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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Lawmakers Trying To Cut A Deal To Put Off Another Government Shutdown; Vaping Is On The Rise; The President's Most Loyal Allies Are Slamming The Bipartisan Border Security Deal; Hawaii, A History Winter Storm Pounding The Island With Dangerous Gale Force Winds, Massive Waves, Snow In Some Very Unusual Places. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 12, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've reached an agreement in principle.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Lawmakers cut a deal to stave off a government shutdown, but will President Trump approve.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Wall save lives.
BETO O'ROURKE, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Walls do not save lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The president's El Paso wall push countered by a potential 2020 challenger less than a mile away.
BRIGGS: The government warning of a dangerous teen trend. Vaping is the new smoking.
ROMANS: Plus, these military rations feeding more than troops, they're also feeding viral speculation that the guy on the left looks like the Commander in Chief.
(LAUGHTER)
I don't know.
BRIGGS: I was staring at that ...
ROMANS: I know we ...
BRIGGS: ... let's put that back up there.
ROMANS: Everyone is talking about it. I don't know if I -- I don't know if I see it. I don't know if I see it.
BRIGGS: I see it. I definitely see it. Who's on the right, we'll get into that later, because that looks like someone pretty popular in this country. ROMANS: All right, we'll see.
BRIGGS: Welcome back to Early Start. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour.
BRIGGS: The Congressional negotiators say the 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 the details but, Senate Appropriation Chairman, Richard Shelby told reporters, quote, "We got an agreement on all of it."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: Our staff's are going to be working feverishly to put all the particulars together and that's all we can tell you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: 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 his 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.
ROMANS: When major irony in this deal is that the funding for a border barrier is only slightly more than current funding, which is about $1.3 billion. The original Senate bill, which President Trump rejected, well, that was for $1.6 billion. Remember later, Vice President Pence sought $2.5 billion, which Democrats rejected and now we are back almost where we started with a deal for $1.375 billion.
The Ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Patrick Leahy, said, the agreement is the product of compromise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: There's not a single one of us is 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)
ROMANS: The deal still needs to be turned into legislation that will have to pass the House and Senate. The big wild card 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) BRIGGS: We hope so. President Trump kicking off his 2020 campaign at a rally in Texas, said he'd been made aware of the border deal but wasn't interested in the details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Well, we probably have some good news, but who knows? Who knows? We'll -- 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)
BRIGGS: So, if the phrase, setting the table, sounds familiar in this context, it should. The president used it two weeks ago, telling "New York Times" he though 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 the border wall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... set the table for (inaudible).
TRUMP: I've set the table, I've set the stage for doing what I'm going to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you wait out their 21 days before ...
TRUMP: Yes, I'm going to wait till the 15th. I think it's a waste of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: CNN learning the White House is mulling one other option, taking whatever lawmakers come up with and using executive authority to build additional barriers. White House officials says, they're keeping their options open.
ROMANS: 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 of course and he railed against the agreement last night, tossing in this message for any Republican who backs it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: 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?
[04:35:00] That's not a -- 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)
ROMANS: More resistance to the deal coming form the Conservative House Freedom Caucus. Chairman Mark Meadows says it is, 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.
BRIGGS: The president ignoring the facts and doubling down on his claim that a border wall led to a decrease in crime in El Paso.
(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 were 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. It didn't stay the same. It went way down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: No, it did not. From 1993 to 2006 crime in El Paso dropped 34 percent. Later, in 2008, construction started on a border fence. Meantime, from 2006 to 2011 violent crime in El Paso actually went up 17 percent. This all according to the FBI.
City officials in El Paso, Republicans and Democrats appear fed up with the president's misrepresentations. They passed a resolution Monday saying they are disillusioned by President Trump's lies regarding the border and our community.
They're offering to meet Mr. Trump so he can become, quote, "Properly informed."
ROMANS: All right, just a few hundred yards away from where the president was speaking, possible Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke and his own march and rally, slamming the president's call for a border wall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'ROURKE: Oh, this 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)
ROMANS: Later O'Rourke told supporters El Paso was a safe city not because of it's 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 loose both of them if we do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: O'Rourke says he will announce whether he is running for president by the end of February.
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 the problematic role of lobbyist in our politics, whether it be AIPAC, the NRA or the fossil fuel industry. It's gone on too long and we must be willing to address it."
ROMANS: All right, the change to state and local tax deductions in tax reform last year, public officials in high tax states very concerned. A growing trend of big earners are packing up and moving south to Florida to escape the repeal of the so-called salt deductions.
Last week New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: Top 10 percent, 74 percent of all the revenue. Tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich. We did. Now, god forbid, the rich leave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: New -- now Governor Cuomo is planning to meet with President Trump in Washington today. He will go to D.C. today to talk about removing that cap on salt deductions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: But to me there is no more vital long-term issue for the state from a financial point of view than salt. What it does is, it has created two different tax structures in this country and it has created a preferential tax structure in Republican states.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The 2017 tax law limits state and local tax deductions to just $10,000. That's driving big earners from high tax New York and New Jersey to places like Miami.
[04:40:00]
The cap has been strongly opposed by Democratic and the Republican lawmakers from states like New York and New Jersey and California, frankly where they are worried the cap will hurt their constituents.
It'll be a shock in their shock reform - I think their tax attorneys will be shocked this year.
BRIGGS: Yes. Real estate values really have been suffering in the region as well because of it. It had President Trump trade shots with new Congresswoman. AOC butting heads over the green new deal.
ROMANS: Plus why the government says tobacco use is spiking again among teens.
(COMMERCIAL)
BRIGGS: President Trump's 2020 campaign kick off in El Paso, Texas featured his signature stream of consciences ad-libs (ph) including a number of remarks that lit up the internet. Among them, things that he attacked a sweeping agenda rolled out last week by progressive Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Last week, they introduced a massive government take over that would destroy our incredible economic gains. They introduced the so called green new deal.
[04:45:00]
(BOOING)
It sounds like a high school term paper that got a low mark.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The main spokeswoman for the green new deal, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, immediately returned fire tweeting, "Ah yes, a man who can't even read briefings written in full sentences is providing literary criticism of a House resolution".
The President also amused 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....
(APPLAUSE)
Trump: ... right. Sort of not for (ph) - I don't know. Doesn't - I don't feel good - feels a little phony - phony to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The President, who is notoriously adverse to pets told the El Paso crowd, "I wouldn't mind having one".
ROMANS: I don't get the scrutiny about the pets. Pets or no pets, doesn't matter - doesn't matter.
BRIGGS: We'll explain later.
ROMANS: Doesn't matter. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio heading to New Hampshire Friday as he rolls (ph) a possible run for President in 2020. De Blasio first speaks at Harvard's Kennedy School government Thursday and then travels on to Nashua and Concord, New Hampshire to meet public officials and progressive leaders.
Last month de Blasio declined to come out and say he is running, but told CNN's Jake Tapper he does want a voice as Democrats shape their agenda.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: I want to push this whole party and I want to inform this debate in this country about the fact that we could go a lot farther. We could be a lot bolder than what we're doing now.
JAPE TAPPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So you're ruling it out?
DE BLASIO: I never rule things out because you never know what life brings, but I'm focused on the work I'm doing now and getting this message out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A former aid tells CNN, de Blasio is seriously thinking of entering the race but said he - the personality conflicts de Blasio has had with New York media would hang over any possible rule.
BRIGGS: And this programming note, tonight on CNN, a special, Presidential Town Hall live from Houston, former Starbucks CEO Independent Howard Schultz talks to Poppy Harlow about 2020. That's tonight, 10:00 PM right here on CNN.
ROMANS: All right to Denver now. Denver teachers and school officials return to the bargaining table this morning.
That's right talks (ph) broke down over the weekend and teachers walked off the job on Monday. Instead of canceling classes, the school system called his substitute teachers. That's raising some concerns about safety - so many teachers to replace, 5,600 hundreds in Denver's 160 schools want 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 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 1 in 4 high school students use some form of tobacco at least once a month.
The e-cigarettes are...
ROMANS: It's really a problem.
BRIGGS: ... everywhere, even if you don't think your kids are using them they just might be.
ROMANS: Yes, as young as fifth grade, sixth grade.
BRIGGS: I know.
ROMANS: Could Toys R Us make a come back in the U.S.? Its new owners want to bring the brand back. CNN Business is next.
(COMMERCIAL)
[04:50:00]
BRIGGS: ISIS is making its last stand with a surprise counter attack against the U.S. despite being cornered and outnumbered the terror group proving they remain dangerous.
CNN is on the front lines, have witnessed the counter strike, Ben Wedeman live for us in eastern Syria with the latest. Extraordinary to have you there, Ben, good morning.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning Dave. Yesterday there was indeed a massive ISIS counterattack in this last town held by ISIS in Syria, the town of Baghuz in (ph) Fawqani.
When we were there we were taking incoming rounds right over our head. A mortar landed right next to the building we were in and we had to get out of that town in a hurry.
Now since then however, we have seen that the Syrian Democratic forces - those are the Kurdish and Arab forces supported by the United States were able to retain their positions - the positions that they lost in the town.
Thanks, of course to some heavy, heavy airstrikes by the U.S. led coalition as well as a sustained bombardment by British, French, and American artillery and mortars, but this really unscored (ph), Dave, that the fact that ISIS, despite - it is surrounded despite the overwhelming force arrayed against it. They can still amount to these counter attacks.
We understand that there may be another push to try to retake this town. We are hearing, yet again, optimistic forecast that perhaps within the coming days the anti-ISIS coalition will be able to take the town, but really one of the main problems is that they realize, despite the estimates, they said that there were maybe 1,500 civilians inside.
We saw 700 civilians leaving the town just yesterday alone and speaking to the officials dealing with the evacuation of those civilians they now estimate there are thousands of civilians still inside in dire condition.
[04:55:00]
Some of them telling me that they are reduced to eating grain, normally fed to livestock, Dave.
BRIGGS: Just brutal. So fortunate to have you there, though, Ben, stay safe my friend. Ben Wedeman just before noon in eastern Syria.
ROMANS: All right. In Hawaii, a history winter storm pounding the Island with dangerous gale force winds, massive waves, snow in some very unusual places. The storm blamed for at least one death.
A wind gust of 191 miles an hour was reported at the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii's big island. The storm bringing a rare snowfall to Maui, officials say snow may have fallen at the lowest elevation ever observed in this state.
BRIGGS: All right. Take a look at the packaging on ready to eat meals being fed to the U.S. Military. OK, the design features two soldiers sitting face to face.
The man on the left, some feel has striking resemblance to whom? Whom is it, Romans?
ROMANS: Looks like Donald Trump.
BRIGGS: Looks a bit like Donald Trump. How about the man on the right? Well some believe he looks like Kanye West.
West has been an outspoken supporter of the President. Take a look again now. An Army officer named D.J. Kremer posted this picture of brisket in a bag on his Facebook barbeque page and plenty of people commented on the likeness.
The Grammy winner famously visited the President at the Oval Office in October wearing a MAGA hat. Here's the Army's statement.
"This specific image used on packaging of meals ready to eat is representational of America's war, fighters, and has been in use since 2006". The persons pictured do not represent any government officials or entertainment personalities.
ROMANS: Just an interesting, I guess, coincidence and it couldn't be Donald Trump because he never served in the military.
BRIGGS: We know that.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: He had (ph) bone spurs, I believe some have called it.
ROMANS: 57 minutes past the hour. Brisket in a bag that really - that got me this morning.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: Let's check CNN Business. Global stock markets are higher right now. There's optimism about U.S./China trade talks and definitive deal - a tentative has been reached to avoid another government shutdown.
So those are the two factors at play around the world this morning. You can see some significant gains in Tokyo and European markets have now opened slightly higher.
On Wall Street, looks like we're leaning higher here as well, about 150 point gain right now for the DOW if this were to hold over the next few hours.
The DOW fell a little bit on Monday erasing the slight gain it made just after the opening bell (ph). Really an unchanged day I would call this straight down day for the DOW.
The S&P 500 also about flat. The NASDAQ increased just a little bit.
Starbucks is doing well since Howard Schultz stepped down as CEO. Shares with Starbucks hit an all time high Monday and are up more than 20 percent since his departure.
Under new CEO, Kevin Johnson, Starbucks has expanded in China and it boosted it's mobile offers even as China's economy slows down in the wake of trade tensions with the U.S.
Starbucks said at the ends of its last fiscal year 14 percent of its U.S. transactions were done via mobile. To put that into context, rival Dunkin announced that mobile orders made up just 3 percent of its transactions.
Could Toys R Us be making a come back? Its new owners, True Kids Brands, want Toys R Us to come back. Resurrection plans for Toys R Us emerging last month after the last of its stores in the U.S. closed last spring, but it kept 900 stores open in Europe, Asia, and India.
There are plans for the brand to come back to the U.S. with physical stores and online sales, but it's not clear when a re-launch would happen. True Kids Brands, its new CEO told CNN, "we're working 24 hours a day,
7 days a week to bring it to life. At this point, we're not ready to committee to what that might look like". What do you think?
I mean they have such brand recognition. How do you spin that into competition again Wal-Mart's and Amazons and the big...
BRIGGS: In this market place, you tell me. How do they bounce back?
ROMANS: To somehow differentiate the very, very, niche (ph) focus maybe. I don't know.
BRIGGS: All right. EARLY START continues right now with a deal to avert a shutdown.
Lawmakers cut a deal to stave (ph) off a government shutdown, but will President Trump approve?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Walls save lives.
BETO O'ROURKE, (D) TEXAS REPRESENTATIVE: Walls do not save lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Quite a split screen in El Paso. The President's El Paso wall push countered by potential 2020 challenger less than a mile away.
BRIGGS: The government is warning of a dangerous teen trend. Vaping is the new smoking.
ROMANS: Plus, a small town invaded by polar bears. Yes, polar bears. The icecaps are melting. Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs, Tuesday, February 12th, 5:00 AM in the east.
END
