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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Senate Votes Down Both Shutdown Bills, White House Demands Down Payment on Wall; United States Government Employees Ordered to Leave Venezuela; Russia Slams Trump's Stance on Venezuela; Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired January 25, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[04:00:19] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They pay sort of a prorated down payment.
SEN. BEN CARDIN (D), MARYLAND: I have no idea what that means.
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DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Neither do we. The dynamics have not changed. The urgency has. Another payday comes and goes and today a dozen senators trying to bridge the gap to end the shutdown.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Michael Cohen will go before Congress after all. He will comply with a subpoena from the Senate Intel Committee.
BRIGGS: The U.S. ordering most personnel out of Venezuela as the diplomatic tit-for-tat escalates.
ROMANS: And a daring rescue caught on video, officers try to save a teenager who fell through the ice. They go under themselves. Everyone is OK. But we want you to see what an amazing rescue that was.
BRIGGS: Wow.
ROMANS: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Good morning. Good morning to all of you. I'm Dave Briggs. Happy Friday, January 25th, 4:00 a.m. in the East.
Not so much a happy Friday for those 800,000 federal workers however who will miss a second paycheck on this day, day 35 of the partial government shutdown. Democrats and Republicans dueling bills to reopen the government, both failed in the Senate. But that set the stage for lawmakers working behind the scenes on a solution. More than a dozen senators from both parties trying to put pressure on both sides.
ROMANS: They want President Trump to reopen the government temporarily and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make more commitments on border security. The White House indicating it would be open to a three-week stopgap funding bill only if it included a large down payment on the wall.
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TRUMP: One of the ideas suggested is they open it and they pay sort of a prorated down payment for the wall, which I think people would agree that you need.
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ROMANS: Democrats greeted that idea with skepticism.
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MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He's talking about a prorated down payment for the border wall.
CARDIN: I have no idea what that means.
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BRIGGS: Speaker Pelosi herself called the president's down payment not reasonable, adding, "I don't think he knows what he wants." A senior Democratic aide telling CNN, quote, "The idea he has leverage here is not in touch with reality. Certainly one big issue remains an inability to pin down exactly what the president would accept in any type of deal. Senate Republicans frustrated at a GOP lunch after Vice President Pence failed to lay out the administration's strategy to end the shutdown.
ROMANS: CNN has learned exclusively about one possible tactic, the White House preparing a draft proclamation to declare a national emergency along the southern border and identifying more than $7 billion in potential funds to build the wall. As soon as today the White House may invite a group of eight congressional leaders for a meeting with the president. Aides to Speaker Pelosi unsure if she would accept that invitation.
BRIGGS: As you might imagine, the shutdown has tempers flaring in the Senate. Typically mild mannered Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet unloading on Senator Ted Cruz. Watch.
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SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D), COLORADO: These crocodile tears the senator from Texas is crying for first responders are too hard for me to take. When the senator from Texas shut this government down in 2013, my state was flooded. It was under water, people were killed.
This idea that he was going to build a medieval wall across the southern border of Texas, take it from the farmers and ranchers that were there, and have the Mexicans pay for it, isn't true. That's why we're here. Because he's now saying the taxpayers have to pay for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: All right. Some government workers have been overwhelmed by the emotional and financial burden of the shutdown. TSA officers living in their cars in Hawaii, they have started submitting their resignations. In Illinois, Eric Schwab who was once homeless is donating groceries to TSA agents at the Quad City International Airport.
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ERIC SCHWAB, COLLECTING DONATIONS FOR GOVERNMENT WORKERS: I get emotional when I think about doing it and the people who have contacted me -- of our agents, of our federal agents who are literally working without a check.
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BRIGGS: U.S. federal courts run out of operating funds today. Prosecutors handling cases from sex crimes to illegal border crossings are warning austerity budgets will weaken law enforcement. In Washington State, unemployment benefits are being extended to employees who are working but not receiving pay during the shutdown. New Mexico, California, Vermont and Colorado doing the same.
[04:05:04] ROMANS: The Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said this. He doesn't, quote, "really quite understand why federal workers don't take out loans as they miss their second paycheck due to the government shutdown."
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WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: I don't really quite understand why because as I don't really quite understand why because as I mentioned before, the obligations that they would undertake, say, borrowing from a bank or a credit union are in effect federally guaranteed.
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ROMANS: There was some fallout from his comments. Listen to what Tucker Carlson said on his show last night.
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TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Those are the last things that most Americans need. That was an idiotic thing to say.
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ROMANS: The Commerce secretary was not the only Trump administration official to make comments on the effects of the shutdown.
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LAURA TRUMP, PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER-IN-LAW: But this is so much bigger than any one person. It is a little bit of pain, but it is going to be for the future of our country.
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ROMANS: People on Twitter quipping about the Marie Antoinette sweepstakes going on in this administration.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: Now Wilbur Ross, the Commerce secretary, later went on Bloomberg to try to clear up those comments.
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ROSS: We're aware -- painfully aware that there are hardships inflicted on the individual workers. All I was trying to do is make sure that they are aware that there are possible other things that could help somewhat mitigate their problems.
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ROMANS: If the Commerce Department weren't closed perhaps the Commerce Department could be issuing guidance on what all of those options are.
Now the president also weighed in on the Commerce secretary's remarks.
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TRUMP: Perhaps he should have said it differently. Local people know who they are when they go for groceries and everything else. And I think what Wilbur was probably trying to say is that they will work along.
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ROMANS: So here is the message from the White House. Not a lot of empathy except when it's the cleanup of the original comments. And we've seen this for more than --
BRIGGS: Even then.
ROMANS: For more -- right. For more than a week now. I mean, the president seems to think that local grocery stores are going to cut a break to people who they know who are federal workers.
BRIGGS: Right.
ROMANS: You know, there are --
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Maybe federal -- maybe the local stores are having trouble because they are not -- you know, I mean, I just --
BRIGGS: Well, look --
ROMANS: I just think it shows a lack of understanding about how so many people live paycheck to paycheck in this country. BRIGGS: The president was very boastful and proud about the
billionaires in his cabinet.
ROMANS: That's right.
BRIGGS: And it's not to say that rich people don't have empathy, because I know a lot of rich people that have a lot of empathy. Not these particular cabinet members that has shown an inability to really understand the pain that Americans are feeling.
ROMANS: I think it wasn't long ago that the president actually signed an order freezing federal pay, right, for federal workers. That was not very long as well.
BRIGGS: That is correct. No raises.
ROMANS: So it shows you I think that how the federal workforce is held in regard -- in low regard by this administration.
BRIGGS: All right. Starting today the U.S. will send asylum seekers at the southern border back to Mexico. Some individuals who arrived at California's San Isidro port of entry will be given a notice to appear in U.S. court. They will then be told to remain in Mexico until their court date arrives. The action applies to immigrants primarily from Central American countries. Those with a well-founded fear staying in Mexico along with unaccompanied minors will not be forced to return.
ROMANS: Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has been subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify in mid-February. And he intends to be there. The questioning expected to take place behind closed doors.
A source tells CNN Cohen has the same concerns about the safety of his family that led him to postpone his appearance before the House Oversight Committee. The subpoena is the first of several he could face before he reports to prison on March 6th. He will have to serve a three-year sentence.
BRIGGS: All aboard the Trump bandwagon or else. GOP officials telling anyone thinking of challenging President Trump for 2020, forget it. The Republican National Committee set to go public with its undivided support for the president after wrapping up its annual winter meeting in New Mexico. The symbolic resolution is the latest indication party officials plan to close ranks around Trump even as his approval rating slump. That strategy coming on the heels of an unprecedented merger between Mr. Trump's re-election campaign and the RNC.
Not everyone is on board. The Conservative Co-Political Network is once again planning to stay out of the race, will not work to help reelect President Trump.
ROMANS: All right, nine minutes past the hour. A huge relief for a family in North Carolina, that little boy who vanished three days ago from his grandma's backyard, he has been found alive. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:13:38] ROMANS: The State Department ordering all non-emergency government employees to leave Venezuela. There is a growing diplomatic crisis not that President Trump has recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president. That's a significant blow to the Maduro regime. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo making the president's case.
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MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: The time for debate is done. The regime of former President Nicolas Maduro is illegitimate. His regime is morally bankrupt.
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ROMANS: At least 26 people now have been killed in the violence in Venezuela. The country's armed forces are still pledging their allegiance to the embattled president, Maduro. Overnight the interim president Guaido called on Venezuelan diplomats to stay in the U.S. following Maduro's move to close the embassy in the United States.
Stefano Pozzebon has the latest from Caracas.
STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Well, Christine, Dave, neither Nicolas Maduro nor the White House are walking away from the dramatic standoff that is taking place here in Caracas around the U.S. embassy.
Yesterday, Nicolas Maduro ordered the closure of the Venezuelan embassy in Washington and of every consulate of Venezuela in the United States, and reiterated that the U.S. administration had until Sunday to evacuate the embassy here in Caracas or face the consequences of this rupture of the international diplomatic relations between Caracas and Washington.
[04:15:13] But on the other hand, the U.S. administration is saying loud and clear that it does not recognize the rule by Nicolas Maduro and he says that those words and orders are meaningless. And as we see this brewed up -- this diplomatic crisis that could definitely turn out into a very tense international standoff between Caracas and Washington is different, it's difficult to see how this could translate for the average Venezuelan people, for the people who are feeling the burn of five years of deep economic collapse and have the feeling that this crisis has only just begun -- Christine, Dave.
BRIGGS: Stefano, thanks.
China, Turkey and Syria now joining Russia in criticizing the U.S. for recognizing Juan Guaido as Venezuela's president.
Let's shift from Caracas to Moscow and bring in Fred Pleitgen.
Fred, you spoke exclusively with Russia's deputy foreign minister and what did he say and what is Russia's stake in all of this? FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well,
their stake is massive. They have huge relations with Venezuela. They've actually -- they have been making even bigger over the past couple of months, the past couple of years. They just signed a massive oil contract with the Venezuelans. They just sent two nuclear capable strategic bombers to Venezuela as well a couple of months ago.
So no secret that the deputy foreign minister of Russia told me that Russia is squarely in Venezuela's corner and also warned the U.S. against any sort of possible intervention. Let's listen in.
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SERGEI RYABKOV, RUSSIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER: There are dangerous signs of something going on along these lines. We warn everyone, and not just the U.S. but some others who may entertain these ideas, from this type of action. The resort to military power would be catastrophic.
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PLEITGEN: Also yesterday a phone call between Vladimir Putin and Nicolas Maduro where once again Putin also pledged his support to Maduro as well.
But of course, guys, when you have a senior Russian official, you have to ask him about possible relations between President Trump and the Russians. I certainly did that as well. Here is what the deputy foreign minister said.
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PLEITGEN: There are even some questioning whether President Trump is an agent of Russia. What do you make of that?
RYABKOV: I mean, it's completely, completely out of touch with anything that could be conceived as, you know, anywhere close to the reality.
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PLEITGEN: So we have the Russians flatly denying once again that President Trump was any sort of agent for Russia or has any sort of ties to Russia. So certainly some interesting facts that were going on there.
The Russians saying they certainly want better relations with the United States, but, you know, despite all the evidence that we've seen over the past couple of years, still continuing to deny they meddled in the 2016 election -- guys.
BRIGGS: Some outstanding reporting, Fred Pleitgen. Good stuff in Moscow with us this morning. Thank you.
ROMANS: Yes, Fred, really --
BRIGGS: Working it.
ROMANS: Really hard work. All right. Eighteen past the hour. A school superintendent in Indiana helped to get medicine for one of her students, so why is she facing criminal charges.
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[04:22:48] BRIGGS: Florida's secretary of state out of a job this morning after 14-year-old photo surfaced of him wearing black face at a party. Michael Ertel resigned yesterday after less than a month in office. The photos from a private Halloween party were obtained by the "Tallahassee Democrat" newspaper.
They show Ertel wearing red lipsticks, a New Orleans Saints bandana, fake breasts and large earrings all just months after Hurricane Katrina left 1800 people dead. Ertel has confirmed to the newspaper it's him in the photos adding, quote, "There is nothing I can say."
ROMANS: In North Carolina, a happy ending to a potentially tragic story. A missing 3-year-old boy has been found alive and well. Casey Hathaway disappeared Tuesday. He was playing outside of his great grandmother's house. Hundreds of searchers and volunteers combed the area in Craven County until he was located Thursday night. Authorities say Casey has now been reunited with his family.
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BRITTANY HATHAWAY, CASEY'S MOTHER: We just want to tell everybody that we're very thankful that you took the time out to come search for Casey and pray for him. And he is good. He is good. He is up and talking. He's already asked to watch Netflix, so he is good. He is good.
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ROMANS: Casey is said to be in good health. He's being evaluated at a local hospital. So glad that turned out well.
BRIGGS: How far would you go to help a sick child? An Indiana school superintendent may have gone too far. Casey Smitherman charged with fraud, accused of pretending a sick student who didn't have health insurance was her son to get him medical treatment. Police say she took the 15-year-old to an urgent care facility after he missed school and showed symptoms of strep throat.
ROMANS: Smitherman was denied service because the child was a minor and she wasn't his guardian. She then took him to another clinic where she checked the student in under her son's name and insurance. The teen's actual guardian reported the incident to police and Smitherman turned herself in. The school board is standing by their superintendent who they say did the right thing the wrong way. They issued a statement saying she made an unfortunate mistake out of concern for the child's welfare.
BRIGGS: Heart-pounding video out of Toledo, police officers fall through ice during a frantic rescue. They rushed to the scene after word of a 17-year-old trap in the frozen pond. Officers walk on the ice, close enough to the teenager to throw a flotation device attached to a rope, but that's when things took a turn for the worse. The ice starts breaking, an officer falls in.
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[04:25:12] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me your hand, give me your hand. Give me your hand.
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BRIGGS: Fortunately everyone has since recovered.
ROMANS: All right, file this one under a no general left behind. Retired Army veteran Anthony Maggert who lost his leg in Afghanistan was driving on the highway when he stopped to help someone with a flat tire. It turns out it was General Colin Powell. Well, it took 10 to 15 minutes to change the tire but Maggert grabbed a selfie with Powell and says being with him felt like a lifetime. Both men were actually headed to Walter Reed Medical Center for appointments.
General Powell later thanked him on Facebook in a post saying, "You touched my soul and made my day."
BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, another missed payday for 800,000 federal employees. Day 35 of this government shutdown. A dozen senators now trying to bridge the gap to end the stalemate.
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