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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Democrats Call Trump's Bluff; Gun Hearing Takes Heated Turn; Pompeo: ISIS Remains Threat Despite Losing Ground; Former New York Times Editor Accused of Plagiarism; Dallas Trades Harrison Barnes Mid- Game. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired February 07, 2019 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:01] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: It is taking on over the globe, folks. So just allow it.
EARLY START continues right now.
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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: The American people have a right to know and indeed have a need to know that their president is acting on their before.
DOANLD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is called presidential harassment.
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BRIGGS: So much for unity, huh?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. That didn't last long. Democrats defy the president with aggressive new investigations after the president warned against it.
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REP. MATT GAETZ (D), FLORIDA: The system allows people to come here violently, we engage --
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BRIGGS: A congressman uses a gun violence hearing to push for a border wall. Parents of Parkland shooting victims not having it.
ROMANS: The president touts territorial gains over ISIS, but the secretary of state admits that the threat remains. We're live in the Middle East.
BRIGGS: And former top editor at the "New York Times" accused of plagiarism. Jill Abramson says she will review passages from her new book. And in case you didn't know, long slogan in the state of Virginia,
Virginia is for lovers. Well, "The New York Post" has a new twist on that, Virginia is for losers.
We'll have the latest on the debacle facing the Democrats there.
Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. Nice to see you all this morning. It is Thursday, February 7th. It's 5:00 a.m. in the East.
House Democrats now starting to flex their new power in earnest. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff announcing an aggressive investigation into whether President Trump's business and financial interests are driving his decisions. The probe will go beyond contacts between Trump's team and Russia, it will include whether foreign interests hold any kind of leverage over the president or anyone in his orbit, whether anyone is at a risk of manipulation from abroad and whether anyone who tried to obstruct the investigations.
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SCHIFF: The American people have a right and indeed a need to know that their president is acting on their before and not for some pecuniary or other reason. That pertains to any credible allegations of leverage by the Russians or the Saudis or anyone else.
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BRIGGS: The president dismissed the new investigation saying Schiff had no basis for it.
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TRUMP: He's just a political hack who is trying to build a name for himself. It is called presidential harassment. And it is unfortunate. And it really does hurt our country.
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BRIGGS: The move came less than 24 hours after President Trump warned in his state of the union address against Democratic probes.
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TRUMP: 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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BRIGGS: Only about 18 months ago, the president gave a similar signal against investigating his finances.
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SCHMIDT: Mueller was looking at your finances, your family's finances unrelated to Russia, is that red line?
HABERMAN: Would that be a breach of his actual charge is?
TRUMP: I would say yes. I would say yes.
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ROMANS: Federal prosecutors in Manhattan may pose a bigger threat to the president than Robert Mueller. The Southern District of New York is specifically looking at Mr. Trump's finances and it has already enlisted cooperating witnesses like his former lawyer Michael Cohen and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.
Democrats circling the president in other ways. House hearings are scheduled today on Mr. Trump's tax returns and on family separations at the Mexican border. And a session set for tomorrow to question Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. Democrats will ask about his decision not to recuse himself in the Russia probe among other things.
BRIGGS: House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler says that he will have a subpoena in his pocket just in case Whitaker refuses to answer questions. Also, House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters says her panel is in talks to bring in Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, they want to talk to him about lifting the Russia sanctions on companies connected to oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
A bipartisan group of 17 lawmakers is making progress on a deal to head off another government shutdown next week. But a source tells CNN no one is certain what the president will sign. The White House is staying out of the talks to this point. The deadline is next Friday, but negotiators want to get the deal done this week to give Congress and president enough time to process it.
Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is scheduled to meet with the group this weekend at Camp David and still warning the president could use executive authority.
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MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: If it comes to this, find the money that we can spend with the lowest threat of litigation and then move from that pot of money to the next pot that maybe brings a little bit more threat of litigation. And then go through the budget like that.
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ROMANS: The 17 lawmakers met with Customs and Border Protection officials on Wednesday. They agreed the best way to occur secure the border is to marry new technologies to additional personnel and new barriers, but they disagree about how to do that.
[05:05:01] CNN has learned the government shutdown ended after just ten air traffic controllers stayed home on January 25th, the 35th day of that impasse. The absence of just ten, those few workers, six in Northern Virginia, four in Florida, temporarily shut down travel at New York's LaGuardia while causing delays at other major hubs.
BRIGGS: Tension at a congressional hearing on preventing gun violence. Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida using the hearing to actively campaign for the president's border wall. And it didn't go over well with some in attendance.
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GAETZ: HR-8 would not have stopped many of the circumstances I raised, but a wall, a barrier on the southern border may have. And that is what we're fighting for.
We have an immigration system violently. We engage in --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There will be no comments or demonstrations, please.
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ROMANS: Gaetz's comments angering the fathers of two victims of the Parkland school massacre, Manuel Oliver and Frank Guttenberg.
At one point, Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline posed this question.
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REP. DAVID CICILLINE (D), RHODE ISLAND: Is there any committee rule that prevents a member of Congress from reciting false statements in a committee hearing that are unsupported by the evidence? That are unsupported by the evidence or are members of Congress entitled to just make things up?
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ROMANS: The House Judiciary Committee has been hearing testimony on a measure that would require background checks for all gun sales and most gun transfers.
BRIGGS: Not one, not two, but all three top officials in Virginia all Democrats now embroiled scandal. Attorney General Mark Herring admitted that he appeared in blackface at a party dressing up as a rapper when he was 19 years old. Herring calls it a one-time occurrence caused by an inexcusable lack of awareness.
Governor Ralph Northam still refusing to resign over the racist photo on his med school yearbook page. He met with black leaders yesterday.
ROMANS: And Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax facing sexual harassment allegations. His accuser, Vanessa Tyson, claims Fairfax assaulted her at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. We have now learned she told Virginia's Democratic Congressman Bobby Scott about the allegation a year ago. Aides to Scott tells CNN the congressman did not learn of the full scope until Wednesday when Tyson released a graphic statement about her encounter with Fairfax.
More now from Ryan Nobles.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, we had thought that things couldn't get much worse here at Virginia state capital, but Wednesday proved us very wrong. The accuser of the lieutenant governor, Dr. Vanessa Tyson, released a very lengthy statement where she talked in specificity about the alleged incident in which she says that the lieutenant governor who was then an aide to senator John Edwards forced her to perform oral sex on him.
Now, the lieutenant governor says this is not true and, in fact, we have been told in private meetings he has been vehemently denying the claims and launched into an expletive laden attack against Ms. Tyson and her supporters. Still, this is something that is rocking the capital.
In fact, a very influential Democratic congresswoman, Jennifer Wexton, who was just recently elected in the wave of Democratic women to Congress, she was once a state senator here in Virginia, she served with Justin Fairfax. She tweeted yesterday, I believe Dr. Vanessa Tyson.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers attempt to find some way to get the business of this government complete -- Dave and Christine.
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ROMANS: All right. Ryan, thank you for that.
If somehow the scandal brings down Virginia's top three government officials, a Republican would take the state's top office. Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox is fourth in line for governor.
BRIGGS: Planet Earth just emerged from the fourth hottest year ever recorded, according to the NASA and the National Oceanic and atmospheric Administration. That means 18 of the hottest 19 years have occurred since 2001. The warming driven largely by increased carbon monoxide emissions and other greenhouse gases caused by human activity.
Many countries suffered through extreme weather and climate events in 2018, but the U.S. was hit particularly hard. There were 14 separate weather and climate disasters that caused $1 billion in damage or more last year.
ROMANS: All right. Wall Street waiting for the Federal Reserve to decide when and if it will raise interest rates this year. And this from the former Fed Chief Janet Yellen, getting a lot of attention on CNBC yesterday, when she said the Federal Reserve could decide to cut rates next.
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JANET YELLEN, FORMER FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: If global growth really weakens and that spills over to the United States or financial conditions tighten more and we do see a weakening in the U.S. economy, it is certainly possible that the next move is a cut.
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[05:10:01] ROMANS: Yellen's remarks come after the Fed kept interest rates steady and floated the idea it might be done considering any rate hikes this year. A few weeks, it has suggested as many as two rate increases were on the table.
Now, Yellen mentioned several risks that could affect the U.S., including weak economic data from China and Europe, uncertainties about trade policy, Brexit. Current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell recently said that the decision on rates requires patience and denounced any idea that the Fed was caving to political pressure by taking the more dovish approach to interest rates.
Certainly, when the market was falling apart in December, one of them of the big concerns was rate hikes.
BRIGGS: Right.
ROMANS: The economy is strong. We're going to keep raising interest rates. That's going to derail the stock market rally. Now, the stock market is sort of telling you, hmm, maybe the Fed is going to stand back.
BRIGGS: Now is not the time.
All right. Ahead, it looks like a serial killer in Toronto was nabbed with his next victim already tied up in his home. The stunning twist, ahead.
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[05:15:12] TRUMP: It should be formally announced sometime probably next week that we will have 100 percent of the caliphate.
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BRIGGS: President Trump touting territorial gains against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, praising the U.S. military and its allies in remarks to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS at the State Department. The president did not mention the diplomatic policy implications of his decision to pull American troops out of Syria while the secretary of state did.
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MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: ISIS remains a dangerous threat in territory it does not control.
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BRIGGS: CNN's Arwa Damon is live for us in Istanbul this morning.
Good to see you, Arwa. Is there daylight between what the two are saying or are they lined up?
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, there is daylight between a lot of unfortunately what comes out of this current White House which is why so many allies' heads are spinning at this stage, and really questioning how much they can rely on the United States when there is so much conflicting information coming out of it.
Pompeo's comments most certainly were much more nuanced and really exhibited a greater ending of the threat that ISIS can pose, because even though it will lose its territorial footprint, it still maintains a digital one, it still has sleeper cells not just in Iraq and Syria, but potentially spread in Europe and Asia and elsewhere.
There are some analysts that will tell you that the caliphate, ISIS, has been readying itself for this very moment, the moment that it would be eventually losing its territory, yet it has a plan in place to continue to be able to terrorize the world, continue to be able to go after and exploit vulnerable populations. And the issue right now is with the loss of territory to ISIS inside both Iraq and Syria, you have created dynamics where you have vulnerable population who need to be supported by the U.S. and military officials at the upper echelon will tell you that right now actually, when you win the physical battle right now, that's when you really have to gear in for the bigger fight. And at this stage, it doesn't seem as if president or America has a plan to do that.
BRIGGS: Pompeo reminding everyone this is not the end of America's fight in those comments yesterday. Arwa Damon live for us in Istanbul, thank you.
ROMANS: All right. Warriors superstar Kevin Durant blasting reporters claiming they can't be trusted. What is bothering him?
Coy Wire has this morning's "Bleacher Report", next.
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[20:22:13] ROMANS: A stunning revelation in the case of a serial killer in Toronto. When police moved into arrest Bruce McArthur last year, they found a man tied to his bed alive. Searching McArthur's hard drive for evidence, police found eight folders labeled with the names and photos of McArthur's victims, and a ninth folder had the name of the man tied to the bed.
The details revealed as McArthur was sentenced for luring the man to his home and strangling, dismembering and burying. McArthur who also worked as a mall Santa pleaded guilty last month, Dave.
BRIGGS: Officials in Key West, Florida moving to ban the sale of some popular sunscreens to protect the coral reef. The city commission voted to ban those containing oxybenzone or octinoxate chemicals, shown to damage coral reefs. Up to 70 percent of sunscreens on the U.S. market contain oxybenzone, including products from Neutrogena, Coppertone and Aveeno. The ban won't take effect until January 2021.
The city can't keep visitors from bringing banned sunscreens to its beaches. It can only discouraged it.
ROMANS: Wear rush guard, cover up.
Late last night, former "New York Times" executive editor, Jill Abramson, tweeted that she is reviewing passages in her new book after being accused of plagiarism. Just hours earlier, Abramson rejected the claim she lifted parts of her new book "Merchants of Truth" from other works.
Those allegations made by Vice News tonight correspondent Michael Moynihan. He tweeted several examples where Abramson's language was a close match to phrasing that first appeared elsewhere. Moynihan says he stumbled on the issue while fact checking the book which profiles for outlets Vice, BuzzFeed, "Times" and the "Washington Post."
BRIGGS: All right. Time for the "Bleacher Report."
The NBA trade deadline is this afternoon. The Dallas Mavericks couldn't wait until their game was over to make a move.
Coy Wire has more in the "Bleacher Report."
Good morning, buddy.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Dave. I hate to tell you this, but right now, you are done, you're going somewhere else and do your job.
Life comes at you fast if you ask Harrison Barnes. He was in uniform for the Mavericks win over the hornets while the front office was working on a deal to send him to the Kings. They came to an agreement during the second half while he was on the floor on his way to 10 points on the night. He was told during a time-out.
After that, he stayed on the bench while his now former teammates finished out the game. Barnes didn't talk to reporters afterwards.
And the in-game trade caught LeBron James' eye. He wants the narrative to change around the trade deal. He posted in part: When a player wants to be traded or leaves a franchise, he is selfish, ungrateful player. But when they trade you, release, waive, cut, et cetera, it's best for them. Talking about the team.
All right. Rumors have been swirling that the Warriors have already made decisions about superstar Kevin Durant's future with the team. He is a free agent after the season and many speculate that he will go to the Knicks.
Well, he ripped reporters for the rumors after Golden States' win over the Spurs last night.
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KEVIN DURANT, WARRIORS FORWARD: Come on, man. Grow up. Grow up. I don't trust any of y'all. Every time I say something, it gets twisted out and thrown out in so many different publications trying to take me down, with my words that I say.
So, when I don't say nothing, it's a problem. I just want to play ball. I want to go to the gym and go home. That's all. Is that problem? All right then.
REPORTER: How are you playing? How is the team playing last couple weeks?
DURANT: I'm done.
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WIRE: That's it. I'm out, I'm done he says.
All right. Finally, what do you do if you know your wife is going into labor but you're supposed to play in the biggest game of the year? If you are Joe Day and you have your wife's blessing, you take the chance that you will make to the hospital on time. As soon as the cup ended, he high tailed it to the hospital. But his wife Lizzy and his beef twin girls, Sophia Grace and Amelia Lily, couldn't wait.
Dad's team won 2-0. Mom says that is two for two girls. And they will now take on Manchester City a week from Saturday.
I don't know. Hi, Dave, you're no longer there.
BRIGGS: You said I got traded, but apparently no one would take me. They tried to trade me, there were no takers. Sorry, boss.
WIRE: Sorry Christine, you're stuck with Dave.
ROMANS: I don't know what I would do about --
BRIGGS: Not going back to bed yet.
ROMANS: I don't know about the babies. I don't know if I'd let my husband not be there for the babies.
BRIGGS: All right. Coy, thank you.
Roman?
ROMANS: All right. Twenty-six minutes past the hour.
The president used his State of the Union to warn against investigations and now Democrats are calling his bluff. New probes into Trump, his inner circle, his tax returns, his border policies and more.
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