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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Clean Up Has Begun In Alabama After A Tornado Ripped Through Killing 23 People; House Democrats Investigations Of Trump Only Just The Beginning; General Motors Is Ending Production At Its Lordstown, Ohio Plant Tomorrow; California High School Students Sparking Outrage With A Picture That Show Nazi Salutes And Beer Cup Swastikas. Aired 4- 4:30a ET
Aired March 05, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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REP. JERRY NADLER (D), HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Our goal is to hold the administration accountable.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No collusion. It's all a hoax.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: Corruption, obstruction, posh money, collusion, and more. House Democrats launch a wide-ranging investigation. They want to hear from the president's allies both public and private.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: An NSA program that collects domestic phone records may be winding down. Why the White House may end the much scrutinized practice.
BRIGGS: The cleanup just beginning after those tornados in Alabama. The Lee County community supporting families of 23 people killed, including three children.
ROMANS: And some important medical news. Overnight, a patient in London may be the second person ever to be cured of HIV. Good morning, and welcome to Early Start, everybody. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Good morning. Good morning to all of you. Tuesday, March 5th. It is 4 a.m. in the east. Is it oversight or is it overreach? Time will tell, House Democrats investigation or investigations of President Trump only just the beginning. The House Judiciary Committee sending out a stack of far-reaching document requests.
You can see the scroll here seeking information from the president's son, his business associates, his political confidants. The Democrats probe will look into possible corruption, obstruction, hush money paid to women, alleged Russian collusion, and much more.
ROMANS: All right. The investigation's wide scope may bolster the Republican claim that House Democrats are trying to cripple the president's reelection effort. But Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler says his committee is just seeking to uphold its oversight responsibility.
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NADLER: Our goal is to hold the administration accountable for the obstruction of justice, the - the abuse of power, and the corruption. We have to find out what's going on. And we have to lay out a case to the American people, and reveal it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The president was asked about the investigation.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE PARTICIPANT: Mr. President, are you going to cooperate with Mr. Nadler?
TRUMP: I cooperate all of the time with everybody. And you know the beautiful thing? No collusion. It's all a hoax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The scope of the panel's document request, even broader than expected, more on that from CNN's Manu Raju on Capital Hill.
MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Dave. Now, the House Judiciary Committee moving forward with an aggressive investigation into all aspects of the president's political life, his business life, and even his personal life. Looking into whether or not the president misused his office, whether or not the president obstructed justice, whether or not the president committed any crimes. These requests from - to 81 individuals connected to the Trump include the president's two sons, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr.
They include people very high up in the Trump organization, including Allen Weisselberg, who's the CFO of the Trump Organization. And it also includes entities like the White House, and the Justice Department, like the FBI, asking for a number of documents, including questions about whether the president dangled any pardons towards Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, to prevent them from cooperating with the government.
Two weeks is only the time that the Judiciary Committee is asking these people and these entities to respond by. If they do not get the responses, expect the fight to intensify, subpoenas, possible public hearings. The question now is whether or not the administration will comply with requests, or whether we'll see a protracted fight between the White House and Capital Hill - Christine and Dave.
ROMANS: All right, Manu. Thank you so much for that. Disgraceful, abusive, and shameful are just some of the ways the White House describes this investigation. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders accusing Chairman Nadler and Democrats of embarking on a, quote, fishing expedition because they are terrified that their two-year false narrative of Russia collusion is crumbling.
Sanders claims the Democrats are not after the truth. They're after the president. We should note one name not on the Democrat's list is Ivanka Trump. But CNN has learned the list of 81 names is just a starting point, with more requests on more topics expected in the future.
BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, CNN has learned the National Security Agency abandoned a much scrutinized surveillance program that relied on bulk data collected from domestic phone records.
According to a Republic congressional source, the Trump administration might not seek to reauthorize the program at the end of the year. The NSA, last year, revealed there were technical problems that led to the unauthorized collection of phone records. The program was originally authored under the USA Freedom Act. The Obama administration used that to replace an earlier surveillance program that was disclosed in leaks by Edward Snowden.
ROMANS: All right. House members could vote as soon as Wednesday on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism. The measure by House Democratic leaders, including Nancy Pelosi, a reaction to outrage over comments Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar made last week at an event.
Now, the freshman Democrat suggesting pro-Israel groups are pushing, quote, allegiance to a foreign country. About a dozen Jewish groups have called on House leadership to remove Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
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So far, the congresswoman is standing by her comments. This is her second time under fire for remarks deemed anti-Semitic. Last time she apologized, amid bipartisan backlash.
BRIGGS: The Democrat field for president expanding, and shrinking. The next announcement expected to come later this morning from Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley. He's been considering a White House run, but must also decide whether he'll seek reelection to the Senate next year. Entering the race on Monday, John Hickenlooper, the former Colorado governor looking to find that moderate lane.
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JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe that not only can I beat Donald Trump, but that I am the person that can bring people together on the other side, and actually get stuff done.
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BRIGGS: One potential Democratic contender who will not be entering the 2020 race is Eric Holder. The former Attorney General says he will instead focus his efforts on redistricting and other voting rights issues. ROMANS: Residents of eastern Alabama hurting and holding on tight to each other this morning following the deadliest Tornado to hit the United States in six years. The death toll remains at 23, 10 people still in the hospital. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signing an expedited major disaster declaration request asking the president for immediate assistance. At least three of the deaths involved children ages six, nine, and 10.
BRIGGS: The youngest victim identified as Armando Hernandez. Fourth grader Taylor Thornton also killed. CNN spoke to Opelika, Alabama resident Jessica Chandler. The twister missed her by minutes because she took her two kids to the store to get baby formula. Her boyfriend was inside when the tornado hit their mobile home.
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JESSICA CHANDLER, OPELIKA, ALABAMA RESIDENT: He has a fractured leg. His ribs are broken. He has puncture wounds, cuts, bruises. He's really sore. I mean, he - he got out of the hospital last night. We're thankful he's alive. The front porch is like a patio. He seen that fly up and he said he had just enough time to dive to the couch, which the couch is about a foot away from the screen door. And he just held onto the couch for dear life.
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BRIGGS: The situation remains desperate this morning in Lee County, Alabama. Drew Griffin is there.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, they will start another search today. But there has been good news overnight in that the missing persons list has been reconciled. They no longer believe they have double digit numbers of people missing. That means that the death toll looks like it's going to hold, although the coroner said it is possible they might find more victims in the debris as they continue to meticulously go through it.
But again, this was a devastating tornado that came through here, 170 miles an hour. And just like so many places across this country, just picked up this mobile home and threw it into the trees. The people here are now having to deal with trying to rebuild their lives, basically from scratch - Christine - Dave.
BRIGGS: Drew Griffin - thanks. For more information about how you can help the victims of the Alabama tornados, go to cnn.com/impact.
ROMANS: All right. Breaking medicine news overnight; a patient in London might be the second HIV patient ever cured outright. According to a case study published in the Journal of Nature, the so-called London Patient was being treated for cancer, not HIV, but is now in sustained remission from both diseases.
This case comes more than 10 years after a Berlin patient was cured using similar stem cell transplants from donors who carry a rare genetic mutation. Now, doctors say the method used in both cases is not appropriate for general use, but does offer hope for new treatment strategies. Nearly 1 million people die each year from HIV related causes.
BRIGGS: Iconic 90210 heartthrob Luke Perry has died.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know a lot about this stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What stuff?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, people, couple stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Hear how one of his co-stars is remembering the iconic actor.
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ROMANS: End of an era in - in the automotive industry. General Motors in ending production at its Lordstown, Ohio plant tomorrow, two days earlier than expected. A spokesperson for G.M. said that Wednesday will be the last day the plant turns out its Chevy Cruze sedan.
G.M. announced a big restructuring back in November, remember, closing four U.S. plants and a fifth in Canada, and cutting its salaried workforce by 15 percent. G.M. laid off 8,000 salaried workers and 6,000 hourly workers will either lose their jobs, or be reassigned to other plants.
G.M.'s decision led to a blowback, politically, especially from President Trump who made several promises to workers there. The president won Trumbull County, where the Ohio plant is located, by six points. General Motors has said the closures and the layoffs are necessary so that it can invest more money in electric and self- driving vehicles.
Last week, the United Autoworkers Union sued G.M. over its plans to close three of the plants, including that big plant in Lordstown. The union claims the decision violates the union's labor contract. G.M. said it has not violated the provisions of that contract with the union.
BRIGGS: A group of southern California high school students sparking outrage with this picture from a party posted on social media that show Nazi salutes and beer cups arranged in the shape of swastikas. Principles from three Orange County schools faced hundreds of angry and concerned parents at a community meeting Monday.
Jewish students at the meeting say they are not surprised by the partying students. They say swastikas are carved into bathroom walls and desks on campus, and they've learned to ignore Jewish jokes.
According to the anti-defamation leak (ph), anti-Semitic incidents in America's schools were up 94 percent in 2017.
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ROMANS: All right, two young sisters found alive after being missing for two days. Eight-year-old Leia Carrico and her five-year-old sister Caroline went for a walk near their rural northern California home on Friday afternoon. They were lost in the woods, and ended up spending the entire weekend braving the elements. Leia said they found shelter under a fallen branch, drank water from huckleberry leaves, and used a rain jacket as a blanket.
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LEIA CARRICO, EIGHT-YEAR-OLD RESCUED AFTER WEEKEND IN WOODS: We turned it sideways so each of us had a armhole that we stuck our arms into. When we woke up we stayed in the same place so Dad could find us. And there was a creek nearby, and we sung nursery rhymes at the top of our lungs.
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ROMANS: The girl's mom, Misty Carrico, credits the 4-H program for teaching her daughters wilderness survival skills. Just in case, she bought the girls GPS karabiners to carry with them from now on.
BRIGGS: Wow, another super-sized celebration at the White House. President Trump, Monday, welcomed the champion North Dakota State football team to the White House. And just like the Clemson Tigers visit in January, fast food was front and center. The State Dining Room stacked with McDonald's Big Macs and Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We could have had chefs, we could have, but we got fast food because we know what - I know you people.
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BRIGGS: You may recall the president personally paid for the Clemson spread, citing (ph) the government shutdown. On Monday he suggested the decision was aimed at supporting American business.
ROMANS: All right. The snow has come and gone. That means a cold snap now for the east, with temperatures as much as 30 degrees below average. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has the latest.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, yes, only 15 days left until spring official starts, and we're talking about these temperatures, as you said, running some 30 degrees below average in a few spots at the southern edge of this front that push right through portions of the southern U.S. prompted the severe weather.
Now having some freeze warning that are in place impacting over 40 million people from southern and central Texas all the way into portions of central and northern Georgia. And tell you what, cold enough, with this front here, to prompt even a few snow showers across parts of Georgia, even into Alabama where the severe weather was just some 36 hours ago.
And then, work your way toward the north, it's an entirely different story. We're talking about barely being above the zero degree mark across portions of the upper Midwest, while the 20s widespread around the northeast, but sunny skies, of course, into the forecast over the next couple of days.
New York, highs around 31, a pair of twos out of Chicago, only 46 degrees down in Atlanta, but notice the arctic air does want to move over in the northeast before a dramatic warming trend over the next couple of days, New York City climbing all the way up into the 50s.
BRIGGS: Look forward to that, Pedram. Thanks. This morning, fans and friends are sharing their remembrances of actor Luke Perry. He died Monday, a few days after suffering a massive stroke. He was just 52. Perry rose to fame in the 1990s megahit series, Beverly Hills, 90210, playing the bad boy heartthrob Dylan McKay.
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LUKE PERRY, ACTOR, BEVERLY HILLS, 90210: I'm saying that that was that (ph). And some people do change, Kelly (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The show is both, widely popular, also criticized for its willingness to take on topics such as teens being sexually active. Here's Perry in a 1991 interview.
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PERRY: You (ph) must remember what makes the show so good. The show is good. And I'll say that, yes, I'm on a good show. The show is good because it's an ensemble piece. Everybody works. And everybody brings something to it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: He's so young there. Perry's 90210 co-star Shannen Doherty reacting on Twitter saying I'm in shock, heartbroken, devastated by the loss of my friend. I have so many memories with Luke that make me smile, and that are forever imprinted on my heart and mind.
BRIGGS: Perry had been starring as the father of Archie Andrews in a CW Teen drama, Riverdale. Production on Riverdale has temporarily halted due to his death. Perry's final film role is in Quinton Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is due out in January.
ROMANS: It's really sad. And he was really the face of a generation. You know, there are millions of American women that he was their first hypothetical boyfriend, right?
BRIGGS: Oh, absolutely. ROMANS: I mean, he - that was a time - and - and that genre, right, 90210, and then thinking - you know, then you had, what, the Gilmore Girls? You had a lot of other shows that talked about some real tough relationship-type things. But that was really the first one. Don't you think?
BRIGGS: Yes, absolutely, and one of those appointment viewing that we all knew what time ...
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: ... that show was on. You all gathered with friends at your sorority or fraternity.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: And just 52, a strike - a stroke - strike ...
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: ... you know, with no warning, very sad for that family.
ROMANS: Nineteen minutes past the hour. Risking his own arrest, self-declared president Juan Guaido arrives back in Venezuela. How he plans to rally support for his movement to oust Nicolas Maduro.
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ROMANS: Venezuela's self-declared interim president Juan Guaido returning home, vowing to move forward toward a transitional government. He called for a fresh round of protests this weekend, and said he would meet with union leaders and public workers Tuesday. CNN's Patrick Oppmann has the very latest from Caracas.
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, it was an incredibly bold move on the part of Juan Guaido, flying on a commercial flight from Panama to Caracas' main airport. Not hiding anything, not trying to smuggle himself back into this country, essentially daring sitting President Nicolas Maduro to arrest him.
But for whatever reason, that did not happen. Guaido was escorted by a group of European diplomats out of the airport to a waiting motorcade that turned into a - sort of, a celebratory journey to the plaza where thousands of his supporters were waiting to hear from him.
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And he said that it's a new day in Venezuela that certainly for the opposition, there is a sense that things are changing here.
But how will he force Nicolas Maduro from power? That still remains unclear. The military is still backing Maduro. And there are no signs of any cracks, at least in the upper military leadership. All of this in though (ph), Juan Guaido promised Venezuelans, today, that soon he will be the only president in this country - Dave and Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Patrick Oppmann in Caracas for us. Thank you. So do you think the president will cooperate with Democrats investigating him?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, are you going to cooperate with Mr. Nadler?
TRUMP: I cooperate all of the time with everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, (inaudible).
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: And you know the beautiful thing? No collusion. It's all a hoax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Only time will tell, Democrats wants documents from 81 people and entities from the president's political business and personal lives.
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