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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
GOP Urging Trump to Take Border Security Deal; NYPD Detective Killed By "Friendly Fire"; McConnell to Call Senate Vote on Green New Deal; "El Chapo" Found Guilty on All Counts. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 13, 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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[04:30:28] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not happy about it. It's not doing the trick.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Will President Trump sign the border deal and find another way to pay for his wall?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will tell you that this appears to be an absolute tragic case of friendly fire.
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DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: A New York City police detective shot and killed in a chaotic armed robbery scene.
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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: I want to give everybody an opportunity to go on record.
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ROMANS: A Senate vote would force Democrats to take a stand on their ambitious Green New Deal.
BRIGGS: Plus, one prominent Republican's plan for the wall, make El Chapo pay for it.
Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: Clever.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: Practical? I don't know.
BRIGGS: Unrealistic. But --
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour.
Just two days left until a second partial government shutdown and Republicans are openly pushing for President Trump to accept this border deal they negotiated. The president himself hinted he's leaning that way.
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TRUMP: I don't think you're going to see a shutdown. I wouldn't want to go to it now. If you did have it, it's the Democrats' fault. And I accepted the first one. And I'm proud of what we've accomplished.
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BRIGGS: So what exactly did the president accomplish? He originally wanted $5.7 billion for 234 miles of border barriers. Last December, he turned down Democrats' offer of $1.6 billion for just 65 miles of barrier. And now, Republicans are urging him to take even less, $1.375 billion for 55 miles.
But even if the president takes that deal, he still has a few cards up his sleeve in the form of executive actions to fund barrier construction without congressional appropriations.
CNN's Jim Acosta has more from the White House.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine, the president says he's not a big fan of this bipartisan agreement coming down from Capitol Hill to provide security on the border and some border fencing. But at this hour, it appears that the president is going to sign this agreement. We talked to a White House official who said the president is likely to sign this deal, although aides stressed, the president and other top White House aides are still going over what is exactly over this bipartisan agreement.
But as the president was meeting with his cabinet earlier in the day, he registered his complaints about this agreement. Here's what he had to say.
TRUMP: I have to study it. I'm not happy about it. It's not doing the trick. But I'm adding things to it, and when you add whatever I have to add, it's all -- it's all going to happen when I'm going to build a beautiful, big, strong wall that's not going to let criminals, and traffickers, and drug dealers and drugs into our country.
ACOSTA: And the president is getting par less than what he originally wanted from the wall. He wanted something in the neighborhood of $5.7 billion. The bipartisan committee on the border security bill, they've only come back with something less than $1.4 billion, that's a lot less than he expected.
But the president and his advisers are looking at new areas of the administration where they can draw money to continue building the wall. But at this point, some of that could be subject to legal challenges in the courts, and the Democrats have said if the president goes that route and declares a national emergency, they'll take him to court -- Christine and Dave.
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ROMANS: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks for that.
The prospect of another government shutdown has lawmakers on both sides urging the president to get on board with the deal.
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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Please, Mr. President, no one got everything they wanted in this bill, but sign it and don't cause a shutdown.
MCCONNELL: I hope he signs the bill. And check it. I think he ought to feel free to use whatever tools he can legally use to enhance his effort to secure the borders.
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ROMANS: The White House is considering several executive action options to find other funding for the border wall. That could take money earmarked for military construction. Of course, that would require national emergency declaration. They could take money from the Army Corps civil works funds, but that would come at the expense of national disaster repairs. Pentagon counter narcotics funds, treasury forfeiture funds, these are all places they could try to find money.
BRIGGS: Fox News host and frequent presidential adviser Sean Hannity again blasting the border compromise deal.
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SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: The so-called compromise is typical of the D.C. sewer and swamp and its level of funding for security and safety for the American people is pathetic.
The president would need to declare a national emergency. This is the time. That is a necessity. And the president, I think I know him pretty well, telegraphed that very thing just today.
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[04:35:01] BRIGGS: Conservative Ann Coulter tweeted this, Trump talks a good game on the border wall but it's increasingly clear he's afraid to fight for it. Call this his yellow new deal.
Here's what "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board thinks of conservative TV's influence on this president. They write: The restrictionist talk-show right is trashing the deal and Mr. Trump's grousing Tuesday may reflect that criticism. But these are the same critics who have coaxed Mr. Trump to crash one immigration dead end after another. They seem to think Mr. Trump's duty is to fail repeatedly in the service of the politically impossible. The next time they give good advice will be the first time.
ROMANS: Ouch.
BRIGGS: Wow.
ROMANS: All right. Tax season is here. We're learning more about how badly the government shutdown hurt the internal revenue service. A watchdog report details big service delays and backlogs at the IRS after the shutdown. A report shows a backlog of 5 million pieces of unsorted mails and details phone wait times calling them abysmal. After the shutdown ended, 93 percent taxpayers calling to make payment arrangements, 93 percent after the shutdown still unable to speak to a live person.
The watchdog group said the five weeks could not have come for the first time for the IRS, facing its first filing season implementing a massive new tax law with a completely restructured tax form.
Last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin thanks the Treasury and IRS employees who've been working so hard to ensure the system is processing these returns efficiently. But this is why, ladies and gentlemen, that shutdowns are stupid, even five weeks later, still having trouble getting some --
BRIGGS: Nobody wins in a shutdown.
The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee is not too happy with Michael Cohen. Senator Richard Burr insisting any good will his panel may have had for the president's former lawyer is now gone after Mr. Cohen postponed his scheduled appearance at a hearing Tuesday morning.
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SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: He's already stiffed us on being in Washington today, because of an illness. You have -- on Twitter, a reporter reported he was having a wild night out Saturday night out in New York with five buddies. He didn't seem to have any physical limitations. And he was out with his wife last night.
I would prefer to get him before he goes to prison. The way he's positioning himself not coming to committee, we may help him go to prison.
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BRIGGS: Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis firing back. He says in a statement: Despite Senator Burr's inaccurate comment, Mr. Cohen was expected to and continues to suffer from severe post-shoulder surgery pain. The medication Mr. Cohen is currently taking made it impossible for him to testify this week. We believe Senator Burr should appreciate that it is possible for Mr. Cohen to be in pain and still have dinner in a restaurant. This photo of Michael Cohen greeting friends and dining Monday night at the upscale restaurant is not helping his cause with the Senate Intel chairman.
ROMANS: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell planning to force Democrats to take a public stand on a sweeping change in climate change and overhaul. The Republican leader announcing he will set a floor vote on the so-called Green New Deal co-authored by House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey.
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MCCONNELL: It will give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal.
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ROMANS: Green tie and a sly smile.
Republicans aim to make the green new deal a ski 20 campaign issue. They're going to paint it as a costly unworkable socialism, a takeover of basically the economy. The proposal calls for a shift away from fossil fuels. Complete shift away from fossil fuels and throws in a variety of social justice initiatives.
BRIGGS: Most Democrats in the Senate who are running or thinking of running for president support the initiative to varying degrees. Senator Amy Klobuchar who just declared said she will co-sponsor the Green New Deal.
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SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm in favor of it simply because I see it as a framework to jump-start a discussion. I don't see it as something that we can get rid of all of these industries or do this in a few years. That doesn't make sense to me. Or reduce air travel. But what does make sense to me is start doing concrete things and put some aspirations out there on climate change.
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BRIGGS: Some have been more cautious like Ohio's Sherrod Brown who said Tuesday he supports a green new deal but hasn't decided how he would vote on this measure.
ROMANS: All right. Breaking overnight, a shooting leads to one New York City police officer dead and another wounded in what officials say looks like a tragic case of friendly fire. Officers were responding to a robbery call at a cellphone store in Queens last night. Within two minutes, they opened fire on a 27-year-old suspect.
Audio from the chaotic scene captured on police radios. You can hear the wounded officer letting dispatch know he's been hit.
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[04:40:00] POLICE OFFICER: Shots fired, shots fired.
Be advised, I'm shot. Perp's still in the location. Please set up a route going to Jamaica.
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ROMANS: You heard the wounded officer say going to Jamaica. That's a reference to the Jamaica Hospital.
Killed in the gun fire, 42-year-old detective Brian Simonsen, a 19- year veteran of the department. He was shot in the chest and pronounced dead at the hospital.
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JAMES O'NEILL, NYPD POLICE COMMISSIONER: Make no mistake about it, friendly fire aside, it's because of the actions of the suspect that Detective Simonsen is dead.
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ROMANS: The unidentified suspect is described as a 27-year-old career criminal. He was shot multiple times. He is in the hospital. According to police, an imitation firearm is found at the scene.
Just a tragedy there. Our hearts go out to NYPD and the Simonsen family.
Indeed they do. All right. Ahead, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz grilled on CNN about his independent bid to topple President Trump.
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POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: If you do run and the numbers don't add up your way and it looks like it would mean a second term for the president, would you commit to dropping out?
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BRIGGS: His answer, next.
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[04:45:17] BRIGGS: Four-forty-five Eastern Time. And former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has not yet entered the 2020 presidential race. But Democrats see him as a potential threat who can help president Trump win re-election. Schultz is exploring an independent run for the White House. And at a CNN town hall last night, he essentially dodged the question of whether he would drop out, if it looked like he was helping the president get a second term.
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HOWARD SCHULTZ, EXPLORING INDEPENDENT PRESIDETIAL RUN: If the math didn't tally up when I get to the next three or four months and I take my message out to the American people. And I continue to talk this way about how concerned I am about the country and how I think we can do so much better under a different process, if the numbers don't add up, I will not run for president, because I will not do anything whatsoever to re-elect Donald Trump.
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ROMANS: Senator Cory Booker who announced he's running for president said he will look to women first for a potential running mate if he ends up clinching the Democratic nomination.
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SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that you will rarely see a Democratic ticket without gender, race diversity. I think it's something we should have. So, I'm not going to box myself in. But should I become -- you know I'll be looking to women first.
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ROMANS: Booker noted he believes a woman should already be president and he tried hard to make that happen.
BRIGGS: Senator Amy Klobuchar revealing her responding on the president's attacks. He lashed out on Twitter on her shortly after she announced her bid for president.
Here's what she told CNN.
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KLOBUCHAR: It's a case by case, and you certainly don't want to go down every rabbit hole with him. Now, in my case, I welcome being called the snow woman. I thought it was a pretty cool title myself. So, I was more than glad to respond.
I think those decisions have been made on a strategic basis. He wants to dominate every news story. He wants to get himself in news stories and that's just strategy.
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BRIGGS: Klobuchar responded to a report that former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid rebuked her for mistreating her staff. She tells Fox News that neither she nor Reid recalled that conversation.
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KLOBUCHAR: Yes, I can be a tough boss and push people, that's obvious, that's because I have my expectations of myself, I have high expectations of those that work with me, and I have a high expectations for our country.
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BRIGGS: This programming note. Amy Klobuchar will take part in a CNN presidential town hall next Monday in New Hampshire. The Democratic candidate will field questions from voters and from CNN's Don Lemon. He's going to moderate. That's Monday night at 10:00 p.m., only on CNN.
ROMANS: All right. Nikki Haley is back in the spotlight, the former ambassador to the U.N. honored last night by the Jewish federation of Greater Miami. And despite a lot of conjecture, she made it clear she's not considering a primary challenge to President Trump in 2020.
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NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: I can promise you, I'm too young to stop fighting. Because we have press in the back of the room, no, that does not mean I'm running for president.
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ROMANS: Republican megadonor Paul Singer organized last night's dinner honoring her. That fueled speculation the South Carolina governor might be thinking of taking on the president.
BRIGGS: Sounds like she's got a run in her future at some point, doesn't it?
Former astronaut Mark Kelly announcing his Democratic campaign in 2020. In his announcement, Kelly appears with his wife, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords who survived the shooting in 2011.
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MARK KELLY, FORMER ASTRONAUT: I learned a lot from being an astronaut. I learned a lot from being a pilot in the Navy. I learned a lot without solving problems from being an engineer. But what I learned from my wife is how you use policy to improve people's lives.
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BRIGGS: The 54-year-old Kelly enters what is sure to be a competitive race, vying for the late John McCain's Arizona Senate seat. Martha McSally was appointed to fill that seat until the 2020 election. Reuben Gallego, congressman, in Arizona, looks like he's leaning towards running as well. So, that's going to be a tough primary.
ROMANS: All right. Big news on the U.S.-China trade front. U.S. trade negotiators arriving in China overnight for another round of trade talks ahead of the March 1st deadline. And what is the president saying about that deadline? Did he just blink?
CNN Business is next.
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[04:54:07] BRIGGS: A notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman could now spend the rest of his life behind bars in the U.S. He was convicted Tuesday on his federal trial on ten counts against him including a main charge of running a continual criminal enterprise.
More now from CNN's Brynn Gingras.
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BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, it's that first count of leading a criminal enterprise that might have been the most complex for jurors when they deliberated for the last six days, considering weeks and weeks of testimony and a lot of evidence and the very dense case that the prosecution put on.
And now, it's that first count that also carries a life in prison sentence. But the judge is going to make the final determination for El Chapo in June. As far as reaction in the courtroom, our producer was there from day one, and she says he didn't give much of a reaction when the jurors came back with a guilty verdict on all counts verdict.
[04:55:02] He smiled at his wife who has also been in the courtroom throughout this entire trial.
Going behind closed doors, his lawyers say El Chapo is upbeat and that he is a fighter. As for the U.S. attorneys, they say this is a victory on the war on drugs, again, sentencing is going to be held later this year -- Christine and Dave.
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ROMANS: All right, Brynn. Thank you so much for that.
El Chapo is once on "Forbes" magazine list of billionaires. Now, after the drug kingpin's conviction, Texas Senator Ted Cruz is proposing a new funding for the border wall, have El Chapo pay for it. Federal prosecutors are seeking $14 billion in profits from El Chapo who says that money should go toward securing the southern border. He's calling on his Senate colleagues to pass the El Chapo Act, legislation that Cruz first introduced in 2017.
BRIGGS: Los Angeles police still trying to determine why a woman with a baby in her car, drove right through the front doors of a station house. It happened early Saturday morning in San Pedro. After speaking to an officer in the lobby for about a minute, the unidentified woman slammed the car in reverse and tried to back out. She hit a table and nearly knocked the officer down. The outside barrier stopped her and she was taken into custody.
Every year this time, Madison Square Garden goes to the dogs. This morning, a wire fox terrier named King is the king of the 143rd Westminster Dog Show.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The wire fox terrier is the winner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The wire fox terrier is king again!
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: King becomes the 15th wire fox terrier to be named America's top dog. That is far more than any other breed.
ROMANS: All right. Parents of American preschoolers say their kids are taking on British accents thanks to TV's Peppa pig.
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MOMMY PIG: What's wrong, Peppa?
PEPPA PIG: I can't, but everybody else can.
MOMMY PIG: Never mind, I'm making cookies.
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ROMANS: Moms and dads are sharing on twitter that their kids are taking on Peppa. Some taking on the snort, dubbing it the Peppa effect. It's a phenomenon on the tele, here in the U.S., and its YouTube channel has 7 million subscribers. Even CNN business digital correspondent, our friend Paul La Monica, admitted on Twitter that he and his son adopted the accent and snort.
BRIGGS: All right. Why did I stay up so late? The Devils made me do it. Second ranked Duke and the Blue Devils staging an epic comeback to beat Louisville last night. The Devils erased a 23-point second half deficit to win the game 71-69. Freshman superstar Zion Williamson not pictured here, led Duke to 27 points.
The come back, the biggest in Coach K's career at Duke, the second largest in school history.
ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning.
Stock markets around the world are higher, encouraged that President Trump could delay that March 1st deadline with China for a trade deal.
Taking a walk around the world, you can see Asian markets are higher. So, are European markets, they opened slightly higher.
Now, Wall Street futures are leaning higher. The Dow snapped a four- day losing streak, and rising 1.5 percent. And the Nasdaq and S&P 500 also up 1.5 percent.
A good mood all around. Signs Congress and the White House may avert another government shutdown, and oil stocks rose by a bounce in crude oil, U.S. crude oil prices up, after OPEC said it would cut production.
President Trump said he's willing to stretch that March 1st deadline with China if the two sides are close to reaching a deal in their trade war.
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TRUMP: China wants to make a deal very badly. I want it to be a real deal, not just a deal that makes -- you know, cosmetically looks good for a year.
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ROMANS: A team of negotiators arrived in China overnight for round three of trade talks ahead of that deadline.
President Trump has threatened to increase the 10 percent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent if no deal is reached. The president said he expects to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss a final deal.
All right. More evidence of just how strong this job market is, at the end of the year, 7.3 million job openings, the most in a decade. The Labor Department notes job creation particularly strong in construction, in accommodation, food services. Manufacturing jobs, though, fell.
Another way to look at it, at the worst of the recession, there were almost seven unemployed people competing for each open job. Look at the far right now. That is remarkable, less than one job seeker for every job opening. That is as close as you can get to full employment.
That is a beautiful chart. I can remember in 2010, reporting on that chart, except you only had it topped up there at 7. That was a sign of how desperate it was.
Every person looking for a job had to beat out at least six other people to get the job. That was really hard. Today, things are a lot better.
BRIGGS: One the president would like.
EARLY START continues right now with the latest congressional compromise.
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