Return to Transcripts main page
Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Department of Justice Urges Court To End All Obamacare; Democrats At A Turning Point On Mueller Report; Michael Avenatti Charged In $20 Million Plot; Duke University Settles For $112 Million Over Fake Science. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired March 26, 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)
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Speaker Pelosi, are you ready to say that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in light of the Mueller finding?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does this exonerate the president?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Democrats facing a hard choice post- Robert Mueller. Do they keep investigating Trump, do they focus on their agenda, or can they do both?
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The White House now back to full repeal of Obamacare -- a major shift after saying parts of the law could stand.
ROMANS: A $20 million extortion plot. Serious charges against the lawyer who helped expose those hush payments from Donald Trump.
BRIGGS: And, Duke University used fake science to get real federal money. Now the school is paying up.
Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: Nice to see you all this morning. Nice to see you, Dave.
BRIGGS: You, too.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans -- 30 minutes past the hour.
Breaking overnight, a major reversal by the Trump administration. Remember this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The next major priority for me and for all of us should be to lower the cost of health care and prescription drugs, and to protect patients with preexisting conditions.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Well now, no more. In a new court filing, the administration said the entire Affordable Care Act -- all of it should be struck down. The Justice Department says it now agrees with a federal judge in Texas who invalidated the ACA in a December ruling.
BRIGGS: At the time, the administration said it would not defend certain Obamacare provisions, including preexisting condition protections covering 52 million Americans, but it argued the rest of the law could stand. The case is currently before a federal appeals court.
Eleven point four million Americans signed up for Obamacare coverage in 2019. That's down 300,000 from last year.
ROMANS: Democrats at a critical juncture this morning after President Trump effectively cleared by special counsel Robert Mueller on collusion. For 22 months, many Democrats all but guaranteed Mueller would find the president or his campaign conspired with Russians. When he did not, even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was speechless.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: Speaker Pelosi, are you ready to say that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in light of the Mueller finding?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does this exonerate the president?
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I think that the Mueller report was clear. The president's not exonerated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Not exonerated. The speaker is right on that behalf. Mueller said he did not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice.
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani complained about just that to Chris Cuomo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: This was a cheap shot.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "CUOMO PRIME TIME": Then I don't know why Mueller said it.
GIULIANI: It was a cheap shot.
CUOMO: He either makes a decision to prosecute or not.
GIULIANI: For a prosecutor, this is unprofessional. If people get prosecuted for what they're thinking -- if somebody says oh, I think I'm going to -- I might want to kill that guy because he was mean to me --
CUOMO: But doesn't he need formulation of intent?
GIULIANI: No. That's what he says --
CUOMO: Corrupt intent?
GIULIANI: No. That's why he says there is no obstructive conduct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: While everyone haggles over obstruction, Democrats are still not ready to conclude there was no Russia conspiracy. They say they will continue to investigate ties between the campaign and Russians.
But that strategy risks a political backlash if voters think Democrats are grasping for evidence where Mueller already investigated. It's a point 2020 hopeful Elizabeth Warren made last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I spent the last couple of days in New Hampshire. I did a bunch of big public events.
Altogether over the weekend, I got maybe 100 questions. And do you know the number that were about the Mueller report? Zero, because what people were talking about -- what they're asking about are the things that touch their lives every day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: One might add, like health care.
Speaker Pelosi already moving past Mueller, telling her leadership team House Democrats should focus on their agenda, not Russian interference.
Still, though, the calls to release the full Mueller report are growing louder by the hour. Even the president, though, seems OK with it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It's up to the attorney general, but it wouldn't bother me at all. Up to the attorney general. Wouldn't bother me at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: But in the Senate, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked efforts by Democrats to make Mueller's report public. McConnell saying Attorney General Bill Barr should not be rushed as he reviews the report to determine how much to release.
BRIGGS: A CNN poll finds 87 percent of Americans across party lines believe Mueller's team should produce a full public report of their findings. We will hear publicly from Attorney General Barr on April 9th. He's
set to testify before a House committee on the DOJ budget. But certainly, there will be questions --
ROMANS: Absolutely.
BRIGGS: -- all about this.
Let's bring in "Washington Post" congressional correspondent Karoun Demirjian, a CNN political analyst. Great to have you here.
ROMANS: Hi, Karoun.
KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: Good morning.
BRIGGS: So, all right, both parties retreating further into their corners following the release of the Mueller report and the president with a real opportunity, you could argue, to govern -- to at least attempt to try and unite this country. And their first move is ripping preexisting protections from millions of Americans.
[05:35:00] Is Elizabeth Warren right that Americans don't care about the Mueller report? Is this a gift to congressional Democrats?
DEMIRJIAN: The Democrats are always going to be in a difficult position to have to answer questions about the Mueller probe they didn't necessarily want to be talking about on the campaign trail or potentially not, as Elizabeth Warren is saying. She's not really getting any direct questions about that. But it's going to always be out there.
They ran on health care as an issue in past elections. It's one of the things that they kept bringing up when they came back to win seats in this last midterm election. And so, yes, this is one of the things that they want to be able to talk about.
And the fact that there's now going to be a more stark difference between Democrats who either personally or in so many terms supported the Obamacare law, who are advocating for Medicare for All -- and then you have this move by the Trump administration, it just makes the difference that much more obvious and stark even if people are not going to necessarily like feel it immediately because it won't go into effect -- these changes -- necessarily, before the election --
ROMANS: True.
DEMIRJIAN: -- in a way that hits people in their gut, it's still going to be something that's now out there.
It's not just a talking point but a real comparison point. And I think Democrats are relishing that opportunity.
ROMANS: Yes. I mean -- I mean, if you -- if you talk about how this is a new phase in the Trump administration after 22 months -- you know, he's got what he considers a big lie behind him and he can move forward.
Now, Democrats are at a -- at a crossroads here, too. Do they choose to try to push their own agenda? Do they choose to try to continue to push these investigations and these complications for the Trump administration or can they do both?
DEMIRJIAN: Yes. I mean, look, there's two points of calculus for the Democrats, right?
One is that they think there might be actually something there. I think that we've been talking a lot about wanting to see the full release of the Mueller report. I think for Democrats it goes beyond that. They want to see the evidence underlying the Mueller report --
ROMANS: Right.
DEMIRJIAN: -- to figure out exactly what he looked at.
There are many Democrats on the Hill who believe that the episodes and the periods that they are looking at go broader or more comprehensive than what Mueller considered and that maybe they could find evidence of something that he didn't find because he wasn't looking at everything that they're looking at. They don't know because they haven't seen everything that he's looking at.
So that's one thing right there. The Democrats think they may actually be able to find something that Mueller didn't.
But on the other hand, there is the question of what do they choose to actually spend their time on. Do they -- do they choose to make a political decision that they're going to focus on this or that they're going to move away from it because it depends on how the public is receiving it at all points in time, especially if the word impeachment is now off the table?
ROMANS: Yes.
DEMIRJIAN: At the end of the day, the judge is the public -- the moment of judging is the 2020 elections and they've got to be really careful about what they do based on what sort of reception that they're getting.
BRIGGS: Same questions for the right because the president is already trying to fundraise off of not being a criminal.
And, Kellyanne Conway calling Adam Schiff to resign.
And Lindsey Graham saying there are other questions about, again, the other side following the Mueller report. Here's Lindsey Graham yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: By any reasonable standard, Mr. Mueller thoroughly investigated the Trump campaign. You cannot say that about the other side of the story. And what I hope Mr. Barr will do is understand for the country's sake, appoint somebody outside the current system to look into these allegations -- somebody we all trust -- and let them do what Mr. Mueller did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: So, Republicans want President Obama investigated. Trump T.V. asking the question yesterday morning, should Obama and Clinton be charged?
Are there legitimate questions here about the surveillance process?
DEMIRJIAN: I think that there are always -- you can always ask questions about how the surveillance process works because it's a very secretive process, although we have seen much more of the information from that process be publicized over the last year or so because the GOP in the House was running a probe into these matters over the -- when they were in charge of Congress.
Graham had always said he was going to pick up that baton and keep running with it. He has always said that he thinks that there is the need for a second special counsel to look into how the FBI and DOJ conducted themselves when they were doing -- running probes of Clinton and Trump.
I mean, look, there's an I.G. report out there that says that certain members were shown to have been biased -- at least that were working on the Clinton e-mail probe. It doesn't think that that bias actually affected the outcome of the probe but this has been something that the GOP has seized on.
ROMANS: Yes.
DEMIRJIAN: And it seems like in this moment in which they don't have to worry about the president anymore -- I mean, that's not completely true. There will be Democratic pushes on the president and the investigation still to go forward. But this case in which Trump gets a breather, they are turning back to saying OK, keep going back there.
But like we were talking about before, there's always a potential political backlash. Hillary Clinton is not going to be on the ballot in 2020. There are going to be people that are tired of this -- as tired as they are of the Mueller focus on Trump. They'll be tired of harping on Clinton, too.
And so, let's see what Barr decides to do -- if he answers these calls from President Trump's base and his supporters or if he says let's all just move on with everything.
ROMANS: When policy starts rising to the surface again when we're talking about 2020 --
BRIGGS: If --
ROMANS: We'll all see in that personality --
BRIGGS: Yes. ROMANS: -- and prosecution.
All right. Karoun Demirjian, so nice to see you. Thanks for dropping by today.
[05:40:01] DEMIRJIAN: Thank you.
ROMANS: All right.
High-profile lawyer Michael Avenatti arrested in New York for allegedly trying to extort more than $20 million from Nike. He was released last night on $300,000 bond. He claims he is innocent.
TEXT (MICHAEL AVENATTI, TWITTER): I want to thank all of my supporters for your kind words and support today. It means a lot to me.
I am anxious for people to see what really happened. We never attempted to extort Nike and when the evidence is disclosed, the public will learn the truth about Nike's crime and cover-up.
ROMANS: According to the criminal complaint, Avenatti met last week with attorneys for Nike and threatened to release, quote, "allegations of misconduct."
BRIGGS: That was on the eve of the company's quarterly earnings call and the start of the NCAA Tournament.
Avenatti allegedly telling Nike's lawyers, quote, "I'll go take $10 billion off your client's market cap. I'm not f***ing around."
TEXT (MICHAEL AVENATTI, TWITTER): Tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. ET, we will be holding a press conference to disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by Nike that we have uncovered. This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball.
BRIGGS: The charges against Avenatti coming minutes after he announced a press conference for today to disclose a supposed major scandal perpetrated by Nike.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL AVENATTI, ATTORNEY: I have fought against the powerful -- powerful people and powerful corporations. I will never stop fighting that good fight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos is an unnamed co-conspirator in the case. He was a CNN contributor. He is not longer, as of Monday.
Minutes after news about the New York charges broke, federal prosecutors in California charged Avenatti in a separate case involving wire and bank fraud. Those charges could bring a maximum sentence of 50 years in federal prison.
BRIGGS: Pilots may have had less than a minute to override a system suspected of failing in at least one crash of the Boeing 737 MAX.
"The New York Times" spoke to two unnamed pilots who recently conducted flight simulations. The point was to recreate a crisis situation similar to what investigators suspect went wrong on the doomed Lion Air flight last October. They discovered they had less than 40 seconds to override the automated system on Boeing's new jets and avoid disaster.
ROMANS: The pilots reportedly did not fully understand just how powerful the system was until they flew the plane on a 737 MAX simulator.
The automated MCAS system is the focus of investigations into both the Lion Air disaster and the Ethiopian Airlines crash this month. Together, those crashes killed 346 people.
Boeing is expected to propose a software update that would give pilots more control over the system.
BRIGGS: Can you imagine, less than 40 seconds.
ROMANS: All right.
The Green New Deal goes before Congress today. Why are Democrats planning not to support their own resolution?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:46:31] BRIGGS: Duke University agreeing to pay a $112 million settlement after being accused of falsifying scientific data to win federal research grants. The Feds say the school submitted bogus data to the National Institutes of Health and the EPA from 2006 to 2018.
A former Duke employee who filed a whistleblowers suit will receive nearly $34 million as part of the settlement.
The university president saying, quote, "We expect Duke researchers to adhere always to the highest standards of integrity. When individuals fail to uphold those standards we must accept responsibility."
ROMANS: A federal ban on bump stocks begins today. Those devices enable semiautomatic rifles to fire continuously, like machine guns.
Bump stocks came under scrutiny after the Las Vegas massacre in 2017 when a gunman killed 58 people and wounded hundreds more. After the shooting, President Donald Trump vowed to outlaw bump stocks.
The Justice Department is calling on bump stock owners to destroy the devices or turn them in to an ATF field office.
BRIGGS: The Green New Deal backed by many Democrats is expected to be blocked in the Senate today by Democrats. They believe Republicans are trying to score political points by forcing a quick vote on a still-developing proposal.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushing for a vote to put the opposition on record. The Democrats plan to counter McConnell by voting present instead of for or against the deal. They'll argue the Green New Deal is, at this stage, more of an aspirational document -- an actual piece of legislation.
ROMANS: Let's get a check on "CNN Business" this morning.
Global markets rebounding from yesterday's decline but the main storyline remains the same. Global growth concerns here. You can see Tokyo bounced back. European markets have opened a little bit mixed here.
On Wall Street, futures are just ever so slightly higher. The U.S. markets were essentially unchanged at the end of trading Monday. The Dow closed up just 14 points, helped by a bounce in Boeing shares. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq down slightly.
The top brain trust for business economists forecasts slowing economic growth heading into the elections. The survey of NABE economists found U.S. growth below White House targets, from 2.9 percent growth last year to 2.4 percent this year, and just two percent in 2020.
With Boeing in crisis, its rival, Airbus, just announced a huge order from China. The European manufacturer said it has reached a deal to sell 300 passenger jets to airlines in China. China, of course, was the first country to ground the 737 MAX earlier this month following the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
China is a giant market for both Airbus and Boeing and its importance is increasing every day. According to Airbus's latest forecast, China will need around 7,400 new passenger and cargo aircraft through the year 2037.
A win for Nike in a lawsuit over the Jumpman logo for its Air Jordan brand. The Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by a photographer who sued Nike for copyright infringement.
In 1984, that photographer took a photo of Michael Jordan before he joined the NBA and signed a deal with Nike. In 2015, the photographer claimed that Nike copied virtually every element in a photo that Nike used to market its Air Jordan.
A district court threw out the case and an appeals court upheld the decision. The appeals court found that Nike's photo was not substantially similar to the photographer's.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:54:19] BRIGGS: Two escaped inmates captured overnight in North Carolina, but three are still at large. The prisoners broke out of the Nash County Jail Monday night. The sheriff says they escaped by cutting an already weakened fence in the exercise yard. He believes they had outside help and there is a $1,500 reward for the capture of the remaining inmates.
ROMANS: Authorities now investigating a third suicide in the past week linked to school massacres.
Jeremy Richman was found dead in his Connecticut office building Monday morning in what police are calling an apparent suicide. His 6- year-old daughter Avielle Richman was among those 20 children and six adults killed in the Sandy Hook shooting back in 2012.
BRIGGS: The news comes as the Parkland, Florida community mourns the death of Sydney Aiello, a Parkland school shooting survivor, and another student who died in what police described as an apparent suicide.
[05:55:07] If you or someone you know might be at risk of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273- 8255.
ROMANS: The latest in the college admissions scandal. A dozen college coaches, sports, and test administrators pleading not guilty to racketeering. This is part of that Operation Varsity Blues -- that sprawling scandal.
Prosecutors say the defendants carried out a scheme to cheat on standardized tests. In some cases, they bribe college coaches who helped students gain admission by falsely claiming they were recruits -- rowers or soccer players -- when, in fact, they did not play those sports.
Meanwhile, Yale has rescinded the admission of a student who was part of the ongoing scandal. It's the first instance of a school rescinding admission since the scandal broke two weeks ago.
BRIGGS: Winter's chill still has a bit of a grip on the Northeast. Here's meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Dave and Christine.
Yes, cool air here, at least for a few more days across portions of the Northeast. Then all under the influence of high pressure, which is firmly in control across the Great Lakes and parts of the Midwest.
And that northerly flow around this here bringing in some cool Canadian air right over us across portions of, say, New York, Boston, and working your way towards Philly as well, feeling some of the cold temperatures.
And back toward the Eastern coastline there is our departing system right there. Some residual moisture through at least late this morning into the early afternoon hours. Beyond that, the system is gone and we get perhaps a few areas of thunderstorms popping up across South Georgia.
Highs in Atlanta about 60 degrees, while in St. Louis, the middle 50s. Chicago warms up to 45, New York at 47. There is a dramatic warming trend in store going in towards this weekend and then just like that, a dramatic cooling trend into early next week.
In fact, look at this forecast in New York from the 40s to the 50s to the 60s -- almost at 70 degrees come Saturday afternoon. And then just like that, you see a pretty steep drop down into what is around average for this time of year by this time next week, which would be in the low 50s -- guys.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, Pedram. Thank you so much for that.
Can President Trump block people on Twitter? The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York is holding a hearing this afternoon to decide. Last May, a federal judge ruled President Trump was violating the Constitution by blocking Twitter users because his feed is a public forum.
BRIGGS: The Pentagon says it successfully test-launched two missile interceptors from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. They were up against a simulated intercontinental ballistic missile -- a critical test to prepare against potential attacks from adversaries like North Korea.
Defense officials wanted to make sure that if multiple missiles were in the air sensors could still distinguish the enemy's incoming missiles from others.
ROMANS: NASA forced to scrap what would have been the first all- female spacewalk scheduled for Friday. The reason -- it turns out there's only one spacesuit onboard the International Space Station that best fits both female astronauts, Christina Koch and Anne McClain.
So, Friday's spacewalk will now be conducted by a man and a woman. If everything goes according to plan, Christina Koch will become the 14th woman to perform a spacewalk.
BRIGGS: A surprise for passengers on a British Airways flight from London. They were headed to Dusseldorf, Germany except -- well, they weren't. They actually landed in Edinburgh, Scotland.
One passenger tells CNN she knew something wasn't quite right when she saw mountains outside the plane instead of the usual German industrial landscape.
Airline officials say the problem was an incorrectly filed flight plan. The captain apologized and after a 2 1/2-hour delay the plane took off again.
ROMANS: Oh, that's a -- that's a -- what if you were going to a business meeting? You know, you just had to pop over to Dusseldorf and you end up in Scotland.
BRIGGS: A free round for that entire flight. ROMANS: Absolutely.
All right, thanks for joining us this morning. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Here's "NEW DAY".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: There are a lot of people that have done harm to our country. Those people will certainly be looked at.
SCHIFF: Our investigation has always focused on is the president comprising and that work has to go on.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: It's imperative Mr. Barr make the full report public.
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R), LOUISIANA: It's over. If you care about our country it's time to move on.
ROMANS: The Trump administration calling for the complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Democrats have been given a gift. They should turn to that now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're focused on lowering health care costs and protecting people with preexisting conditions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, March 26th, 6:00 here in New York.
And, you know, overnight, we learned that the Justice Department has not yet released the full Mueller report, but it has taken action to completely strike down Obamacare, which could abruptly end health coverage for millions of Americans. Much more on that in just a moment.
But first, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked efforts by Democrats to pass a resolution calling for the Mueller report to be made public. McConnell says the attorney general has promised to do it and should not be rushed.
END
