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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Barr Pledges Transparency On Mueller Report, But Questions And Loopholes Remain; Two Iowa Newspapers Urge Rep. Steve King To Resign; British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit Deal Crushed; Bombshell Testimony In "El Chapo" Trial. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 16, 2019 - 05:30   ET

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


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[05:31:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, NOMINEE FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: I will not be bullied into doing anything I think is wrong by anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Bipartisan praise for William Barr. The nominee for attorney general vows to let Robert Mueller finish his work, but will the public see the final report?

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: It turns out it costs more to shut the government down than to leave it open. Now, the president's own economic advisers doubling the projected losses.

ROMANS: Another democracy in crisis. U.K. lawmakers reject the Brexit plan. Theresa May faces another no-confidence vote today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALLIE BENJAMIN (ph), SISTER OF SCARLET BENJAMIN: Baby sister.

SCARLET BENJAMIN, FITTED WITH HEARING AIDS: Laughing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Pure joy. The little girl who had been unable to hear with a precious laugh when she hears her sister for the first time.

ROMANS: Oh, that's a lot of happy --

BRIGGS: We all needed that. Welcome back to EARLY START.

ROMANS: -- on day 26.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: Yes, I'm Christine Romans. It is day 26 --

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: -- of the longest government shutdown in history, so keep that little giggle in the back of your head for the rest of the day.

BRIGGS: Just loop it in your head.

ROMANS: Thirty-one minutes past the hour.

President Trump's nominee for attorney general setting a tone at his confirmation -- Senate confirmation hearing that had both parties mostly pleased.

William Barr breaking from the president and his aides on several key talking points. Among them, disagreeing with the president's claim that special counsel Robert Mueller is on a witch hunt and vowing he will not allow Mr. Trump or his lawyers to correct or spin Mueller's final report.

BRIGGS: Barr also did his best to reassure senators he would allow Mueller to finish his work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARR: I am not going to do anything that I think is wrong and I will not be bullied into doing anything I think is wrong by anybody, whether it be editorial boards or Congress or the president. I'm going to do what I think is right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Barr also promised to quit if the president crossed a line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARR: If someone tried to stop a bona fide lawful investigation to cover up wrongdoing, I would resign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: He did, however, hedge on one issue that could cause trouble with Democrats.

CNN's Jessica Schneider has more on that from Washington.

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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, an anticipated contentious hearing was actually quite calm, with top committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein saying this, "So far, so good."

And even Delaware Democrat Chris Coons saying he's going to seriously consider supporting William Barr's confirmation. And the reason for that may be Barr's strong stance defending Robert Mueller, pointing to their 30-year friendship and also vowing to protect the Russia probe and make as much as he can about Mueller's final report public.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CA), RANKING MEMBER, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Will you commit to providing Mr. Mueller with the resources, funds, and time needed to complete his investigation? BARR: Yes.

FEINSTEIN: Will you commit to ensuring that special counsel Mueller is not terminated without good cause, consistent with department regulations?

BARR: Absolutely.

FEINSTEIN: Will you provide Mueller's report to Congress -- not your rewrite or a summary?

BARR: My objective and goal is to get as much as I can of the information to Congress and the public. I don't know at the end of the day what will be releasable.

SCHNEIDER: Barr did say that he won't fire Mueller, saying it would take something egregious since he knows the type of investigation that Mueller is.

But in one issue that could potentially rankle Democrats, Barr was asked can a sitting president be indicted?

BARR: For 40 years, the position of the executive branch has been you can't indict a sitting president.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT), MEMBER, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I'm asking you what your view is right now.

BARR: I -- you know, I actually haven't read those opinions in a long time, but I see no reason to change them.

SCHNEIDER: Now, Barr was also asked several questions about presidential pardons and while he did say it is within the president's power to pardon individuals, he stressed it is also possible that the president can abuse his power by issuing certain pardons. And, Barr also wouldn't rule out the possibility that Mueller could subpoena the president.

[05:35:14] But overall, Barr wanted the takeaway to be that he will be an independent attorney general. More, of course, to come in the second round of the hearing that starts this morning -- Dave and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Jessica Schneider. Thank you for that. She had a long day yesterday -- Jessica did.

Let's bring in "CNN POLITICS" digital director Zach Wolf in Washington. Good morning, Zach,

BRIGGS: Good morning.

ROMANS: Something that really struck me about all of this is here's Bill Barr who talks about Robert Mueller -- calls him Bob. Says the Muellers and Barrs are friends. BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: Their wives attend bible study together. Bob Mueller went to the weddings of both of Barr's daughters.

And he broke with the president on some key issues here. He won't call Bob Mueller's investigation a witch hunt. He says he won't make corrections to the Mueller report.

I'm wondering, if you're the President of the United States this morning, after watching that confirmation hearing yesterday, what are you thinking of your pick?

ZACHARY WOLF, DIGITAL DIRECTOR, CNN POLITICS: Well, I think maybe what you should be thinking is that you picked somebody who is going to get confirmed -- who Democrats are going to have a hard time opposing, who said a lot of the right things to Congress.

What you're probably potentially thinking if you're President Trump -- and far be it from me to ever get inside of his mind, but what you may be thinking is that you also found somebody who is going to at least publicly pledge to be very independent of you, specifically. And that could be troubling for Trump because he's somebody who prizes loyalty above all other things.

BRIGGS: Yes. Trump's insinuated he wants his own protector, as Roy Cohn. It didn't sound like he was getting that quickly, Zach.

Do you think any Democrats vote for Barr? If so, who are they?

WOLF: You know, it certainly sounded like several of them --

BRIGGS: I agree.

WOLF: -- from Jessica's report. If Dianne Feinstein is saying so far, so good, I think we're on a glide path here. But let's see what happens on day two.

BRIGGS: Yes. I thought Feinstein, I thought Durbin, I thought even Coons. That's three in the committee --

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- which would be stunning and maybe a big statement to say we're not all about the resistance.

ROMANS: Let's move to the shutdown -- day 26 right now. And, you know, you -- all of us have been sort of chronicling how this is really affecting real people, real industries, the potential economy.

Listen to what some people who are affected by this have been telling us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is earning his paycheck but he's just not getting it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The shutdown isn't just a Washington, D.C. problem. It's affecting real people here in Iowa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting our paystubs on Thursday and seeing zero dollars is just very disheartening. It makes it hard to wake up and want to go to work.

LIZ RUNGE, MOTHER OF TWO, SUMMERVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA: It's important that the people maybe that aren't so affected by it, whether they don't have a government job or they've never received assistance -- they need to see the faces of the people that it is affecting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMAN: Zach, what for you crystalizes the impact of this the most?

WOLF: You know, what crystalizes it for me, they had tried so hard to inoculate the Pentagon, the armed forces, the troops from this shutdown, but they missed the Coast Guard, which officially stopped getting paid yesterday.

And the Coast Guard commandant Karl Schultz tweeted -- and I thought this was really fascinating. "Today," he said to his service members, "you will not be receiving your regularly scheduled paycheck. To the best of my knowledge, this marks the first time in our nation's history that service members in a U.S. Armed Force have not been paid during a lapse in appropriations."

That is a pretty incredible thing that essentially, members of the armed forces, albeit not under the structure of the Pentagon, are not getting paid right now.

ROMANS: Forty-one thousand seven hundred active duty military under his command, thousands more in the Reserves. You know, Zach, covering economies, other countries in positions of terrible weakness with terrible governments sometimes give IOUs to their military and it's a sign of extreme weakness and vulnerability.

This is the United States of America. I think you're right that that really crystalizes it the most.

BRIGGS: OK, let's turn now quickly to Steve King as it appears the tides have turned against Steve King. So, you had him stripped of his committee assignments in this new Congress. You had the biggest two newspapers in Iowa -- their editorial boards writing articles strongly condemning Steve King and the things he's said.

TEXT: "Des Moines Register": "He has lost even the potential to effectively represent his Iowa constituents because of his abhorrent comments about white nationalism and white supremacy."

BRIGGS: And then, this resolution on the House floor that only one person voted against, and that person said it didn't go far enough. Steve King even voted for this House resolution. Some wonder if this is Republicans' way of saying look, we do not want racism to be any part of this party or our supporters. Some think that they're trying to cover up the things the president has said in the past.

Well, here's what the President of the United States has said about Steve King in the past. This is 2014.

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DONALD TRUMP, THEN-REAL ESTATE MOGUL AND T.V. REALITY SHOW BOSS: A special guy. A smart person with, really, the right views on almost everything and we don't really have to compare notes. I want to see someone who's going to make our country great again, which is basically the same thing as Steve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:40:07] BRIGGS: Now, I guess it depends on what the president means on "we agree on almost everything." What is that almost?

But what do you think finally turned Republicans against Steve King?

WOLF: Well, I think, in part, the difficulty they faced in the midterm elections. They've lost a lot of races. He only barely won in a very conservative district, so there's that essence of needing to keep his seat at this point.

And maybe they also want to send a message about racism. I would point out, however, everyone has turned on Steve King except for Donald Trump. President Trump has not weighed in in the way that other members of his party have and it's pretty clear --

ROMANS: Yes.

WOLF: -- he's not going to. And that's notable because let's face it, he is the most important Republican right now --

BRIGGS: Yes.

WOLF: -- and they do what he says --

ROMANS: Yes.

WOLF: -- on pretty much everything --

ROMANS: He was asked --

WOLF: -- as a matter of course.

ROMANS: And he said that he hasn't been following that. It was on the same day, I think, that he was tweeting about Jeff Bezos and his marital issues.

BRIGGS: That's correct.

ROMANS: So, he's up on the news on some things but not on the others.

BRIGGS: You can assume that the White House reporters --

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- will continue to ask that question.

ROMANS: I'm sure.

All right, Zach Wolf. Thank you so much. Nice to see you this morning.

BRIGGS: Thanks, man.

WOLF: Thanks.

ROMANS: All right.

President Trump's economic advisers say the government shutdown will cost more than they thought -- double earlier projections. The chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Kevin Hassett, now calculates the shutdowns shaves quarterly economic growth by 0.13 percentage points each week it drags on.

Now, in dollars, Standard & Poor's forecast $1.2 billion a week in lost growth. How? Well, workers don't get paid, which means they don't spend, and that hurts contractors, retailers, landlords, auto sales -- all the way down the line.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told reporters the shutdown could reduce growth to zero if it goes on for the whole quarter. Growth last year at this quarter was something like -- I don't know -- more than two percent -- 2.2 percent, so zero is a big change.

BRIGGS: Wow, OK.

If you think D.C. is a mess, take a look at the chaos in the U.K.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The nos to the left, 432.

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BRIGGS: Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal crushed on Tuesday by a record margin, a humiliating indictment of her plan to guide Britain out of the European Union. May faces another no-confidence vote today. The British people facing an uncertain future this morning.

So, let's go live to 10 Downing Street and bring in CNN's Hadas Gold.

Is there anything that Parliament does agree on, other than they didn't like this deal?

HADAS GOLD, CNN REPORTER: It doesn't seem as though there's much Parliament can agree on other than they don't like that deal. As you said, Theresa May suffered a crushing defeat for portions of which we have not seen at any other point in modern British political history.

Now, tonight, Theresa May will face that no-confidence vote tabled by the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. That vote will happen at 7:00 p.m. here in London.

And although Theresa May is expected to survive that vote, if she does not, that could lead to a general election. That could lead to a new prime minister, a new ruling party, and then completely different options for Brexit -- a new deal.

What Theresa May is trying to do is keep her deal going forward, but there doesn't seem to be really enough support for that just yet. We'll see how that develops over the next few days.

A few of the other options on the table that could happen. She could come back with a completely new deal -- a new style of Brexit. She could ask to extend that deadline of March 29th to later in the year to give them more time. She could, herself, call a snap general election to try to gain more seats -- to try to gain more people on her side.

Then there is, of course, the option of a second referendum, though Theresa May has said she will not ask the people to come back and vote again on Brexit. That option is still out there on the table, Dave.

BRIGGS: Seventy-two days away from that Brexit with no deal, with economists fearing that could plunge the U.K. into recession.

Hadas Gold live for us in London this morning. Thank you.

ROMANS: All right.

The White House wants to relax sanctions against three Russian companies, but that could be put on hold today. The Senate will vote on a bill to block that move. The Russian companies have ties to a Kremlin ally.

Democrats need 13 Republicans to cross party lines to keep those sanctions alive. Eleven Republicans broke ranks in a procedural vote Tuesday. They need two more.

Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin has been trying to convince Senate Republicans to oppose the bill.

BRIGGS: All right.

Ahead, a 2-year-old in Minnesota lucky to be alive after tumbling out of a moving car, still strapped in her car seat.

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[05:48:48] BRIGGS: OK, add another name to the growing list of Democrats running for president in 2020.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, CBS HOST, "LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Do you have anything you would like to announce?

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D), NEW YORK: Yes.

COLBERT: And what would that be, madam?

GILLIBRAND: I'm filing an exploratory committee for the President of the United States tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: It seemed as though she had to gather herself first. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand making here announcement on Stephen Colbert's "LATE SHOW." She's released her first campaign video highlighting her work on the 9/11 health bill, women's right, and fighting President Trump.

Gillibrand will travel to Iowa this weekend.

ROMANS: Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown could be the next Democrat to jump into the 2020 race. He plans to launch a listening tour of early primary states beginning next month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D), OHIO: I want to continue to learn about the dignity of work from everybody from whether you swipe a card, whether you punch a clock, whether you work for tips, whether you work on salary, whether you're taking care of kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Brown says he and his wife will decide whether he'll run in the weeks ahead.

All right, let's get a check on "CNN Business" this morning. Global markets mostly flat, really searching for direction, I would say, as investors gave a muted reaction to last night's Brexit deal defeat.

[05:50:02] In Asia, you can see a mixed response. London is down right now, really mixed in Europe.

And, U.S. futures are up just a little bit, but hardly that much -- not even just barely two-tenths of a percent.

Yesterday, the Dow closed up 156 points. Again, not even one percent. The S&P 500 though, a little bit better. The Nasdaq gained 1.7 percent. That's a 1-month high.

All right, Microsoft and Walgreens joining forces to take on Amazon in health care. Microsoft announced a partnership with Walgreens Tuesday. Microsoft will become Walgreen's new cloud provider. The two say they want to lower health care costs -- looking for solutions on health care costs. Walgreens will open up 12 digital health corners in stores that will sell health care-related gadgets. And, Walgreens hopes to gain personalized data about customers' health. That's what it's looking for.

Last year, Amazon announced a partnership with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to create a new health care company there that they touted would be free from profit-making incentives and constraints.

So, some corporate action in the field of health care costs and technology.

All right, binging on Netflix about to get more expensive. Netflix is raising prices in the U.S. as it invests in new programs. All three of Netflix's plans will increase by one to two dollars a month.

The price hike comes as competitors enter the streaming service market. Disney -- Disney Plus later this year, NBCUniversal in 2020.

Netflix stock closed up 6 1/2 percent on the news. Price hikes will be applied to all existing members over the next few months. And new members will be charged the new price immediately.

We figured -- are you going to pay --

BRIGGS: Earnings report on Thursday.

ROMANS: -- one to dollars more for your Netflix?

BRIGGS: Absolutely, no question about that. Kids will demand it.

We'll be right back.

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[05:56:05] ROMANS: Bombshell testimony in the drug trafficking and murder trial of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. A former close aide to the drug lord telling a Brooklyn courtroom El Chapo once paid a $100 million bribe to former Mexican president Pena Nieto.

This stunning testimony coming from Alex Cifuentes, a Colombian trafficker who spent three days on the stand. Now, he claims he spent two years living with Guzman in the mountains of Sinaloa helping him elude the Mexican army.

Representatives for Pena Nieto have not responded to CNN's request for a comment about that charge.

BRIGGS: All right. It's day three of a teachers' strike in Los Angeles. Rain did not keep teachers from the picket lines Tuesday. An estimated 32,000 teachers and staff walked the walk. They are demanding smaller class sizes, higher salaries, more counselors and nurses.

The walkout affecting some 600,000 students may also cost the school district millions of dollars. The state funds schools based on daily student attendance and only about a third of the usual numbers of students showed up for school on Monday, the first day of the strike. Attendance did improve slightly on Tuesday.

ROMANS: All right, a powerful reminder to make sure your car seats are installed properly. Frightening dashcam video from Minnesota shows the moment a 2-year-old tumbles out of a moving car onto the street. The toddler, in a pink coat, still strapped into the car seat which was apparently not strapped into the car.

Chad Mock posted this video on Facebook. He stopped his car and he carried the child to safety. Remarkably, the toddler was not injured.

The mother, it looks like, drove away. She did turn around and come back. Officials looking into charges of child endangerment.

BRIGGS: Renowned sportscaster Bob Costas leaving NBC after 40 years with the network. Costas telling the "New York Post" the two sides reached a buyout agreement last year but decided to keep it quiet.

The 66-year-old has done it all, covering Super Bowls, World Series, Olympic Games, the NBA Finals, and triple crown races. He entered the broadcasters wing of the Hall of Fame last summer.

Costas will continue to work for the MLB network.

ROMANS: All right, it's hard not to smile when you see and hear this next story. Eleven-month-old Scarlet Benjamin was born three months early. Treatment for a serious infection impaired her hearing. Scarlet was fitted for her first hearing aids last week and her older sister, Hallie, tested them out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

H. BENJAMIN: Baby sister.

S. BENJAMIN: Laughing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Oh my gosh, Hallie loves it as much as baby Scarlet does. Scarlet's mom also could not contain her excitement. She said that is has been a long and emotional experience.

I want that to be my ringtone. I mean, there's just so much --

BRIGGS: Yes, I know.

ROMANS: -- happiness there.

BRIGGS: My emotions have been numbed from lack of sleep, but no diminishing returns on yours.

ROMANS: I know, I --

BRIGGS: Each time we play it --

ROMANS: I love it.

BRIGGS: -- it gets you every time.

ROMANS: I love it.

BRIGGS: It is fantastic.

ROMANS: Best of luck to the Benjamin family and thank you for bringing that to us today.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: And I'm Dave Briggs. "NEW DAY" starts right now. Get her some tissues.

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BARR: I don't believe Mr. Mueller would be involved in a witch hunt.

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D), RHODE ISLAND: He was very cagey about what he would release and when.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: You can see Mr. Barr, a highly-qualified man, will be a good steward of the law.

RUNGE: People might go hungry. There's family that are really being hurt by this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Democrats clearly don't want to give the president a victory on this issue.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: I have three words to President Trump and our Republican senators -- open the government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, January 16th, 6:00 here in New York.

And we do have a major new development in the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. It turns out it's really bad for the economy. So maybe that's not a shock to the 800,000 --