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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

The White House Defending The President's Emergency Declaration To Build The Border Wall; Did An Actor Stage An Attack He Claims Made Him The Target Of Trump Supporters?; American Aid Has Arrived At The Venezuelan Border. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired February 18, 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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STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE AID: You don't know what you don't know. You don't catch what you don't catch.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The White House Defending the president's emergency declaration to build the border wall. Efforts to block the move will escalate today.

ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF FBI: He said I never get searched when I go into the White House. I could easily wear a recording device. They wouldn't know it was there.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: The former number two of the FBI says the president's own words are the reason for investigations launched against him.

SANCHEZ: American aid has arrived at the Venezuelan border but now the struggle begins to get it to people who need it.

ROMANS: And did an actor stage an attack he claims made him the target of Trump supporters. Police forces of Chicago said they believe he did. Welcome back to Early Start (inaudible). I'm Christine Romans. Nice to see you today.

SANCHEZ: Great to be here with you, Christine. I'm Boris Sanchez in for Dave Briggs. We're about 31 minutes past the hour and the White House is going all out in defense of President Trump's national emergency declaration.

It's the opening round of what is sure to be a prolonged battle over funding for a border wall; involving fights in the courts and in Congress. Today, the progressive group Move On is sponsoring hundreds of protests nationwide. They're aimed at stopping what the group is calling Trump's dangerous and illegal power grab.

ROMANS: The meantime, California's attorney general working with at least six other states and a law suit to stop the declaration. They say it will be filed imminently. In a combative Sunday interview on Fox News, White House aide and immigration hawk, Stephen Miller insisted this emergency is real.

Host Chris Wallace pushed back with government statistics that show otherwise. This was Miller's counter move.

MILLER: The problem with the statement that you're apprehending 80 or 90 percent of drugs at ports of entry that's like saying you apprehend most contraband at TSA checkpoints at airports.

You apprehend the contraband there because there where you have the people that's where you have the screeners. I assure you if we had people of that same density. And screeners of that same density across every single inch and mile of the southern border, you would have more drugs interdicted in those areas. You don't know what you don't know. You don't catch what you don't catch.

ROMANS: Miller also seemed to struggle to name a precedent for diverting billions of dollars in funding that Congress previously denied.

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX ANCHOR: Can you name one case where a president has asked Congress for money. Congress has refused and the president has then invoked national powers to get the money anyway.

MILLER: Well, this current situation ...

WALLACE: Just yes or no sir.

MILLER: The current situation pertains specifically to the military construction authority.

WALLACE: I'm just asking ...

(CROSSTALK)

When Congress asked for money for military construction, Congress said no and he then ...

MILLER: The -- the meaning of statute, Chris, is clear its own terms. If you don't like the statute or members of Congress don't like the statute ...

WALLACE: Would you agree the answer is no, there hasn't been single case like this.

MILLER: But the premise of your question's also false because Congress appropriated money for construction of border barriers consistently. This is part of a national security mission.

WALLACE: But it has never done this under a national emergency where president ...

MILLER: We've declared -- but we've declared national emergencies to promote democracy in Belarus. To promote democracy in Zimbabwe.

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: To affect money that Congress refused to appropriate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Under the emergency declaration, a major source of money to be siphoned for building the wall is from the defense department. Over the weekend, active defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan said he's going to start looking for military projects that could be delayed or cancelled to free up those funds.

Now all eyes are on the president's republican allies in Congress. Many spoke out against the emergency declaration before the president signed it. Now they have to turn around and defend the declaration form a bipartisan effort to stop it because House democrats have already begun working on a resolution of disapproval.

ROMANS: Former FBI chief Andrew McCabe says Trump's own words led the FBI to launch counter intelligence and obstruction probes into the president. The Bureau's former acting director telling 60 Minutes FBI officials took note of the derogatory way the president had been speaking about the Russia probe. He said they viewed that as an attempt to quote, publicly undermine the investigation.

SANCHEZ: Yes. McCabe said officials weighed a series of dubious events. Many have been reported publically including the president asking James Comey to drop the FBI investigation and the former national security advisor Michal Flynn, the president publically linking the Comey firing to the Russia probe and the president meeting in the Oval Office with Russian officials telling them that firing Comey relieved great pressure.

ROMANS: McCabe told -- told CBS rather, Rosenstein was absolutely on board with launching investigations into the president. McCabe also added details to the claims Rosenstein offered to wear a wire into the White House.

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MCCABE: We talked about why the president has insisted on firing the director and whether or not he was thinking about the Russia investigation and did that impact his decision. And in the context of that conversation, the deputy attorney general offered to wear a wire into the White House.

He said I never get searched when I go into the White House. I could easily where a recording device, they wouldn't know it was there. Now, he was not joking. He was absolutely serious and in fact he brought it up in the next meeting we had.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: As CNN has already reported, Rosenstein denies pursuing any recording and a source in the room for the conversations says Rosenstein was being sarcastic. Also Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham says his panel will investigate McCabe's claim that Rosenstein raised the possibility of ousting President Trump through the 25th Amendment. Graham calls the statement beyond stunning.

SANCHEZ: The alleged hate crime attack against "Empire" actor, Jussie Smollet, is looking more and more like a hoax. Two law enforcement sources tell CNN Chicago police believe the actor paid two men to orchestrate an assault.

Smollet's attorneys firmly deny that claim but two brothers who were arrested last week were released two days later with police citing new evidence in the case. Here's CNN's Ryan Young in Chicago.

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RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: According to a source familiar with the investigation, we now know that detectives have obtained and are examining the cell phones of the two brothers they suspect that Smollett paid to orchestrate the attack.

The source also tells us that the two men are now cooperating fully with law enforcement. And in a statement to CNN Saturday, Smollett's attorneys wrote in part, as a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by the recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with.

He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that say Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying.

As a group of detectives continue to work the case, Chicago police did confirm to us that information received from the brothers has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation adding that they have reached out to the actors attorney to request a follow up interview. They would not comment if they still consider the actor a victim at this point. Boris and Christine.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Ryan following that for us claims Jussie Smollett may have orchestrated the attack has democratic hopefuls, presidential hopefuls facing some questions.

Many of them were very quick to respond when it appeared the actor was a victim of a hate crime. Cory Booker said this last week on the Senate floor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CORY BOOKER, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Less than two weeks ago and actor and activist was brutally attacked in Chicago. Two men yelling racial and homophobic epiphytes.

ROMANS(voice over): On Sunday though, Booker had little to say about it.

BOOKER: Well, the information is still coming out. I'm going to withhold until all the information actually comes out from on the record sources. I'm following this in the news as you are and we'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The program you note on the 2020 democratic race, Amy Klobuchar will field questions tonight from New Hampshire voters and from our moderator John Lennon at a CNN presidential town hall tonight at 10 eastern only on CNN.

SANCHEZ: Hundreds of people attending vigils this weekend in Aurora Illinois for the victims of a work place shooting on Friday. Five people were killed including an intern showing up for his first day of work.

Five police officers were injured. A group of Aurora residence and supporters from nearby towns held a prayer service Sunday outside the manufacturing company where the shooting took place. They carried crosses for the victims to the Aurora police department from there.

The police say the gunman Gary Martin brought a pistol to his termination meeting on Friday. He worked at the company for 15 years and after learning that he had been fired, he opened fire on co- workers. He was then killed by police.

ROMANS: All right. 39 minutes past the hour. Florida inmates caught on video breaking into a car but it's not what you think. Just who was inside that car next.

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SANCHEZ: Disgraced former New York Congressman Anthony Wiener has been released from federal prison. He's going to serve out his time at a halfway house in Brooklyn. Wiener is sentenced back in 2017 to 21 months for sexting with a minor.

He served about 15 months in prison before his transfer, and his sentence had already been reduced for good behavior. The former congressman is set for a full release on May 14. Wiener will be subject to three years of supervised release, and he's also going to have to register as a sex offender.

ROMANS: New York Mayor Bill de Blasio attacked Amazon again for walking away from plans to build HQ two in New York.

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MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, D-NY: They said they wanted a partnership, but the minute there were criticisms, they walked away. What does that say to working people that a company would leave them high and dry, simply because some people raised criticisms?

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: No response from Amazon about de Blasio's latest remarks. You know, the backlash over the Amazon headquarters, exposing a rift among Democrats in New York. In a statement, Governor Andrew Cuomo blamed New York State Senate leaders for pushing Amazon away.

The New York State Senate has done tremendous damage. They should be held accountable for this lost economic opportunity. But Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez celebrated this decision as a victory for members of the community who protested the deal. Amazon plans to move forward with its second headquarters in Virginia.

SANCHEZ: A Florida 6th grader is facing misdemeanor charges. And it all started after the 11-year-old refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The child attends Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland.

He told his teacher he didn't want to stand for the pledge, because he thinks the flag and the national anthem are racist against black people. School officials say the situation escalated, with the student at the dean and the resource officer who came into the classroom.

ROMANS: Again, this is an 11-year-old. According to an affidavit, the student accused them of being racist and refused to leave the room. Here's the child's mother.

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DHAKIRA TALBOT, STUDENT'S MOTHER: I want the charges dropped, and I want the school to be held accountable, any officer, for what happened, because it shouldn't have been handled the way that it was handled. My son has never been through anything like this. And I feel like they should've handled this differently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So Lakeland police say the student was not arrested for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance; that was based on - the arrest was based on the 11-year-old's choice, they say, to disrupt the classroom. I'll say it again, this child was 11-years-old.

SANCHEZ: 11-years-old. Yes. Thousands of teachers in Oakland, California are said to strike on Thursday. They're demanding higher wages and more investment in the city's schools. Oakland teachers have been working without a contract since 2017, and the Union president says many can no longer afford to even live in the city.

A spokesman for the Oakland School says they agree that teachers do deserve to be paid more; it's just a matter about how much more they can be paid. Oakland would be the latest city or state to face teacher strikes since last year.

ROMANS: Some Florida work release inmates putting their skillset to good use after a couple accidentally locked their baby inside their SUV - panic. They couple told police they couldn't afford to hire a locksmith, and they were about to break the driver's side window. Before they did that, five low-risk offenders and a sheriff's duty supervising them came to the rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, thank God. Woo. Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice job, boys.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I appreciate it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The baby was fine. Afterwards the sheriff joked that "people can break into vehicles only when a deputy is around and we give permission."

SANCHEZ: Chaos rains of the Daytona 500, NASCAR's season opening and biggest event. The race was marred by a serious of late wrecks, including the big one that took out 21 cars, and caused a 25-minute delay to clean up the track.

The crash-packed final stage forced the race into overtime. It was eventually won by Denny Hamlin, collecting his second Daytona victory in just four years. Sunday's chaos resulted in the fewest number of cars finishing the Daytona 500 since 1985.

ROMANS: But the winner of the NBA All-Star games/dunk fest, team LeBron for a second straight year.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Lebron's squad beating Team Giannis 178 to 164 in Charlotte. Kevin Durant was again named All-Star MVP. As usual, plenty of All-Star highlights, none more spectacular than this - Steph Curry's bounce pass, alley-oop to Captain Giannis. That one stole the show.

Donald Trump admits he has discovered collusion, and the guilty party is the cast of SNL. It all started Saturday night when the show opened with Alec Baldwin, as the president, predicting how his national emergency declaration will turn out. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: I'm basically taking military money so I can has wall. So I'm going to sign these papers for emergency, and then I'll immediately be sued, and the ruling will not go in my favor. And then I end up in the Supreme Court, and then I'll call my buddy, Kavanaugh. And I'll say, "It's time to repay the Donnie." And he'll say, "New phone, who dis?"

And then the Mueller report (ph) will be released, accompanied by House of Cards (ph), and then I could just plead insanity and do a few months in the puzzle factory. And my personal hell of playing president will finally be over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: It appears that got under the president's skin. The next morning, he sent out this tweet, quote, "Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live. How do the networks get away with all these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real collusion." Baldwin fired back with this tweet, quote, "Trump wines, the parade move on. #resignalready."

ROMANS: What does he mean they should be looked into? I mean, he runs the federal government. Is he threatening some sort of action against NBC?

SANCHEZ: He may launch his own sketch show.

ROMANS: Maybe. All right, Uber suing New York City over that temporary cap on new vehicle licenses. CNN Business is next.

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ROMANS: In just hours, President Trump speaks at Florida International University about the ongoing turmoil in Venezuela. Now the U.S. has made it clear it recognizes Juan Guaido as interim president.

As pressure intensifies on embattled leader Nicolas Maduro, more than one million people in Venezuela have already made their way to Columbia and this border town is feeling the strain, people in desperate need of medical care and more.

SANCHEZ: On Saturday a wave of U.S. aid arrived at the border but Maduro resisted the international help. Republican Senator, Marco Rubio visited the Venezuela/Columbian border on Sunday. He said the supplies would get in with or without Maduro's approval.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

MARCO RUBIO, (R) FLORIDA: Well look, the aid is going to get through and I think ultimately the question is whether it gets through in -- in -- in a way that he's cooperative with or in a way that he's not. But there's no way you're going to stand ultimately in the way of a people who's children are starving to death, who's families are dying in hospitals because of preventable diseases and they don't have the medicine for it.

(END VIDEO)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Nick Valencia has the latest from Miami.

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NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boris and Christine, U.S. officials say that this humanitarian aid is coming at the most critical time. A time when children in Venezuela are starving. Children who don't have to. Hospitals are struggling to stay open.

And according to the administrator for USAID, Mark Green, this is now a regional crisis and it's become one of the largest displacements of people in the history of Latin America.

However, there is some concern now that the U.S. is involved in this crisis that it could provoke an already unpredictable Venezuelan president and Nicolas Maduro could do something very drastic. It's something that I posed to the State Department's Julie Chung, who helped lead this mission.

JULIE CHUNG, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY: If anyone's politicizing the crisis it's Maduro. We are doing is addressing the basic needs -- the basic humanity needs that all the crisis is creating in Venezuela. So the whole world is watching but not only watching, the whole world is going to act and it's up to Maduro and his regime -- and his illegitimate regime to really let the aid in.

VALENCIA: When and how this aid gets delivered will ultimately be left up to the Venezuelan military. Now, I spoke to a representative from interim President Juan Guiado's government who said that they believe the Venezuelan military will do the right thing, the moral thing and allow this aid in. They say those military families are affected by this crisis as well. Boris, Christine.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SANCHEZ: Thanks Nick. President Trump is calling on European nations to take in hundreds of ISIS fighters who have been captured in Syria and put them on trial. He's warning more than 800 prisoners could make their way to Europe as ISIS is ready to fall.

And if they are not tried in Europe the president claims the alternative will be to release them. All this coming in a time when Syrian democratic forces are struggling to retake the last ISIS enclave in Syria. Listen to the top U.S. general for the coalition talking about the complexities of finishing this job.

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LT. GEN. PAUL LACAMERA, INHERENT RESOLVE COMMANDER: It's an active battle. I mean they could capitulate while we're sitting here or it could be several days. I mean there's a lot of fog and friction on the battlefield. I mean we were moving at a pretty good clip three or four days ago.

And then the amount of displaced civilians that were starting to come out, civilians -- fighters that were trying to infiltrate or exfiltrate (ph) out with families; we slowed it down so that we could do the proper screenings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And even when the caliphate is destroyed, the ISIS threat will continue. Listen to this, a military official tells CNN more than a thousand ISIS fighters have likely fled into the remote mountains and deserts of western Iraq and they may have up to $200 million in cash with them to finance future operations.

ROMANS: Over the tense calm in Haiti, a protestor is hitting pause after 11 days of deadly demonstrations with the country crippled by runaway inflation and alleged corruption, demonstrators are demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise.

But he is refusing to step down. In one of Port-au-Prince's main business districts, civilians are scrambling to find food and water. Many of them demanding Haiti's constitution and leadership be thrown out.

Two dozen Canadian missionaries and another group of nurses are among the visitors stranded there. All right, let's get in (inaudible) business this morning. Global markets are mostly higher as trade talks move to Washington this week.

You can see that Asian stocks moved up. London is mixed with Paris and Frankfurt and Wall Street is closed today for President's day. The DOW climbed 444 points. That's 1.7 percent on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent.

The NASDAQ up as well marking a six day winning streak protect stock. So another good week for the DOW. For the overall week, the DOW up 3 percent for the week. Its eighth straight weekly rally.

The longest winning streak since the fall of 2017. NASDAQ up 12 percent so far in 2019. The Spoke Investment Group says the S&P 500 has its best start to the years since 1991 boosted by the suddenly patient Federal Reserve and those U.S./China trade talks.

And more good news. Mortgage rates fell to a 12 month low. Freddie Mac has a 30 year fixed rate mortgage now averages 4.37 percent down just slightly from a year ago. It's the end of an era; Payless is going out of business after more than 60 years of selling discount shoes. Payless will close all of its stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

More than 2,000 of them. The retailer known for its buy one, get one free sales had a strong following but not enough to keep it afloat. Liquidation sales began yesterday and stores will begin closing in March, though most will stay open until May.

Payless also plans to shutdown its online store. Reuters reports Payless could file for bankruptcy for a second time by the end of the month. And Uber is suing New York City over its temporary cap on a new vehicle licenses for ride hailing companies to address traffic congestion.

In a complaint filed Friday, Uber asked that New York City remove the cap so it can continue adding new vehicles to the road to support demand. Uber claims the city plans on making the cap permanent.

New York passed the one year freeze on new for hire vehicle licenses back in August. Deputy -- the deputy press secretary for the mayor's office said Friday this, no legal challenge changes the fact that Uber made congestion on our roads worse and paid their drivers less than a living wage. The city's new law aims to change that.

SANCHEZ: The first hour down, the next hour to go. Early Start continues right now.

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