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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Rudy Giuliani's Collusion Evolution; Government Shutdown Effects Mount; Four Americans Killed by ISIS in Syria; Theresa May Survives Another No-Confidence Vote; Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 17, 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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[04:30:23] RUDY GIULIANI, LAWYER FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, you have.
GIULIANI: I have no idea -- I have not. I said the president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Cuomo's eyebrows there. Is --
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: There's no emoji for that.
ROMANS: Is the president's lawyer admitting members of the campaign may have colluded with Russia? An astonishing shift in strategy that would separate Donald Trump from his entire campaign.
BRIGGS: Coast to coast the pain is growing from this government shutdown. Workers, contractors and their families struggling. Now a power play by the House speaker could cancel the State of the Union.
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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: You set in motion enthusiasm by the enemy we're fighting.
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ROMANS: The president proclaimed ISIS in Syria was defeated, but now four Americans are dead after a terror attack there.
BRIGGS: And the president of Michigan State has resigned. John Engler recently said some of Larry Nassar's sexual abuse victims were, quote, "enjoying the spotlight."
Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs, on a Thursday.
ROMANS: Yes. I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour. Collusion evolution authored by Rudy Giuliani. President Trump's
lawyer deploying a new strategy that would insulate the president from possible crimes by other campaign officials. Last night Giuliani told CNN's Chris Cuomo he is not ruling out the possibility other members of the campaign colluded with Russia.
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GIULIANI: I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign.
CUOMO: Yes, you have.
GIULIANI: I have no idea -- I have not. I said the president of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you can commit here, conspired with the Russians to hack the DNC.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: So Giuliani claims he never said the campaign didn't collude with Russians. A couple of problems. One, his client has said otherwise repeatedly.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian people. There was no collusion whatsoever. There never has been. The last thing I want is help from Russia on a campaign. There has been no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Second problem, Giuliani himself has unambiguously denied that top campaign officials colluded.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it still the position of you and your client that there was no collusion with the Russians whatsoever on behalf of the Trump campaign?
GIULIANI: Correct. When I say the Trump campaign, I mean the upper levels of the Trump campaign. I have no reason to believe anybody else did. Only ones I checked with are obviously the top four or five people.
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ROMANS: So Giuliani says he checks with the top people. You have to assume that would include campaign chairman Paul Manafort. And remember we just learned last week that Manafort gave secret polling data to an associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, who is thought to have ties to Russian intelligence. BRIGGS: All right. Day 27 of the longest government shutdown in our
nation's history and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hitting the president where it hurts him the most, trying to take away his TV time. A White House official tells CNN at this point the president still plans to deliver his State of the Union speech as scheduled, January 29th, even though Pelosi sent a letter to Mr. Trump asking him to move the date or deliver the speech in writing because of security concerns caused by the shutdown.
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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: This requires hundreds of people working on the logistics and the security of it. Most of those people are either furloughed or victims of the shutdown, the president's shutdown. But that isn't the point. The point is security.
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ROMANS: Make no mistake, it is ultimately Speaker Pelosi's decision whether President Trump delivers that address to a joint session. As usual the House and Senate must pass resolutions to green light the State of the Union. Neither has done so and Pelosi controls whether the House will pass one at all. That has House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy all fired up. He's calling on Pelosi to, quote, "act like a speaker," and claims her request is motivated by pure politics.
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service are fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union.
BRIGGS: Nationwide more people feeling the real-life effects of the government shutdown. There's growing concern in particular that for overworked and underpaid federal airport employees. In San Jose, California, the city council has approved a plan to give short-term, no interest loans to help them pay for food, gas and rent.
[04:35:04] Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera with more on the steep price Americans are paying for government dysfunction.
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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Washington, federal workers wait in line for food.
ROY BLUMENFELD, FEDERAL CONTRACTOR, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: When I saw that there was a free hot meal for people who have been affected by the shutdown, I decided to come down and get -- you know, take advantage of that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you for being here.
LAVANDERA: Celebrity chef Jose Andres' foundation is feeding thousands of federal workers going without pay.
Coast to coast unpaid federal employees are turning to charities for help. But the effects could be even more widespread. CNN has learned an estimated 2 million contractors could be losing their paychecks as well. And they would not be eligible for government back pay.
BLUMENFELD: There will be no back pay for this. This is unpaid time off for me.
LAVANDERA: And there is also growing security concerns for air travelers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do we want?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When do we want it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now.
LAVANDERA: TSA agents are protesting at airports across the country. The TSA is reporting skyrocketing absences, 6.1 percent yesterday, compared with 3.7 percent the same day last year.
ALANA BILLINGSLEY, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Right now I'm mostly concerned about security. After September 11th, the flight attends cannot be expected to be the first point of security ever again.
LAVANDERA: And the Air Traffic Controllers Union is worried about unpaid overworked employees staffing control towers.
TRISH GILBERT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: I would say it is less safe today than it was a month ago. Absolutely.
LAVANDERA: And then there is the Coast Guard, the first branch of the military to miss a paycheck during a shutdown.
AMANDA GIBBS, MARRIED TO COAST GUARD MEMBER: It's been pretty shaking and somber. We're living on our savings account right now.
LAVANDERA: Every American will feel the economic impact now projected by the White House to be worse than expected. Some analysts estimate a $1.2 billion loss each of the first three weeks the government was closed and if it continues, growth could slow to zero.
As the shutdown stretches on, more people are being called back to work without pay. Public health and environmental cleanup is threatened as well.
JEANNE SCHULZE, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE LOCAL 1003: Sites are not being cleaned up. Inspections are not being conducted. Permits are not being issued. We're not outreaching to the community. We're not processing grants for contracts. So it has a spillover effect.
LAVANDERA: In the meantime, some workers say they are looking for new jobs in the private the private sector and hoping for some compromise. SELINA MINGO, U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE: No, I don't understand why we
as government workers are being penalized for a wall that we have nothing to do with.
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LAVANDERA: What we are hearing repeatedly from government employees who are having to work without pay here is during this government shutdown is that it is the uncertainty of what is going to happen that is really starting to take its toll on a lot of these workers. Many of them say they don't know how long this government shutdown is going to last, and they fear at this point that it could last months -- Dave and Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Ed Lavandera, thank you for filing that for us from Dallas.
Four Americans are dead after an attack in Syria. ISIS has claimed responsibility. Overnight U.S. officials told CNN there are no plans to reverse President Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. A few weeks ago he justified that decision saying ISIS was defeated.
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TRUMP: We have won against ISIS. We've beaten them and we've beaten them badly.
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ROMANS: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch ally of President Trump, has been critical of the president's strategy in Syria. He says he's concerned the president's statements about Syria have emboldened ISIS.
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GRAHAM: My concern by the statements made by President Trump is that you set in motion enthusiasm by the enemy we're fighting. You make people who are trying to help wonder about us. And as they get bolder the people we're trying to help are going to get more uncertain. I saw this in Iraq. And I'm now seeing it in Syria.
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ROMANS: Some of the video we're about to show you may be disturbing here.
CNN's Jomana Karadsheh live in Istanbul with the very latest. And, you know, it takes the military maybe 24 hours at least to notify next of kin, this story is just -- it's just terrible, Jomana.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A truly devastating attack, Christine, in downtown Manbij, in this busy commercial area. You had a total of at least 19 people killed, according to a monitoring group, that includes civilians, Kurdish fighters that are backed by the United States. And as you mentioned, four Americans, two U.S. service members, a DOD contractor and a DOD civilian and three other Americans wounded in this attack.
ISIS claiming responsibility saying it was one of their suicide bombers who targeted coalition forces. The timing of this coming at the same time as we are hearing all these statements coming from administration officials starting with President Trump a few weeks ago about ISIS, saying that ISIS has been defeated, declaring victory over the group.
[04:40:10] And just yesterday around the same time that this attack took place, Vice President Mike Pence was addressing a gathering of the Global Chiefs of Mission at the State Department and he also saying in that statement that ISIS had been defeated, that the caliphate had crumbled.
Now that is not entirely true as U.S. military officials and other security experts have been warning for quite some time. Yes, that caliphate may have crumbled, yes, ISIS may not be controlling territory in Iraq and Syria like it once did, but it is still a serious threat, it is an insurgent terror group that is capable of carrying out these kind of deadly attacks as we saw just yesterday -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Jomana Karadsheh, thank you so much for that from Istanbul this morning.
BRIGGS: Senate Democrats trying to keep tough sanctions in place against three Russian companies, but their effort to block President Trump's decision to ease the sanctions came up short. All three firms have ties to a Russian oligarch and Kremlin ally Oleg Deripaska. The Senate vote did represent a symbolic rebuke of the president. Eleven Republicans joined Democrats to support Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's resolution. Thirteen GOP votes were, though, needed to pass.
ROMANS: All right. President Trump set to unveil his administration's long-awaited missile defense review at the Pentagon today. It is expected to embrace putting advance sensors in space to better detect enemy missiles, allowing the military to intercept them earlier. A senior administration official says the review stopped short of calling for the deployment of interceptors in space, instead it calls for further studies of space based counter missile technology.
BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, Theresa May survives another no confidence vote, but can she find a way to get the UK out of the EU unscathed? We're live at 10 Downing Street ahead.
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[04:46:10] ROMANS: All right. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says the U.S.-China relationship is the most important in the world for the next 100 years. During remarks at the Economic Club of New York, Dimon said after some initial reluctance, corporate America now supports the administration's efforts to reform China's trade practices.
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JAMIE DIMON, JPMORGAN CHASE CEO: America, this thing with IP, reciprocal investment rights, tariffs, nontariff barriers, subsidies, state-owned enterprise, this has to be fixed. And I think China knows, and it's serious. So now you have serious people on both sides who are actually listening to each other and talking.
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ROMANS: That's something. All right. Dimon also called the U.S. government shutdown a self-inflected wound that is negative for the economy. He says, all right, give the president money for the border security in exchange for giving Democrats progress on DACA and maybe merit-based immigration.
BRIGGS: British Prime Minister Theresa May still in power but severely weakened after barely surviving a no-confidence vote. That vote coming just one day after May's Brexit plan was crushed by a historic margin. The prime minister must now deliver Brexit plan B by Monday.
Let's go live to 10 Downing Street and bring in CNN's Hadas Gold.
Hadas, good morning to you. Is there anything at this point that seems likely to appease parliament?
HADAS GOLD, CNN MONEY, POLITICS, MEDIA AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave. Nineteen, that's by how much Theresa May survived that confidence vote. And now she says she's going to be reaching out to members across different parties, bringing them in for talks on what they want out of a Brexit deal.
There is some frustration here that she didn't think to do this in the last few months, in the last two years since Brexit was voted on in 2016, but now she says she's going to take in their input. One person, though, who has not agreed to meet with her yet is Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Opposition Party. He is actually the one that brought forth that no-confidence vote in here last night.
He says he will not meet with her unless she agrees to take a no deal scenario off the table, that is if the UK does not agree -- does not figure out how it's going to leave the European Union, agree to a deal by March 29th, the UK risks crashing out of the European Union without a deal and could risk things like backups at the borders, fresh food just sitting in trucks until it gets through customs checks.
This is actually something that business leaders also want as well. There was a call yesterday between government officials and executives from companies like Siemens and Amazon, some of the biggest companies in the world and in the United Kingdom, and this -- a transcript of it was actually leaked to the "Telegraph" newspaper and in it, you can hear all of these business executives, the anxiety that they have about a no-deal scenario. But so far the government has not guaranteed to take that no-deal
scenario off the table. So now we are just days away before Theresa May has to come back to parliament with a new plan, but we have no idea what that new plan may look like -- Dave.
BRIGGS: Seventy-one days away from Brexit with no deal.
Hadas Gold, live for us in London, thank you.
ROMANS: All right. The American who was killed in this week's terror attack in Kenya was a 9/11 survivor. U.S. businessman James Spindler, one of 21 people killed in the attack on a hotel compound in Nairobi. According to his mother, Jason was late for work on the morning of September 11th, 2001 and was emerging from the subway when the first tower fell. After 9/11 he joined the Peace Corps in northern Peru helping farmers develop a co-op in order to sell to larger markets. His work as a business investment adviser brought him to Nairobi. Jason Spindler would have been 41 years old next week.
BRIGGS: Oh boy. Ahead, Microsoft pledging big money to tackle homelessness in the affordable housing crisis in Seattle. CNN Business has the details next.
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[04:54:23] BRIGGS: Michigan State president John Engler resigning after claiming Dr. Larry Nassar's sexual abuse victims were, quote, "enjoying the spotlight." Engler's remarks came last week in an interview with the "Detroit News." The former three-term Michigan governor telling the newspaper, quote, "Survivors who haven't been in the spotlight have been able to deal with this better than the ones who have been in the spotlight, who are still enjoying that moment at times, you know, the awards and recognition."
ROMANS: More than 150 victims testified about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Nassar and the toll it took on their lives. Rachael Denhollander was the first victim to accuse Nassar publicly.
[04:55:01] She responded to the suggestion she's enjoying this moment in the spotlight by tweeting, "You mean like having to change the day I grocery shop so my three kids don't see a photo of their mom demonstrating what was done to her body? Tell me more about how enjoyable the spotlight is."
BRIGGS: Federal agents arresting a Georgia man Wednesday charging him with plotting to attack the White House with an anti-tank rocket, semiautomatic rifles and a homemade bomb. Prosecutors say 21-year-old Hasher Jallal Taheb developed an ISIS-inspired plan to blow a hole in the White House with the rocket, then attack inside with other weapons. They say he expected to die and recruited two other people to join him in the attack. The recruits actually worked for the FBI.
CNN tried to reach the attorney who represented Taheb at his initial court appearance but was unsuccessful.
ROMANS: All right. Day four of the Los Angeles teachers strike. The teachers union and the Los Angeles Unified School District will be back at the bargaining table today. Both sides met Wednesday with Mayor Eric Garcetti. He is offering to mediate the labor dispute. About 32,000 L.A. teachers and school staff members hit the picket lines this week. They're demanding smaller class sizes, higher salaries and more counselors and school nurses.
Six hundred thousand students in that district, many of them are in school despite the strike because their parents have no other child care option. And the district does have people on hand. They've resigned more than 2,000 administrators and hired about 400 substitute teachers to help out.
A literally milestone for former First Lady Michelle Obama. Her inspirational memoir becoming now has the longest streak of any book at number one on Amazon, that is since "Fifty Shades of Gray" came out in 2012. The book was released in November and has been Amazon's top seller ever since. It includes stories of her childhood, growing up on the south side of Chicago and her time in the White House as first lady.
BRIGGS: The Clemson Tigers may get a real feast after all. Some celebrities offering to feed the college football champs who got a fast food banquet at the White House this week. "Good Morning America" host and NFL legend Michael Strahan offered to foot the bill in New York.
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MICHAEL STRAHAN, HOST, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": The lobster, whatever you want, we're going to take care. We're going to give you the proper meal that you deserve.
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BRIGGS: Also celebrity chef, Ayesha Curry, wife of Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry, tweeted an invite for the champs to her restaurant for a, quote, "real feast." She says no 10 cent dipping sauces on silver platters. No word whether the Tigers will accept any of these offers. No word if the Tigers really want any of these offers.
ROMANS: Let's get a check on CNN Business this Thursday morning. Global stock markets lower despite some strong bank earnings.
Let's take a look at Asian markets. How they closed down just a little bit. European markets opened lower as well. Stock markets there after Theresa May survived that no confidence vote.
On Wall Street right, futures they're mixed, I would say here, but really searching for some direction. The Dow closed up 142 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained just 0.2 percent. That is not a remarkable advance.
But here is one. Goldman Sachs jumped 10 percent, its best day since March 2009 on better-than-expected results. Bank of America jumped 7 percent on its own earnings beat as well. So apparently times are good for bank earnings.
Microsoft is pledging some big money to tackle homelessness in Seattle. Microsoft announced a $500 million commitment to preserve existing affordable housing and spur construction of new units. $25 million of that will go toward philanthropic grants to address homelessness in the area.
According to Microsoft, the Peugeot Sound region of Seattle has become the sixth most expensive region in the country. It has seen a 21 percent increase in jobs since 2011 coupled with only a 13 percent increase in housing units.
All right. Some sad news today in the investing world. John Vogel died Wednesday at the age of 89. He created the first index fund in 1975 and founded the van guard group. A legend in the investing world.
I would argue he has done more to make the stock market accessible and affordable for everyday Americans than anyone else in history. He has always been an advocate for everyday investors in this cutthroat world of Wall Street. And by in-venting that index fund, his theory, his philosophy was really like look, you shouldn't have to pay somebody a lot of money to try to beat the market. Over time they're going to beat the market.
BRIGGS: Yes. Right.
ROMANS: You just want to be in the market.
BRIGGS: It's a heck of a legacy.
ROMANS: Yes. Great.
BRIGGS: Is there any modern day, Vogel, or --
ROMANS: It's interesting, it's interesting.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: As a real -- a guy of a particular generation on Wall Street.
BRIGGS: All right. EARLY START continues right now on day 27th of the government shutdown.
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GIULIANI: I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign.
CUOMO: Yes, you have.
GIULIANI: I have not. I said the president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Cuomo's eyebrows there. Is the president's lawyer admitting members of the campaign may have colluded with Russia? An astonishing shift in strategy that would insulate Donald Trump from his entire campaign.
