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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Slams McCain, GM, Fox News and SNL on Twitter; Meghan McCain Defends Her Father Against President Trump; Trump Urges Fox News to Bring Back TV Anchor Jeanine Pirro; White House Defends Trump on White Nationalist Question; New Zealand Government Agrees to Toughen Gun Laws; New Zealand Mosque Massacre Death Toll Stands at 50; Jewish Group in Pittsburgh Reciprocates Kindness of Muslim Community; WSJ: Subpoenas Issued in Fed Probe of 737 Max Planes; Two Investigations of 737 Max Plane's Approval Underway; General Motors Responds to President Trump's Tweet; Historic Flooding Hits Nebraska; NCAA Basketball Tournament Field is Set; Belmont Rejoices After Getting Tournament At-Large Bid. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 18, 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: GM, even "Fox" anchors just for starters.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, EARLY START: Changes to gun laws already on the way in New Zealand after the mosque attacks. The White House forced to offer an unprecedented defense of the president after he refused to condemn white supremacy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICK MULVANEY, CHIEF OF STAFF, WHITE HOUSE: The president is not a white supremacist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: And subpoenas have been issued as the Feds probe the Boeing Max 737 Max planes. New similarities between two jets that crashed in just five months. Good morning everyone, welcome to EARLY START, I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I am Christine Romans, it is Monday, March 18, it's 5:00 a.m. in the east, 10:00 p.m. in Christchurch, New Zealand. We're going to take you there in just a moment. But first, let's begin here. There is little if any doubt where the president's head is.

He told us often while allies mourned the attack in New Zealand, Trump unleashed a Twitter barrage extreme even by his standards. The question is why? He was busy lurching between grievances. GM and the Autoworkers Union, "SNL" reruns, Hillary Clinton, Robert Mueller, even "Fox News" and the late Senator John McCain. Twice that got a ton of push-back. So he did it again.

BRIGGS: The president criticizing the late senator on Twitter for his ties to the controversial Russian dossier. President Trump also going after McCain for his vote against repealing Obamacare, even calling him last in his class at Annapolis.

ROMANS: A strong response from McCain's daughter Meghan, she tweeted, "no one will ever love you the way they loved my father. I wish I had been given more Saturdays with him, maybe spend yours with your family instead of Twitter obsessing over mine."

And here is a prime example of the control President Trump has over his party. Senator Lindsey Graham, McCain's closest friend in the Senate stopped short of criticizing the president for those comments.

BRIGGS: Instead, Graham tweeting this, "McCain stepped forward to risk his life for his country, served honorably under difficult circumstances, nothing about his service will ever be changed or diminished."

ROMANS: Now, President Trump is using the Oval Office to moonlight as a program director, a TV program director. Mr. Trump is urging "Fox News" to put Jeanine Pirro back on the air. Sources tell CNN, the controversial host was suspended for her Islamophobic remarks, doubting the patriotism of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS: Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Pirro well-known for her full-throated defense of the president and her attacks on his enemies. The president tweeting at "Fox" to bring back Jeanine Pirro and telling the network to stop working so hard on being politically correct, which will only bring you down.

BRIGGS: With Jeanine Pirro off the air, President Trump had more executive time to watch and attack "Saturday Night Live". But apparently, he wasn't watching too closely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Live from New York, it is Saturday night!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The key here on the bottom of the screen recorded from an earlier live broadcast. Neither that nor the Christmas theme were enough to tip the president that "SNL" was in fact a re-run.

ROMANS: In a Sunday morning tweet storm, he said "it's incredible that shows like "Saturday Night Live" can spend all their time knocking the same person, me, over and over without so much of a mention of the other side. He also suggested federal election officials and the FCC should look into this.

For the record, there is no guarantee of equal time on comedy shows. All right, file this under words you never imagined you would hear in defense of the president of the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MULVANEY: The president is not a white supremacist. I'm not sure how many times we have to say that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That it had to be said at all is news worthy. That was the acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. The White House forced to address the president's response to that shooting Friday in New Zealand, a terror attack at two mosques that left 50 people dead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you see today white nationalism as a rising threat around the world?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very serious problems.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The president seemingly unconcerned despite the gunman's manifesto filled with anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim. The 87-page diatribe claiming he was inspired by Trump and by white nationalists. It was not the first time the president hesitated to be critical after an attack by someone espousing white nationalists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You also had people that were very fine people on both sides. I mean, the world is violence. The world is a violent world. And you'd think when you're over it, it just sort of goes away, but then it comes back in the form of a mad man, a whacko.

[05:05:00] This has little to do with it if you take a look, if they had protection inside, the results would have been far better. They're attacking us because we are speaking the truth, changing people's minds and proving every day that our policies work. I get attacked also, you get attacked, I get attacked all the time.

In fact, I'm just thinking, come to think of it, who gets attacked more than me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: But on the subject of radical Islam, the president sounds drastically different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on? I think Islam hates us. There's something -- there's something there -- that there is a tremendous hatred there. There's a tremendous hatred.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Right, cabinet officials in New Zealand agreeing in principle to toughen gun laws in the wake of the mosque attacks. According to the Prime Minister, the changes will be announced in about a week. Family members are bracing now for the agony of claiming the remains of their loved ones.

The first body now released by New Zealand police. Let's go live to Christchurch and bring in CNN's Ivan Watson. It's just -- it's just so awful, the world mourning this awful attack. What are we learning now where it's 10 O'clock at night there for you?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The world mourning, Christine, and people here in Christchurch, it's after 10 O'clock at night, I'm still seeing folks come up with bouquets, laying them here by -- messages that are so heartfelt that say they are us, you cannot divide us.

This is not us, this act of terrorist violence and embracing this country's tiny Muslim minority, just 1 percent of the population of New Zealand is Muslim. The target of a savage terrorist attack, the most deadly terrorist attack in New Zealand's modern history, killed 50 people.

There are still people fighting for their lives down the road here in Christchurch hospital which has had to postpone other previously scheduled surgeries to keep focusing on keeping those people alive. Now, the Prime Minister has said that the gun laws in this country will change and she will have proposals laid out within ten days of last Friday's attack.

Meanwhile, the police say that they believe this was the work of one man, the chief suspect, a 28-year-old Australian named Brenton Tarrant who appeared in a Christchurch court on Saturday, facing one charge of murder.

The authorities say there will be additional charges as well. In his own publications, he described himself as a white supremacist and the authorities found him with five firearms in his car and two improvised explosive devices as well.

He streamed the beginning of his attack on the Al Noor mosque not far from where I'm standing on Facebook. The Prime Minister here saying that social media sites have to do more to scrub these kind of images from the internet, and they've charged an 18-year-old here in Christchurch with spreading some of those images out on the internet.

And Facebook says that it has removed 1.5 million copies of that video from their site in the first 24 hours after the attack took place. Christine and Dave?

ROMANS: Just awful. Victims of all ages just awful. All right, thank you so much for that, Ivan Watson. BRIGGS: An act of kindness is being repaid in the aftermath of the

mosque killings when 11 people were murdered in a Pittsburgh synagogue last year. Muslim communities in the area raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the victims. Now the Jewish federation of Pittsburgh is paying it forward, setting up a fund for the victims in Christchurch.

The chairman of the board of the federation says, quote, "unfortunately, we are all too familiar with the devastating effect the mass shooting has on a faith community."

More trouble for Boeing in the wake of two deadly crashes of 737 Max jets liners. The "Wall Street Journal" reporting a grand jury has issued a broad subpoena as two federal offices probe the development and approval of the jets. Now, investigators have found similarities between the Ethiopian Airline crash last week and that Lion Air accident last October, both involving the Max.

For the latest, let's turn to Melissa Bell near Paris where the black boxes are being examined. Melissa, good morning.

MELISSA BELL, CNN EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave. What we know for the time being is that those similarities that you were talking about between the two planes that crashed, one in Indonesia back in October and the one, of course just after takeoff from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on March the 10th.

[05:10:00] It is the question of their trajectories where similarities have been seen by a number of the different organizations looking into this and who have made finding out what went on, a priority. The question I will be -- those automated flights -- that automated flight software which was in this particular type of Boeing, in the 737 Max 8, the result of having to compensate for the engines being further forward on the wing.

Was that software at fault in this latest crash as it was found to have been at fault in the crash of the Lion Air jet back in October. Could Boeing therefore in the wake of that crash have done more to ensure that the software was updated, upgraded, changed, corrected in time.

But questions also this Monday, Dave, for the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration which needs to answer questions over the coming weeks about why some of that certification process was not kept in-house, but was rather handed over to the aviation companies and in this case, Boeing.

BRIGGS: Hopefully, some answers come in the next couple of days. Melissa Bell live for us near Paris. Thank you.

ROMANS: All right, just about 11 minutes past the hour, did Joe Biden tip his hand? The slip that suggests he is all in for 2020, next.

[05:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Right, among the dozens of aggrieved tweets this weekend, the president slammed General Motors, demanding GM reopen or sell its recently closed plant in Lordstown, Ohio. Now, General Motors has responded, quote, "to be clear under the terms of the UAW-GM National Agreement, the ultimate future of the unallocated plants will be resolved between GM and the UAW."

Now, the president tweeted that he spoke with GM CEO Mary Barra about Lordstown on Sunday. Trump said he asked her to sell it or do something quickly. Barra, he says blamed the UAW union. Now, the tweet was the third time the president took to Twitter to voice his frustrations about GM's plans to cut thousands of jobs and close some factories.

On Saturday, he suggested a new owner could manage the Lordstown plant, but the quote, "time is of the essence". Production at Lordstown ended earlier this month. The president also criticized the local union president David Green, telling him, quote, "to get his act together and produce." Green didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

GM added in its statement that its main focus offering employees jobs in other plants where there are growth opportunities.

BRIGGS: Did Joe Biden tip his hand or was it just another of those infamous gaffes? Speaking to an encouraging home state crowd in Delaware Saturday, the former vice president was defending his record when he said or almost said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've the most progressive record of anybody running for the -- anybody who would run. Now, I didn't mean --

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: It's the cross that I think does it all --

BRIGGS: Yes --

ROMANS: He crosses himself, that's when I really --

BRIGGS: That standing ovation went on quite a bit. Biden has indicated to friends, it's all but certain he will run and an announcement could come as soon as April. As for Democrats already in, CNN will host a live presidential town hall tonight with Senator Elizabeth Warren from Jackson, Mississippi, Jake Tapper moderates, that's tonight 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

And Kirsten Gillibrand made it official --

ROMANS: Yes --

BRIGGS: Yesterday as well, which means we await Biden and Buttigieg to make it official as well. Brings us to 14 I believe -- ROMANS: I think 12 official, two --

BRIGGS: Once they're in --

ROMANS: Leaning that way.

BRIGGS: Big field --

ROMANS: All right --

BRIGGS: All right, another big field, Duke rules it though at the start of the NCAA tournament. Will the devils survive the madness? Andy Scholes has tips for your brackets in the "BLEACHER REPORT".

[05:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Historic flooding in Nebraska, breaking records in 17 places across the state. Nine million people in 14 states along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers are under a flood warning here. Aerial video shows flooding after multiple levees breached along the Missouri river in Nebraska.

Major flooding on an Air Force base near Bellevue where about 30 buildings are flooded. At least, two deaths are blamed on the flooding, thousands of people are in shelters, hundreds have been rescued, Dave?

BRIGGS: It's terrible, thank you, Christine. All right, the field of 68 is all set, time to fill out those brackets, folks, Andy Scholes, happy bracket Monday, my friend. What do you got?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: Happy bracket Monday to you too, David. You know, this is always one of the best sports weeks of the entire year. You can start, you know, filling out the brackets this morning, you got 68 schools from around the country all with dreams of winning it all.

Duke, your top overall seed in the tournament after winning the ACC title. Zion Williamson back from his knee injury and he looks better than ever. The ACC getting three of the 401 seeds. Virginia, North Carolina and Gonzaga round out the one seeds.

And selection Sunday always a nail biter for some of those teams to see if they get in. Bobby Hurley pumped when his Arizona State squad had their name called. Belmont was also on the bubble and they rejoiced when they learned they'd be going to the big dance, both these teams are going to be playing in the first four which starts tomorrow night in Dayton.

You can watch those games on "True TV". Now, if you haven't paid much attention to college basketball this year, don't worry, I spoke with the guys at "Turner Sports" and "CBS" are going to be calling the tournament and they've got some advice for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My daughter came home one day and asked me to help her fill out her bracket. And she finished last.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the wrong person. I don't -- I -- look, every five years or so, I look good because I picked Duke.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You put Michigan State as national champs and then you start to fill in your bracket from after that, Andy?

CHARLES BARKLEY, FORMER BASKETBALL PLAYER: I think Texas Tech got a really good chance and Houston. Those are my two sleeper teams.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This year, when the brackets come out, the first team I'm looking for, Houston.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You also got to look at location. How far they went a plan or how close?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't overload on info.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's how I do it, and I've been pretty successful with that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get enough info to satisfy your palette, but then go with your gut.

BARKLEY: Don't be an idiot and fill out a bunch of brackets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't come to me at work and say I've got a perfect bracket going, of course it's one of the 43 I filled out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I usually go with two ones, a two, and somebody that is a long shot.

BARKLEY: A lot of these guys don't know how to have a good bracket, they fill out like 25 brackets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But then again, I'm pretty good for filling out about three or four brackets, so it's not just one, I've got myself covered.

[05:25:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have I made myself clear? One bracket per person. One bracket per family, how about that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: You can use all that advice to play with us here on CNN, go to cnn.com-slash-brackets, fill it out by Thursday morning, Dave, you know, and --

BRIGGS: Yes --

SCHOLES: Feel free to fill out more than one bracket --

BRIGGS: No --

SCHOLES: But don't brag about it, and don't tell Ernie Johnson. BRIGGS: I do want bracket and I have the Grant Hill problem. I picked Duke all the way every year, hopefully this year that works out well with the Zionfest. It should be fun --

SCHOLES: Be here to do it.

BRIGGS: Looking forward --

SCHOLES: Yes --

BRIGGS: To the first four games -- I've got a couple of 5-12 upsets too. Andy, we'll talk more about it later in the week.

SCHOLES: All right --

BRIGGS: Good to see you my friends. Romans has some interesting advice as well of the brackets.

ROMANS: Yes, team colors is always a really --

BRIGGS: Colors?

ROMANS: Good way to go. I like that. All right, one bracket for you, one bracket for me, now one bracket pretty good team. All right, John McCain, "Fox News", General Motors and "SNL" re-runs, now the president finding reasons to attack every which way. Why he was so unhinged on Twitter this weekend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END