Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Suggests National Emergency; Mysterious Don Jr. Calls Were Not to His Father; One More Cold Day Before Weekend Warm Up; Early Start at the Super Bowl. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired February 01, 2019 - 05:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[05:00:01] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've set the stage for doing what I'm going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: I've set the stage. President Trump fed up with negotiations on border security. He hints that he will declare a national emergency.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Those suspicions that Donald Trump Jr. called his dad after the Trump Tower meeting were wrong. The blocked number Don Jr. called was not his father's.

BRIGGS: One more day of brutal cold today before a weekend warm-up relatively speaking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY, PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK: After football, I'm going to play baseball. And then after baseball, I'm going to play hamlet. Alas poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Yes, it's almost time to play football. Excitement building ahead of Super Bowl LIII on Sunday. And guess who is there? The greatest of all time here, Dave Briggs.

Good morning, everybody. It's Friday, February 1st, 5:00 a.m. in the east. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: You're an inspiration to the players, Romans. Playing through the pain, in sick. We appreciate it.

ROMANS: I can do it.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs, live in Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII. Not even Shakespeare could have imagined the career Tom Brady has had.

There is a live look at the beautiful Mercedes-Benz Stadium, site of Super Bowl LIII. What a beautiful crown jewel that is of this city. Super Bowl experience, how valuable is it? Well, we will find out on Sunday because 36 Patriots have some type of Super Bowl experience, but only four Rams have ever played in this game.

Now, Patriots, however, here for the fourth time in five year, third straight year, Tom Brady's mindboggling ninth Super Bowl. And yet as you saw, there is something that he's never done before in all these Super Bowls with all the questions, his hamlet is coming up. Is it good, is it bad? That is the question.

I also spoke with Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller of the Denver Broncos, about how you get to Tom Brady. He's done it many times before. He'll give us the secret.

And there you see him unveiling his future sack dance. He's the master of the sack dance. He sacked Brady 2 1/2 times in the AFC championship before winning the Super Bowl. I suggested a Fortnite dance. We'll see how that plays out. That is all ahead.

It should be an outstanding game Sunday. And don't forget a Super Bowl special right here on CNN, 2:30 on Saturday. Hines Ward, Coy Wire, Andy Scholes and Patrick Mahomes, the story of the league in the NFL this season. The Kansas City quarterback joins us as well.

Talk to you in just a bit. Christine, back to you.

ROMANS: All right. Can't wait for that. Dave Briggs in Atlanta, thanks, Dave.

President Trump apparently fed up with congressional talks on border security that have hardly begun. The president Thursday called the bipartisan negotiations to avoid another shutdown, quote, a waste of time. And he strongly hinted that he will simply bypass them to fund his border wall.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think I've set the table very nicely. I've set the stage for doing what I'm going to do.

REPORTER: And you'll wait out the 21 days before you take any action?

TRUMP: Yes, I'm going to until the 15th. I think it's a waste of time.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president would not directly say he plans to declare a national emergency at the southern border, but he said is, quote, not concerned by possible legal challenges. The president also suggested he would no longer work with Nancy Pelosi. He accused the Democratic House speaker, quote, doing a tremendous disservice to the country.

Pelosi again declared the House will not put up any wall money but expressed openness to some kind of physical barrier. She was asked about enhanced fencing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: If the president wants to call that a wall, he can call it a wall. He is referencing it we already have almost 700 miles of wall. So again, is there a place for enhanced fencing? Normandy fencing would work. Let them have that discussion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Stopgap governing funding runs out in two weeks. The House and Senate would have to vote on any deals, so that gives the negotiators until February 8 or we will see shutdown part two, Dave.

BRIGGS: A significant development in the Russian probe, involving Donald Trump Jr. Those mysterious phone calls made by the president's son before and after his 2016 Trump Tower meeting with the Russians were in fact not to his father. Three sources telling CNN records provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee show that they were made to two of Don Jr.'s business associates, that would contradict suspicions by some Democrats that the blocked number belonged to then candidate Donald Trump.

Investigators had been trying to determine whether Mr. Trump had advanced knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting.

ROMANS: The president also addressed the Russia probe in that "New York Times" interview. He claims he never discussed WikiLeaks with Roger Stone. Stone is charged with lying to Congress about communications with WikiLeaks and coordinating with Trump campaign officials about WikiLeaks' plans to release hacked e-mails.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

[05:05:03] REPORTER: Did you ever talk to him about WikiLeaks? Because that seemed to be what --

TRUMP: No.

REPORTER: You never had a conversation with him?

TRUMP: No, I didn't. I never did.

REPORTER: Did you ever tell him or other people to get in touch with him?

TRUMP: Never did.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president also says Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has assured his lawyers he is not a subject or a target of the Mueller investigation, but he could not say the same about the federal prosecutor in New York City where Michael Cohen pleaded guilty for paying off two women for their silence during the 2016 campaign.

BRIGGS: After publicly ridiculing his top intelligence chiefs, the president now insisting he is on the same page with all of them. On Tuesday, the director of national intelligence and other top security officials directly contradicted Mr. Trump on the threats of North Korea, Russia, and ISIS among others. So, the president responded by insulting them, calling them naive, telling them to go back to school.

He was asked about that on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you still have confidence in Gina Haspel and Dan Coats to give you a good advice?

TRUMP: No, I disagree with certain things that they said, I think I'm right. But time will prove me right probably.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Despite their disagreements, the president did get his intel briefing yesterday from DNI Coats and CIA Director Haspel. And then he changed his tune, made this startling claim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He has said that they were totally misquoted and it was taken out of context. So what I do is I'd suggest that you call them. They said it was fake news.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: OK, let's be very clear. The president's intel chiefs were not misquoted. Their entire testimony was public. Judge for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have won against ISIS. We have beaten them and we have beaten them badly.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Again, there is nothing to misquote. All of that was on the record in a public forum.

A source tells CNN, Coats and Haspel are not in jeopardy of losing their jobs and aides were able to calm Trump down by assuring him the full transcript to their testimony adds more context to their remarks.

BRIGGS: Members of one of America's richest families reaping more than $4 billion of profits while their company sold both opioids and drugs to treat opioid addiction. A newly unredacted lawsuit says the giant drugmaker Purdue Pharma secretly pursued a plan called Project Tango. The suit says Purdue and its owners, the Sackler family, pushed the painkiller OxyContin on doctors and patients. It claims they publicly denied what they privately knew, a highly addictive drug was leading to overdoses and deaths.

A Purdue spokesman says the release of an unredacted complaint was aimed at singling out the company to, quote, blame it for the opioid crisis. In 2017, the U.S. saw more than 47,000 deaths linked to opioids.

ROMANS: That is an important story.

All right. Seven minutes past the hour.

Wall Street had the worst December, remember, since the Great Depression, but it was a different story for January. The S&P 500 and the Dow both up more than 7 percent in January. That's the best January since 1987 and 1989 respectively. Now, stocks have been on the rise recently because of the combination of strong corporate earnings, continued optimism about the economy, and this shift in the Federal Reserve's interest rate plans for 2019.

Today, investors will pay attention to see how the shutdown affected the January jobs report. That comes out in about three and a half hours. Economists on average think employers added 165,000 jobs last month. Now, that's below the average of 220,000 jobs per month over the past year.

BRIGGS: We're almost out of the deep freeze. Almost.

The one that has gripped the Upper Midwest, the Great Lakes, out to the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. At least 16 deaths have been attributed to the cold and winter storms in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana. In Chicago, one hospital has seen nearly 50 frostbite cases.

Here is another sign of how cold it was. Wow. Michigan state police say this light post quivered and shook all by itself in a snow covered parking lot.

And this is what a firefighter looks like after battling a blaze in a wind chill of 50 below.

ROMANS: Had one of the hardest jobs on the planet.

Nearly 7,000 flights canceled in total this week. There is just one more day of bitter cold ahead before the desperately need warm-up begins. And what a warm up it will.

With more on that, meteorologist Ivan Cabrera is in the CNN weather center -- Ivan.

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Christine, good to see you.

You're absolutely right. It is going to warm up big time here. And we're not actually to go our average, we're actually going to go above normal for this time of year. But the harm is done no question.

Look at this, 40 plus record lows, that was on Thursday morning. [05:10:02] And a lot of those were well below zero. Coldest

temperatures we've seen in decades. So, we're to go from that to 70- plus town, cities that are going to have record warm morning lows. So, yes, no question today still very cold, temperatures anywhere from 5 to 10 below right now. In fact, as we get to wind picking up a little bit more, it's going to feel like minus 10 to minus 30, but it is just today. We're going to begin to warm up big time as we head into the upcoming weekend and next week.

Still cold enough for snow, we have a clipper moving through the Ohio Valley. I don't think that's going to amount to much, anywhere from one to three inches. And that will fall through this afternoon and by tonight this thing will be out of here and then we'll begin really a warm-up in earnest.

You can see the line here, mid-40s in St. Louis, that is pretty good so far this morning. And there you see the warm air continuing to push north. Rapid City at 58, but Minneapolis at 18. So 40 degrees colder just a couple states to the east.

We'll climb 70 degrees from minus 23 on Wednesday to 50 degree weather by the time we get into Monday and we'll actually get into the 50s for Monday and Tuesday. So, from parkas to shorts, it's going to feel like spring.

ROMANS: That's remarkable.

CABRERA: No question here to the middle part next week, Christine.

ROMANS: Ivan, that is really something. OK. Thank you for that.

CABRERA: Yes.

ROMANS: And, Dave, again, imagine if you cold and you had the Super Bowl preparations in one of those cold cities. Lucky we're in Atlanta this year.

BRIGGS: Yes, they've dodged a couple of bullets, the NFL. That year in New York, it wasn't bad and, of course, last year in Minneapolis, it could have been wicked if that were the scene this year.

Thankfully, Atlanta, pretty much, pretty mild, it should be a nice Sunday.

Coming up, more of our Super Bowl preview ahead, plus a prison hostage drama caught on surveillance video. How one librarian made it out alive after being held by an inmate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:59] ROMANS: Welcome back.

Sources tell CNN the second summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to take place in Vietnam near the end of this month. The State Department's top envoy to North Korea Steve Biegun says that the U.S. will not withdraw troops from South Korea as a concession to Kim, a step some worry that the president might take. Through their meeting last June in Singapore, Kim Jong-un vowed to work toward denuclearization, but negotiations on that front appear to have stalled.

BRIGGS: Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaido, says he won't rule out accepting U.S. military help to end Venezuela's growing political crisis, but he tells CNN he hopes it never comes to that. Instead, he would like to see more internal pressure put on Nicolas Maduro to leave. The State Department says a peaceful resolution is preferred, but all options remain on the table.

ROMANS: Prison hostage drama caught on surveillance video, take a look at maximum custody inmate Timothy Monk using a prison-made blade to take a librarian hostage. It happened last month at Buckeye Prison in Tucson, Arizona.

After about a two hour standoff, heavily armed corrections officers stormed the library using a stun grenade, pepper balls, bean bags. The librarian made it out safely. Monk already serving 97 years for violence crimes now facing an extension of that sentence.

BRIGGS: All right. Back here in Atlanta, enough talk. It's game time -- almost. The Rams and Patriots with final preparations for Super Bowl LIII. My man Andy Scholes here in the flesh.

I came done here to see you.

And we'll hear what the players have to say next in the "Bleacher Report".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:18] BRIGGS: Now, we're back here live in Atlanta.

And preparations for Super Bowl LIII from the Patriots and Rams and time for talking is over. The Rams and Pats meeting the media and Andy Scholes was there for media availabilities.

These guys are tired of seeing our mugs.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely they are. They are ready to get on the field.

You know, the big story line, Dave, what's going to win out, the experience of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick or the youth and talent of the up and coming Rams. I was around the teams yesterday. Both seemed loose, ready to go for this game.

The Patriots, they know what to expect. This is their fourth Super Bowl in five years. But whether you play in the Super Bowl nine times like Tom Brady or this is your first rodeo, both teams -- they understand the magnitude of this game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON DONALD, RAMS DEFENSIVE TACKLE: It is the big dance, you know. Playing great football, but this is the last one. This is the biggest stage ever played on. So, we just have to keep playing football at that level, don't forget what got us here. Get out there one more time, one more game, an opportunity to be world champion.

BILL BELICHICK, PATRIOTS HEAD COACH: I mean, the players are playing biggest game of the year, but maybe the biggest game of their life, coaching the biggest game of your life. It is a great opportunity to do the best you can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And one of the interesting events of Super Bowl Sunday is always the puppy bowl this year's event pitting Team Ruff against Team Fluff, getting 93 puppies from 51 shelters across the country, they will all be competing. The winning team will take home the Lom-barky trophy. This year, there's also a dog bowl featuring older pets who overlooked for adoptions. So, pretty cool deal. The puppy bowl is one of the most look forward to events of the week.

Now, Dave, with the Super Bowl always comes a lot of fun prop bets. And I was going to run a few with you right now. My favorite for the whole week is how many plays will Tony Romo correctly predict during the Super Bowl. He is calling his first Super Bowl for CBS. Over 7 1/2, that is a lot to predict right.

BRIGGS: Boy, that is a high bar. I'm going under there. Even though he is the best at that, you're going to go under?

SCHOLES: I think I'm going over.

BRIGGS: Wow.

SCHOLES: I think he could get on a roll. Just keep them coming.

You know, Gladys Knight singing the national anthem this year. Will any scoring drive take less time than it takes Gladys Knight to sing the National Anthem? So, will it be a big play for a touchdown basically, is what that says?

BRIGGS: Your guess?

SCHOLES: I'm going to say no.

BRIGGS: I'm going to say yes.

SCHOLES: You say. You expect a big play touchdown in this game?

BRIGGS: I expect Tom Brady to need to score in like 80 seconds to end the half and he will do it.

SCHOLES: How many times will the broadcast mention Sean McVay's age? He is of course 33 years old, the youngest coach to ever take a team to the Super Bowl. It's only 1 1/2, so I feel like that will go over for sure, especially if the Rams are winning.

[05:25:05] BRIGGS: If they win, yes. But they're not going to win, so I'm going under.

SCHOLES: Really?

BRIGGS: And there goes my prediction.

SCHOLES: There you go. That's --

BRIGGS: Thirty-three against a 66-year-old Belichick, that is one of the best match-ups at this game. Just an intriguing dichotomy between those two. And they have a lot of respect for one another as you've talked about earlier in the week. All right.

Andy Scholes here with the "Bleacher Report," thanks, buddy.

OK. Coming up, the president suggests he is ready to declare a national emergency to fund his border wall. Talks in Congress he says are a waste of time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)