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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
No Collusion, But No Exoneration; Congress Bitterly Divided Over Barr's Summary; Republican Celebrated Barr's Summary; Mueller Investigation Wraps Up; Second Parkland Student Dead Of Apparent Suicide; Boeing Sheds $40 Billion In Market Value; Viking Cruise Ship Docks In Norway. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired March 25, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This was an illegal takedown that failed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: No collusion. No decision on obstruction at least from Robert Mueller. The Special Counsel says the Trump campaign did not conspire with the Russians.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: Welcome back to Early Start everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour, 4:00 a.m. in the East here. We welcome all of our viewers here in the United States and around the world. The big news here, the takeaway from the Special Counsel investigation have now been made public in a four page letter from Attorney General Bill Barr to Congress. The full Mueller report not public yet, but if ever will be, but the top headline, as the president has been saying from the start, no collusion.
BRIGGS: Now, the Attorney General quoted Mueller saying the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. That means no one will face charges for conspiring with the Russians even in that famous Trump Tower meeting in 2016.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It was a complete and total exoneration. It is a shame that our country had to go through this. To be honest, it is a shame that your president has had to go through this. This was an illegal takedown that failed. And hopefully somebody is going to be looking at the other side.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: On the obstruction of justice question, the special counsel
decided not to render a judgment there. Here's Barr again quoting Mueller, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. Mueller left the ultimate decision on obstruction to the Attorney General who was appointed by the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: On obstruction of justice, the story is more complicated and the result has described in this letter is frankly peculiar and not really something that was even contemplated by the regulations.
ANDERSON COOPER, BREAKING NEWS SHOW HOST: (Inaudible) How?
TOOBIN: Because, Robert Mueller was appointed because the political appointees in the Department of Justice, the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, had a conflict of interest, because the target of this investigation was the president. So he was supposed to make the judgments about the president.
Instead of doing that, he seems to have punted the decision over to the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General. It is not precisely clear the way the letter is written whether Mueller reached anymore conclusions about whether the president should be indicted or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Now, remember, a year ago Barr wrote a memo saying that he considered the obstruction investigation, quote, fatally misconceived. In a letter to lawmakers, Barr cleared the president of obstruction and leaned heavily on Mueller's findings about collusion to do so, writing the absence of such evidence bears upon the president's intent with respect to obstruction.
In other words, since there was no collusion with Russia, there could not be obstruction for firing FBI Director James Comey. Comey himself tweeted this pensive picture with the words "so many questions."
ROMANS: All right. Republicans and the president celebrated the Barr's summary of the Mueller report as victory, but you can expect a bitter divided reaction in Congress. Sarah Westwood, is live from Washington. Sara, Dave and I, we're looking over on all the morning papers this morning. Here is the New York Post, no collusion, no obstruction, two years of hysteria ends in Trump vindication. Sara, these headlines look like --
BRIGGS: Yes, this are front pages of history.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: Really just two words on all of them and they focus more on no conspiracy that after all is the criminal code. These are once fake news, but the president will certainly tout them this morning. ROMANS: So Sarah, what is next in Congress?
[04:35:00] SARAH WESTWOOD, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDET: Well, Christine, House Democrats still have a lot of questions about the investigation. House Judiciary Chairman, Jerry Nadler said yesterday that Democrats expect Attorney General Bill Barr to testify sometime in the near future. Obviously Democrats are skeptical of the decision by Barr to clear the president of obstruction in just a couple days after receiving that report from Mueller. Where Mueller decline to take a stand in one way or the other on obstruction.
The Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Intelligence and Oversight Committee said in a statement, it is unacceptable that after Special Counsel Mueller spent 22 months meticulously uncovering the evidence, Attorney General Barr made a decision not to charge the president in under 48 hours, but even as Democrats are expressing skepticism of that decision, Republicans are emboldened by the apparent conclusion from Mueller that the president did not conspire with Russia during the 2016 election and that no one from his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.
For example, Senator Lindsey Graham who is a top ally of President Trump who was with the president in Florida over the weekend, wrote on Twitter, good day for the rule of law. Great day for President Trump and his team. No collusion and no obstruction. The cloud hanging over President Trump has been removed by this report.
Doug Collins is the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee and he said after Barr released his letter, the Democrats should drop their other probes into President Trump, now that Mueller has rendered his verdict, but Nadler has made clear that is not going to happen. Democrats have already issued requests for documents or testimony from 81 people or entities associated with President Trump and Democrats have made clear that they will be willing to use the power of the subpoena to enforce those requests.
Speaking both before and after the Barr letter was delivered to Congress yesterday, Nadler made clear that Democrats are not going to stop investigating President Trump just because the special counsel's work is done. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: President Trump is wrong. This report does not amount to a so-called total exoneration. The Attorney General's comments make it clear that Congress must step into get the truth and provide full transparency to the American people.
Obviously we know there was some collusion, there have been be obstruction of justice whether they are -- clearly whether they are criminal obstructions and other question. What Congress has to do is look at a broader picture. We are in charge -- we have the responsibility of vindicating -- of protecting the rule of law, of looking at obstructions justice and looking at abuses of power, at corruption. (END VIDEO CLIP)
WESTWOOD: Now, White House adviser tells CNN that there are concerns that the president could overreach when he is taking his victory lap after the conclusion of the Russia investigation. We've already seen the president start to do that, but there are concerns among White House advisers that the president could say something that could cause even more trouble for himself with the public. Trump has a rally in Michigan on Thursday, so we could hear more from the president about the end of the investigation, Christine.
ROMANS: It will be fascinating, Sara, I mean, yes, I mean, there's a concern -- maybe that the president could overreach and there's a concern that the Democrats could over reach, you know, and the feeling that this was as Michael Goodwin in the New York Post says, finally the big lie dies, but if Democrats keep, you know, going after the investigation, you know, maybe that causes blowback. All right. Sarah, thank you so much for that.
BRIGGS: The fight is far from over, folks. Not clear whether the American people will actually see the Mueller report. That decision is up to the Attorney General Bill Barr. His review includes material subject on what is call federal rule 6 which essentially says that the Justice Department won't release damaging information about people if they are not charged with a crime, but we've already seen at least one notable exception.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive highly classified information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Now, CNN has reported White House lawyers want to scour the Mueller report before it goes to Congress to exert executive privilege where they consider it necessary. President Trump was never interviewed in person by Mueller's team. His lawyers submitted written answers covering the time up until the election which would not be covered by privilege.
BRIGGS: Now, Barr, during his confirmation hearings said, he favors transparency with caution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM BARR, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY GENERAL PICK: My goal will be to provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Democrats are prepared to fight to get the entire report released. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NADLER: You should not then hide the evidence because that converts it into a cover-up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
NADLER: Congress needs that evidence and the American people need that evidence and that information to make judgments.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:40:04] ROMANS: Now even with the report summary out, there are still questions. Chief among them, why so much smoke if there was no fire. Court filings established senior Trump associates were eager to accept help from the Russians.
BRIGGS: Prosecutors zeroed in on one, trump campaign's one time campaign chairman, Paul Manafort and his extensive connections to Russians including one associate with ties to Russian intelligence. Manafort passed Trump campaign polling data to that associate, while he was overseeing the campaign. Prosecutors said that move was at the heart of their investigation.
ROMANS: Nor has the smoke cleared around Roger Stone. Mueller claims Stone was coordinating with Trump campaign officials at the same time he talked to WikiLeaks about the released of e-mails stolen from the Democrats. There is still no official word which campaign officials were coordinating with Stone.
BRIGGS: Even though the president may be absolved by Mueller, investigations spawned by Mueller's probe brought down several members of the inner circle, among 37 criminal defendants charged by Mueller, there have been seven who pled guilty including Manafort, his Deputy Rick Gates, former national security adviser, Michael Flynn and of course Michael Cohen his long time fixer and personal lawyer.
ROMANS: Cohen implicated the president in a hush money case spawn by the Mueller probe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL COHEN, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S FORMER PERSONAL ATTORNEY: And for the record, individual number one is President Donald J. Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And legal trouble still lurks for the president and his inner circle. Other investigations are picking up momentum.
BRIGGS: Among the targets, the Trump inaugural committee and the Trump organization and the president also being investigated for alleged insurance fraud.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONG. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D), NEW YORK: Did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company?
COHEN: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: It is important to keep in mind what Mueller did uncover, the special counsel charged 12 Russian military officers in a sophisticated kremlin hacking operation against Democrats and 13 members of a Russian troll farm accused of trying to manipulate American voters on social media. Russia attacked American democracy and remains a threat.
BRIGGS: The president's nonstop witch hunt rhetoric may have made him a prime focus, but Russian interference has always been the core issue. It was ambitious, brazen at it is ongoing. The president has sided with Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence community, but the entire Intel apparatus agrees Moscow is not slowing down its interference campaign. Let's hope the attention can turned into that and how we prevent it from happening again.
ROMANS: All right. Imagine this on your cruise ship -- 26 foot waves, a stalled engine, passengers finally back safely on shore after nearly a day at sea.
[04:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: For the second time in a week, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student has died of an apparent suicide. The student has not been identified and it is unclear whether there was a direct connection to last year's shooting massacre at the school. The Parkland community was already mourning the passing of Sydney Aiello. She lived through that school shooting, but suffered with survivor's guilt. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
BRIGGS: CNN's Kaylee Hartung spoke with Ryan Petty. His son Patrick survived last year's tragedy, but he's daughter Layna, did not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN PETTY, DAUGHTER DIED IN PARKLAND SHOOOTING: There had been a number of resources including options for counseling, but unfortunately sometimes there are stigmas associated with getting help for mental illness, for depression and for anxiety for the trauma that they've all suffered.
And so, unfortunately some students are not availing themselves of those opportunities and some parents are not understanding that the risks of anxiety and depression.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: If you are someone you know might be at risk of suicide, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
ROMANS: All right. CNN has learned pilots from the three American carriers that fly the Boeing 737 Max planes tested software upgrades in a simulator this weekend. The changes are intended to decrease the chances of triggering the system, believe to have played a role in the Lion Air crashed back in October.
Now the FAA has said, there are similarities between that accident and the crashed in Ethiopia earlier this month. The updated software uses input from two sensors on the nose of the plane, rather than just one.
BRIGGS: And that was the wild scene aboard a Viking Sky Cruise ship which is now docked in Western Norway, after (inaudible) sea that included engine fire and 26-foot waves. Rescue teams air lifting 479 people from the vessel as it drifted in stormy seas Saturday with 1300 passengers and crew on board. You see there the water rushing in to the areas of the ship where passengers were waiting to be evacuated. Twenty people have suffered injuries. Viking has canceled the ship's next voyage to Scandinavia, which happens scheduled to depart Wednesday.
ROMANS: Wow. All right. Virgin Airlines chairman Richard Branson is joining the call for a new popular vote on Brexit. In a blog post Branson said the United Kingdom is still dangerously close to the full scale disaster of a no deal Brexit adding this, the U.K. government must now put all options on the table and giving the people a final say, must be one of these options.
Branson's post went up a day before hundreds of thousands of marchers filled the streets of London, voted that calling for a new vote. Branson has been a longtime opponent of Brexit.
[04:50:00] Before the original vote, he called the idea of Brexit pretty catastrophic for the long term future of Great Britain and a financial disaster. So far Prime Minister Theresa May has rejected the idea of a new vote.
BRIGGS: Nebraska's historic flooding is hitting ranchers and farmers especially hard. Emergency shipments of hay are being driven in as you can see, air dropped to save surviving livestock from starving. Farmers in parts of Nebraska and Iowa say they had too little time to escape flood waters, so they abandon livestock and harvest.
South Dakota, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation also struggling for basics for almost two weeks. Extreme weather and bad roads have left some people stranded with limited food and water. Emergency rations are only able to reach parts of the back country by horse, boat and helicopter.
ROMANS: A major recall of avocados due to listeria concerns. These avocados were grown in California and sold in both by the Henry Avocado Corporation stores in Arizona, California, Florida, New Hampshire and North Carolina and Wisconsin. Every shipment since late January is affected. . Listeria bacteria is of particular concern for pregnant women and the elderly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taylor driving. Banks it up. No. Put back. And it counts. And Duke survives! (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Somehow some way Duke advanced to the sweet 16, but barely. The top seeded Blue Devils escape with a 77-76 win. A thrilling finished against University of Central Florida. What an effort by Coach Danny (inaudible) and his son (inaudible). Tennessee also moving on. The Volunteers taking out Iowa 83-77 in overtime. Tennessee though blew a 25 point first half lead. All four number ones, twos and threes survived. We'll be right back.
[04:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRIGGS: Rap icon, Dr. Dre -- Jay -- Dre, excuse me, throwing some first class shade at families caught up in that college admissions scandal. He posted this picture on Instagram Sunday with his daughter celebrating her acceptance to the University of Southern Cal. He wrote in the caption my daughter got accepted into USC all on her own. No jail time, but critics were quick to point out that just a few years ago Dre and a fellow rap producer made a $70 million donation to the University. #no help. Dr. Dre has since deleted the post. Dozens of parents are facing federal charges for allegedly cheating to get their children accepted to prestigious universities including USC.
IPhone sales spluttering. Apple is looking to reinvent itself by entering the television and news industries. The company is expected to unveil its new services business this afternoon. CNN learning that it will involve TV shows, movies, music and a new subscription service in partnership with the "Wall Street Journal." Apple is spending more than $1 billion on shows featuring a-list stars from Hollywood, how they are streamed, a time line for the release and possible bundle offerings all expected to be unveiled in just a matter of hours.
ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN business this morning. You know, global stocks lower here amid recession fears. Those are some big moves you're seeing in Tokyo. There are 3 percent decline in the Nikkei. And European markets have opened and they are also down. This is all following through to some grim performance on Friday. The DOW dropped 460 points, fears of an economic slowdown. The S&P 500 down almost 2 percent, the NASDAQ down 2.5 percent. It was the worst performance for all three major averages since January 3rd. They finished the week lower all the stock averages finished the week lower at as well.
Now, for the year, good to point out that markets are still up substantially for the year of the DOW, the NASDAQ, look at that NASDAQ up 15 percent. There is just this feeling frankly that markets have done very, very well and there are concerns that global growth is starting to slow and that could slow down the U.S.
BRIGGS: Big GDP numbers.
ROMANS: Yes. On Thursday. Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. We'll see you tomorrow. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Good morning everyone. Welcome to a
special early edition of your "New Day." It is Monday, March 25th, 5:00 in the East. President Trump and his allies taking a victory lap this morning after months of claiming no collusion, President Trump says he is vindicated by the Mueller report.
In a letter summarizing the special counsel's investigation, Attorney General William Barr says Mueller did not find that the president, his campaign or his associates conspired with Russia. On the question of obstruction, the Mueller report did not conclude the president committed a crime, but also did not exonerate him strangely.
Mueller did not decide to charge the president with obstruction of justice. He punted on that decision. Attorney General Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein chose not to charge the president saying there was not sufficient evidence to support a prosecution.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: President Trump exalted in the results of the investigation, even as he blasted the investigations. He called it an illegal takedown that failed. And even though the Mueller report explicitly says it did not exonerated the president on obstruction, the president called it a complete and total exoneration.
Congressional Democrats want to see the evidence that the Mueller team gathered on obstruction, and House Judiciary Jerry Nadler wants the Attorney General to testify, but Democrats also have questions to answer particularly those who have claimed up until this point that they did see clear evidence of collusion. We want to begin with CNN's Sara Murray live in Washington. Sarah, you've covered this for so long. Such a big moment.
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