Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Cold Wave Shatters Records In The Midwest; Russians Used Evidence From Mueller Probe to Discredit The Investigation; President Trump Seething Over Testimony By Intel Chiefs; Lawmakers Kick Off Border Negotiations In Effort To Avert Shutdown; Juan Guaido Makes His Case In New York Times Op-ed. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 31, 2019 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Record cold has the U.S. hunkered down. Deadly low temps overnight -- life-threatening conditions for tens of millions.

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

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

JARRETT: And if you think this is a sinkhole, think again. It's an underground tunnel with bad intentions. We'll tell you where it leads. Look at that picture right there.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett in for Christine Romans today.

BRIGGS: Good morning to you.

Good morning to Christine Romans. If you're out there, happy birthday. Hopefully, she's asleep.

JARRETT: Happy birthday.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Five thirty Eastern time.

We start with that bone-chilling cold. A record-breaking deep freeze is moving east, but the Midwest by no means out of the frozen woods.

Chicago set a record cold high temperature -- minus 10 without the wind chill. The ultra-frigid weather will halt postal deliveries and close schools in the area for a second day today.

And, Milwaukee -- in Minneapolis-St. Paul, public schools stay closed to avoid roads that look like this. And, yes, that is a road, somewhere in there.

In Michigan, it felt like minus 35 with the wind chill. The governor pleading for people to turn thermostats down until tomorrow because of limited gas delivery. JARRETT: A fire also causing big problems for firefighters in Hammond, Indiana. At 22 degrees below zero, the water immediately turning to ice there. The fire chief telling us, quote, "I'm currently thawing out and so is my crew."

A 10th person has died from the weather; four of them in Iowa.

Nationwide, about 6,200 flights have been canceled since Tuesday. Hazardous road conditions causing at least seven injuries with this multi-car pileup in Pennsylvania.

BRIGGS: Wow. Some amateur science experiments -- kids and parents stuck at home in Wisconsin. Hot water instantly turning to ice.

One group the weather could not deter, runners in the Arrowhead 135 Ultramarathon. The wind chill at the finish line in Tower, Minnesota a staggering 52 degrees below zero.

Some runners finished with their faces completely encased in ice. It looks like "STAR WARS". You're wondering if there's a Ton Ton around.

More than 80 million people face temperatures below zero in the coming days.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us live from the CNN Weather Center with the latest. It is wicked out there, my friend. Good morning.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. Yes, it incentivizes you to run faster, right, when you're that cold.

BRIGGS: That's a good point.

JAVAHERI: Get to that finish line as quickly as you can.

BRIGGS: Although that's the wind faster on your face.

JAVAHERI: That's a good point, too, yes.

And, you know, we still have the wind chill in place. In spots, Dave, looking at 50 below still this morning into northern Minnesota. But now, introducing portions of the Northeast into this where wind chills are down in the single digits. And still, could get colder by a few degrees over the next couple of hours.

But over 124 million people underneath these wind chill warnings, wind chill advisories. It really doesn't take much, of course, to reach frostbite here with these wind chills dipping below zero.

The ambient temperature at this hours, I should say, in New York sitting right at four degrees without the winds. And notice this, 37 below in Minneapolis. Forty below, what it feels like at this hour in Chicago.

And we know our average core temperature is 98.6. That's where we want to be. But within a matter of seconds, you'll have those -- your core temperature drops just one or two degrees. And that deviation -- of course, you begin seeing goosebumps, shivers. Loss of motor skills, often one of the first things you'll notice -- dexterity, the use -- the use of your hands also really becomes compromised.

But once you get below 90 degrees in your core temperature, that's when your muscles become more rigid and slurred speech occurs. And, of course, that's when shivering stops and that's when hypothermia can set in. And with these temperatures, this is why officials are saying stay indoors. Not worth at all messing with this.

And, 23 below zero -- that was yesterday morning's low. Right now, in Chicago, it's 21 below zero. Could see it drop below yesterday's value in the next couple of hours.

But really, what's most impressive is this remarkable forecast. You know, out of thousands of weather graphics I've shown on air this has to be one of the most memorable ones for me, personally, because a 76- degree climb over the next several days in Chicago. In fact, by Monday, 53 degrees, which is 20 degrees above average.

But notice what happens here, guys. Going into next week -- middle and potentially, end of next week -- back down into the single digits. So, potentially, we get very close to where we started here. So we're going to watch that carefully, but at least a rapid warming trend is the first part of that forecast.

JARRETT: Oh, Chicago. Just hold on until the weekend. The heatwave is coming if they can bear it for the next couple of days.

Pedram, thanks so much -- appreciate it.

National security concerns after the Mueller probe was targeted again -- but this time, not by congressional Republicans.

[05:35:01] The Justice Department says a pro-Russian Twitter account targeted the investigation, spreading its confidential information. The information is from a case Mueller's team filed against a Russian company.

BRIGGS: The company is accused of funding an Internet troll farm that interfered in the 2016 elections. The Justice Department has been turning over evidence to the company's U.S. legal team and Mueller's office claims some of that evidence showed up on a Twitter account posted from a Russian I.P. address.

JARRETT: The tweets linked to thousands of documents altered to make the Mueller investigation look a nothingburger. 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.

Let's bring in "CNN POLITICS" reporter Jeremy Herb in our Washington bureau this morning. Jeremy, good morning.

BRIGGS: Good morning.

JARRETT: Thank you so much for waking up for us. JEREMY HERB, REPORTER, CNN POLITICS: Good morning.

JARRETT: So, this recent filing from Mueller's team essentially shows how Russia is at it again. They are not deterred even after being indicted. And now, this Twitter account pops up with all kinds of information that is Mueller's information that was -- had to be turned over in discovery.

But set the context for our viewers about why this matters and sort of what does it show that Russia is doing?

HERB: Yes. So, let's take a step back here.

And the reason that this case even exists is that Concord Management was a company that was accused of funding the Russian troll farms that were charged with meddling in the 2016 election. Now, Mueller's team charged 13 Russians who are still in Russia and aren't going to face trial in the U.S.

But this company decided that it wanted to fight these charges in court and so they're going through the whole pretrial motions with Mueller's team. And as part of this, Mueller's team has had to turn over evidence, which is where the genesis of this filing yesterday -- these new accusations that some of that evidence wound up on these pro-Russian Twitter accounts.

Now, this matters because the court -- the Mueller team is still fighting in court about sensitive information that the special counsel's office does not want to turn over to Concord out of fear that the information will wind up in the hands of the Russians. Now, that fight is still playing out but I think this latest filing could kind of tilt the deck to Mueller's team so that they aren't going to ultimately have to provide this information.

BRIGGS: All right. Let's get out of the weeds and back to the big picture of the Mueller probe and whether or not the president or Matt Whitaker would interfere -- whether this report will be shelved or silenced.

In an interesting interview the president gave with the conservative "Daily Caller," this morning we're finding this quote. "I could've ended everything," the president says. "I've chosen to stay out of it.

But I had the right to, as you know. I had the right if I wanted to end everything. I could've just said that's enough. Many people thought that's what I should do."

Should this be, Jeremy, a relief to Democrats in both the House and the Senate, and perhaps to Bill Barr as well, who awaits confirmation?

HERB: Yes, that's something we've heard from the president now, I think for more than a year, is that he's claimed control that he could end Mueller's investigation --

BRIGGS: Yes. HERB: -- at any time.

When Whitaker -- Matt Whitaker, the acting attorney general was appointed, many Democrats were concerned that's exactly what he was tapped to do. But as we've seen, Whitaker has seemed to stay on the sidelines here.

And, Bill Barr has said he's determined to allow Mueller's team to finish.

Now, the big question is what happens to Mueller's report once it's completed. Barr has said he wants to offer transparency but he's going to follow DOJ guidelines. And there's nothing that forces him to make Mueller's findings public.

JARRETT: Jeremy, you know -- obviously, you cover Capitol Hill day in and day out. To see kind of the reaction from even some Republicans to what the president said on Twitter yesterday --

BRIGGS: Yes.

JARRETT: And let's just put it up and make it really clear here.

He's calling his own intelligence people "naive and extremely passive," telling them maybe they should "go back to school."

TEXT: "The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong!

When I became President, Iran was making trouble all over the Middle East and beyond. Since ending the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, they are much different, but a source of potential danger and conflict. They are testing Rockets (last week) and more, and are coming very close to the edge.

There (sic) economy is now crashing, which is the only thing holding them back. Be careful of Iran. Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!"

BRIGGS: Wow.

JARRETT: How is this being received, and this one of the -- I know we say it all the time. Is this one of the instances where we might actually see Republicans say enough is enough?

HERB: Yes, you know, it's interesting. Republicans are actually going to take a vote today that will -- basically, it's a -- it's a symbolic motion but it's going to say that the U.S. should not prematurely withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

It's -- we've heard yesterday from Republicans they were not happy that the president is saying these things out in public about the Intelligence Community.

John Thune, the number two Republican in the Senate, said the president should stay off of Twitter when it comes to these national security issues.

And obviously, there are a number of issues where the president is at odds with most of his Intelligence Community and also mainstream Republicans in Congress, whether it's Afghanistan, ISIS, or North Korea, which as my colleague Kaitlin Collins reported last night was what really angered the president.

Dan Coats, the director of National Intelligence -- his comments saying that North Korea is not necessarily going to be giving up their weapons.

[05:40:00] So I don't think this is a fight that is really going to die down any soon, and that tension is certainly not going away.

JARRETT: Yes.

BRIGGS: Probably needs to be a clearer line drawn, though, by the likes of Richard Burr and Marco Rubio regarding attacks on our Intelligence Community.

All right, Jeremy, thanks so much for being here. Good information for us.

JARRETT: Thanks, Jeremy.

BRIGGS: Turning now to the border security talks getting underway in Washington. A bipartisan group of 17 lawmakers expressing optimism about avoiding another government shutdown. No clear progress was made. Democrats offering money for personnel, ports of entry, and technology, but not a border wall.

Government funding expires on February 15th.

Let's chat with "CNN POLITICS" digital director Zach Wolf, joining us from Washington. Good to see you, sir.

And a reminder to everyone why the president doesn't have his border wall. Well, because Republicans didn't give him money for that border wall.

And he talked about as much with "The Daily Caller," saying, "I was going to veto the omnibus bill and Paul," -- Paul Ryan -- "told me in the strongest of language, 'Please don't do that. We'll get you the wall.'

And then he went lame duck. And once he went lame duck, it was just really an exercise in waving to people and the power was gone, so I was very disappointed."

Zach, why would congressional Democrats give the president money that Republicans never gave him for the wall? And do you think there is a deal, from these 17 lawmakers, going to emerge?

ZACHARY WOLF, DIGITAL DIRECTOR, CNN POLITICS: Well, I mean, first, there's the disagreement between the politicians over whether and the policy disagreement over whether they're going to fund the wall. And then, second, there's the disagreement over whether there should be another government shutdown.

And I think these two things kind of dovetail together and it will be interesting to see if Republicans can rest some sort of targeted barriers, for instance, out of -- out of -- out of Democrats, and whether they can sort of make that palatable to Trump.

Yesterday, he was tweeting about how it would be a waste of time if it wasn't a wall or a barrier. So, is there going to be some kind of middle ground that they can find there?

I don't think anybody, anywhere wants to see another government shutdown, so they will try very hard to find something here. Whether they can do that I think is still a very much open question, especially when there is zero people in the country that can predict exactly what President Trump will do.

BRIGGS: That is very true.

JARRETT: Fair enough.

Well, Zach, you know, another big topic on the minds of many is 2020 and sort of the news that Howard Schultz has been making and how Democrats really have the knives out for him.

BRIGGS: A rocky rollout.

JARRETT: Well, to say the least --

BRIGGS: Yes.

JARRETT: -- for him, and he's defending himself.

But you've also sort of made the point that the Democrats have to be a little bit careful here and sort of the math isn't always as they make it seem, and this isn't necessarily a slam dunk move to get President Trump reelected.

Tell us more about that?

WOLF: Well, my point with Howard Schultz -- you know, I wrote earlier this week -- was that in this kind of cocktail of scenarios that you have for defeating an incumbent president, there have been two, kind of, in recent modern memory and both faced a strong primary challenge and an Independent candidate, both in 1980 -- Carter lost after facing Ted Kennedy -- and then, John Anderson.

And then, in 1992, George H.W. Bush lost after facing Pat Buchanan in the -- in the primary. And then, also Ross Perot. So, you know, the details of those are specific to those stories.

But, Trump faces neither until Howard Schultz. He does not face, currently, a primary challenger. And if -- unless Howard Schultz or somebody jumps in, he won't face a third-party person. So, that's just kind of an interesting historical note.

I do think it's interesting to point out that right now, Michael Bloomberg, the New York billionaire --

BRIGGS: Yes.

WOLF: -- is running as a Democrat. You have Sherrod Brown, the Ohio progressive populist running as a Democrat. You have a whole bunch of liberals -- people like Bernie Sanders -- who may very well run.

You know, all these people are thinking of dipping their toes in. That's a very big tent party at this point and no matter --

BRIGGS: Yes.

WOLF: -- who they pick, somebody is going to be disenfranchised at the end of the primary process.

JARRETT: It's just a matter of who.

BRIGGS: Well, Howard Schultz -- look, very little name recognition, very little political operation. We are 335 days away from the election and yet, at Arizona State yesterday, a woman in the audience said to him two words -- Ralph Nader.

Could Howard Shultz, in your estimation, be a Ralph Nader? Have that type of impact in Florida?

WOLF: The one thing that we haven't seen with regard to Howard Schultz -- and part of this is just because of maybe there haven't been polls yet -- but I don't understand exactly who his constituency is.

BRIGGS: Right.

WOLF: Who are his followers? I mean, he has this sort of idea of coming in through the middle and appealing to the centrist group of Americans who are sort of frustrated with the political parties. But until we see that catch on -- until I see people with Howard Schultz yard signs out there --

BRIGGS: Right.

WOLF: -- I'm going to be skeptical that he can do any of this.

BRIGGS: Yes. Given his stances, you can't help but think he might draw away from Trump -- disenfranchised Trump voters saying how far the party has moved to the left.

[05:45:01] But the uproar has been venti-sized for the former Starbucks chief.

WOLF: Yes.

BRIGGS: Zach Wolf, good to see you, sir.

JARRETT: Zach, thanks so much.

WOLF: Thank you. JARRETT: Well, the self-described -- declared president of Venezuela taking his message to the American press. How he can translate promises into help for his struggling country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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, quote, "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.

New protests in Venezuela did not quite measure up to earlier demonstrations.

[05:50:00] CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more from neighboring Colombia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dave, Laura, the protests on Wednesday not as big as we'd 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 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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIGGS: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you.

We'll be right back.

[05:55:55] BRIGGS: Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam facing a barrage of criticism for comments he made on a late-term abortion bill. The measure proposed in the Virginia Legislature would loosen restrictions on abortions during the third trimester of pregnancy.

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 Gov. Northam's comments was not clear, but some conservatives thought he was discussing the possibility of letting a newborn die. A spokesman for the governor says his comments were being taken out of context.

Senator Ben Sasse called the comments "morally repugnant."

A California woman demanding answers 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 2:00 a.m.

A video shows the elderly woman banging on a door and windows and later, walking through a dark alley in a bathrobe and sandals. She was finally let in by a security guard about 25 minutes later.

No comment from the California Department of Public Health or the hospital that released the woman.

Not your average sinkhole -- actually, not a sinkhole at all. This hole in Florida turned out to be an underground tunnel to a bank. It's 50 yards long.

The FBI says it was heading directly toward an ATM. The case will be investigated as an attempted burglary.

Authorities believe more than one person likely dug the tunnel. They don't yet know when it was abandoned.

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, once again, came late 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: Saints fans essentially said too little, too late.

As for Saint head 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: Officials are human. So, too, is Sean Payton.

On Sunday, the New England Patriots and L.A. Rams will face off in Super Bowl LIII. I'll be there covering the game for CNN and will co- anchor this program from Atlanta tomorrow and Monday, and a Super Bowl special Saturday at 2:30 in the afternoon.

And that will do it for us today. Today marks 100 years after the birth of number 42, Jackie Robinson.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Dave Briggs. Thanks to Laura Jarrett for filling in.

Stay warm, everybody. Here's "NEW DAY".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arctic temperatures, bitter wind chills, whiteout conditions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's freezing cold. My face, my toes, everything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being outside for just a few minutes can start causing frostbite.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't see the reason to enter a public spat with your Intelligence Agency.

CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY: The president had a gut distrust of the Intelligence Community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really is not only unprecedented, I think it's dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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