. First, that he'll let the Mueller probe go forward and that not interfere, and that second, that he'll be transparent and allow the public and Congress to see what Mueller uncovers.

Barr will also explain why he wrote that 19-page memo to the Justice Department that many have read as Barr concluding that the president cannot obstruct justice by firing the FBI director. But Barr will tell senators that he often weighs in on legal issues of public importance and that his ultimate conclusion was not that the president can't obstruct justice, but the question is will that explanation be enough for Democrats?

[04:35:09] They are set to drill into Barr about his motivations behind writing that memo. Did he draft it again to the good graces of people surrounding the president, especially, because we now know that Barr sent the memo to several members of the president's legal team? And Democrats will also ask, will it compromise his oversight of the Mueller probe? Christine and Dave?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIGGS: All right. Jessica, thank you.

Desperate times for some of the 800,000 federal workers going without paychecks as we hit day 25 of the government shutdown. Tampa International Airport teaming up with local charities to set up a food bank for America's government employees, and a South Florida restaurant, Chef Creole, giving free meals to TSA workers at Miami International Airport.

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WILKINSON SEJOUR, OWNER, CHIEF CREOLE: These people are here every day. It is not like they don't want to work. They want to work, but they're not getting paid.

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BRIGGS: Air travelers are experiencing long lines at airports nationwide. In Atlanta, officials at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport say passengers should arrive three hours before your flight to get through security. Overnight, Southwest Airlines announced its planned expansion to Hawaii is on hold. The shutdown is preventing full certification from the FAA.

And more fallout, a report from Syracuse University estimates more than 42,000 immigration hearings have been canceled due to the shutdown.

ROMANS: Efforts to end the border wall funding impasse are going nowhere. President Trump telling aides and allies, he believes he is winning the battle for public support, despite polling that suggests the opposite. A source familiar with the president's thinking tells CNN he is not going to budge even one inch. The White House is planning to invite a group of moderate House Democrats who meet with the president. West Wing officials are hoping to peel off freshmen Democrats who might be more willing to bargain over border wall funding.

BRIGGS: A bipartisan group of at least 12 senators met at the Capitol Monday to find a way forward. A source telling CNN it was, quote, rough going. The president rejecting Senator Lindsey Graham's idea to reopen the government for three weeks.

Here is the reaction of Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski.

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SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R), ALASKA: Well, then Mr. President, when are you going to help us open the government?

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BRIGGS: Murkowski is one of three GOP senators who are publicly calling for the shutdown to end.

ROMANS: House Republicans will deny Iowa Congressman Steve King committee assignments after he made remarks defending racism. King completely silent as he left his office after the announcement by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Now, King has a long history of outrageous comments relating to race and immigration. He criticized the GOP move saying McCarthy made, quote, a political decision that ignores the truth. He says his quotes were mischaracterized.

Again, there's a long history of him on the record, and judge for yourself. He told "The New York Times", white nationalists, white supremacists, Western civilization, how did that language become offensive?

BRIGGS: Earlier Monday, a pair of Senate's most high profile Republican condemned King. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calling King's statements unworthy of his elected position, adding, quote, if he doesn't understand why white supremacy is offensive, he should find another line of work.

And Utah's new senator, Mitt Romney, tells CNN, King should step aside.

As for the president's reaction, earlier Monday, he said only this --

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REPORTER: Mr. President, what about Steve King's remarks on white supremacy?

TRUMP: Who?

REPORTER: Steve King. Congressman Steve King.

TRUMP: I don't -- I haven't been following it. I really haven't been following it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The news consumer in chief has not been following that particular story. The House will vote as early as today on a resolution to disapprove of King. That is not as severe as a censure.

Now, the disapproval resolution being proposed by South Carolina James Clyburn, the highest ranking African-American in Congress.

The Trump administration's effort to roll back the Obamacare birth control mandate has been blocked nationwide. A federal judge in Pennsylvania Monday blocked the administration from enforcing new rules that would restrict the ability of some women to get birth control free of charge. The nationwide injunction comes less than 24 hours after a different federal judge in California issued a more limited ruling blocking the new rules in 13 states and D.C. The White House wanted to roll back the so-called contraception mandate, allowing employers' insurance plans to opt out on religious or moral grounds.

BRIGGS: National Champions Clemson Tigers had it their way during a visit to the White House. President Trump played host to the college football champs Monday and with the government shutdown, there was no catering, so the president picked up the tab for the food. Guess what he got?

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[04:40:03] TRUMP: So, I had a choice. Do we have no food for you? Because we have a shutdown or do we give you some little quick salads that the first lady will make along with the second lady, they will make some salads. And I said, you guys aren't into salads. Or do I go out, Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, do I go out and send out for about 1,000 hamburgers? Big Macs.

So we actually did, we have Big Macs, we have quarter pounders with cheese, we have everything that I like that you like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Needless to say, the hungry Tigers had no complaints about the shutdown smorgasbord of fast food that including pizza and fries to go along with more than 300 burgers.

ROMANS: I love the candelabra and then the boxes of pizza. Just high and low together.

BRIGGS: Not sure we've ever seen that combination.

ROMANS: Do you think that those guys liked the fast food or Trump likes the fast food?

BRIGGS: Well, there is a pile of three burgers on that young man's plate, so I'm guessing they were pretty pleased.

ROMANS: I bet he's eating mostly sweet potatoes and grilled chicken.

All right. Volkswagen is investing $800 million in its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, adding 1,000 jobs to the factory. Its plan, to build electric cars there. The announcement comes amid talks between Volkswagen and Ford about pooling resources to make the next generation of electric vehicles. Volkswagen is among one of the largest automakers with record sales of 10.8 million vehicles last year, but only about 1 percent of the sales were electric cars. In a statement, Volkswagen's CEO said, quote: The U.S. is one of the

most important locations for us and producing electric cars in Chattanooga is a key part of our growth strategy in North America. Volkswagen says new jobs and production of electric cars should begin in 2022. We talked to executives in the auto industry, it is all les electric.

They are worried that the industry is changing faster the next ten years than it has in all of the history until now, the automobile.

BRIGGS: Speeding forward.

All right. There are big ramifications for today's Brexit vote by British lawmakers. How will the U.K. exit the E.U.? And will Theresa May keep her job? We're live at 10 Downing, ahead.

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[04:46:30] ROMANS: British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal is widely expected to be rejected today by lawmakers in the House of Commons. And most political observers in the U.K. believe she will lose the vote by a potentially historic margin.

I want to go live to 10 Downing Street and bring in Hadas Gold.

And, you know, first, there are the politics which are dramatic and historic. But you've got people in the U.K., grocery stores and people who use life saving medications who are really concerned about what happens if there is no deal. And potentially they need to be buying stuff now to prepare for the chaos.

Is that true?

HADAS GOLD, CNN REPORTER: Christine, definitely that's true. I mean, we see so much political chaos right now. While we know that this deal will likely fail in a vote this evening in parliament, it is not clear what the next steps will be. Right now, the cabinet is meeting behind me. They are likely discussing what the next steps will be.

But nobody can really tell you. And there is the issue of what happens if the U.K. crashes out without a deal on March 29th at 11:00 p.m. when Brexit is supposed to happen. And a result, we're seeing people starting to stockpile goods, medicines. We've also received confirmation from some of the largest grocery store chains here in the United Kingdom, including Tesco and M&S, who have confirmed that they have started stockpiling long shelf life goods, things like canned foods and things like that, in case of what might happen in a no deal Brexit because they don't know what the borders will look like.

They have warned, though, that 70 percent of their stock is often fresh food, fresh food and vegetables and meat and things like that. And they are worried about what might happen if a no deal Brexit happens and what will happen at the borders because they can't have the fresh food sitting in a truck for days waiting for customs checks, Christine. ROMANS: And these estimates of grocery bills going up 10 percent, not

being able to get strawberries or lettuce, you know, potential food shortages in Ireland. You know, it sounds like doomsday stuff, but you read through what is happening and it is really dramatic. That is the real world implications.

All right. Hadas Gold at 10 Downing Street, thank you for that.

BRIGGS: Dramatic escalations and tensions between China and Canada as a Canadian citizen sentenced to death after a Chinese court convicted him of drug smuggling on Monday. Robert Lloyd Schellenberg insists he came to China as a tourist. The court ruled he was dispatched to the Chinese port city of Dalian by drug traffickers in 2014 to orchestrate the smuggling of 489 pounds of methamphetamine.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blasting the ruling. Relations have been strained between the two companies following an arrest of is a senior executive of Chinese tech firm Huawei in Vancouver last month.

ROMANS: All right. Gillette's new ad is not about shaving, it is about men in the age of #MeToo. It's really a good talker. CNN Business, next.

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[04:53:47] BRIGGS: A powerful storm prompting evacuations in southern California in areas burned by the Woolsey Fire. Evacuations have been ordered starting at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Officials expect debris flows in burn areas. Twenty-six hundred residents in the Holy Fire burn area, Riverside County, now under a voluntary evacuation order. Storms have already triggered at least three debris flows in Encino and Hollywood Hills.

ROMANS: Along the Pacific Coast between -- highway between Malibu and Ventura, which reopened overnight after mudflows closed at both directions. Evacuations also ordered in burn areas in Santa Barbara County starting at 10:00 this morning. Highway patrol has reopened a section of interstate 5 north of Los Angeles that was closed for hours as snow fell.

BRIGGS: The University of North Carolina authorizing the removal of Silent Sam, a Confederate monument in the middle of campus. The controversy costing Chancellor Carol Folt her job. Silent Sam was built more than a century ago, toppled by protesters last summer, its base and commemorative plaque remained.

UNC's board of trustees proposed a new $5.3 million building to house the statue, but that plan was rejected by the university's board of governors in December. It is unclear where it will end up. Chancellor Folt will be stepping down after graduation in May insisting the debate over the monument has caused too much disruption.

[04:55:06] ROMANS: All right. If you are not getting at least six hours of sleep a night, a new study warns you may be at risk for dangerous health problems. Previous research suggested poor sleep associated only it with coronary heart disease and a bad attitude. But new research at Center of Aging at Tufts University says that the plaque increase in the body's extremities increases the risk of strokes, digestive problems and poor circulation that leads to numbness and pain and as well as heart disease. Another recent study found people who excellent fewer than six hours a night for two weeks functioned as poorly as people who were entirely deprived of sleep for two nights.

BRIGGS: Ugh.

A dramatic rescue captured in a Naperville, Illinois, a suburb of China. An 11-year-old boy fell through the ice Sunday in a retention pond. He told emergency responders that his feet were stuck in mud at the bottom of the pond. They attached him to a lifeline and then a dive team must be swam out pulling the boy to safety. He was taken to a local hospital in stable condition.

ROMANS: Oh, my. Glad that worked out all right.

A lot of wasted dessert in the desert. A tanker holding liquid chocolate rolled over near flag staff pouring a river of chocolate on to the westbound lanes. Officials say a latch connecting the main truck with the trailer detached causing the tanker to roll. The tanker was heavily damaged, but no one was injured in the accident. It took crews will four hours to clean up the chocolaty mess.

BRIGGS: A stunning upset in college basketball. Top ranked Duke falls to Syracuse in an overtime thriller.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Time for a heave. And it is good!

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BRIGGS: Yes, that was good. An incredible heave by Elijah Hughes (ph) from the other three point line. Tyrus battle scoring 32 for the orange including the shot that put Syracuse ahead for good in overtime right there. The freshman sensation Zion Williams (ph) had 35 for the Blue Devils, but it was not enough.

Syracuse wins 95-91 at Duke. The first time a top ranked Duke team has lost at home to unranked opponent. They had been 90-0. Another story to ruin my early morning.

All right. The FBI investigated if the president was acting on behalf of the Russians. While you were sleeping, Seth Meyers tried to figure out why.

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SETH MEYERS, COMEDIAN: The FBI was investigating whether Trump was working for the Russians. I mean what tipped them off? Was it Trump's secret meeting with the Russians in the Oval Office, his son's secret meeting with Russians at Trump Tower, his lawyer's secret deal to build Trump Tower Moscow, Jeff Sessions' secret meeting with the Russian ambassador, Jared Kushner's secret backchannel with the Kremlin, Michael Flynn's secret backchannel with the Kremlin, Erik Prince's secret backchannel with the Kremlin, Paul Manafort (INAUDIBLE) or Vladimir Putin's smile every time he sees Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That was funny. Thank you.

Fifty-eight minutes past the hour. Slowing global growth and Brexit chaos, the two global headlines this morning. Global stock markets, though, are higher right now in Asia, small gains led to an opening a little bit higher here. And on Wall Street, futures are up a little bit. A bounce really this morning after stocks suffered their first back to back declines of the year.

The Dow lost 86 points. Investors fretted about slowing global growth. The Dow was down as many as 231 points. The big concern there, China's biggest drop in exports in two years. The S&P 500, Nasdaq also down on Monday.

Wells Fargo, the bank mired in a fake account scandal now for two years, the Fed has slammed it for widespread consumer abuse. Remember, the bank opened millions of fake accounts to make high profit numbers and bleed its own customers of unnecessary fees. Yet the bank is giving its shareholders a gift.

Wells Fargo shelled out $7.4 billion to buy its own stock in the third quarter, nearly triple what it spent the year before. Reward for shareholders as its customers and employees have paid a price. In September, Wells Fargo announced plans to cut as many as 26,500 jobs over the next three years. Today, Wells Fargo is expected to reveal another round of stock buybacks when it reports quarterly results.

More competition for Netflix. NBC Universal announced Monday it will launch its own streaming service in 2020. In a press release, NBCUniversal CEO said, quote, people are watching premium content more than ever. But they want more flexibilities and value.

The yet-to-be named service will host a variety of programming from NBC Universal's, you know, content library. That includes everything from "Jurassic World" to "The Office", right? It has a huge library that it can tap into. It also says the new service will include homegrown original programming and content from outside partners, which is pretty interesting development there.

ROMANS: Gillette's newest web advertisement, social media advertisement, is not about shaving or beards or personal hygiene.