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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
New Zealand to Ban Assault Weapons; Boeing 737 Max 8 Certification Under Investigation; Prime Minister Theresa May Heads for Brussels to Seek Extension of Brexit Deadline. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired March 21, 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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[04:00:22] JACINDA ARDERN, PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand will ban all military style semiautomatic weapons.
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DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, New Zealand vows to outlaw assault weapons just six days after an attack that killed 50.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Was it ever safe to fly the Boeing 737 Max? The Department of Justice is on the case.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted. I don't care about this. I didn't get thank you. That's OK.
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BRIGGS: He can't let it go. For the fourth time in five days, the president tramples on John McCain's grave.
ROMANS: And Roberts Kraft wants video and other evidence from his solicitation case kept under wraps.
BRIGGS: One might imagine.
ROMANS: All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. Good morning.
BRIGGS: Good morning. I'm Dave Briggs. It is Thursday, March 21st, 4:00 a.m. in the East. Nobody won a half a billion bucks in the Powerball, by the way. We'll tell you how much is on the line this weekend but we start overseas.
The swift, decisive action from the prime minister of New Zealand less than a week after 50 people were slaughtered in two Christchurch mosques. Jacinda Ardern is overhauling her country's gun laws.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ARDERN: New Zealand will ban all military style semiautomatic weapons. We will also ban all assault rifles. We will ban all high capacity magazines. We will ban all parts with the ability to convert semiautomatic or any other type of firearm into a military style semiautomatic weapon.
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BRIGGS: Prime Minister Ardern also announcing a buy-back program to encourage New Zealanders who own automatic weapons to surrender them.
Let's go live to Christchurch and bring in CNN's Ivan Watson.
Ivan, is there any opposition to these really swift moves by the prime minister?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So far we haven't heard an organized opposition. New Zealand Police Association has supported it very quickly but they were lobbying for this ahead of time. We know an Auckland rifle association that we reached out to they said they supported this. And the deputy prime minister had spoken out after the Orlando night club shooting in the U.S. against this type of gun control, now he's on board. And I think that consensus is what the prime minister is banking on. Take a listen.
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ARDERN: We the government feel absolutely confident that the vast majority of New Zealanders will support this change.
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WATSON: Now on top of this, how are they going to do this? As the police commissioner has explained people who had guns legally with permits as of 3:00 p.m. this afternoon in New Zealand, those guns, if they fall under the new classifications, are now illegal. But they're not going to just start arresting people. There's a transition period. They're going to embark on a buy-back scheme. They say that could cost anywhere between $70 million and $140 million U.S. to do. And they're telling people, suggesting that they start voluntarily surrendering.
They say there's going to be an online form this weekend for the police for people to start registering their weapons to return them. So there's been some thought put into this, but a remarkable and swift move as had been telegraphed by the New Zealand prime minister within basically days of the deadliest terror attack in New Zealand's modern history -- Dave, Christine.
BRIGGS: Yes. Still many people right behind will you, Ivan, paying their respects and already action.
Ivan Watson live in Christchurch tonight. Thank you.
ROMANS: All right. Great concern this morning. Was the Boeing 737 Max 8 ever a safe plane to fly? The Justice Department has issued several subpoenas into Boeing certification and marketing of the 737 Max line. The FAA and others say data from the Lion Air crash in October similar to the Ethiopian Airlines crash last week. A criminal investigation seeking answers on two accidents that killed hundreds.
Justice correspondent Evan Perez has the latest from Washington.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, Justice Department prosecutors have issued multiple subpoenas as part of an investigation into Boeing's certification and marketing of 737 Max aircraft. Now this is the plane that's been involved in two fatal crashes in less than six months. Sources tell us that the investigation is in its early stages and that it began after the Indonesia crash, of Lion Air 737 Max in October.
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao this week also asked the agency's inspector general to investigate the Max certification.
[04:05:02] Criminal investigators have sought information from Boeing on the plane's safety and certification procedures including training manuals, pilots, along with how the company marketed the new aircraft.
Now it's not clear what possible criminal laws could be at issue in the probe. Among the things that investigators are looking into is the process by which Boeing itself certified the plane is safe and the data that it gave to the FAA about that self-certification. A Boeing spokesperson said that the company does not respond or comment on questions regarding legal matters.
Now the planes have been grounded worldwide after the crash last week of a Max aircraft operated by Ethiopian Airlines -- Christine, Dave.
BRIGGS: Evan Perez, thanks.
The FAA says Boeing has developed a software patch and flight crew training to address issues with the 737 Max planes. Investigators are looking into whether faulty data drove the Lion Air plane into a steep dive. Reuters reported yesterday the pilots were reviewing a handbook to figure out why the plane was lurching down but simply ran out of time.
Meantime the U.S. Air Force has ordered a review of training procedures for military pilots flying large cargo and transport planes. That includes Air Force One. The military brass wants to ensure pilots know how and when to turn off automated systems if they encounter problems.
ROMANS: President Trump's acting defense secretary is under investigation for his ties to Boeing. Patrick Shanahan was a top Boeing executive for more than 30 years. Pentagon's inspector general looking at whether he violated ethics rules by promoting Boeing's products while running the Defense Department. Shanahan is accused of being too close with his former employer and openly critical of Boeing competitors. The IG has not yet concluded whether a violation occurred.
BRIGGS: President Trump on the road and on the attack. The focus of his trip to Ohio Wednesday was supposed to be jobs and national security. Instead it was pure Festivus. The airing of Trump grievances started even before the president left Washington. His first target, the special counsel. Trump says he doesn't mind if the Mueller is made public even if it should exist in the first place.
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TRUMP: No collusion. No collusion. I have no idea when it's going to be released. It's interesting that a man gets appointed by a deputy, he writes a report. You know, never figured that one out. Somebody is going to write a report who never got a vote. So we'll see what the report says. Let's see if it's fair.
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ROMANS: Next on the list of grievances, George Conway. Again earlier on Twitter the president called the attorney and husband of Kellyanne Conway, one of his aides, a stone cold loser and the husband from hell. Conway who questioned the president's mental fitness tweeted a simple response, you, period, are, period, nuts. But the president wasn't finished with Conway.
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TRUMP: He is a whack job, there's no question about it, but I really don't know him. He -- I think he's doing a tremendous disservice to a wonderful wife. Kellyanne is a wonderful woman and I call him Mr. Kellyanne.
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BRIGGS: Be best. Mrs. Conway for her part siding with the president, telling "Politico," quote, "Trump left it alone for months out of respect for me, but you think he shouldn't respond when somebody, a nonmedical professional, accuses him of having a mental disorder? You think he should just take that sitting down?"
Then later during a speech in Ohio, the president once again refused to let Senator McCain rest in peace.
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TRUMP: So I have to be honest. I've never liked him much. Hasn't been for me. McCain didn't get the job done for our great vets and the V.A. I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve. I don't care about this, I didn't get a thank you. That's OK. We sent him on the way. But I wasn't a fan of John McCain.
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ROMANS: That did not get the big applause lines that you sometimes hear at these appearances from the president. In fact our reporters who were in the audience said that -- especially from the military members who were there, absolute stoic silence as the president was attacking a war hero. At least one Republican senator, Johnny Isakson, has had enough of the
president's attacks on McCain calling his days of comments about McCain deplorable. Lindsey Graham, McCain's best friend in the Senate, who has been mostly silent now says President Trump's comments hurt the president more than they hurt McCain's legacy.
BRIGGS: A potential misstep for former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper. At last night's CNN town hall our Dana Bash asked whether he would consider picking a female running mate. Hickenlooper's answer solicited some groans from the audience. Listen.
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DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Governor, some of your male competitors have vowed to put a woman on the ticket. Yes or no, would you do the same?
[04:10:04] JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, again, of course, but I think that we should -- well, I'll ask you another question. How come we don't ask --
BASH: We are asking the question.
HICKENLOOPER: I know.
(LAUGHTER)
HICKENLOOPER: I know. But how come we're not asking more often the women, would you be willing to put a man on the ticket?
BASH: When we get to that point, I'll ask you that question.
(LAUGHTER)
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BRIGGS: The nation has never had a female vice president. Still Hickenlooper standing by his answer.
ROMANS: He says, "Maybe I have missed it," it meaning women being asked, but women I know feel that it is a form of discounting. That they are less likely to win the nomination.
For the record a reporter actually did ask Senator Elizabeth Warren if she would consider selecting a male vice president. She did not directly answer that question.
BRIGGS: Come on. Give us some break here people.
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BRIGGS: It just got a lot easier for employers to dump the pensions of retirees. The Treasury Department quietly issuing a notice earlier this month allowing employers to buy out current pensions with a one- time lump sum payment. That reverses an Obama era policy that banned the practice because seniors were getting shortchanged. Since the 1980s many employers have stopped offering pensions which guarantee a monthly income for as long as someone lives in retirement. Pensions still cover 26.2 million people. You can see that number has been shrinking rapidly as companies close their pension plans to new hires.
ROMANS: And instead they do -- to find benefit plans they do 401(k)s and the like. So it's not -- they're offering a different kind of benefit.
All right. After obsessing over higher interest rates, well, the worry appears to be over at least for now. The Central Bank voted to hold interest rates steady and went from expecting two interest hikes this year to none.
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JEROME POWELL, CHAIR OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE: The U.S. economy is in a good place and we will continue to use our monetary policy tools to help keep it there.
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ROMANS: The Fed has kept rates at a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent since the beginning of the year. Fed officials also downgraded their GDP growth forecast 2.1 percent now on concerns of slowing domestic and global growth.
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POWELL: Growth is slowing somewhat more than expected. Financial conditions tightened considerably over the fourth quarter. Growth has slowed in some foreign economies notably in Europe and China.
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ROMANS: Central Bankers previously estimated the economy will grow 2.3 percent growth this year. That is significantly lower than the Trump administration's forecast of 3 percent.
The announcement not good for bank stocks. Banks make more money on higher rates when lending. The lower growth forecast could also raise concerns about the ability of Americans to pay back mortgages and loans or at least the demand for more loans.
BRIGGS: All right. Ahead the mom behind the popular "Fantastic Adventure" YouTube channel is facing serious charges. What police say she did to the kids when they couldn't remember their lines.
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[04:16:56] ROMANS: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft could make an appearance at the White House before he makes an appearance in Florida court to face solicitation charges. According to "Politico," President Trump wants Kraft to join his players at the White House to celebrate the Pats' Super Bowl victory. No date has been set but White House aides are concerned Kraft's presence could turn a feel- good photo-op into an embarrassing media spectacle.
BRIGGS: Attorneys for Kraft and more than a dozen other defendants charged in a prostitution sting at a Florida day spa filed a motion asking that evidence including surveillance video from the spa not be released to the public. Meantime a source says Kraft will not accept a plea deal from Florida prosecutors. They offered to drop charges in exchange for an admission he would have been found guilty at trial. Kraft has strongly denied taking part in any illegal activity.
ROMANS: All right. The mom behind a popular YouTube channel has been arrested for mistreating her kids including pepper spraying them when they flubbed their line. Pepper-spraying them. Prosecutors in Arizona charging Michelle Hobson with crimes including child molestation and abuse. An adorable cast of adopted kids helped her "Fantastic Adventures" channel rack up more than 250 million views before YouTube pulled it down following Hobson's arrest.
BRIGGS: A welfare check last week found she withheld food and water for days at a time and had punished the kids by forcing them to take ice baths and locking them in an empty closet. Police say Hobson denied punishing the kids beyond spankings, grounding them or making them stand in a corner. Hobson's adult sons Logan and Ryan Hackney also appeared in the videos. They've been charged with failing to report the abuse.
ROMANS: All right. Police in South Korea say some 1600 people were secretly filmed in their motel rooms and the video, the footage live- streamed for paying customers to watch. Two men have been arrested, two others are being investigated in connection with the scheme. It involved 42 rooms and 30 motels and 10 cities across South Korea. Cameras were hidden inside digital TV boxes, wall sockets and hair dryer holders. Police say there's no indication that the motel businesses themselves were involved.
BRIGGS: No winners in the Wednesday night Powerball drawing, that means the jackpot swells to $625 million Saturday night making it the fourth largest in the game's history. No one has hit the Powerball jackpot since December. The winning numbers from last night 10, 14, 50, 53 and 63 with 21 as the Powerball. If you win Saturday night, don't forget your friends here.
Ahead, a critical day for the future of the U.K. The prime minister heads to Brussels for a Brexit extension, but for how long and will she get it?
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[04:24:07] ROMANS: All right. It is a critical day for Brexit. Just eight days -- eight days to go until Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union. Prime Minister Theresa May travels to the European Union headquarters in Brussels. She'll request an extension of next Friday's deadline. That would require unanimous approval from all 27 E.U. members.
What happens if all sides agree? What happens if all sides don't agree? And what in the world is going on in the U.K.? CNN's Phil Black joins us from outside parliament.
I don't mean to make light of it because this is incredibly serious, but, you know, pushing a deadline to June 5th, even if she can do it, still creates all kinds of uncertainty.
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed. It's tremendously uncertain, Christine. So the prime minister is asking for what's considered a short extension, something close to the end of June. It looks likely that she'll get it. Those are the indications from E.U. leaders in Brussels.
[04:25:01] The details will be thrashed out today. But what we do know is there's going to be a very strict condition attached and that is that the extension won't become official, it won't be locked in unless Theresa May is able to get parliament here in London to back the negotiated divorce agreement that parliament has already rejected twice.
So that's a really big condition, that remains a really big challenge for the prime minister and it's going to have to happen before March 29th, just next week, because that remains under British law the official Brexit date. So if the deal doesn't go through, if nothing else changes, then the U.K. still is very much looking at the possibility of crashing out of the European Union without a deal in place on March 29th.
It could still happen and that is widely expected to be a pretty catastrophic scenario economically both for the U.K. and the E.U. as well. So the stakes are incredibly high. And what we've seen over the last 24 hours is the prime minister really shifting tactics and trying to get members of parliament to swing behind her deal.
She is not even pretending to be gentle and persuasive with them anymore. What she's being is scolding. She is blaming them and shaming them openly. She made an address to the British people last night from Downing Street in which she said I'm trying to get this done, it's parliament that's in the way. The stakes are really high. She clearly feels she has nothing to lose. The question is, will it all come together within the next week -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. A lot of bad choices and right down to the wire.
Phil Black, thank you so much. From London.
BRIGGS: Donald Trump Jr. weighing in, by the way, suggesting May should have followed the president's advice and sued the E.U.
ROMANS: And there were those in parliament actually who said, I'm sorry, who did the Americans elect? The whole Trump family or Donald Trump to be president?
BRIGGS: Appreciated that advice.
ROMANS: They did not appreciate it, though. BRIGGS: Ahead it took New Zealand just six days to do what the U.S.
and Europe cannot. A new assault weapons ban is on the way after an attack that killed 50.
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