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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
McCabe: Cohen Testimony An "Insider's View"; House to Vote on Stopping Emergency Declaration; Trump Lands This Morning in Vietnam; Univision News Crew Detained in Venezuela; Vatican Treasurer Now A Convicted Pedophile. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 26, 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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[04:31:01] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testifies on Capitol Hill just hours from now.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: And Democratic controlled House votes today on blocking President Trump's national emergency declaration on the border.
ROMANS: North Korea's Kim Jong-un already in Vietnam with President Trump arriving soon for their high stakes summit.
BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, veteran journalist Jorge Ramos and his crew freed after being held against their will in Venezuela. Wait until you hear why.
Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. This Tuesday morning, a very busy week, folks. Nice that you're up early for us. Thirty-one past the hour.
In a matter of hours, Michael Cohen begins three days of potentially explosive testimony on Capitol Hill and what he says could redefine the Trump presidency. The first stop for the president's former lawyer, an appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee this morning. This one will take place behind closed doors. Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in prison for crimes that include lying to Congress.
The president's son Don Jr. appearing on Fox News to drive home that point ahead of Cohen's testimony.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, JR., PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SON: You got a president trying to deal with a major world issue and to try to, you know, distract or whatever it is by bringing in a convicted felon and known liar? I mean, it's pretty pathetic.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe doesn't see it that way. He tells CNN the perspective of the president's former fixer could be critical.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR: I think Mr. Cohen has been in a position to have heard conversations and seen actions taken and maybe be able to provide that sort of insider's view on what the intent of the folks at the center of this investigation truly was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Republicans are sure to take Don Jr.'s lead and hammer Cohen on his credibility. Here's what Cohen told ABC News about his former boss's honesty back in December.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: The man doesn't tell the truth. And it's sad that I should take responsibility for his dirty deeds. I will not be the villain of his story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: A critical week on Capitol Hill for Cohen and his former boss.
More now from CNN's Pamela Brown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Dave.
This is certainly a high stakes week for President Trump. Not only because of the second summit with North Korea in Vietnam, but also because the president's former fixer and attorney Michael Cohen is meeting with three committees both privately and publicly. Now, today, he will meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors, but this, of course, is public testimony in front of the House Oversight Committee that is garnering the most attention and the most anticipation, because Michael Cohen is expected to talk about a breadth of issues related to President Trump -- personal dealings, business dealings outside of the Russia scope.
Whether the president broke any laws, any tax laws, conflicts of interests, the payments to the two women during the election that Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to in the campaign finance violation. There are several areas that lawmakers plan on delving in it. Now, expect Republicans to go after Michael Cohen and his credibility, but no doubt about it, Michael Cohen is one of Donald Trump's closest aides, that will be testifying on Capitol Hill.
Now, it is true that Donald Trump has, of course, distanced himself from Michael Cohen since he pleaded guilty, but that doesn't mean that he won't offer some interesting new information that lawmakers will be asking him about. Now, what will be interesting to see is whether he provides documentation to corroborate some of what he says. Of course he said previously that the president directed him to pay off those two women during the election.
So that is something else to look out for. But certainly there is a lot of anticipation to hear from Michael Cohen on Capitol Hill this week.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Pamela Brown at the White House, thank you, Pamela.
Rod Rosenstein appears to be suggesting that the Justice Department may not be completely transparent with Robert Mueller's report.
[04:35:06] The outgoing deputy attorney general made an appearance last night at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He offered no time line for the special counsel's Russia report. He cautioned the audience about DOJ policy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROD ROSENSTEIN, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: It is a knee jerk reaction to suggest that we should be transparent about what we do in government, but there are a lot of reasons not to be transparent about what we do in government.
Just because the government collects information doesn't mean that the information is accurate and it can be misleading if you are overly transparent about information that the government collects. So, I think we do need to really cautious about that. If we aren't prepared to prove our case beyond reasonable doubt in court, then we have no business making allegations against American citizens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff firing back on Twitter saying this double standard won't cut it. For two years, I sounded the alarm about the DOJ's deviation from just that principle as it turned over hundreds of thousands of pages in closed or ongoing investigations. I warned that DOJ would need to live by this precedent and it will.
Schiff seems to be referring to Justice Department actions during the Clinton e-mail investigation. He has threatened to subpoena both Mueller and the report if it's not released in full.
BRIGGS: House Democrats showdown with president over his emergency declaration comes to a climax today, where Democrats in control of the House is all but certain to pass blocking one of the president's main tools for funding construction of his border wall. From there the resolution of disapproval goes to the Republican-controlled Senate where its fate is far from certain.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has more from Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Dave.
This is just the first step in the pushback coming from Capitol Hill. Later today, the House will be voting on that legislation to try to block President Trump's national emergency declaration to get his border wall. There will be no drama in the House. That will sail right through.
They will send it over to the Senate and that is where there is a big test for Senate Republicans. Many of whom have been very openly critical of this move by President Trump, the question is, will they vote against it, will they defy President Trump? House Democrats rallying support last night on Capitol Hill for them to do so.
JULIAN CASTRO (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There have been many senators, Democrats and also conservative Republicans, who have sounded the alarm about President Trump's declaration. I hope that they will vote their conscience, that they for a moment will put the country above any worry of their own political concerns or futures.
SERFATY: And if this passes in the House and Senate, that will be sent to President Trump's desk for his signature, but he has been very clear in advance of all this that he intends to veto it.
TRUMP: Will I veto it? One hundred percent, 100 percent. And I don't think it survives a veto. We have too many smart people that want border security. So I can't imagine it could survive the veto, but I will veto it, yes.
SERFATY: If he does, the conversation will quickly turn to if they have enough votes on Capitol Hill to override that veto -- Christine and Dave.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRIGGS: Sunlen, thank you.
Another Republican senator announcing plans to vote against President Trump's national emergency declaration for border wall funding. Thom Tillis of North Korea says he favors strong border security, but he's worried that the president has overreached. In a "Washington Post" op-ed, Senator Tillis writes, quote, as a conservative, I cannot endorse a president that I know future left wing presidents will exploit to advance radical policies that will erode economic and individual freedoms.
GOP Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have also indicated they plan to vote to block the emergency declaration.
In just a few hours, President Trump lands in Vietnam for a second high stake summit with Kim Jong-un. The North Korean dictator arrived in Hanoi in a heavily armored train, his preferred mode of travel. The two leaders were planning on build on that first meeting and their agreement to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Senior diplomatic correspondent Michelle Kosinski live this morning in Hanoi with the latest.
Michelle, good morning.
We're hearing less when complete verifiable irreversible denuclearization and now as long as there is no testing, it's enough.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is always a mouthful to say there.
That's right. I mean, it is a mystery as to what could come out of this. There is lots of talk about this being a stalemate really since the last summit in Singapore. North Korea has said before it takes a step, it wants to see some corresponding step by the United States. It wants to see the U.S. make some big move before they do anything towards denuclearization.
So, nobody is expecting to see a big move on the part of North Korea, but could they agree to something much smaller? And I'm talking incremental. It could be something like the U.S. moves on declaring peace on the Korean peninsula.
[04:40:06] Not a peace treaty, not even going that far, but declaring that the war is over.
That would be something big. That would be progress, but more symbolic again than anything towards denuclearization. Or it could be something like the exchange of liaison officers. Again, that is not opening an embassy in each other's countries, but it would be a very preliminary step. It would be a little something that the U.S. gives on, on the way to seeing North Korea take some real step.
No one knows exactly what the outcome is. But the U.S. side has said that it is looking for some progress on each of the things that were agreed upon in Singapore. And there were four parts to that.
As of now, everything is in place. We saw Kim Jong-un arrive. That means that the North Koreans are really showing up this time. There have been other meetings where they just didn't show up. But their leader is in place. All that remains now is for Trump to arrive in a couple hours and then tomorrow, we should see these two leaders begin their summit -- Dave.
BRIGGS: A 60-plus-hour train ride for Kim Jong-un.
Michelle Kosinski, thank you.
ROMANS: Bernie Sanders praising President Trump. It actually happened last night during the Vermont senator's live CNN town hall. Listen to Sanders respond to Wolf Blitzer's question about the wisdom of President Trump's upcoming summit with the leader of North Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nuclear weapons in the hands of a brutal irresponsible dictator is a bad idea. And if Trump can succeed in fact through face-to-face meetings with Kim Jong- un and rid that country of nuclear weapons, that is a very good thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Sanders campaign, by the way, says it has raised $10 million in donations since announcing his candidacy.
BRIGGS: Wow.
President Trump lashing at Senate Democrats overnight for blocking a Republican sponsored abortion bill. The bill would punish any doctor who fails to provide medical care for a child born alive after an attempted abortion. Democrats filibuster denied the measure, the 60 votes needed for a final vote.
The president tweeted apparently from Air Force One on his way to Vietnam: The Democrat position on abortion is now so extreme that they don't mind executing babies after birth.
This will be remembered as one of the most shocking votes in the history of Congress.
ROMANS: All right. Lawyers for Cardinal George Pell are appealing his conviction on child sex abuse charges. Pell was convicted of sexually assaulting two 13-year-old choir boys in Melbourne, Australia, 22 years ago. The jury's guilty verdict was reached in December but remained sealed until Monday.
CNN's Anna Coren live in Melbourne with the latest.
And because of the laws of Australia, so much of this was kept under wraps and now we're learning more.
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Christine. This has been kept under wrap. We've been sitting on this story for the last two months in fact due to a suppression order like a gag order in the United States. There was supposed to be a second trial, that today collapsed and that s why the suppression was lifted, and the world now knows that Cardinal George Pell is a pedophile.
Now, this is going to have reverberations right to the top of the Vatican. The Australian cardinal is the Vatican treasurer, number three in the Holy See and a close adviser, at least up until now, has been a close adviser to Pope Francis. Well, he was found guilty by a jury of 12 Australians unanimously, guilty of sexually abusing children back in 1996 when he was archbishop of Melbourne.
These two choir boys, one of them gave testimony saying that George Pell forced him to perform oral sex on him. He then assaulted both boys indecently a month later, George Pell then groped this choir boy in the cathedral. Now, the other choirboy, he died five years ago from a drug overdose. And that is what prompted his friend to go to police and report this abuse.
So, it was one man's testimony that brought down Cardinal George Pell. As we know, this is extremely timely considering what has taken place in Rome over the weekend, the pope holding this summit on child sexual abuse calling for an all-out battle and describing abusers as tools of Satan. It will be interesting to what he says to Cardinal George Pell. Now, this is somebody who still claims that he is innocent, he has launched an appeal.
And this, of course, is his last night of freedom. Tomorrow morning he will arrive here, he will walk through the doors of Melbourne county court, and then he will be remanded and taken to prison.
[04:45:03] So, tonight, he is enjoying his last night of freedom, Christine.
ROMANS: An unbelievable fall. Thank you so much for that, Anna Coren, for us in Melbourne.
BRIGGS: Back here at home, more than two dozen priests in Iowa are accused of sexually abusing children. The Sioux City diocese publishing the name of 28 priests that says are credibly accused of sexually abusing children. Church officials say the alleged abuse goes back as far as 1948, the latest case, though, in 1995. The priests have not been charged or convicted in any criminal or civil case.
ROMANS: All right. Forty-five minutes past the hour.
Generation debt. Millennials have the most debt in more than a decade for 19 to 25-year-old Americans, debt topped a trillion dollars at the end of last year. The Federal Reserve says that is the highest debt exposure for millennials since the financial crisis late 2007. "Bloomberg" reports the under 35 crowd is spending less because of weakened job prospects, waiting to get married and educational debt.
Student loans the biggest chunk of that trillion dollar followed by mortgage debt. Mortgage debt makes up the vast majority of overall consumer debt, but student loan debt is growing the fastest. "Bloomberg" reports since 2009 mortgage debt increased 3.2 percent while student loan debt grew 102 percent.
BRIGGS: Wow. Ahead, a TV anchor held against his will overnight in Venezuela is now free. What happened to Univision's Jorge Ramos?
ROMANS: And the tweet that may have landed Tesla's Elon Musk in trouble again.
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[04:50:44] BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, a team of Univision journalists has been released after being detained briefly at the presidential palace in Venezuela. The network says the crew of six including veteran anchorman Jorge Ramos were in Caracas to interview embattled President Nicolas Maduro on Monday. The spokesman says Maduro didn't like the line of questioning, stopped the interview shortly after it began while government aides confiscated their equipment.
Ramos called Univision to report the incident but had his phone taken away in the middle of the call. The Maduro government had set up multiple interviews with American journalists amid the country's deepening crisis.
ROMANS: All right. President Trump announcing the U.S. has recovered Danny Burch, an American citizen held hostage in Yemen for the last year and a half. "The New York Times" reports that Burch, an oil worker from Texas, had spent years working as an engineer for Yemeni oil company when he was abducted in 2017. Now, "Reuters" reports Iran aligned Houthi forces were behind his kidnapping.
The State Department confirms Burch was freed last week. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says in a statement Burch is safe and has been reunited with his family.
BRIGGS: The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking a federal judge to hold Tesla CEO Elon Musk in contempt. The SEC accuses Musk of violating a settlement deal reached last year after the CEO's aborted bid to take the company private.
Regulators claimed Musk last week published inaccurate and material information about Tesla production to his more than 24 million Twitter followers. Musk tweeted on last week that Tesla made zero cars in 2011, but make around 500,000 in 2019. Hours later, Musk in a following tweet indicating that the company will actually deliver just 400,000 cars this year, and they he didn't ask for or receive company approval before publishing his tweet as was stipulated in the 2018 settlement. Tesla agreed to establish a board committee to oversea those social media posts.
ROMANS: You just can't do that.
You are a public company. You take money from mom and pop investors and from -- you can't do that. You can't say we're going to make 400,000, no, 500,000.
BRIGGS: Less is more on Twitter. Just stay off it.
ROMANS: All right. Target takes on a Victoria secret. CNN Business, next.
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[04:57:34] ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning.
Global stock markets are lower, investors waiting for U.S.-China trade details. You can see the big gain yesterday in Shanghai, just not really following through. And European trade looks like everything is down a bit.
President Trump plans to meet with his Chinese counterpart as the two countries edge closer to a trade deal, the president optimistic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to have a signing summit which is even better. So, hopefully, we can get that completed. But we're getting very, very close.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Getting very, very close. Take a look at Wall Street futures, you can see they are down just a little bit. You know, markets ended at session lows as enthusiasm really waned here about the trade talks with China and the progress started to fades.
The Dow closed up about 60 points giving back most of all of an early rally of 2010 points. S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed up slightly.
The president took a victory lap though on stocks yesterday. Take a look at how stocks have done so far this year. The Dow up almost 12 percent. This has been a fantastic year.
The president saying, look at how well things have gone since I was elected. He is right on that, but it has not been a straight line up by no certainty.
All right. Oil prices fell after President Trump blamed OPEC for too high prices. The president tweeted this: Oil price is getting too high, OPEC, please relax and take it easy. The world cannot take a price hike. Fragile.
U.S. crude fell 3.1 percent to $55.48 a barrel. The tweet came two months after OPEC and other nonmember producers, including Russia, agreed to cut production to reduce global glut. Crude prices have risen about 20 percent since that agreement.
If there's one thing we know, the president doesn't like it's higher oil prices, which mean higher gas prices heading into an election.
Victoria's secret getting competition from Target. Target has launched a new practice and underwear brand called Auden. Its bras will cost 22 bucks and under.
The launch is Targets' attempt to woo customers weary of Victoria's Secret push up bras and super model skinny girl image. Auden's marketing campaign features women in all different shapes and sizes, something many have criticized Victoria's Secret about. Victoria's Secret still the biggest player in the lingerie business, but it is struggling. According to an estimate from Global Data of retail, it has lost 3.8 million customers over the past two years to rivals like Amazon and Aerie.
And I'm telling you that there are so many different choices online, you know --
BRIGGS: That seems the real competition, right?
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: All right. EARLY START continues right now with the latest on summit two live from Vietnam.
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ROMANS: Critical hours ahead for the Trump presidency. His former lawyer Michael Cohen testifies this morning on Capitol Hill.
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