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Does President Trump Have A Plan To Replace Obamacare?; Twitter Will Label Tweets That Violate Rules, Including Trump's; Jussie Smollett Files Release, Then Resealed; $768 Million Powerball Jackpot Has A Winner In Wisconsin. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired March 28, 2019 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:34] JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: The White House is scrambling to get a health care plan ready. Republicans bewildered after the president relaunched a battle that cost them the House.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Twitter with a major policy shift. The tech giant will start adding context from offensive tweets from officials, including the president.
(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.
And somebody won three-quarters of a billion dollars. We'll tell you where.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
DEAN: Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean.
BRIGGS: Good morning.
DEAN: It is 31 minutes past the hour.
Even Republicans appear bewildered by President Trump's promise to make the GOP the party of health care. 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 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 the law is upheld. But the administration insists there will 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 protections for preexisting conditions but keeps backing plans that would eliminate them.
Joining us this morning, Politico reporter Daniel Lippman, co-author of the Politico Playbook, joining us in-studio today. Good to see you, sir.
DANIEL LIPPMAN, REPORTER, POLITICO, CO-AUTHOR OF POLITICO'S PLAYBOOK: Good to see you.
BRIGGS: So the president, in this 45-minute rambling conversation with Sean Hannity last night, promised incredible health care that the Democrats, frankly, wouldn't know how to do. That is about as detailed a plan as we've seen from the White House.
So is there any makings of a plan, and what was congressional reaction, other than Kevin McCarthy we just mentioned there?
LIPPMAN: There isn't a plan to have and there is lots of internal fighting in the administration because Mick Mulvaney really wanted to push this. He's a conservative hardliner.
And the attorney general, Bill Barr, and the HHS secretary, Alex Azar -- they were pushing against this proposal to basically get rid of the Affordable Care Act because they know that the last time Republicans tried this it failed multiple times and it handed the Democrats the House.
And so, this is basically handing a huge gift to the Democratic Party right after that Mueller delivery -- the report of the delivery.
DEAN: Yes, it's almost stepping on the delivery of that Mueller report.
And, Daniel, it goes back to the political question here, which is this is proven to be a loser for Republicans. Why is the White House -- I mean, I know -- I know you were kind of explaining the infighting that's going back, but what makes them think it's a winner this time? LIPPMAN: They -- you know, President Trump feels like he's on his front foot and that he wants to take advantage of the positive press that he got in the last few days. And it's almost being overconfident that he thinks well, he can knock everything he wants to accomplish in his presidency.
But that -- there are still legislative realities, especially -- Democrats control the House and they are not going to let this happen. And they are going to talk about this issue even more.
This is good news for those 2020 Democratic candidates. It gives them something to rail against.
And this is funny enough that Democrats now have the upper hand in this health care issue because it dogged them during the Obama presidency because the Tea Party movement was launched because of that. And it just makes it much harder for Trump to actually talk about things that he can accomplish, like infrastructure spending or --
And then, you're talking about things like gutting the Special Olympics when Betsy DeVos flies on her private jet --
BRIGGS: Wow.
LIPPMAN: -- everywhere. That is seen as tone-deaf and that will not go anywhere in Congress.
BRIGGS: You mention that Special Olympics cut. That was bizarre for a couple of reasons but mainly because the budget from the White House is really just a political document.
[05:35:02] LIPPMAN: Yes.
BRIGGS: It's really messaging. Congress controls the purse strings. So, Betsy DeVos has got to go up there and say well, it's not a federal program. She likes its work.
But what does that reveal to you? Why would you put that out there when, in fact, those cuts won't go into place? Why do you want that to be your message?
LIPPMAN: That's a great question. You don't want that to be your message.
But, Mick Mulvaney is a hardline budget hawk and he doesn't think that the $17 million that the U.S. government helps with the Special Olympics is a priority.
And, the Education Department is pushing back and they say well, it's not our choice. The White House -- blaming the White House.
And this Roy Blunt who is very influential on this issue, he's not going to let this through.
And, she'll -- BRIGGS: No, and Republicans -- it's a non-starter for even Republicans.
LIPPMAN: To go against --
BRIGGS: And they sent Betsy DeVos to the Hill to be a sacrificial lamb. It was one of the mind-boggling moves.
LIPPMAN: And to go against like severely developmentally disabled kids who just want to --
BRIGGS: One of the few bipartisan issues in D.C.
LIPPMAN: -- who just want to like play sports. That is not fun.
BRIGGS: Everybody supports the Special Olympics -- everybody.
DEAN: So, also, the president talked to Fox News night.
LIPPMAN: Yes.
DEAN: I want to listen to a quick clip from that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Our new Attorney General Bill Barr is a -- 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 have not have happened because what's gone on there is a just a disgrace to our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: So, Daniel, in there, he's saying look, if Jeff Sessions hadn't been there -- if he hadn't recused himself we would have control over this the whole time.
LIPPMAN: Yes.
DEAN: Is that so much as saying out loud I was going to obstruct this anyway? Is that obstruction -- kind of saying that in a roundabout what?
LIPPMAN: That's tacitly admitting that he wanted to make sure that this inquiry went nowhere and didn't find anything on the president. And it also raises the question would all of those six Trump aides and people connected to Trump -- would they have gotten dinged because of this or would they have basically had a whitewash?
And it's unclear, actually, whether Bill Barr would have done Trump's bidding like that. It's very possible -- it's very possible that he would have had a proper investigation, it just wouldn't have ballooned with the special counsel and would have been more contained within the department.
BRIGGS: Even though the White House, we the media, Congress has not seen the Mueller report, the victory lap continues and it will tonight in Michigan.
Daniel, good to see you in person, my friend.
DEAN: Thanks so much for being here.
LIPPMAN: Thanks for having me.
DEAN: Yes.
BRIGGS: All right.
The president will tweet and now, Twitter will add its say. A major shift for the social media platform. 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 late last night.
And the social media giant still refusing to remove President Trump's more questionable tweets, saying they are in the public interest. But next time, the president sends an offensive tweet it might be accompanied by a note providing more information.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIJAYA GADDE, GLOBAL LEAD FOR LEGAL, POLICY, TRUST, AND SAFETY, TWITTER: There are other types of content that we believe have -- are newsworthy or are 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)
DEAN: 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 -- and big discrimination.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: There are growing concerns the president's Twitter behavior has influenced politicians on the local and state levels, as well as abroad.
BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, a shooting rampage in Seattle leaving two people dead and others -- two others critically wounded.
Seattle police describe this as a random, senseless act that unfolded 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)
MARC GARTH GREEN, DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF, SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT: 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. We were able to get aid to him and the passengers on the bus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: Police say the gunman then carjacked a second person, shooting and killing the driver. A high-speed chase with police ensued and the suspect collided with another car, killing that driver as well.
After a brief standoff, officers took the suspect into custody.
[05:40:00] BRIGGS: A South Carolina fifth-grader being -- is dead this morning after being injured in a school fight. Paramedics found Raniya Wright unconscious in the nurse's station at Forest Hills Elementary in Walterboro. She was airlifted to a medical center in Charleston where she died two days later.
A special ed teacher at the school says bullying has been an issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My child personally had went through it on two different occasions to one point where she had to switch schools. Being an educator, I think our students should be put first in all situations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The student has been suspended while an investigation is underway. It's unclear whether that student was involved in the fight.
DEAN: Someone 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. lottery history.
And the winning numbers, just in case you're in Wisconsin and watching -- 16, 20, 37, 44, 62 and the Powerball number is 12.
And for everyone who missed Powerball, there is a Mega Millions tomorrow night. That jackpot just $75 million.
BRIGGS: You can't help but wonder if it's like the previous massive billion-dollar --
DEAN: Yes.
BRIGGS: -- if that prize winner will remain anonymous for a long time.
DEAN: Oh, yes.
BRIGGS: Get their --
DEAN: I would want to remain anonymous.
BRIGGS: For as long as you can.
DEAN: Yes.
BRIGGS: You have a year to claim it.
Ahead, two college students and their parents now suing. They say top colleges passed on them to accept bribes from others.
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[05:45:42] BRIGGS: 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 the case as prosecutors, this week, abruptly dropped charges that Smollett allegedly plotted a bogus attack on himself.
DEAN: 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 investigation reports before being advised a court order actually prohibited that release.
BRIGGS: Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx claims the clerks made a mistake sealing the case but that does not square with what CNN witnessed in court Tuesday where the prosecutor did not object when Smollett's lawyers asked for the record to be sealed.
DEAN: Foxx had recused herself in the case. She defends her office's decision to drop the charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIM FOXX, COOK COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: The likelihood that someone would get a prison 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. And 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."
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 trained pilots through scenarios on a flight simulator.
On Capitol Hill, the FAA's acting chief fiercely defended the federal government's approach, delegating broad oversight and safety certification of those 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 ADMINISTRATION, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION: I can't speak to the reasoning that the other nations took. I know that in communication with those countries, they -- and 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 has cut 9,400 flights in the past six weeks and more cancelations are expected.
BRIGGS: It's time to get a check on business at 5:47 Eastern time.
Global markets are mixed 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 points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed lower as well.
An important number for investors and the president. GDP will be released in a couple of hours and economists expect fourth-quarter GDP to be revised down as low as 1.8 percent -- well below the president's goal of three percent.
We are less than one month away from this year's biggest film, "Avengers: Endgame" -- and fans, you might be sitting awhile watching the team take on Thanos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCARLETT JOHANSSON, ACTRESS, AVENGERS: END GAME: We owe this to everyone who's not in this room to try.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: An online ticketing site at AMC Theaters reported "Endgame" ran 182 minutes or just over three hours before deleting that information. If it's anywhere close to that, it would be the longest film Marvel Studios has ever produced.
The previous Avengers sequel "Infinity War" ran roughly 2 1/2 hours. Disney is not confirming the length of the movie.
"Endgame" premieres April 26th and I cannot wait.
We'll be right back.
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[05:54:00] DEAN: More fallout from the college admissions scandal. Two students and their parents filing a class-action complaint because they did not get accepted into the schools of their choice.
The lawsuit targets the alleged mastermind of the scheme, Rick Singer, and several universities including USC, Stanford, Yale, and Georgetown.
BRIGGS: The complaint alleges, "Unqualified students found their way into the admissions rolls of highly selective universities, while those students who played by the rules and did not have college- bribing parents were denied admission."
It goes on to say had the families known the system was rigged they would not have spent the money to apply.
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-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Hardeman claimed Roundup's design was defective and Monsanto was negligent to not warn him of the product's risk.
Bayer Monsanto's parent company says it will appeal.
[05:55:01] Hardeman's is the first lawsuit against Monsanto to reach trial in federal court. About 11,000 similar cases, though, are still pending.
DEAN: The Charlottesville car attacker avoids the death penalty by changing his plea to guilty on hate crime charges. James Fields drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Fields was convicted of 29 federal hate crimes for that 2017 attack. It resulted in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
Fields 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 is the second teenager who attended Stoneman Douglas during the Parkland shooting to die by suicide recently. The other, Sydney Aiello, was 19. She graduated last year.
Their deaths have put a renewed focus on post-traumatic stress and the lasting effects of mass shootings.
If you or someone you know might be at risk of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline -- 1-800-273-8255.
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. Now, 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 $10.00 an hour. Workers are hard to find for low-paying jobs in a labor market with an unemployment rate below four 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, as you see, got up, walked up behind Chase, and punched her in the head.
BRIGGS: Oh.
DEAN: 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 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. There is no statute of limitations for child support in California. So she Googled her ex-husband and found him living in Oregon with a big house and a boat.
Anderson filed a motion for the unpaid child support and a judge granted her request.
DEAN: It's a stunningly beautiful home in the South of France and a court says it's got to be destroyed. The owner custom-built the chateau worth $64 million, transforming it into a Tuscan-style property with a pool, gardens, and two helipads.
The court says it was built without permission, though, on a protected site so it must be demolished in the next 18 months. The owner was also cited for having loud parties and events. He now has until March 30th to appeal the court's decision.
BRIGGS: Destroy the home but, please, save the ostrich.
DEAN: I knew you wanted to save the ostrich.
BRIGGS: The giant stuffed ostrich must be saved.
DEAN: Well thank you --
BRIGGS: We'll start a Twitter hashtag.
DEAN: Thanks so much for joining us, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Here's "NEW DAY".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I asked whether Congress would see the entire report. He would not make a commitment.
TRUMP: This was an attempted takeover. We can never let this happen again.
JAMES COMEY, FORMER DIRECTOR, FBI: The obstruction piece confuses me. It doesn't make sense on its face.
SHORT: The president will be putting forward plans this year.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They want to tear it down. There's no even replacement.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: I'm vehemently opposed to the administration seeking to validate the entire Affordable Care Act.
(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 Thursday, March 28th, 6:00 in New York.
And we have breaking news. Cheddar cheese -- a whole lot of cheddar cheese. This is -- my boys say this. This is from my boys who might be watching.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I hope they're watching right now.
BERMAN: Cheddar cheese -- in this case, Wisconsin.
