Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Tornadoes Rip Across Alabama and Georgia, Devastating Homes and Lives Leaving At Least 23 Dead; Motorist Captures Video of Avalanche on Colorado's Copper Mountain; Senator Rand Paul to Oppose Trump's National Emergency; House Democrats Ramp Up Trump Investigations; President Trump Declares He's an Innocent Man Being Persecuted; Over 80 Million Under Winter Weather Alerts in Parts of the U.S.; Bolton Backs Trump's Defense of Kim; U.S. and South Korea Begin Scaled-Back Drills; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Raises Nearly $3 Million for Charity; LSU Linebacker Wows Scouts with 40-Yard Dash Performance; Trae Young Ejected for Staring Down Opponent During Match; Saints Fans Take Shot at NFL with 'Robbing Refs' at Mardi Gras; Leaving Neverland Documentary Scrutinizes Michael Jackson's Life. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 04, 2019 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:00:00] DAVE BRIGGS, CO-HOST, EARLY START: Decade after his death, new and disturbing first-time stories of sexual abuse and the cover up. Stunning documentary last night on "HBO", good morning everyone, welcome to EARLY START, I'm Dave Briggs.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, EARLY START: Good morning to you, I'm Christine Romans, it is Monday, March 4th, it is 5:00 a.m. exactly in the East. Good morning everyone. And breaking overnight, the death toll in Alabama now at 23 after a series of tornados ripped across Alabama and Georgia.

At least 12 of the deaths occurred in one area about five miles south Opelika, Alabama. Here is the local fire chief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BYRON PRATHER, CHIEF OF THE OPELIKA FIRE DEPARTMENT: There's a lot of destruction out there, homes are completely gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right --

PRATHER: You know, all be all, family members are still missing, we're searching, asking so many people to stay out of the area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: This sheriff in Lee County says the area looks like someone took a blade and just scraped the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY DANIEL NORTON, ALABAMA RESIDENT: This whole area right here, it is -- it is pretty much just gone. Looking out over this way which is mostly trees, it just looks like tooth-picks broke just all through there. This just came on so quick and changed so many lives that, I mean, it is really sickening to watch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Wow, the number of deaths in this single tornado outbreak surpassing the toll from all the twisters in the U.S. in all of 2018. Let's go live to CNN's Victor Blackwell standing by in hard-hit Opelika. Victor.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Dave, the 23 deaths on Sunday from the tornadoes that broke out about 3:00 p.m. Eastern here qualify for the deadliest day of tornadoes in Alabama since 2011. And that will be the legacy of this storm.

But we're also seeing a lot of damage, damage to homes. And this one is a total loss. As is usually the case in natural disasters, the mobile homes show the worst of the damage and show it early. You can see this one is tossed over on its side, the wheels exposed here, and nothing really can be salvaged from this home.

But let me take you across the street because that's where parts of this home are. You could see some of the mobile home here, one of the walls a few yards back into the woods here, some of the roof here as well, insulation in the branches. And we're seeing a lot of this, uprooted trees here.

We see the roots here of this tree, there are trees down all across this part of Lee County, but there's also a clear road here, that's because there's been a lot of work done to clear the roads here, so emergency crews can get in and out. And the sheriff here Jay Jones says there is still a lot of work to do. Here is the sheriff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY JONES, LEE COUNTY SHERIFF: We're going to organize an organized search in the morning, we're going to have different agencies coming in, we're having personnel from literally all over the state and from our partners over in Georgia, we're going to organize search areas in quadrants and we're going to start a more intensive search in the morning and cover areas that we've already covered and some additional areas as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: We don't know if there were people inside this home when the storms came through. Of course, we hope not. There are local reports of dozens of people at East Alabama Medical Center with some serious injuries. Now, the additional work to happen today, the national weather service will be here because initial reports say that there could have been an EF-3 tornado on the ground here.

What does that mean? That means the winds could have topped out at 165 miles per hour. How will they determine how stronger winds were? They'll look at this type of damage, they're starting the surveys today to determine what was here on the ground. But of course, those 23 deaths on the minds of everyone here and again, that number could rise. Back to you.

BRIGGS: Some devastating pictures, Victor Blackwell live for us in Opelika this morning, thank you, Victor.

ROMANS: All right, at this hour, more than 80 million people are under Winter Weather alerts from Colorado, the main -- take a look at this video of an avalanche Sunday on Copper Mountain in Colorado, some vehicles had to be dug out. Look at that, no reports of any injuries or anyone trapped.

The avalanche closed part of Interstate 70. The system dumped plenty of snow on the central plains, it's bringing rain, snow or a wintry mix to the Northeastern U.S. this morning. Schools in New York City and Boston are closed today, expect flight delays as well. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us live from the CNN Weather Center. So how bad is it, Pedram?

All right, so bad we don't have his mic to tell us how bad it is. But 80 million people in the path of that weather, we'll get PJ back in just a minute. The Senate appears to have enough votes to block President Trump's national emergency for border wall funding. Senator Rand Paul has announced he plans to vote for the Democratic resolution, condemning it.

[05:05:00] The Kentucky Republican says he shares the president's views that we need better border security, but he does not support the use of emergency powers.

BRIGGS: In an op-ed for "Fox News", Paul writes "every single Republican I know decried President Obama's use of executive powers to legislate. We were right then, but the only way to be an honest office holder is to stand up for the same principles no matter who is in power."

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina also planning to vote to block the national emergency. It would appear Lamar Alexander of Tennessee will as well, setting up the first veto of Donald Trump's presidency.

ROMANS: It's not clear when the Senate plans to vote on the resolution. It has to happen in the next two weeks. Congress would need a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override President Trump's veto, that scenario is considered highly unlikely.

BRIGGS: Over in the House, the Judiciary Committee accelerating its investigations of President Trump and his inner circle. Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York expected to formally request documents today from more than 60 individuals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: From the White House to the Department of Justice, Donald Trump Jr., Allen Weisselberg, to begin investigations to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice. It's very clear that the president obstructed justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Allen Weisselberg is the Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization, he's thought to have detailed knowledge of the Trump's tax situation. His name came up repeatedly in Michael Cohen's testimony last week. Congressman Nadler says the list of names will also likely include former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and former White House counsel Don McGahn.

ROMANS: All right, President Trump defending himself in a weekend tweet storm that at times sounded downright Nixonian. The president declaring "I am an innocent man being persecuted by some very bad conflicted and corrupt people."

That came after Mr. Trump aired his grievances, all of them in the longest speech so far of his presidency. He spoke for more than two hours to the annual gathering of conservatives at CPAC.

BRIGGS: It began with a literal embrace of the American flag, then the president launched into a performance of his greatest hit-list, the Russia witch-hunt, Jeff Sessions, crooked Hillary, even crowd size.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You put the wrong people in a couple of positions and they leave people for a long time that shouldn't be there. And all of a sudden, they're trying to take you out with -- OK? With --

(LAUGHTER)

The Attorney General says I'm going to recuse myself --

(LAUGHTER)

Better recuse(ph) -- and I said why the hell didn't he tell me that before I put him in. If you tell a joke, if you're sarcastic, if you're having fun with the audience, if you're on live situation with millions of people and 25,000 people in an arena, and if you say something like Russia, please, if you can get us Hillary Clinton's e- mails, please Russia, please, get us the e-mails! Please.

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: That of course met with chants of, we got it, lock her up.

ROMANS: Yes, that was quite a performance --

BRIGGS: That was something --

ROMANS: Yes, it really was. All right, let's bring back Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri from the CNN Weather Center, we got it all straightened out now.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, METEOROLOGIST: We do --

ROMANS: Eighty million people in the path of this really ugly Winter weather. What does it look like out there?

JAVAHERI: Yes, you know, it's still beginning, it's still snowing across parts of Boston, New York finally beginning to see the snow taper off certainly, some improving conditions over the next couple of hours, blustery weather going to be the name of the game here.

But notice, no showers in Boston have accumulated to as much as 8 inches in a few spots, totals expected to tally about a foot across the region. But Winter weather advisories, give it a few more hours, you'll begin to see this also expire across the region. But really an impressive system when you consider we're just a couple of weeks away from the beginning of Spring, and so far this Winter about 16 inches of snow has fallen in Boston.

This particular event, the single most potent snowstorm of the season coming in here with Spring just around the corner. But disruptions are upwards of 500-plus cancellations, 200-plus delays. So far this morning, "The New Yorker" reports and also the Boston airport there taking the brunt of the disruptions, about 400 of those cancellations at the Northeast airport there.

But here is what's left, a couple of more inches before things begin to taper off and then you go back out towards the Midwest where it is all about the cold air and the blustery weather to go with it as well. In fact, wind-chills around the Northeast generally about 20 to 30 degrees, but around the Midwest, highs into the single digits around Minneapolis, only eight should be about 30 degrees warmer for this time of year.

Chicago at 14 degrees, we should be into the middle 40s, so almost a repeat of what happened a couple months ago, of course with the Arctic air that was in place.

[05:10:00] ROMANS: Sure --

JAVAHERI: This is not as extensive, but for this time of year, it is just as impressive when you're talking about 30 below average across the Midwest there.

ROMANS: Absolutely --

BRIGGS: You're welcome --

ROMANS: Cold, all right, thank you so much Pedram Javaheri. Well, the president --

JAVAHERI: Thank you --

ROMANS: Takes Kim Jong-un at his word on the death of Otto Warmbier. It's not the first time he has sided with an autocrat over actual evidence. His national security adviser had some trouble explaining why that problem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIGGS: Five-fourteen Eastern Time, and national security adviser John Bolton struggling to explain the president's decision to take the word of Kim Jong-un over the death of American student Otto Warmbier. On Friday, Warmbier's family released a statement saying quote, "Kim and his evil regime all responsible for our son's death. No excuses or lavish praise can change that." Bolton was asked why the president has this pattern of defending autocrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS: Why does the president trust Putin and MBS and Kim over U.S. intelligence.

[05:15:00] JOHN BOLTON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I don't think that's what he's saying. And again, if you take the case of Khashoggi, he and others in the administration have said repeatedly we want from Saudi Arabia a complete top-to-bottom explanation of what happened.

WALLACE: It's been months and you haven't gotten it and the Senate has been calling for stricter sanctions and you guys are opposing it. It certainly would happen in the case of Putin. He specifically said, U.S. intelligence says this, but Putin says no.

BOLTON: And fundamentally, in the case of all three of those countries, we've got to pursue American national interests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Meantime, the president now blaming House Democrats for his failure to strike a deal at the summit with Kim Jong-un. Now, he says the scheduling of testimony from his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen opposite the summit, quote, "may have contributed to the walk", U.S. walking away from the table.

Today, the U.S. and South Korea will begin scaled-back military drills. CNN's Paula Hancocks is live in Seoul with the very latest, and I think this is such an important development. You know, the United States walked away from those talks, no agreement with them on the nuclear front.

But the U.S. is down-sizing dramatically the drills that it's going to do in the Korean Peninsula. And that's a win for Kim Jong-un, something that he definitely wanted to see.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Christine, I mean, it's certainly been seen as a concession from the U.S. to North Korea. North Korea is always infuriated by these massive large scale drills that you have every Spring, and they have been going on for decades.

But now, they won't have those anymore. So they're going to have a much smaller level, unit level and also they'll have some virtual training. So it's really according to officials to try and support the diplomatic process, they're trying to insist that it's not going to affect battle readiness at all.

But of course, the skeptics are saying, it will affect battle readiness if you're having a much smaller drill. Now, we also know that President Moon Jae-in of South Korea had an emergency meeting today at the National Security Council meeting, and he said that it was very regrettable the fact that there was no result from the Hanoi Summit.

But he also tried to put a positive spin on it. Remember, the U.S. president has asked him to be the mediator between the U.S. and North Korea. And now, he has tasked his foreign minister with trying to have a meeting with all three. Christine?

ROMANS: All right, just fascinating developments there. Paula, thank you so much for that.

BRIGGS: All right, ahead, NBA hall of famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar auctioning off four of his championship rings. Andy Scholes tells us why in the "BLEACHER REPORT" next.

[05:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIGGS: Hall of famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar selling the majority of his memorabilia from his playing days, raising nearly 3 million bucks for charity. Andy Scholes has the "BLEACHER REPORT". Why is he selling all this stuff, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: Well, Dave, I'll tell you what, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had said previously, when it comes to choosing between storing a championship ring or trophy in a room or providing kids with an opportunity to change their lives, the choice is pretty simple. Sell it all.

Kareem auctioning off 234 of his items from his playing days including four of his six championship rings and a lot netting nearly $3 million, and much of the proceeds from the auction going to Kareem's Sky Hook Foundation charity that helps kids learn about science, technology, engineering and math.

All right, NFL combine wrapping up over the weekend, LSU linebacker Devin White running a blazing 4.42-40-yard dash, is the fastest time ever for a linebacker at the combine. You know, players train for months for this moment, and White was overcome with emotion when talking with his family on face-time after. A pretty cool moment, NFL draft, that's up next, it's April 25th.

All right, Hawks and the Bulls yesterday, rookie Trae Young fit on a fantastic stretch, going more than 35 points in three straight, but it didn't end well for him in Chicago on the third, Young, hits a pull up three, and he is going to stare at the Bull's Kris Dunn as a time-out was called.

Pretty innocent NBA trash-talking. Well, the refs called a technical on him for taunting. Young couldn't believe it, it was his second tee of the game, so he was ejected, he was on his way to another great game, 18 points in 18 minutes, but this is just another great instance of the refs forgetting that fans go to see the players and not them.

And speaking of refs, it was Mardi Gras and the people of New Orleans taking a shot at Roger Goodell and the NFL referees during the parades. Check out these guys, they call themselves the robbing refs, they're all acting like they are blind as they go through the parade. They also had a nice choreographed dance and everything.

And I'll tell you what, Dave, the detail on the float, just amazing. The refs had hats on to say, I love L.A., they had the NFL spelled out in braille, it's pretty fantastic and it's just clear once again that the people of New Orleans are never going to forget what happened in the NFC championship rig(ph).

BRIGGS: Nor should they, Andy --

ROMANS: Yes --

BRIGGS: They were robbed, and the competition committee could have changed all this, but no consensus on reviewing pass interference. So it will live on and could happen again --

SCHOLES: Yes --

BRIGGS: Andy Scholes, thank you my friend, great stuff --

SCHOLES: Right --

[05:25:00] BRIGGS: There. Romans?

ROMANS: All right, thanks Dave, 25 minutes past the hour. At least 23 people are dead and a series of tornadoes rolls through Alabama. And a rebuke of the president, there are now enough Senate Republicans to block the president's national emergency.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: A decade after his death, there is new scrutiny of Michael Jackson's life. The iconic pop singer now the subject of a new "HBO" documentary "Leaving Neverland", it follows the story of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, both men claim Jackson sexually molested them when they were children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WADE ROBSON, VICTIM OF MICHAEL JACKSON'S SEXUAL ABUSE: The first thing I remember is Michael sort of, you know, moving his hands across my legs. We were both clothed in PJs, and then his hands got to, you know, my crotch area, and he was sort of fondling there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And how old were you?

ROBSON: I was seven years old when this began.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Among the most shocking claims, a secret system of bells

Jackson used.

END