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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Cold Wave Shatters Records in Midwest; Russians Targeted the Mueller Probe; Juan Guaido Makes His Case to American Press; Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired January 31, 2019 - 04:30   ET

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


[04:31:26] LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: The record cold has the U.S. hunkered down. Record low temps overnight, life threatening conditions for tens of millions of people.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Robert Mueller's investigation targeted by the Russians. How a pro-Russian Twitter account spread confidential information.

JARRETT: Go back to school. The president seething at his intelligence chiefs who publicly contradicted him on security threats.

BRIGGS: And a California woman with dementia left to wander alone outside a mental health facility in the middle of the night. A disturbing video starts your day there.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.

JARRETT: And I'm Laura Jarrett. 31 minutes past the hour.

The record-breaking deep freeze is moving east. But the Midwest is by no means out of the cold, cold woods. Chicago set a record cold high temperature, minus 10, without the windchill. The ultra cold weather will halt postal deliveries and close schools in the area for a second day today.

In Milwaukee and Minneapolis-St. Paul public schools also stayed closed to avoid roads that look like this, if you can even see the road there. In Michigan, where it felt like minus 35 with the wind chill, the governor is pleading for people to turn thermostats down to 65 degrees until midday Friday. A fire at a compressor station is limiting gas delivery.

BRIGGS: A fire also causing big problems for firefighters in Hammond, Indiana. At 22 degrees below zero, the water immediately turning into hazardous ice. The fire chief telling us, quote, "I'm currently thawing out and so is my crew."

There have been at least nine weather-related deaths across the country. Four of them in Iowa. Nationwide about 6200 flights have been canceled since Tuesday. Hazardous road conditions causing at least seven injuries with this multicar pileup in Pennsylvania.

JARRETT: A lot of people doing amateur science experiments including kids and parents stuck at home in Wisconsin. Take a look at that. Hot water instantly turning to ice.

There's one group the weather could not deter, runners in the Arrowhead 135 ultra marathon. They kept on going. The windchill at the finish line in Tower, Minnesota, a staggering 52 degrees below zero. Some of the runners finished with their faces completely encased in ice.

More than 80 million people face temperatures below zero in the coming day. Dozens of record lows are expected to be set overnight.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us live from the CNN weather center with the latest where it is warm -- Pedram.

(LAUGHTER)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Relatively speaking, yes, absolutely. And we're talking about still 40 below, 50 below windchills in a few spots in the upper Midwest and now as you said the energy shifting on towards the northeast. But really odd event taking place outside. Folks reporting that once they step outside, at least those initial breaths at 40 to 50 below, they hear a hissing sound when they take a breath. And of course frost quakes even reported where you have moisture in the soil beneath your feet that's freezing very quickly, the water is expanding, and you get little brief rattles beneath your feet and certainly hear the rumbles as well.

But notice this, windchills at this hour in Minneapolis, minus 37. Same score out of Chicago, 19 below in Indianapolis. That's a little bit warmer than this time yesterday, so the wind is dying down just a hair, but the temps themselves without the wind just as cold. And you work your way toward the northeast, hitting in New York there at around five degrees, windchills 14 to 15 below zero at this hour.

And of course airlines still severely disrupted by this. And yesterday we have reports of deicing material that was being put on top of the aircrafts that was freezing on contact across parts of the Midwest.

[04:35:04] That is in part led to some 6500 flights being either canceled or delayed. The vast majority of those across parts of the Midwest and of course Chicago O'Hare, and midway really taking the brunt of that as well. But notice this, as we go in towards Saturday, Sunday, Monday, a dramatic warming trend in store and in places like Chicago, you go from zero to 22 into the 40s eventually. New York 18 up to 37. But it gets better still.

So hang in there New York, watch what happens here. You go from 20 for a high expected today up to almost 60 degrees come Tuesday afternoon. At this hour, in Central Park, it's three. So that's about a 60 -- about 55-degree variance from right now in Central Park to what it will feel like come Tuesday afternoon.

BRIGGS: It is with all due respect very cold in Atlanta, 20s and low 20s which is frigid.

JAVAHERI: It is in the low 20s. BRIGGS: Warm compared to most of the country. Thank you, my friend.

OK, back here, national security concerns after the Mueller probe was targeted again, but this time not by congressional Republicans, the Justice Department says a pro-Russian Twitter account targeted the investigation spreading confidential information. The information is from a case Mueller's team filed against a Russian company. The company is accused of funding an internet troll farm that interfered in the 2016 elections.

JARRETT: The Justice Department has been turning over evidence to the company's U.S. legal team. And Mueller's office now claims that some of that evidence showed up on a Twitter account posted from a Russian IP address. The tweets link to thousands of documents altered to make the Mueller investigation look like a big nothing burger. The documents did not have sensitive information, but the concern for the FBI is whether the people behind the account did have access to more sensitive material.

BRIGGS: Lindsey Graham wants a briefing from the FBI on the tactics the agency used to arrest Roger Stone. CNN caught those tactics the senator is questioning on video. You can see the FBI knocked on Stone's front door. Still Senator Graham, a former prosecutor, claims the American people are tired of what he calls the Mueller media circus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: This seems to me over the top, and I don't know what the message was being sent, but I personally didn't like it. You know, I've been a prosecutor, defense attorney, it seems to be sending the wrong message that if you cross Mueller, look what's going to happen to you.

Mueller, do your job, but these tactics are unacceptable given the level of threat here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: President Trump telling the "Daily Caller" he is very disappointed with the way the raid went down. He says he will think about asking the FBI to review how it conducts its raids.

JARRETT: When President Trump receives his intelligence briefing today, it will be interesting to see whether the director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, is the one to deliver it. CNN has learned the president was seething yesterday as he watched coverage of his intel chief testifying on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and repeatedly contradict him. Two sources confirming Mr. Trump singled out DNI Coats by name. Here's why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have won against ISIS. We've beaten them and we've beaten them badly.

DAN COATS, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: ISIS is intent on resurging and still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria.

TRUMP: Chairman Kim, we have a great chemistry and we're well on our way. You know, we signed an agreement that said we will begin the immediate denuclearization.

COATS: North Korea will seek to retain its WMD capabilities and is unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production capabilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The president taking to Twitter to rip his intel chiefs as passive and naive concluding they should perhaps go back to school.

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer firing off a letter to Coats calling the president's criticism extraordinarily inappropriate. Schumer writes, "Trump's attack will undermine public confidence and efforts to protect national security."

JARRETT: Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz downplaying concerns by Democrats that he could help Donald Trump's re-election if he enters the 2020 race as an independent. On Wednesday morning, Schultz's Twitter account posted then deleted a message pointing to an article that said he could win the White House in 2020. It described Senator Kamala Harris as shrill and called Senator Elizabeth Warren Fauxcahontas.

Here is how Schultz addressed Democrats' concerns during a town hall at Iowa State University.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What you're going to do is you're going to have us have another four years of President Trump. Please explain to me why you feel you can't run as a Democrat.

HOWARD SCHULTZ, FORMER STARBUCKS CEO: The Democratic Party today has moved so far to the left. What better expression of democracy would there be to provide a better choice and not the binary choice of just a Republican and Democrat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two words which a lot of people here probably weren't even born when this happened. Ralph Nader.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:40:01] BRIGGS: Nader picked up about 97,000 votes in Florida in 2000. Al Gore lost to George W. Bush by 500 votes.

Senator Sherrod Brown also testing the waters for a White House bid kicking off a "Dignity of Work" tour in his home state of Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D), OHIO: Donald Trump has used his phony populism to divide Americans and to demonize immigrants. He uses phony populism to distract from the fact that he has used the White House to enrich billionaires like himself, because real populism is not racist. Real populism is not anti-Semitic. Real populists don't engage in hate speech and don't rip babies from families at the border.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Senator Brown's listening tour will take him to Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

JARRETT: The White House re-nominating judges to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals a day after blistering attacks from conservative commentators. The left-leaning Ninth Circuit covers seven western states and has been a frequent target of President Trump. But when the White House last week said that it would re-nominate dozens of judges who did not get a hearing during the last Congress, three conservative nominees to the Ninth Circuit weren't on the list.

In a tweet, the conservative Judicial Crisis Network questioned why the White House would tarnish a sterling legacy of Circuit Court judges. Last night the White House corrected the apparent overnight resubmitting the names.

BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, the self-declared president of Venezuela taking his message to the American press. How can he translate promises into help for his struggling country?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:50] BRIGGS: CNN Business at 4:45 Eastern Time. The Federal Reserve signaled it will slow its plans to raise rates this year amid rising economic uncertainty. Central bankers unanimously agreed to keep interest rates steady at a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent. While Fed officials are keeping a positive outlook for the U.S. economy, they're concerned about outside factors including a global slowdown. The ongoing trade war and more recently this government shutdown.

The Dow closed up 435 points after the decision, finishing above 25,000 for the first time since December 7th. President Trump cheered the upswing tweeting, "Dow just broke 25,000, tremendous news."

President Trump has repeatedly railed against the Fed's rate changes and his Fed chair Jerome Powell. Powell denounced any idea the Fed was caving to political pressure by taking a more dovish approach to rate hike saying the situation calls for patience. The Central Bank had penciled in two rate hikes in 2019.

JARRETT: Self-declared Venezuelan president Juan Guaido making his case for the legitimacy of his presidency. In a "New York Times" op- ed, he calls for unity among Venezuelans and writes, "To end the Maduro regime with the minimum of bloodshed we need the support of pro-democratic governments, institutions and individuals the world over."

President Trump has recognized Guaido as Venezuela's leader. His new representative to the U.S. government tells CNN Guaido will work to set up a transitional government. New protests in Venezuela did not quite measure up to earlier demonstrations.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more from neighboring Colombia for us.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dave, Laura, the protest on Wednesday not as big as we've seen a week earlier but they had a lot of international backing, frankly. Donald Trump telephoning Juan Guaido, the opposition leader who's declared himself president, by the telephone to express his support before people came out on the streets, as I say, in not as big a numbers.

But this is really the heart of the issue because there's a lot of international support for that opposition movement. In fact, they said they don't recognize Nicolas Maduro anymore as the president of Venezuela. But that recognition and potentially the money that the U.S. says it's enabled the opposition leaders to get their hands on, a lot of that frozen, sanctioned in Venezuelan government bank accounts in the United States.

How do they get that into the country? How do they translate the lofty promises of help for the Venezuelan people through the opposition into actual genuine concrete aid? Nicolas Maduro is still running the country. He still controls the leaders of power. He was pictured walking around with the military elite, the very people keeping him on power because many believe he's got the money to continue to buy their loyalty.

In fact, he warned the United States not to get militarily involved because Venezuela will be another Vietnam for them. But we have another protest scheduled by the opposition for Saturday. It's a weekend. More people could be on the streets.

We've avoided bloodshed and violence pretty much until this point at these large crowd-led protests, but I think the fears are, really, the rhetoric is heightening, the money is perhaps running out inside Venezuela.

The people are closer to starvation than we've seen before and nobody seems to have an obvious solution. They say they want to talk on both sides but that hasn't brought anything to the fore yet. So many concerns about this weekend ahead -- Laura, Dave.

BRIGGS: All right. Nick Paton Walsh there for us. Thanks.

Ahead, Domino's rewarding customers for buying pizza even if the pizza is from its competitors. CNN Business has the details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:53:44] BRIGGS: Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam facing a barrage of criticism for comments he made on a late-term abortion bill. The measure proposed in a Virginia legislature would loosen restrictions on abortions during the third trimester of pregnancy. Supporters say the bill was similar to a law recently passed in New York to protect from women's health. But the governor was hit with backlash when he suggested how such a late term procedure could happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RALPH NORTHAM (D), VIRGINIA: If a mother is in labor I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired. And then, a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The intent of Governor Northam's comments was not clear, but some conservatives thought he was discussing the possibility of letting a newborn die. A spokeswoman for the governor says his comments were being taken out of context by Republicans.

JARRETT: A California woman is demanding answer after her elderly mother, a dementia patient, was dumped outside a health care facility in the middle of the night. Costanza Zerbi says her mother, Savina, was put in a cab by College Medical Center and dropped off at the facility at 2:00 a.m.

[04:55:00] Video shows the elderly woman banging on a door and windows and later walking through a dark alley in her bathrobe and sandals. She was finally let in by a security guard about 25 minutes later. The California Department of Public Health and the hospital that released her saying they can't comment on the complaint.

BRIGGS: Police in Chicago releasing photos of two persons of interest being sought in connection with the attack on "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett. It's being investigated as a possible hate crime. Investigators say they have not yet found images of the actual incident. The 35-year-old told police he was attacked near his home early Tuesday by two people who yelled out racial and homophobic slurs, a poured an unknown chemical on him. Police say they are testing the substance.

JARRETT: This could be out of a Hollywood movie, but it's real life. A Florida sinkhole that turned out to be an underground tunnel to a bank. It's 50 yards long, and the tunnel didn't quite reach the bank, but the FBI says it was heading directly toward an ATM. The case will now be investigated as an attempted burglary. Authorities believe more than one person likely dug the tunnel. They don't yet know where it ends or when it was abandoned.

BRIGGS: Wow. Good stuff. All right. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell finally breaking his silence on the controversial no-call in the NFC championship that may have sent the wrong team to the Super Bowl. The commissioner admitting officials blew the call but says there was no consideration given to overturning the result.

The play in question again came late in the fourth quarter in the Rams-Saints game, clearly should have been flagged for pass interference or helmet-to-helmet contact. Judgment calls like that cannot be reviewed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER GOODELL, COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: Whenever officiating is part of any kind of discussion post game, it's never a good outcome for us. We know that, our clubs know that, our officials know that. But we also know our officials are human. We also know that they're officiating a game that moves very quickly and have to make snap decisions under difficult circumstances. And they're not going to get it right every time. As I say, they're human.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: As for Saints coach Sean Payton, he says he handled it like most people would.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN PAYTON, HEAD COACH, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS: After the game, for two to three days, much like normal people, I sat and probably didn't come out of my room. I ate Jeni's ice cream and watched Netflix for three straight days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: How we all handle disappointment. Well said. On Sunday the New England Patriots and the L.A. Rams face off in Super Bowl LIII. I'll be there covering the game for CNN. I'll anchor EARLY START from Atlanta tomorrow and Monday in a Super Bowl special, Saturday at 2:30.

Global markets are higher after the Federal Reserve's decision to be patient with future rate hikes. Asian markets all closed higher. European markets opened higher in early trading there. U.S. futures higher as well.

The Dow closed up 435 points Wednesday, boosting that Fed decision. The average finished above 25,000 for the first time since December 7th. The S&P 500 finished close to 2 percent and the Nasdaq closed up just over 2 percent.

Apple closed up 3 percent despite reporting a drop in iPhone sales. Apple has banned a controversial market research app used by Facebook to collect information on how people use their smartphones. Teens and adults signed up and were paid by Facebook to participate in the program. Facebook distributed the app to consumers through Apple's Enterprise Developer Program, but Apple called the app a clear breach of its policies.

According to Tech Crunch, Facebook's research app may have been able to access information like private messages, Web searches, and location data. A spokesperson for Facebook said the app was not spying on people.

There was nothing secret about this, it was literally called the Facebook research app. The news comes as Facebook continues to deal with the fallout from other privacy scandals and concerns about how it handles user data. Domino's rewarding its customers for buying pizza even if the pizza is

from its competitors. All customers have to do is download the Domino's app and sign up a loyalty program. Customers then use the app to scan a pizza whether it's homemade, purchased at a different restaurant or even just a toy that looks like a pizza and get up to 10 points per week. Once customers hit 60 points, they are eligible for a free Domino's pie.

Domino's plans on honoring 100 million points, nearly 1.7 million pizza all together. The Domino's promotion starts on Saturday right before the Super Bowl and will run for 12 weeks.

JARRETT: Right in time for the Super Bowl.

BRIGGS: Perfect. Biggest pizza day of the year, my friend.

JARRETT: Yes. Absolutely. It sounds good right about now, too.

BRIGGS: Yes. Sign me up for that.

JARRETT: EARLY START continues right now.

The record cold has the U.S. hunkered down.

[05:00:00]