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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Speech Mixes Calls for Unity and Attacks; Second Trump- Kim Summit to Take Place in Vietnam; Fed Prosecutors Want to Talk to Trump Org Execs. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 06, 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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[04:32:12] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.
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DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The president's calls for unity in a speech laced with partisan notes, highlights and reaction to the State of the Union right now.
And as the president spoke, Christine Romans, Nancy Pelosi was --
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I saw that --
BRIGGS: -- shuffling through her papers.
ROMANS: I saw that.
BRIGGS: Presumably, the speech. What did you make of that?
ROMANS: Her copy of the speech. I don't know. I will tell you, this is a new world. This is the halfway mark in this Trump presidency.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: And with her right over his shoulder, literally and figuratively, this is the new reality for Donald Trump. Looking over his shoulder and checking his work.
BRIGGS: There it is.
State of the Union is divided.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 32 minutes past the hour this morning. President Trump holding firm for increased border security in a combative State of the Union Address that straddled the lines for calls for unity and attacks on Democrats. The president with Nancy Pelosi over his shoulder opened with an
appeal for bipartisanship.
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TRUMP: We just reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution, and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good.
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BRIGGS: But the call for harmony didn't carry too far. He did not call it a hoax, but the president did make this allusion to the Russia probe and the other investigation.
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TRUMP: An economic miracle is taking place in the United States. And the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics or ridiculous partisan investigations.
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If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn't work that way.
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ROMANS: The president gave no sign he's interested in compromise on border security with another government shutdown, possibly a national emergency declaration will be next week, he dug in what he called a very dangerous border with Mexico.
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TRUMP: No issue better illustrates the divide between America's working class and America's political class than illegal immigration. Wealthy politicians and donors push for open borders, while living their lives behind walls and gates and guards.
[04:35:05] My administration has sent to Congress a common sense proposal to end the crisis on the southern border.
It includes humanitarian assistance, more law enforcement, drug detection at our ports, closing loopholes that enable child smuggling, and plans for a new physical barrier or a wall to secure the vast areas between our ports of entry.
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BRIGGS: Notably, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shhh'ed Democrats with the hand there who started booing when President Trump warned of new migrant caravan headed toward the U.S. border. Some policies the president mentioned were received warmly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: Both parties should be able to unite for a great rebuilding of America's crumbling infrastructure.
To lower the cost of health care and prescription drugs, and to protect patients with preexisting conditions.
To eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years.
Many childhood cancers have not seen new therapies in decades. My budget will ask Congress for $500 million over the next 10 years to fund this critical life-saving research.
I'm also proud to be the first president to include in my budget a plan for a nationwide paid family leave so that every new parent has a chance to bond with their newborn child.
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ROMANS: A lot of details and don't know how they're going to pay for it, but that is something that could get bipartisan support.
On other subjects, lawmakers' reactions were decidedly mixed.
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TRUMP: I am asking Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the late term abortion of children who can feel pain in a mother's womb.
As we work with our allies to destroy the remnants of ISIS, it is time to give our brave warriors in Syria a warm welcome home.
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BRIGGS: There were some noteworthy omissions in the State of the Union. At no point did the president mention gun violence, climate change or the Supreme Court, among other topics.
ROMANS: There were several memorable moments in last night's address. One of them came when President Trump gave a shout-out to the women, including those in the audience. Many were dressed in white, a tribute of the suffrage movement of a century ago.
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TRUMP: No one has benefited more from the thriving economy than women who have filled 58 percent of the newly created jobs last year.
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You weren't supposed to do that.
We also have more women serving in Congress than at anytime before.
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ROMANS: Let me get this straight, he's trying to give himself credit by job gains by woman in a booming economy.
BRIGGS: Which he should, which he can take a bow for that. But --
ROMANS: Those women are saying because of Donald Trump many of them were elected to the House.
BRIGGS: But those words, you weren't supposed to do that. He didn't get, I don't think, what they were applauding.
Thank you, Mr. President, for employing us. It was because of your policies that got us elected. That made it optically an awkward moment.
ROMANS: Outside the Capitol Hill, President Trump earned a positive response from six in 10 viewers in the CNN instant poll, one caveat, the viewership skewed largely Republicans for this Republican president's State of the Union address.
BRIGGS: The Democratic response to the president given by Stacey Abrams, a rising star to the podium, even after losing her bid for governor for Georgia, she blasted the Trump administration for the government shutdown.
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STACEY ABRAMS (D), FORMER GEORGIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Making livelihoods of our federal workers a pawn for political gains is a disgrace. The shutdown was a stunt engineered by the president of the United States. One that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people, but our values.
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BRIGGS: Abrams said she's disappointed by the president but does not want him to fail.
ROMANS: All right. Joining us now, from Washington, Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of "Inside Elections", and a CNN political analyst.
[04:40:00] Good morning. Nice to see you.
NATHAN GONZALES, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
ROMANS: What is your headline takeaway from last night's speech and attempted bipartisanship laced with some attacks against the Democrats?
GONZALES: Yes, maybe it's complicated. I mean, I'm not sure. I think if you're a Republican and you watched last night, I think there's a lot that you takeaway that you liked. I think you like the case that the president made on key issues, particularly when he got to that part about choice and abortion.
ROMANS: Yes.
GONZALES: I think that's something that's really inflaming Republicans, even the Republicans who don't like the president very well. They're enraged by what the Democrats in New York and Virginia are trying to do.
But I think with this bipartisan talk, we can't just look at that in a vacuum. We're talking about 2 1/2 years of baggage coming into this, of bickering between the two parties. And I think that each side, particularly Democrats aren't going to focus on the that bipartisanship or the language, they're going to focus on the speech that they don't agree with and that where they feel that they were made to be the enemy or the victim and I'm not sure this is going to change a lot of minds.
ROMANS: On those abortion comments, I think that's a subject that's animated the people in his base, in the middle of the country --
BRIGGS: Absolutely.
ROMANS: -- who are really following closely a New York law and a Virginia law -- that I don't if it passed yet, but a Virginia law coming from the Virginia governor this week, about delivering a baby and terminating a pregnancy after a baby is delivered.
I mean, these are things that really appeal to his base. I notice that the women in the crowd, the audience, were stone-faced, even as Republicans in the audience were really cheering those comments statement.
GONZALES: Right. I think they knew it was coming particularly because the news is so fresh on that issue. And I think this is an issue where neither side is going to compromise on prescription drug prices, infrastructure, eliminating the HIV epidemic in 10 years, paid payment leave, childhood cancer.
I think the question is, can the two parties get beyond the issues like the shutdown and the border wall and the border security, to get to those things where there might be compromise.
ROMANS: There's the bipartisan support for infrastructure from day one.
BRIGGS: Yes. He talked about it in a speech a year ago. It's almost the same passage that he used a year ago. And he's been talking about prescription drug reform for a couple of years either. No real policy that he's proposed there.
He did talk about investigations saying if there's going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. Isn't that Nixon's 1974, one year of Watergate is enough?
GONZALES: Yes, that part of the speech is interesting. Because the first time he mentioned investigations, there was -- the Republicans applauded. Then right after that, he added another line about war and investigation, and no one really said anything.
It was just -- I thought we were going to go to a Jeb Bush "please clap" moment, because no one really said anything. And it's going to be striking. I know this speech just happened.
But a year from now, after we have a year of a Democratic House investigating the president, who knows who comes out of the Mueller investigation? It's going to be a few days before the Iowa caucus, as you mentioned, Christine, earlier. This is going to be a fundamentally I think different speech in the country from year from now when he takes the lectern again.
ROMANS: How do you think Stacey Abrams did? She did not win the governor's mansion in Georgia but she really seems to be a rising star in this party?
GONZALES: Yes. You know, I think -- I don't think she had a "Saturday Night Live" moment, an extreme gaffe, that Democrats will find something to be excited about. I think Democrats are going to be excited and happy about how she delivered the message.
I thought it was striking that the two speeches were so different. They weren't even touching on the same issues. She mentioned furloughed workers, first graders and active shooter drills and gun violence. The caged -- you know, children in cages, Medicaid expansion, climate change, judges, voting rights.
Yes, the two parties, I think the speeches were microcosms that the two parties want to address two different issues. That's part of the reason why they can't agree on the solution because they don't agree on the critical problems.
BRIGGS: But you're right about that response. Much of it is just avoiding that Chap Stick moment or the water moment for Rubio, or the awkward Jindal walk up. So, she succeeded in that front I think struck a nice note.
Nathan Gonzales, thank you for joining us this morning. Appreciate it.
ROMANS: Bright and early. He watched the speech not on Twitter, he says, so he was not part of groupthink. He wanted to give us a nice --
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ROMANS: Crisp analysis. Crisp analysis.
All right. Thank you so much. Nice seeing you, Nathan.
All right. So, let's check the president on the economy and the claims he made last night. Jobs are being created but are there as many as the president says there are?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: We have created 5.3 million new jobs and importantly, added 600,000 new manufacturing jobs, something which almost everyone said was impossible to do.
[04:45:02] But the fact is, we are just getting started.
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ROMANS: All right. Crunching the numbers.
The economy has added 4.87 million jobs since President Trump took office. A little bit shy of that 5.3 million claim there. The president also overstated the number of manufacturing jobs created in his presidency. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 454,000 new manufacturing jobs added since the beginning of 2017.
The manufacturing jobs have sped up during the past two years. The reason: a number of factors including falling oil prices, job numbers nationwide. And President Trump's famous deregulation.
BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, the president says without him we'd be at war with North Korea, with millions killed. The second summit of Kim Jong-un is all set. Details from that, live, from Seoul next.
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[04:50:09] TRUMP: If I had not been elected president of the United States, we would right now in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea.
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BRIGGS: Quite a claim from President Trump, using the State of the Union to confirm the second summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The two leaders will meet in Vietnam later this month.
Let's bring in Paula Hancocks live in Seoul, South Korea, for us.
Good morning, Paula.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Dave.
Well, that claim is quite questionable. There are many here in the region that would argue that it was the fiery rhetoric from the U.S. president that really did ratchet tensions up with North Korea. But we do know that that second summit now has a date, 26th, 27th, 28th of February. It will be in February.
We don't have a city. What we have been hearing from U.S. sources, it was going to be Da Nang. The fact that it hasn't been announced today does suggest there's some negotiation behind the scenes. The U.S. special envoy to North Korea, Steve Biegun, is in Pyongyang right now. He is talking to his North Korean counterparts trying to hammer out the details of the summit. South Korea has welcomed it. They said they would like to see
something concrete coming from the next summit. And that's clearly what everybody wants, including longtime North Korean observers saying that the previous one in Singapore ended with a very vaguely worded summit.
But clearly, one thing they can talk about is this confidential U.N. report that is saying North Korea is hiding its nuclear and missile weapons to try to make sure they can't be targeted if the U.S. were to try to target them in the future. That's clearly a topic of conversation for them -- Dave.
BRIGGS: Yes, indeed. Paula Hancocks live for us in Seoul this morning. Thank you.
ROMANS: All right. It's 51 minutes past the hour. A startling admission from the pope. For the first time, he acknowledged priests have sexually abused nuns and action has been taken.
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[04:56:28] BRIGGS: CNN has learned federal prosecutors in New York want to interview top executives in the Trump Organization. The specific subject is not clear, but it's another sign President Trump and people close to him could face legal threats outside of the Mueller probe. The Trump Organization has not responded to CNN's request for comment.
New York prosecutors are conducting at least two Trump-related inquiries, the first possible campaign finance violations, an effort to reimburse Michael Cohen for hush money to payments to silence women in 2016, the second, possible financial abuses by the Trump Inaugural Committee which raised more than $100 million and was subpoenaed Monday.
ROMANS: Former medical school classmates are coming to the defense of embattled Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. A group of them saying they fully believe him that he is not one of the individuals in a racist photo on his yearbook page. They added they don't believe the governor ever condoned racism.
Meanwhile, the woman accusing Virginia's lieutenant governor of sexual assault 15 years ago is meeting with lawyers to figure out her next move. A source tells CNN Vanessa Tyson felt she had to take action when she saw the news about Northam's yearbook and she's worried that Fairfax could become governor. Fairfax calls the allegation totally fabricated.
BRIGGS: For the first time, Pope Francis acknowledging sexual abuse of nuns by priests and bishops. He calls it a problem that the Catholic Church has been worked on for sometime, even suggesting that the abuse may still be going on. Speaking on his way back to Rome from the UAE, the pope said the church has suspended some clerks already. He says something more should be done and a church has the role to do it.
ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning.
Global stock market, mixed after the State of the Union Address last night. You can see that Asian stocks, stock markets closed higher after reopening for the New Year.
On Wall Street, let's take a look, futures right now, down just a smidge. The Dow jumped 172 points Tuesday as Wall Street is recovering from that late 2018 decline. The S&P 500 gained 0.5 percent, rising for the fifth day in a row. Nasdaq climbed slightly as well. All three major averages finished at their highest levels since early December.
There's a good chance hackers already know your favorite passwords. Now, Google has a new free tool to let you know when your log-in information is exposed. Google Chrome users can download the password check up extension which will monitor log-ins on various websites. When someone logs with a username and password that Google knows has been compromised, it triggers a warning that prompts the user to change the password.
Password and user names will be encrypted so Google will not be able to see them itself. This is a chronic problem. As life gets more easy because of technology, it gets more difficult because of technology.
BRIGGS: Story of our lives.
EARLY START continues right now, with reaction from the Trump State of the Union speech.
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TRUMP: If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.
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BRIGGS: The president's calls for unity, a speech laced with partisan notes. Highlights and reaction to the State of the Union, right now, and the moment that really caught the president off guard. Why he was applauded by all of the Democrat ladies there in white.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: Those women thanking him for their jobs, helping get them elected.
BRIGGS: I don't think he gets that.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday, February 6th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.
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