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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Says GOP Will be Party of Healthcare; Twitter to Label Tweets that Violate Rules, Including Trump's; United Kingdom Deadlocked Over Brexit; Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired March 28, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:31:10] JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The White House is scrambling to get a healthcare plan ready and Republicans bewildered after the president re-launched a battle that cost them the House.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Twitter with a major policy shift. Offensive tweets from officials including the president's will be annotated by the tech giant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our new Attorney General Bill Barr -- had he been there initially this all would have not have happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: The president all but admitting he wanted control of the Russia investigation from the start.
BRIGGS: And another bizarre turn for Jussie Smollett. The files in his case are released before being resealed.
Welcome back to EARLY START on a Thursday, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.
DEAN: Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean. It is 31 minutes past the hour.
Even Republicans appear bewildered by President Trump's promise to make the GOP the party of healthcare. Deep divisions over the Affordable Care Act that bogged down the party two years ago remain. And according to Axios, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told the president the decision to renew efforts to kill Obamacare made no sense, especially after Democrats routed the Republicans in the midterms in part over the issue of preexisting conditions.
BRIGGS: Right now the White House has no plan for replacing the Affordable Care Act if a decision by a Texas judge to strike down that law is upheld. But the administration insists there will at some point be a plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARC SHORT, CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: The president will be putting forward plans this year that we hope to introduce into Congress, Wolf. But the reality is that the court decision is likely not until the summer of 2020 by the time it would reach the Supreme Court.
We don't know how they would rule. The president has said repeatedly he would not sign any law unless it protected preexisting conditions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: President Trump has repeatedly promised to protect preexisting conditions but keeps backing plans that would eliminate them.
DEAN: The president will tweet and now Twitter will add its say. In a major shift for social media, Twitter will start labeling tweets from officials that violate its rules. Twitter's head of legal policy appeared at a "Washington Post" sponsored event in San Francisco. The social media giant is still refusing to remove President Trump's more questionable tweets saying they are in the public interests. But next time the president sends an offensive tweet, it might be accompanied by a note providing more information.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIJAYA GADDE, TWITTER'S HEAD OF LEGAL POLICY: There are other types of content that we believe have -- are newsworthy or in the public interest that people may want to have a conversation around. But today when we leave that content on a platform, there's no context around that, and it just lives on Twitter and people can see it, and they just assume that that's the type of content or behavior that's allowed by our rules.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even though your rules say no bullying.
GADDE: Exactly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Twitter will still remove tweets from anyone with violent or threatening content. The president regularly uses the platform to attack political enemies even sharing images of his foes behind bars. The president has also gone after big tech itself claiming it favors Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm able to get the word out through my social media because I have great social media. But I'll tell you, it's much tougher than it should be. I deal with Twitter. It's not right the way they do it. And it seems to be if they're conservative, if they're Republicans, if they're in a certain group there's discrimination, a big discrimination.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: There are growing concerns the president's Twitter behavior has influenced politicians on the local and state levels and abroad.
DEAN: President Trump heading to Grand Rapids, Michigan, tonight for his first campaign rally since the Mueller probe wrapped up. The president has already given his first TV interview since Attorney General Bill Barr delivered his summary.
[04:35:00] Barr effectively clearing the president of collusion but not on obstruction. In the interview on FOX News, the president railed against the Mueller probe calling it an attempted takeover of our government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Our new Attorney General Bill Barr is a great gentleman. And I've heard about him for years. He's a great -- he's a great man. Had he been there initially, this all would not have happened because what's gone on there is just a disgrace to our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: So the president says if he'd made Barr his first attorney general instead of Jeff Sessions, no Mueller report. As much as admitting he wanted to control the Russia investigation from the start. In fact, the Mueller probe started partly because Mr. Trump fired the first person investigating Russian collusion, that was James Comey. The former FBI director yesterday weighed in on Robert Mueller's decision to punt on the obstruction question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FORMER DIRECTOR, FBI: The obstruction piece confuses me. The purpose of a special counsel is to make sure that the politicals, in this case the attorney general, doesn't make the ultimate call on whether the subject of the investigation, the president of the United States, should be held criminally liable for activities that were under investigation. And so the idea that the special counsel wouldn't reach the question and hand it to the political leadership doesn't make sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff sticking to his claim there is evidence of collusion even if Mueller could not prove the crime of conspiracy.
Schiff is not backing off his investigation, but he says he is in a holding pattern until more is learned about what the special counsel uncovered. Schiff says he wants to hear from Robert Mueller.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: He is going to have to come in and testify. At what point that takes place, whether that's before or after we get the report or the underlying evidence may depend on how much Bill Barr stalls in providing that report to the public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: On that point House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler says that Barr will not commit to releasing the full Mueller report. House Democrats have set an April 2nd deadline.
DEAN: The case of "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett going from surprising to flat-out bizarre. The Illinois attorney general has been asked to review the handling of that case. Prosecutors this week abruptly dropped charges that Smollett allegedly plotted a bogus attack on himself.
BRIGGS: He was let off despite video evidence showing his attackers buying materials that Smollett gave them cash for. On Wednesday the Chicago Police Department released a portion of Smollett's investigative reports and before being advised a court order actually prohibited the release.
DEAN: Cook County state's attorney Kim Foxx claims clerks made a mistake sealing the case even though the prosecutor in court did not object when Smollett's lawyers asked for the record to be sealed. Foxx had recused herself in that case and says she believes her office could have obtained a conviction against Smollett. Still she defends her office's decision to drop the charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIM FOXX, COOK COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY: The likelihood that someone would get a precedent sentence for a class four felony is slim. I don't want people to believe that there are two measures of justice for the privileged and those without. Once the rhetoric and the emotions stop, we will stand by our record.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has called the decision a whitewash of justice.
BRIGGS: Embattled plane maker Boeing making its most direct attempt to fix a safety issue that investigators believe led to two recent crashes that killed 346 people. Regulators and some 200 pilots gathered at its plant in Washington state as it unveiled an overhaul to its safety software and train pilots through scenarios on a flight simulator.
DEAN: On Capitol Hill, the FAA's acting chief fiercely defended the federal government's approach delegating broad oversight and safety certification of 737 Max planes to Boeing itself. He also told lawmakers early data was not enough to warrant grounding the planes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL ELWELL, ACTING ADMINISTRATOR OF FAA: I can't speak to the reasoning that the other nations took. I know that in communication with those countries they -- in our request what data might they have, they did not have any data for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: Southwest, the largest domestic carrier in the U.S., says it's taken a huge hit in large part because of the grounding of the 737 Max jets. It says it's cut 9400 flights in the past six weeks and more cancellations are expected.
BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, a shooting rampage in Seattle leaving two people dead and two others critically wounded. Seattle Police describe the killings as a random senseless act. The incident unfolding when a gunman tried to carjack a woman. She was shot and is in critical condition. The gunman then set his sights on a crowded bus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:40:03] MARC GARTH GREEN, SEATTLE DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF: The suspect then opened fire on the metro bus striking the driver. The driver was able to back the bus up and turn it around and get it out of the area where it is currently where you see it right now, to a safe area, where we're able to get aid to him and the passengers on the bus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: Police said the gunman then carjacked another car, shooting and killing the 50-year-old driver. A high speed police chase ensued. The suspect collided with another car killing that 70-year-old driver. After a brief standoff, officers took the suspect into custody.
BRIGGS: Somebody in Wisconsin has a lot of extra cheddar this morning. The one jackpot winning ticket in Wednesday's $768 million Powerball drawing was sold in Wisconsin. The jackpot is the third largest in U.S. history and Powerball's second biggest ever. Those winning numbers 16, 20, 37, 44, 62, and your Powerball, 12.
Congratulations to someone.
A check on CNN Business now at 4:40 Eastern Time. The United States and China inching closer to a trade deal and the president's measure of whether or not the U.S. is winning on trade is shrinking. New data from the Commerce Department shows the trade deficit declined nearly 15 percent to $51 billion in January. That is the largest drop since March last year. The trade deficit with China fell 6.4 percent in January. That's partly due to U.S. importers pulling back after rushing to buy Chinese goods before tariffs escalated.
President Trump had threatened to raise tariffs this month, but that did not happen. The data also shows a rise in soybean purchases from China. Beijing had stopped buying soybeans from American farmers last year in retaliation to Trump's tariffs but the Chinese bought $1.2 billion worth of soybeans in January.
There is now more pressure to get a deal done. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade rep Robert Lighthizer are in Beijing for two days of talks. A Chinese delegation comes to Washington in April. The grand finale would be a signing ceremony at Mar-a-Lago in late April.
DEAN: No deal times eight. British lawmakers cannot agree on a Brexit plan even as the prime minister says she will quit just to get the job done. We are live in London.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:46:26] JOHN BERCOW, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS: Order. Order. I said order. I'm finishing. Order.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: The United Kingdom hopelessly deadlocked over Brexit. Lawmakers failing to agree on an alternative to the plan being pitched by Theresa May. The prime minister even offering to resign in a desperate attempt to save her deal.
So what happens now? We go live to 10 Downing Street and bring in Nic Robertson to explain what is an incredibly complicated situation without a lot of answers -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: A chaotic, complicated, you heard it there yesterday, it was some kind of a show going on there in parliament. But it didn't show the parliamentarians the way forward, it didn't show them after all the different eight votes that were supposed to be indicative votes that would supposed to indicate where the MPs could actually have agreement and perhaps find an alternative path to Theresa May's agreement.
They didn't do it. Every one of those eight different propositions was voted down, some of them narrowly. Theresa May on the other hand offered her resignation dated sometime later this year, sometime she will hand off the Brexit negotiations to a new leader, the Conservative Party. A new leader of the country. We still don't have an exact date on that.
Of course what also isn't clear at the moment is, can Theresa May resurrect that agreement that she's made with the E.U. and get it voted through the Houses of Parliament. She's tried it twice. It's been hugely defeated twice. There's a possibility she might bring it to a vote this week, but you know what, she doesn't have the support for it still despite offering her resignation there. She still needs the support of those hard line Democratic Unionist MPs from Northern Ireland.
She doesn't have it. It doesn't seem like it's there for the taking right now. It's not clear how the country moves forward from here.
DEAN: All right. Nic Robertson, more to come. Thank you.
BRIGGS: New cars sold in Europe will have to be equipped with speed limiters starting in 2022. The European Union agreeing to new safety rules that require intelligence speed assistance systems. They can be temporarily overridden by the driver. Some automakers have GPS or cameras that detect posted speed limits
and make sure drivers adhere. Most safety experts are applauding the new measures but some are raising concerns about drivers becoming complacent and less focused on the road.
DEAN: Facebook announces it is banning all content that in any way glorifies white nationalism. This comes less than two weeks after the suspect in the New Zealand mosque attacks streamed the massacre live on Facebook. The social network says it has long prohibited hateful treatment of people based on race, but had not applied the same standard to white nationalism.
Facebook will start directing people who search for terms associated with White House supremacy to organizations that help people leave hate groups.
BRIGGS: OK. How long would you be willing to watch the "Avengers"? Well, it could take a while. CNN Business has the details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:54:01] DEAN: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is defending her proposal to cut funding for the Special Olympics. She's coming under fire for her plan to cut 12 percent from the department's budget. It is the third year in a row DeVos has called for eliminating funding for Special Olympics events at schools, and she argues, quote, "The Special Olympics is not a federal program. It's a private organization. I love its work. There are dozens of worthy nonprofits that support students and adults with disabilities that don't get a dime of federal grant money."
DeVos claims the Special Olympics does not need federal backing because the program can raise private contributions and she says she actually made a private donation to the organization last year.
BRIGGS: An $80 million award for a California man who says Roundup gave him cancer. A federal jury found the popular Monsanto weed killer was a substantial factor causing Edwin Hardeman's non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Hardeman claimed Roundup's design was defective and Monsanto was negligent in not warning of the product's risks.
[04:55:07] Bayer, Monsanto's parent company, says it will appeal. Hardeman is the first lawsuit against Monsanto to reach trial in a federal court. About 11,000 similar cases are still pending.
DEAN: James Fields, the man accused of driving his car into a crowd of counter-protestors at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has changed his plea to avoid the death penalty. Fields was convicted of 29 federal hate crimes for that 2017 attack that resulted in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer. In court Wednesday Fields changed his plea from not guilty to guilty. He will be sentenced in July.
BRIGGS: Police in Florida have identified the student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who apparently took his own life last weekend. Sixteen-year-old Calvin Desir was a sophomore. He's the second teenager who attended Stoneman Douglas during the Parkland shooting to die by suicide recently. The other, Sydney Aiello, she was 19, she graduated last year. Their deaths have put a renewed focus on post-traumatic stress and lasting effects of mass shootings.
If you or someone you know might be a risk of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-88255.
DEAN: For the first time in more than two decades, the FDA is proposing new guidelines to modernize breast cancer screenings. All women in the U.S. getting mammograms would receive information about breast density. Dense tissue can obscure signs of breast cancer.
The FDA has also proposed expanding the categories used to classify mammography findings. And this should help screening facilities to more precisely classify those findings. It will also help patients and care providers make more informed decisions after receiving mammogram results.
BRIGGS: McDonald's will no longer pay lobbyists to fight minimum wage hikes. In a letter to the National Restaurant Association, the company says it believes pay increases should be phased in. The average starting salary for employees at corporate owned stores is above $10 an hour and workers are hard to find for low-paying jobs in a labor market with an unemployment rate below 4 percent. McDonald's has been a target for groups fighting to raise the minimum wage nationwide.
DEAN: Caught on video, a criminal suspect sucker-punches a Florida public defender at a bond hearing. Lawyer Julie Chase was appearing on behalf of another Broward County inmate. A defendant waiting for his own hearing then gets up, walked up behind Chase and punched her in the head. That defendant 27-year-old William Green had been arrested Tuesday charged with attacking a hospital technician. The public defender's office says it was a poor judgment call for Green not to be under closer supervision. Chase was treated and released in a nearby hospital and is now at home.
BRIGGS: A California woman has been awarded $150,000 in child support nearly 50 years after her divorce. Toni Anderson married Don Lenhart in 1966. They split two years later. A judge ordered him to pay child support for their then 3-year-old daughter but he never did. The 74-year-old Anderson says last year she had a life-changing realization that there is no statute of limitations for child support in California, so she Googled her ex-husband, found him living in Oregon with a big house and a boat. Anderson filed a motion for the unpaid child support. A judge granted her request, and perhaps now she gets her own boat.
Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Global markets are a mix as U.S.-China trade talks continue. Asian markets closed lower. European markets are higher at the beginning of trading there. On Wall Street, futures are higher. Markets finished lower Wednesday, the Dow closed down 32 points recovering from an earlier slide of 232.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed lower as well. An important number for investors and the president, GDP will be released this morning. Economists expect fourth quarter GDP to be as low as 1.8 percent. That is well below the president's goal of 3 percent.
Ford is pulling the plug on its car business in Russia closing three of the four plants it operates there. The company said that a joint venture investors will now concentrate on making commercial vehicles. Last year Ford announced it would restructure its global operations in order to free up resources for electric and self-driving cars. Ford says it expects most plant closings and cut backs to happen outside of North America as part of its restructuring.
We are less than one month away from this year's biggest film, "Avengers: End Game," and fans, well, you might be sitting a while watching the team beat Thanos.
An online ticketing site AMC Theaters reported "End Game" ran 182 minutes, or just over three hours before deleting that information.
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