Return to Transcripts main page
Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Cohen To Testify Before Senate Intelligence Committee; House To Vote On Blocking Emergency Declaration; President Trump Lands In Vietnam Today For Two-Day Summit With Kim Jong Un; Univision News Crew Detained In Venezuela. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired February 26, 2019 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:30:48] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Critical hours ahead for the Trump presidency. His former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen testifies this morning on Capitol Hill.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The Democratic-controlled House votes today on blocking President Trump's national emergency declaration for the border.
BRIGGS: North Korea's Kim Jong Un already in Vietnam with President Trump arriving soon for their high-stakes summit.
ROMANS: Breaking overnight, veteran journalist Jorge Ramos and his crew freed after being held against their will in Venezuela. Wait until you hear why. Just trying to tell a story, folks.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Good morning, everyone. I'm Dave Briggs. It is 5:31 Eastern time, 5:31 p.m. in Vietnam. Michelle Kosinski live there shortly.
But we start in the nation's capital where in a matter of hours Michael Cohen begins three days of potentially explosive testimony on Capitol Hill in 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, the very committee he lied to. It will take place behind closed doors.
Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in prison for crimes that include lying to Congress, as I mentioned -- the Intel Committee.
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., SON OF PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You've got a president trying to deal with a major world issue, and to try to distract or whatever it is by bringing in a convicted felon and known liar -- I mean, it's pretty pathetic. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe does not 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, FBI: I think Mr. Cohen is in -- 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)
ROMANS: 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 DONALD 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)
ROMANS: 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: Well, 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 it's, of course, his 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's personal dealings and business dealings outside of the Russia scope -- whether the president broke any laws -- any tax laws -- conflicts of interest. The payments to the two women during the election that Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to in the campaign finance violations. There are several areas that lawmakers plan on delving into.
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 has 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)
BRIGGS: Pamela Brown there, thank you.
Rod Rosenstein appears to be suggesting the Justice Department may not be completely transparent with Robert Mueller's report. At a public event last night, the outgoing deputy attorney general referred -- offered no time line for the special counsel's Russia reporting and cautioned the audience about DOJ policy.
[05:35:10] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROD ROSENSTEIN, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: There's a knee-jerk reaction that suggests 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 information is accurate. And it can be really misleading if you're overly transparent about information that the government collects, so I think we do need to be really cautious about that.
If we aren't prepared to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt in court, then we have no business making allegations against American citizens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: House Intel chair Adam Schiff firing back on Twitter, saying, "This double standard won't cut it. For two years, I sounded the alarm about 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 referencing the Justice Department actions during the Clinton e-mail investigation.
He's threated to subpoena both Mueller and the report if it is not released in full.
ROMANS: House Democrats' showdown with President Trump over his emergency declaration comes to a climax today. With Democrats in control, the House is all but certain to pass the measure blocking one of the president's main tools for funding constructing of his border wall.
From there, the resolution of disapproval will go 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'll send it over 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), 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There have been many senators -- Democrats, but 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 of this that he intends to veto it.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 a veto. But I will veto it, yes.
SERFATY: If he does, then the conversation will quickly turn to if they have enough votes up here on Capitol Hill to override that veto -- Christine and Dave.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRIGGS: Sunlen, thanks.
In just a few hours, President Trump lands in Vietnam for a second high-stakes summit with Kim Jong Un. The North Korean dictator has already arrived in Hanoi in a heavily-armored train, which is his preferred mode of travel.
The two leaders planning to build on their first meeting and their agreement to quote "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
Senior diplomatic correspondent Michelle Kosinski live for us in Hanoi with the latest. Michelle, good to see you.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Dave.
Yes, this is something of a cliffhanger. You know, the pieces are coming together. Kim Jong Un is in place. In a few hours, President Trump will arrive here.
But nobody really knows how this is going to work out. We know that the Trump administration wants to see a couple of things happen since there has been virtually no progress towards real denuclearization since the last summit in June.
They want to see, first of all, let's get both sides to agree on what denuclearization actually means. Let's set a roadmap towards the denuclearization. Even if it's not a time line, some kind of plan -- a real concrete plan to move forward. And let's see something like North Korea declare a freeze -- an officially-stated freeze on its nuclear and missile programs.
Not to say that's going to happen but another big question mark, of course, is going to be what does the U.S. have to give up in return because remember, this has been a real stalemate. North Korea has basically said they don't want to do anything more until the U.S. makes a significant move.
So what will that be? Is it something like the U.S. declaring an end to the Korean War? Is it going to be an exchange of diplomats? Is it going to be some lessening of sanctions, at least on South Korea -- giving South Korea more leeway to trade with North Korea?
There's some concern among experts that President Trump will do something big like say all U.S. troops now should leave South Korea, although that would be something of a worst-case scenario.
[05:40:04] So lots of variables here, lots of options. And, of course, the world watching to see what each side is willing to give.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: And that burden-sharing agreement between the U.S. and South Korea should prevent that, but you never know.
Michelle Kosinski live for us in Hanoi, thank you. ROMANS: Let's talk more about this, this morning -- this really important summit and big week this week in Washington with "Washington Post" congressional reporter Karoun Demirjian, a CNN political analyst.
You know, after the first summit with the North Korean dictator last year, the president tweeted that there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea, and he was very firm about that. That there had been success in that first summit.
And since then his own Intelligence Community has said that that's simply not true. That there is still a nuclear threat from this country.
And now, this is what the president said this weekend about what he hopes to achieve this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think it's going to lead to something very good, and maybe not. I think ultimately, it will, but maybe not.
And I'm not in a rush. I don't want to rush anybody. I just don't want testing. As long as there's no testing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Maybe it will be good and maybe we won't. He's got -- that's very Trumpian, how he does to give himself an out. But I just don't want testing.
Has the goalpost moved here from verifiable denuclearization to just no more testing?
BRIGGS: Has it been taken down entirely --
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: -- the goalpost?
KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, it seems like the president is trying to shift the goalpost so that if there is no major achievement from this leg of the summit that he can say well look, I wasn't expecting the moon here. I was just expecting that we would kind of keep things going along a good track.
But I think the president has belied his own suggestion that we're just talking about no tests. I mean, if that is the measure by which he is saying North Korea does not pose a nuclear threat, he's hard- pressed to find anybody else in this country or much of the rest of the world that would agree with him.
I don't think also that it's credible that he can say well, all we are trying to do is maintain the status quo here because that's not why you go through all of these steps and all this hoopla and all of these very historic meetings to just maintain the status quo and not try to push towards at least an agreement about what denuclearization is -- a roadmap.
I mean, we were talking just a few days and weeks ago about would there be a declaration of the end of the war, which is ongoing between the two Koreas. Or would there be any sort of indication -- olive branch given by the United States or promises made by the North Koreans to scale it all the way back down to as long as there's no tests.
I mean, as long as there's no tests we haven't necessarily backslid, which is something that you can -- which is a standard that is worth maintaining. But that's not going to be the measure of success for this summit given all of the expectations that are on the table going into it.
BRIGGS: Right. And look, all Americans should root for the president's success --
DEMIRJIAN: Right.
BRIGGS: -- in Vietnam.
And, Bernie Sanders, Democratic candidate for the White House against President Trump, said last night on CNN he's rooting for President Trump -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), 2020 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)
BRIGGS: But we acknowledge ridding them of nuclear weapons clearly not going to happen anytime soon.
What is success? How do we define some actual success out of this summit given most North Korean experts said ahead of the first summit you at least need a complete accounting of their nukes and their sites, and we still don't have it?
DEMIRJIAN: Right. So you would need that step to take place.
You would need an agreement as to what complete denuclearization actually means. Perhaps some sort of a substantive pledge, not just in platitudes but that the North Koreans would shut down their major nuclear reactors. Some sort of concrete tangible step forward that would really lead towards the first step in the ending of the North Korean nuclear program.
It's not clear that the North Koreans would actually do that as a gesture of good faith without some sort of equal gesture coming from the United States. And that's where this negotiation process gets very sticky because there's a lot of pressure on the president not to give away the store before he gets real concrete, if not proof of promises, really.
Not just the promises alone from the North Korean leader who knows he's in a position of not complete strength here because his nation is pretty much isolated from much of the rest of the world. But some strength in that he already poses a nuclear threat.
And so we're dealing with somebody -- we're not staving off from that power.
ROMANS: True.
DEMIRJIAN: We're trying to bring back from that path which is much trickier than trying to stop people right at the precipice of being able to develop nuclear weapons.
ROMANS: You cover Congress and Michael Cohen heads to Capitol Hill in the next few days.
DEMIRJIAN: Right.
ROMANS: He's got, already -- you know, the president's son and others are questioning his credibility. He already lied to one of these committees that he's going to be speaking to.
What do you expect the kind of -- what do you expect he's going to do this week?
[05:45:00] DEMIRJIAN: Well, there are questions about Michael Cohen's credibility, which is why it's incumbent on him to try to clear his -- clean up the record of how -- what the lies he's already told to lawmakers.
Behind closed doors when he speaks to the Senate Intelligence Committee today and the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, there's going to be a lot of that reckoning. They want to know exactly what he lied about. Have an allocution, basically, about that. Have him correct the record.
They're very interested in Trump's various contacts with Russian officials about whether he has any sort of susceptibility or do any foreign nations or actors have any financial leverage or other forms of leverage over him. And that discussion will end up involving the time line of the Trump Tower Moscow project and how long the president was pursuing it into the course of his campaign.
You are also going to have a very important public hearing happening tomorrow in front of the committee on oversight and reform in the House. That's going to be where you actually see Cohen talking.
And while he's not supposed to be talking about any issues of Russia or anything related to counterintelligence or foreign financial leverage in that setting, he will have an opportunity to talk about hush money payments. About what he knows about Trump. About what he knows about Trump in
terms of just how he generally deals with the truth, how he deals with women, how he deals with statements that are considered unsavory. I mean, we are expecting Cohen to talk -- to try to label Trump as everything from a liar to a cheater, to a racist, to a criminal.
BRIGGS: Yes.
DEMIRJIAN: And so that's going to be a fairly explosive setting in which Cohen could do real damage to Trump's reputation by substantiating it with personal anecdotes --
ROMANS: Right.
DEMIRJIAN: -- from what he's seen.
But, of course, we're going to see that pushback from the Trump camp about you can't believe anything this guy says.
ROMANS: Right.
DEMIRJIAN: Even Mueller says so.
BRIGGS: Right. Don't forget Jim Jordan who will be part of that hearing tomorrow.
DEMIRJIAN: Of course.
BRIGGS: So today we'll look civilized, tomorrow all bets are off.
Karoun Demirjian, thanks so much.
DEMIRJIAN: Tomorrow will be a spectacle, yes.
BRIGGS: Yes, a spectacle, indeed. Appreciate it.
ROMANS: Nice to see you.
DEMIRJIAN: Take care. Thank you.
BRIGGS: All right.
Ahead, a T.V. anchor held against his will overnight in Venezuela is now free. But what happened to Univision's Jorge Ramos?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:51:05] BRIGGS: Five-fifty Eastern time.
And 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.
A spokesman says Maduro didn't like the line of questioning and 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, let's get a check on "CNN Business" this morning.
Global stock markets are lower -- frankly, awaiting more details regarding that trade war between the U.S. and China. After a big rally in Shanghai yesterday, closed a little bit lower here today.
An optimistic President Trump said he plans to meet with the Chinese President Xi Jinping as the two countries hammer out a trade deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: 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: Here's a look at Wall Street pre-market. You can see U.S. stocks leaning a little bit lower here, but I would call that almost directionless. It wouldn't take much to turn that around.
U.S. stocks closed higher but off the highs of the day as the initial enthusiasm about U.S.-China trade progress faded. The Dow closed up 60 points but that was giving back almost all of an early rally of 210 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both closed up slightly.
The president tweeting another victory lap on stocks yesterday, correctly pointing out that the Dow is up more than 42 percent since Election Day, and the Nasdaq up about 46 percent.
After the worst December since the Great Depression, look at this. The Dow has recovered almost 12 percent this year. The S&P 500 up 11.4 percent, the Nasdaq up more than 13 percent.
Trump tweets and oil retreats. "Oil prices getting too high. OPEC, please relax and take it easy," the president tweets. "The world cannot take a price hike -- fragile!" And so, U.S. crude prices then fell three percent to just below $56 a barrel.
The tweet came two months after OPEC and other non-member producers, including Russia, agreed to cut production to reduce a global glut. Crude prices have risen about 20 percent since that agreement. Of course, higher crude prices mean higher gas prices, something the president does not like, especially heading into an election year.
The Securities and Exchange Commission asking a federal judge to hold Tesla CEO Elon Musk in contempt because of this tweet last week. "Tesla made zero cars in 2011, but will make around 500,000 in 2019." Hours later, then Musk sent another tweet saying no, the number is more like 400,000 cars. Regulators claim Musk published inaccurate and material information about Tesla to his more than 24 million Twitter followers. That violates an agreement -- a settlement deal reached last year after he had that aborted bid to take the company private where he said a bunch of stuff he wasn't supposed to say.
BRIGGS: Less tweeting is more. Let's all agree on that.
ROMANS: Oh, my.
BRIGGS: Ahead, snakes on a plane.
ROMANS: No way, no way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:58:37] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMUEL L. JACKSON, ACTOR, "SNAKES ON A PLANE": I have had it with these (bleep) snakes on this (bleep) plane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Samuel L. Jackson's worst fear realized by a Scottish woman.
ROMANS: Oh.
BRIGGS: She found that python on a plane in her suitcase, curled up in her shoe after a 9,000-mile flight from Australia to Scotland. The Scottish SPCA took the snake into quarantine.
ROMANS: It was even there long enough to shed in the shoe. I hate snakes -- goodbye.
BRIGGS: I may never fly again.
ROMANS: Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Here's "NEW DAY".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael Cohen, he's got some serious baggage. His incentive now is to tell the truth.
TRUMP, JR.: You've got a president trying to deal with a major world issue, and to try to distract by bringing in a known liar, it's pretty pathetic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy was with the president for more than a decade. We want him to tell us what exactly has been taking place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This charge is a first-degree misdemeanor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are having a day of reckoning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This conversation needs to be a lot further along. We need to be talking about stiffer penalties.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, February 26th, 6:00 here in New York.
Another busy morning.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, and we're finally over the Bradley Cooper-Lady Gaga thing.
CAMEROTA: Are we?
BERMAN: No, you're right.
CAMEROTA: OK.
BERMAN: Not at all. Not even a little.
CAMEROTA: We'll get to that later.
END
