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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Beto O'Rourke Launches 2020 Presidential Campaign; Manafort Gets Total of 7 1/2 Years In Prison; Huge Winter Bomb Cyclone Slams The Rockies; FAA Grounds All Boeing 737 MAX Planes; Parliament Rejects "No Deal" Brexit. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 14, 2019 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- they'll very quickly come up with the answer. But until they do, the planes are grounded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Concerning similarities found in data on two separate plane crashes. The U.S. now grounding all Boeing 737 MAX planes.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: And the Republican Senate poised to rebuke the president on his national emergency. A last-minute compromise effort on presidential powers falls apart.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Jessica Dean.

BRIGGS: Good morning. I'm Dave Briggs.

DEAN: Good morning.

BRIGGS: We'll also have the latest on that college admissions scandal in just a bit. Five-thirty Eastern time and we start with 2020.

Beto O'Rourke is ready to run. The former Texas congressman in Iowa for three days of events and he already confirmed he's entering the race for president in a text message to CNN affiliate KTSM in El Paso.

O'Rourke telling the station, quote, "I'm really proud of what El Paso did and what El Paso represents. It's a big part of why I'm running."

Before that, O'Rourke told "Vanity Fair", "You can probably tell that I want to run. I do. I think I'd be good at it.

This is the fight of our lives, not the fight-of-my-political-life kind of crap. I want to be in it. Man, I'm just born to be in it."

DEAN: There's the quote.

O'Rourke is a red-state Democrat who lost a tight race to Sen. Ted Cruz in November. The election, though, launched him into the national spotlight. He raised a whopping $80 million, shattering previous Senate records, and 44 percent of that money came from out of state.

O'Rourke joins a primary field of more than a dozen Democratic candidates. He says there's an overrepresentation of white men in government and he will have a campaign and eventual administration that reflects the nation's diversity.

BRIGGS: Former acting attorney general Matt Whitaker accused of changing his story on his contacts with President Trump about the Michael Cohen case. Cohen has implicated the president in two federal crimes.

Whitaker met privately with members of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to clear up some issues with his public testimony from last month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW WHITAKER, FORMER ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: At no time has the White House asked for nor have I provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel's investigation or any other investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: After meeting with Whitaker, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler called him out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Unlike in the hearing room, Mr. Whitaker did not deny that the president called him to discuss Michael Cohen -- the Michael Cohen case and personnel decisions in the Southern District.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: These new accusations raise questions about whether Whitaker was given the job as acting attorney general because the president wanted to install an ally who could rein in all the federal investigations.

The top Republican on the committee, Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia, pushing back against Nadler. He claims there's no evidence Whitaker discussed the Cohen case with the president.

BRIGGS: Paul Manafort facing 7 1/2 years behind bars and a new set of criminal charges. President Trump's former campaign chairman appearing at his second sentencing in as many weeks.

He apologized, asking for leniency. Instead, Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordering Manafort to serve an additional 43 months on federal conspiracy and obstruction charges on top of the 47-month sentence he already received in Virginia for financial crimes.

CNN's Marshall Cohen joining us now, live from Washington. Marshall, good to see you, my friend. You were in that courtroom yesterday and it's interesting what happened both in and then later outside the courtroom because ABJ, as we like to call her, I think -- the judge -- said that these -- this no collusion argument by the Manafort is, in her words, "a non sequitur intended for another audience."

And then, the Manafort lawyer, outside that courtroom -- Kevin Downing said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN DOWNING, PAUL MANAFORT'S ATTORNEY: Judge Jackson conceded that there was absolutely no evidence of any Russian collusion in this case. So that makes two courts --

HECKLER: Manafort's a traitor.

DOWNING: Two courts --

HECKLER: He's a traitor.

DOWNING: -- have ruled no evidence --

HECKLER: Traitor.

DOWNING: -- of any collusion --

HECKLER: Liar.

DOWNING: -- with any Russian.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: That heckler yelling "liar."

Marshall, you were in that courtroom. Is Kevin Downing being honest, and who is that audience of one?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Kevin Downing is not being straight with that statement. It is not true that two courts have ruled that there was no collusion with the Russians. Both judges brought that up.

But, Judge ABJ, yesterday -- Amy Berman Jackson was clear in her comments. She said nobody, essentially -- she said don't read into what I'm about to say. Collusion was not up for debate in this case. I am sentencing Paul Manafort for the crimes before me -- which were, as you mentioned, conspiracy and obstruction.

He'll be facing a total of 7 1/2 years in prison. He is turning 70 in a few weeks.

And one of his best options now, honestly, would be a presidential pardon. But that would not stop him from possibly facing jail time for those charges from the district attorney in New York City, that you mentioned, which hit him with a new slate of criminal counts regarding some of his mortgages up there.

[05:35:15] DEAN: And Marshall, the timing of that was really interesting -- these new charges -- because they were filed and made public immediately after the sentencing yesterday.

Do you think that was on purpose? And also, too, what is unique about these charges is that they're not pardon-proof.

COHEN: Yes.

DEAN: Help us understand kind of how all that fits together with what happened yesterday.

COHEN: Sure. Well, we were all sitting in the filing room typing away after the nearly 2-hour hearing and the press release came in from New York. And it's impossible to see that as not connected one way or another. Clearly, it seemed like they were just waiting to press the button.

But, yes, the conversation here in Washington has shifted to pardons. Is he or is he not going to get a pardon?

The president has been coy. He's refused to close the door.

But, of course, the president is the executive of the federal government. He can't do anything when it comes to state-level charges in New York. Technically, that would be up to Gov. Cuomo.

DEAN: Right -- that's right.

BRIGGS: Who I think we can all safely assume will not pardon Paul Manafort.

It was strange hearing the President of the United States saying he felt bad for a career criminal who defrauded the federal government -- Trump's own government -- out of money.

But we want to flip back to Beto O'Rourke. It looks like he's entering the race here in just a couple of minutes via social media, we believe.

How does Beto O'Rourke change this field given that immigration was his central issue, really, and he lost in his own state of Texas?

COHEN: Yes. Well, he came close.

Beto O'Rourke has been kind of polling in the middle of the pack so far. I think the latest CNN poll had him in the single digits but ahead of some other candidates that are actually officeholders and have declared their campaigns already. So he's probably in a decent position starting off.

He's got a long way to go if he wants to sort of catapult ahead of the real frontrunners right now -- Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders.

But he's proven, as you mentioned, in Texas that he's a formidable fundraiser. I think we'll have to wait and see in these next few days if he can do that again -- raise a lot of money to show that he's serious and in it to win it.

DEAN: Yes, those fundraising numbers in the next 24-48 hours will be very interesting.

Marshall Cohen, thanks for being with us.

COHEN: Thanks, guys.

BRIGGS: All right, turning to the weather now. A ferocious so-called bomb cyclone leaving behind a major mess in the Rockies and Central Plains this morning. About 1,100 motorists stranded in Colorado.

One official said the heavy snow driven by hurricane-force winds had emergency personnel in full saving lives mode. The conditions so severe officers were forced to abandon their vehicles and take shelter instead of responding to many accidents.

DEAN: In Weld County, north of Denver, State Patrol Corporal Daniel Groves was struck and killed by a car while assisting a driver whose car slid off the interstate.

Near Wellington, in northern Colorado, the blizzard triggered this huge 100-car pile-up on I-25, and it knocked out power to at least 184,000 Colorado customers.

Denver International Airport provided blankets to the hundreds of passengers who were stranded when all runways were closed by low visibility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to get to the hotel downtown and I can't get an Uber, so it's pretty difficult.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a hotel but we can't get there because of the blizzard. So we're just going to camp down here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We ended up waiting three hours. And then finally, we came back and now we're waiting for our baggage, but it's still on the plane so we can't really get it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Overnight, four of the six runways were reopened.

In weather this tough, though, the question really is who rescues the rescuers? Well, the answer in Parker, Colorado was firefighters who freed this police vehicle that got stuck.

In New Mexico, high winds helped derail a 26-car freight train near the town of Logan. Amazingly, no injuries were reported there.

The storm is heading east, so you can all expect a messy rest of the week. A sudden reversal by the Trump administration on Boeing 737 MAX planes. They are now grounded while more information is being gathered about the crash of that Ethiopian Airlines jet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We didn't have to make this decision today. We could have delayed it. We maybe didn't have to make it at all but I felt -- I felt it was important, both psychologically and in a lot of other ways.

Boeing is an incredible company. They are working very, very hard right now and hopefully, they'll very quickly come up with the answer. But until they do, the planes are grounded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The decision affecting thousands of travelers across the country. Long lines at airports Wednesday as people scrambled to find new flights.

[05:40:05] DEAN: The president says new information about the Ethiopia crash led to the grounding of the Boeing jets and that includes disturbing similarities between two deadly crashes in the last five months.

CNN's Martin Savidge is at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave. Good morning, Jessica.

The FAA had been under increasing pressure, especially after nation after nation had begun grounding the MAX 8 aircraft. And it was increasingly clear that the United States was finding itself more and more isolated in its decision to allow the aircraft to continue to fly.

Now, we've been getting clarification from the FAA as to what exactly went into this abrupt about-face and now they are saying the agency made this decision as a result of the data gathering process and new evidence collected at the site and analyzed. And they also say that this evidence, together with newly-refined satellite data available to the FAA, led to the decision.

We don't know what the new evidence was that was gathered at the crash site in Ethiopia, but we do know that new satellite data -- because the Canadians referred to it as well when they grounded the aircraft. And it's essentially, they took the trajectory of the Ethiopian Airline that crashed on the weekend and matched it up against the trajectory of the Lion Air flight that crashed in October, and they found a disturbing number of similarities.

The FAA says that combined with some other information they received was what led to them saying, finally, that the aircraft should be grounded while the investigation continues -- Dave and Jessica.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIGGS: OK, Martin Savidge, thank you.

America had to read yesterday because a partial worldwide outage of Facebook and Instagram now entering its second day. Facebook forced to turn to Twitter to keep users updated. Reports now emerging of a criminal investigation of the social network.

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[05:46:00] BRIGGS: The Senate poised to rebuke President Trump over his emergency declaration on the southern border.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee was leading a compromise effort among Senate Republicans but he announced that was dead after the president told him it was not acceptable. The deal would have curtailed presidential powers moving forward.

DEAN: Lee is one of five Republicans to publicly say he will vote against the emergency declaration. The number could end up higher but the Senate would still need two-thirds to overturn Trump's promised veto. It would be the second rebuke in as many days from the Republican-led Senate which voted Wednesday to curtail U.S. military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

BRIGGS: The measure now goes to the House. The vote marks a disapproval of Trump's Mideast policies, including his support for Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who has been implicated in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

DEAN: British lawmakers say a no-deal Brexit is a no-go. Parliament decisively rejecting the idea of leaving the European Union without a proper withdrawal. The U.K. is supposed to leave, though, in 15 days.

We get the latest now from CNN's Hadas Gold, who is live at 10 Downing Street in London. Good morning.

HADAS GOLD, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, Jessica.

Last night was when members of Parliament told their government they don't want to leave the European Union without a deal in place. That doesn't necessarily solve the issue here, which is that the Parliament can't seem to agree to the deal that Theresa May has already negotiated with the E.U.

Tonight there will be another vote. This vote, Theresa May will put forward and she will try to ask her members to agree to a vote again next week for a third time on her Brexit deal.

And also ask the European Union for an extension because as we all know, the Brexit deadline is in two weeks -- March 29th -- and unless a deal is in place, the legal default, despite the vote that they had last night, is that the U.K. would crash out without a deal in place. That could mean long lines at the borders for goods, food, medicine.

It could mean that U.K. residents in the European -- living in the European Union would lose their health insurance. There's a lot of things that can happen as a result of crashing out of a no-deal and it's something that as we see Parliament doesn't want, the European Union doesn't want.

Now, Theresa May is going to try and scare members of Parliament, essentially saying vote for my deal or Brexit could not happen. It could be delayed by not just a few months, it could be delayed by years. And if that happens and the U.K. needs to send members to the European Parliament, and that just adds even more legal complications.

But tonight we will hopefully get some more clarity on whether that will be that extension, Jessica.

DEAN: Just so many questions about all of this.

Hadas Gold for us in London. Thanks so much.

BRIGGS: Electricity has finally been restored to Venezuela after a power outage plunged the country into darkness for more than a week. The incident left many homes without water and triggered chaos in hospitals. CNN teams on the ground say power has been restored in many parts of Caracas but not everywhere.

The Maduro regime accused supporters and the opposition leader and self-declared interim president Juan Guaido of trying to bring down the electrical grid by plugging in all their appliances.

The U.S. has attributed the outage to the Maduro regime's quote "incompetence."

Let's get a check on "CNN Business Now."

Global markets are mixed this morning. Asian markets closed mostly lower after data showed growth in China's industrial output fell to a 17-year low. European markets opened slightly higher amid Brexit confusion.

And on Wall Street, futures pointing slightly higher before the opening bell. The Dow finished 148 points higher Wednesday. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both increased just under one percent.

It's been a brutal year for two big drugstore companies. Walgreens stock down almost 10 percent this year making it the worst performer in the Dow. CVS performing even worse, down nearly 14 percent.

Both chains are facing significant challenges but for different reasons. Walgreens was recently put on notice by the FDA for selling more cigarettes to minors than any other drugstore. CVS shares have tanked over worries about its merger with insurance giant Aetna.

[05:50:01] One problem they both have in common, competition from Amazon and Walmart. The two retail giants offer products at lower prices than the drugstores and Amazon recently bought online pharmacy PillPack.

How much would a 5G connection be worth to you? Verizon hoping at least $10 a month. The carrier will start offering 5G service in parts of Chicago and Minneapolis next month.

The service will be offered free to Verizon customers for the first three months. After that, it will cost them $10 more a month -- more than 4G. The service will only work, though, on Verizon's Moto Z3 and require a new attachment which snaps onto the phone.

There's not a phone available to U.S. customers that could operate independently on 5G yet. Last month, Samsung announced its first-ever 5G smartphone. That's available to Verizon customers later this year.

We'll be right back.

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[05:55:16] DEAN: No end in sight to the global outages plaguing Facebook. Analysts believe it could be the biggest interruption ever experienced by the social network and its apps, including Instagram. Partial outages affect users in the U.S., Central and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Facebook forced to turn to its rival, Twitter, to explain that its collection of wildly-popular apps are all having issues.

BRIGGS: And breaking overnight, "The New York Times" reporting Facebook is under criminal investigation over its data sharing deals. The company had data sharing arrangements with more than 150 companies and its partners were able to access user data without getting consent.

A Facebook spokesperson tells "CNN Business" the company is cooperating with investigators.

DEAN: New fallout from the college admissions scandal. The University of Southern California announcing all applicants linked to the cheating scheme will be denied admission and a case-by-case review will be conducted for students who are already enrolled.

BRIGGS: One of those students is the daughter of Lori Loughlin. The actress and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, are charged with felony conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Loughlin appearing in federal court in Los Angeles after turning herself in. Judge Steve Kim setting bond at $1 million.

Federal prosecutors describe a corrupt exchange of wealth, fame, and influence for student admissions to the nation's most elite universities.

DEAN: The man who allegedly took admission tests for students or replaced their answers with his own to boost their scores says he's, quote, "Profoundly sorry." Mark Riddell is now charged with conspiracy. He also says he understands how his actions contributed to a loss of trust in the college admissions process. BRIGGS: New this morning, New York City police investigating the fatal shooting of a high-ranking member of the Gambino crime family, Frank Cali. Police say officers responded to a 911 call Wednesday night at Cali's home on Staten Island. They found the 53-year-old with multiple gunshot wounds.

Law enforcement officials say Cali was believed to be the acting boss of the Gambino family. Police have made no arrests so far.

DEAN: A body found on the side of the road in North Carolina has been identified as a missing mother. It's not the first time her husband has been widowed. Authorities say all signs now point to foul play in Diana Alejandra Keel's death. A homicide investigation has now been launched.

Her husband, Lynn, was questioned and released this week. And according to CNN affiliate WRAL, Lynn Keel's previous wife, Elizabeth, also died at the same home in January 2006. At the time, her death was ruled an accident but you can expect that case to get a second look.

BRIGGS: Nineteen employees are suing UPS claiming racial discrimination on the job and the company did nothing to stop it.

Workers at the distribution center in Ohio say nooses were hung above the workstation of an African American employee, a monkey doll dressed as a UPS worker was publicly displayed, and the "n" word was frequently used in the workplace. UPS says it promptly investigated and took swift action.

The workers also accuse the company of denying black employees opportunities for advancement.

DEAN: The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on e- cigarettes. The agency releasing a policy draft that could take some flavored products off the market. The measure would take action against stores selling flavored e-cigarette products that are accessible to minors, as well as Websites selling them without verifying a buyer's age.

The draft policy requires 30 days of comment before it can be finalized.

BRIGGS: March Madness is in full swing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rejected by Woolridge. At the buzzer -- yay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Ryan Woolridge there, of North Texas, blocks this shot, then beats the buzzer from the opposing free throw line. Give it another look. Just a heave and he gets nothing but net.

That's the first round of the Conference USA Tournament. North Texas over Florida International 71 to 57. I can't wait.

DEAN: How many times do you do that and it never goes?

BRIGGS: He could make -- he could take that shot 100 times --

DEAN: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- and probably make just that one.

DEAN: That's a fun moment.

BRIGGS: I want to say thank you to Jessica Dean for being here all week.

DEAN: Yes, it's been so fun.

BRIGGS: Great to have you here.

DEAN: Thank you.

BRIGGS: You're back in a couple of weeks, right?

DEAN: Yes. Thank you for having me to the whole team.

BRIGGS: Thanks for D.C. for lending you to us.

DEAN: I know.

BRIGGS: It's been a fun week.

DEAN: End the train soon (ph). Well, thanks for joining us. I'm Jessica Dean.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Here's "NEW DAY".

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Thursday, March 14th, 6:00 here in New York.

And we do have big 2020 news that is breaking as we speak. Seconds ago, former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke announced he is running for president. We have the video to prove it and we'll show that to you in just moments.

END