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Lawmakers Cut A Deal To Avoid A Government Shutdown; Trump's El Paso Wall Push Countered By A Potential 2020 Challenger; New Dangerous Teenager Trend Vaping Is The New Smoking. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired February 12, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), A.L.: We've reached an agreement in principle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, HOST, CNN NEWS: Lawmakers cut a deal to avoid a government shutdown, but will President Trump approve?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES: Walls save lives.
BETO O'ROURKE, FORMER REPRESENTATIVE (D), T.X.: Walls do not save lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, HOST, CNN NEWS: The president's El Paso wall push countered by a potential 2020 challenger less than a mile away.
ROMANS: The government warning of a dangerous teen trend, vaping is the new smoking.
BRIGGS: Plus a small town invaded by, you're looking at it, polar bears. Good morning everyone, welcome to EARLY START, happy snow day for many of you out here on the East Coast. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: Yes, good luck finding something to do with your kids today. I'm Christine Romans, it is Tuesday, February 12th, it is 4:00 a.m. in the East. Congressional negotiators say they now have the outline of a border security deal that would avert a government shutdown.
The four lead bipartisan negotiators emerging from talks last night, they declined to get into specifics. But Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby told reporter, quote, "we got an agreement on all of it".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHELBY: Our staffs are going to be working feverishly to put all of the particulars together, and that's all we can tell you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
A democratic source tells CNN the deal includes about $1.4 billion for 55 miles of new barriers in the Rio Grande Valley. That's well short of the $5.7 billion President Trump was demanding for a border wall.
The deal also contains funding for nearly 41,000 beds ICE can use to detain undocumented migrants, short of the 52,000 the White House wanted and the same as current funding levels.
BRIGGS: One major irony here in this deal is that the funding for a border barrier is only slightly more than current funding, about $1.3 billion. The original Senate bill, which President Trump rejected was for $1.6 billion. Later, Vice President Pence sought $2.5 billion, which Democrats rejected and Trump said he would not accept anyway.
And now we're back almost where we started with a deal for $1.375 billion. Got the numbers? OK, good. The ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Patrick Leahy, said the agreement is the product of compromise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), V.T.: There's a not a single one of us that's going to get every single thing we want, but nobody does, but we're going to get what is best for the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
A deal still needs to be turned into legislation, that will have to pass the House and Senate, but the big wild card here is whether President Trump will actually sign it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the White House support this agreement?
SHELBY: We think so. We hope so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: We hope so. President Trump kicking off his 2020 campaign at a rally in Texas last night. He said he had been made aware of the border deal but wasn't interested in the details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We probably have some good news, but who knows, who knows. We'll - we're - we're setting the stage, folks, you know what it's called, right? It's called we're setting the stage, we're setting the table, we're doing whatever we have to do. The wall's being built.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
If the phrase setting the table sounds familiar in this context, it should. The president used it two weeks ago telling the New York Times he thought congressional negotiations were pointless.
He telegraphed the likelihood he would declare a national emergency and try to use his executive authority to spend military dollars on a border wall.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) set the table for emergency declaration?
TRUMP: I've set the table, I've set the stage for doing what I'm going to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you'll wait out the 21 days before you take (inaudible).
TRUMP: Yes, I'm going to wait until the 15th. I think it's a waste of time.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
CNN has learned the White House is mulling one other option, taking whatever law makers come up with and using executive authority to build additional barriers. A White House official says they are keeping their options open.
BRIGGS: The president's most loyal allies are slamming the bipartisan border security deal. Sean Hannity already predicting Mr. Trump will reject it. The Fox News host has the president's ear and he railed against the agreement last night, tossing in this blunt message for any Republican who backs it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, HOST, FOX NEWS: If you are a Republican senator or House member and you're too weak to take a stand, then it's probably time for you to retire. Go home, let somebody who's willing to fight take your place.
$1.3 billion, that's not a - and not even a wall, a barrier. I'm going to settle this tonight and we will get back into this tomorrow. Any Republican that supports this garbage compromise, you will have to explain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
More resistance to the deal coming from the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Chairman Mark Meadows says, quote, "hardly a serious attempt to secure the border". And Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio tweets while the president was giving a great speech in El Paso, Congress was putting together a bad deal on immigration.
ROMANS: All right, the president ignore the facts and doubling down on his claim that a border wall led to a decrease in crime in El Paso.
[04:05:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I've been hearing a lot of things, oh, the wall didn't make that much of a difference. You know where it made a big difference? Right here in El Paso. I spoke to people that have been here a long time, they said when that wall went up, it's a whole different ball game.
But I don't care whether a mayor is a Republican or a Democrat, they're full of crap when they say it hasn't made a big difference. I heard the same thing from the fake news, they said oh crime actually stayed the same. Didn't stay the same, went way down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
No it did not. From 1993 to 2006, crime in El Paso dropped 34 percent. Later in 2008, construction started on a border fence, mean time from 2006 to 2011, violent crime in El Paso actually went up 17 percent.
City officials in El Paso, Republicans and Democrats appear fed up with this president's misrepresentations. They passed a resolution on Monday saying they are disillusioned by President Trump's lies regarding the border and our community.
They are offering to meet with Mr. Trump so he can become, quote, "properly informed".
BRIGGS: Possible Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke slamming the president's call for a border wall at his own march in just a few hundred yards away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'ROURKE: Oh this is inspiring, this is the border standing up for itself, this is El Paso telling our story. No one can tell it better than we can. Safe, strong, secure community, that's who we are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Later, O'Rourke told supporters, El Paso was a safe city, not because of its border wall, but in spite of it. He says treating each other with dignity and respect is the key to security.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'ROURKE: We stand for America and we stand against walls. There is no bargain in which we can sacrifice some of our humanity to gain a little more security. We know that we deserve and will lose both of them if we do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'Rourke says he'll announce whether he's running for president by the end of February. ROMANS: All right, the governor of California doing what he can to
tweak U.S. border policy. Gavin Newsom issuing an executive order to withdraw - to withdraw roughly two thirds of the state's National Guard troops now deployed on the Mexico border.
Newsom says he will not participate in what he calls the Trump administration's absurd theatrics around border security.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), C.A.: The whole thing we've allowed ourselves - we've been sucked into this vortex of - of the absurd, and I want to get out of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Newsom did acknowledge some troops are doing good work fighting drug crime, he plans to keep 100 of California's National Guard troops on the border to work with the federal government.
BRIGGS: An apology from Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. The freshman Democrat facing a backlash for tweets condemned by both parties as anti-Semitic. Omar suggesting U.S. support of Israel is fueled by political donations from a prominent pro-Israel group.
She apologized in a tweet saying my intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole. We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me for my identity, this is why I unequivocally apologize.
At the same time, I reaffirm that problematic rule of lobbyists in our politics, whether it be APAC (ph), the NRA or the fossil fuel industry has gone on too long, and we must be willing to address it.
ROMANS: All right, the deadline for the U.S. and China to reach a deal in their trade war quickly approaching, but the pain of tariffs has so far been invisible to consumers. The consumer price index fell slightly in December.
The reason, the duty hasn't been passed onto consumers if importers or retailers decide to absorb some of the added cost, which many did, heading into the holiday season. Now business owners across the country are waiting to hear how trade talks between U.S. and Chinese negotiators go when they meet this week in Beijing.
President Trump has threatened to increase the 10 percent tariff he has placed on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent if a deal is not reached. If talks go well, the tariffs might be lifted altogether.
Now the administration strategically put the highest tariffs on imports mostly used in the production of other items. The president's tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum imports began in March.
Duties on Chinese goods began in July. China's retaliatory tariffs have hurt U.S. farmers harder than consumers, farm bankruptcies are at the highest level in at least a decade. And I'm telling you, progress or a step back from progress is really what's been driving the sentiment (ph) on Wall Street.
So far they're hopeful that there could be some progress.
BRIGGS: Deadline is rapidly approaching. Ahead, President Trump trading shots with new Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, butting heads over this Green New Deal. That's next.
ROMANS: Plus, why the government says tobacco use is spiking again among teens.
[04:10:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRIGGS: 4:14 Eastern time, President Trump's 2020 campaign kick off last night in El Paso, Texas, featured his signature stream of consciousness adlibs, including a number of remarks that lit up the internet.
Among them, he attacked a sweeping agenda rolled out last week by progressive Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Last week they introduced a massive government takeover that would destroy our incredible economic gains. They introduced the so- called Green New Deal. It sounds like a high school term paper that got a low mark.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
The main spokeswoman for the Green New Deal, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez immediately returned fire. She tweeted, ah yes a man who can't even read briefings written in full sentences is providing literary criticism of a House resolution.
[04:15:00]
The president also mused about keeping a dog in the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn, would that be - right, sort of not for - I don't know, doesn't - I don't feel good. Feels a little phony - phony to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
The president is notoriously averse to pets, told the El Paso crowd I wouldn't mind having one. That happened, Romans. That - that -
ROMANS: What's wrong with Fido? All right, Democratic senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Kamala Harris taking on internet memes that question where she was born and raised and questioned her racial identity, is she black enough.
Harris confronted her critics on the syndicated hip-hop call in show "The Breakfast Club".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, CO-HOST, THE BREAKFAST CLUB: Another meme says Kamala Harris is not African American, her parents were immigrants from India and Jamaica and she was raised in Canada, not the United States. And it said fact, that's what the meme said.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), C.A.: So I was born in Oakland.
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Yes.
HARRIS: And raised in the United States except for the years that I was in high school in Montreal, Canada. And look, this is the same thing they did to Barack.
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Yes.
HARRIS: This is - this is not new to us and so I think that we know what they're trying to do. They're trying to do what has been happening over the last two years, which is powerful voices trying to sow hate and division among us.
And so we need to recognize when we're been played.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Oh my gosh, there is so much garbage on social media. She also had to respond to this - this criticism on social media for marrying a white man. She - I mean literally there is criticism that she is married to a white man.
BRIGGS: Yes, because she went to a historically black college I hear.
ROMANS: And there are - people are saying that somehow - how can you be a proud black woman and marry a white man, she said I love my husband and he loves me.
BRIGGS: We'll get to policy at some point as we -
ROMANS: It's just social media is such a sesspool -
BRIGGS: -- near 2020.
ROMANS: -- it really is. And then it - when it becomes part of the storyline, I mean that's what really bothers me.
BRIGGS: Best to ignore it. This programming note tonight on CNN, a presidential special town hall live from Houston, former Starbucks CEO Independent Howard Schultz talks to Poppy Harlow about the 2020 election.
That's tonight, 10:00 p.m., right here on CNN. ROMANS: All right, to Denver now, Denver teachers and school
officials returned to the bargaining table this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We used our teacher voice, you left us no choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Talks broke down over the weekend, teachers walked off the job on Monday, instead of cancelling classes, the school system called in substitute teachers, now that's raising some concerns about safety.
Fifty-six hundred teachers in Denver's 160 schools are demanding higher pay to compete with salaries paid to suburban teachers.
BRIGGS: The vaping epidemic among teenagers has grown to the point that it has wiped out any progress on declining youth tobacco use in recent years. The CDC says the number of teen tobacco users has skyrocketed by 1.3 million, which it tied directly to the popularity of vaping.
The CDC specifically singled out e-cigarette giant Juul as a contributing factor. It says 2018 saw the biggest jump in teen tobacco use since survey started 20 years ago. The CDC estimates more than one in four high school students use some form of tobacco at least once a month.
That is disturbing.
ROMANS: It really is.
BRIGGS: Hopefully these changes as to how it can be marketing and where it can be sold, maybe they help, may be too late.
ROMANS: And I think parents really need to look, it looks like a little USB, but you know you got kids as young as 5th grade and 6th grade who are hooked on these things. Super high concentration of nicotine, just tough.
All right, 18 - 19 minutes past the hour. Up next, something we very rarely see, snow in Hawaii. That is Maui, folks.
BRIGGS: And the invasion of polar bears.
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[04:20:00]
ROMANS: A historic winter storm pounds Hawaii with dangerous gale force winds, massive waves and snow in some very unusual places, at least one death blamed on the storm. A wind gust of 191 miles an hour was reported, the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii's big island.
This storm bringing a rare snowfall to Maui and officials say snow may have fallen at the lowest elevation ever observed in the state.
BRIGGS: Meantime, Seattle still reeling from what seems to be never ending snow and bitter cold. But there may be some relief in sight, schools across Washington state we closed Monday due to the storms.
The Seattle metro area has already experienced three snow storms this month. According to the National Weather Service, the Sea-Tac Airport has had more than 14 inches of snow in February, that is more than twice the annual average.
The annual average, February is the snowiest month in decades.
ROMANS: The Cleveland Browns are giving disgraced running back Kareem Hunt a second chance. Hunt was released by the Kansas City Chiefs back in November after that video surfaced of him shoving and kicking a woman last year at a Cleveland hotel.
The NFL placed Hunt on the commissioner's exempt list just before his release, he's not eligible to play until the league completes its investigation and decides on potential discipline.
The 23 year old Hunt has reportedly been undergoing alcohol and anger management counseling. Brown's G.M. John Dorsey says the former star running back is working toward being a better man going forward.
[04:25:00]
BRIGGS: Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Kyler Murray going all in for football, Murray announcing on Twitter that he will fully commit to playing in the NFL over Major League Baseball.
The Q.B. who has faced questions about his relatively small size suddenly becomes the main attraction at the NFL scouting combine later this month and a very intriguing prospect in the April draft.
Murray's move is a big blow to the Oakland A's, they drafted Murray and signed him to a $4.5 million contract back in August, he will be giving that money back and making some big bucks as a first round pick.
ROMANS: All right, a mass invasion of polar bears is threatening a remote Russian town, the arctic community with a population of about 2,500 people is swarming with dozens of polar bears, invading schools and residential areas.
Parents say they're afraid to send their children to school. I mean look at the stroller in the hallway there. They're afraid to send their kids to school or to even leave their homes. Experts say melting ice has forced the polar bears to migrate and hunt for food now on land.
The World Wildlife Fund has set up patrols in the Russian community to prevent fatal encounters.
BRIGGS: They're beautiful, but one of the most deadly, dangerous animals on the plant. All right, ahead, a new deal to prevent a government shutdown. Will President Trump like this agreement? More on what's in it next.
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[04:30:00]
